Emma Murray

May 1, 2024 | strangehorizons.com | M. L. Clark |Caroline Hung |Arthur Manners |Emma Murray

Dystopian fiction often makes revolution look easy—thrilling, too. The enemy is clear to most everyone, and there’s an intuitive sense that the protagonist already knows most everything they need to know to defeat the baddie, bring down the oppressive state, and raise up a new world in its stead. Oh, sure, maybe the main character needs a little confidence, or support, or Just the Right Tool for the Job.

Apr 30, 2024 | strangehorizons.com | William Shaw |Caroline Hung |Arthur Manners |Emma Murray

What did we want from a Kelly Link novel? Speaking purely for myself, the answer was, “I didn’t.” For more than two decades Link has produced world-class short fiction, some of it on the longer side, but all of it taking perfect advantage of the form—its fluidity, its permission to linger on well-chosen images, its ability to do without strict explanations.

Apr 30, 2024 | strangehorizons.com | Crystal Sidell |Caroline Hung |Arthur Manners |Emma Murray

The thing is; I don’t set out to write neurodivergent characters. I write people – fictional people who are drawn from the people around me, the way I experience the world, and my understanding of these experiences. Too bad if other people refuse to afford my experiences as being real or relatable.

Apr 30, 2024 | strangehorizons.com | Emma Murray |Caroline Hung |Arthur Manners |Crystal Sidell

My back drags along the riverbed,catching on rocks. Limbs flail with the currents thatsweep me over and undersomersaulting in continuous turnslike the acrobat I dreamt ofbecomingas a young child,under the spell of dazzling kaleidoscopic lights,smell of popcorn and buzz of circus music pumped through ancient speakers. The light teases me each trip ‘round,rippling through the barrage of bubbles and cutting through clear waterlike glass. The rays whisper with a giddiness, “There’s air up here. Waiting.

Apr 30, 2024 | strangehorizons.com | Caroline Hung |Arthur Manners |Emma Murray |Crystal Sidell

The Lightning Road cuts far across the Cosmos, a streak of dazzling gold amidst the star-studded void. Paved in otherworldly stone, the road climbs over sleeping giants, past ringed planets and frozen worlds, connecting one unknown to the next. Xiaofei used to like watching it from the hills outside home, the grass soft beneath her bare feet as fireflies sang in the night. This time, she walks along the celestial route herself. Her sneakers crunch over the gravelly path.