The Race
Reading Time: 4 minutesA young man starts a new job at a seemingly disused rocket ship yard.
Gods and Monsters Installment 42: Death and Memory
Reading Time: 7 minutesRiver wants to forget her, yet he knows that if he does, a part of him will die. Though he feels betrayed, he cannot keep away. He hangs the chain around his neck. He will go to Bert’s and fasten it about hers. Then he will leave, never to return, the prism remaining, a crystal kiss, a tangible memory, a concrete regret.
Is It Me Or My Talent You See?
Reading Time: 3 minutesA writer wrestles with his alter ego.
Goodbye, Nathan, Goodbye
Reading Time: 10 minutesIt’s a little boy’s last chance to leave the planet. Can he talk his mom into letting him go?
Gods and Monsters Installment 41: The Color of Empathy
Reading Time: 7 minutesBeethoven does not merely drain his victims, he eviscerates them. When there are no more cats, he moves on to dogs and babies, climbing the food chain with grisly effect.
The Girl Who Was Only Three Quarters Dead
Reading Time: 26 minutesSuki finds herself prematurely awoken from an induced suspension between life and death. With her retinas deactivated and her government persona suspended, it’s up to friend and P.I. Gabe, to recover her identity, before she dies for good.
Alexander the Gray
Reading Time: 15 minutesAlexander, an extraterrestrial botanist whose mission to collect plant samples, is tasked with the emergency abduction of Roger Smith. Alexander has never come into contact with a human being, and when he meets Roger, he wishes wish he never had.
Under the Twinkle of a Fading Star
Reading Time: 26 minutesA veteran soldier in a postwar city, Jackson agrees to search for a friend’s wayward daughter and bring her back to her father. The task will be harder than he expected.
Gods and Monsters Installment 40: The Fabric of the Universe
Reading Time: 7 minutesIt’s twilight. Jeremy has finished his eight hours of practice and is out walking through golden fields. Smoke weaves the smell of burning wood and sugar through the air. At the end of the field is a tall man.
The Candle Wench
Reading Time: 17 minutesOverworked and underpaid, a candle wench finds strange comfort in the warmth of the wax
I Don’t See How That’s Any of My Business
Reading Time: 5 minutesWhen a man’s vision changes, he suddenly sees much more about the people around him than he would care to.
The Healing Breath of Alpacas
Reading Time: 4 minutesWhen aliens descend on Earth, they request an audience with Karen, the United States’ most statistically average individual to sit judgement.
Gods and Monsters Installment 39: Beethoven’s Salt Sonatas
Reading Time: 9 minutesAs River’s eyes grow accustomed to the night, he sees a cat emerge from around a corner and disappear down a narrow alleyway. Another follows, and another. Surely, River thinks, there must be some meaning in all of these cats drifting toward a single destiny, their eyes glowing like secrets?
Turndown Service
Reading Time: 14 minutesA bellhop on one of Jupiter’s moons discovers a body, and murder may be involved.
Retirement
Reading Time: 3 minutesCost-effective retirement for those who work in the human harvesting industry can have unexpected consequences.
The Race
Reading Time: 4 minutesA young man starts a new job at a seemingly disused rocket ship yard.
Gods and Monsters Installment 42: Death and Memory
Reading Time: 7 minutesRiver wants to forget her, yet he knows that if he does, a part of him will die. Though he feels betrayed, he cannot keep away. He hangs the chain around his neck. He will go to Bert’s and fasten it about hers. Then he will leave, never to return, the prism remaining, a crystal kiss, a tangible memory, a concrete regret.
Is It Me Or My Talent You See?
Reading Time: 3 minutesA writer wrestles with his alter ego.
Goodbye, Nathan, Goodbye
Reading Time: 10 minutesIt’s a little boy’s last chance to leave the planet. Can he talk his mom into letting him go?
Gods and Monsters Installment 41: The Color of Empathy
Reading Time: 7 minutesBeethoven does not merely drain his victims, he eviscerates them. When there are no more cats, he moves on to dogs and babies, climbing the food chain with grisly effect.
The Girl Who Was Only Three Quarters Dead
Reading Time: 26 minutesSuki finds herself prematurely awoken from an induced suspension between life and death. With her retinas deactivated and her government persona suspended, it’s up to friend and P.I. Gabe, to recover her identity, before she dies for good.
Alexander the Gray
Reading Time: 15 minutesAlexander, an extraterrestrial botanist whose mission to collect plant samples, is tasked with the emergency abduction of Roger Smith. Alexander has never come into contact with a human being, and when he meets Roger, he wishes wish he never had.
Under the Twinkle of a Fading Star
Reading Time: 26 minutesA veteran soldier in a postwar city, Jackson agrees to search for a friend’s wayward daughter and bring her back to her father. The task will be harder than he expected.
Gods and Monsters Installment 40: The Fabric of the Universe
Reading Time: 7 minutesIt’s twilight. Jeremy has finished his eight hours of practice and is out walking through golden fields. Smoke weaves the smell of burning wood and sugar through the air. At the end of the field is a tall man.
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REVIEWS
High Vaultage Review: Lovable Detectives in the Big Chaotic City
Reading Time: 3 minutesHigh Vaultage comes fresh off the heels of the Victoriocity podcast, also written by Chris and Jen Sugden. As a disclaimer, I hadn’t listened to the podcast before reading the book, so I was pleasantly surprised the more I read. The book centers on Archibald Fleet and Clara Entwhistle’s efforts and misadventures trying to solve […]
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Dec. 6, 2024
Reading Time: 10 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes two romantic fantasies by best selling authors, dragons battling it out over Detroit, and a space opera box set.
A Love Letter to Dredge
Reading Time: 3 minutesI cracked my brain trying to come up with a review for Dredge, but what always came out was a lot of gushing over the game itself. So, I decided to change gears a little: This is not a review, it’s a love letter.
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Nov. 29, 2024
Reading Time: 10 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes an adventure in the multiverse, mysterious artifacts, and a dangerous academy of magic.
When Shadows Grow Tall Review: Sometimes the Road Is the Destination
Reading Time: 3 minutesMaressa Voss’s novel introduces an order of wizards that are able to control the four elements and gain insights from them. These wizards live separate from normal people because they’ve been labeled as charlatans and scammers. However, the order—called dactyli—have to interact with the world surrounding them and multiple people to collect varied points of […]
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Nov. 22, 2024
Reading Time: 9 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes an underground magical society, a plot to move the Earth’s orbit, and an epic historical prophecy.
Schroeder Review: Gore for a Reason
Reading Time: 2 minutesNeal Cassidy’s Schroeder presents a man’s one-day killing spree. Although at first the book doesn’t quite explain what is happening, it never slows down or goes easy on the violence. The novel begins with Schroeder starting his daily routine, but it is quickly established this is no ordinary day. Schroeder leaves his house, cruises through […]
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Nov. 15, 2024
Reading Time: 10 minutesWe read the first few chapters of each of the top five free fantasy and sci-fi books on Amazon. Today’s list includes a creepy cult, a trucker dealing with an EMP aftermath, and a space freighter headed off to a mysterious black site. Oh, there’s also dragons and a sexy and magical Christmas mystery.
Writing Advice of the Week
When Characters Do the Unexpected
Reading Time: 6 minutesYour character has done or revealed the unexpected. Now, you must figure out how to navigate your story when the path no longer adheres to your writing plan.
Plot Turning Points and Story Development
Reading Time: 5 minutesYour story’s plot must include key turning points, which move your characters through the story milestone by milestone.
Writing the Self as a Character
Reading Time: 6 minutesHow can we show our readers aspects of our truest selves while giving ourselves enough narrative distance and processing space to write ourselves well?
Clear Pronouns Mean Clear Writing
Reading Time: 4 minutesAmbiguous pronoun-antecedent pairs hiding in your story may make the difference between reader immersion and reader confusion.
ESSAYS
SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission will push space travel further than any private mission has before
Reading Time: 5 minutesPolaris Dawn pushes the envelope of civilian space travel in 2024, but at what cost?
Studying lake deposits in Idaho could give scientists insight into ancient traces of life on Mars
Reading Time: 4 minutesWhile NASA researchers are directly combing the surface of Mars for signs of life, scientists are also using a site here on Earth to approximate ancient environmental conditions on Mars.
ChatGPT and the movie ‘Her’ are just the latest example of the ‘sci-fi feedback loop’
Reading Time: 5 minutesScience fiction and technological innovation feed off each other in an ongoing back-and-forth that can play out over decades.
Everything a writer needs to know about AI (for now, at least)
Reading Time: 6 minutesI want to know what’s really going on with AI. And, as a writer and journalist, I have a personal stake in figuring out what’s happening because I have a strong feeling that my whole career is on the line.
NEWS
Fall 2024 Original Fiction Submissions Period Opens October 1!
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe fall 2024 submission cycle for original speculative fiction begins on October 1 and closes at midnight on October 31. We’re looking for your best enthralling, imaginative, or bone-chilling original fiction stories, as long as they’re 1,200 words or fewer.
Sonic The Hedgehog 3 Looks To Fully Embrace Its Video Game Source
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is taking a darker approach than the previous two films, but still boasts quite a few laughs and Easter eggs for long-time fans of the blue hedgehog.
Hugos awarded, Emily Tesh and Ann Leckie take top honors
Reading Time: 5 minutesEmith Tesh’s Some Desperate Glory and Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch won this year’s Hugo Awards for best novel and best series.
Sci-fi tractor beam comes closer to reality
Reading Time: 3 minutesIn a breakthrough that sounds like it’s straight out of a science fiction novel, researchers have successfully created a tractor beam using twisting light beams.
Hugo awards votes disqualified
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe Hugo Awards, set to be awarded on August 11, has disqualified nearly ten percent of the votes cast this year due to fraud.
16 best love stories from MetaStellar
Reading Time: 8 minutesDive into 16 enchanting tales of love that transcend time, space, and even the boundaries of reality, plucked right from the pages of MetaStellar.
SFWA Announces 59th Nebula Awards Finalists
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association has announced the finalists for the 59th Annual Nebula Awards.
MetaStellar is Accepting Flash Fiction Submissions for Spring 2024!
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe spring 2024 submission cycle for original speculative fiction runs from March 1st and closes at midnight on March 31st. We’re looking for your best enthralling, imaginative, or bone-chilling original fiction stories of 1,200 words or fewer. Please visit our flash fiction submission page for full details and the online submission form. Accepted authors will […]
ON WRITING
How creatives can survive AI — lessons from a $1 trillion industry that’s fully at risk
Reading Time: 9 minutesThere’s a $1 trillion industry that is about to be decimated by AI, and they’re spending billions to figure out how to survive. Any writer, artist, or editor can use their strategies.
Why Adobe Firefly is the only AI image app I recommend — and how to use the latest features
Reading Time: 9 minutesAdobe Firefly, which is only trained on fully licensed images and pays artists, has added some new features that make it even easier for authors to create illustrations.
The best free* books to help you battle procrastination
Reading Time: 10 minutesHere are nine books on Amazon with tons of positive reviews that will help you finish your writing project — and are free to read with a Kindle Unlimited subscription.
The Do’s and Don’ts of building a book trailer in the age of AI
Reading Time: 5 minutesHow to steal Hollywood’s marketing tricks and develop trailers for print novels.
Claude AI doubles reading length, ups accuracy
Reading Time: 2 minutesAnthropic’s Claude can now read texts up to 150,000 words in length, double its previous limit — and its accuracy is now better, as well.
Adobe upgrades Firefly for better images, vector graphics
Reading Time: 6 minutesAdobe announced a new version of its Firefly image generation tool today at the Adobe Max 2023 conference.
Canva sets up a $200 million artist compensation fund
Reading Time: 8 minutesCanva announces a $200 million fund to compensate artists for AI, adds new AI features.
James S. Corey, Brent Weeks, Ann Leckie, and other authors teach free virtual writing course
Reading Time: 5 minutesOrbit is offering a series of writing advice sessions from some of the top names of the industry. The sessions, which start on October 11, are completely free and cover everything from inspiration to planning to the actual writing.