Writers of the Future , Volume 40 is this year’s collection of sci-fi and fantasy stories from emerging authors, illustrated by emerging artists. This year’s collection includes a loyal virtual-cat companion, some not-so-imaginary friends, and a robot companion who might be a remorseless planet-killing AI.  This annual anthology always includes new talent in scifi and fantasy, as well as articles from established names in this genre.

Last year’s collection, Writers of the Future 39, had a specfic feel for me. There are definitely elements of speculative fiction in this year’s collection, but for me the focus was on friendships and loyalty, across all different worlds and times. The Edge of Where My Light is Cast, by Sky McKinnon, tells the story of a virtual-reality cat searching for her missing person. If your own kitty friend waits at the door for you or screams piteously if you take too long in the shower, you’ll be touched by this one.

Life and Death and Love in the Bayou, by Stephannie Tallent, is more supernatural than scifi. It’s horror-adjacent, not strictly horror though there’s a bit more blood and injury than I usually enjoy. The real horror comes from an abusive boyfriend, not the old power of the bayou. Fans of the bayou vibes, vengeance, and blood payment in this one should read The Quarter Storm, by Veronica G Henry, too. 

Ok, so I almost skipped Five Days Until Sunset, by Lance Robinson, because I picked up religious overtones at the start. I usually deeply dislike fantasy that invents a new belief system, for the usual reasons, and faith in scifi can be iffy too, but here we have a solid specfic future, in which faith is used to highlight a moving story about how humans cope with change.

Settlers awaken from deep sleep on seed ships to colonize a new planet, but find that nothing is as as they expected. Earlier arrivals have left messages and released Earth animals and seeds, but there’s no sign of the other expected human colonists. I enjoyed this story a lot because the characters didn’t find themselves in a completely harsh, unlivable hellscape, but it was crucially different than their expectations, and they were all facing a shared and unexpected setback. The would-be colonists must defeat infighting, disappointment and misinformation, not murderous aliens or acid oceans or whatevs, which helped make a great story of cooperation and risk, set in with a wild space landscape. The hard scifi explanations for conditions in a distant galaxy, combined with   the relatable anxieties and disappointed expectations made a compelling story.  Possibly my favorite from this year’s Writers of the Future collection.

Butter Side Down, by Kal M, was also an amazing story. It’s told as investigative transcripts, which isn’t always my style. I’ve almost never read an epistolary novel without secretly wishing I was just reading the story… But I was pulled in by this intriguing account of a lone human member of a spaceship crew on trial for maybe saving a murderous AI. I mean, it becomes pretty clear that Joe did rescue a planet-destroyer, but wasn’t just a dumb human doing silly reckless human things? Doesn’t he have a pattern of dramatic rescues of crew acquaintances? It’s a really wonderful short story of reckless compassion and optimism. 

Another surprising friendship can be found in The Imagalisk, by Galen Westlake. An old man, facing dementia and confusion, moves into a care home full of others with memory problems. Here, he re-meets his childhood imaginary friends, and discovers that almost all the residents have invisible childhood companions returned to them for the last season of their lives. A greedy staff member wants to find and sell off the source of this special power, and the seniors try to hold off their mental confusion and physical weakness long enough fight for their friends. Another moving story of unusual friendships in this year’s Writers of the Future.