Metaphorosis magazine - beautifully written science fiction and fantasy

This Is My City and I Am Her Song — Suzanne J. Willis

06 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A Siren is in search of a very-precious thing. The mysterious death of a beloved inventor leaves his apprentice, Rosa, alone in the world and in posse...

Core — Damien Krsteski

01 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In an ever-changing and ever-accelerating world, is there a part of us that needs to stay unchanged? Narrated by host Matt Gomez. Published in Meta...

The New Western — E.C. Dorgan

04 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

An older woman dressed like a cowboy is struck by lightning and looks down to find two broncos manifesting in the crooks of her elbows. The broncos be...

The Fairgrounds — Thomas Ha

06 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A young boy goes to the fairgrounds one night to find a gift for a girl he likes, but he discovers strange things await him beneath the bright lights ...

Far Horizon — Lisa Short

02 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Carollene Jonaitis, senior (and only) technology specialist aboard a rattletrap spaceship, has a bad feeling about their latest salvage assignment, an...

Colossus — Michael Gardner

05 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In an off-world colony, Alexi works maintenance on apartments built into the flesh of a mummified giant. Under assault from a rare storm, the jobs pil...

But No Man Moved Me Till the Tide — Laurel Beckley

07 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

No one ever told her the sea monsters could sing. Narrated by host Matt Gomez. Published in Metaphorosis on 07 June 2024. Find the original at ma...

Garden Teeth — M.E. Bronstein

03 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Julie receives an unwanted gift of teeth, and she knows she will have to sow them. But what will they become, and what stories will they tell her? Na...

The Wedding of Hope Garrison and Chevrolet Dodge Ford — R.W.W. Greene

05 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From the dusty roads of a future divided by civil war, a hero emerges. Clad in a silver suit, this lone rider wants to bring life to your party and wo...

The Cold Inside — Vanessa Fogg

01 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Anna is grieving her husband’s death, and has fled to the vacation home she once shared with him, on the shores of Lake Michigan. There in the lonel...

The Bloodless Cut — Evan Marcroft

02 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

With only twenty minutes until the guillotine falls, a military scientist must race against time to learn how her estranged student became the world's...

This is How We Stay Alive — L. Chan

05 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In a world, years after mysterious aliens devastated the planet by stealing the bodies of one percent of the world's population, a lonely survivor nee...

The Beast-Consul — E.C. Dorgan

29 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A Consul cries and cries every full moon, but can’t remember why. She pulls up a picture of a forest on a cell phone, and stares into it every night...

Useful and Beautiful Things — E. Saxey

22 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

At a routine house clearance, a weird object has come to light. Is it dangerous? Time to call for Frankie, an antiquarian who specialises in bizarre s...

When Darkness Falls on Edinburgh — C.J. Erick

15 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Upon the death of her mentor, young apprentice witch Gavina finds herself Edinburgh’s only defense against an imminent attack by followers of dark m...

The Final Face — Norah Lovelock

08 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dia, a robot custodian, is tasked with collecting the last remaining colonists from the planet Rija. Her commission almost complete, she’s dreading ...

Visions for the Independent City of New York — Cidney Mayes

01 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In a futuristic New York, a young girl gains attention for her unique drawings. She is given the opportunity to rise above her station when she is off...

Saving the Whales — C.J. Erick

24 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Oceanographer and whale researcher Niemi discovers the disappearances of great whale species are linked to secret extraterrestrial visitations. Her se...

Rosalind Dreams of Aersea — Travis Burnham

17 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We are the architects of many worlds in our minds. Are those worlds merely built on the foundation of thoughts, or are there imaginary lands existing ...

It Thaws in Spring — Brittany M. Perkins

10 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Lena is an ice child, a wraithlike being who dwells in the depths beneath a frozen pond with others like herself. She doesn’t remember a time before...

The Fool Who Sings You To Your Grave — Katie Cervenec

03 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

At the next light, I pull over and hyperventilate in a Rite Aid parking lot, because I saw it as soon as the song started. Tomorrow, he's going to die...

Translations for a Dead Sea — Corey Farrenkopf

27 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Laura’s father has left her with a partially translated manuscript that will either save the world from climate disaster or speed up the coming apoc...

Hard Sunset — Sam Griffin

20 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How do you make peace with the inevitable end of everything? As the knowledge of an entire civilisation hangs on the edge of oblivion, the last Curato...

Salaatu — Lisa Short

13 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Few in the Empire of Oun know of the salaatu, mysterious sea-dwelling folk from somewhere beyond the Empire's eastern northeastern shores, and fewer s...

Any Day Now — K.E. Redmond

06 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Not everyone is thrilled by the prospect of houseguests. But what if these particular guests were coming a long way? Say, a few thousand light years? ...

The Antidote for Longing III — Karl Dandenell

29 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When Lars Bjornsen learns the young Empress Anna is finally pregnant after years of trying, it confirms his suspicions that the Emperor Gustavus was i...

She Was the Universe — Damian Stockli

22 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It’s Thursday night in a Reykjavík bar. Arni, coming down from a recent loss, is hoping for a good thing. He takes a chance on a bartender’s smil...

Astrid Underwater — J.J. Eskelin

15 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

One summer day, on the shore of an island in the Pacific Northwest where the wild and the otherworldly are intimately entwined, Sigun falls asleep, le...

Arborify — Cadence Mandybura

08 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Yvonne is living her dream career: tending to clients at an arborification facility, where people can choose to turn themselves into trees. When the p...

That Lonesome, Restless Feeling — B. Morris Allen

01 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Bettina has always been the explorer, the collector; Madhup the homemaker and tinkerer. But now Madhup is gone, and all that's left to Bettina is memo...

The Antidote for Longing II — Karl Dandenell

25 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Lars Bjornsen, the exiled imperial poisoner, has reunited with his old friend, Fredrik Magnusson, who now serves as physik to the imperial family. Tog...

The Bookseller of Mars — Gaby Brogan

18 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the wake of Earth's apocalypse, a hardened group of survivors has settled on Mars. Melanie lives on the fringes of this violent new society, her li...

A Life of Color — N.V. Haskell

11 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Laura’s job with the Department of Magical Resources has left her no time or desire for human connection but when a mysterious magical infant is thr...

A Wielder Does Not Know Regret — Katherine Karch

04 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

You settle in beside the child. Her pulse is rapid and weak beneath your fingers as you bring your thoughts to the focal point of the girl’s origin....

The Antidote for Longing I — Karl Dandenell

28 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Lars Bjornsen was once an influential member of the Society of Poisoners, serving as imperial poisoner to Emperor Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, but Lar...

The Princia Prologos — Aaron Zimmerman

21 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The story of Miranda Southbrook has been told and retold with all manner of embellishment and fancy. But this recovered journal is the story told in h...

When the Oracle Speaks — Albert Chu

14 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the halls of the House of Hassam, a prince meets an oracle. The prince seeks to master his fate and bend fortune to his will. The oracle sits and w...

When The Future Calls — Salena Casha

07 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

All Derek wants is to survive his shifts as an antibacterialist at the Museum of Anthropological Findings and bask in the projection light of infomerc...

The Zoo Diaries VI — Frances Pauli

30 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The animals of the Rainriver Zoological Gardens experience the backlash of Oliver the tortoise's escape and the zoo's sudden popularity. Overstressed ...

Nothing but the Gods On Their Backs — Alex T. Singer

23 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A young refugee living out of a tenement becomes the unwitting avatar of her lost country's god. Narrated by host Matt Gomez. Published in Metaphor...

Snow Like Pink Pepper — Devan Barlow

16 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When the snow falls, everyone hides inside, afraid. But what if the snow had something to tell us? Narrated by host Matt Gomez. Published in Metaph...

Escape to Mall B — Theodore Lowry

09 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Born in a mall, raised in the food court, lured by otherworldy music to the mall's forbidden region, allured by a strange woman, enticed by a wide wor...

Catching College — Maggie Slater

02 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What if universities were massive machines, and the only way to gain admittance were to chase them down and catch them…or die trying? Every kid in H...

The Zoo Diaries V — Frances Pauli

26 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Oliver the tortoise escapes his cage and stirs the inhabitants of the Rainriver Zoological Gardens into a frenzy of addiction, obsession, and disconte...

Anamnesis — Karl El-Koura

19 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A hyperspace accident leaves the survivors stranded, among them a young woman disturbed by strange visions, and a man desperate to return home before ...

The Conch Shell — Elizabeth Raphael

12 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Mira knew the shell in her hand held the secret to her storied past. But with her mind slipping away more every day — and her daughter doubting her ...

The Diamond Noose — Ramez Yoakeim

05 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Along with the rest of humanity, Laila is struggling to survive Earth's Nuclear Winter, when her boss hands her an assignment she can't refuse. To hel...

The Zoo Diaries IV — Frances Pauli

28 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

One tortoise is obsessed with finding his lost cage mate. His escape, and his journey to locate Miranda, is fraught with betrayal, deceit, and an incr...

Heart Moon — R. Gatwood

21 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The old pop song says it’s in his kiss, but of course that’s nonsense. The only way to know if your man’s love is true is to cut out his heart a...

Trapped in Memory — Dan Le Fever

14 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Born to follow the all-knowing Regulation, Seyra, a crewmember of the generational spaceship Last Train, manages to cast off her shackles and throw in...

Shortcut to Happily Ever After — Ben Wan

07 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Daniel is a hopeless romantic who uses time travel to find love. Whenever he meets someone new, he jumps to the future to see if their relationship la...

The Zoo Diaries III — Frances Pauli

31 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Oliver the tortoise is on the loose, and the animals of Rainriver Zoological Gardens are all feeling the repercussions of his escape. The zoo is overr...

Pain Eater — Danny Menter

24 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

An eleven-year-old must battle the mysterious presence lurking in his grandparents backyard, while coming to terms with the trauma in his family’s p...

River’s Song — Michael Barron

17 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

River has spent most of her life in a small suburban town, playing guitar and geeking out with friends… who have no idea she was born thousands of l...

My Little Sister Brigid — Harold R. Thompson

10 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

His little sister Brigid was special, and not just because of her amazing power to create solid objects out of nothing. As a big brother, he was deter...

All the Daughters Sing — Jan Priddy

03 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What if you woke up one morning entirely alone in the world? Your apartment is quiet, your roommates aren’t slamming the door, there’s no traffic ...

The Zoo Diaries II — Frances Pauli

23 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When Oliver the tortoise escapes from his enclosure, the animals at Rainriver Zoological Gardens will never be the same. An accidental video of Oliver...

The Numismatist — Cecelia Isaac

17 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Beside the River Styx, souls who cannot pay the toll must wait out their days. There, the ferryman contends with an irrepressible human who refuses to...

The Frozen Generation — Jacob Coffin

10 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When the law changes overnight, a cryostasis technician finds himself legally liable for a man-made disaster - the impending destruction of hundreds o...

The Excursionist of JCPenney — Chris Panatier

03 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Lorraine doesn't have much going her way. She still lives in her deceased mother's old condo, and even her sisters look down on her because of her bad...

The Zoo Diaries I — Frances Pauli

27 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The animals in the Rainriver Zoological Gardens survive to the best of their abilities, captive and plagued by their individual neurosis. But when the...

We, You, and the Gallery — Alex Penland

20 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Trapped on a desolate world, with their Collective dead and their ship inoperable, a hive alien must survive in the presence of the human who tried to...

The Knight Who Carried a Sword in His Heart — Joshua Hagy

13 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

There is a Knight Who Carries a Sword in His Heart. The sword is both his purpose and his end, and both are of his choosing. Narrated by host Matt Go...

Packing List for Oblivion — Cameron Bertron

06 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the final year of a planet-wide evacuation, the sculptor Enefai must come to terms with the growing rifts in her relationship with her partner and ...

Infinite Possibilities IV — Michael Gardner

30 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Adrian’s been given the opportunity to leave this world to explore a parallel universe. With nothing left to hold him here, he’s keen to go, but t...

Snowman — Han Whiteoak

23 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When Alma meets a melting snowman on a train, she immediately wants to help him. But the train, and the world at large, is rapidly becoming too warm f...

Love, Death, and the Electric Soul — Alexandra Peel

16 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

‘Welcome, visitor. My name is Alanna, and I will be your custodian of souls. You did want to reconnect with your deceased loved one, didn’t you? I...

Through the Middle — J.B. Kish

09 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Rory has grown fond of the creature living in the ground behind his diner. It reveals important truths about his customers. So, why can’t it discern...

The Dragon’s Due — Christopher Warden

02 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Edwin thought he'd figured out how to deal with the dragon; everything was going according to plan, then the worst possible thing imaginable happened:...

Infinite Possibilities III — Michael Gardner

25 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A mystery USB leads Adrian to a cabin, where he learns of parallel worlds. All he has to do to explore them is to build a machine and leave his wife, ...

An Hour in the City of Lightning — A.D. Guzman

18 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A funeral, a storm, a story, oh my! A young man must reunite with his estranged family when he’s asked to give the eulogy for his beloved grandfathe...

Bas Relief — Joshua Grasso

11 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Like every other teenage girl, Sveta looks in the mirror and finds a body at odds with the world. Why can't she simply turn to stone like all the popu...

If Gold Runs Red — Gordon Grice

04 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Nothing grows right around here—too many legs, too smart, too hard to kill. And if you do kill something, you’d better bury it deep. Things don’...

Infinite Possibilities II — Michael Gardner

28 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A mystery USB leads Adrian to a cabin where he finds an odd book with schematics for a machine. Adrian, being good with his hands, starts to build, un...

Holding On — Justen Russell

21 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The space elevator sprouted just over the horizon, always visible, ever out of reach. Even Laika knew the risk; a dream is a dangerous thing to chase....

A Xenothanatologist’s Guidebook to Death Practices Among the Sapient Species of the Outer Perseus Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy — P.G. Streeter

14 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A xenothanatologist embarks on a star-spanning quest to learn about alien species' attitudes toward death. When we look to the stars, what can we lear...

Problems of the Flesh — Hamilton Perez

07 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The long-forgotten deity, Grivvux of the Permafire, has returned to save humanity from the coming apocalypse. There were problems during reincarnation...

Infinite Possibilities I — Michael Gardner

30 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Adrian receives a USB drive in the mail that contains a couple of hours of footage of a cabin, nothing else. He’s convinced the footage holds the ke...

Portals and Other Lost Things — Elizabeth Rankin

23 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

According to everyone, Sylvie was doing all the things she should be as a retired, widowed grandmother. So she had no idea how she managed to knit por...

Her Last Will — Karl El-Koura

16 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When his wife dies, an elderly man named Toqs Hingi realizes that her funeral instructions were never received by the efficient and mostly automated s...

For the Love of Wild Things — Mande Matthews

09 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

After the death of her husband, the animals on Willamina Wildemore’s Trout River homestead begin to act strangely. What they’re up to is a mystery...

To the Wild Sea — B. Morris Allen

02 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Sarosh is a businesswoman. Her husband, who claims to be a telepath, has been conducting research on a lonely, nameless planet, but now he's missing, ...

Frozen in Glass — Hope Davies

26 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Pinyit thought he’d left the past behind him when his best friend’s parents took him in as a child, but when his attempts to leave home and study ...

The Crystal Pyramid — Mia Ram

19 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A thief journeys to a legendary crystal pyramid in search of the treasures of a lost empire. As she ventures into the depths of the pyramid with an au...

The Hissing Trees — Ian Donnell Arbuckle

12 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A messenger arrives from a distant land, bearing strange secrets encoded in his very genes. Only the village doctor has any hope of retrieving the mes...

Queen of Crows — Rachel Ayers

05 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

One for sorrow, two for mirth. Three for a wedding, four for a birth. Five for silver, six for gold, seven for a secret never to be told. When Mag sta...

The Heebie-Jeebie Beam — E.C. Fuller

29 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Bingo-bango, I thought. This is exactly what I need. And I should have remembered then that I was never a good thinker. Narrated by host Matt Gomez. ...

The Girl Who Drew the World — L.D. Oxford

22 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Sara maps fantastic things—troll dens, dragon caves, desert forests. But now, a new discovery challenges her like none other: the social dynamics of...

By the Scars Shall You Know — Daniel Ausema

15 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It is the duty of every adult who lives in the City of Thorns to walk among those thorns and submit to the wounds they cause. On their return, they mu...

The Lost Library — Mahmud El Sayed

08 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A human once said, ‘If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need’. Well, I am a Library and I have a garden, and I very much d...

The Eye of the Goddess — Samuel Parr

01 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Soul’s Mirror. The Moon’s Rest. The Seat of Dragons. The Goddess’s Isle has many names, but Ingolfur seeks it for one reason: the gift of tr...

Tashala’s Hair — Richard Strachan

24 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Hidden away from a land torn by war and famine, the monks of an isolated monastery use stories to help them understand their position on the Path. Whe...

Her Spirit Animal — L.A.W. Butler

17 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Spirit Animals were creatures of legend and song, but neither Atynleigh nor her mother had ever seen one. Now, one lay wounded before them, sending ou...

Time, Wolf, Emit, Flow — Anna Madden

10 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Time once raced alongside Wolf through fields of radiant switchglass, but that bright season has faded. Now dust storms have turned the land she loved...

Since We Don’t Have Wings — Gwen Whiting

03 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Every year at the Festival of Wings, men and women battle kites to earn the right to fight for their emperor. Chash must choose whether to seek glory ...

Midnight’s Second Station — Chloe Smith

27 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

An anonymous tip sends Errant to inspect working conditions at a power station on an isolated planet. He hopes his findings will help prevent another ...

From a Mother to Her Daughter, on the Eve of Her Wedding — Elliott Gish

20 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Every family has its secrets. As her daughter marries an eligible bachelor, a devoted mother finally tells the story of her own wedding. Narrated by ...

Medusa Rising — Christine Lucas

13 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Lengo's only grandson, Nikolas, committed the unthinkable: murder/suicide. And while she still struggles to come to terms with this tragedy, an old fr...

Indicative of Future Results — C.H. Rosenberg

06 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

“Frank” is the unluckiest crew member on an extraterrestrial spaceship hurtling toward a rendezvous with Earth. Of the entire research team collec...

Sturm und Clang — Sara Kate Ellis

29 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The first time Sam heard the Irons, she laughed like everyone else, played the LP once more out of disbelief, and then—telling herself it was for ki...