Clyde Verhine
Dead Stars
and other Burdens
Dead Stars and other Burdens is a collection of stories that blends science fiction adventure, apocalyptic dread, moral suspense, and sharp-edged supernatural horror.
These stories explore what people cling to when the world breaks and what they become when the rules no longer hold. Monsters appear in many forms. They may be cosmic, mechanical, or even human. Some may be defeated by moments of courage and tenderness, others by quiet, willing defiance. Some endings are brutal. Some are strangely tender. All of them leave a mark.
Stories about survival with fine print, mercy measured by systems, and the consequences that follow even ordinary choices. Some endings are brutal. Some are strangely tender. All of them leave a mark.
If you like speculative fiction with suspense, moral reckoning, and horror that creeps in through familiar doors, Dead Stars and Other Burdens delivers the perfect mix of tension, heart, and quiet terror.
Stories in
Dead Stars and other Burdens
* Dead Stars Don’t Shine ~ A starship captain and her crew are forced to confront impossible choices. Caught in a deadly trap, she must make a decision… abandon others to save her crew, or stay and find a way for other ships to escape.
* What We Choose To Carry ~ The road leads to sanctuary but the ledgers decide who enters. The rules are simple until a girl asks her grandfather what kind of people we have become.
* Alex and Servo ~ After his parents die as a result of a robot uprising, a teen is escorted across a ruined America by the household servant robot that refuses to abandon him.
* Salt Ashes ~ In a future where the oceans have turned toxic, an evolved, land-dwelling dolphin leader discovers a forgotten human device that could restore the poisoned sea but doom what remains of the surface world.
* My Name Is Eli ~ A man who has made a life out of small, seemingly consequence-free shortcuts learns too late what happens when courtesy and accountability are treated as optional, and something patient and hungry for retribution insists on payment.
* The Courthouse Siege ~ A sheriff must choose between an ancient vampire judge and a cold, efficient machine collective when both lay claim to the blood of Madison County.
* The Last Burrito on Earth ~ After the last human dies, a maintenance robot builds a sitcom-brained friend and they roam the ruins seeking God, or a decent burrito.