Showing posts with label Hans Christian Anderson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hans Christian Anderson. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Morning Missive from the Ministry of Free Fiction

No doublethink needed here comrades. We have some doubleplusgood stories for you, including a fantasy story (in both audio and text form) by genre legend Ursula K. Le Guin.  There are quite few other worthy entries today, so sit back, drink your victory coffee, and read or listen as you like comrades.  Today's two Two Minutes Hate has been canceled due to sabatage by Eurasian SF Signalian Eastasian spies. Be sure to visit are free fiction allies blogs at SF Signal, Free SF Reader, Free Speculative Fiction Online, BestScienceFictionStories.com, Variety SF, and  SFFaudio

 [Art for "The Issahar Artifacts" in audio fiction]




Fiction
The Colored Lens: "Once More, onto the Beach" by S. R. Algernon.
     "She gravitated toward the sound, certain it led to safety. As she swam, the undulating glow revealed a shape ahead of her– a bulbous yet streamlined form with trunk-like legs swept backward and pressed against its blubbery underbelly. She recoiled, feeling a rush of water flow through her gills and letting a few bubbles escape from the blowhole at the top of her head. The sight of the beast triggered a rush of hunger and adrenaline."

• At Daily Science Fiction: "Diamond Doubles" by Eric Brown. Science Fiction.
      "The disappearance of the noted science fiction editor Dan Woolover around the 10th October, 1966 was a cause of great mystery, as were the other disappearances in the area of Tubb Street, Brooklyn, around the same time. However, letters discovered recently at Mr. Woolover's office might shed light on the affair."

• At L5R: "Gates of Chaos, Part 1" by Seth Mason. Fantasy
     "Shinjo Tselu stood in the middle of the Ivory Court, his helm tucked under his arm. The Ivory Champion realized he was probably beginning some manner of new tradition – he had not been seen in public without his armor since the riots began. It was likely that from then on, when there was serious conflict in the Colonies, the Ivory Champion – whomever it happened to be – would follow suit."

• At Lightspeed: "This Villain You Must Create" by Carlie St. George. Science Fiction.
        "Granite killed Mr. Malevolence on a Tuesday. In his defense, Mr. Malevolence was trying to destroy the entire world at the time. Defeating him was nothing new for Granite, either—they were archenemies and had been for almost twenty years now. Saving the world was a very old dance, a box step that Granite could do backwards and blindfolded."

• At Lightspeed: "The Stars Below" by Ursula K. Le Guin. Fantasy.
         "The wooden house and outbuildings caught fire fast, blazed up, burned down, but the dome, built of lathe and plaster above a drum of brick, would not burn. What they did at last was heap up the wreckage of the telescopes, the instruments, the books and charts and drawings, in the middle of the floor under the dome, pour oil on the heap, and set fire to that. The flames spread to the wooden beams of the big telescope frame and to the clockwork mechanisms."

Flash Fiction
E-Books
At Free E-Books Daily:
Audio Fiction
• At 19 Nocturne: "The Issahar Artifacts" by J.F. Bone. Science Fiction.
     "Lincoln said it eons ago.... It took a speck of one-celled plant life on a world parsecs away to prove it for all the galaxy."

• At Clarkesworld: "The Illustrated Biography of Lord Grimm" by Daryl Gregory.
     "The 22nd Invasion of Trovenia began with a streak of scarlet against a gray sky fast as the flick of a paintbrush. The red blur zipped across the length of the island, moving west to east, and shot out to sea. The sonic boom a moment later scattered the birds that wheeled above the fish processing plant and sent them squealing and plummeting"

• At LibriVox: Andersen's Fairy Tales (Version 2)  by Hans Christian Andersen. Children's Fantasy.
      "A small collection of some of H.C. Andersen's fairy tales -- including The Emperor's New Clothes, The Red Shoes, The Naughty Boy and fifteen others."

• At Lightspeed: "The Stars Below" by Ursula K. Le Guin. Fantasy.
         "The wooden house and outbuildings caught fire fast, blazed up, burned down, but the dome, built of lathe and plaster above a drum of brick, would not burn. What they did at last was heap up the wreckage of the telescopes, the instruments, the books and charts and drawings, in the middle of the floor under the dome, pour oil on the heap, and set fire to that. The flames spread to the wooden beams of the big telescope frame and to the clockwork mechanisms."

Other Genres
  • Audio at Protecting Project Pulp: "River Round-Up" by W. Ryerson Johnson. Western.
  • Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "Always Together" by Gary Sprague.


Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Post-Holiday Free Fiction Links

 Back after a holiday day off with some very good stuff.  There's some fantastic free fiction at some of the big name sites, and some equally good audio fiction!  More later.

 Today's QD radio is "The Thing From The Sea" a classic weird horror tale from Dark Fantasy (1941).

 [Art from Drabblecast]




Fiction
• At The Colored Lens: "The Transfiguration of Vincent" by Ana-Maria Molon. Slipstream.
      "I don’t believe in miracles. I don’t believe in magic. Yet Beatrice insists that it was a combination of these asinine forces that saved Vincent’s life. What words does she use to describe Maggie’s death? She has none. Which is fitting, for neither do I."

• At Lightspeed: "Family Teeth (Part 6): St. Polycarp’s Home For Happy Wanderers" by Sarah Langan. Fantasy.
      "Sheila Halpern got her looks from her Momma, who died pushing her out. Died before, even, but still kept pushing. “You’re the prettiest thing in the whole darn world,” her daddy told her the day he put her on the train for the St. Polycarp’s Home for Happy Wanderers, his age-soft teeth all chipped so everything sounded muffled. She was eight years old, lice riddled, and 90% liar like her daddy."

• At Lightspeed:  "Lázaro y Antonio" by Marta Randall. Science Fiction.
     "Sure Lázaro was broke, but he still wasn’t interested in rolling drunks, not even rich belligerent Academy chilito drunks. This one had shown up last night with some pendejo brotherhood, too many to take on, but tonight he was alone and still a dick so Lázaro had no qualms about holding Antonio’s new foxleather jacket while Antonio whacked the guy’s fright-coifed blond head, just precisely so."

• At Night Shade Books: Eclipse Online - "The Memcordist" by Lavie Tidhar. Science Fiction.
     "Beyond the dome the ice-storms of Titan rage; inside it is warm, damp, with the smell of sewage seeping through and creepers growing through the walls of the above-ground dwellings. He tries to find her scent in the streets of Polyport and fails."

• At Nightmare Magazine: "Foul Weather" by Daniel H. Wilson. Horror.
      "Some things you  can’t figure out. Not even with a whole heap of scratch paper and a ribbon of data from a chattering teletype machine. Not before time runs out. And time is like progress—she’s not stopping for anybody. The answer is out there, though, in the weather."

Flash Fiction 
Audio Fiction
• At DrabbleCast: "Postapocalypsemas" by Tim Pratt and Heather Shaw.
      "It was just a whiff, a few molecules of something familiar and therefore sweet, wafting on a late afternoon breeze that otherwise carried only the usual: formaldehyde, benzene, dioxin, chromium, and miscellaneous particulate matter both organic and non-."

• At Lightspeed: "Family Teeth (Part 6): St. Polycarp’s Home For Happy Wanderers" by Sarah Langan. Fantasy.
      Described above.

• At Nightmare Magazine: "Foul Weather" by Daniel H. Wilson. Horror.
      Described above

      "When I climbed the hill of bones, the shaman was waiting for me,” Darren said, stirring Nutrasweet into his herbal tea.  “Except now he was a giant rat.  Like ten feet tall."

• At StarShipSofa: "The Boneless One - Part 2" by Alec Nevala-Lee.
      No description
 
Other Genres


Saturday, December 15, 2012

E-Books, Hobbit, Trek, and Science News, and More

Some more free goodies for you!  There's a new audio fiction story at the always amazing Clarkesworld Magazine, and some good sounding E-Books, including the short story collection Essential Reading in Science Fiction by David Scholes. There's a newly discovered lost fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson (believed to be his first) and more including Science and Movie News.



[Art from Essential Reading in Science Fiction linked below]

 




Audio 

E-Books
 At Free e Books Daily:
Other Genres
Science News
Hobbit and Star Trek News