Liam Hogan
Liam Hogan is an Oxford Physics graduate whose award winning short story, “Ana”, appears in Best of British Science Fiction 2016. “The Dance of a Thousand Cuts” appears in Best of British Fantasy 2018 (both from NewCon Press). His dark tale “Groomed” appears in “The Twisted Book of Shadows”, from Haverhill House Publishing. He lives and avoids work in London.
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CAPTCHA’D
/by Shawna Rowanby Liam Hogan “Select squares with TRAFFIC LIGHTS.” My fist slammed down. I muttered a sorry and the internet cafe owner retook his stool. But bloody hell! This was my third CAPTCHA. All I wanted was a cheap flight, and the damned system kept kicking me back to the beginning like it was trying to […]
ADikT
/by Shawna Rowanby Liam Hogan “There’s a new video game, ADikT, available on the darknet. We think it’s killing users.” Anders half-rolled his eyes before catching the chief’s stony gaze. “What’s this one do? Drag players into the game world? Inflict the virtual damage they get there on their real bodies?” “We’re not sure. Hence: a case […]
Munch
/by Shawna Rowanby Liam Hogan It was easy to catch and we willingly caught it. A disease that consumed fat, leaving us pounds, stones, lighter. Spread by saliva, spread by touch; tables of finger food which the infected browsed before everyone else tucked in. Epidemiologists threw up their hands in horror at these super-spread parties, but weren’t […]
Biter, Bit
/by Shawna Rowanby Liam Hogan The mosquitoes ignored Claudette. They feasted on the rest of us, whining in ears as we slumbered uneasily beneath nets. We begged for her insect repellent, her face and arms porcelain white, and were dismayed to discover she didn’t use any. One night she cut her finger on broken glass. What reluctantly […]
The Eyes
/by Shawna Rowanby Liam Hogan The nose is a smudge, the mouth a line, but the eyes… The eyes are huge, and wide, and a soulless black. My gaze is frozen, my hand, reaching for the off switch, rigid. When I fed ten years of anime into the AI, I thought I knew what I’d get: copyright […]
Doors to Manual
/by Shawna Rowanby Liam Hogan “Ship! Seal doors against the zombies!” A relaxed, artificial voice queried: <Define zombies?> As far as our ship’s mega-intelligent AI was concerned, there wasn’t any difference between us and them. Whenever one of the infected approached any of the doors, whether to sickbay or the bridge, it opened with a polite […]
Crewed
/by Shawna Rowanby Liam Hogan In the storm’s dying gasps, we descended the cliffs to see the wreck, cloaked in tattered sails, masts broken, and hull holed. It was far from the worst sight; the beach was littered with crawling shapes. The wreck was barely thirteen hours old, but these pitiful bodies were similarly shattered, in […]
Instructions to My Past Self
/by S. Jade Pathby Liam Hogan Don’t study microbiology at university. Definitely don’t take Dr Meadow’s course on recombinant DNA. Whatever you do, don’t volunteer to look after her lab rats during summer break. Certainly don’t name one of them “Nipper”. Take July the 13th off. Any excuse will do. Someone else can feed her damned rats […]
Carrion
/by S. Jade Pathby Liam Hogan The goddess turned, restless in her slumber as warm blood soaked the cold, dark soil. The affairs of men, best left to the crows. Something sharp, insistent. A sacrifice, the battle hanging in the balance. A child. Children grew into adults no less unworthy than their parents. But a sacrifice in […]
GRIMDARK
/by Black Hare PressGrimdark—violent worlds with amoral or morally questionable protagonists. Grim and dark stories valourising the protagonist’s struggles as they choose between good and evil.
Cull
/by S. Jade Pathby Liam Hogan Yellow hazmats escort him to the farmhouse door to share the news. Inside, his wife strangles a dishcloth, and the sheepdog wanders over to sniff his boots. “Is it…?” He nods. “Five cases.” She looks almost relieved. “Well, that’s not so—” “You don’t understand,” he monotones. “The ministry is taking no […]
PUNK
/by Black Hare PressPunk—steampunk, cyberpunk, biopunk, dieselpunk—stories where technology is the main focus.
Nightmares at the Circus
/by S. Jade Pathby Liam Hogan There was no net. There was no audience, either. Not a live one, anyway. Just corpses, staring up into the big top. If Sally didn’t make it to the waiting arms of the other trapeze artist, no-one would gasp as she fell screaming through the air, no-one would rush to help […]
Show Time
/by S. Jade Pathby Liam Hogan It’s the same every night: the waiting, otherworldly forms, thronging the hallway, packing the stairs. Almost the same. Different individuals. He tries not to see their faces, or their strange attire. He’d avoid them altogether, but the waves of disappointment linger, tainting his home. He hurries through the ordeal, looking neither […]
Colloquy
/by Black Hare PressDialogue Competition Runners-up
The Lay-By
/by Black Hare Pressby Liam Hogan I don’t like to stop. The cab fulfils my needs, from somewhere to sleep, to food and drink: coffee and instant noodles, a travelling kettle serving for both. But you can’t resist a call of nature forever. No need for a truck stop or gas station, not when there’s woodland either […]
YEAR ONE
/by Black Hare PressYEAR THREE
/by Black Hare PressYEAR FOUR
/by Black Hare PressYEAR FIVE
/by Black Hare PressYEAR SIX
/by Black Hare PressEye of Phone
/by Liam Hoganby Liam Hogan “When shall we three meet again?” There was silence as they unzipped metal mesh bags and pulled out smartphones. It would be wrong to claim occultists don’t move with the times, but they did have to be careful. Many a witch had been lured from a protective circle by a demonic […]
Liam Hogan
/by Black Hare PressLiam Hogan is an Oxford Physics graduate whose award winning short story, “Ana”, appears in Best of British Science Fiction 2016. “The Dance of a Thousand Cuts” appears in Best of British Fantasy 2018 (both from NewCon Press). His dark tale “Groomed” appears in “The Twisted Book of Shadows”, from Haverhill House Publishing. He lives and avoids work in London.
First Time
/by Liam Hoganby Liam Hogan The hunter waited, trembling. Across the glade, his younger sister whimpered into her gag. It was worth the risk. Worth what his father would do if he found out. Jewels, gold, fame: all it took was the right bait. There was a rustle in the undergrowth. Into the clearing stepped a […]
After Glow
/by Liam Hoganby Liam Hogan Huh. Zombies. Of course it was zombies. The apocalypse scenario that never dies. The dead reborn through the years. Fast zombies, slow zombies, space zombies. Explained away by genetically engineered viruses, or airborne fungal spores, or alien parasites. All of them after your flesh, if not your brains. A numbers game; […]