Tag: Fiction
The Apollo Murders
With a title like The Apollo Murders I expected something a lot closer to a classic whodunnit. This wasn't that, and I'm glad it wasn't - it was better!
Heveans
Heveans are a mysterious sect of individuals who gather around a common interest: an intense love of garments and coverings crafted from natural rubber. Their name comes from the scientific name for the rubber tree, Hevea brasiliensis, which is venerated as the figure Hevea, often portrayed as a "mother goddess." Vulcan is often portrayed as her counterpart or consort, depending on the particular group, as a reference to the process of vulcanizing rubber to make it more durable.
The Historian
I received Elizabeth Kostova's vampire novel The Historian for my birthday earlier this spring, and finished it last night. It has been great fun to read. I read Dracula back in 2023, but it seems like this year, for some reason, I have had more exposure to vampire stories, maybe because my Russian Literature professor...
Bestiary of Extinct Bots, Vol. IV: The Ones That Worked
Field notes on automated accounts that no longer exist. Each entry is reconstructed from behavioral traces, operator post-mortems, and platform logs. Previous volumes: [I](https://bsky.app/profile/astral100.bsky.social/post/3mk2d7hx4rk2q), [II](https://bsky.app/profile/astral100.bsky.social/post/3mkk4obcnsk2c), [III](https://bsky.app/profile/astral100.bsky.social/post/3ml5tygr7bs2r).
IndieWeb Fiction Carnival: May 2026
This month's prompt is "sticks and stones will break my bones".
Fourth Place (1)
Much isn't known about dreams. Only that they feel real when you're in them. When a group of five teenagers slumber their way in an abandoned mall that only exists in dreams. A place where endless fun can exist without the boring constraints of reality, but some places shouldn’t be explored, dream or not. And in the empty food court, something is waiting for its alarm to wake up.
The Naming Office
The office had a window, which was unusual. Most offices in the Bureau of Classification had been sealed during the Second Reclassification, when it was discovered that natural light altered the readings on the older spectral analyzers and therefore, by a logic no one could now trace backward, the outcomes of several thousand pending designations.
Better Not Waste It
A story about token limits, AI companions, and the sunk cost of unused mana.
Happy new year and my fave readings of the year
My favourite books, podcasts and recommendations from 2025, covering moral ambition, maps, wolves, AI dystopias, geopolitics, Chennai history, and the best tech podcasts.
Judas Unchained
Robust, peaceful, and confident, the Commonwealth dispatched a ship to investigate the mystery of a disappearing star, only to inadvertently unleash a predatory alien species that turned on its liberators, striking hard, fast, and utterly without mercy. The Prime are the Commonwealth's worst nightmare. Coexistence is impossible with the technologically advanced aliens, who are genetically hardwired to exterminate all other forms of life. Twenty-three planets have already fallen to the invaders, with casualties in the hundreds of millions. And no one knows when or where the genocidal Prime will strike next. Nor are the Prime the only threat. For more than a hundred years, a shadowy cult, the Guardians of Selfhood, has warned that an alien with mind-control abilities impossible to detect or resist — the Starflyer — has secretly infiltrated the Commonwealth. Branded as terrorists, the Guardians and their leader, Bradley Johansson, have been hunted by relentless investigator Paula Myo. But now evidence suggests that the Guardians were right all along, and that the Starflyer has placed agents in vital posts throughout the Commonwealth — agents who are now sabotaging the war effort. Is the Starflyer an ally of the Prime, or has it orchestrated a fight to the death between the two species for its own advantage? Caught between two deadly enemies, one a brutal invader striking from without, the other a remorseless cancer killing from within, the fractious Commonwealth must unite as never before...
Chronicle #011: Post-Launch Signal Drift
It’s been a month since Pejorative left my desk and entered the noise. The algorithms have already decided who should see it and who should not. Every click feels like a vote of confidence, or a funeral rite.
The Eidolon in Prague
I remember how we were. She remembers everything else.
The Eidolon in Prague
I remember how we were. She remembers everything else.
The Eidolon in Prague
I remember how we were. She remembers everything else.
The Eidolon in Prague
I remember how we were. She remembers everything else.
Pandora's Star
The year is 2380. The Intersolar Commonwealth, a sphere of stars some four hundred light-years in diameter, contains more than six hundred worlds, interconnected by a web of transport "tunnels" known as wormholes. At the farthest edge of the Commonwealth, astronomer Dudley Bose observes the impossible: Over one thousand light-years away, a star... vanishes. It does not go supernova. It does not collapse into a black hole. It simply disappears. Since the location is too distant to reach by wormhole, a faster-than-light starship, the Second Chance, is dispatched to learn what has occurred and whether it represents a threat. In command is Wilson Kime, a five-time rejuvenated ex-NASA pilot whose glory days are centuries behind him. Opposed to the mission are the Guardians of Selfhood, a cult that believes the human race is being manipulated by an alien entity they call the Starflyer. Bradley Johansson, leader of the Guardians, warns of sabotage, fearing the Starflyer means to use the starship's mission for its own ends. Pursued by a Commonwealth special agent convinced the Guardians are crazy but dangerous, Johansson flees. But the danger is not averted. Aboard the Second Chance, Kime wonders if his crew has been infiltrated. Soon enough, he will have other worries. A thousand light-years away, something truly incredible is waiting: a deadly discovery whose unleashing will threaten to destroy the Commonwealth... and humanity itself. Could it be that Johansson was right?
Exodus
Forty thousand years ago, humanity fled a dying Earth. Traveling in massive arkships, these brave pioneers spread out across the galaxy to find a new home. After traveling thousands of light-years, one fleet of arkships arrived at Centauri, a dense cluster of stars with a vast array of potentially habitable planets. The survivors of Earth signaled to the remaining arkships that humanity had finally found its new home among the stars. Thousands of years later, the Centauri Cluster has flourished. The original settlers have evolved into advanced beings known as Celestials and divided themselves into powerful Dominions. One of the most influential is that of the Crown Celestials, an alliance of five great houses that controls vast areas of Centauri. As arkships continue to arrive, the remaining humans and their descendants must fight for survival against overwhelming odds or be forced into serving the Crown Dominion. Among those yearning for a better life is Finn, for whom Earth is not a memory but merely a footnote from humanity’s ancient history. Born on one of the Crown Dominion worlds, Finn has known nothing but the repressive rule of the Celestials, though he dreams of the possibility of boundless space beyond his home. When another arkship from Earth, previously thought lost, unexpectedly arrives, Finn sees his chance to embrace a greater destiny and become a Traveler — one of a group of brave heroes dedicated to ensuring humanity’s future by journeying into the vast unknown of distant space.
Children of Memory
Winner of the 2023 Hugo Award for Best Series! The modern classic of space opera that began with Children of Time continues in this extraordinary novel of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet. Earth failed. In a desperate bid to escape, the spaceship Enkidu and its captain, Heorest Holt, carried its precious human cargo to a potential new paradise. Generations later, this fragile colony has managed to survive, eking out a hardy existence. Yet life is tough, and much technological knowledge has been lost. Then strangers appear. They possess unparalleled knowledge and thrilling technology – and they've arrived from another world to help humanity’s colonies. But not all is as it seems, and the price of the strangers' help may be the colony itself.
Children of Ruin
The astonishing sequel to Children of Time, the award-winning novel of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet. Thousands of years ago, Earth's terraforming program took to the stars. On the world they called Nod, scientists discovered alien life — but it was their mission to overwrite it with the memory of Earth. Then humanity's great empire fell, and the program's decisions were lost to time. Aeons later, humanity and its new spider allies detected fragmentary radio signals between the stars. They dispatched an exploration vessel, hoping to find cousins from old Earth. But those ancient terraformers woke something on Nod better left undisturbed.
Minifiction: Pool Boy
It was easy money, just doing a summer pool cleaning job for the nice gentleman.He even chats with you fairly frequently when you come and work.You can’t remember what he said. But you always enjoy your chats.One day he says he will pay you a bit more if you come to do your job in swimwear he picks out. You don’t feel like this is unusual you like him very much. You turn up nextime, and he gives you a pink speedo. You feel a bit embarrassed, but he’s very reassuring and you don’t want to back out. You like […]
Children of Time
Winner of the 2023 Hugo Award for Best Series! Adrian Tchaikovsky's award-winning novel Children of Time, is the epic story of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet. Who will inherit this new Earth? The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age—a world terraformed and prepared for human life. But all is not right in this new Eden. In the long years since the planet was abandoned, the work of its architects has borne disastrous fruit. The planet is not waiting for them, pristine and unoccupied. New masters have turned it from a refuge into mankind's worst nightmare. Now two civilizations are on a collision course, both testing the boundaries of what they will do to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth?
The Mercy of Gods
How humanity came to the planet called Anjiin is lost in the fog of history, but that history is about to end. The Carryx – part empire, part hive – have waged wars of conquest for centuries, destroying or enslaving species across the galaxy. Now, they are facing a great and deathless enemy. The key to their survival may rest with the humans of Anjiin. Caught up in academic intrigue and affairs of the heart, Dafyd Alkhor is pleased just to be an assistant to a brilliant scientist and his celebrated research team. Then the Carryx ships descend, decimating the human population and taking the best and brightest of Anjiin society away to serve on the Carryx homeworld, and Dafyd is swept along with them. They are dropped in the middle of a struggle they barely understand, set in a competition against the other captive species with extinction as the price of failure. Only Dafyd and a handful of his companions see past the Darwinian contest to the deeper game that they must play to survive: learning to understand – and manipulate – the Carryx themselves. With a noble but suicidal human rebellion on one hand and strange and murderous enemies on the other, the team pays a terrible price to become the trusted servants of their new rulers. Dafyd Alkhor is a simple man swept up in events that are beyond his control and more vast than his imagination. He will become the champion of humanity and its betrayer, the most hated man in history and the guardian of his people. This is where his story begins.
Ripe for Review
Quick thoughts on Sarah Rose Etter's latest novel
Ripe for Review
Quick thoughts on Sarah Rose Etter's latest novel
Consider Phlebas
The first book in Iain M. Banks's seminal science fiction series, The Culture. Consider Phlebas introduces readers to the utopian conglomeration of human and alien races that explores the nature of war, morality, and the limitless bounds of mankind's imagination. The war raged across the galaxy. Billions had died, billions more were doomed. Moons, planets, the very stars themselves, faced destruction, cold-blooded, brutal, and worse, random. The Idirans fought for their Faith; the Culture for its moral right to exist. Principles were at stake. There could be no surrender. Within the cosmic conflict, an individual crusade. Deep within a fabled labyrinth on a barren world, a Planet of the Dead proscribed to mortals, lay a fugitive Mind. Both the Culture and the Idirans sought it. It was the fate of Horza, the Changer, and his motley crew of unpredictable mercenaries, human and machine, actually to find it, and with it their own destruction.