Rocket Kapre – Fantastic Filipino Speculative Fiction

Expanded Horizons, an SF webzine dedicated to increasing diversity in the field of speculative fiction–both in the authors who contribute and in the perspectives presented–has recently launched their 13th issue, featuring (alongside three other tales) stories Filipino authors: “I Am the City” from Eliza Victoria and “Twin Cities” by Catherine Batac Walder.

Here are samples from each story. If you like the stories, be sure to let the authors know what you think:

I Am the City by Eliza Victoria

In the city was a man who rode the train every day. There was nothing remarkable in this — everyone rode the train, maybe not every day but at least five days a week, workdays, office employees congesting the air-conditioned coaches with their wet hair and unlined eyes, shirts untucked, ties hidden somewhere in the linings of their laptop bags, stockinged feet cushioned by flip-flops because heels could kill you.

Twin Cities by Catherine Batac Walder

One of my city’s twins in the list was Scuro, in Wok.

I was sitting in Trafiko for a quarter of an hour, trying to occupy myself with the advertisements, when this poster listing twin cities caught my eye.  Twin towns or cities are pairs to promote human and cultural relations among the places.  While the other names sounded familiar, Scuro was clearly amusing.