Short stories | Chris Beckett's Fiction

The Girl from Eden

I’m very pleased to say that I’ve just had a longish short story with this title accepted by Asimov’s SF magazine. I don’t yet know when it will appear in print, but I couldn’t have wished for a better home for it.

‘The Girl from Eden’ is a sequel to my Eden trilogy, or maybe postscript would be a better word. It’s about a young woman called Trueheart who is a character in the third book, Daughter of Eden. In fact, she’s one of the five women around whom that book revolves: Angie, Mary, Starlight, Gaia, Trueheart.

The story itself stands alone perfectly well, but even its premise would be a spoiler if you haven’t got round to reading the books. Myself, I’m not that bothered about spoilers, but if you don’t like them and want to read the books, you’d need to read all three of them before starting this story!

This story means a lot to me, for reasons which I only partly understand myself. A great deal of emotion went into it. More so than any other story I can think of.

Oh and it can also be read as a postcript to America City. But I won’t explain why.

The Peaceable Kingdom

In the anthology To the Stars and Back: Stories in Honour of Eric Brown, (see post), edited by Ian Whates, from Newcon Press, published May 2024.

Art App

In the Ballard-themed anthology, Reports from the Deep End, edited by Maxim Jakubowski and Rick McGrath, from Titan Press. Published 7th November, 2023.

Reprinted in Best of British Science Fiction 2023, edited by Donna Scott, from NewCon Press, 2024.

The Silent Woods

Jointly written by Tony Ballantyne and myself, and based on an original idea of Tony’s. Published in Shoreline of Infinity 19, Nov 2020.

The Land of Grunts and Squeaks

In the anthology, Once Upon a Parsec, edited by David Gullen and published by Newcon Press in June 2019.

Reprinted in The Best of British SF 2019, edited by Donna Scott and published by Newcon Press, 2020.

Cover of anthology

Sons of Eden

Published as a chapbook as part of my guest of honour contribution for Novacon 48, in Nottingham.

Memories of a Table

Included in the collection 2001: an Odyssey in Words, edited by Ian Whates and Tom Hunter, published by Newcon Press, July 2018.

When will we get there?

Published by Audible as part of Jali, a new collection of original audio SF stories, April 2018. Read by Clare Corbett.

Spring Tide

My collection Spring Tide contains 21 stories which aren’t listed separately on this page, as they are all original to the collection:

Cellar // The End of Time // Love // The Lake // Creation // Transients // The Kite // The Steps // Frozen Flame // Still Life // Dear // Rage // Roundabout // Ooze // Newmarket // The Great Sphere // The Gates of Eden // The Man who Swallowed Himself // Aphrodite // Spring Tide // Sky

‘The Man who Swallowed Himself’ is reprinted in Stories of Hope and Wonder from Newcon Press, 2020.

The Copy

Published as my guest of honour contribution to the Dortcon convention programme, 2015. (Dortmund, Germany).