One of the results of the SFera books was the spreading of the story-collection bug  from Zagreb to Istria, so, starting in 2002, short short story-collections were promoted at annual Istrakon conventions held in the small town of Pazin. These collections are: Tvar koja nedostaje (The Missing Matter), Svijet tamo iza (The World Beyond), Bolja polovica (The Better Half), Ispod i iznad (Below And Above),  Sami na svijetu (Alone In The World), Krivo stvoreni (Wrongly Created), Dobar ulov (The Good Catch) and Treća stvarnost (The Third Reality). In the last four years, collections are prepared for the annual The Festival Of Fantastic Literature, also held in Pazin. The books appearing so far are Vampirske priče (Vampire Tales), Priče o starim bogovima (Tales of Old Gods), Priče o divovima (Tales of Giants) and this year’s Priče o dinosaurima (Dinosaur Tales).

Another story-collection, Priča o Anđeli Novak (The Story of Anđela Novak) was published in Osijek in 2006. In the past two years, Irena Rašeta edited story collections Blog.SF and Bludućnost (The Future Lust), thus beginning an ongoing TranSFuzija (TranSFusion) series.

Beside Futura and the annual collections, there were several mainstream magazines where an occasional SF story could be found, particularly the defunct Plima that regularly published stories and plays with elements of the fantastic. Since late 1998, short stories have been published in the juvenile Sunday-supplement of the Jutarnji list newspapers, and we must not forget various fanzines.

By 2003, ten years of writing and publishing resulted in enough material for some authors to plan their own story-collections. The edition SFera was started, with four story-collections: Duh novog svijeta (Spirit Of The New World) by Tatjana Jambrišak, Purgeri lete u nebo (Burgers Fly Up To The Sky) by Igor Lepčin, Teksas Kid (i još neka moja braća) (Texas Kid (And Other Brothers Of Mine)) by Darko Macan and Slijepe ptice (Blind Birds) by Aleksandar Žiljak.

This project was continued in 2004, with another series of four books: Najbolji na svijetu (The Best In The World) by Zoran Krušvar, Preko rijeke (Across The River) by Dalibor Perković, Čuvari sreće (Keepers Of Happiness) by Zoran Pongrašić and Frulaš (The Piper) by Zoran Vlahović.

Finally, in 2005, the third set of four books was published. These were Jednorog i djevica (The Unicorn And The Virgin) by Milena Benini, Jeftine riječi (Cheap Words) by Goran Konvični, Zvjezdani riffovi (Star Riffs) by Krešimir Mišak and Zeleno sunce, crna spora (Green Sun, Black Spore) by Danilo Brozović.

This edition brought together twelve of the best and most prolific of the new generation of Croatian SF authors. It also spans the entire spectrum of interests and themes covered in their stories. However, compared to writers in the West, the individual output of Croatian authors is quite small. The reason is simple: SF writing in Croatia is not commercial and cannot be turned into a profession. Therefore, it is merely a hobby for most of the authors. This also results in writers who show up with only a story or two and then disappear for good, a phenomenon observed as long ago as the Sirius days. Another consequence during the 1990s was almost total lack of true (much less good) SF novels. However, beginning with the new century, this started to change. Publishers, previously reluctant to publish Croatian SF, now show much more interest. This resulted in a steady stream of at least one or two very good SF novels published each year.

In 2002, two SF novels appeared, both including considerable amount of humour. These were Topli zrak (The Hot Air) by Davor Slamnig and Ja i Kalisto (Me And Callisto) by Dejan Šorak. They were followed by two very good novels for children, Prsti puni mora (Fingers Full Of Sea) by Igor Lepčin and  Pavo protiv Pave (Paul vs. Paul) by Darko Macan.

In late 2003, the best Croatian SF novel in more than a decade was published. It was Sablja (The Sabre) by Ivan Gavran. A fast-paced and superbly written space opera about a group of post-apocalypse Earth pilots fighting with their F-86 Sabre jets in a galactic air combat tournament, Sablja remains a unique blend of space-opera, military SF and a sharp comment on the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the author being from Sarajevo.

Another excellent novel appearing in 2003 was Christkind by Boris Dežulović, otherwise a well-known journalist and columnist. In 2004, a three-part epic Araton by Oliver Franić was published, while Dalibor Perković published his first novel Sva krv čovječanstva (All The Blood Of Mankind) in 2005.

Predrag Raos also returned to the SF scene with his first major novel in years, Vertikala (The Vertical) from 2006, dealing with moral dilemmas faced by the designer of an orbital elevator and spacecraft-launch system. The Vertical was followed by two story-collections: Škorpion na jeziku (A Scorpion on the Tongue) and Hrvatski bog s Marsa (The Croatian God from Mars). While A Scorpion on the Tongue collects three of Raos’s best Sirius novelettes, The Croatian God from Mars contains humoristic SF, most of it previously unpublished, editorial censorship being one of the reasons. His 2007 fantasy novel Let Nancija Konratata (The Flight of Nancio Konratat) confirmed his status as a writer.

In 2006, Veselin Gatalo published Geto (The Ghetto), an action-packed allegoric vision of future Bosnia and Herzegovina. His 2007-novel Cafe Oxygen, while well-written, is probably best considered a juvenile. Danilo Brozović caused quite a furor with his 2007 political cyberpunk novel Bojno polje Istra (Battlefield Istria), while Marina Jadrejčić – well-known from the early days of Futura – published her story-collection Tužna Madona (Sad Madonna) in 2008. Two SF serials were also initiated in the past few years, one being Zoran Vlahović’s cyberpunk-noir Strijelac (The Shooter), the other being Lovina (The Prey), created by T.H. Knight (a pen-name) and Marin Medić and combining vampires and cyberpunk. Two SF novels by newcomers to the scene created quite an interest: Pobjednik (The Winner) by Tamoya Sanshal (a pseudonym), published in 2008, and Xavia by Damir Hoyka – otherwise a renown photographer – published in 2009.

One of most important events in the last few years is the first collection of stories by Veronika Santo, titled Vrt pramčanih figura (The Figureheads Garden), published in 2008. While known from the pages of Sirius, Veronika Santo, now living in Rome, was absent from the Croatian scene for almost fifteen years, publishing sporadically in Serbia. The Figureheads Garden collects her most important stories, ranging in subjects from classic SF to Borgesian fantasy and firmly establishing her as one of the finest Croatian story-tellers, with very few peers indeed.

As far as other speculative fiction genres are considered, fantasy is represented by several novels so bad they don’t even desert mentioning. Two notable exceptions are juvenile Čudesna krljušt (The Miraculous Scale - 1995) by Zvjezdana Odobašić, and fantasy spoofs by Vanja Spirin.

Horror scene is somewhat more lively, with the most prominent and prolific author being Viktoria Faust (a pen-name), called “the first lady of Croatian horror”. Beside numerous horror and SF stories (collected in several collections), her novels include U anđeoskom liku zvijeri (In The Angelic Image Of The Beast – 2000), Neizgovorena priča (The Untold Story – 2005), Nasmrt preplašen (Scared to Death - 2005) and Anastasia, as well as numerous books on supernatural.

Denis Peričić collected his horror stories in Krvavo (The Bloody), published in 2004. In 2006, Boris Perić drew a lot of attention with his novel Vampir (The Vampire), inspired by actual events. Zoran Krušvar’s novel Izvršitelji nauma gospodnjeg (The Executioners of Lord’s Intention) from 2007 developed into a multimedia project, involving heavy metal bands and video artists. Darko Macan ventured into juvenile horror with his 2007 novel Dlakovuk (The Hairwolf) and Jadnorog (The Poorhorn) from 2008.

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