The Centaur Child

by Don Sakers

When a child born to a Human mother and a Centaur father is orphaned, both Humans and Centaurs claim the boy. The threat of war between the two peoples looms...unless the Mistress of the Flying Mountain can find a way out of the dilemma.

Originally published in a sampler anthology of LGBT science fiction & fantasy work, now this short story is available to a wider audience. This story also appears in the collection Meat and Machine .

28 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 25, 2010

About the author

Don Sakers was launched the same month as Sputnik One, so it was perhaps inevitable that he should become a science fiction writer. A Navy brat by birth, he spent his childhood in such far-off lands as Japan, Scotland, Hawaii, and California. In California, rather like a latter-day Mowgli, he was raised by dogs.

As a writer and editor, he has explored the thoughts of sapient trees (The Leaves of October), brought ghosts to life (Carmen Miranda's Ghost is Haunting Space Station Three, Baen 1989), and beaten the "Cold Equations" scenario ("The Cold Solution," Analog 7/91, voted best short story of the year.)

Sakers is a member of the CoastLine SF Writers Group. He has taught sf-writing through Howard Community College.

In 2009, Don took up the position of book reviewer for Analog Science Ficiton & Fact, where he writes the "Reference Library" column in every issue.

In his day job, Don works for the Public Library.

Don lives at Meerkat Meade in suburban Baltimore with his spouse, costumer Thomas Atkinson.