About Refactored
Welcome, dear reader, to the inaugural issue of Refactored Science and Speculative Fiction magazine!
We at Refactored believe in science fiction’s power to bring people together across ages, cultures, and beliefs. Whether a story depicts a dystopic world of danger or a space operatic adventure across star systems, it should challenge the reader, introduce new concepts, and most importantly, entertain. We also believe that the best stories are timeless and should last generations, not just strive to meet the tastes or sensitivities of the day.
The eleven stories in our first issue are representative of Refactored’s mission to take stories in the public domain and refactor¹ them, either by introducing a new idea or concept or changing a core premise, adding a new dimension, expressing the story in a different medium, or some combination thereof.
Some stories within Refactored are also works not in the public domain, but revised and submitted by the original author, to add a new take or sharpen with the wisdom of experience. In this case, they are refactored as well.
In all cases, any Refactored story is a new tale that we hope will keep you engaged from, beginning to end, and linger in the mind after.
At Refactored, we are enthusiastic about this concept. Works in the public domain, from mythology to epics to plays to fairy tales, are part of humanity’s common cultural and intellectual heritage. Stories are how we educate, bond, amuse, warn, and entertain. This shared fabric has been a major source of inspiration, imagination, and discovery for creators and their audiences.
From an author’s perspective, there is honor in taking a work that has stood the test of time and thinking of a new way to use the characters, settings, themes, and more, to a new or different effect. When the author reveres the art and artist without fear or belief that they will “improve” the work or make theirs the “definitive” version of that story, wondrous things happen.
Within the covers of this issue, you’ll find tales of: beings, intelligent beyond nature, abandoned on a planet and struggling to survive; a cunning man who discovers his days of goofing off at work are over; a grieving time-traveler reliving the worst days of his life; a spy teamed, unknowingly, with an alien entity; a scoundrel that takes on the biggest job of his life; the designer of medical hardware coming to grips with its other uses; a day in the life of a copyright inspector; a prodigy and her fight for her cat; the birth of a young boy in the past and his overseer; a modern-day kamikaze pilot’s last mission; and a group of scientists and engineers solving a mystery that spans the solar system.
But more so, dear reader, we hope you’ll find the first eleven stories of our magazine exciting, modern without feeling of the “current year”, but nevertheless standing the test of time.
This is the first issue of many, and as you may expect, we’ll learn a lot over the coming weeks and months. We invite you to tell us what you like and how we can improve! Tell us what you think, and if you’d like, submit a “letter to the editor” and let us know if you’d like it published in a future issue.
Happy 2024!
Mark Jordan
January 27, 2024
editor@getrefactored.com
www.getrefactored.com
¹ The term “refactor” comes from software engineering, meaning to restructure a program’s source code to modify its operation without altering the functionality.