Compelling Science Fiction Issue 15

by Joe Stech (Editor), Steve Rodgers, Jessica McAdams

Steve Rodgers' "Housefly Tours": Four hundred years in the future, a very special adventure tour takes tourists to spy on the only other sentient race ever discovered. But human mistakes and frailty may just ruin everything.

"The Stillness of the Stars" by Jessica McAdams: A young woman escapes the lower-class decks of a generation ship only to find that those on the affluent upper decks have been lying about the journey on which they’ve all embarked.

Dominic Teague's "Portrait of a Rogue" is a story about an investigative journalist who interviews a wealthy savant concerning his family’s shady history of scientific and artistic innovations.

"Two Moons" by Elena Pavlova is a story about a young girl who must survive a coming-of-age trial outside the giant extra-terrestrial organism in which she lives.

"Drought and Blood" by Spencer Koelle: Amelia Okella's life work is threatened by public suspicion when a man is found exsanguinated in a field of her bio-engineered drought-prevention plants.

84 pages, ebook

First published May 31, 2020

Reviews

[Kalin]

A fairly strong, fairly diverse (for its compact size) issue.

My reading impressions are here:

https://choveshkata.net/forum/viewtop...

[Jared Millet · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great comeback for Compelling SF! A lot of good stories here, but my favorite is easily "Two Moons" by Elena Pavlova.

[Spencer Koelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fine and varied assemblage of scifi. The Stillness of The Stars had some very good class dynamics at work, and added a nice twist to a generation ship story. Housefly Tours and Two Moons both took me for a ride in very well-realized, alien-feeling worlds. Portrait of a Rogue was the only one I didn't care for, being a bit gimmicky and twist-driven for my tastes.

[Mark Catalfano · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked "The Stillness of the Stars" by Jessica McAdams.