Books reading recommendations Five SFF Short Stories Told Through Articles and Reviews Speculative tales that unfold through (fictional) pieces of journalism. By Ratika Deshpande | Published on December 4, 2025 Photo by Fabien Barral [via Unsplash] Comment 0 Share New Share Photo by Fabien Barral [via Unsplash] I love the possibilities inherent in found fiction narratives—stories told through seemingly non-fictional materials such as in-world letters, notes, documents, etc. It’s a similar experience to reading primary sources for research in our real world, giving us the sense that by reading these documents, we’re participating in the story, piecing the facts together as we’re drawn ever deeper into the author’s world.  I tend to find stories told through in-world journalism especially interesting, because while letters or notes may tell you something about their composer, journalism provides you with details not just about the people involved but also the journalist writing the piece, the publication they’re writing for and its audience, and the larger society in which that newspaper, magazine, or blog circulates, contributing to the overall worldbuilding at multiple levels. Here are five examples… “The Incursus by Asimov-NN#71” by Gord Sellar This story takes the form of a fictional review of a book written by Asimov-NN#71—an “author emulation” reverse-engineered from the original’s cognitive patterns and writing style to create a newer, more ideal version of Asimov’s consciousness, updated for the present day (i.e., 2033). If I’d read this when Sellar first wrote this piece back in 2016, I might have found the story to be curious, fascinating in a theoretical way. Nine years later, with AI-written content making it difficult to distinguish human and algorithmic writing, it now reads more like horror. Since the rise of ChatGPT, we’ve become so accustomed to hearing tech executives raving about the limitless potential of AI that the innovations Sellar mentions in his piece do not sound implausible. The horror comes from realising how much this fictional article reads like various actual articles about AI-written books. It’s a surreal piece that piles head-spinning references to computing, mathematics, and philosophy into winding sentences that seem to make complete sense; even still, I felt hypnotized and couldn’t stop reading.  “Root to Sapling, Sapling to Stem” by Wendy Nikel The ship’s childrearing procedures are being debated again—activists are advocating for changes which would result in families raising their children at home and individuals even opting for the “unnecessarily risky” method of carrying a child and giving birth. For the author of this article, the current system of genetic donors and ship-raised children seems just fine—why increase the risk of spreading germs, physical injury, and psychological trauma through play and physical contact? So they interview Willa Shuman, the last person on board who was raised in the old-fashioned way, as part of a family, running wild, playing tag, and hugging her parents. Willa explains that she was heartbroken when they passed the child-rearing laws; having a child, she tries to persuade our journalist, is about so much more than simply passing on one’s genetic code. But will our narrator be convinced, when the current system is just so much more efficient? “Enchanted Mirrors Are Making a Comeback. That’s Not Necessarily a Good Thing.” by Mari Ness We’re all familiar with the internet convention of explaining exactly what the article is about in the headline—ideally, embedding just enough of a hook to convince readers to click through to the full story. Mari Ness (who has written both fiction and non-fiction for Reactor) has come up with a perfect exemplar—which means that her story’s title leaves me with very little that needs to be explained, here: you can just dive right in! It’s an ironic look at the development and neglect of technology and our desire to purchase objects to use as status symbols. A hilarious read, almost a little too close to reality in its absurdity. “The Fairy Godmother Advice Column” by Leah Cypess Not everyone can have a fairy godmother of their own, so it’s good that there’s an advice column that anyone can access. Our dearest advisor has a huge readership, but lately, some readers have been disappointed in her tendency to tell advice-seekers to go to therapy instead of giving them magical artefacts to solve all their problems. They wonder now—has she lost her magic?  I’ve always enjoyed reading advice columns—they’re gossipy without being mean—and I love Cypess’s take on retelling fairytales through a new form; I could read an entire book of these columns. “The Year’s Ten Best Blood Diseases” by Rhonda Eikamp This story takes a more experimental, blog-driven approach to online journalism, combining reportage, commentary, and personal narrative in this post describing all the novel blood diseases that people have been busy inventing and implementing through livestreams and performance art, even making telepathy possible. The bloggers behind Living TissYou have taken the reporting a step further by personally trying some of these inventions. The results were unexpected (…as you, the reader, might expect). For all its emphasis on objectivity, it’s actually the personal details leaking into the reportage that helps draw us in to the story unfolding between the lines, although in this case that meaning is braided with layers of grief, marital conflict, and worrying technological developments. A fascinating read.[end-mark] The post Five SFF Short Stories Told Through Articles and Reviews appeared first on Reactor.