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)

Friday Freebies Complete

Happy Weekend! A few cool items today. SF and Fantasy stories, another part of the Vampire serial at White Wolf, Escape Pod's audio version of the recently posted "Shannon's Law" by Cory Doctorow. Added the gaming section and an additional audio fiction link.

Illustration for the audio drama "The Stuff of Myth" by Roger Gregg.







@Daily Science Fiction: "The Beauty Garden" by Damon Shaw.
"The invaders kicked down the gate in the village stockade. Eurwen heard the crowd behind her moan in fear, but did not allow herself to flinch as the flimsy barrier crashed to the ground. She raised her hand, as much to still her own heart as to calm her people."

@Anotherealm: "The Red Queen" by Noeleen Kavanagh.
"And Rose was a fool of a girl. She always had been, ever since she had been a small child. I still cannot believe that I bore a child so utterly alien to me. Maybe the peasants are right when they speak of children spirited away in the night and changelings left in their place."

Serial Fiction
@White Wolf: Silent Knife, part 4 by David Nurenberg.
"Now she was staring into Bourne’s startled, porcine eyes, at his scraggly black beard, at the tip of her blade as she pointed it at him with her free hand."

Classic SF
@Munseys and Project Gutenberg: "The Telenizer" by Don Thompson, from Galaxy Science Fiction (March 1954).
"Langston had technicolor delusions; inanimate objects came alive in his hands; THEY were persecuting him, out to get him ... what a relief it was to know he wasn't going insane!"







@Escape Pod: Episode #291 "Shannon’s Law" by Cory Doctorow, read by Mur Lafferty.
"When the Way opened again, the day I turned seventeen, I didn’t hesitate. I packed everything I could carry—every scratched phone, every half-assembled laptop, every stick of memory, and every Game Boy I could fit in a duffel bag."

@Radio Drama Revival: Episode 224 "Stuff of Myth" (Part One) by Roger Gregg. Mythology/Comedy. [site found via SFFaudio]
"Ahh, ancient Greece. Hot nymphs, raging orgies, much wine, song, and occasional transformations into livestock. All well and good, right? Well things are more wacky than ever in the sizzling and scandalous interpretation of the myth of Orpheus"

• @Flashes in the Dark: "Hope Bites" by E. Cheshire.
• @365 tomorrows: "Silicon Valley" by Duncan Shields.
• @The New Flesh: "Poor Jim" by Josh Myers

@Fighting Fantazine: Issue #6 featuring "Escape from the Sorcerer"
"A 200 reference bumper length mini Fighting Fantasy adventure:
The kingdom of Alkemis has come under repeated attack from neighbouring Agra. Unable to hold back the hordes of Lizard Men and chaotic Asuras led by the evil sorcerer Grudar Kreshnel, YOU and a few dozen fellow survivors were captured. One by one your fellow countrymen have been brutally executed, until only YOU remain. Will YOU be able to escape from the Sorcerer?"



More Cool Gaming Items

• @Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets: [Magic Item] "Arrows of Andisli"
• @Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets: [Spells] "Find Food" and "Shadowleash"
• @A Field Guide to Doomsday: [Monster] "Slaguar" Mutant Future.
• @The Land of NOD: [Supervillains] "Simply Smashing" Mystery Men.
• @Netherwerks: [Monsters] "Flutter Worm"

Friday Post 1.1 *updated*

QD has a few very cool items for you today, including some items from sites we haven't linked to before. Updated with serial fiction, an SF pulp magazine, and a gaming magazine. Enjoy, stay strong space soldiers, and don't forget to drink your Ovaltine.






E-Fiction
At Munseys and Project Gutenberg "Sugar Plum" a humorous sf story by Reginald Bretnor, from Galaxy Science Fiction (Nov. 1952).
"On a clear spring evening in 2189, Charles Edward Button came home half an hour late for his supper, tossed his hat to the robot butler who came out from behind the DoItAll, and announced that he had just bought a planet."

Available online and in e-book downloads at Munseys and Project Gutenberg.




At Daily Science Fiction, "Rinse or Repeat" by Sylvia Hiven.
"Gabriel wouldn't ever have thought there would be circumstances rough enough for him to set foot in lower Manhattan Chinatown. In the old days, perhaps, but not after the integration. Too many dragons. There were mainly humans, of course; clingy people chattering in Mandarin as he walked by in the drizzle, one offering traditional Chinese souvenirs while the next tried to sell him pornographic holograms"

Online HERE.

At Crosseyed Cyclops, classic pulp SF, Worlds Beyond #12 (Dec. 1950). Available in CBR format, which while less optimal than pdf, is readable enough.



Available HERE.








Audio Fiction
At Escape Pod, "The Notebook of my Favourite Skin-Trees" by Alex Dally MacFarlane, read by Pamela Quevillon.
"The best part of these are the fruits, growing on their fat stem, dangling down the person’s back or from their arm. I always bow and smile, asking, 'Can I taste one of your fruits? Bananas from a skin-tree are so sweet.'"

streaming and in MP3 download HERE.


Serial Fiction
At Book View Cafe, chapters 8&9 of Polar City Blues by Katharine Kerr (1990).
"Not only has Polar City been spared the expense of a long drawn-out trial, but a dead assassin causes no further political embarrassments to anyone. With their trained wolf alive and talking, the Alliance would no doubt grow self-righteous and dangerously belligerent to cover their tracks."
Online HERE or start from the beginning here.





Gaming
At Mongoose Publishing, Signs & Portents #89 featuring material for RuneQuest II, Judge Dredd, Traveller, Elric of Melnibone, Lone Wolf, and other RPGs.



In a free 93 page pdf download HERE.






Fighting Fantazine is "a fan magazine based on the Fighting Fantasy range of gamebooks first published in 1982 by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. In particular it focusses on the worlds those adventures are set in, especially the fantasy world of Titan" These are quite professional looking, each with a mini Fighting Fantasy adventure and more. The latest issue, Feb. 2011, features an interview with artist John Sibbick and a "bumper length mini Fighting Fantasy adventure"

All five issues are available in free pdf downloads HERE [via FightingFantasist]



At The City of Iron, The Elementalist - a new class for Labyrinth Lord (or D&D, OD&D, Hackmaster, or 1e AD&D)


In a free pdf download HERE.



At Sickly Purple Death Ray, a series of interesting maps, along with descriptions of the map environment called interesting places. D&D-centric but useful for any fantasy rpg.

All online HERE.




Comics
At The Comic Book Catacombs, jungle adventure with "Tabu, Wizard of the Jungle" in an untitled adventure from Jungle Comics #6 (June 1940)


Online HERE.



At Ditko Comics, "The Strange Fate Of Captain Fenton" from Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #6 [1957]. An adventure tale with a weird twist.




Online HERE.