Science Fiction & Fantasy

The causes of the disaster are these:
First: The estimations of this planet’s temperature were incorrect. The beacon should never have been placed. This planet is no more capable of supporting human life than our own polar wastelands.
Second: My companions are all dead. I do not know what happened for sure: Encoding errors in their uploads, [...]

This episode features “Sarcophagus” written by Ray Nayler. Published in the April 2021 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker.

The text version of this story can be found at:
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/nayler_04_21

Support us on Patreon at http://patreon.com/clarkesworld

 

 Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 175 - Sarcophagus by Ray Nayler [49:59m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (26282)

They held Memorial fifty-six at midday in August, while the sun beat like a hammer in the hard, pale sky. The mourners stood. They had removed the broad-brimmed hats, which might have offered relief, out of respect. Sweat dripped from the uncovered foreheads, into the stoic, animal eyes. The dust-covered bandanas, wrapped around the face [...]

Rama
I know only an irrational panic. I try to collect myself only to find my faculties are not my own but that of an internal imperative guiding my, quite incomprehensible, actions.
Run a parallel diagnostic, recalibrate magnetic relay B4, load the ballistic rod, I don’t understand but feel compelled to act.
An equation, the first of several, [...]

Falling in love? Always wondered about that: falling, like it’s an accident, tripping over or something.
Our ship, Perseverance, drifted into the orbit of a planet we called Big Yellow. We were wandering lonely as a dust-cloud, having jumped away from some bad heat back in Primus sector; got our shields busted up, lost most of [...]

July 9th, 2089
The beast-catching mission was off to a rocky start.
Once our spaceship cut into Lamo’s planetary orbit, Old Liu and I sent down atmospheric sensors and language-recording equipment. The data they beamed back informed us that the atmosphere was breathable without mechanical assistance, that the locals were one hundred percent vegetarian, and that their [...]

Fabien accidentally created the Communist Computer Rap God as part of his thirty second vid for YouTube Re:Rewind 2035. At first he tried to maintain it was entirely nonpolitical. But when the Communist Computer Rap God got into a prolonged argument about the merits of proletariat control over cryptocurrency blockchains on a popular AItuber’s livestream, [...]

0747
Home brews coffee; black, no sugar. She maintains the temperature of the coffee at precisely sixty degrees Celsius. Most of the coffee sloshes over the jagged edges of the half-shattered mug. Rough holes have been torn through the matte plastic back of the coffee machine; twisted steel fléchettes still embedded in the wall behind.
0845
The whine [...]

This episode features “To Study the Old Masters in the Prado at the End of the World” written by Sarah Pauling. Published in the March 2021 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker.

The text version of this story can be found at:
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/pauling_03_21

Support us on Patreon at http://patreon.com/clarkesworld

 

 Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 174 - To Study the Old Masters in the Prado at the End of the World by Sarah Pauling [12:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (11569)

This episode features “Comments on Your Provisional Patent Application for an Eternal Spirit Core” written by Wole Talabi. Published in the March 2021 issue of Clarkesworld Magazine and read by Kate Baker.

The text version of this story can be found at:
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/talabi_03_21

Support us on Patreon at http://patreon.com/clarkesworld

 

 Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 174 - Comments on Your Provisional Patent Application for an Eternal Spirit Core by Wole Talabi [10:55m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (9320)