A haunted father who discovers a place where incomplete things—and people—are made whole. A mischievous satyr who hatches a plan to set loose chaos on a global scale. A workaholic witch in search of her kitty companion. Invasive technology to rewrite the human brain. Dragon slayers. Zombies. Time travelers. Ice skaters.

These twenty short stories stretch across multiple universes and beyond death—and yet, they remain intimate, personal, emotional. They demonstrate the strength of the human spirit to find hope and seek a better tomorrow in even the darkest times.

A selection of the best speculative fiction from DreamForge and Space & Time literary magazines, these are the stories we need today as we struggle through a pandemic, divisive politics, rampant misinformation, a belligerent defiance of facts and science, and new technologies that are already spiraling beyond our control.

Read, my friends... and take hope.

This short story anthology includes:

Answered Prayers

By Scott Edelman

Pioneer

By Mark Gallacher

The Ghost of a Smile

By John Jos. Miller

The Spiral Ranch

By Sarena Ulibarri

An Infinite Number

By David Amburgey

Sing! & Remember

By Lauren C. Teffeau

A Sip of Pombé

By Gustavo Bondoni

Born from Memory

By Jane Lindskold

Tea with Gibbons

By Tyler Tork

The Weight of Mountains

By L. Deni Colter

Sapiens

By Davide Mana

The Dead Don't Dream

By Gordon Linzner

Collecting Violet

By Austin Gragg

Humani

By John Palisano

Joy of Life

By Alessandro Manzetti

Artifact

By Jonathan Maberry

The Feline, the Witch, and the Universe

By Jennifer Shelby

Hands of a Toolmaker

By Eric Del Carlo

A Farewell to Worms

By John Linwood Grant

A Glass Darkly

By Ian Rogers