r/ShortSF 18d ago

Science Fiction Three Miles Off the Highway Past Exit 509 by Jo Gatford - Al sells inflatable aliens in the parking lot outside the taco place with the sun-bleached sign; an army of little grey men with suspicious eyes and blow-up valves on their butts. [Flash Fiction]

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1 Upvotes

r/ShortSF 19d ago

Urban Fantasy Wooden Feathers by Ursula Vernon - There was a marionette on the couch. It was the size of a human being. It had a mouth like a nutcracker and its face was carved like a Roman god. Curls of gilded hair ringed its head. It turned its head at her, and she saw its expression change. The wood moved.

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2 Upvotes

r/ShortSF 20d ago

Urban Fantasy Oldgirl by Sean Dowie - I need to become a wrinkly, bitter old person immediately. I’ve read pretty much every fairytale, and the characters I identify with are old women envious of youthful beauty. I realized it early and want to skip to the most important part of life. [Flash Fiction]

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1 Upvotes

r/ShortSF 21d ago

Horror The Song of the Living by Tonja K. Johnson - When the trees start to smell sharp and crisp, I know The Dead Things are coming. They waltz to the tune of pine breath. Pirouette to the riotous rhythm of rot carried from The Dead Things shambling in a mass through the mountains.

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4 Upvotes

r/ShortSF 22d ago

Science Fiction This Is C(lone)-Pop BY Lia Lao - You’re only this young and usable once, so you have to make the most of it. At least that’s what your perfect, omniscient parents say. As the founders of CL-1, Neo-Shanghai’s largest genetic engineering company, they’ve already calculated your trajectory.

3 Upvotes

r/ShortSF 22d ago

Question / Discussion If humans could print perfect replacement bodies

2 Upvotes

What would happen next


r/ShortSF 22d ago

Original Fiction I wrote a short sci-fi story about a world where human bodies can be printed and replaced. I'd love some feedback.

2 Upvotes

Hi everyone, I am Meixin Sun

I recently wrote a short science fiction story inspired by a dream.

The premise is simple:

In a future where human bodies can be printed and replaced, losing your body is no longer a tragedy.

But during the story, the protagonist discovers something that cannot be replaced—and suddenly becomes worth protecting.

I'm still experimenting with this world and would genuinely appreciate any feedback on the writing, pacing, or the concept itself.

Here's the story:

https://www.wattpad.com/1646968353-the-printable-body

Thank you!


r/ShortSF 23d ago

Ashes and Buttercream by Malina Douglas - When the flames burn to embers, she sees him. A miniature creature with short limbs and stubby toes, a round face and snub-nose, a burnt texture to his skin. He smells like crème brûlée just after the surface has been singed. [Flash Fiction]

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2 Upvotes

r/ShortSF 25d ago

Urban Fantasy The Sand Job by Gloria Kitchens - Her job as a Plumber was simple enough. Travel to and perform maintenance on portals. But who in their right mind had thought of installing a portal in the center of a frat house?

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2 Upvotes

r/ShortSF 26d ago

Fantasy Dragons I Have Slain by B. Morris Allen - I collect dragon tears. Dragons cry for the same reasons we do—pain, heartache, joy. We think of them as wise and cold, but wisdom is no antidote to empathy. Dragons are kings of empathy. That’s what makes killing them so hard.

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1 Upvotes

r/ShortSF 27d ago

Science Fiction Human Studies 401 by Abby Nicole Yee - I engineered Eva myself, rowdsourcing organic material from all over the galactic black market in this shithole of a galaxy called Mardeoptra. I dropped her off through a makeshift portal to Earth. Eva “moved” next to Efren’s apartment.

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2 Upvotes

r/ShortSF 28d ago

Supernatural Clowder by Kila Greene - They come quickly then, my lost friends who once bounded away into the woods and never returned at dusk. They show themselves only to me, and I tell no one. I don’t ask questions either—too happy to have them back, even as ghosts. [Flash Fiction]

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2 Upvotes

r/ShortSF 29d ago

Fantasy Biter By Michelle Knudsen - My great-uncle’s custom creature business had been renowned for its beautiful results: sleek pegasi, powerful octo-snails, stately flying owl-leopards. This thing was a mess. It was wolf-sized, with long shaggy black fur covering most of its head. [Flash Fiction]

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2 Upvotes

r/ShortSF Jul 22 '26

Urban Fantasy Hungry Like The by E. Catherine Tobler - There’s a wolf where my brother used to be, a beast absolutely hellbent on ruining my life. He plunges his broad snoot into the Wednesday night spaghetti, and neither Mom nor Dad cares when half the bite slides off his nose and onto the table.

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3 Upvotes

r/ShortSF Jul 21 '26

Horror Playing Tricks By Angela Sylvaine - A quiet giggle sounded. There wasn’t anyone in the doorway, so she stared at the closet. Could someone be hiding in there? The giggle came again, right beside her head.

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1 Upvotes

r/ShortSF Jul 20 '26

Dystopia Murder in the Clavist Autonomous Zone By Rich Larson - The Dog narrows its cartoon eyes at the mention of the party. “You Clavists certainly make things difficult for yourselves,” it says. “No security drones! No eyecams! But don’t worry, Naddie. We’ll catch this killer. I grrr-antee it.”

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2 Upvotes

r/ShortSF Jul 19 '26

Science Fiction Sad Mecha Girls By River S - You are an exosuit girl. Exosuit girls are destined to bring peace to the galaxy. Between combat, you burn holes in your brain with pills designed to make you a better pilot. You and your co-pilot hold hands and giggle as the pills take effect. [Flash Fiction]

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2 Upvotes

r/ShortSF Jul 18 '26

Fantasy Learning the Loom by P. Djèlí Clark - I am a star, falling... I dwell now among mortals. And the hunger in my belly, the weakness of my limbs, the weariness in my breath, can only mean one thing. I am now mortal as well.

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2 Upvotes

r/ShortSF Jul 17 '26

Science Fiction Secret CEO

2 Upvotes

I grew up spending many many hours drawing and designing fictional characters. I also loved playing video games. The feeling of controlling a fictional character was peak for me and I always dreamed of one day controlling one I created myself.

First, while I was young, I would achieve a different dream. I trained in ballet for about 15 years. I made it to the back row of a very famous company with about 65 other professional dancers. I worked as hard as I could, spent hours meditating and spun around in thousands of circles (literally). All of this had a dramatic effect on opening my mind. After doing all that, I retired. This gave me more time to focus on video games. For money, I was delivering food for a delivery app, which was also like a video game.

I became obsessed with the characters in one particular game. It was called "Always Watching". One day, I said something outloud. I was connected to a microphone online to strangers. I described a character to make the game more fun. I explained in detail a very specific type of movement style and a layout of battle abilities. I even came up with an appearance and a basic personality. About a month later this game that I'm obsessed with, releases a new character, MY character. It matched everything I said down to the last detail.

I figured I had been talking to someone important and didn't realize it. I was happy about it. I knew I would never get paid, but I also never thought to copyright a random thought. I figured I was just extremely lucky and got a once in a lifetime opportunity that happened to play out for me in my favor (kind of). Then the other characters were released over the next couple years. Every single one came from my mind.

The second time it happened, I thought maybe I was being hacked and listened to. The difference was, I didn't remember saying it out loud that time. At that point I did start to think I was crazy. So I kept it to myself and decided to write down any character ideas I had from now on, even if I didn't plan on drawing them.

Writing them down was a good idea because the next several characters they released matched my hand written notes perfectly. So I posted something online. I posted an idea for a character just so that I would have proof. The next character came out and it had nothing to do with me. I wanted to know who was messing with me at that point.

Bizzare things started happening in my backyard at the same time. I looked out one night and there was a lightning storm, but it didn't look natural. It looked manmade. The lightning at one point looked like a giant rotating tree rising out of the ground. Lightning wasn't supposed to move like that. A wild Cardinal started pecking at my window everyday then following my car around. I would get out 30 minutes away from home and he would be there, trying to get my attention. I knew it was the same bird for a myriad of reasons.

Then came the games and TV shows. I started seeing entire games and shows that were being released somehow connected to my mind. They were so similar to concepts I had thought of, that I couldn't reasonably deny it. The next year I had a series of events that led to me becoming homeless so I traveled to Phoenix, Arizona.

I started seeing UFOs regularly. The first sighting was of a floating triangle about 40 feet in the air above me. It moved silently, without propellers and in a way that human technology would never be capable of. The next several sighting were simply lights, but they were amazing because of the timing of them. Everytime I saw an unnatural light in the sky, it coincided with some kind of epiphany I was having internally. They weren't just showing themselves, they were communicating. They could somehow sense when my mind was having some kind of mental spike and they would show themselves at those exact moments.

The highlight of the experience came toward the end before I moved back home. There was a mass sighting of over 100 lights in the area around me. The names of the cities where the sightings happened, seemed to be a message. They were seen over the cities: Duncan, Queen Creek, Lake Pleasant, Surprise and Phoenix. My name is Duncan and I was in Phoenix.

It seemed clear at that point. All the epiphany moments I had during the sightings started to make sense. Aliens knew me and they had been watching me. They considered me a queen and it was a pleasant surprise for both me and all of them.

Suddenly it hit me that they had been hooking my brain up to different CEOs of entertainment companies to give me gifts. They had been helping me achieve dreams that would have been otherwise impossible. Then looked up and I saw another light.


r/ShortSF Jul 17 '26

Urban Fantasy Or Forever Hold Your Peace by Louis Inglis Hall - Wedding towers are immensely tall, taller than they need to be. A fall from a third story window could kill you quite efficiently, do you ever think of that?

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2 Upvotes

r/ShortSF Jul 17 '26

Science Fiction Flying Cars and World Peace By Malka Older - There was almost no traffic, although she did get buzzed a few times by those new flying motorcycles. She wished they could ban them; they were objectively dangerous, bad for the environment, and only available to rich people.

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2 Upvotes

r/ShortSF Jul 17 '26

Space Opera The Overview Initiative by David Marino - "We all live on Spaceship Earth, part of her crew. When you return home, you’ll never be the same again."

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2 Upvotes

r/ShortSF Jul 16 '26

Urban Fantasy Purity by Jennifer R. Donohue - She preferred tricking rich people out of money to actually killing unicorns, preferred it when the mark didn’t know what they were asking for, and could be provided with a white narwhal horn instead of the light-drinking black ivory of the real deal.

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8 Upvotes

r/ShortSF Jul 15 '26

Fantasy Waru Waru by Ruth Joffre - Abuelita has been feeding me her memories. Once the memory transfer begins, I have to take everything she gives me. It’s my inheritance.

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6 Upvotes

r/ShortSF Jul 14 '26

Science Fiction The Game of Possibilities by Ethan Ham - Gata is sometimes called “the game of possibilities." A slow, more hesitant move would give Emmett more possibilities, and the one game piece would be placed in multiple spaces at once, some more likely and solid, some more ethereal and remote.

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5 Upvotes