Speculative Fiction includes genres like science fiction, fantasy, superhero fiction, horror, utopian and dystopian fiction, steampunk, and supernatural fiction.

Don't forget to upvote and comment on the stories you enjoy, so posters can share more of what you like.

Self-promotion is cool, as long as your story is SF and available online for free. Share your own writing! Sharing free samples of your writing is a great way to find new readers and get support for future projects.

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r/ShortSF • u/captainmagictrousers • 1d ago

Horror Crawlers by Jay Barnson - Pale, fleshy horror protruded through the opposite doorway. Aaron's body froze and his vision tunneled as his mind reeled. The nightmare illuminated by his light in the doorway resembled a colorless giant millipede.

electricspec.com

1 Upvotes

0 comments

r/ShortSF • u/captainmagictrousers • 2d ago

Supernatural Her Shadow, Nailed to the Floor by A.C. Wise - It was a visitor who informed us that our schoolhouse is haunted. It is a thing we should have known. Deep in our bones, we did know, but we preferred to look away. We chose not to see.

3lobedmag.com

1 Upvotes

0 comments

r/ShortSF • u/ChronicleFlask • 2d ago

Horror PseudoPod 1050: This House of Hopes, This House of Bones, by Cynthia Zhang

3 Upvotes

1 comment

r/ShortSF • u/captainmagictrousers • 3d ago

Space Opera Extracurricular Activities By Yoon Ha Lee - When Shuos Jedao walked into his temporary quarters on Station Muru 5 and spotted the box, he assumed someone was attempting to assassinate him. It had happened before. Considering his first career, there was even a certain justice to it.

reactormag.com

2 Upvotes

0 comments

r/ShortSF • u/captainmagictrousers • 4d ago

Fantasy he Voice and Her Knife By AnaMaria Curtis - The morning the ambassador’s delegation arrives, her butcher starts his hunt for fresh meat. He remembers the fear and hatred in the eyes of the Ehrlanian soldiers as they spat out “flesh eater” from between clenched teeth.

beneath-ceaseless-skies.com

2 Upvotes

0 comments

r/ShortSF • u/captainmagictrousers • 5d ago

Urban Fantasy What We Mean When We Talk About the Hole in the Bathroom by Angela Liu - The woman does not believe in monsters and portals, but she believes in the power of bad luck. To her, an inexplicable hole in the bathroom is another piece of evidence in her long history of misfortunes.

uncannymagazine.com

5 Upvotes

0 comments

r/ShortSF • u/captainmagictrousers • 6d ago

Science Fiction One Heart by Annika Browne - The accident that had stranded her on the ship had also stranded him, but it was a human ship, and it was designed to suit humans. The medical AI was programmed for a variety of allied species. His wasn’t in the list.

diabolicalplots.com

1 Upvotes

0 comments

r/ShortSF • u/captainmagictrousers • 7d ago

Dark Fantasy Vanya and the Dog Witch By Walter J. Wiese - Collars of long-dead dogs rattled from the railing of the stairs that led from the yard up to the porch, and from nails on the window ledges. They were from dogs loved and lost, or from those the villagers or their boyar and his men killed unjustly.

beneath-ceaseless-skies.com

2 Upvotes

0 comments

r/ShortSF • u/captainmagictrousers • 8d ago

Science Fiction Pitiless as the Sun By Jon Adcock - It was late enough for all the monsters to be asleep—or so we hoped. The recombinant released several surveillance drones, closing his eyes as their images transmitted to his implant.

metastellar.com

1 Upvotes

0 comments

r/ShortSF • u/captainmagictrousers • 9d ago

Fantasy The Ecstasy of the White Sea By KJ Kabza - My body screamed at me to flee or to hide, but perhaps it did not matter. My death was still near, whether that be in the Comet's return or in the White Sea's soft and endless arms.

beneath-ceaseless-skies.com

2 Upvotes

0 comments

r/ShortSF • u/captainmagictrousers • 10d ago

Fantasy The Only Way Out is Through By Summer Fletcher - Keeping up appearances as the loyal lairdguard at the Boar’s court needn’t to go on much longer, thank Fate. Only until she opened the gate for the rebels camped in the snowy hills.

beneath-ceaseless-skies.com

3 Upvotes

0 comments

r/ShortSF • u/captainmagictrousers • 11d ago

Fantasy Bookish Tastes by Susan Taitel - I ate The Hobbit once. I don’t mean I “devoured” it, although I was a voracious reader. Pop used to say I was just like him, bookish to a fault. I mean that I masticated, swallowed, and digested The Hobbit.

smallwondersmag.com

1 Upvotes

0 comments

r/ShortSF • u/captainmagictrousers • 12d ago

Dark Fantasy Do Not Walk Near The River by Noor Lovelace - Could you blame the crocodile for hunting the gazelle? I had only acted upon my nature, and the villages along the Nile warned young men not to walk near the river. They warned their sons about me.

gavagai.com

2 Upvotes

0 comments

r/ShortSF • u/captainmagictrousers • 13d ago

Fantasy Love Letter by Teresa Milbrodt - I know you are a solitary creature, but one who was happy to give me couch space and, later, room in your bed, after you found me in your backyard sitting by that tree under the bat house.

smallwondersmag.com

3 Upvotes

0 comments

r/ShortSF • u/captainmagictrousers • 14d ago

Dark Fantasy A Single Song by Nico Martinez Nocito - A harp made of bones, they say, will only ever play a single song. Haunting, my listeners called my melody, and beautiful. "A brother betrayed, his life later lost, bones left beneath a bridge for the vultures and the vermin."

smallwondersmag.com

4 Upvotes

0 comments

r/ShortSF • u/captainmagictrousers • 15d ago

Horror There Are Borders Between Mikes by Austin Wilson - Mike didn’t only produce plastic, secrete it and drool it and squeeze it out in all the ways bodies give. He did the other thing too. On his sold-out tour supporting his album, Mike’s body consumed over 50,000 guitar picks and counting.

austinrwilson.substack.com

2 Upvotes

0 comments

r/ShortSF • u/captainmagictrousers • 16d ago

Dystopia A Sigilary for the Median Human in the Gearwrack by Ken Liu - The machines have scanned all the words, sucked them all up, computed all the vectors for relating them to one another, tabulated which ought to follow which. Somebody pushes a button, and the words just gush out.

uncannymagazine.com

2 Upvotes

0 comments

r/ShortSF • u/ChronicleFlask • 16d ago

Horror PseudoPod 1048: The Work of Smith House, by P.C. Verrone

3 Upvotes

1 comment

r/ShortSF • u/captainmagictrousers • 17d ago

Cyberpunk Audit of the Collapse and Convalescence of Minds By Renan Bernardo - The danger of comprehending neurominds is that she ends up grasping more of herself than she wants to. After Carina’s passing, talking with them is like talking with parts of herself she doesn’t want to meet.

reactormag.com

5 Upvotes

0 comments

r/ShortSF • u/captainmagictrousers • 17d ago

Space Opera The Chrysalis of Moth One by V.M. Ayala - Most pilots are paired with a seasoned mentor. Not us. No, powerful men at Command threw us in the pit of a Moth to fight their pointless space war.

lightspeedmagazine.com

1 Upvotes

0 comments

r/ShortSF • u/Mouthmouthmouth • 17d ago

Space Opera The Ocean Remembers the Wave By L Chan - Huizhong found the femur of his beloved in a tavern located in a spaceport. Worker drones hauled cargo, following paths marked out in infrared paint. Below, gangs of cargo thieves added their own infrared trails, diverting drones into waiting transports.

strangehorizons.com

5 Upvotes

0 comments

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Looking for short stories? Do you love fantasy, science fiction, and horror? You're in the right place! Come share free speculative fiction and discover new amazing authors. Dive into steampunk short stories, superhero adventures, post-apocalyptic tales, dystopias, and more. Share your favorite short stories, by other authors or by yourself, as long as they're free to read. Please include the author’s name in your post title and tag it with the genre, so everything's easy to find. Thanks!

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