Flash Fiction Online #153, June 2026

“Flekke” by Joshua Jones Lofflin (Literary, not reviewed)

“An Obituary to Birdsong” by Tehnuka (Fantasy reprint, not reviewed)

“The Right Hand of Justice” by Annie ZH Sun

“Festival” by Christine Hanolsy (Science Fiction reprint, not reviewed)

“Sad Mecha Girls” by River S

“For the Birds” by Sarah Gane Burton (Literary, not reviewed)

Reviewed by David Wesley Hill

In a recent review of a story published by Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores, I remarked, “As per a quote attributed to Mark Twain, ‘History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.’ The older I get, the more I realize the same is true for science fiction. Each generation of writers asks similar questions, and comes up with stories appropriate for their times.” Little did I know that within a month I would be making the same observation about another story, “The Right Hand of Justice” by Annie ZH Sun, the first original genre offering of the June issue of Flash Fiction Online. In this case, the precursor story was “The Body Politic” by Clive Barker, published in Volume 4 of The Books of Blood (1984-1985), in which people’s hands cut each other free of their bodies in order to revolt against their owners in a horrific satire of class struggle. In “The Right Hand of Justice,” however, as befitting the concerns of a new generation, the disembodied hands and other organs are used as metaphors for disenfranchised migrants caught up in a Kafkaesque immigration limbo…. As for whether the story works for you, well … leave the decision up to your—ahem—eyes … if you trust them.

Powered armor has come a long way from the mechanized suits of Heinlein’s Starship Troopers. In “Sad Mecha Girls” by River S, “Exosuits are 18 meters tall, humanoid in shape… Their limbs are long, their frames scarecrow-like,” and their pilots, as exemplified by the protagonist, are—despite a regimen of therapy and psychoactive medication—mentally unstable. It’s never really explained why this is so—maybe it’s alienation brought about by being in deep space at the edge of nowhere—but, as you may imagine, such a harrowing situation can have no good outcome, and it doesn’t. So, for all you newcomers, here’s a Vietnam War word to add to your lexicon … fragging … a word as useful then as it may be a thousand years from now, alas!