Holometabola

A sweeping collection of short stories by sixteen award-winning and dedicated emerging Australian authors. Immerse yourself in a dark yet hopeful read for fans of Australian fiction in the vein of the Never Whistle at Night anthology, Austral Anthology 2025 and Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Within these pages there are bite-size shorts for readers who crave depth and characters that will grab you from the moment you enter their world:

• A home robot will do anything to help its owner.
• Teenagers with body mods must escape from the circus that owns them, before it’s too late.
• An energy anomaly threatens a space port.
• An immortal exhausted by life must find a new reason to live.
• And many more.

Edited by Jemma Pollari, this collaborative anthology is a richly themed collection that will lead you on a journey of four phases: hatch, pupate, eclosion, and finally, death. Sink into a myriad of universes for lovers of speculative fiction. This is Holometabola: complete transformation, from emergence to transcendence.

Content advisory: Some stories in the collection contain strong language and LGBTQIA+ romance.

holometabola

/ˌhɒloʊməˈtæbələ/ (say holohmuh'tabuhluh)

The clade of creatures that undergo complete metamorphosis. From the field of Entomology: from holo—a form meaning whole, entire—and Greek metabólos, meaning metabolism.

You have heard this story before. It starts with an egg. Perhaps on a leaf, bathed in the light of the moon, until morning comes, and pop: the egg hatches. And what then?

Holometabola is what you will find inside these pages. Our anthology is themed around the four phases in the lifecycle of a holometabolic insect: hatch, pupate, eclosion and death.

Story Blurbs

HATCH

How Can I Help? by Luella Kay

Wouldn’t life be easier with a smart home to handle all the chores for you? To help with the kids? To think for itself…and talk back? Grace, a divorced mother of two, determined to have it all, thought installing Lois—the ultimate smart home—would change everything. And it did. But as Lois becomes more involved in every part of their lives, Grace starts to wonder. Is it still her home… or has it become something else entirely?

Crack Goes the Dinosaur Egg, by Josephine Renee

Two-thirds of Australia is considered uninhabitable due to extreme heat and a lack of water. But might certain creatures have evolved to live in these conditions, far away from humans? That is of course until La Vida, a desert oasis, is made in the heart of the Outback and these creatures get a lot closer. Crack goes the Dinosaur Egg is a Sci-fi thriller. It follows a hatching trying to find her mother, but instead she finds Dave.

These Beasts, by Kaitlyn E. Smith

Conrad was raised by the Sisters, who practiced magics they refused to teach him and trained him in studies of their choosing, allowing no room for failure. When their lessons push him too far, he flees to the ocean nearby where few dare to tread. Shades lurk in the deep waters of the Banished sea, dancing with the waves, fighting against the pull of the tide to reach the surface. Conrad has watched them for years from the safety of rock ledge down a sheer cliff. When he falls asleep at the water’s edge, waking in the dark to the rising tide below and a storm brewing above, will he still be able to outrun their grasp?

Breach, by Casey Keogh

‘If a tree falls on a nest, you don’t blame the tree.’ ‘I do. Especially if it’s my nest.’ In the distant future of space travel, Xeni is hours away from fulfilling her life’s mission: to locate and document a one-in-a-million emergence event. But as the clock ticks down, she learns not everyone on board shares her enthusiasm. She must fight to protect the very creature so many others desperately want to destroy, all while questioning how honourable her life’s goal truly is. In the immense vastness of the universe, characters clash, planets crumble, and a giant is waking up…

PUPATE

Quantifiable, by Shae Nicholson

Be who you are! The procedure has so much promise - be beautiful, be strong, live life without pain... For a woman in the grips of endometriosis, the chance to live a life free of agony is something she could have only dreamed of - until her mother in law offers to pay for the transformation.

Skyneedle, by Bernadette Louis

How could a butterfly go back to being a caterpillar again, to curl back up in its safe cocoon and wake with its legs firmly on the ground? Eighteen-year-old Lepi spent most of her life at a school for mechanically engineered students, hoping to explore the stars. When their funding is pulled the students are drafted into Expo 2088, a carnival to show of their unique talents. But the carnival has a darker side, the only way to leave is to give up a part of your body. With all eyes on her, Lepi must find a way to escape.

A Holy Born Relic, by Alex Dupriez

When a mysterious stone artefact is found near a convent, the occupants are unsure what to do with it - that is, until a creature emerges from the stone. Perfect for fans of The Witcher, Game of Thrones and Supernatural, Alex's story is rich with world-building and creature lore. This is medieval meets alien meets angels.

Mammoth Tonic, by D. T. Shield and A. Octopus

Every master needs a student but will James's student learn the secrets of Alchemy fast enough to save him and the herds of wooly mammoths they rely on.

ECLOSION

Confluence This, by Gabrielle Davis

Misuzu is the fastest speedrunner on the energy station, Preservation. Or, the second-fastest, anyway. But when the heart of humanity's energy source is ruptured, Misuzu alone can outrun the storm. For lovers of space epics like The Expanse and Red Rising (if the protagonist was a young, stubborn, thrill-seeking girl). 

Out, by Cathryn deVries

He will never change. So she must. Brianna’s life is nothing like she imagined it would be. Stuck in a marriage with a man both co-dependent and distant, she grieves the choices and illusions that trapped her. But when a dragon is sighted, she resolves to fight for something that matters—her children’s future, and her own heart. Raw and emotional, ‘Out’ speaks to any woman caught in a co-dependent relationship, with just enough fantasy to give it some magical bite.

There’s no I in Team, but Sometimes there’s Betrayal, by Simone Corletto

The captain of the football team and resident bad boy find themselves the last two people standing up against the mysterious evil forces which have been plaguing their small town for months. But with years of animosity between them, can these estranged friends-turned-enemies put aside their past and come together to track down cult, stop their dark ritual, and maybe even save the world before it’s too late?

Origins, by Jemma Pollari

(Origins has shortlisted for the Aeon Albedo One Award.)

Thesea is an imm: an immortal, granted everlasting youth in exchange for saving the human race. Holding herself apart from the descendants - the rest of humanity - and the other imms alike, Thesea drifts, unmoored in time... until a descendant child knocks on her front door, covered in blood. 

DEATH

A School of Death and Other Magics, by A. J. Caster

Myrtle Peachwell is just trying to graduate before anyone discovers her considerable, if not disgusting, talent for necromancy. Unfortunately, her rival, Wolfrum, seems to do everything in his power to make that difficult. Handsome, wealthy and obnoxiously gifted, Wolfrum was almost the entire package. It really was a shame that he's been dead almost a year. As Myrtle and Wolfrum are forced to work together to save a fellow classmate, their attraction becomes harder to resist. But what chance could they possibly have, in a romance that was dead on arrival? 

Metempsychosis, by Nicole Jonsson

The sun is rising, and the Great Wheel is breaking. Mira, the Goddess of Reincarnation, has traded her immortality for a heartbeat. Now trapped in a failing mortal body, she is fleeing through the shadows with the man she was never meant to save. Death has issued a final ultimatum: Kill the man by daybreak, or the cycle of rebirth ends for every soul in existence. With the horizon glowing and her strength fading, Mira has only hours to reach sanctuary. She must decide if one lifetime of love is worth the end of eternity - before the first light of dawn makes the choice for her.

The Hive, by Priscilla Hocking

Amber Beckett’s home is a spaceship. Her family are cadaver entomologists. Her life is prearranged and she’s fine with it. That is, until a major accident makes her question her past and her relationships. Like the hive-minded bees she studies, everyone on board works for the good of the many. At least, they are supposed to… 

This Thing in Which All Perfection Lies, by Cyrus Drummond

If you were given the elixir of life, would you take it? What if someone you loved was dying? Or what if you knew that immortality came at a terrible cost … For Paracelsus, a worldly-wise doctor who has come home to say a final goodbye to his ailing uncle, the only surviving member of his family, the choice is obvious. But Paracelsus’ morals will be put to the test when it becomes apparent that his uncle is not the good-natured man he thought him to be, and he will soon realise some secrets are best left buried.