Tuesday, June 18, 2013

The Caves of Free Fiction

Another fantastic day of free fiction, including Lightspeed, Strange Horizons, Escape Pod's 400th! episode, stories by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Charles Stross, and so much more. And be sure to visit Regan Wolfrom at SF Signal for free fiction links and to see if he has made any more promises for QD.

[Art from "Paranormal Romance" in fiction below]


Fiction
• At Author's Site: "Stained Black" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.
     "In a world stained black, he felt colors as objects: blue as an ice cube, red a burning coal. Simpson stepped out of the blind man’s body and into his own." - First published in Amazing Stories, November 1988. 

• At Author's Site: "Bit Rot" by Charles Stross. Science Fiction.
      "If you are reading this text file and you don't remember me--that's Lilith Nakamichi-47--then you are suffering from bit rot. If you can see me, try to signal; I'll give you a brain dump. If I'm not around, chances are I'm out on the hull, scavenging for supplies.  Keep scanning, and wait for me to return. I've left a stash of feedstock in the storage module under your bunk: to the best of my knowledge it isn't poisonous, but you should take no chances. If I don't return within a couple of weeks, you should assume that either I'm suffering from bit rot myself, or I've been eaten by another survivor."

• At Book View Cafe: "Prophesy In Shadows" by Leah Cutter. Fantasy. 
     "At least it hadn’t splashed and stained Hans’ white lab coat. Then he looked more closely and sighed at the splatter marks down his right side. He couldn’t afford to get it cleaned so soon; maybe he could wash it in the kitchen sink at the house. After a quick glance all the way down, he breathed a bit easier: He hadn’t ruined his shoes. Again."

• At Escape Pod: "Rescue Party" by Arthur C. Clarke. Science Fiction. 
     "Who was to blame? For three days Alveron’s thoughts had come back to that question, and still he had found no answer. A creature of a less civilized or a less sensitive race would never have let it torture his mind, and would have satisfied himself with the assurance that no one could be responsible for the working of fate. But Alveron and his kind had been lords of the Universe since the dawn of history, since that far distant age when the Time Barrier  had been folded round the cosmos by the unknown powers that lay beyond the Beginning."  - first published in Astounding Science Fiction in May 1946

• The Colored Lens: "The Wolf who Howls at the Hollow Moon" by Zachary Tringali.
      "These are our lands—the hills and the valleys, the corn fields and streams. We know these paths as a man knows his own body. People think they kick us out of their towns with their ugly stares, but honestly there’s no place we feel more at home. There’s dust in our throats, grass at our backs, and a warm fire always within reach. I’ve never been happier than with the caravan, watching alongside my family as the stars come out."

• At Lightspeed: "Paranormal Romance"  by Christopher Barzak. Fantasy.
      "This is a story about a witch. Not the kind you’re thinking of either. She didn’t have a long nose with a wart on it. She didn’t have green skin or long black hair. She didn’t wear a pointed hat or a cape, and she didn’t have a cat, a spider, a rat, or any of those animals that are usually hanging around witches. She didn’t live in a ramshackle house, a gingerbread house, a Victorian house, or a cave."

• At Lightspeed: "Get a Grip"  by Paul Park. Science Fiction.
      "Here’s how I found out: I was in a bar called Dave’s on East 14th Street. It wasn’t my usual place. I had been dating a woman in Stuyvesant Town. One night after I left, I still wasn’t eager to go home. So on my way I stopped in."

• At Strange Horizons: "Longfin's Daughters" by O. J. Cade. Speculative Fiction.
     "When her sisters came home, their slippers once more danced through, they found the youngest in her bed, but though her head was hidden under the pillow as usual, her hair was wet and there were bites on her thighs and a new eel for smoking."

• At Weird Fiction Review: "The Fork" by Jeffrey Thomas. (2002)
      "Sometimes he thought the fluttering in his cracked skull was from a taxidermist’s dusty bird..."

• At The World SF Blog: "Smile of the Monster" by Ido Sokolovsky.
      "'And when was this, Garison? Seventy years ago? Eighty?' Mrs Campbell passed by him, carrying a heavily loaded tray on her way to the table of the two tourists. The young man in the green sweater has been holding forth to his red-headed freckled girl-friend as to why a monster in Loch Ness is unlikely. It is this that has awakened the old man from his drunken sleep near the counter."

Flash Fiction
Audio Fiction
• At AntipodeanSF:  "Radio Show 179" Speculative Fiction.
      "This is the AntiSF Radio Show for issue 179 of the online magazine, featuring all of the stories from that issue, plus more, including interviews and soundbites from this year's Aurealis Awards Ceremony"

• At Escape Pod: "Rescue Party" by Arthur C. Clarke. Science Fiction.
     Described Above

• At LibriVox: "A Witch Shall Be Born" by Robert E. Howard. Fantasy.
      "The kingdom of Khauran is admittedly small, but blessed with an abundance of rich soil, hard working inhabitants and much gold but most of all by a sweet young queen who is as wise and beneficent as she is beautiful. But then a horrible witch (her evil twin sister) secretly replaces her and introduces devil worship, human sacrifice and other things too repulsive to mention. Conan, who was the captain of her guard is captured and crucified in the desert."

• At Lightspeed: "Get a Grip"  by Paul Park. Science Fiction.
     Described Above

• At 19 Nocturne Boulevard: "The Misplaced Battleship - Part 1 of 2" by Harry Harrison. Science Fiction.
      "It might seem a little careless to lose track of something as big as a battleship ... but interstellar space is on a different scale of magnitude. But a misplaced battleship—in the wrong hands!—can be most dangerous."

• At Protecting Project Pulp: “The Girl From Samarcand” by E. Hoffmann Price. Weird.
      “Look at it! Just a rug, the first time. But live with it day after day. See the witchery sparkling in it at sunset. Catch yourself losing yourself in the thrill of its three hundred years, wondering that all the ecstasy ever lost in the entire world could be imprisoned in a rug.” - first published in Weird Tales, March 1938.

• At Strange Horizons: "Longfin's Daughters" by O. J. Cade. Speculative Fiction,
     Described Above.

Other
Here's the free virtual cheese promises by the quite cool, but very deranged Regan Wolfrom. It's bring your own virtual bagels and graham crackers.

2 comments:

Regan Wolfrom said...

Your cheese made me gassy.

Dave Tackett said...

Ah that explains the mysterious, methane explosion reported near Winnipeg last night! Marscarpone is a dessert cheese; it isn't meant to be piled on tacos.