“Teeth.” Kaleidotrope (January 2025 – forthcoming). A monster-slaying priest investigates a series of disappearances across the Fringeworlds. He’s in for a surprise—one involving a fugitive supersoldier, a black market fishmonger, three gap-toothed kids, and a grocery list.

“You Don’t Belong Where You Don’t Belong.” Tor.com (February 2024). Telepathic birds, sharp teeth, and violent retribution—with her homeworld crushed under the weight of foreign occupation, gemologist-turned-con artist Mitayre plans a very special retirement.

“Thin Ice.” Clarkesworld Magazine (November 2023). The last survivor of an artist colony hatches a plan to save her people from the AI devouring them.

• 2023 Recommended Reading List (Locus Magazine)
• Seven Short Stories About Planets You Probably Wouldn’t Want to Visit (Tor.com)

“Beneath a Dying Sun.” The Sunday Morning Transport (September 2023). Unaffiliated Zone, Year 1023: Tosan and Vaylra, two Shadow-summoning soldiers (and estranged friends), embark on a rescue mission.

“Jovis.” Luna Station Quarterly (September 2023). A science expedition on a desolate world goes very wrong, very fast.

• Reprint of “Sunta” (Coffin Bell, April 2020), revised with Tali Arima.

“The Puppetmaster.” Tor.com (May 2023). A banished warrior teaches her treacherous uncle that once made, some oaths cannot be broken… and that once unleashed, some monsters cannot be chained.

• Reprinted in Some of the Best from Tor.com: 15th Anniversary Edition

“The Sufficient Loss Protocol.” Tor.com (November 2022). When an alien entity sneaks aboard a corporate spaceship, with no motive besides sabotaging the mission and murdering those aboard, commander Uzoma Ifiok launches an investigation—despite knowing that the real danger isn’t the one picking off her crew.

• Reprinted in The Year’s Top Tales of Space and Time 3 (Infinivox)
  • Alexandra Pierce Reviews The Year’s Top Tales of Space and Time 3 edited by Allan Kaster
• Short Fiction Treasures: Quarterly Fiction Roundup (Strange Horizons)

“Fruiting Bodies.” Tor.com (January 2022). An alien fungal infection has ravaged a faraway planet, turning all but six of the colonists into ravenous arinkiris. Inyama, a mycologist, is her species’ last hope. But it’s not expertise her fellow survivors want from her.

• Into the Night: January 2022’S Best Horror Short Fiction and Poetry (Tor Nightfire)

“Paper Suns.” Anathema: Spec from the Margins (September 2021). After a mysteriously wounded stranger saves him from a treacherous snowstorm, a young scavenger discovers that some monsters aren’t confined to folklore.

• Wole Talabi’s 10 Best African Sci-fi and Fantasy Stories of 2021 (Brittle Paper)

in progress

“Selective Pressure” (science fiction) — v.2