In the fiction writer's bag of tricks there's a surefire technique for garnering sympathy for a character: show them reading something.

Today, the first of August, there was something more interesting to watch than the usual Superfortress parade. Word was out that General Le May wanted to take the 509th's mission away from it. Their commander Colonel Tibbets had gone and bitched to La May in person, and the general had agreed the mission was theirs, but on one condition: one of the general's men was to make a test flight with the 509th, to make sure they were fit for combat over Japan.

In this episode of the Strange Horizons podcast, editor Anaea Lay presents Kim Stanley Robinson's "The Lucky Strike."

At first glance, "The Red Shoes" is a story about dancing, and it's no surprise that the relatively rare screen adaptations of the story are almost exclusively dance pieces . . .

There is nothing more monstrous in our gaze than a mirror.