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Monday, January 21, 2013

Sti
Fiction
• At Author's Site: Thieves' Honor, ep 25: "Walking Through Walls, part 3"  by Keanan Brand. 
     "This week's episode is a "director's cut", containing deleted scenes cut from what was originally published in Ray Gun Revival. They were lost due to length—the episode was already too long"

• At Author's Site: Kat and Mouse - "Ties That Bind" - Part Five by Abner Senires.
     "Then the other pursuit car appeared, shooting around the bend two hundred meters in front of us, just past the freeway entrance. Automatic fire flashed from the passenger side window."
 
• At Buzzy Mag: "The Composer" by Grant Grogan.
      "A heart-shaped vise tightened in Heather’s chest as she walked the overgrown stone pathway. It was not so long ago that she was sneaking down this same path under a starlit sky, shoes in hand, with anticipation coursing through her like an electric current."

• At Short-Story.me: "Escape to Here" by Ol Wilson. Fantasy.
      "The Eastern Gate was deserted, save for the huddled family that awaited transfer to the Deep. He could see from their dirty and malnourished faces that they were no surface dwellers, their skin was too ashen and pale, pallid even in the sweet air of the cities' edge. No, these people were from the Deep, the shanty slum that rose from the core, eight levels down. Those that lived there often gave it a different name however; many simply called it Hell."

• At Short-Story.me: "Taken, One after Another" by Tim McDaniel. Fantasy.
     "That was the way it was, ever since the dead started walking again – the Zombie Uprising that had seemed like just a stupid joke until it actually happened.  How?  Who knew.  Why?  An even more impossible question.  We just crouched in the darkness of the Payless Shoes storage room, keeping quiet.  Dark, so maybe they wouldn’t see us.  Quiet, so maybe they wouldn’t hear us."

• At Strange Horizons: "Dysphonia in D Minor" by Damien Walters Grintalis.
      "There were buildings in the capitol city said to be her creations, towering things of arches and alcoves, rooms that swallowed up every sound, every heartbeat."

• At The WiFiles: "Barnett Hill" by Anne E. Johnson.
     "The wagon accident three years before had broken her spine, so she couldn’t walk. Her so-called husband?in name only, as they say?had no idea what to do with her. Every day he wheeled her out onto the porch and left her there. For hours and hours sometimes, until he or one of the farmhands happened to remember she existed, and wheeled her in again."

At Wily Writers: “Presenting the Mobius Follies” by Tom Brennan.
      "Driving up Walnut Creek Parkway toward Sam Petchey’s estate, Joel dry-swallowed two painkillers and rubbed his eyes. The hot greasy air shimmered, as before a thunderstorm, but the hills around Los Angeles carried no anvil clouds. What a day for a wasted journey."

Flash Fiction
Audio
At Beam Me Up: “Tribute” by Doug Turnbull and part 1 of "Last Resort" by Stephen Bartholomew.
     No description found

At Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs: "Episode 19 - The Return of Tarzan"     
     "Tarzan has been made chief of his new tribe, the Waziri – following the death of the old chief Waziri. Tarzan’s wisdom as leader while trouncing the Arab slave traders and their Manuema henchmen is unquestioned. Tarza now turns his eye toward a fabled city of jewels and gold visited in legend by ancestors of the tribe."

At Toasted Cake: "A Brief Respite from Eternity" by Alex Shvartsman.
      "It's so very green," said Iolanthe. "Why can't we have colors like this on the ship?" 

At Strange Horizons: "Dysphonia in D Minor" by Damien Walters Grintalis.
     Described above.

At Wily Writers: “Presenting the Mobius Follies” by Tom Brennan.
     Described above.

Other Genres
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Sunday, January 20, 2013

 Sti
Fiction
• At Author's Site: Thieves' Honor, ep 25: "Walking Through Walls, part 3"  by Keanan Brand. 
     "This week's episode is a "director's cut", containing deleted scenes cut from what was originally published in Ray Gun Revival. They were lost due to length—the episode was already too long"
• At Buzzy Mag: "The Composer" by Grant Grogan.
      "A heart-shaped vise tightened in Heather’s chest as she walked the overgrown stone pathway. It was not so long ago that she was sneaking down this same path under a starlit sky, shoes in hand, with anticipation coursing through her like an electric current."


• At Short-Story.me: "Escape to Here" by Ol Wilson. Fantasy.
      "The Eastern Gate was deserted, save for the huddled family that awaited transfer to the Deep. He could see from their dirty and malnourished faces that they were no surface dwellers, their skin was too ashen and pale, pallid even in the sweet air of the cities' edge. No, these people were from the Deep, the shanty slum that rose from the core, eight levels down. Those that lived there often gave it a different name however; many simply called it Hell."

• At Short-Story.me: "Taken, One after Another" by Tim McDaniel. Fantasy.
     "That was the way it was, ever since the dead started walking again – the Zombie Uprising that had seemed like just a stupid joke until it actually happened.  How?  Who knew.  Why?  An even more impossible question.  We just crouched in the darkness of the Payless Shoes storage room, keeping quiet.  Dark, so maybe they wouldn’t see us.  Quiet, so maybe they wouldn’t hear us."

• At The WiFiles: "Barnett Hill" by Anne E. Johnson.
     "The wagon accident three years before had broken her spine, so she couldn’t walk. Her so-called husband?in name only, as they say?had no idea what to do with her. Every day he wheeled her out onto the porch and left her there. For hours and hours sometimes, until he or one of the farmhands happened to remember she existed, and wheeled her in again."


Flash Fiction

 Other Genres
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Friday, January 11, 2013


 A few more goodies for you today.  Back tomorrow.






Cool Site
 I don't mention cool sites that aren't about free fiction nearly enough, so one I should mention to correct that is The Comic Prospector, a site where Rusty Keele of  BestScienceFictionStories.com fame reviews comic books of virtually all genres.  Do yourself a favor and check it out. And don't miss the Elfquest review, which links to free online editions.



 
E-Books
At Free eBooks Daily:

Comics
At Atomic Kommie Comics: Buster Crabbe in "Dark of the Moon" Sci-Fi. (1954).
At Atomic Kommie Comics: Spacehawk in "My Friend, My Foe" Sci-Fi. (1940).
At The Horrors of It All: "Gorillas, Ghosts, and Gangsters" Horror. Humor. (1942).
At Pappy's Golden Age: "The Devil's Typewriter" Horror. (1952).
At Digital Comics Museum:
========================================================================
Some good freebies this morning as two of the regular great genre fiction sites (Buzzy Mag and Daily Science Fiction) are joined by a speculative fiction story from The New Yorker!  And there's great audio fiction at Escape Pod, Pseudopod, and Tales to Terrify. If you're not familiar with all three of these, you have many great hours of catching up ahead of you.

More later today, including comics, e-books, and a very cool site.

Today's QD Radio is Nightfall's SF/Horror story "Hands Off" by John Graham. A dangerous chemical that triggers extreme aggression is accidental spilled.


[Art from "Shirley Temple Three" linked below]


Fiction
• At Buzzy Mag: "The Call Of The Golden Gate" by Daniel Powell. Horror.
      "There was a man–a scholar–who claimed to have identified the monstrous creature. His credentials to make such a claim were, by his own admission, questionable. Still . . . a significant part of me believes him. What are my alternatives? I saw the thing."

• At Daily Science Fiction: "Death Before Dishonor" by Shannon Leight.
      "The siege lasted months, and those months were hard enough. Then the city fell and the conqueror marched in to claim the ashes, and Kere and I and every other living body were sold to Dogstown."

• At The New Yorker: "Shirley Temple Three" by Thomas Pierce. Speculative Fiction..
      "Tommy is driving in from Atlanta, where he works as the host of a popular show called “Back from Extinction.” On each episode they actually bring back long-dead, forgotten creatures—sabre-toothed tigers, dodo birds, and all the rest."

Flash Fiction

Audio Fiction
• At Escape Pod: "Shutdown" by Corry L. Lee. Science Fiction.
      "The alarm blared over the forest’s metallic rustling, and my HUD’s red warning light glazed the view through my faceplate. Ten seconds until the defense scan hit my position. Ten seconds until any motion, any electrical signature would whip vines down from the iron-cored trees, wrapping me as surely as steel cables, pinning me while cutter-bugs took me apart."

• At Pseudopod: "What Happens When You Wake Up In The Night" by Michael Marshall Smith. Horror.
     “The first thing I was unhappy about was the dark. I do not like the dark very very much. It is not the worst thing in the world but it is also not the best thing in the world, either. When I was very smaller I used to wake up sometimes in the middle of the night and be scared when I woke up, because it was so dark. I would go to bed with my light on, the one light that turns round and round, on the drawers by the side of my bed."

• At Tales to Terrify: "The Heart Is a Determined Hunter" by Thomas Smith. Horror.
     No description found.

Other Genres
========================================================================
There are some good free fiction links today, including the latest issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies and the conclusion of "Thieves Vinegar" at Paizo.


[Art from "Thieves Vinegar"]







Fiction
• At Beneath Ceaseless Skies:
"His Crowning Glory’: a new tale of the Antique Lands" by Noreen Doyle. Fantasy.
      "Jon sat down in the doorway to watch the man go about whatever odd business his God had appointed to him."

"The Giants of Galtares" by Sue Burke. Fantasy.
       Sardamira tugged her reins from Pinela's hands. "I'm staying. Whatever happens, I want to see what I came for."
• At Paizo: "Thieves Vinegar" (All four Parts) by Kevin Andrew Murphy. Fantasy Pathfinde.
     "The most horrible sight is watching those cultists throwing the corpse back up while a vampire vomits. This latter is particularly bad when you remember who the priestess seated me opposite. If I ever hear a bard say the words "bathed in blood" again, I swear I'll kick him."

Flash Fiction
Audio Fiction
• At Beneath Ceaseless Skies: "Seeking The Great Raymundo" Jamie Lackey. Fantasy.
      “Why in the world do you want to be a magician, if that’s the life they lead?” he asked me after one particularly bloodcurdling story about an angry mother.

• At 19 Nocturne Boulevard: "Afterlives 2.1 - Once Upon a Forgotten Boy"
     "Afterlives is a tale of what happens after death, or maybe afterlife.... and it isn't at all what you would expect."

Old Time Radio

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Monday, February 14, 2011

test

At Fantasy Magazine,

"Lizard Dance" Gio Clairval and Jeff VanderMeer

"A shout louder than the others pierces her armor—disparaging words about her chubby cheeks and oversized thighs. She doesn't care. Nor is she afraid."



At Strange Horizons,

"Widows in the World (part 2 of 2)" by Gavin J. Grant

"She'd never liked her mother's houses. Even when she'd cracked the codes in order to program her own spaces, she had always known the deep programming wasn't hers. She'd been forced old so fast that by the time she was twelve she wanted her own place."

Part one is HERE.




At Ray Gun Revival,

"Memory" by Michael Merriam.

"Lucza Antreus watched the stairs retract and the cargo hatch on her battered little ship close, securing the vessel against any potential intruders. She stored the access control in her small belt pouch, wanting to laugh at her automatic care. She did not expect to return to her vessel, but there was no sense in leaving it open for anybody who happened to come along."

"Catastrophe Baker and a Canticle for Leibowitz" by Mike Resnick.

"I was standing at the bar in the Outpost, which is the only good watering hole in the Plantagenet system, lifting a few with my old friend Hurricane Smith, another practitioner of the hero trade. Somehow or other the conversation got around women, like it always does sooner or later (usually sooner), and he asked me what was the most memorable name I’d ever found attached to a woman."

"The Greeny at Old Smokey Lake" by Larry Hodges.

"Jeb’s black Outback hiking boots were his pride and joy, but now they just lay there on the passenger seat, vacant, dripping mud all over the place as I drove my pickup away from the lake as fast as I could. It was not near fast enough."


At Beneath Ceaseless Skies, issue 62 featuring;

"Silent, Still, and Cold" by Kris Dikeman.

"The place where Ameos should stand is taken by another boy. We are fewer now."

"The Adventures of Ernst, Who Began a Man, Became a Cyclops, and Finished a Hero" by Jesse Bullington

"There was a long, strange moment of silence, and then the spider dropped lightly off the medium’s back and scuttled toward Ernst."

And audio fiction "Mamafield" by Corie Ralston.

"I finally scent Leaver at far edge of mamafield, past where my roots have ever dug. I don't feel safe so far outcircle, but he's traveled alone for years. He's been so far outside we wouldn't even scent his death. And that's what he deserves"



At Tor.com, "Though Smoke Shall Hide the Sun" by Brit Mandelo.

“So,” said the man lounging on a folding chair in the center of the room. “What would make a lady like yourself want to join the army?”

“I’m not a lady,” I said.

Online HERE.

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Thursday, August 28, 2008

Pellucidar

Pellucidar (2nd in the Pellucidar series)
By Edgar Rice Burroughs; Read by Ralph Snelson
16 Zipped MP3s or Podcast - Approx. 6 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: August 2008

Themes: / Hollow Earth / Adventure / Prehistoric Beasts / Exploration / Nautical




Pellucidar is a difficult audiobook to review because it is quite depent on the listener being reasonably familiar with its predecessor, At the Earth's Core. Unfortunately, the LibriVox version of At the Earth's Core is still in its very early stages, though there is a nice looking commercial version by Tantor available.

Taking the above into account, the LibriVox Pellucidar is an enjoyable listen with plenty of adventure, a grand odyssee, new characters, and one of the coolest "dogs" (hyenadons) ever imagined. Its only flaw, a rather minor one, is its rather abrubt/summarized ending.

Pellucidar continues the adventures of David Innes, and too a lesser extent Abner Perry, in the Hollow Earth land of Pellucidar, after the surprise, cliffhanger ending of its precursor. David treks across much of Pellucidar in search of his lost love, Dian the Beautiful (It must be such a burdon going through life with that epithet). Overall a fun adventure story with a few clever twists.

Ralph Snelson does a very straight, non-interpretive, reading of the story with little excess of emotion or dramatization. It is a simple, pleasant reading without bells and whistles. This is another good reading that proves the value of LibriVox's free audiobooks.

An enjoyable audiobook, but only for those who have heard or read its predecessor (The movie would help a little, but not as much)
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Saturday, August 23, 2008

Greatest Science Fiction Stories

The Greatest Science Fiction Stories Of The 20th Century
By [see below]; Read by [see below]
4 Cassettes - 6 hours - [Unabridged]
Publisher: Dove Audio
Published: 1998
ISBN: 0787116807
Themes: / Science Fiction / Magical Realism / Aliens / Time Travel / Parallel Worlds / Space Travel / Mutation / Nuclear Winter /




What would a long time SF fan consider a collection called The Greatest Science Fiction Stories Of The 20th Century when none of the stories would make his top ten list, and some aren't even SF? In this case, I consider it a very good collection of stories. If anything, this seems a collection of well-read and written, but randomly chosen, speculative fiction stories.

Clearly intended to present a wide variety of "Science Fiction," this audio-anthology has neither theme nor consistency but it doesn't need them. The stories, with only two exceptions, are quite entertaining. They are all extremely well read, my quibble with a poor attempt at an accent notwithstanding, ranging from Harlan Ellison's wonderfully passionate reading of his story to Nana Visitor's aesthetically perfect interpretation of "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas."

Each story is briefly commented on below.

"Jeffty Is Five" by Harlan Ellison, read by Harlan Ellison.
Reality is distorted around a boy who doesn't age. This is Magical Realism, not SF, but an amazing story nonetheless. Ellison's response to the bitter cynicism of modernity will tear at the core of your soul unless A) you're very young or B) you don't have a soul. The best story in the collection.

"Twilight" by John W. Campbell, read by Richard McGonagle.
A good early SF story but not quite great. It feels a bit to much like Wells' The Time Machine, but it entertaining enough. A retelling of a time traveler's visit to the twilight of humanity.

"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula K. Le Guin, read by Nana Visitor.
Virtually everyone knows this fantasy, again not SF, story. It has all the strengths and weakness of Le Guin's writing, amazing authorial voice and great storytelling, but a strong tendency to be overly didactic to the point of sanctimoniousness. Still as with most of her stories, the strengths far outweigh the weaknesses.

"Bears Discover Fire" by Terry Bisson, read by Arte Johnson.
Bears start using fire in an otherwise normal Kentucky. This Magical Realism, not SF, story was the only one that bored me. This story also had my only, relatively minor, reading complaint. The reader's Kentucky accent is a bit off and sounds a bit condescending.

"The Crystal Spheres" by David Brin, read by Alexander Siddig.
A very interesting, though highly implausible, story about a universe in which all stars are encircled by invisible, impenetrable, crystal spheres.

"That Only a Mother" by Judith Merril, read by Terry Farrell.
Due to radiation poisoning, a baby is born mentally gifted but physically impaired. A disturbing, unpleasant story that is only marginally SF.

"Allamagoosa" by Eric Frank Russell, read by James A. Watson.
Wonderful over-the-top humor. This story of a spaceship facing an inspection while missing an offog, an item no one knows what is, is a gem.

"Tangents" by Greg Bear, read by Melissa Manchester.
A boy can see into the the fourth physical dimension and a scientist helps him play music for the beings there. Interesting enough, but forgettable.

"The Nine Billion Names of God" by Arthur C. Clarke, read by Alexander Siddig.
Tibetan monks have a computer print out all the names possible names of God with the intent of fulfilling the purpose of creation. Good enough but not even Clarke's best short story.

"Huddling Place" by Clifford D. Simak, read by David Ackroyd.
In a future with robots and space travel agoraphobia has become a serious threat. This story would have been just acceptable filler except for the fact that in this story from 1944, Simak predicts the internet, though he describes it in terms of a television with knobs.

"Why I Left Harry's All-Night Diner" by Lawrence Watt Evans, read by Wil Wheaton.
A fun, interesting take on the the idea of parallel universes. Certainly an enjoyable story.

"Fermi and Frost" by Frederick Pohl, read by Denise Crosby.
Icelanders face the prospects of nuclear winter in the post-apocalyptic tale. A good downbeat story to balance some of the lighthearted stories.

Concussion: This is a very good anthology. It definitely isn't a collection of the best stories, but it may be the best collection of stories available. Highly recommended.

I starting reviewing this collection on the expectation that it was out of print and I would have to recommend Amazon or eBay as a source of a used cassette copy. So imagine my surprise when a mere day after finishing it, I hear an Audible.com ad for it. So it is easily available for those interested.
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Thursday, July 31, 2008

The Dreaming Void

The Dreaming Void
By Peter F. Hamilton; Read by Toby Longworth
20 CDs - 23 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Pan Macmillan Audio UK
Publication Date: 02/05/2008
ISBN: 9780230709829

AD 3580. The Intersolar Commonwealth has spread through the galaxy to over a thousand star systems. It is a culture of rich diversity with a place for everyone. Even death itself has been overcome. But at the centre of the Commonwealth is a massive black hole. This Void is not a natural artefact. Inside there is a strange universe where the laws of physics are very different to those we know. It is slowly consuming the other stars of the galactic core - one day it will devour the entire galaxy. Inigo, a human, has started to dream of a wonderful existence in the Void. He has a following of millions of believers and they now clamour to make a pilgrimage into the Void to live the life they have been shown. Other starfaring species fear their migration will cause the Void to expand again. They are prepared to stop them no matter what the cost. And so the pilgrimage begins…

The Dreaming Void is a very big book and it's an even bigger audiobook. Peter F. Hamilton's story is one of the better recent SF stories that I've experienced in any form, full of fascinating settings, situations, and ideas. It has many fully realized subplots and varied characters, too many. What could have been at least two brilliant stories, one of the commonwealth dealing with the potentially disastrous consequences of an attempted pilgrimage into the Void, and one of the much more low-key story of Inigo's dreams, is instead merely a long opening to a longer trilogy.

The main plot(s) of the story are wonderful. It is science fiction as it should be. It takes the imagination to new vistas, mixing newer ideas (the Void, gaiafield, etc) with core traditions of SF (space travel, aliens, etc). Indeed, the basic story is nearly perfect but with all the stretching, it greatly overstays its welcome. Somewhere around the twelve hour mark, listening to The Dreaming Void became a chore. If I had not already committed so much time to the story, I would have quit then.

Final analysis: The Dreaming Void is just too big a story, filled with many unnecessary subplots and distractions. It is far too easy loose track of the multitude of characters inhabiting this enormous beginning to the Void Trilogy. Yet, it is far from a hopeless audiobook. Throughout the epic story, the skill of both author and the reader are quite apparent and each part of the story is interesting. I am still of very mixed opinions about the story. I will look for more stories written by Peter F. Hamilton and more read by Toby Longworth, but only if they are about half this length or shorter. However, the audiobook might well be worth the effort for someone who has a lot of free time and is willing to take notes.

Rating: 7/10
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