“L'abolition [de la peine de mort] a connu une irrésistible progression à travers le monde. Ce mouvement, comme en Europe, influence le droit international dont, en retour, les évolutions confortent l'abolitionnisme et lui donnent les assises nécessaires pour connaître un rayonnement encore plus grand.”

—Robert Badinter, 1928–2024

Issue 2024.69

Flash fiction

• ‘Sun-Dappled Sheets of Methane Rain’, Marc A. Criley - art by Ellis Bray

Short stories

• ‘Space Gardens’, L.J. Lacey - art by L.E. Badillo
• ‘Terranueva’, Katie Kopajtic - art by Melkorka

Poetry

• ‘Sunrise over Neo-Tokyo’, Lae Astra - art by Katharine A. Viola
• ‘Manipulating the Light’, Mahaila Smith - art by Fluffgar
• ‘Guidelines for Living Your Fairy Tale (in no Particular Order)’, Amanda Cook - art by Joel Bisaillon

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Special issue on hopeful SFF

Hopeful, optimistic, utopian, cozy or otherwise nice. Speculative fiction doesn’t have to be a warning of the horrors of the world to be social-political, progressive, beautiful and useful. There’s a place for dystopian parable and apocalyptic nihilism, and we publish a lot of it, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. But sometimes we need to turn off the bad news and wake-up calls, and just snuggle up with a mug of cocoa and a furry friend for a bit of escapism. Or rather the reminder that with hope, with the conviction that we can do better, with a picture of what is possible if we can reverse or at least mitigate some of the nightmare, maybe we can still help to make a somewhat nicer world.

Clearly a utopian setting need not be perfect in every way, lacking in conflict and adventure, any more than a dystopia is a completely unlivable hellscape with no redeeming features. It only need show by example one or more ways in which our own world could be better with a bit less cruelty, greed, intolerance or self-destruction. So the stories in this issue are not set in worlds without flaws and hardships, capitalist exploitation and age-related suffering, climate collapse or regressive bigotry. But they are stories or poems with a hopeful note, in which people are trying to do better, with which we can celebrate our common cause and imagine a nicer—not perfect—outcome.

Please read, enjoy and be provoked by the wonderful writing and art by Melkorka, Marc, Mahalia, L.J., L.E., Lae, Katharine, Katie, Joel, Fluffgar, Ellis and Amanda. Take a moment (in between refusing to be complacent in the face of the backlash against human rights, scathing against the rise of fascism and warmongery, unforgiving the denial of ecocide) to remember hope, to mock this life with the phantasmagoria of another, a better one, to boost love, to celebrate progress and to be excellent to one another.

Djibril al-Ayad, April 2024

Comment on the stories in this issue on the TFF Press blog.