SCIENCE FICTION AUTHOR
John M. Campbell
JohnMCampbell.com is the official website of science fiction author John M. Campbell. Portrait photo by Sidney Brock.
My Stories
Stories by John M. Campbell include a first-place winner in the Writers of the Future contest as well as others published in Compelling Science Fiction and various science fiction anthologies. Visit John M. Campbell's Amazon author's page.
Jupiter Rises
On the Premises Issue #45
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AL is the artificial intelligence piloting the Anomalous Jupiter Artifact eXpedition (AJAX) sent to Jupiter to investigate a mysterious band that has appeared around the equator of the planet. When AL lands on Callisto to establish an observatory, he comes across a robotic machine drilling holes through the moon that has arrived from a distant star. Excited by this First Contact with an extraterrestrial intelligence, he must now determine why it has come to our solar system and what it is doing to Jupiter.
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This story is one of six in this issue selected out of 500 entries to illustrate the theme, Somewhere Else.
The Alien Hunter
Weird Wilderness: A Cryptid Bestiary
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Garry is a Gargo, an alien living peaceably in the mountains of Colorado, an area that resembles the environment of his home world. Judy is the alien hunter intent on tracking down the aliens who threaten the creatures of Earth. Local hunters have spotted a werewolf near the Canadian border, and Judy is out to eliminate it. Garry fears she may be heading into a situation she won't survive, but will he risk his own anonymity to help her?
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This book funds scholarships to attend Superstars Writing Seminars.
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Pickens' Reward
Dragon Gems Summer 2024
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J.W. Pickens is an asteroid miner who arrives at his mine only to discover a claim jumper loading up his ore. He has the thief dead-to-rights at the end of his shotgun when a blow to the back of his head knocks him unconscious. The next he knows, he's waking in a hospital room with a concussion and his pilot's license suspended until he recovers. With his livelihood on the line, he enlists the help of his landlady's teenage daughter to find the bushwhackers and bring them to justice.
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Click here for previous editions of Dragon Gems.
The Rescue of Captain Gutierrez
High Caliber Awards Anthology
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Major James Knight is one of the first Quantum Astronauts to be trained to venture into the hidden dimension inside a top-secret stealth suit. Shrunk inside the suit, he flies in the belly of a drone to a mountain village in Afghanistan to rescue an Army captain taken hostage by a rogue terrorist band. Pursued by terrorists, how will they make it out alive?
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Click here for more news about the High Caliber Awards.
Crop Circles and Werewolves
What Really Happened
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Garry has lived in the mountains outside Cripple Creek, Colorado for most of his life. When he sees a fireball plummeting to Earth with a particular tint to it, he knows the cattle mutilations are about to begin again. And he ain't gonna stand for it.
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Then wouldn't you know it, a woman rolls up in a beat-up RV claiming to be an alien hunter. Could it get any worse?
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Click here for more news about What Really Happened.
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Expedition to Enceladus
Dragon Gems Winter 2024
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Enceladus is a moon of Saturn with an icy crust hiding a liquid ocean beneath that is likely conducive to life. We will someday send a probe there, most likely a tiny ice-drilling vehicle piloted by an Artificial Intelligence called NEMO, the Nuclear Enceladus Mission Operator. Jules Verne would have been delighted.
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Click here for more news about Dragon Gems Winter 2024.
Uncross the Stars
Inner Workings: A Calendar of Fools Anthology
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In a universe where zombies and vampires coexist with humans, Bryce the zombie is an actor who is frustrated that humans get all the best parts. Then the perfect role comes his way: playing an undead Professor Moriarty in a Sherlock Holmes movie—but he’s up against Benedict Cumberbatch!
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Click here for more news about Inner Workings.
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The Cheshire Cat
Dragon Gems Fall 2023
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Andy Parker was looking for a new spooky prop to add to the decorations on his porch this Halloween when he stumbled upon a mangy-looking cat at a garage sale. Its two rows of Bakelite teeth curved around its face in a mirthless smile that elicited a hint of nausea in Andy. He had to have it. But would he heed the warnings from the cat's previous owner? Or would curiosity kill the new owner of this cat?
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Click here for more news about Dragon Gems.
Racing the Marineris
Bizarre Bazaar
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Famous racecar driver Johanna Henry comes to Mars to win the Martian Cup, the most prestigious race in the solar system. She is driving a car built by her brother Brandon, nicknamed "The Tortoise" by the press. They face a car owned by billionaire Nika Ross driven by an AI and nicknamed "The Hare." In the first kilometer of a 3300-kilometer race, the Henrys learn nothing is out-of-bounds for Nika Ross to win the race—even if someone dies.
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Click here for more news about Bizarre Bazaar.
The Eco-Patriot
Triangulation: ENERGY
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Francisco operates a solar power plant that uses 12,000 heliostatic mirrors to raise the temperature of molten salt to a thousand degrees to generate electricity. He is trained to handle any problem that might arise, but the plant is so automated, all he gets to do is call in the technicians to replace failed parts. But when a strange pickup truck arrives and two men with rifles jump out, Francisco faces a situation that will require ingenuity and quick-thinking to survive.
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Click here for more news about John M. Campbell.
Living the Dream (Except for One Thing)
DREAM: Tales from the Pikes Peak Writers
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The dream of an implanted personal-assistant AI is to serve his client in every way possible. However, when his client asks him to research ways to kill his wife, he must struggle with his need to please his client while satisfying his strict ethical programming.
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Click here for more news about the DREAM Anthology.
The Tiger and the Waif
Writers of the Future Volume 37
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A feline android—a “feloid”—awakes when sunlight filters through the roof of a broken house to penetrate the closet where it has been stashed for years. He crawls out to discover an earthquake has leveled every house in the neighborhood. He relishes his newfound freedom, but something is missing. He finds it one rainy night when he discovers a young girl shivering in the wreckage.
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Click here for more news about Writers of the Future.
False Identity
Compelling Science Fiction Issue 12
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Detective Ronald Munson has caught a strange case. A perp just walked in the door and confessed to the murder of Dr. Franklin O'Neal, a renowned brain surgeon. The strange thing is, Dr. O'Neal is still alive and just accepted the Nobel Prize for Medicine. Is this case a slam dunk, or is there more to it than meets the eye?
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Read False Identity for free, or use the button below to buy it for Kindle.
The Hidden Entity
UNREAL An Anthology of Speculative Fiction
ISBN 979-8653994135
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Steven Harding is an experimental physicist with ALS who is confined to a wheelchair that he controls with a neural interface. But with the help of his lab assistant, he is about to open up a hidden dimension predicted by string theory. When he succeeds, an entity escapes and jumps into his mind. Suddenly, his ALS is cured. It seems like a miracle. But when the entity infects his wife and threatens his unborn child, can he find a way get rid of it?
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Click here for more about the Hidden Dimension.
The Loponine Exploitation
Corporate Cthulhu: Lovecraftian Tales of Bureaucratic Nightmare
ISBN 978-0998938974
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Bobby Gibson works as a chemist at Elton Pharmaceuticals in Oaxaca, Mexico. But after hours he uses the lab to perform his own experiments aimed at opening the hidden dimension his college professor discovered. He is thrilled when his laser pulse causes the sphere to collapse into a disk, signaling the sphere had entered the hidden dimension. Another pulse returns the sphere to the normal world. When he opens the sphere, a blue slime comes bubbling out.
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When his assistant discovers the blue slime acts as an aphrodisiac, Gibson's corporate bosses demand he produce more—much more. But will the ancient gods of Mexico allow it?
The Keystone Mine
Keystone Chronicles
ISBN 978-0692766712
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Thomas Gaines strikes it rich in the Asteroid Belt when he discovers the long-lost Keystone Mine. He also finds an autonomous mining machine on the asteroid, controlled by an artificial intelligence. After years of lonely isolation, the AI welcomes him warmly . But what price would it demand to give up its riches?
The Silicates
Hyperpowers
ISBN 978-0692714072
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Jimmy Collins is a bounty hunter in the Asteroid Belt. When his sensors pick up a glint off an uncharted asteroid, his pulse quickens. It could be a sign of Class One Silicates, the AIs that gained consciousness and started killing people in the Machine Revolt. They are the most dangerous of all AIs, and they bring the biggest bounties. But they won't be taken without a fight.