Writers of the Future Volume 41; The Best New SF & Fantasy Short Stories of the Year

The Ultimate Commute Escape: Getting Lost in the Future (While Avoiding the Present)

Hello, fellow readers and audiobook lovers! Let’s have a quick moment of honesty. I absolutely cannot be in the car without a story playing. It is a non-negotiable rule of my life. Why? Because the car is my temple of solitude.

It is the only place on Earth where the dog isn’t aggressively demanding attention or a treat, and “The Husband” isn’t wandering from room to room asking, “Hey, where is the remote?” “( Spoiler alert: It’s exactly where it was yesterday, babe. )”What’s for dinner?” (Ummmm it’s 9am. I have NO IDEA!)

So, when I click that seatbelt into place, I am not just driving to the grocery store—I am escaping.

My Five-Star Genre Mashup

Now, my reading tastes are a bit of a chaotic cocktail. My top five genres are romance, mystery, thriller, sci-fi, and suspense—basically, anything that keeps my heart rate slightly elevated. If you looked at my all-time favorite series, you’d find a hilarious contrast: the gritty, futuristic suspense of the In Death series by J.D. Robb (our beloved Nora Roberts) sitting right next to the ultimate sci-fi holy grail: Writers of the Future.

Lately, my car rides have been utterly hijacked by sci-fi and fantasy short stories, and let me tell you, it is the absolute best way to travel.

Enter: Writers of the Future Volume 41

If you haven’t dove into short fiction format via audio yet, you are missing out. Enter Writers of the Future Volume 41. This anthology is essentially a sampler platter of the most brilliant, mind-bending new voices in speculative fiction.

Why is this perfect for the car? Because short stories are uniquely suited for the modern attention span (and the average running-errands route). You get an entire, beautifully realized universe packaged into a neat, 30-minute chunk.

By the time I hit the highway, I’m deep into a story about an obsolete police robot wrestling with its programming, or a pizza delivery guy trapped in a chaotic time-travel paradox (listened to this one twice already!) By the time I’m parallel parking, (which, ask my daughter takes way too much time for a grown woman!) the story wraps up with a jaw-dropping twist, and I feel like an absolute genius just for listening.

Why You Need This in Your Ears

Listening to these engaging voices feels like peering into a crystal ball. These authors aren’t just writing stories; they are pushing the boundaries of what sci-fi and fantasy can be. Plus, the narrators bring so much flavor to the table that I sit in the car long after I’ve reached my destination.

One of my favorite features is the ‘about the author’ snippet before each track—it’s like getting a backstage pass to the writer’s brain before the curtains go up.

So, if you’re looking to add a little magic realism, space exploration, or dystopian thriller energy to your daily routine, grab the audiobook version of Volume 41. It’s witty, it’s imaginative, and most importantly, it completely drowns out the existential dread of wondering what to make for dinner.

Get your speakers ready, pull out of the driveway, and go discover the next generation of storytelling. Trust me, the remote control will still be missing when you get back.

Writers Of The Future Is A Contest

The Contests were created by L. Ron Hubbard out of his lifetime commitment to helping new writers and artists, and are judged by a hall-of-fame roster of top professionals, including Orson Scott Card, Hugh Howey, Kevin J. Anderson, Larry Niven, Jody Lynn-N Nye, Nnedi Okofore, and many of your other favorites. The Writers of the Future anthology has provided a spectacular launching pad for emerging writers and illustrators for over 4 decades.