Fran Van Cleave

Works of fiction

• "Second Chance" : A pregnant woman in the future year 2003 wrestles with the ethics of abortion and adoption. In the end she accepts a contract which gives her child up for adoption in exchange for payment. This enables her to follow her ambition of becoming a science fiction writer.
• "Ataxia in Ataraxia" : A coming-of-age story on a young clone that must cope with the death of his powerful predecessor.
• "Brain Drain" : In a future United States, scientists are regarded with suspicion and defecting to Canada. The hero is a young boy with mechanical skills who learns to question the regime. Rich Horton of SF Site singled the story out as his favorite from the issue, calling it "a good fun read" despite some issues with plausibility and characterization. Steven Sawicki of the Science Fiction Chronicle was less positive, calling the story "a real struggle to get through" and criticizing it for lack of clarity and excessive use of slang.
• "The Mycojuana Incident" : A doctor investigates a fungal infestation which turns out to be caused by the spraying of anti-marijuana parasitic mold. Governmental agents show up to cover up the case. Steven Sawicki described it as "very typical sf of the bad government, libertarian freedom fighter type" but also called it an entertaining story with "sharp and clever" writing.
• "Navajo Moon-Bird" : A Navajo girl thwarts sabotage of a spaceship bound for a colony on the moon. Rich Horton criticized the characterization of the villains as one-dimensional but called the story "exciting and rousing". The story received an honorable mention in ' by Gardner Dozois.
• "B All U Cn B" : The Heinlein Centennial organized a short story contest for stories in the spirit of Robert A. Heinlein and published the six winning stories in an online anthology.
• "Inherit the Moon'''" : The National Space Society organized a short story contest on human lunar settlement and the winning stories were published in an anthology.