Fiction by Linda Nagata

Short Fiction From Other Publishers

Published in 2021

"Ride"
A story about surveillance, AI, smart taxis, and climate change, set in the Pacific Storm story world. Published at Slate / Future Tense.
Click her to read it online.

Published in 2019

"Devil in the Dust"
A short story set on Mars in the last days of a bitter war. Included in the anthology Mission Critical, edited by Jonathan Strahan. (July 2019)

Published in 2018

"Theories of Flight"
A short story set in the world of my Campbell Memorial-award nominated novel, Memory. Published in the November/December 2018 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction Editor: Sheila Williams. A top-5 finalist in the Asimov's Readers' Award Poll and included in The Best Science Fiction of the Year - Volume 4 edited by Neil Clarke.

"Longing For Earth"
Not all things are possible, even in the far future. A short story included in Infinity's End, the final volume of the critically-acclaimed science fiction anthology series edited by Jonathan Strahan.
(July 2018)

Published in 2017

"Region Five"
A short story set in the Red story world, with new characters. Included in Infinite Stars, "a who's who of space opera and military science fiction," edited by Bryan Thomas Schmidt.

"The Martian Obelisk"
Winner of the Locus Award! Finalist for the Hugo and Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Awards.
An architect on Earth is commissioned to create (via long distance) a masterwork with materials from the last abandoned Martian colony. Read it online at Tor.com. (Republished in several best-of-year anthologies and in French, Czech, Chinese, Vietnamese, Polish, Spanish, and Japanese translations.)

"Diamond and the World Breaker"
A short story about an incorrigible daughter. Included in Cosmic Powers, an anthology of EPIC GALACTIC FICTION! Edited by John Joseph Adams.

Published in 2015

"The Way Home"
A short story, unrelated to any of my other work, included in Operation Arcana, an anthology of military fantasy edited by John Joseph Adams, and also available to read online in the March 2015 issue of Lightspeed Magazine.

Published in 2014

"Light and Shadow"
Near-future military fiction from the story world of The Red. Included in War Stories, an anthology of military science fiction edited by Jaym Gates and Andrew Liptak (August 2014). Included in The Year's Best Military SF & Space Opera edited by David Afsharirad and published by Baen Books.

"Attitude"
A near-future, hard SF look at contests and conflicts in low-Earth orbit. Included in Jonathan Strahan's hard science fiction anthology Reach For Infinity (May 2014).

"Codename: Delphi"
Near-future science fiction from the story world of my Nebula-nominated novel The Red: First Light. Read it online in the April 2014 issue of Lightspeed Magazine. Included in The Year's Best Military SF & Space Opera edited by David Afsharirad and published by Baen Books.

Published in 2013

"Halfway Home"
A dark fantasy with a here-&-now setting...or is it magic realism? In either case, read it online in the September 2013 issue of Nightmare Magazine.

Selected for the 2013 Locus Recommended Reading List and included in The Best Horror of the Year Volume Six.

"Out In The Dark"
A Nanotech Succession short story, the second to feature Commonwealth police officer Zeke Choy. Published in the June 2013 issue of Analog and included in The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2014, edited by Rich Horton.

Asimov cover April/May 2013

"Through Your Eyes"
The near-future story that inspired my novel The Red: First Light. Published in the April/May 2013 double issue of Asimov's.

Published in 2012

Lightspeed Magazine cover May 2012

"A Moment Before It Struck"
A Puzzle Lands story published at Lightspeed Magazine August 2012. (available online)

Analog cover October 2012

"Nahiku West"
A Nanotech Succession story, published in the October 2012 issue of Analog. The story takes place in the years before The Bohr Maker and features the early life of a minor character from that book, Zeke Choy.
(2013 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award runner-up)

Selected for The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume Seven edited by Jonathan Strahan, The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2013 Edition edited by Rich Horton, and The Year's Top Ten Tales of Science Fiction 5 (audiobook) edited by Allan Kaster.

Lightspeed Magazine cover May 2012

"Nightside on Callisto"
A short story published at Lightspeed Magazine in May 2012. (available online)

Selected for The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirtieth Annual Collection, edited by Gardner Dozois

Updated June 23, 2022

Short Fiction From Mythic Island Press LLC

Attitude and Other Stories

Selected for the Class of 2026 Air Force Academy
One Book, One USAFA

Fiction can be seen as a thought experiment that allows us to test our ideas, our values, and the creative reach of the human mind. Science fiction is a special kind of thought experiment because it can reach beyond the known world, to explore the temptations, hazards, conflicts, challenges, and possibilities that might lie just over the horizon.

Attitude and Other Stories brings together select military and near-future science fiction tales. These are stories that embrace action and harrowing adventure across high-tech battlefields and surreal other worlds—while also exploring the complex landscapes of the human heart.

Note for readers: Several stories in this collection are also in Linda Nagata's short fiction collection Light and Shadow.

Here's a list of included stories:
Codename: Delphi (Lightspeed Magazine 2014)
Nightside On Callisto (Lightspeed Magazine 2012)
Attitude (Reach For Infinity 2014)
Devil in the Dust (Mission Critical 2019)
Region Five (Infinite Stars 2017)
The Way Home (Operation Arcana 2015)
The Last Good Man (novel excerpt)

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Light and Shadow: Eight Short Stories

Visit high-tech future battlefields, surreal other worlds, an orbital habitat, and a distant moon. Embrace action, and harrowing adventure. Half of these stories have appeared in various best-of-the-year anthologies, and each is introduced with brief notes from the author.

Here's a list of included stories:
Through Your Eyes (Asimov's 2013)
Halfway Home (Nightmare Magazine 2013)
Codename: Delphi (Lightspeed Magazine 2014)
Attitude (Reach For Infinity 2014)
A Moment Before It Struck (Lightspeed Magazine 2012)
Light and Shadow (War Stories 2014)
Nightside On Callisto (Lightspeed Magazine 2012)
The Way Home (Operation Arcana 2015)

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Goddesses & Other Stories

A Story Collection
Ten science fiction stories, including the Nebula Award winning novella "Goddesses." This collection brings together for the first time Linda Nagata's short fiction, originally published in Analog Science Fiction & Fact, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, More Amazing Stories, and SciFi.com.
Mythic Island Press LLC, November 2011, ISBN# 978-1-937197-05-6

Included stories:
"Spectral Expectations" (Analog 1987)
"Career Decision" (Analog 1988)
"In the Tide" (Analog 1989)
"Small Victories" (Analog 1993)
"Liberator" (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 1993)
"Old Mother" (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 1995)
"The Bird Catcher’s Children" (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 1997)
"Hooks, Nets, and Time" (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 1997)
"The Flood" (More Amazing Stories 1998)
"Goddesses" (Sci-Fi.com 2000)