The Vault, open this season
You open the Vault and find the current season in full: eight new pieces a month, plus the holdover that still earns its place. Each one ships in the reader, as audio, and in the printed issue posted from Singapore. We mark Fiction and From the record in plain view so you always know how the piece was made.
9
stories in the current season
18–33 min
length range
2
strands: Fiction and From the record
The Vault keeps one shelf for the season you are in. Current pieces sit at the top. Older months move into the archive the morning a new issue posts. You filter by strand, by length, and by format. Paid memberships keep the shelf complete. The sample chapter stays free so you can test the voice before you join.
Seasons
Each season runs with the calendar month. On the first, the printed issue leaves Singapore and the reader unlocks the new set. Mid-month chapters arrive on Tuesdays. Friday's email names what is coming so you can plan the weekend. When the next month opens, last month's set slides into the archive and stays there for as long as your plan allows.
Strands
Every piece carries one tag. Fiction is invented on the page. From the record is written from archives, gazettes, maps and other public documents we can cite. We never mix the two inside a single story. You will see the tag on the card, in the reader, in the audio notes and on the printed contents page, in the same words.
Formats
Open a story in the web reader, download the audio, or wait for the sewn issue in the post. The text is the same in all three. The reader remembers your place and works without a network. Audio lets you set speed from 0.8× to 2× and download for the commute. Print is for the chair and the train home.
Nine original pieces sit here now. Eight arrived with the monthly programme; one holdover still earns its place on the shelf. Length stays between 18 and 33 minutes. Open a card for the tag, the blurb, and the reading and audio times. The sample chapter uses the same reader as the paid set.
Fiction
A night clerk on the East Coast keeps a private log of ships that never appear on the harbour board. When a name from his childhood turns up in the log, he has to decide whether to file the page or burn it. You stay with him through one shift and the walk home.
From the record
Built from shipping registers, police gazettes and the daily press held in public collections. The piece follows one week of cargo on the Singapore River and the clerks who signed for it. We name the sources in the notes and leave the gaps visible.
Fiction
A widow buys a second-hand radio that only picks up one frequency after midnight. The voice on the other side claims to be reading tomorrow's weather for a town that no longer exists. She starts taking notes. The street outside keeps its ordinary hours.
From the record
Drawn from municipal lighting reports, mosque committee minutes and street photographs released to public archives. The essay walks five nights in 1971 as lamps go up along Arab Street and the side lanes. We quote the reports in full where they still exist.
Fiction
In a basement off Boat Quay, a junior clerk copies maps that his seniors insist were never drawn. Each sheet shows a canal that the city later filled. He posts one copy home and keeps the rest. The story stays in that basement for a single monsoon.
From the record
Assembled from customs circulars, bus company timetables and letters deposited in public libraries. The piece tracks how people crossed between Singapore and Johor in 1982, hour by hour, on paper that still sits in boxes anyone can request. We print the request numbers so you can look them up.
Fiction
A hydrographer sells corrected tide tables to skippers who already know the real numbers. The corrections are a code. One buyer uses them to move a crate that should never have left the yard. You learn the code at the same pace he does.
From the record
From trade directories, fire brigade logs and oral-history transcripts held by public institutions. We follow a small press through 1958 as it takes jobs from political clubs, wedding hosts and a newspaper that lasted eleven issues. The sources are listed at the end.
Fiction
A security guard works a Sunday shift among stacked boxes and a dog that will not leave bay 14. A woman arrives with a key that fits nothing on the board. They wait for a truck that the schedule does not show. The heat does the rest of the talking.
You should never have to guess how a piece was made. If we built it from documents, the tag is From the record and the notes list what we used. If we invented it, the tag is Fiction. Both are original. We do not buy reprints. We do not dress archive work as memoir.
From the record pieces still have a writer. Someone sits with the boxes, chooses the week, and cuts the line. The documents do not write themselves. Fiction pieces still have research: streets, weather, the time a ferry used to leave. The difference is the contract with you. One strand promises invention. The other promises you can go and look at the paper. That contract is printed on every card in this Vault.
We keep both strands in the same season so the month has range. You might read a river ledger on Tuesday and a night clerk on Friday. Length stays inside 18 to 33 minutes because that is the span we can stand behind for voice, fact-checking and the cut. If a piece runs long, we cut. If it cannot take the cut, we do not ship it. Read the standards on About Unbelievablechronicles.
The Vault is the catalogue. The membership is how you carry it. Reader, audio and print share the same text. You choose the format for the hour you have: a commute, a desk, a chair by the window. Offline downloads sit on Full Chronicle and Collector. The sample chapter stays free.
The web reader is built for long pages. Type is sized for a phone and a desk. Your place is stored on the device so a tunnel or a flight does not dump you back at the start. You can download the month for offline use on Full Chronicle and Collector plans. The sample chapter uses the same reader, so the test is honest.
Audio is voiced by working readers. You get chapter marks, a sleep timer and speed from 0.8× to 2×. Download the files before you leave the network. The printed issue is sewn, packed in an envelope and posted to Singapore addresses with the membership. Postage beyond Singapore is an extra S$6 a month, billed with the plan. You can read the same line on the page while you listen.
Access follows the plan you pay for. Reader keeps ninety days. Full Chronicle and Collector keep the whole Vault, including seasons that have already closed. Cancel and you keep what you paid through to the end of the period. We do not yank a file at midnight on the day you leave.
Reader
Pay S$12 a month and you get eight stories in the reader, the audio editions, the Friday email and ninety days of the archive. After ninety days the older files leave your shelf. Raise the plan when you want the rest. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the period you already paid.
Full Chronicle
S$19 a month or S$190 a year. You get everything in Reader, the printed issue posted to Singapore, the full archive and offline downloads. This is the plan most people pick when they want the month in their hands. Postage outside Singapore is S$6 extra each month. Compare the full grid on the memberships page if you want every line item.
Collector
S$29 a month. Full Chronicle plus a quarterly bound edition, early chapters on Sundays, and two gift passes a year. The bound edition is for the shelf. The gift passes are for people you actually want to read with. Write to us if you need classroom or team access from five seats.
The February issue is on the press now. Join before the first of the month and you get the reader, the audio, and the printed copy posted to Singapore addresses.