This was a big year for Reactor—we changed our name, got a fresh new look, and we published A LOT of amazing stories! In 2024, we added 35 original stories to our considerable collection of Reactor Originals—from horror to hard sci-fi, from cyberpunk to apocalyptic, from dark fantasy to AI dystopias, and from folk tales to alternate histories. All told, we published 22 short stories, 11 novelettes, and ::squints:: is that a small moon? That’s no moon! It’s a novella! Two novellas, actually!
So make that 22 short stories, 11 novelettes, and two novellas, plus five reprints—an entire galaxy of speculative fiction for you to explore!
As always, we are so grateful for our talented authors, illustrators, and editors, who brought us so many incredible stories this year. Please read, enjoy, and consider nominating your favorites for the Hugos, Nebulas, Stokers and any other upcoming awards and lists that honor outstanding works of science fiction, fantasy, and horror! We’re looking forward to bringing you more fantastic—and fantastical—stories in 2025!
If you prefer to read our short fiction in ebook bundles, here are Reactor’s 2024 bundles to date, with the final 2024 bundles coming in the new year!
Jan/Feb 2024: EPUB | PDF
March/April 2024: EPUB | PDF
May/June 2024: EPUB | PDF
July/ Aug 2024: EPUB | PDF
Sept/Oct 2024 and Nov/Dec 2024 coming soon!
Original Short Stories
Liminal Spaces
By Maureen McHugh
Edited by Ellen Datlow
Illustrated by Katherine Lam
6,930 words | January 17, 2024
An engineer who frequently travels for her job suddenly finds herself in airports other than the one she arrived in…
Evan: A Remainder
By Jordan Kurella
Edited by Jonathan Strahan
Illustrated by Jess Vosseteig
4,500 words | January 31, 2024
Evan is suddenly coughing up bones, like, A LOT of bones, but that’s not even in the top ten strangest things that have happened to him since he moved into his new (possibly haunted) duplex…
Instar
By Karen Heuler
Edited by Ellen Datlow
Illustrated by Sarah Jarrett
5,000 words | February 7, 2024
Searching for her daughter, a woman confronts the man she believes stole the child…and the strange truth behind local legends.
You Don’t Belong Where You Don’t Belong
By Kemi Ashing-Giwa
Edited by Jennifer Gunnels
Illustrated by Juan Bernabeu
5,100 words | February 28, 2024
With her friends vanishing and her home planet of Ayeshij crushed under the weight of occupation, gemologist-turned-con artist Mitayre’s planning a very special retirement–the kind with telepathic birds, sharp teeth, and gory retribution…
Median
By Kelly Robson
Edited by Ellen Datlow
Illustrated by Elijah Boor
5,220 words | March 13, 2024
A professional caregiver’s commute takes an unsettling detour when car trouble forces her to pull over on the highway, where she begins receiving distressing phone calls from strangers…
The Plasticity of Being
By Renan Bernardo
Edited by Ann VanderMeer
Illustrated by Scott Bakal
5,870 words | April 3, 2024
A Brazilian freelance journalist confronts the grim reality her past choices created when she covers a community of people living in a landfill and what they must do to survive…
Between Home and a House on Fire
By A. T. Greenblatt
Edited by Jonathan Strahan
Illustrated by Dave Palumbo
4,200 words | May 15, 2024
The survivor of an apocalypse event in an alternate universe tries to rebuild and avoid being dragged back into the past when a visitor crosses the in-between and asks for help.
Other Kelly
By Genevieve Valentine
Edited by Miriam Weinberg
Illustrated by Mary Pelc
5,050 words | May 22, 2024
Kelly’s friends were all getting a little sick of Kelly, even before the doppelganger showed up. And sure, it probably wants to kill her; they’re just trying to decide if that’s worse…or better.
Breathing Constellations
By Rich Larson
Edited by Ellen Datlow
Illustrated by Zelda Devon
3,360 words | June 5, 2024
Misunderstanding threatens a commune whose survival is dependent on precise communication with another species…
I’ll Miss Myself
By John Wiswell
Edited by Jonathan Strahan
Illustrated by Eva Redamonti
3,830 words | July 10, 2024
A man using a social media app that reaches across dimensions to talk to himself in different timelines, discovers some of his problems are universal…and some are not…
In the Moon’s House
By Mary Robinette Kowal
Edited by Claire Eddy
Illustrated by Avalon Nuovo
3,840 words | July 17, 2024
A new Lady Astronaut story! Dawn struggles to fit in with the rest of her team–the backup crew for the next lunar mission–but she and her colleagues may have more in common than anyone realizes…
The Alice Run
By Nancy Kress
Edited by Ellen Datlow
Illustrated by Danzhu Hu
7,260 words | August 7, 2024
A comatose patient undergoes an experimental procedure that uses favorite childhood stories to pull the patient back into consciousness—but the experiment doesn’t go quite as planned…
Before the Forest
By Kell Woods
Edited by Aislyn Fredsall
Illustrated by Matt Rota
6,940 words | August 14, 2024
Kell Woods returns to the world of her bestselling novel, After the Forest, weaving a dark and lyrical standalone, spoiler-free backstory for a young witch at the siege of Breisach, years before she became notorious for her gingerbread cottage…and her appetite.
The Gulmohar of Mehranpur
By Amal Singh
Edited by Jonathan Strahan
Illustrated by Samantha Mash
4,760 words | August 21, 2024
In the small city of Mehranpur, the Nawab suspects there may be a connection between the slow wasting of a beloved tree and the fate of the city itself.
Ace Up Her Sleeve
By Genoveva Dimova
Edited by Sanaa Ali-Virani
Illustrated by Rovina Cai
5,775 words | August 28, 2024
Set in the same thrilling world as Genoveva Dimova’s The Witch’s Compendium of Monsters series, “Ace Up Her Sleeve” is a standalone, spoiler-free story featuring the fire witch Kosara, who must match wits with the Tsar of Monsters in a high-stakes card game that is equal parts magic, skill, and subterfuge…
Parthenogenesis
By Stephen Graham Jones
Edited by Ellen Datlow
Illustrated by Brian Britigan
3,930 words | October 2, 2024
When their rental truck breaks down, two friends moving cross-country kill time by telling stories about the strange carving in front of the motel where they’re awaiting a mechanic…
Everybody Is in the Place
By Emma J. Gibbon
Edited by Ellen Datlow
Illustrated by Orabel
3,700 words | October 9, 2024
The fair comes every year with its wild music, boys, and rides, but Maybelle and Enid are far more interested in the rumored return of the Labyrinth, which hasn’t been seen in several years…
Bright Hearts
By Kaaron Warren
Edited by Ellen Datlow
Illustrated by Sonia Lai
4,290 words | October 16, 2024
A florist becomes obsessed with the strange, haunting red flowers she buys from an equally strange old lady…
Halcyon Afternoon (Mongolian Wizard #10)
By Michael Swanwick
Edited by Claire Eddy
Illustrated by Dave Palumbo
3,560 words | October 17, 2024
Ritter grapples with a cunning adversary in this new Mongolian Wizard story.
Dragons of Paris (Mongolian Wizard #11)
By Michael Swanwick
Edited by Claire Eddy
Illustrated by Dave Palumbo
6,870 words | October 18, 2024
A new Mongolian Wizard story about a battle to save Paris from an unexpected new enemy.
The V*mpire
By P H Lee
Edited by Mal Frazier
Illustrated by James Fenner
5,460 words | October 23, 2024
The vampires aren’t even the worst part about being a teenage trans girl on tumblr.
Songs of the Snow Whale
By K.A. Teryna, translated by Alex Shvartsman
Edited by Ann VanderMeer
Illustrated by Marie-Alice Harel
6,325 words | December 11, 2024
At the edge of the world, on the island of R’evava in the Arctic Ocean, a blizzard rages outside as five people gathered in a small weather station pass the time telling each other stories while they wait for a break in the storm…
Original Novelettes
Also, the Cat
By Rachel Swirsky
Edited by Jonathan Strahan
Illustrated by Rovina Cai
13,800 words | January 10, 2024
Even death is no match for a trio of elderly, stubborn, ever-sparring sisters, who refuse to rest in peace while their grudges live on…
Nine Billion Turing Tests
By Chris Willrich
Edited by Jonathan Strahan
Illustrated by Sara Wong
10,500 words | February 21, 2024
In a post-nuclear event Silicon Valley, a man grieving the loss of his wife struggles to find comfort when he is forced to communicate with his neighbors’ AI devices, rather than the people themselves.
The River Judge
By S.L. Huang
Edited by Oliver Dougherty
Illustrated by Dawn Yang
10,940 words | March 6, 2024
In this prequel novelette to the critically acclaimed The Water Outlaws, nine-year-old Li Li is introduced to a web of community secrets and family intrigue when she helps her mother bury the corpse of a man that has somehow wound up in the storeroom of her family’s inn…
A Well-Fed Companion
By Congyun “Mu Ming” Gu
Translated into English by Kiera Johnson
Edited by Ruoxi Chen & Lindsey Hall
Illustrated by Park Inju
8,840 words | March 20, 2024
In a future where human souls take the form of animal companions, Hairuo struggles to keep her cat fed on the tedium of her day-to-day, until she meets an enigmatic stranger who has a well-fed cat…and an appetite of his own.
Blackjack
By Veronica Schanoes
Edited by Ellen Datlow
Illustrated by Mark Smith
12,310 words | April 10, 2024
A woman visiting Las Vegas for a fun weekend encounters her ne’er-do-well ex-husband, who begs her for a favor that gambles with life and death…
Judge Dee and the Executioner of Epinal
By Lavie Tidhar
Edited by Jonathan Strahan
Illustrated by Red Nose Studio
9,280 words | April 17, 2024
Unknown forces attempt to stop Judge Dee and Jonathan from transporting a mysterious and possibly dangerous prisoner, who holds a secret about the Judge, to an executioner in France…
The Two Musics
By Michael Cisco
Edited by Ann VanderMeer
Illustrated by Natalie Foss
9,020 words | May 1, 2024
Simon thought he left his fascination with the infamous “Sunshine Killer” and his cult, the “Sunshine Circle,” behind in childhood, but the past may be closer than he realized…
The Angel’s Share
By Martin Cahill
Edited by Jonathan Strahan
Illustrated by James Zapata
7,830 words | July 24, 2024
A woman hires an exorcist to clear an infestation of 32 angels.
Set in Stone
By K.J. Parker
Edited by Jonathan Strahan
Illustrated by John Anthony Di Giovanni
7,650 words | September 4, 2024
A sculptor struggles when he is commanded to perpetuate the lies of a deceitful and cruel king…
Vigilant
By Cory Doctorow
Edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden
Illustrated by Will Staehle
8,120 words | September 26, 2024
In a new Little Brother story, when schools make war on their own students, something has to give. . .
Original Novellas
Have You Eaten?
By Sarah Gailey
Edited by Ruoxi Chen
Illustrated by Shing Yin Khor
26,310 words | April 2-5, 2024
The complete serialized novella from Hugo Award-winning author Sarah Gailey, in which a fractured group of undesirables work together to nurture and nourish each other while navigating a dangerous world that would just as soon see them dead. Still—inch by inch, meal by meal—they build their own future. Have you eaten?
Spill
By Cory Doctorow
Edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden
Illustrated by Will Staehle
31,800 words | September 24, 2024
In a new Little Brother novella, there is no security in obscurity. But there can be redemption in mutual aid.
Reactor Reprints
Reduce! Reuse! Recycle!
*This story debuted in the trade paperback edition of TJ Klune’s In the Lives of Puppets, published by Tor Books on 3-12-2024. Please use that publication for any nominations/lists.
By TJ Klune
Edited by Ali Fisher
Illustrated by Sixian Wang
June 12, 2024
An android who knows nothing besides his work in a factory, is given one final week to explore the world before he is forced to undergo mandatory reprogramming, in this bittersweet precursor to TJ Klune’s In the Lives of Puppets.
Colors of Money
By Nisi Shawl
Edited by Aislyn Fredsall
Illustrated by Jabari Weathers
June 26, 2024
Set after the events of Everfair, espionage, betrayal, and political intrigue follow, when the estranged son of a founding member of Everfair visits his sister in Zanzibar…
The Unwanted Guest
By Tamsyn Muir
Edited by Carl Engle-Laird
Illustrated by Greg Manchess
September 18, 2024
Palamedes Sextus and Ianthe Tridentarius match wits on a dreamlike battlefield.
Become of Me
By Veronica Roth
Edited by Lindsey Hall
Illustrated by Eli Minaya
November 13, 2024
An android mother writes a letter to her daughter…
Vulcanization
By Nisi Shawl
Edited by Aislyn Fredsall
Illustrated by Jabari Weathers
December 4, 2024
In the same world as Everfair, a brutal king plagued by visions of the Black people he slaughtered in Congo attempts to destroy the spirits haunting him using an inventor’s powerful but unproven machine…
