This was published as a Clarkesworld audiobook podcast in 2020.

    When a fellow passenger on his usual train goes missing, a man begins to wonder if everything is as it seems.

    This makes life difficult for Matt as he maneuvers the marriage question with his lover and how best to "come out" to his traditional Chinese parents.This story is also included in Some of the Best From Tor.com, 2013 Edition: A Tor.Com Original

    Except the minor non-player character in the world Riley is building makes her own impossible decision—veering wildly off course and exploring the boundaries of the map. When the curious Riley extracts her code for closer examination, an emotional relationship develops between them. Soon Riley has all new plans for her spontaneous AI, including bringing Max into the real world. But what if Max has real-world plans of her own?Blake Crouch’s Summer Frost is part of Forward, a collection of six stories of the near and far future from out-of-this-world authors. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single thought-provoking sitting.

    so that others may explore the outer limits of sexual perversion.Far beneath the surface of the planet earth, a doomed architect lives out the rest of his years in a hideous life-sustaining coffin... in a world where not dying is the ultimate form of punishment.And in a remote outpost near Canada, a lone cluster of Hell's Angels prepare for the final battle with a society which demands that all men share in the good life... whether they want to or not.This is the universe of Samuel R. Delany. Rooted in the present, projected into the future, it is an existence where anything can happen—and does!

    Now, for the first time, editors Jason Sizemore and Lesley Conner are collecting the award winning and nominated stories, those chosen by readers as Story of the Year, and their own personal favorites into one anthology. A Veil that wipes the experiences of war from soldiers’ memories. A witch who faces down both God and the devil to save a soul. A swaying dance that crosses the galaxy to transmit a message. A vampire caught in a web of politics and law by his responsibility to his family. Within this collection, you will find 21 stories that explore what it means to love, to regret, to be human. With stories by Ursula Vernon, Ken Liu, Rachel Swirsky, Sarah Pinsker, Rich Larson, and more, Best of Apex Magazine: Volume 1 brings readers some of the best stories Apex Magazine has published so far.Cover art by Adrian Borda.TABLE OF CONTENTSJackalope Wives by Ursula VernonGoing Endo by Rich LarsonCandy Girl by Chikodili EmelumaduIf You Were a Dinosaur, My Love by Rachel SwirskyAdvertising at the End of the World Keffy R.M. KehrliThe Performance Artist by Lettie PrellA Matter of Shapespace by Brian TrentFalling Leaves by Liz ArgallBlood from Stone by Alethea KontisSexagesimal by Katharine E.K. DuckettKeep Talking by Marie VibbertRemembery Day by Sarah PinskerBlood on Beacon Hill by Russell NicholsThe Green Book by Amal El-MohtarL’esprit de L’escalier by Peter M. BallStill Life (A Sexagesimal Fairy Tale) by Ian TregillisBuild a Dolly by Ken LiuMulto by Samuel MarzioliArmless Maidens of the American West by Genevieve ValentinePocosin by Ursula VernonShe Gave Her Heart, He Took Her Marrow by Sam Fleming

    These twenty original stories tell of scary futures, magical adventures, and the joys and heartbreaks of teenage life. Featuring New York Times bestselling and award winning authors along with newer voices: Garth Nix, Sofia Samatar, William Alexander, Karen Healey, E.C. Myers, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Ken Liu, Vylar Kaftan, Sean Williams, Amal El-Mohtar, Jim C. Hines, Faith Mudge, John Chu, Alena McNamara, Tim Susman, Gabriela Lee, Dirk Flinthart, Holly Kench, Sean Eads, and Shveta Thakrar

    Jemisin, originally published in the August 2008 issue of Jim Baen’s Universe.In “Playing Nice with God’s Bowling Ball,” a police detective tries to understand how a children’s dispute over a playing card could have led to a mysterious disappearance.

    Clark, Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam Sharon Hsu, and Alex Bledsoe; reprint fiction by E. Lily Yu; essays by Meg Elison, Marissa Lingen, Malka Older, and Katharine Duckett; poems by Ada Hoffmann, Brandon O’Brien, Leah Bobet, and Betsy Aoki; interviews with Eugenia Triantafyllou and Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam by Caroline M. Yoachim; and Nilah Magruder’s Fallen Embers on the cover.

    Qiouyi Lu, reprinted fiction by Kameron Hurley, essays by Sam J. Miller, Elsa Sjunneson-Henry, Shveta Thakrar, Dawn Xiana Moon, and Paul Booth, poetry by Cassandra Khaw, Brandon O’Brien, Bogi Takács, and Lisa M. Bradley, interviews with Stephen Graham Jones and Sarah Pinsker by Julia Rios, a cover by Julie Dillon, and an editorial by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas.

    New issues are released the first Tuesday of every month.This month we celebrate Indigenous American fantasists with guest editor Amy H. Sturgis.

    In this volume you'll find stories Peter Beagle, Paul Di Filippo, Neil Gaiman, Theodora Goss, Kelly Link, Gene Wolfe and more.Contents:Pip and the fairies / by Theodora Goss --Comber / by Gene Wolfe --Three urban folktales / by Eric Schaller --Wax / by Elizabeth Bear --The Emperor of Gondwanaland / by Paul DiFilippo --CommComm / by George Saunders --Five ways Jane Austen never died / by Samantha Henderson --Fancy bread / Gregory Feeley --Sunbird / by Neil Gaiman --The secret of broken tickers / by Joe Murphy --On the blindside / Sonya Taaffe --Jane / by Marc Laidlaw --Is there life after rehab? / by Pat Cadigan --Two hearts / by Peter S. Beagle --Super-villains / by Michael Canfield --Empty places / by Richard Parks --Invisible / by Steve Rasnic Tem --By the light of tomorrow's sun / by Holly Phillips --The gist hunter / by Matthew Hughes.

    "It'll be great.""No, it won't," I said, although I'd lost this fight hours ago, and I knew it."It'll be brilliant," said Vic, for the hundredth time. "Girls! Girls! Girls!" He grinned with white teeth.

    From the author of the Hugo-winning "Six Months, Three Days," a new wrinkle on the old story of three wishes, set after the end of the world.

    It begins with a walk in the bazaar, but soon grows into a tale unlike any other told in the caliph's empire. It's a story that includes not just buried treasure and a band of thieves, but also men haunted by their past and others trapped by their future; it includes not just a beloved wife and a veiled seductress, but also long journeys taken by caravan and even longer ones taken with a single step. Above all, it's a story about recognizing the will of Allah and accepting it, no matter what form it takes.