Tatterdemalion
In a traditional folktale from Alak, a dreamy good-for-nothing young woman seeking excitement di...
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Fiction
Read Reactor’s award-winning original short stories, novelettes, and poetry, peruse reprints of classic stories, check out excerpts from new novels, and more!
Our Award-Winning Original Stories
Read free short fiction from sci-fi/fantasy from your favorite authors and brand new voices. Exclusively on Reactor.
Cutting Corners
A team of pilots is trained to fly ships in a war where it's become cheaper to send humans inste...
Blade Through the Heart
Graff and his crew face a particularly nasty challenge – an opponent so low-tech they might just...
Deathcap
Two space marines trapped in a doomed spaceship confront the desires that will destroy them both...
Of Two Bloods
Chronicling the secret exploits of the great detective's illegitimate, but highly observant, you...
Agency
An estate agent is forced to choose between a sale and his humanity when facing the inhuman eldr...
Congenital Agenesis of Gender Ideation by K. N. Sirsi and Sandra Botkin
Researchers K.N. Sirsi and Sandra Botkin document the discovery of a family unable to conceive o...
Joiner and Rust
An aging robot, on a journey to visit a friend, reflects on their adventures together.
Download Reactor Original Short Fiction Highlights 2025!
Our new bundle gathers a selection of this year's stories in one easy-to-read place.
All of Reactor’s Short Fiction in 2025
The real 6-7 is the stories we read along the way...
Excerpts
Read an Excerpt From The Language of Liars by S.L. Huang
Speak another people's language. Know them. Become them. And discover you've destroyed them.
Read an Excerpt From The Redwood Bargain by Markelle Grabo
I'm the fourth Redwood girl, and I mean to be the last.
Read an Excerpt From Thistlemarsh by Moorea Corrigan
Faeries disappeared over one hundred years ago, as suddenly as slipping through a doorway…
This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews: Chapter 9
A woman suddenly finds herself in the gritty world of her favorite dark fantasy series...
Reprints
Some Ways to Retell a Fairy Tale
There's more to “once upon a time” than meets the eye...
The Woman Carrying a Corpse
We’re excited to reprint “The Woman Carrying a Corpse” by Chi Hui, translated from Chinese...
The Stars We Raised
We’re delighted to share “The Stars We Raised” by Xiu Xinyu, translated from C...
A Dream of Electric Mothers
We're excited to reprint "A Dream of Electric Mothers," the 2023 Nebula Award–nominated novelett...
Poetry
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