You’re watching the first Homo denisova to walk the earth in a hundred and fifty centuries grope their way into adolescence. You haven’t wanted a drink for weeks and you’re not — really, you’re not — falling in love with your co-worker who is the only other Homo sapiens in the entire pine forest. It’s all peachy until the Denisovans start holding singing contests in which the loser’s head gets bashed in. Now what the hell do you do?

A man buckles on his sword and strides to a deadly meeting at dawn. A girl learns to be a woman in a game of soft words and sharp blades in a desolate landscape. A boy's charcoal drawing of a woman wants what he doesn't yet know he wants himself. A porter carries his master up an icy Himalayan pass to confront not only his notion of duty, but of destiny. Their tales are among twelve stories by DJ Cockburn that span settings from nineteenth century West Africa to a post-apocalyptic Scotland, and follow their characters through trials of deceit, forsaken honour, mystery and occasionally redemption. All of these stories were previously published in magazines or anthologies of historical, fantasy or science fiction.

How do you catch a murderer when your suspects own the law?Superintendent Rex Harme's job is to protect the super-rich from pirates and anarchists. It's not his job to investigate them. If they cared to be investigated, they wouldn't be living on a luxury cruise ship that accepts no national jurisdiction. But when one of the super-rich is thrown into the Arctic Ocean, Harme will need to remember the detective he used to be because someone is going to pay for that murder - but whether or not the right person pays depends on whether Harme can beat the clock he isn't supposed to know is ticking.

The Dark City is a quarterly magazine featuring crime and mystery stories with an emphasis on stories that illuminate character and setting. We prize writing and appreciate humor in our fiction. Recent stories have featured madness, revenge, paranoia, murder-for-hire and telling tales out of school. Our current issue features two sheriff's deputies chasing an old car in the desert with unexpected results, a burglar discovering his victim's secrets, a gambler who has an unusual solution to his addition, a hotel employee who discovers a dead body, and a soon-to-be-widower looking for happiness in all the wrong places.

If there was a pill that made you successful, would you take it?What if it also made you a psychopath?If your psychopathy comes from a pill, you can always stop taking it. But will you want to?Edward Crofte was a dedicated scientist who wanted to cure depression. After years of work and sacrifice, the Caresaway drug he developed seemed to work wonders... but at what cost?Years later, Edward's wonder drug has helped people with depression. But has it also helped destroy the world economy? And what has it done to him?

You're watching the first Homo denisova to walk the earth in a hundred and fifty centuries grope their way into adolescence.You haven't wanted a drink for weeks and you're not - really, you're not - falling in love with your co-worker who is the only other Homo sapiens in the entire pine forest.It's all peachy until the Denisovans start holding singing contests in which the loser's head gets bashed in.Now what the hell do you do?

Solarpunk, cyberpunk with a hopeful outlook, futuristic fantasy, spec-fic stories that leave us with the idea that despite the doom and gloom in the universe, things can possibly work out if we strive to make life better, even if in a small way.