October 2023 | Utopia Science Fiction Magazine — I call her moth girl, and in turn, she calls me harvestman. A kind of spider that forages on swift feet rather than ever spin a web. I look up the species online and learn they’re more commonly called shepherds: tall-legged, able to see danger far in the distance. The…

August 2023 | Utopia Science Fiction Magazine — Sojourner; Spirit; Opportunity; Curiosity; Perseverance. The names of Mars rovers instill a sense of adventure when they are spoken. Mission satellites that take pictures, such as Pioneer, Cassini, and Stardust, invoke wonder. All of these are important pieces of machinery that have expanded humanity’s view of outer space. We are…

August 2023 | Utopia Science Fiction Magazine — That perhaps I would never die. What if? Think of it, to see eternity stretched out around me, a plain viewed from the mountains, the ocean viewed from the crow’s nest of a ship, a dizzying endless wine-darkness stretching from horizon to horizon. To journey, enduring the sun and moon…

August 2023 | Utopia Science Fiction Magazine — A cathedral, we thought at first, entering that vast hushed hall, tiered benches ranged in rings round an empty center. Our guide sat, facing outward, gazing at the stained glass: great windows engraved with dots, those dots painted in gaudy show. Purple, red, blue, green, gold. No pattern, no picture…

August 2023 | Utopia Science Fiction Magazine — if you should meet a black hole out wandering the street you’ll know it by its one dark eye and by its lack of feet if you should meet a black hole it’s best to be polite — science tells us that its bark is not worse than its bite …

August 2023 | Utopia Science Fiction Magazine — The office was so dull that Alison wondered if her interviewer chose it on purpose to change her mind about the job. A gray metal desk and file cabinets blended with gray carpeting and gray walls, with a faded poster of the biogeochemical carbon cycle and a single window showing…

August 2023 | Utopia Science Fiction Magazine — You imagine, or remember, a little girl. She is eight, or ten, or nine. You remember, or imagine, her clothes, handed down, so old they are nearly in style again. You ignore the teasing from your classmates. You stand on a patio, or porch, or veranda, and stare out over…

August 2023 | Utopia Science Fiction Magazine — That first time I found the treefolk, I followed the trail of sap. More spills than you might think in the guts of a Low Market. Fuel dribbles sometimes from the thruster pods. Tiny leaks from a coolant pipe slated for replacement. Rat piss. Those sticky splotches leading around Conduit…

August 2023 | Utopia Science Fiction Magazine — Abhay Subramanian paced in circles around the bridge of the Goddard. The holographic display hanging in midair at the front of the room showed an image of the star system they were approaching. Although he knew it wouldn’t make a difference, Abhay couldn’t resist the urge to lean forward and…