The Second Trick
Cherie Gaines was twenty-eight years old and she could tell you the exact contents of her lunch cooler for the next eleven days without…
Tender and slow sci-fi & fantasy stories
Stories in Sci-Fi & Fantasy tagged tender and slow, ranked by how many readers finish them. Reads run 20 to 27 minutes. Writers to know: Iron Index, Sundown Wanderer and Ochre Ballad. Readers usually start with “The Second Trick” and “When the Mailbag Drops”. Some are free to read in full; the rest open with a free preview.
Tender and slow sci-fi & fantasy stories, ranked by readers
01 02 When the Mailbag Drops
*This one came from wanting to write something tender and slow, about two adults who meet online and actually click.
03 The Resin Morning
*This one came from wanting to write something quiet, a story about wanting again after a long silence, set in a town where magic smells…
04 The Roaster and the Mechanic
The coil was being stubborn.
05 Sparks and Ashes
Caroline Phlox was thirty-four years old, and she had learned the hard way, over the two years since a divorce and one year of a mostly…
06 Switch House
The job ran late.
07 The Data Refinery Favor
My name is Casey Lowenstein, I'm fifty-two years old, and I came to New Ghent colony on Teth to disappear.
08 The Caravan Road
The road through the Marrow Valley was the same as every other road.
09 The Maker of Small Celebrations
Val Crandall arrived at the Eclipse Pavilion at six forty on a Friday evening, which was fifteen minutes earlier than she needed to be…
10 The Glass Adjuster
I was sixty-three years old and I had been retired for four years, which was why I was standing in the central plaza of the Dome at seven…
11 Reclamation Shift
My wrist-comp chimed the end of the shift right as I was finishing the last manifest line, and I sat there a second in the little office…
12 The Last Bid
Harley had been on Mira for two years now.
13 Bone and Oil
Britt Thatcher was fifty-two years old and she had seen a lot of weird shit come through her shop.
14 The Fifteen-Year Crossing
*I wanted to write something quiet...