I am taking a break from my Daily Dose of #Empathy posts for the month of October. Too many projects around the house. In the meantime, you can see what I am reading on the table at the bottom of this page. myreadinglife.com/shortfiction

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (buff.ly/NTwziIr) City of One by Stephen S. Power (buff.ly/IFl7BTA) The author has used a number of unique tools in this excellent story. First, the story is in the second person, so it is speaking directly to the reader. I often find this distracting, but ...

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (buff.ly/HR7edpj) The Girlfriend Experience by @cztacks.bsky.social (buff.ly/0AITHay) In a bleak, near future dystopia devastated by climate change, a sex worker is forced by her economic circumstances to entertain a client whose proclivity involves choking her.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (buff.ly/YDS3FyM) The Place I Came To by @filiphdz.bsky.social (buff.ly/CZnxDUy) This is a short, simple story of how the narrator moved to a new city that he at first didn't really like but eventually came to appreciate and love.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (myreadinglife.com/2025/09/24/l...) Last Meal Aboard the Awassa by @kcolemanwrites.bsky.social (www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/last...) Many science fiction adventure stories involve alien encounters, learning from them or fighting against them.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (buff.ly/HPokloM) A World of Their Own by @robertfalco.bsky.social (buff.ly/QgKT9cy) The Earth is devoid of humans who have all left the world they destroyed to find a new place to live. Left behind are two unique forms life—sentient drones and biomechanical animals.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (buff.ly/FDRZj4K) Five Impossible Things by @kojiadae.bsky.social (buff.ly/drZkOf0) Alice lies dying in a hospice bed while her mind attempts to gain citizenship in Vtora Sviat, a virtual reality realm designed as an alternative to dying.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (myreadinglife.com/2025/09/21/t...) The Fury of the Glowmen by David McGillveray (clarkesworldmagazine.com/mcgillveray_...) This story opens in Malaysia as the current prime minister is urgently shutting down an artificial intelligence that has become sentient.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (buff.ly/MaTqjkP) Aperture by @ajablokov.bsky.social (buff.ly/ZaGmaRw) On an asteroid that the narrator is working to help bring back to life as a habitat, this is tale of community, found family, and awkwardness in socializing.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (myreadinglife.com/2025/09/19/f...) Four People I Need You to Kill Before the Dance Begins by @louisinglishall.bsky.social (clarkesworldmagazine.com/hall_09_25) The format here is of a narrator telling you a story. So, you are the one being asked to kill four people.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (myreadinglife.com/2025/09/18/w...) Wireworks by @sherisingerling.bsky.social (clarkesworldmagazine.com/singerling_0...) Calista is a young girl who has lost her mother. When she sees a sign for the Cyber Circus, she longs to go as she once did with her mother.

@ouropinions.bsky.social Here are a couple of recent stories from @clarkesworldmagazine.com that have mycelium central to their plot. clarkesworldmagazine.com/chan_08_25 clarkesworldmagazine.com/teryna_07_25

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (buff.ly/qVvklyi) Abstraction is when I design giant death creatures and Attraction is when I do it for you by Claire Jia-Win (buff.ly/vFcDbN2) Mix Transformers with UFC and you get an idea of the world in this first story of the September issue of Clarkesworld magazine

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (buff.ly/kVU0gpD) Anti-Capitalism vs. the Man of Flowers by @naokan.bsky.social (buff.ly/qFep1KJ) At a convention of superheroes, a small group of them discusses what they could do if they really dedicated themselves to making the world a better place.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (buff.ly/LQhK2Ts) Savannah and the Apprentice by Christopher Rowe (buff.ly/tSm1bri) Savannah is an odd combination of bounty hunter and librarian. Her latest mission is to hunt down the recent killer of a master by his apprentice.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (buff.ly/84cxtJt) Dad Went Out to Get the Milk by Osahon Ize-Iyamu (buff.ly/OBPzj7r) The dad in this story regularly goes out to get milk. Each time he does, he also takes on some amazing, fantastic task and comes back battered and bruised.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (buff.ly/xJW9RhN) It Might Be He Returns by Fatima Taqvi (buff.ly/r5UIcO7) What if you had the ability to make everything better for all the people who suffer like you do? Would you exercise it? At what cost? Those are the questions raised...

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (buff.ly/xXDAcLb) To Access Seven Obelisks, Press Enter by V.M. Ayala (buff.ly/Fk6Afvu) This is essentially a tale of corporate espionage and love. The main character seeks to take down the seven corporations that control their world.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (buff.ly/9qgUzyB) The Dream Tourists by Sarah Langan (buff.ly/xnRx9xJ) Here we have an unusual presentation of the text. Rather than a straight story, it is presented as a transcript of a legal proceeding.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (buff.ly/Q5lfqBy) Feast of Famine by Adam-Troy Castro In a pocket dimension, a privileged galactic prince spends centuries eating his way through an infinite buffet. That about says it all. But there is also so much more to this story.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (buff.ly/NRnkqCc) Five Dispatches from Conflict Zone W-924/B Regarding Post-Battle Deployment of A. Thanatensis by David Anaxagoras

Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes (buff.ly/gYS4LRm) If it weren't for my Theme Team book club at my local library, I would likely never have even known about this book, let alone read it.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (myreadinglife.com/2025/09/07/v...) Vwooom! by @uchenwaka.bsky.social I don't really have much to say about this story. It really didn't stand out to me in any way.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (buff.ly/8pGqe0m) "A Dream of Twin Sunsets" by Ryan Cole On a planet orbiting twin suns, a civilization struggles to survive. Their greatest danger is the poison pollen storms that choke the engines of their gliders and can lead to any number of unpleasant deaths.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (myreadinglife.com/2025/09/05/h...) "Heart of Thunder" by Raahem Alvi One of the best stories in this issue of @clarkesworldmagazine.com, "Heart of Thunder" deals with some pretty timely issues. Among these are mental health and artificial intelligence.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (myreadinglife.com/2025/09/04/s...) Sea of Fertility by Bella Han The online VR world of "Sea of Fertility" is fascinating and a little disorienting. In it, all the senses are available including touch and smell. And sometimes they can be crossed.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (buff.ly/jUI5ZZb) Memories Are Only Valuable if They Can Be Lost by @aijiang.bsky.social As I continued to read through the August issue of @clarkesworldmagazine.com, I next read this story.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (buff.ly/vobRuqI) Sleeper by @shoutoutmapes.bsky.social This unique story takes place largely in virtual reality. Honestly, I struggled a bit to understand what was going on in this one. I was never quite sure what it was the main character was trying to do.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (buff.ly/8AuNjVG) And the Planet Loved Him by @lchanwrites.bsky.social The August issue of @clarkesworldmagazine.com continues with this second story. It is a challenge to read as it describes a form of sentient mycelium, essentially the root system of a fungus.

A Shaky Bridge by Marissa Lingen (myreadinglife.com/2025/08/31/a...) This first story in the August 2025 issue of Clarkesworld magazine (Issue #227) left me wanting more. It takes place in a near future world where people who have suffered from a stroke can get a neural bridge implant.

Starting tomorrow my Daily Dose of #Empathy feature will change. Until now it has been a very brief comment about a short story that I have rated as five out of five stars with a link to the story.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (buff.ly/WIIGk1Y) Friends and brothers find their relationships undone by a simple wooden cup. An exploration of how power corrupts. "Life as the Natural State of Things" by Rich Larson (2025) — 3,500 words (about 14 minutes) From @apexmag.bsky.social #149.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (buff.ly/wMtdvCU) An unusual love story that will really connect with Dolly Parton fans. "When He Calls Your Name" by @catvalente.bsky.social 2025) — 10,619 words (about 43 minutes for the average reader) Published in @uncannymagazine.bsky.social #65, July/August 2025.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (myreadinglife.com/2025/08/27/m...) An interesting use of and change in POV to tell a unique story. "Missing Helen" by @tiatashiro.bsky.social (2025) — 5,830 words (about 24 minutes for the average reader) Published in @clarkesworldmagazine.com issue #226, July 2025.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (myreadinglife.com/2025/08/26/f...) An environmental tale of colonialism experienced first hand. "Faces of the Antipode" by Matthew Marcus (2025) — 8,680 words (about 35 minutes for the average reader) Published in @clarkesworldmagazine.com issue #225, June 2025.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (buff.ly/3Lii0JY) A man seeks to understand his family member who left the Evergreen Domes decades ago. A sweet story of reconciliation and openness.

Apex Magazine Issue #149 (myreadinglife.com/2025/08/24/a...) I recently resubscribed to @apexmag.bsky.social. This is the first issue I have read since doing so. Here are my brief reviews of the fiction in that issue. As always, stories can be read online for free by clicking on the titles.

The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes (myreadinglife.com/2025/08/23/t...) Time for another book club read. This month the theme was mystery or thriller. We selected this book to read. I originally had it on my list to read when I heard the author on Adam Grant's podcast ReThinking.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (myreadinglife.com/2025/08/22/e...) A beautiful but heartbreaking story with a clever use of language! "Emily of Emerald Starship" by Ng Yi-Sheng (2025) — 3,860 words (about 16 minutes for the average reader) From @clarkesworldmagazine.com issue #225, June 2025.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (buff.ly/tbDPaYj) An amazing, stunning use of language to communicate that which is beyond words. "Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being" by @awprihandita.bsky.social (2024) — 8,730 words From @clarkesworldmagazine.com #218, November 2024.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (buff.ly/m2kLl1X) A haunting and disturbing tale of a man who talks with an AI about the troubles in his life. "Hi! I'm Claudia" by Delilah S. Dawson (2025) — 4,443 words (about 18 minutes for the average reader) From Uncanny magazine issue #64, May 2025.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (myreadinglife.com/2025/08/19/v...) Eleanor, fearing for her safety, hides her organs around the house to keep them safe from her abusive girlfriend Severine. "Vivisection" by Anjali Sachdeva (2025) — 4,916 words Published in @uncannymagazine.bsky.social #64, May 2025.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (myreadinglife.com/2025/08/18/w...) Told from the perspective of a networked inorganic family, this is a story of its interaction with a human who crash lands on their planet. A tale of family and friendship told from a unique perspective.

Hugo Short Fiction Award Winners! (buff.ly/pBHLB0Z) Here are the winners as announced last night! Best Novelette "The Four Sisters Overlooking the Sea" by @naomikritzer.bsky.social (13,673 words) Best Short Story "Stitched to Skin Like Family Is" by @nghivo.bsky.social (4,517 words) Congrats!

Uncanny Magazine Issue #65, July/August 2025 (myreadinglife.com/2025/08/16/u...) Once again I am reviewing the stories in the latest issue of a magazine I subscribe to. All stories are available to read online for free by clicking on the story title.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (buff.ly/guDjymP) Hugo Award Nominee for Best Short Story “Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole” by @isabel.kim (3,190 words), in @clarkesworldmagazine.com #209, February 2024. Addresses more deeply the issues only hinted at in the original story.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (buff.ly/NKkpQ3j) Hugo Award Nominee for Best Short Story “We Will Teach You How to Read | We Will Teach You How to Read” by @carolinemyoachim.bsky.social (2,832 words), from @lightspeedmagazine.com #168, May 2024. A unique side-by-side storytelling format.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (buff.ly/E8OMuwl) Hugo Award Nominee for Best Short Story “Three Faces of a Beheading” by @byzantienne.bsky.social (4,139 words), from @uncannymagazine.bsky.social #58, May/June 2024 Discusses the tool of storytelling and how it affects how we understand history.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (buff.ly/KReBq9F) Hugo Award Nominee for Best Short Story “Stitched to Skin Like Family Is” by @nghivo.bsky.social (4,517 words or 18 minutes to read), published in @uncannymagazine.bsky.social #57, March/April 2024. A story of love, dedication, and family.

Your Daily Dose of #Empathy (myreadinglife.com/2025/08/11/h...) Hugo Award Nominee for Best Short Story “Marginalia” by @maryrobinettekowal.com (7,488 words), from @uncannymagazine.bsky.social, issue #56, January/February 2024. A tale of class and the vast chasm between different classes.