A college student’s emotional support dragon poses numerous problems for the students and administrators on campus. This is a gently satirical story that pokes fun at contemporary campus life while also making…
Category: Story a Day 2022
“Syringe” by Isabel Yap
A dying woman is cared for by AI nurses, who are programmed for compassion but not too much. This is a short, sad story about the limits of technology: Merlie’s Nurses™ are…
“The Balloon” by Benjamin Percy
Two stories in a horrific pandemic – one a woman who is apparently immune to the disease that is killing her neighbors, one a police officer who is afraid of everything –…
“Familiar” by China Miéville
A creature made from a witch’s flesh and bodily fluids is rejected by its creator and roams the city learning and consuming and growing in terrible and grotesque ways. This story is…
“Video Nasty” by Philip Pullman
Three friends rent a notorious video tape and are joined by a strange fourth boy, who proves far scarier than anything they can see on the television. This is a short, sharp,…
“Heart of a Bear” by Benjamin Percy
After observing a human family, a bear takes up a life of crime (and angst) upon adopting the baby after eating its parents. This starts off as a bit of a lighthearted…
“Suspect Zero” by Benjamin Percy
A body turns up atop a train car; it’s not the body you’re expecting. This is a brutal story with some interesting twists.
“Dragon Song” by Maria Haskins
A Viking who fought Grendel’s mother beside Beowulf searches for her own kidnapped son. Haskins weaves together Viking and related stories with a few interesting twists; an elegiac mood hangs over this…
“Down to Niflhel Deep” by Maria Haskins
A dog takes a perilous journey into the underworld in search of a lost girl. This is the second of Haskins’ stories I’ve read from this collection that have a dog as…
“Long As I Can See the Light” by Maria Haskins
Forty years after an apparent alien invasion has converted the Earth into a factory for space ships and humans into drones for building them, a man who avoided the initial invasion meets…