Four Free 'Zines

Four outstanding free magazines (two fiction, two gaming) available for download and/or online reading.

 [art from all four 'zines)




Fiction
Now Posted: Clarkesworld Issue 81, June 2013. Speculative Fiction

• "The Urashima Effect" by E. Lily Yu
     "Leo Aoki awoke with a shudder in the cold green bubble of the ship, nauseated and convinced that he was suffocating. He shoved his way out of the sleep spindle, found his balance, ran his hands through his sweaty hair, checked his bones: all unbroken. Well, then. There was a snaking black tube cuffed to the wall, its other end pointing into the black vacuum of space."
"• This is Why We Jump" by Jacob Clifton. 
     "I can curl myself around him like an ammonite, and call him little names, and he will smile. Arms and legs getting bigger every day. A little starfish, crowding me out. It is my name for him, but only when he will be gentled can I say. It happens less and less."
• "Free-Fall" by Graham Templeton
     "Our elevator has stalled some thirty kilometers above the surface of the Earth, and my first thought is not heroic: I need to start fasting, lean up these haunches in preparation for the Donner decision trees that most likely lie ahead. There’s food for a month below the floorboards, but thirty kilometers? Looking at my three fellow passengers, hot-shot scientists all, it is distressingly easy to imagine our mini-society devolving into tribalism"
• "Mongoose" by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear
       "Izrael Irizarry stepped through a bright-scarred airlock onto Kadath Station, lurching a little as he adjusted to station gravity. On his shoulder, Mongoose extended her neck, her barbels flaring, flicked her tongue out to taste the air, and colored a question. Another few steps, and he smelled what Mongoose smelled, the sharp stink of toves, ammoniac and bitter."
• "Dead Men Walking" by Paul J. McAuley
     "I guess this is the end. I’m in no condition to attempt the climb down, and in any case I’m running out of air. The nearest emergency shelter is only five klicks away, but it might as well be on the far side of this little moon. I’m not expecting any kind of last-minute rescue, either."

Now Posted: Mirror Dance - Summer 2013. Fantasy.

• "Behold" by James Lecky
     ""I regret to tell you, your majesty," the Doctor said to the Queen. "That the child has been born ugly."
• "On Festival Road" by Jonathan Olfert.
     "The Festival of Forbidden Arts came every seven years to Allsoulsanchor, that most diverse and liberated of cities. Aalem couldn't quite remember the last time caravans of aloof, argumentative magicians passed his family's roadhouse."
• "Old Rootling" by Trevor Shikaze. Fantasy. Flash Fiction.
• "Hagia Sophia" by Chandler Groover.
    "If you have never seen Hagia Sophia, you should find a picture of it, or else visit it in person if you ever have the chance to. It is (or was) a church turned into a mosque turned into a museum, and it is (indeed, it is) one of this world’s greatest architectural marvels"
•  "Caught in the Weave A Story of the Crow Witch" by Mike Phillips.
     "Two women hurried in through the door. Each had a lantern in one hand, a crucifix in the other. Though it was night and well past time for decent folk to have gone to their beds, they were both fully clothed, arrayed in stout, woolen dresses that swept the floor as they hurried inside the room."
• And fantasy poems by Sandi Leibowitz, Alicia Cole, Glenn Halak, and Deborah Walker 

Gaming
Now Posted: Fighting Fantazine #11

• The conclusion of an interview with Fighting Fantasy writer Paul Mason
• A new 219 reference adventure "Ascent of Darkness" by Stuart Lloyd and illustrated by Michael Wolmarans
• The "Rogues' Guide" tourist book team paying a visit to Port Blacksand
• "The Fact of Fiction" looking at the sci-fi tale Star Strider
• An introduction to the Titannnica wiki
• A round up of the rollercoaster ride that was Bloodbones going to print
• Chapter 6 of "Aelous Raven and the Wrath of the Sea-Witch"
• The regulars such as Fighting Fantasy Collector, Chronicle of Heroes, Fighting Dantasy, Omens & Auguries, Everything I Need to Know, and The Arcane Archive.

Now Posted: Footprints #18

• The Cult of the Devourer (article)
• A Riddle (article)
• "The Mired Cathedral" (adventure)
• Magic Items (article)
• The Holy Sword (article)
• Tribal Spellcasters revisited (article)
• Creatures of the Tulgey Wood (article)
• The Sorcerer (class)
• An Unhealthy Obsession with Equipment (article)