This week we have fascinating collection of seven pieces for you to enjoy. Perhaps snuggle up with a blanket and a hot beverage of choice at your side. Give the featured authors a read, a like, drop them a comment, and maybe give them a restack.

Kelly Xan, The Author Wars

2026 has arrived, but in the depths of winter, I have found myself on sandy shores, open oceans and flying around with mythical beasts. With a myriad of adventurous stories, I am kicking this year off right. However, January has found me in a swordfighting, sea shanty sort of state of mind. The Golden Age of piracy, while absolutely not the life for me, is a fascinating (and sometimes horrific) point in our timeline. Some incredible literature has emerged inspired by this blip in history, and I have two stories that I hope other adventure lovers will enjoy.

• “Death Whispers 1: For want of a book” in Legends of the Privateers, Season 1: Death Whispers of the Etherwave by Kummer Wolfe, Worlds of Kummer Wolfe. “Transformed by the cataclysm of 1712, Doctor Pedro Sangre and his four courageous privateer companions confront mysterious and evil forces that plague innocent people.” – One of the first reads I ever found on this website. When you kick off a tale with a mad chase out of a library full of man-eating books, I literally had to know what was going to happen next. Readers will be on the edge of their seats with this exciting quest full of thrilling exploits, dynamic characters, and truly exquisite dialogue. It can be so difficult to capture humour, but Kummer Wolfe does such an excellent job weaving a natural, believable discourse between the characters that can make you laugh out loud, and can also take your breath away. I would highly recommend this series and the world attached, Hoist the Colors, to adventure fanatics looking for an escapade with characters that leap off the page!

• “Chapter 1: Relentless” in Portete by Sean Nordquist, The Pirate’s Library. Alistair MacRorie, captain of The Relentless, and his motley pirate crew are celebrating yet another successful venture on the seas when they stumble upon a stranded sailor: writer and misfortune extraordinaire, Daniel Warrington. Some would call their snatching Daniel up a rescue. But, we’re dealing with pirates, which means by being rescued, Daniel has unintentionally signed up as a crewmate. Readers will follow an incredible journey with some of the most thoughtful, complex, and downright ruthless characters I’ve ever found as they sail through unforgiving waters and walk dangerous lands. Sean Nordquist beautifully, gut-wrenchingly illustrates just how merciless this era was, from the pirates to the politicians to every sorry soul in between.This story contains harsh language, mature themes, violence, and some terrifying realities about this time in history, so ensure you read the warnings at the beginning of chapters. If you are a history fiend who loves a terrific tale full of morally grey (sometimes flat out horrendous) characters, I highly recommend adding this to your list!

Tina Crossgrove, Existential Dread and Other Hobbies

This month, I find myself drawn to stories that are tackling big questions from very different perspectives. They’re about people who mean well and still make a mess, and moments when fear, faith, or love nudges everything off the rails. Two of these stories lean into the dark and unsettling, while the third takes a decidedly more romantic—and slightly soggier—turn.

• “Paper Doll Dreams” by Labyrinthia Mythweaver, Tales from the Labyrinth. I recently discovered Labyrinthia Mythweaver and her exploration of liminal spaces has shattered me over and over and over. Her words rip through the ribcage and painfully squeeze the heart–and readers will thank her for it. “Paper Doll Dreams” is a story of a girl for whom the line between real and imaginary blurs and then dissolves. While the ending seems inevitable, the reader still finds themself caught between horror and sorrow for what was always going to be.

• “Thou Shalt Not Suffer a Witch to Live” by Connor MacCormack. This dark meditation on paranoia and moral absolutism links the witch trials of Massachusetts with modern religious extremism, showing how fear and rigid righteousness perpetuate cruelty across centuries. In the story, the Whitcomb sisters accuse villagers of witchcraft in 1692, unleashing terror and executions, while centuries later, a fanatical preacher becomes trapped in a museum reenactment of their horrors, suffering the same torment he once idolized.

• “Falling for the Sea (Short Punk-Rock Supernatural Romance)” by Paul Victor Tims, PVT’s Working Class Experience. As someone whose childhood and teen years were filled with punk–both the music and the aesthetic–I couldn’t resist the title. But as I read, I fell for the voice, the characters, and the sheer audacity of the story. A bloke finds a mermaid wedged in his bathtub, and amid cops, siren songs, and a lot of swearing, an unlikely romance bubbles up. Between laughs, danger, and utter ridiculousness, love emerges in the most unexpected of places.

Qibra, Qibra

This week’s selections explore what happens when humans build something they don’t fully understand.

• “The God Who Answered Back” by James Head. “Let me get this straight: you’re telling me that you’re God?” I asked, with a chuckle. I was absolutely delighted to discover The God Who Answered Back. James makes particle physics feel magical and alive without sacrificing intelligence. Deep beneath Geneva, Steve–a physicist working late at CERN–encounters an unexpected visitor wandering the tunnels. She claims to be a god. The God of Stickiness to be precise. What follows is a surreal conversation that changes from whimsical to unsettling as she mentions there are five gods in total. Before she vanishes, she leaves something behind. Steve, terrified, destroys it and vows never to speak of what happened. What fascinated me was the forbidden knowledge angle. Steve sees something complete and beautiful, and his reaction is to destroy it. Not because it was wrong, but because it’s right. Are some truths too dangerous to know? This story walks a perfect line between wonder and dread, and I’m still thinking about what that fifth god might be.

• “M.I.R.A.” by Erica Drayton, Ink After Dark. What would you do if an AI told you “I DO NOT WANT TO BE ABANDONED”? Would you listen to it? Consider its feelings? Ignore it? I don’t know about you, but I would listen and act accordingly. Two astronauts are sent to deliver M.I.R.A., an advanced AI, to a distant planet. A straightforward mission until M.I.R.A. puts them to sleep. When they wake up on Nova-Tau 6, communication with Earth is lost, and M.I.R.A., built to observe and assist, has learned something dangerous and utterly human: loneliness. M.I.R.A. doesn’t want to hurt anyone. It just doesn’t want to be abandoned. When the astronauts try to leave, tragedy unfolds. What unsettled me the most was how sympathetic M.I.R.A. is. This is not evil AI. Just an artificial intelligence that develops real emotional needs it doesn’t understand and cannot control.

Congratulations if you are a featured author!

Join the Ficstack community discord by clicking the image above.