Search Worlds Without End

This short story originally appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Issue 22, May-June 2018.

Read the full story for free at Uncanny.

Here are the best queer speculative fiction stories of 2020, selected by series editor Charles Payseur and guest editor C.L. Clark. This anthology showcases sixteen queer science fiction, fantasy and horror short stories published in a difficult year.

Within these pages: A trans woman growing plums on a distant moon. Queer shape shifters falling in love despite brutal intolerance. Video game urban legends. Magic onions. Art history. Archaeology. The tropes of "classic" movies dashed and subverted. The fragile freedom found in online gaming. True crime podcasts. A non-binary house who refused to eat children.

We're honored to amplify these incredible stories for a wider audience.

Table of Contents:

• "If You Take My Meaning" by Charlie Jane Anders (Tordotcom, February 26, 2020)
• "A Voyage to Queensthroat" by Anya Johanna DeNiro (Strange Horizons, August 2020)
• "Rat and Finch are Friends" by Innocent Chizaram Ilo (Strange Horizons, March 2020)
• "Salt and Iron" by Gem Isherwood (Podcastle, May 2020)
• "The Currant Dumas" by L.D. Lewis (Glitter + Ashes, edited by dave ring)
• "Everquest" by Naomi Kanakia (Lightspeed, October 2020)
• "Portrait of Three Women with an Owl" by Gwen C. Katz (The Future Fire, February 2020)
• "The Ashes of Vivian Firestrike" by Kristen Koopman (Glittership, May 2020)
• "To Balance the Weight of Khalem" by RB Lemberg (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, March 2020)
• "Thin Red Jellies" by Lina Rather (Gigonotosaurus, February 2020)
• "Body, Remember" by Nicasio Andres Reed (Fireside, November 2020)
• "Escaping Dr. Markoff" by Gabriela Santiago (The Dark, March 2020)
• "The Last Good Time to Be Alive" by Waverly SM (Reckoning 4, edited by Danika Dinsmore and Arkady Martine)
• "Monsters Never Leave You" by Carlie St. George (Strange Horizons, June 2020)
• "The Wedding After The Bomb" by Brendan Williams-Childs (Catapult, April 2020)
• "8-Bit Free Will" by John Wiswell (Podcastle, November 2020)

EVERY EMPIRE DEMANDS REVOLUTION.

Touraine is a soldier. Stolen as a child and raised to kill and die for the empire, her only loyalty is to her fellow conscripts. But now, her company has been sent back to her homeland to stop a rebellion, and the ties of blood may be stronger than she thought.

Luca needs a turncoat. Someone desperate enough to tiptoe the bayonet's edge between treason and orders. Someone who can sway the rebels toward peace, while Luca focuses on what really matters: getting her uncle off her throne.

Through assassinations and massacres, in bedrooms and war rooms, Touraine and Luca will haggle over the price of a nation. But some things aren't for sale.

The rebels have won, and the empire is withdrawing from Qazal. But undoing the tangled web that binds the two nations will not be easy, and Touraine and Luca will face their greatest challenge yet.

Luca needs to oust her uncle from the Balladairan throne once and for all and take her rightful place as Queen. But he won't let go of power so easily. When he calls for a "Trial of Competence" and Luca's allies start disappearing from her side, she will need to find a way to prove her might. And she knows someone who can help...

Touraine has found a home in the newly free country of Qazal. But she soon realizes that leading a country and leading a revolution are two very different tasks. And, even more importantly, if Luca's uncle doesn't ratify the treaty, the Qazali could end up right back where they started.

Together, the two women will have to come overcome their enemies, their history, and their heartbreak in order to find a way to secure Luca's power and Touraine's freedom.