Three people live in the sand-covered ruins of a motel on Cape Kennedy, chased by wardens who are trying to contain a plant-killing Martian virus. This is a very Ballardian story, with…
Category: Story a Day 2022
“Super-Toys Last All Summer Long” by Brian Aldiss
An artificial boy tries, with the help of his AI teddy bear, to express his love for his human mother. This may not be the saddest story in science fiction – I…
“Abominable” by Carol Emshwiller
A party of men set out in search of women, who have apparently wandered away and whom none of them have ever seen in person. This feels like a satirical sibling of…
“Seed Stock” by Frank Herbert
On a planet that is being unsuccessfully terraformed, a fisherman and agricultural technician consider a different approach to establishing life. This reminded me a bit of Kim Stanley Robinson’s “Aurora”: an optimistic…
“Vicky” by A. A. de Levine
A survivor of alien abductions tasks her neighbor with transferring her soul to one of her dogs upon her death. Though it’s published in the Taco Bell Quarterly, which has a shtick…
“Speech Sounds” by Octavia Butler
After a strange affliction spreads that robs people of their ability to speak, read, and understand language (to varying degrees), a woman tries to find relatives and encounters tragedies. This story offers…
“Invaders” by John Kessel
Told in parallel until they intersect: conquistadors hold the Inca emperor for ransom, aliens arrive on Earth and begin buying up art and cocaine, and a science fiction writer muses about the…
“Chippoke Na Gomi” by Misha Nogha
A konologist (one who studies dust) is delayed at a train station while returning home with samples from Nagasaki that may still hold evidence of that city’s devastation, and encounters a strange…
“The Heat Death of the Universe” by Pamela Zoline
A housewife has a breakdown in the midst of her chaotic home, paralleling the increasing entropy inherent in a closed system. By turns hilarious and horrifying, poignant and satirical; the battle against…
“The Morning After the Big Fire” by Maeve Bennan
When the big garage at the end of their street burns down, a young girl basks in the glory of being the one who can deliver the news to the rest of…