🎶 Listening to The Wild, the Innocent & the Raging by Iluka.

This one came to my attention after hearing a particularly resonant set of lyrics blare out from the short-video social networks around me.

While the planet burns for the billionaires Takin' all they please, as if the world was theirs! When the last tree’s cut and the streams run bare Let ‘em eat their money, what’ll they do then?

Well, quite. That’s a verse from Woman Gone Mad.

Many of the other songs also tackle a ton of social issues, especially those most often faced by women - so, by definition, ones that should be understood and taken...

Well this from O. Westin’s Micro SF/F Mastodon account is the most affecting 323-character sci-fi story I’ve ever seen.

I grant you one wish," the magic fish said.

“To eat my mother’s pancakes again, just like when I was a child.”

“Are you sure?”

“You think it frivolous?”

“No. But to grant it I must send you back to the child you were, with no adult memories.”

“Would my life change?”

“You ask that every time.”

(h/t Robb Knight)

Admittedly it’s the only sci-fi story I can ever remember seeing with 323 characters - but even if it wasn’t I think it’d probably still be top.

In other short stories that...