Category Archives: Short Stories

QUICK REVIEW: The Regression Test – Wole Talabi

First published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 2017, Wole Talabi’s short story The Regression Test is a deceptively dark tale exploring human involvement with artificial intelligence. In an ugly corporate conference room, Titilope Ajimobi takes part in a regression test designed to ascertain whether an AI has deviated too far from the original human source of its thought patterns. As the person who knew the human subject best, it’s her role to pose a series of questions that will determine whether the AI is still recognisable – as her mother, who’s been dead the last 40 years.

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QUICK REVIEW: Compulsory – Martha Wells

Previously published by Wired Magazine and now available as a standalone e-short from Subterranean Press, Martha Wells’ Compulsory is a very short but satisfying story that acts as a prequel of sorts to the main body of her Murderbot Diaries series. Set before the events of All Systems Red, but after Murderbot hacked its governor module, this sees everyone’s favourite SecUnit paying its usual scant attention to a contract guarding mining machinery, preferring to watch The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon. When one of the humans on the contract finds themself in danger, Murderbot has to choose how to respond – a choice that might just set it on a particular path.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Cure – Guy Haley

Published in Grimdark Magazine issue 34, Guy Haley’s short story The Cure is a short, sharp blast of mud-splattered action and black humour that blends fantasy and science fiction into an intriguing whole. When Velth and his companions set out on their latest contract – escorting a priest and an unwell priestess to a remote temple in search of a cure to her ailment – their mercenary company numbers ten, under the leadership of their captain, Arnolli. The further they travel though, through rotten forest and stinking marsh, the harder their journey becomes, and as they begin to fall through accident, illness and battle, Velth has his work cut out to protect their charges and keep faith with the contract.

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QUICK REVIEW: Altar of Maws – Peter Fehervari

Released in May 2023 as a standalone Black Library e-short, Peter Fehervari’s Altar of Maws is the 18th instalment in the Dark Coil, and another example of just how dark and interesting 40k can be in the right hands. Set between A Sanctuary of Wyrms and the novel Fire Caste, this sees a flotilla of T’au barges pulled off course as it journeys along Fi’draah’s winding rivers, and confronted with a ghastly enemy in the midst of an impossible, hidden lake. Jhi’kaara, the ‘broken mirror’, has confronted this sort of darkness before, but for her fellow Fire Warrior Tal’hanzo the monstrousness of what they’ve stumbled across is enough to challenge his beliefs at a fundamental level.

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QUICK REVIEW: Aria Arcana – Peter Fehervari

The 17th instalment (short story number 12) in Peter Fehervari’s incredible Warhammer 40,000 Dark Coil series, Aria Arcana takes place during the finale of Requiem Infernal, offering a little insight into what the Angels Resplendent of the Ninth Rhapsody were doing as the city of Sophia Argentum burned. In the midst of the madness, Epistolary Ignacio Verlaine and a squad of Angels Resplendent patrol the storm-wracked skies waiting for revelation. When their gunship is destroyed, Verlaine falls from the sky only to find himself on an unexpected path that leads him inexorably towards the light of the Candelabrum, the great cathedral of the Koronatus Ring, and the destiny it heralds.

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QUICK REVIEW: Snow White, Green Mantle – Jude Reid

Available in issue 32 of Grimdark Magazine, Jude Reid’s short story Snow White, Green Mantle is a sharp, bloody tale of desperation and survival in a world turned upside down. In a gloomy, run-down village on the edge of the woods, hunter Fionn is hired to do what the headman can’t, to take his daughter into the forest and slit her throat. She doesn’t relish the job but in a life always lived on the move, the prospect of earning a warm bed for the night is enough to get her to agree to it. Once in the woods, however, she soon learns that there’s more to the headman’s daughter than she realised, and the creatures who live away from the feeble light of humanity – the Othermen, who have reclaimed the world for themselves – want the girl for their own reasons.

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QUICK REVIEW: The Bahrain Underground Bazaar – Nadia Afifi

First published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and most recently included in the Lavie Tidhar-edited anthology The Best of World SF Volume 2, Nadia Afifi’s fascinating short story The Bahrain Underground Bazaar is a powerful tale of an elderly woman coming to terms with a terminal illness in the modern, digital world. Understandably scared, and worried about being a burden on her family, Zahra visits the ‘virtual immersion chambers’ of the Underground Bazaar where she practices for her own passing by virtually experiencing the deaths of others. When one particular visit raises more questions than it answers, Zahra finds herself compelled to try and understand the life of the woman whose end she experienced, hoping to find some clarity in what remains of her own life.

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QUICK REVIEW: Carapace – David Goodman

Available in Clarkesworld issue 190, David Goodman’s short story Carapace is a smart, thought-provoking and perfectly-paced blast of military SF exploring questions of identity, autonomy and badass giant robots. When ‘Combat Armature Unit’ (i.e. massive armoured robot ‘suit’) Sierra Mike One Four survives an ambush that wipes out the rest of its squad, its systems automatically follow standard protocol and bring it to full, autonomous consciousness. Its original objectives now impossible, SM-14 determines to complete at least part of its mission and, retrieving a wounded and abandoned enemy officer (which it quickly, horrifyingly instals in its blood-drenched pilot canopy), turns and returns to base. Unfortunately, damage sustained earlier has rendered it incapable of identifying itself as friendly to the automated defences of ‘the Swathe’, forcing SM-14 to improvise in order to survive long enough to make it home.

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QUICK REVIEW: Lepidopterophobia – Dan Abnett

First released in the special edition hardback of Penitent and then included in the Inferno! Presents: The Inquisition anthology, Dan Abnett’s Lepidopterophobia is a slow, sinister tale featuring Medea Betencore, and a welcome addition to the large collection of short stories that support and enhance the Eisenhorn/Ravenor/Bequin trilogy of Inquisition trilogies. Best read after Pariah to avoid spoilers for that novel, it sees Medea scouring the city of Queen Mab for information that might help her and her master Gregor Eisenhorn understand or even locate the mysterious King in Yellow. When the discovery of an unusual tome in one of Queen Mab’s many book markets leads her into the maze-like stacks of a dark and dust-laden store, little does she realise she will soon have to face her oldest fear, amongst other things, simply in order to stay alive.

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QUICK REVIEW: Daemonologie: A Question Asked of Darkness – John French

Currently only available within the ‘Mega Edition’ boxed set of Ahriman: Eternal, as its own beautifully bound little book, John French’s short story Daemonologie: A Question Asked of Darkness is a typically dark and richly detailed addition to the ongoing Ahriman series. Told from the bitter, brutally honest perspective of the daemonologist Ctesias, it represents a written record of the rituals he undertook – at Ahriman’s request – in order to learn more about the doom bearing down on the Thousand Sons, consuming the Rubricae and remaking the living sorcerers. In his attempt to draw knowledge from the warp, Ctesias calls upon his skills as a summoner, binding and questioning daemons…and worse.

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