Doug reaches for my hand as the ship approaches. He continues to hold it as the great doors open, as we watch them leave the ship. They pause; they have been in space and ultra-low gravity for five years now. Five years, one month, and three days, to be precise; I cannot believe my mind [...]

Our first piece of audio fiction for February is “And the Hollow Space Inside” written by Mari Ness and read by Kate Baker.

 

 Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 65- And the Hollow Space Inside by Mari Ness [36:24m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (3482)

Awakening of Insects, the Third Solar Term:
Ghost Street is long but narrow, like an indigo ribbon. You can cross it in eleven steps, but to walk it from end to end takes a full hour.
At the western end is Lanruo Temple, now fallen into ruin. Inside the temple is a large garden full of fruit [...]

2249 A.D.
All the young Kirks in Riverside Public High School are assigned to the same Homeroom class. They sit together in the back corner on the far side from the door. They speak only to each other.
The young Kirk on the Moon goes to school with no one. Each of the colonists has a job [...]

Our final piece of audio fiction for January is “All the Painted Stars” written by Gwendolyn Clare and read by Kate Baker.

 

 Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 64 - All the Painted Stars by Gwendolyn Clare [48:54m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (4678)

Our second piece of audio fiction for January is “What Everyone Remembers” written by Rahul Kanakia and read by Kate Baker.

 

 Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 64 - What Everyone Remembers by Rahul Kanakia [29:31m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (4327)

I grieve to think of the stars
Our ancestors our gods
Scattered like hairpin wounds
Along the River of Heaven
So tell me
Is it fitting that I spend my days here
A guest in those dark, forlorn halls?

This is the first [...]

Our first piece of audio fiction for January is “Scattered Along the River of Heaven” written by Aliette de Bodard and read by Kate Baker.

 

 Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 64 - Scattered Along the River of Heaven by Aliette de Bodard [52:56m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (5522)

I remember being with maman in the cabin of her ship, anchored someplace where the wind was always howling, the temperature was always freezing, and fires were always dancing just beyond the horizon. I spent most of my time inside the mattress where she slept, burrowing as close as I could to maman so that [...]

They are not the Brights, and so I hesitate to save them. Part of me is eager, and part of me ashamed.
Even through the haze of plasma blasts dispersing over their shields, I recognize the ship as a Bright construct—too much glass, arranged in sharp geometric panels so the entire upper surface [...]