Author: Carlos Hernadez

Length: short story

First Publication: Futurismic, 2009

What the Story is About: From the introduction, this “is a plainly-told story about real people adapting to a plausible piece of tomorrow’s life-saving medical technology”

Author: Jeff Carlson

Length: short story

First Publication: Strange Horizons, 2003

What the Story is About: Garcia is man modified for deep sea diving.

They said I wouldn’t feel a thing, but my dreams were awful—pain and tightness, smothering weight, none of which overcame my excitement. I also dreamed of flying, dreamed that I dove right through the ground and smashed into a spectacular new universe, yet I caught only glimpses of brightness before my eyes ruptured and abrasive rock crammed through my mouth and sinus cavities.

Listen to the Audio Version at Escape Pod or StarShipSofa.

categories: carlson, short fiction, audio, mer-people, human-machine interfaces, 2000s

Author: Jeff Carlson

Length: short story

First Publication: Fast Forward Anthology Anthology #2, 2008

What the Story is About: Clara is “a human-shaped component in a cradle of gel and splice-wire.” She has spent 600 years exploring known space when she discovers a strange planet with gremlin-like aliens.

“The ship turned to investigate and Clara tried to override, not because she wasn’t curious but because she was still Homo sapiens in every way that mattered.”

Listen to the Audio version at StarShipSofa.

Author: Anil Menon

Length: short story

First Publication: Strange Horizons, 2005

What the Story is About: The “sensorium” synchronizes the minds of the people living on the artificial island of Meditation 17, and makes their culture unique.

Author: Neal Asher

Length: short story

First Publication: Adventure Anthology, 2005

What the Story is About: Note: explicit violence

“AI Geronamid has need of a subject for a scientific trial. This trial may kill you, in which case it would be considered completion of sentence. Should you survive, all charges against you will be dropped.”

“And the nature of this trial?”

“Cephalic implantation of Csorian node.”

Note: Currently only available in audio format.

Author: William King

Length: short story

First Publication: Dream Science Fiction, 1988

What the Story is About: “Straight from the vats, they had no personality, but those that survived soon developed one. Bill-boy was one of the bad ones. All the Greens were programmed to kill but Bill-boy loved it… ”

Alternate story link

Author: William Shunn

Length: novella

First Publication: Asimov’s Science Fiction, 2006

Awards: 2007 Hugo Award nomination, best novella; 2007 Nebula Award nomination, best novella; 2006 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award finalist

What the Story is About: A Netherview Station story. From the author: “Jude is a young boy living in a technophobic religious enclave within a much larger space station. When his father sends him to work among the biomodded Sculpted, Jude encounters a wider world he knew nothing about, and finds himself confronted by choices he couldn’t have imagined just days earlier.”

Listen to the audio version at shunn.net

Author: Brian Stableford

Length: short story

First Publication: Future Histories, 1997

What the Story is About: An online friend brings a specialize gift to a paralyzed girl.

Author: Peter Watts

Length: short story

First Publication: Nature, 2007

What the Story is About: Some family history should never be forgotten.

Authors: Anne McCaffrey and Margaret Ball

Length: novel

First Publication: 1992

What the Story is About: First book in the Brain & Brawn Ship Series series. “Nancia, a new member of the elite Courier Service of the Central Worlds and the brain of one of the most advanced stellar ships, finds her innocent vision of human nature shattered when she is paired up with brutish partner Forister.”

Authors: Anne McCaffrey and Mercedes Lackey

Length: novel

First Publication: 1992

What the Story is About: Second book in the Brain & Brawn Ship Series series. From Wikipedia: “It follows the adventures of Hypatia Cade, who contracts an alien virus which leaves her a quadriplegic. Her only hope at any quality of life is to enter the BB Program (Brain/Brawn, referring to the two parts of the program) and become a brainship. The book follows her from age seven when she contracts the virus, to her adventures as a brainship as the AH-1033 with brawn Alex who she secretly loves.”

Author: Greg Egan

Length: novelette

First Publication: Asimov’s Science Fiction 1995

Awards: Hugo Nomination for Best Novelette 1996.

What the Story is About: The Total Affect Protocol (TAP) chip creates a new language – but did it kill one of its recipients?