Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 94


Neil ClarkeBen Fry - 2014
    K. Jemisin“Soul’s Bargain” by Juliette Wade“The Halfway House at the Heart of Darkness” by William Browning Spencer“Gold Mountain” by Chris RobersonNON-FICTION“The Issue of Gender in Genre Fiction: Publications from Slush” by Susan E. Connolly“The Issue of Gender in Genre Fiction: The Math Behind the Slush” by Susan E. Connolly“Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance: An Interview with Jeff VanderMeer” by Ben Fry“Another Word: Reclaiming the Tie-In Novel” by James L. Sutter“Editor’s Desk: Adding Some Color” by Neil Clarke

Emergency Skin


N.K. Jemisin - 2019
    The mission comes with a warning: a graveyard world awaits him. But so do those left behind—hopeless and unbeautiful wastes of humanity who should have died out eons ago. After all this time, there’s no telling how they’ve devolved. Steel yourself, soldier. Get in. Get out. And try not to stare.N. K. Jemisin’s Emergency Skin 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.

The Violence


Delilah S. Dawson - 2022
    Now three generations of women must navigate their chilling new reality in this moving exploration of identity, cycles of abuse, and hope. Chelsea Martin appears to be the perfect housewife: married to her high school sweetheart, the mother of two daughters, keeper of an immaculate home. But Chelsea's husband has turned their house into a prison; he has been abusing her for years, cutting off her independence, autonomy, and support. She has nowhere to turn, not even to her narcissistic mother, Patricia, who is more concerned with maintaining the appearance of an ideal family than she is with her daughter's actual well-being. And Chelsea is worried that her daughters will be trapped just as she is--then a mysterious illness sweeps the nation. Known as The Violence, this illness causes the infected to experience sudden, explosive bouts of animalistic rage and attack anyone in their path. But for Chelsea, the chaos and confusion the virus causes is an opportunity--and inspires a plan to liberate herself from her abuser.

Restoration of Faith


Jim Butcher - 2004
    A short story of the Dresden Files which introduced Harry Dresden and his world for the very first time.(Also included in Side Jobs)

The Lottery


Shirley Jackson - 1948
    Everything has been prepared for the town’s annual tradition—a lottery in which every family must participate, and no one wants to win. “The Lottery” stands out as one of the most famous short stories in American literary history. Originally published in The New Yorker, the author immediately began receiving letters from readers who demanded an explanation of the story’s meaning. “The Lottery” has been adapted for stage, television, radio and film.

Solution


Brian Evenson - 2020
    As climate change wreaks havoc on the earth and the fate of humanity grows dire, a scientist makes a plan to save humanity that would shame the devil.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color


Nisi ShawlAlex Jennings - 2019
    Lily Yu, Andrea Hairston, Tobias Buckell, Hiromi Goto, Rebecca Roanhorse, Indrapramit Das, Chinelo Onwualu and Darcie Little Badger.

Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day


Ben Loory - 2011
    In his singular universe, televisions talk (and sometimes sing), animals live in small apartments where their nephews visit from the sea, and men and women and boys and girls fall down wells and fly through space and find love on Ferris wheels. In a voice full of fable, myth, and dream, Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day draws us into a world of delightfully wicked recognitions, and introduces us to a writer of uncommon talent and imagination.Contains 40 stories, including "The Duck," "The Man and the Moose," and "Death and the Fruits of the Tree," as heard on NPR's This American Life, "The Book," as heard on Selected Shorts, and "The TV," as found in The New Yorker.A selection of the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Program and the Starbucks Coffee Bookish Reading Club.Winner of the 2011 Nobbie Award for Best Book of the Year."This guy can write!" –Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451

Ricochet Joe


Dean Koontz - 2017
    When a series of strange intuitions leads him to a crime in progress, Joe jumps headlong into danger without hesitation. In the aftermath, he wonders about the uncanny impulse that suddenly swept over him. Until new friend Portia Montclair, the strangely wise daughter of the local police chief, explains to him what sent him ricocheting around town like a crazy pinball. Portia tells of another reality, a reality more thrilling—and terrifying—than Joe ever imagined. Timeless, elemental forces of good and evil have come to the quiet town of Little City: a cosmic entity capable of infecting human beings, and the seeker who has chosen Joe to find it. To stop the malevolent invader, this average Joe must be braver than he ever thought possible…and face the hardest decisions of his life.

How To Exit Your Body: and Other Strange Tales


Christopher Maxim - 2018
    This book is guaranteed to horrify you in the best way possible. Open it up, turn the page, and take a journey to a world consumed with mystery in madness.

The Girl Who Was on Fire: Your Favorite Authors on Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games Trilogy


Leah WilsonCara Lockwood - 2011
    From the trilogy's darker themes of violence and social control to fashion and weaponry, the collection's exploration of the Hunger Games reveals exactly how rich, and how perilous, protagonist Katniss' world really is.• How does the way the Games affect the brain explain Haymitch's drinking, Annie's distraction, and Wiress' speech problems?• What does the rebellion have in common with the War on Terror?• Why isn't the answer to "Peeta or Gale?" as interesting as the question itself?• What should Panem have learned from the fates of other hedonistic societies throughout history and what can we?The Girl Who Was On Fire covers all three books in the Hunger Games trilogy.

The Strain, Book Two: The Fall


David Lapham - 2015
    A small force is humanity's only chance: an alcoholic, a doctor, a pawnbroker, an exterminator, and a criminal. Can they prevent the Master from covering the world in darkness? Adapting from the best-selling trilogy of novels by filmmaker Guillermo del Toro and novelist Chuck Hogan, Eisner Award-winning writer David Lapham (Stray Bullets) and artist Mike Huddleston (Butcher Baker, The Coffin) visualize a compelling world in this tragic apocalyptic adventure. This collection includes issues #1-#9 of the acclaimed series and a short story featured in Dark Horse Presents that follows the travails of an aged luchador, the Silver Angel, written and illustrated by Lapham.

Unveiled


Trisha Wolfe - 2011
    WARNING: Contains FIREBLOOD spoilers, and a special sneak peek at the next installment in the Fireblood series. Highly suggested not to read the sneak peek until you've read FIREBLOOD: major spoiler.Amongst the wasteland lies the gleaming city of Karm. A Camelot-esque utopia built from the ashes of a dying world. Seventeen-year-old Fallon is no daughter of Karm. She's its assassin. Raised by a secret society of rebels, she's bent on bringing down the king's sham of an existence. But her first mark, one of the king's top knights of the Force, makes her question everything. Even her heart.

When You Were Pixels


Julio Alexi Genao - 2013
    Antho is no murderer, but in watching the killer stumble he recognizes something that links them together.When he rescues the assassin in secret, he finds the monster on his screen is only a young man, cursed with the effects of a trauma as outsized as his deadly skill—and somehow linked to the stirring of a terrifying power. Unable to walk away, Antho makes a choice that could cost them both their lives:He takes the assassin home.Revised Second Edition

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas


Ursula K. Le Guin - 1973
    Some inhabitants of a peaceful kingdom cannot tolerate the act of cruelty that underlies its happiness.The story "Omelas" was first published in New Dimensions 3, a hard-cover science fiction anthology edited by Robert Silverberg, in October 1973, and the following year it won Le Guin the prestigious Hugo Award for best short story.It was subsequently printed in her short story collection The Wind's Twelve Quarters in 1975.