"Questing Beast" is a 2006 science fiction short story by Ilona Andrews. It is about a small robot who has a computer virus which causes him to think he is Sir Pellinore.
continue reading "Questing Beast by Ilona Andrews"

This is a guest post by Inez Ponce de Leon.

If you swapped minds with your dog, what would you do? Go to the mall, sneak into locker rooms, or chase cats all day? Now, what if you swapped minds with a duck? A cat? Or worse, a toaster?

This is the quandary faced by a nameless professor in Matthew Grigg’s short story, Professor Panini. The story starts when a self-made man, now a professor and researcher, works on exchanging the minds of a cat and duck using a machine. There are no details about how the machine works or what it looks like; suffice it to say that the experiment doesn’t go as planned, and hilarity ensues.
continue reading "Professor Panini by Matthew Grigg"

This is a guest post by Konstantine Paradias.

Still Life With Apocalypse by Richard Kadrey is a post-apocalyptic fiction short story (about 3,000 words long) that is essentially the memoirs of a man in the ruins of the world, after it has been torn to pieces due to inexplicable reasons.
continue reading "Still Life With Apocalypse by Richard Kadrey"

"The Sky that Wraps the World Round, Past the Blue and into the Black" is a 2008 science fiction short story by Jay Lake. It is about a former astronaut who has traded his freedom to work on dangerous jewelry for a Chinese crime boss.
continue reading "The Sky that Wraps the World Round, Past the Blue and into the Black by Jay Lake"

This is a guest post by Kate Croston

Since both of these stories are pretty short and written by the same author, I thought it would be safe to recommend them both.

First off, these stories are available for free and written under the pen name Spookysister7. I happened to run across them by a strange set of events.
continue reading "No Earthly Ship and the Quiet Ones"

"Ass-Hat Magic Spider" is a 2008 science fiction short story by Scott Westerfeld. It is about a teenage boy who is desperately trying to lose weight for his space colonist flight.
continue reading "Ass-Hat Magic Spider by Scott Westerfeld"

The Cat Lady is a novelette by Damien Graves about a young girl that is scared of the creepy lady in her neighborhood.
continue reading "The Cat Lady"

Find out what happens when people start being polite and start getting real — in space.
continue reading "Reality TV Intergalactic Wife Swap by Rob Hopcott"

"The Elephants of Poznan" is a 2000 science fiction novelette by Orson Scott Card. It is about a man who lives in a post-apocalyptic Polish city and the strange visitors he receives.
continue reading "The Elephants of Poznan by Orson Scott Card"

"Mirror Girl" is a 2009 science fiction short story by Paul Carlson. It is about a brilliant girl who begins to question the strange world in which she lives.
continue reading "Mirror Girl by Paul Carlson"

Troublesolving, a novelette by Tim Pratt, is about a man that is down on his luck, and the mysterious woman that offers to help him out.
continue reading "Troublesolving"

"Second Person, Present Tense" is a 2005 science fiction novelette by Daryl Gregory. It is about a young woman who becomes a different person after a rare over-dose on a strange drug.
continue reading "Second Person, Present Tense by Daryl Gregory"

"Scales" is a 2009 science fiction short story by Alastair Reynolds. It is about a human who is recruited to fight aliens, and the drastic changes he must go through.
continue reading "Scales by Alastair Reynolds"

"Ej-Es" is a 2003 science fiction short story by Nancy Kress. It is about a MedCorps member who desperately wants to help the survivors of a destructive plague on a planet at the edge of the galaxy.
continue reading "Ej-Es by Nancy Kress"

Cucumber Gravy is a 2001 novelette written by Susan Palwick about a marijuana dealer that also takes care of cucumber shaped aliens.
continue reading "Cucumber Gravy"

Hindsight, In Neon written by Jamie Todd Rubin, is the story of a science fiction writer who is unhappy that he no longer has any readers.
continue reading "Hindsight, In Neon"

Spider the Artist is a 2008 short story by Nnedi Okorafor.  It is about a woman who becomes friends with a spider shaped android.
continue reading "Spider The Artist"

This is a guest post by Lauren Bailey. If you would like to write a guest post for this site please see our guidelines.

Alright, I’ll admit it; I have a slight “aversion” to most science fiction stories. It’s not that I don’t find the prospect of galactic politics, artificial intelligence, or time travel fascinating. I just think that a lot of science fiction writers get so caught up in interesting stories or settings that they lose sight of interesting storytelling. Of course, there are works of science fiction that are exceptions to this assertion such as Ryan Harty’s "Why the Sky Turns Red When the Sun Goes Down."
continue reading "Why the Sky Turns Red When the Sun Goes Down by Ryan Harty"

"The Radiant Car Thy Sparrows Drew" is a 2009 science fiction short story by Catherynne M. Valente. It is about a famous Documentarian who goes to Venus to film strange, sea-dwelling life forms.
continue reading "The Radiant Car Thy Sparrows Drew by Catherynne M. Valente"

"Turquoise Days" is a 2002 science fiction novella by Alastair Reynolds. It is about a woman whose swim with ocean dwelling aliens causes dramatic changes in her life.
continue reading "Turquoise Days by Alastair Reynolds"