Robert Vardeman Serial, Good Free Fiction, and a Bad Free Movie.

Some very good stuff today. Beneath Ceaseless Skies has another great issue out as does Four Star Stories, which should be a treat. Lots of good fantasy. Some very good classic and reviewed SF, including a Northwest Smith story by C.L. Moore (one of my favorite early SF writers). And a Pathfinder fantasy serial by Robert Vardeman! starting at Paizo. Great audio, including some episodes of Mindwebs (an e1970s radio equivalent of today's best fiction podcasts), BCS audio-fiction, and the latest BtHM.

And very much not in the good category, a 1960 TV movie The Cape Canaveral Monsters. With a 2.4 IMDb rating, this is only for connoisseurs of bad films, people who feel they must watch every professional Sci-Fi film ever made, and those exceptionally deranged people who fall into both categories (I'll likely be watching it this weekend)


Image from "Clever Love" in the fiction section.







Now Posted: Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue #72. Fantasy.
"Sightwolf" by Erin Hoffman. Fantasy.

"In Astralar, middling flint-walled city pressed against the chill bosom of the Windsmouth Mountains, a woman will be banished for failure to pay taxes."

"The Moral Education of a Mad Bastard" by Joe L. Murr. Fantasy.

I was twelve when I, like my father before me, was sentenced to transportation to Sutterland. My crime was the theft of a leg of lamb. I stole to feed myself and, if Governor Bidwell was to be believed, because I could not do otherwise.

Now Posted: Four Star Stories Summer 2011

"Mak Siccar" by Lou Antonelli.

"It looks like it is going to be a fine morning." The Second Mate looked sideways at his companion. "I hope you enjoy this little liberty. Ten minutes, and it’s back in cuffs and down below for you."

"Clever Love" by R. L. Copple. Fantasy.

"The forest beckoned Jal'ra to return. His elvish kinsmen romped among those branches. Memories of children chasing squirrels and each other demanded he not leave. No longer sensing the familiar melody of the trees resonating in his heart didn't help either."

"Strawman at the Door" by David L. Gray.

"Mark Jacobs materialized in the dark alley, stumbled hard, then had to twist 180 degrees to break his fall with his left buttock against the side of an empty dumpster. It produced a low, metallic booming sound and a throbbing pain in his left hip."

"Fish Story" by Selina Rosen.

"'All right buddy where are you going in such a hurry,' The trooper said shining a flashlight in the guy’s window. The guy was filthy covered with mud and what might have been blood."

Reviewed Free SF
@BestScienceFictionStories.com: "The Cassandra Project" by Jack McDevitt (2010) science fiction. In text and MP3.

"It is about an ancient dome discovered on the far side of the Moon."

Classic SF/ Weird Tales
@Internet Archive: "Gunner Cade" by Cyril Judd, from the March, April, May 1952 issues of Astounding Science Fiction magazine.

"Gunner Cade, a professional soldier of the Realm of Man, is captured by rebel forces on Mars but escapes, only to find that he is being hunted by fellow gunners."

@Munseys and Gutenberg: "When the Mountain Shook" by Robert Abernathy. Science Fiction. From IF Worlds of Science Fiction March 1954.

"Dark was the Ryzga mountain and forbidding; steep were its cliffs and sheer its crevasses. But its outward perils could not compare with the Ryzgas themselves, who slept within, ready to wake and conquer...."

@Munseys and Gutenberg: "Piper in the Woods" by Philip K Dick. Science Fiction. From Imagination: Stories of Science and Fantasy February 1953. Science Fiction.

"Earth maintained an important garrison on Asteroid Y-3. Now suddenly it was imperiled with a biological impossibility—men becoming plants!"

@Munseys and Gutenberg: "A Woman's Place" by Mark Clifton. Science Fiction. From Galaxy Science Fiction May 1955.

"Home is where you hang up your spaceship—that is, if you have any Miss Kitty along!"

@Munseys and Gutenberg: "The Door into Infinity" by Edmond Hamilton. Weird. From Weird Tales August-September 1936. Weird.

"An amazing weird mystery story, packed with thrills, danger and startling events."

@Munseys and Gutenberg: "The Tree of Life" by C L Moore. Science Fiction. From Weird Tales October 1936. Weird.

"A gripping tale of the planet Mars and the terrible monstrosity that called its victims to it from afar—a tale of Northwest Smith"

@Munseys and Gutenberg: "The Genius" by Con Pederson. Science Fiction. From IF Worlds of Science Fiction May 1954. Weird.

"Sethos was a great artist, a talented man, quite possibly the most famous man of his time and world. But, alas!—there were other worlds. And is not the grass always greener...?"

Serial Fiction
@Paizo.com: "Plow and Sword - Chapter One: Smoke on the Horizon" by Robert E. Vardeman.
"It took several minutes for the cougar's ululating screech to make Rorr look up from his autumn plowing. The day was unseasonably warm for Neth, and sweat trickled down his back. He knew the heat was an illusion—cutting through the dried brown chaff remaining in his field and plowing it under for spring fertilizer had to be completed soon, before snow buried the land."











@Internet Archive: Eleven episodes of the classic "semi-dramatized" radio series Mindwebs. Science Fiction.

"Many of the readings were enhanced by music, periodic sound cues, and the occasional character voice, however they are not completely dramatized. In a way Mind Webs stories are a cross between radio drama and audio books."

@Beware the Hairy Mango: Episode 81 "They Call Me Johnny Eggroll" by Matthew Sanborn Smith. Weird Fiction. [via SF Signal]


@Beneath Ceaseless Skies: "The Nine-Tailed Cat" by Michael J. DeLuca

"The cat departs from the moonbeam, flicking its tails."

@Internet Archive: The Cape Canaveral Monsters. 1960 TV Movie. Streaming and for download. Sci-Fi.

"When a couple are killed in an auto accident their bodies are immediately inhabited by extraterrestrial beings. Taking refuge in an underground cave, the aliens attempt to sabotage the U.S. space program."