Free Fiction

The penultimate regular post










@AE: "Mail Order" by Martin Ivison.

"The Q’rai language is at its most poetic when describing the ocean, and I’m the only human being who can appreciate it. I savour the nuance between the water stirred by a surface current and the water stirred by a gust of circular wind. I know the words for the green water rich with brine jelly and for the red water during a sunfish bloom."

@Beneath Ceaseless Skies: "The Death of Roach" by Spencer Ellsworth.

He has given me ink and parchment and told me to write, for salvation lies in the Aspects of the Thousand Gods, and the thirty-third is the confessional. I shall tell my story. But not to confess. Nor to boast. Nor—especially not—to atone.

@Beneath Ceaseless Skies: "The Traitor Baru Cormorant, Her Field-General, and Their Wounds" by Seth Dickinson.

When she takes up residence in the Elided Keep she orders the long room where she will hold court rearranged. All the blades go on the south wall, cleaned of gore; and all the worn heraldry of the Pyre dukes, trampled on the day she deserted them.

@Fantasy Magazine: "Vici" by Naomi Novik.

“Dragon-slaying is an honorable death, and generally quick, from my understanding; and will legally clear your debts. Unless you would prefer to commit suicide?” he inquired.

@Lightspeed: "The Hammer of God" by Sir Arthur C. Clarke.

Suddenly, he was back in this cabin aboard the orbital tug Goliath, commanding the 100-person team of Operation ATLAS, the most critical mission in the history of space exploration.

@Ray Gun Revival: "The King of Meteortown" by Andy Henion.

"Houses blur by. A good third are falling down, bearing scorch marks from the event fourteen years prior. Another third holds families, and by families I mean an old man, maybe an old woman, in some cases a grown, stubborn son. Neighbors who dug in and learned to accept what life along the Hole brought them."

@Wily Stories: "One Free Go" by Michelle Ann King

"Any good party needs an entertainer, and the fortune-teller at Darren’s makes it a night that at least one of his kids will never forget. Excerpt It’s really getting out of hand lately, all this Halloween business."

@World SF Blog: "A Hundred Thousand Armstrongs" by Zoltán László.

"The parties in the Rio night were no less lively than any time before. Actually, they were only becoming more boisterous as Astronaut Day was coming and the country was getting ready to celebrate her one hundred thousand new space travellers…. All those improved Armstrongs and Tereshkovas."

Serial Fiction
@Paizo: "Fingers of Death—No, Doom! - Chapter One: A Helping Hand" by Lucien Soulban.

The ancient mechanisms thundered, the giant gears crushing boulder-sized rocks between their iron teeth and spitting out rubble in disdain. Beyond them, the furnaces set into the stone dwarf mouths glowed with Abyssal fury and spewed rivers of molten rock destined for the deeper bowels beneath Darkmoon Vale.

Audio
@Beneath Ceaseless Skies: "Read This Quickly, For You Will Only Have a Moment..." by Stephen Case.

The one who brings your food is named Osla. My birds are trained well, and this one will have struck at his eyes. Take this parchment quickly, speak his name, and he will fall like the rain outside your window.

@Journey Into: "The Mansion" by Henry van Dyke, performed by full cast.

John Weightman is a wealthy and generous man, if it provides rewards for himself, but what does he have to learn of freely giving of himself?

@PodCastle: "Limits" by Donna Glee Williams, read by Tisch Parmelee

"When did Len first see how far the path would take her son? No Far Walker had been born in Home Village for many years. But everyone knew Shreve Far Walker, from Third Village Down, who often passed through as she carried loads between High and Low. When nightfall caught her near Home Village, she would stay over, taking dinner and giving back news."

@StarShipSofa: "Fermaville" by Paul Di Filippo, read by Fred Himebaugh.

@Wily Stories: "One Free Go" by Michelle Ann King.


Serial Audio
@Author's Site: "The All-Pro Episode #9" by Scott Sigler.

And in story content, you'll meet the Prawatt and this year's rookies.

@Beam Me Up: "In Plain Sight - ep2" by Jason Kahn and "Skinflint Specters" by Brian Thompson.

"We again join our favorite psychic detective, Jack Garrett as he once again find himself embroiled in mystery and intrigue" and "a retelling of A Christmas Carol in which everything is explainable……or is it?"