EASTERN IOWA REVIEW
  • Home
    • EIR Updates
    • About Us
    • Masthead
    • Port Yonder Press >
      • Chapbooks
    • Eastern Iowa Review
  • Guidelines
  • FAQs
  • Current Issue
    • Issue 19
  • Past Issues
    • Lyric Essay Issues >
      • The Lyric Essay
      • Issue 16 - Come, Wander
      • Issue 10 - Spring 2020
      • Issue 8 - Spring 2019
      • Issue 7 - Print Anthology
      • Issue 6 - 2018
      • Issue 3 - 2017 >
        • Editors Note - Issue 3
      • Issue 2 - 2016
      • Issue 1 - 2015
    • Themed Issues >
      • Issue 18 - Heaven(s)/Sky
      • Issue 17 - Nature >
        • Editors Note - Issue 17
      • Issue 15 - Love
      • Issue 14 >
        • Those Elves - Origin Story
        • Those Elves - The Collection
      • Issue 13 - Winter
      • Issue 12 - Water
      • Issue 11 - Hope in Renewal (An Intermission)
      • All Things Anne - Issue 9
      • Issue 5 - The SmartApocalypse
      • Issue 4 Contributors & Samples
  • More
    • Maggie Nonfiction Award
    • The Prose Poem >
      • The Christine Prose Poetry Award
    • Fictions >
      • The Dory Ann Fiction Award
      • Contemporary Mystery
      • Dark Fiction
      • Debut Fiction
      • Fan Fiction
      • Honorable Mentions
      • Literary Fiction
      • Mythical Fiction
      • Speculative Fiction
      • Woods-Western-Mountain-Appalachian
      • Young Author
      • Unclassifiable
    • Prizes
    • Interviews
    • List of Contributors

Speculative Fiction


JUNE 2019

ONE-TENTH

DAWN VOGEL

The last ships to leave Earth were packed to the gills. Seven hundred passengers in cryo, with a crew consisting primarily of medics and ship's operations, crossed the vast distances to the new world where we planned to make our home. I'd made the journey six times each way‑‑awake on the way there, sleeping on the way back, to make the trip less monotonous. I monitored a cryobank containing one hundred passengers. Not the most stimulating job, but it paid well and gave me time to work on long-deferred journal articles.

Continue reading.

FEBRUARY 2018

​OLDER MODEL

TREVOR KROGER
~
​
Jerome’s knee started clenching again as the subway took a sharp turn through the tunnel. This always happened when he’d been standing too long - and “too long” was growing shorter every day. He looked around for an empty seat, or rather at this time of day someone willing to give up their seat out of pity for a pained old body. At these times everyone looked so much more closely at their phones and tablets, heads sinking down like turtles to avoid eye contact.

Jerome didn’t expect much more, of course. He’d been the same in his younger days - not that long ago, really - so he couldn’t hold it against them. Didn’t make his poor knee hurt any less though, and he couldn’t help his face twisting into a grimace as another jolt of the subway car gave him a fresh flash of pain.

At least he put on a good show. A small boy with a kiddie-hawk haircut and holograph of happy cartoon mutants on his shirt gaped at Jerome. “Mommy, what’s wrong with that man?” he asked in innocent wonderment.

Continue reading.

JANUARY 2018

READY OR NOT

RICHARD MANLY HEIMAN

In the darkened auditorium, men and women in military uniforms, laboratory and business attire sat impatiently. as the frock-coated man at the front of the room tapped the microphone. The buzz in the room hushed.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” he began, “Welcome. My name is Jonathan Chalmers and I’m the technical director of this Institute. Thank you all for being here this evening for a demonstration of one of the most important scientific discoveries of our time…” he paused. “Make that, of all time, as you’ll soon see."

Continue reading.


NOVEMBER 2017

LAST CHRISTMAS

​MIKE MURPHY

​Harrison was surprised to see the sheep and goats being walked through the lobby. He approached the front desk. “Excuse me?” he said.

The innkeeper, a tired-looking, white-bearded man, approached him. “I’m afraid I can’t offer you a room,” he said. “We’re full.”

“Excellent!” Harrison replied. “The other inns had vacancies. That’s how I knew they weren’t the right one.”

“You’re happy I have no available rooms?” the confused innkeeper asked.

“I am,” Harrison added. “I’m not actually looking for a room.”

“You’re not here for the census?”

“No, I’m just passing through. I was hoping you might help me locate an old friend. He would have arrived with his wife and a donkey.”

Continue reading.


Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.