Books Short Fiction Spotlight Must Read Short Speculative Fiction — May 2026 Treat yourself to ten short reads to kick off the summer! By Alex Brown | Published on June 15, 2026 Comment 0 Share New Share Sometimes you want something long and sprawling, and sometimes your attention span can’t handle anything beyond short, sweet, and to the point. My ten favorite science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories I read in May are mostly on the shorter side. Think of them as little reading treats to help you kick off the summer.  “1,001 Best Hikes on Mars: The Peterson Historic Trail (“Peterson’s Folly”)” by Ron Fein (Small Wonders — May 2026; issue 35) This is structured like an excerpt from a travel guide, and takes readers down a trail in a canyon in the Phoenicis Lacus quadrangle in the Noctis Labyrinthus. The guide gives an overview of the terrain, the historical features at the Visitor Center, and the trail itself, with what happened to the expedition team sprinkled in.I’ll let you discover why it’s called “Peterson’s Folly.” I thought this was a neat way to tell a Mars colonization story without falling back on the usual tropes. “The Aerialist” by Yoon Ha Lee (Lightspeed Magazine — May 2026; issue 192) Kallista years for the days when she was an aerialist in a plane fueled by intoxicating faerie fuel. She had been dismissed from service in disgrace and is now crouching in a closet with a stolen typewriter. That typewriter had been on display in a museum, but it is more than the simple historical artifact it appears. It isn’t the same as her sturdy biplane, but it can still give her what she wants: to fly. Yoon Ha Lee has a fun, gaslamp-by-way-of-fairy-magic story that has hidden depths.  “Dark, Where the Sun Never Sets” by Yasmeen Amro (Phano — April 2026; issue 16) Khadija is visiting her relatives who live on a planet, Trappist-1d, where she didn’t grow up. Her relatives mostly speak Arabic where she speaks mostly English. They tell her the story of when an American space station fell out of orbit and created a crater. If you want a sci-fi story that is a metaphor for/comment on Israeli and American military aggression toward Palestine, this is an excellent place to start. As a side note, I looked up “Nabati,” what Yasmeen Amro gives as the local name for the planet, and was excited to learn it is a vernacular form of Arabic poetry largely practiced by Bedouin communities. “Excrescence” by R. F. Daniels (Quotidian Bagatelle — May 2026; issue 5) “It began as an itch in the back of my throat.” This story is too short to give a synopsis, but it’s great. I appreciated how R. F. Daniels was able to pack so much story into two paragraphs. Flash fiction sometimes feels ephemeral or like it’s just this fun, bite-sized thing that doesn’t carry much weight. Then you read one where you see how great this format can be. Daniels’ story could be stretched out by another couple thousand words, but it would lose what makes it punchy. It’s exactly what a flash fiction story should be.  “Extracted from an unravelled braid” by Aline-Mwezi Niyonsenga (Uncanny Magazine — May/June 2026; issue 70) Memoire, a Rwandan immigrant now living in what I assume is Canada, opts into a new procedure that braids memory fibers into real hair and connects to her brain through her scalp. At first it seems like a way to honor her ancestors and their stories, everything she misses from her homeland. But the technology is owned by Westerners with colonial extraction as their sole interest. I loved this story, not just how well-written it is but the subtle way it gets to the point. Aline-Mwezi Niyonsenga is a clever storyteller. “Me, Myself, and I” by Marsden Lyonwahl (Perseid Prophecies — Spring 2026; issue 9) John Broussard is returning home after a long absence. Home is an old plantation house in Attakapas Parish, Louisiana. Years ago, the Broussards were the most influential and wealthiest name in town, but now that has faded. The town has forgotten them and the plantation house is in ruins. John is the key to restoring their influence…whether he wants to be or not. A great Southern gothic tale with an unexpected ending. “Not Hunger, Not Feeling” by Grace Crouthamel (Allegory — Spring/Summer 2026; issue 76) How about some plague zombies? Like Gretchen, the protagonist in this story, I went into work during the plague. It was a surreal experience to see the world shut down country by country, state by state, and have to go to work anyway. The day California went on lockdown, I got up, took a shower, ate my breakfast, and went to work only to be sent home halfway through. I’m luckier than Gretchen, because in her world a strain of HSV turns people into brainless killer zombies. She and a woman from HR are trapped in a security office in their corporate office building. The living dead aren’t the only threat to their safety.  “Senescence” by aegor ray (Strange Horizons — May 4, 2026) “Without a name or need for one, he arrives scattered at the base of a tree and he rests like that, in pieces, for sixty-odd years.” This story is about a being constantly transforming states—from he to she, from  “forty-nine sticky droplets of impulse and intelligence, tucked under dried oak leaves, clinging to a stone” to a pregnant being who “flies through galaxies and deep, sick quiet.” It’s a beautifully written story with an ending that made me let out a sigh of hope. This is aegor ray’s first fiction publication, and fingers crossed it’s not his last. “The Trident-Tailed Water Monster” by Rae Zalopany (The Future Fire — May 2026; issue 2026.76) Natalie is visiting a resort near Little Lake Kerr in Central Florida. A dream about a god brought her there. She is cautious of men, and one man in particular. Men might argue she’s overly and unnecessarily cautious, but those of us who are often the targets of the patriarchy would probably say her level of caution is just fine. When she and a man who has been hassling her end up at the springs, the safety she craves is offered to her in a dangerous package. A thoughtful piece about getting what you want no matter the cost. “The Vigil of the Tenth Air” by Surya Ramkumar (Apex Magazine — May 2026; issue 153) What a breathtaking, bittersweet tale. A dead father is cremated according to Hindu tradition, however, his son fails to complete the ritual of kapāla-kriyā. Because of that, the prāṇa attaches to his son. They travel to the son’s home in an unnamed Western country. As the life force watches the son make his way through a society that demands assimilation, the difficulties of living in the diaspora become clear.[end-mark] The post Must Read Short Speculative Fiction — May 2026 appeared first on Reactor.