Metaphorosis magazine - beautifully written science fiction and fantasy

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 smile, just as a series of strange, bright objects enter the solar system from interstellar space.
Narrated by host Matt Gomez. Published in Metaphorosis on 22 September 2023. Find the original at magazine.metaphorosis.com.

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, leaving her son playing alone by the cusp of a deep channel of water. What they encounter there shakes Sigun, awakening her grief and challenging her to reclaim her own fierce nature.
Narrated by host Matt Gomez. Published in Metaphorosis on 15 September 2023. Find the original at magazine.metaphorosis.com.

Yvonne is living her dream career: tending to clients at an arborification facility, where people can choose to turn themselves into trees. When the program is threatened by an act of vandalism, Yvonne must face her own fear and anger at the prospect of arborification being shut down for good.
Narrated by host Matt Gomez. Published in Metaphorosis on 08 September 2023. Find the original at magazine.metaphorosis.com.

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 memory and the alien artifacts she brought home and Madhup made sense of.
Narrated by host Matt Gomez. Published in Metaphorosis on 01 September 2023. Find the original at magazine.metaphorosis.com.

Lars Bjornsen, the exiled imperial poisoner, has reunited with his old friend, Fredrik Magnusson, who now serves as physik to the imperial family. Together they race to unravel two mysteries: the sudden illness of Emperor Gustavus and the death of the newest imperial poisoner, Lord Anders. While the clues point to a possible coup attempt, Lars begins to suspect that Spymaster Maja Viklund and Lord Anders were dosing the emperor with an aphrodisiac known as Sweet Agony to ensure a new heir. While Sweet Agony is not part of the Society of Poisoner’s arsenal, its side effects could be fatal for an old man like Emperor Gustavus.
Narrated by Thomas Baxter. Published in Metaphorosis on 25 August 2023. Find the original at magazine.metaphorosis.com.

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 little sanctuary visited only by settlers coming to request rewrites of their favorite books from Earth. Until, two young boys show up one day, and she is forced to choose between her comfortable life and helping them face a looming threat.
Narrated by host Matt Gomez. Published in Metaphorosis on 18 August 2023. Find the original at magazine.metaphorosis.com.

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 thrust into her care, she is forced to confront elements of her painful past. As she tries to help the child, the integrity of herself and those around her will be tested. But no matter how the assignment is finished, Laura will never be the same.
Narrated by host Matt Gomez. Published in Metaphorosis on 11 August 2023. Find the original at magazine.metaphorosis.com.

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. You set yourself like a fulcrum in the space between what is yet to come and what has passed, and stretch.
Narrated by host Matt Gomez. Published in Metaphorosis on 04 August 2023. Find the original at magazine.metaphorosis.com.

Lars Bjornsen was once an influential member of the Society of Poisoners, serving as imperial poisoner to Emperor Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, but Lars has been in exile for the past three years because he failed to assassinate the son of the Russian tsar. When an imperial messenger brings word that Emperor Gustavus has taken ill and the current imperial poisoner is dead, Lars realizes his oath of fealty requires he assist. He must be careful, however, because Lars’ former lover, Spymaster Maja Viklund, has eyes everywhere, and he faces imprisonment or execution should he be discovered.
Narrated by Thomas Baxter. Published in Metaphorosis on 28 July 2023. Find the original at magazine.metaphorosis.com.

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 her own words, the story of a young woman given a terrible choice and tested with an impossible circumstance. It is the account of an extraordinary person wrestling with the most ordinary of questions: what is my place in the world?
Narrated by host Matt Gomez. Published in Metaphorosis on 21 July 2023. Find the original at magazine.metaphorosis.com.