Shane Halbach
Shane Halbach writes whatever he feels like: humorous science fiction, fantasy, magical realism when it strikes his fancy, even a touch of horror
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Shane Halbach lives in Chicago, where he writes software by day and avoids writing stories by night. His fiction has appeared in Analog, Intergalactic Medicine Show, and The Year’s Best YA Speculative Fiction, among others. He blogs at shanehalbach.com, or can be found on Twitter @shanehalbach.
Fiction · Posts · Books
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Fiction
O What Freedom, This Great Steel Cage
Published Apr 4, 2020 · 1,015 words (4 minutes) · 5 likes · 469 views
Three strangers share no connection except the part-time rental of a surrogate robot, each for their own very different reasons. But sending your consciousness out for trips always risks something unexpected coming back with it.
Don’t miss this brief gem of a story by Shane Halbach, a software developer and fiction writer living in Chicago. His work has appeared in Analog, Intergalactic Medicine Show, and The Year’s Best YA Speculative Fiction, and more.
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Fiction
Never
Published Mar 27, 2019 · 3,286 words (12 minutes) · 390 views
Fantasy Peter Pan Captain Hook Neverland
Peter Pan was kind of a dick. Neverland exists solely so Peter Pan can play out his fantasies. He wants adventures, so he gets pirates...regardless of what the pirates think of the matter. Even if the pirates were real people with real lives, and people who cared for them, and maybe, just maybe hoping for one more chance to redeem themselves from some really terrible deeds. Too bad! Neverland is a paradise, but only as long as you’re Peter. If you’re a pirate, it’s a fate worse than death.
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Fiction
Spooks
Published Mar 4, 2019 · 5,431 words (20 minutes) · 1 like · 379 views
Mystery Science Fiction spy invisibility
When a criminal suspect is murdered by an invisible assassin, who better to get to the bottom of it than an invisible secret agent?
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Fiction
Grant My Powder Be Dry and My Aim Be True
Published Feb 19, 2019 · 6,149 words (23 minutes) · 382 views
Fantasy old gods New Gods gunpowder
A man awakens naked in a forest with no memory and no clues to his identity. he displays mysterious powers during a fight with bandits, and the swordswoman Lyse agrees to help him discover who, or what, he is. The answers may be more than they bargained for, when strange warriors capture them for unknown purposes. In time, the two learn that gods sometimes control the world less than they like, and the world is a changing place. Some gods prefer things the way they were.
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Fiction
Downsizing Pluto
Published Feb 4, 2019 · 683 words (3 minutes) · 430 views
Fantasy Humor old gods pluto fired
I wondered, “What will happen to the Roman god Pluto, now that his planet isn’t a planet anymore?” Call me old fashioned, but I believe that all physical phenomenon in our world can be explained by the antics of powerful, supernatural beings. Obviously the god wasn’t hurt by the downgrade of the planet; the god was downgraded and the planet followed suit. That's more believable than a couple of scientists got together and decided that something we all agreed was a planet wasn’t a planet anymore.
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Fiction
Lullabies for a Clockwork Child
Published Jan 23, 2019 · 952 words (4 minutes) · 2 likes · 369 views
This story is about how love can make you blind, how you always want the best for your children, and why you should never, never wind that mainspring.
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Fiction
Random Play All and the League of Awesome
Published Jan 17, 2019 · 4,908 words (18 minutes) · 364 views
Fantasy Humor superheros young adult trivial super powers
I have always been a huge fan of superheros, but I never liked the idea of guys like Superman or Thor. I don’t want an unstoppable goody-two shoes. Show me a guy who doesn’t have it so easy. Show me a guy with just a *little* bit of power, and the wit and courage to use that little bit at just the right moment to make a *huge* difference.
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Fiction
Human in the Loop
Published Jan 10, 2019 · 1,627 words (6 minutes) · 416 views
Science Fiction artificial intelligence machine learning war drones
If an automated vehicle had a crash, say, and someone dies, who is responsible? The “driver” who was behind the wheel at the time? The manufacturer who perhaps installed faulty software? The regulatory agency who allowed these vehicles on the road? The software developer who wrote the algorithm? What about in the case of emergent behavior; actions that were not explicitly programmed by anybody but instead emerged organically from an artificial neural network?
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Fiction
An Engineered Product
Published Jan 7, 2019 · 868 words (4 minutes) · 1 like · 448 views
Humor Science Fiction genetic engineering cows
Sometimes the future is actually the past
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Fiction
My Heart is a Quadratic Equation
Published Jan 4, 2019 · 1,568 words (6 minutes) · 1 like · 405 views
Humor Science Fiction Love mad scientist
Even mad scientists need love.
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