I’m generally a nice guy, and here I am to prove it. Collecting for you anything fiction I’ve found that’s free to read online (short stories, etc) and enjoyable over at this new place on Notion; but also including a snapshot of what I’ve added today in the form of links below.
I’ve starred some of my faves, and tried to create a bit of order by grouping a few things together. The page on Notion will be updated (irregularly) as the other TBR pages are, with new things added when I can; this post will not.
Please note that content disappears from that internet all the time, and these links work today but may not work in the future. Also please note that I’ve included NYT links: they allow you only a certain number of free articles a month if you’re not a subscriber.
Enjoy!
TRACE by Najwa Ali
Trace – adda
Kila lenye mwanzo lina mwisho What has a beginning has its ending – Siti binti Saad
The photograph is tiny, barely an inch and a half across, its black and white image stained with salt and air.
The Lady Astronaut of Mars by Mary Robinette Kowal
The Lady Astronaut of Mars
Introductory note: Mary Robinette Kowal’s novelette “The Lady Astronaut of Mars” was first published in 2012 as part of RIP-OFF , an original audiobook anthology from Audible.com. It was later published in text form in early 2013 on Kowal’s personal blog, along with a (few) “stage directions” the author had provided to the audio producers.
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Revision theory by Blaize M. Kaye
Revision theory – Nature
Time to take stock. Themba reread what he’d written. “I must know if this will work. It’s 11:35 p.m., 12 Sept. 2015. I’m in the garage. In 2 minutes, I’m going to open the third drawer down on the left side of my workbench.” There were two possibilities.
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Omenana Magazine
(Free pdf downloads)
Stories with a slice of the future, some sorcery and the metaphysical, some urban legend which science tries to explain away, an interesting showcase of gods at play where human destinies are the pawns on the chessboard of life, and the things we do for love.
SFF
⭐Observations About Eggs from the Man Sitting Next to Me on a Flight from Chicago, Illinois to Cedar Rapids, Iowa – Carmen Maria Machado in Lightspeed Magazine
⭐Nine Last Days on Planet Earth by Darryl Gregory
When the seeds rained down from deep space, it may have been the first stage of an alien invasion-or something else entirely. How much time do we have left, and do we even understand what timescale to use? As a slow apocalypse blooms across the Earth, planets and plants, animals and microbes, all live and die and evolve at different scales.
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⭐Her Scales Shine Like Music by Rajnar Vajra
“Her Scales Shine Like Music” by Rajnar Vajra is a moving science fiction novelette about an encounter and budding relationship between two aliens, one human, who are the only living creatures occupying a planet in deep space. The human is assigned to guard a valuable find, while his colleagues leave, to file a report with the company that hired them.
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⭐Under One Roof By Sarah Pinsker
Under One Roof – Uncanny Magazine
First came the murmurs. Then footsteps above our bedroom, where no feet should have been. Josh guessed we had squirrels in the attic. “I hope not,” I said, lying next to him the first night in our new rental. “Seeing as how we don’t have a key to the top floor.
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⭐The Ghosts of Christmas by Paul Cornell
The Ghosts of Christmas
Which is harder: seeing your own future – or truly knowing your past? Enjoy this year’s Tor.com holiday story “The Ghosts of Christmas,” a new original story by Paul Cornell (Doctor Who, Saucer Country, London Falling). This short story was acquired and edited for Tor.com by Tor Books editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden.
The Maiden Thief by Melissa Marr
The Maiden Thief
“The Maiden Thief” by Melissa Marr is a dark fantasy novelette about a teenager whose town is plagued by the annual disappearances of girls and young women. Her father blames her when one of her sisters is one of the taken. I don’t remember a time before girls vanished.
⭐The Secret Life of Bots by Suzanne Palmer
Clarkesworld Magazine – Science Fiction & Fantasy
I have been activated, therefore I have a purpose, the bot thought. I have a purpose, therefore I serve. It recited the Mantra Upon Waking, a bundle of subroutines to check that it was running at optimum efficiency, then it detached itself from its storage niche.
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Tear Tracks by Malka Older
Tear Tracks
Flur traveled across the stars to make first contact with the Cyclopes, hoping to forge a peace treaty between humanity and the first sentient aliens they’ve discovered. She’s undergone careful training and study to prepare for this moment. But what if her approach is too human? Nobody expected them to look human.
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Short Story Day Africa
Static by Alithnayn Abdulkareem
[The JRB Daily] [Exclusive] Read ‘Static’ by Alithnayn Abdulkareem, 2nd Runner-up in the 2019/20 Short Story Day Africa Prize
⭐Shelter by Mbozi Haimbe
[The JRB Daily] [Exclusive] Read ‘Shelter’ by Mbozi Haimbe, 1st Runner-up in the 2019/20 Short Story Day Africa Prize
Caine Prize
⭐Erica Sugo Anyadike (Tanzania) – ‘How to Marry An African President’
Jowhor Ile (Nigeria) – ‘Fisherman’s Stew’
Caine Prize 2019 stories
2019 Caine Prize shortlist, featuring stories that tackle “the ordinary in an extraordinary manner” and celebrate the diversity of the African short-story writing tradition for the twentieth edition of the Prize.
New York Times Decameron
Systems by Charles Yu
Charles Yu: ‘Systems,’ a Short Story (Published 2020)
They need each other. Like to be around each other. Like to touch each other. They search for things: Harry and meghan hary and megan Canada new year’s resolutions new year’s resolutions how long They like being with their families. They like being with strangers. They work in small spaces.
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⭐An Obliging Robber by Mia Couto
Mia Couto: ‘An Obliging Robber,’ a Short Story (Published 2020)
There’s a knock on the door. Well, “knock” is one way of describing it. I live far away from anyone, war and famine are my only visitors. And now, in the eternity of yet another afternoon, someone bombards the door with his feet. I run over. Well, “run” is one way of putting it.
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A Blue Sky Like This by Mona Awad
Mona Awad: ‘A Blue Sky Like This,’ a Short Story (Published 2020)
And now it’s your birthday on top of everything else. You’ve been dreading it. That’s what you’ve been texting friends for days now: I’m dreading it. Adding a pained emoji face. Xs for eyes, open mouth like an O. Making fun of yourself and your silly dread. But the dread is real.
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Clinical Notes by Liz Moore
Liz Moore: ‘Clinical Notes,’ a Short Story (Published 2020)
March 12, 2020 Fact: The baby has a fever. Evidence: Two thermometers produce a succession of worrisome readings. 103.9. 104.2. 104.8. Evidence: The baby is hot. The baby’s cheeks are red. The baby is trembling. The baby, when he nurses, is nursing askew: mouth fluttering incorrectly, lips slack, hands and arms limp.
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The Girl With The Big Red Suitcase by Rachel Kushner
Rachel Kushner: ‘The Girl with the Big Red Suitcase,’ a Short Story (Published 2020)
In that old tale by Poe, they locked out the commoners and locked in the plague, the uninvited guest to their costume ball. Their mistake is a lesson for the reader only, since the highborn fools in the story all die. I’ve read the tale, taken the lesson.
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The Morningside by Téa Obrecht
Téa Obreht: ‘The Morningside,’ a Short Story (Published 2020)
Long ago, back when everyone had gone, we lived in a tower called the Morningside at the same time as this woman named Bezi Duras – she seemed old to me then, but as I’m now approaching what was probably her age myself, I’m beginning to think she wasn’t.
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How We Used To Play by Dinaw Mengestu
Dinaw Mengestu: ‘How We Used to Play,’ a Short Story (Published 2020)
Before the virus hit, my uncle drove his cab 10 to 12 hours a day, six days a week, for nearly two decades. He continued doing so even though every month he had fewer and fewer customers and sometimes spent hours idling outside one of the luxury hotels near the Capitol building waiting for a fare.
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Prudent Girls by Rivers Solomon
Rivers Solomon: ‘Prudent Girls,’ a Short Story (Published 2020)
Jerusha didn’t get where people had been going before lockdown, anyway. Besides the bowling alley – off-limits for Jerry now that the owners had gotten a beer license – there wasn’t much in Caddo, Texas, as far as things to do.
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Under the Magnolia by Yiyun Li
Yiyun Li: ‘Under the Magnolia,’ a Short Story (Published 2020)
The couple had arranged to meet Chrissy near the Battle Monument. She had met them once, five years ago, when she served as the buyers’ lawyer at the closing of their house. Soon after, the wife contacted her about estate planning. Chrissy sent them material and never heard back.
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The Cellar by Dina Nayeri
Dina Nayeri: ‘The Cellar,’ a Short Story (Published 2020)
“This is nothing,” Kamran said on the night before Paris was to retreat indoors. Sheila looked up from their walking forms. “I refuse to show papers to police.” Glancing at Nushin, she whispered, “They’re always young … just boys with guns they can hardly lift.”
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To the Wall by Esi Edugyan
Esi Edugyan: ‘To the Wall,’ a Short Story (Published 2020)
Four years beforethe outbreak, I traveled into the snowbound hills west of Beijing with my first husband, Tomas. He was an installation artist from Lima who was working at the time on a replica of a 10th-century cloister. Years before, he became obsessed with the story of a nun in medieval France who awoke screaming one morning and couldn’t stop.
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The Walk by Kamila Shamsie
Kamila Shamsie: ‘The Walk,’ a Short Story (Published 2020)
Azra swung open the gate and stepped onto the road. Are you sure, her mother said from the garden where she was walking in circles, one circle every 45 seconds.
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Barcelona, Open City by John Wray
John Wray: ‘Barcelona: Open City,’ a Short Story (Published 2020)
Xavi’s luck turned on Day 1 of the curfew. He’d been unemployed for a month, he told me – let go from a job selling homeowner’s insurance to defenseless little grandmothers over the phone – and he’d pretty much been in free fall since then; but the lockdown changed everything.
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A Time of Death, the Death of Time by Julián Fuks
Julián Fuks: ‘A Time of Death, the Death of Time,’ a Short Story (Published 2020)
And then, at some indefinable moment between the first rays of dawn and the dazzling light of midday, time stopped making sense. There was no fanfare, there was no noise, no din to announce something so atypical.
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Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.
Includes:
Double Spiral by Marcy Kelly
Read a Short Story About Genetic Testing, Privacy, and Profit
Safe Surrender by Meg Elison
Read “Safe Surrender,” a Short Story From the Author of The Book of the Unnamed Midwife
⭐When Robot and Crow Saved East St. Louis By Annalee Newitz
In a Short Story, a Robot Tasked With Stopping Epidemics Gets Its Social Programming Put to the Test
Overvalued, A short story about a future in which people can buy and sell shares in one another. By Mark Stasenko
Imagine a Future in Which People Can Buy and Sell Shares in One Another
⭐No Moon and Flat Calm. A short story about panic in space. By Elizabeth Bear
Read Sci-Fi Author Elizabeth Bear’s Short Story About Panic in Space
Mpendulo: The Answer by Nosipho Dumisa
⭐Mother of Invention by Nnedi Okorafor
Read a Short Story About Smart Homes From Award-Winning Writer Nnedi Okorafor
A Brief and Fearful Star by Carmen Maria Machado
Read “A Brief and Fearful Star,” a Short Story From Carmen Maria Machado
Mika Model by Paolo Bacigalupi
Read an Exciting Short Story From Sci-Fi Great Paolo Bacigalupi
⭐The Song Between Worlds by Indrapramit Das
What Will It Be Like to Vacation on Mars? Author Indra Das Discovers the Hazards and Beauty of Interplanetary Tourism in a Short Story.
Harare Review of Books 
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