Dystopian Short

Vitus Adamson is falling apart. As a pre-deceased private investigator, he takes the prescription Atroxipine hourly to keep his undead body upright and functioning. Whenever he is injured, he seeks Niko, a bombshell mortician with bedroom eyes and a way with corpses, to piece him back together. Decomposition, however, is the least of his worries when two clients posing his most dangerous job yet appear at his door looking for their lost son.

"Would you remove your soul, to save your life?" Unlock the continuing mind-bending possibilities of ethical and moral dilemmas with "After Dinner Conversation - Season Two," the next installment of the must-read collection of the best short stories from the critically acclaimed After Dinner Conversation magazine series. Spanning all genres, from science-fiction to historical fiction and everything in between, each story is guaranteed to captivate you and leave you questioning your own beliefs. Perfect for philosophy students and fiction lovers alike, each story comes with five suggested ...

Between Cade and Rae is an ancient wall so huge its edges are lost to memory. There’s no way through. But one precious stone brings them together to share their horrors of the past, and dreams of the future, and to shake their notions of what is false…and what is true. Wallflowers is an ethereal, alternate-reality short story that will get you thinking about the battles we choose to fight, and those we don’t, and the power of breaking through barriers for a better tomorrow.

Science Fiction Stories 4 by Various Authors is a spellbinding collection of science fiction short stories that transports readers to extraordinary realms, exploring dystopian futures, post-apocalyptic landscapes, and thrilling adventures in space. Discover the Extraordinary Experience the gripping "The Music Never Stopped" where Captain Thofas Stanton faces a stormy challenge on Yohnston Island. Uncover the enigma in "The Oldest Question" as scientists grapple with a profound mystery that could change the course of humanity. Navigate the futuristic society in "Refuse All Replacements" ...

Science Fiction Stories 6 by Various Authors is a captivating anthology of science fiction short stories that transport readers to extraordinary realms, exploring dystopian futures, post-apocalyptic landscapes, and thrilling adventures in space. Discover the Unknown Join Mitch in "Balanced Odds" as he navigates a futuristic world filled with danger and unexpected alliances. Embark on a perilous journey "Beyond Mars" with Timmons, a salesman exploring the inhabited planets and moons. Experience the haunting "Nightmares Above," where the line between reality and dreams blurs in a world above ...

What will become of our self-destructed planet? The answer shatters all expectations in this subversive speculation from the Hugo Award - winning author of the Broken Earth trilogy. An explorer returns to gather information from a climate-ravaged Earth that his ancestors, and others among the planet’s finest, fled centuries ago. 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 ages ago.

With a focus on the weird and eerie forces that lurk beneath the surface of ordinary experience, Kate Folk’s debut collection is perfectly pitched to the madness of our current moment. A medical ward for a mysterious bone-melting disorder is the setting of a perilous love triangle. A curtain of void obliterates the globe at a steady pace, forcing Earth’s remaining inhabitants to decide with whom they want to spend eternity.

This exciting collection presents two previously unpublished stories by SF legend Octavia E. Butler. A Necessary Being precedes the events of Survivor, Butler's third (famously disowned) installment in her Patternist series, and includes characters from it, focusing exclusively on the Kohn, aliens who build their social hierarchies on the blueness of their fur. In Childfinder, a black woman with the gift of identifying children with latent psychic ability refuses to share her skill with an organization of white telepaths.

When Sam’s wife first tells him about Vitek, a twenty-first-century fertility lab, he sees it as the natural next step in trying to help their future child get a “leg up” in a competitive world. But the more Sam considers the lives that his child could lead, the more he begins to question his own relationships and the choices he has made in his life.

In “The Center for Immortality Research,” a low-level employee runs herself ragged planning a fancy gala for donors, only to be blamed for a crime she witnessed during the event, under the noses of the mysterious celebrity benefactors hoping to live forever. But she can’t be fired—no one can. In “One More Kiss, Dear,” a tender, one-sided love blooms in the AI-elevator of an apartment complex; as in, the elevator develops a profound affection for one of the residents.

China thought it would be a quick war, an easy war. But now, years later, as the insurgency on the streets of Los Angeles escalates but the propaganda never changes, a Chinese officer can’t keep silent any longer. Torn between loyalty to his country and loyalty to his troops, he writes a brutally honest—and possibly suicidal—letter home to unmask the truth. Brooks combines his signature meticulous research with unforgettable characters in this landmark work of speculative fiction.

S.F. Namora is a literary periodical magazine focusing on genre-based short science fiction stories. Our aim is to satisfy your daily need of science fiction. Short stories are the perfect medium for science fiction. There's something about short-form sci-fi that has the potential to be especially mind-blowing. In just a few pages, the author must set up an entire new world (or a world that is just ever so slightly different than our own), and then deftly twist this new world into some kind of satisfying (or devastating) conclusion. It's no mean feat. Lucky for us, though, some of the ...

She signed her name for survival. He’ll carve his into her soul. Sierra Adams is out of options. Bankrupt. Barren. Broken. The Syndicate’s surrogacy contract promises restored fertility and a fresh start—but at a cost she can’t fully comprehend until it’s too late. Pheron 6 is no sanctuary. It’s a primal moon teeming with predators, secrets, and Kael Om’ra—her towering, war-hardened Ghoran mate who doesn’t believe in soft touches or second chances. He needs an heir. She needs a cure. What neither of them expected was a bond strong enough to burn through galaxies… or ...

She signed up to offer up her womb, but she never expected to be claimed. Selina Alvarez was done with hope. Her womb was broken, her bank account worse—and her options? Nonexistent. Signing with the Alien Seed Syndicate was supposed to be a cold transaction: carry a warlord’s heir, get her fertility restored, and walk away free. But nothing about Xylos—the crystalline meteor teeming with primal energy—feels cold. And nothing about Torvak Renn, the towering, scarred Zeroxian Warlord with molten gold eyes and hands built for ruin, is transactional. The contract says natural ...

This is a SHORT STORY set within the ongoing THE UNSEEN franchise. Potential spoilers ahead! This short story stars the youngest character in the intense THE UNSEEN franchise, Hope Diaz. Her survival is one of heartache, terror, and perseverance, an event that occurs during book two of the main series, DESOLATION.

A child’s wish for her father comes true. The end of the world has never been so much fun. Conquering personal demons becomes all too real. It’s not always about winning; sometimes it’s about showing up for the fight. It’s about loving your life’s work, and jobs that make you question everything. In this anthology, 17 authors have woven together brand-new stories that speak to the darkness and despair that life brings while reminding us that good deeds, humor, love, sacrifice, dedication, and following our joy can ignite a light that burns so bright the darkness cannot last.

One night in Lagos, two former friends reunite. Obinna is a dutiful and unsophisticated stay-at-home husband and father married to a powerful businesswoman. Eze is single, a cautious rebel from his university days whose arrival soon upsets the balance in Obinna’s life. In a world where men are constantly under surveillance and subject to the whims of powerful women, more than Obinna’s ordered and accustomed routine might be on the line.

In the chilling anthology series "Elemental Shorts," Readers are transported into dystopian futures where everyday chemical elements—iron, oxygen, and carbon—become harbingers of ecological calamities. Each episode unveils a world teetering on the edge of collapse as these essential elements, manipulated by human hubris and unforeseen consequences, spiral out of control. From iron structures crumbling into rust, oxygen-enriched atmospheres strangling life, to carbon-covered ecospheres dying from lack of sunlight, "Elemental Shorts" masterfully intertwines science fiction with dark ...

A riveting new post-apocalyptic EMP box set that keeps you guessing until the end! EMP masterminds Alexandria Clarke, author of Black Out, and James Hunt, author of Static and Surviving the Collapse, come together in this super box set for the first time! In Blackout, after an EMP bomb detonates over the United States, frying the entire electrical grid, Georgie Fitz decides to take refuge at her estranged father’s cabin in the Rocky Mountains with her boyfriend and his family.

A fresh-faced newcomer arrives in an isolated, gang-run town and soon finds herself taking a job nobody else wants: bodyguard to a ghoul. Not just your average mindless, half-rotted shuffler, though. Lucille is a dancer who can still put on her own lipstick and whose shows are half burlesque, half gladiator match. But the stranger is no stranger to this particular ghoul. Both women are undercover in their own way. And both have something to lose if their connection comes to light.