Showing posts with label Henry Kuttner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Henry Kuttner. Show all posts

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Early Bradbury and a Bit More

A few goodies to start the day. Project Gutenberg (arguably the most important site on the internet) has a real find, a pair of fanzines edited by a young Ray Bradbury, and featuring articles by a couple other recognizable names.  There are a few other goodies, including a couple of pulp-fiction stories and more. More later.


[Art from Futuria Fantasia Summer 1939]






Fanzines
• At Project Gutenberg: Futuria Fantasia - Summer 1939 and Fall 1939. Edited by Ray Bradbury.
     "For some time I have been wondering what the world is coming to. More than once I have got up in the middle of the nite, padded toward the bureau, and, peering into the mirror, exclaimed, "Stinky, what is the world coming to?"

Free Fiction
  • Flash Fiction at 365 Tomorrows: "Nano Chevall" by Morrow Brady. Science Fiction.
  • Old Time Radio at Boxcars711: "In The Groove" - Vanishing Point 1985.

Other Genres




Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Kuttner, Laumer, Rambo, Rusch, and other Greatness

Some great free stuff today! There's some good free fiction, including short story by the couple of my favorite active writers Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Cat Rambo (even though I always picture a calico with a bandanna and an M60, Rambo is an excellent writer).  There's great audio fiction, including new readings of classic Kuttner and Laumer stories, e-books, and flash fiction. And finally, there's a new issue of the free gaming 'zine Frontier Explorer, which provides today's art.

And despite what you may have heard at SF Signal (one of the best sites out there), perfection only exists at the sites linked to, never here.


Fiction
At Aurora Wolf:  "An Apple a Day" by Harmony Melbourne. Fantasy.
      Patti May kept her eyes on her work. “Don’t know why. She’s a hypocrite. She helped them kill us. Don’t know how anyone could live with themselves after that.”

At Author's Site: "Dread Unlocks" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch.  Horror. (Up until next Monday)
     "In Los Angeles, everyone knows Ms. Tarbell dispels dread. She finds an amazing amount of it in that sunlight-filled city, but nothing like the unnamed horror she faces on her current case."

At Daily Science Fiction: "The Number Two Rule" by Lesley L. Smith.
     "Still looking out the window, I nodded. It was okay if I didn't say anything, right? I heard the liquid stream into the cup."

 At L5R: "Scenes from the Empire" by Robert Denton & Seth Mason. Fantasy vignettes.
      "My own days of late have been filled with the conflict my clan faces. The Mantis pursue their agenda of avarice and chaos despite the honor of our claims and destruction they cause."

Now Posted: The Red Penny Papers Vol. 3 No. 1 [via SF Signal]
A Connection to Beyond by Cat Rambo.
     “The editor writes that he believes it is the innocence of their hearts allowing them this great gift.” Papa was silent, studying me. Then, with hesitation in his voice he said, “You never hear noises you can’t explain, do you, Jenny?”
Breathing Room by Jamie Mason.
     "Willy uses a hose to siphon bootleg oxygen from the condo into the VW microbus he shares with Moo. This is a dangerous operation, not so much for them as for the Yuppies infesting the newly-built facility."
Fearsome Critters and Friendly Giants by M. Bennardo.
      "Yes, spring had returned to the Michigan North Woods, but Paul Bunyan had not. Instead, there was a barge at the Lake Superior landing with six brand-new, bright red Overpack horse-drawn logging wheels."
Crossroads and Carousels by Alan Baxter.
      "Mark Cooper lay under a light sheet, wishing a breeze would blow in through the open window. Not a breath stirred the curtains and the hot night lay heavy like a shroud."
The Extravagant and Venturesome Lives of Woman Pyrates by Katy Gunn.
     "Our pockets full of elephant teeth, gold-dust, lamp tassels, and rat pellets, we leap about the decks of our new plundered galley, the Whidaw."

Flash Fiction
At Every Day Fiction: "10 Things To Do in Los Angeles After You Die" by Emily C. Skaftun. Horror.
At Flashes in the Dark: "The Tattered Man" by Michael A. Kechula. Horror.
At Mindflights: "The Hollow Man - an alphabet" Fantasy. Poem.
At 365 Tomorrows: "Curiosity" by Daniel. Science Fiction.

 E-Books
 At Free eBooks Daily:
Via Pixel of Ink:
 At Smashwords:

Audio Fiction
At Author's Site:  "Lovestory" Part Two by James Patrick Kelly. Science Fiction.
    "first published in Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine"

At Drabblecast: "The People of Sand and Slag " by  Paolo Bacigalupi. Science Fiction.
     "'Hostile movement! Well inside the perimeter! Well inside!' I stripped off my Immersive Response goggles as adrenaline surged through me. The virtual cityscape I’d been about to raze disappeared, replaced by our monitoring room’s many views of SesCo’s mining operations."

At Dunesteef:  "CHEMO: The Pieces Of Erica Smith" by J.M. Perkins. Horror. Zombies.
     "It’s only been two months since Agent Joseph faced masses of zombies while locked inside of a prison. Now, he has a new mission. This one is so big that half of all CHEMO is being mobilized."

At LibriVox: "Gambler's World & The Yillian Way" by Keith Laumer. Science Fiction.
     "Here are two stores starring the always unconventional Terrestrial Diplomat, Retief. As a diplomat, Retief does not always follow procedure. Well the truth is that he almost never follows procedure but somehow his wit and strength manage to salvage most situations from the bumbling of his superiors"

At 19 Nocturne Boulevard: "Luella Miller" by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman. Horror.
      "Close to the village street stood the one-story house in which Luella Miller, who had an evil name in the village, had dwelt. She had been dead for years, yet there were those in the village who, in spite of the clearer light which comes on a vantage-point from a long-past danger, half believed in the tale which they had heard from their childhood."

At 19 Nocturne Boulevard:  "The Shunned House" by H. P. Lovecraft. Horror.

     classic Lovecraft story adapted as an audio drama.

At 19 Nocturne Boulevard: "Dead Wet Chicks" (Fatal Girl, episode 4). Horror.

      "A serial killer in a remote town raise suspicions, and bring the team to investigate."

At 19 Nocturne Boulevard: "Baby Love" (Fatal Girl, episode 3). Horror.

      "Following a vision, Chiyoko, Alice, and Ken (minus the wounded Hyde) find themselves facing a hideous monster in the guise of the most innocent of things..."

At Protecting Project Pulp: “Raiders of the Spaceways” by Henry Kuttner. Science Fiction.
     "A warning throb came from the televisor. Kenworth sprang to the door, flung it open. Against the gray clouds, dim in the rain, a black oval grew larger—the collection ship, swiftly descending. And within it—Thona Trenton and the Raider!"

Gaming
 At DriveThruRPG: Frontier Explorer - Issue 2.
      "The Frontier Explorer is a fan supported and run magazine dedicated to science fiction role playing games and fiction. In its pages you will find optional rule systems, equipment, encounters, and more for various RPGs as well as fiction contributed by our authors and the community."

 Other  Genres
At Project Gutenberg: Fairy Legends and Traditions of The South of Ireland by T. Crofton Crocker. Non-Fiction. 1844.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Many Freebies, Including George R. R. Martin's "The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr"

A ton of AWESOME today. George R. R. Martin's "The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr" is only one of the cool stories today. And there is an iPod full of worthy audio fiction (OK a cheap MP3 player full) , a video, and some very good gaming items. As Blur would say "Woo hoo!!!!!"



Fiction
@Fantasy Magazine: "The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr" by George R. R. Martin.
"One moment there was only the valley, caught in twilight. The only sounds were the cries of the mourning-birds coming out for the night, and the swift rush of water in the rocky stream that cut the woods."
Online and in MP3 (streaming and download).



@Ray Gun Revival: "White World" by Steve Stanton.
"Viki staged a party for their last night together. The food was catered but the drinks were bring-your-own. She had planned the details for weeks in advance, her fifth-floor apartment immaculate, completely sterile. All the guests had been instructed to be free of animal dander and scrubbed clean with disinfectant. Her young man Danny could not risk any contamination this late in his regime."

@Book View Cafe: "Signed in Blood" by P. R. Frost, from A Girl’s Guide to Guns and Monsters, edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Kerrie Hughes, February 2010.
"I knew words would flow easily from this pen. Beautiful words that melded together into a story."

@Book View Cafe: "California Demon" by Susan Wright.
"Read the urban fantasy story "California Demon" and find out what happens to Allay when she is possessed by a demon."

@Mindflights: "The Oracle of Themazuri" by Rachel V. Olivier.
"Dayo, like many girls her age, is a daydreamer. Unlike those girls, however, sometimes those daydreams come true. It is a gift, but it is a gift that has cost her everything."

Serial Fiction:
@Kat and Mouse: Guns for Hire: "Payback" - Part Two" by Abner Senires.
"Since the meet was in Southside near the Gibson Street Tunnel, I dropped four extra pistol magazines in my cargo pockets, grabbed a frag grenade, a smoke grenade, and made sure I had the FAL fully loaded with several extra magazines in the Shelby's trunk"

Classic SF
@Two-Fisted Tales of True-Life Weird Romance: ". . .and It Comes Out Here" by Lester del Rey, from Galaxy Science Fiction (Feb. 1951). In Jpeg scans.
"There is one fact no sane man can quarrel with ... everything has a beginning and an end. But some men aren't sane: thus it isn't always so!"

@BestScienceFictionStories: "A Logic Named Joe" by Murray Leinster (1946).
"a 1946 science fiction short story by Murray Leinster. It is about a network connected machine that can answer any and all questions!" Reviewed and linked to a free online version.


Audio Fiction
@Beam Me Up: Episode #254 featuring the conclusion of "The Utility of Love"” by David Steffen, read by Wilson Fowlie. And "Time Enough At Last" by Lynn Venable.

@The Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine: "Anakoinosis" by Tobias S. Buckell, produced by Marshal Latham. "Humans have come to the home world of an alien species known as the whiffets. The whiffets are eager to learn all that humans have to teach them. They are helping the humans repair the damage to their ship, but are the humans helping the whiffets? "

@The Classic Tales Podcast: Episode #203, "The Black Cat" by Edgar Allan Poe, read by B. J. Harrison.
"A convicted man tells of his descent into dissipation. For his love of animals, once his greatest comfort, proves to be his ultimate undoing."

@Cast Macabre: Episode #35, "The Night Stalker" by Raymond Gates, read by Barry J. Northern.

@Cthulhu: "The Curse of Kralitz" by Henry Kuttner.
A mythos related story by the SF great.

@LibriVox: PD Goth, by various (inc. Poe and Blackwood)
"A collection of spooky stories culled from etexts found on Project Gutenberg."

@LibriVox: The Book of a Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 04, by Anonymous, translated by Richard Francis Burton.
"A long series of cliff-hangers told by Shahrazad to her husband Shahryar, to prevent him from executing her. Many tales that have become independently famous come from the Book, among them Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and the voyages of Sinbad the Sailor."

Serial Audio
@The Author's Website: The Starter - Episode #7 by Scott Sigler.
"The rookies arrive on the TOUCHBACK after surviving their tests on the COMBINE, and this time Quentin is meeting the new recruits as the starting quarterback of the Krakens."


Flash Fiction
@365 tomorrows: "The Vote" by John Tudball.
@365 tomorrows: "Protocol" by Eric Poch.
@365 tomorrows: "Looking Glass" by N. Thomas Parshall.
@The New Flesh: "Immortality" by Robert Eccles.
@Every Day Fiction: "The Princess and the Bullfrog" by Vincent D. O’Connor.
@Flashes in the Dark: "Bloody Rejuvenation" by Joshua Scribner.
@The Daily Cabal: "On Reincarnation in Turkeys" by Luc Reid.
@Daily Science Fiction: "That's Show Business" by Bruce Boston.

Video
@VODO: Zenith (2011).
"A father and son, separated by decades and a cataclysm that has upturned the world, track a grand and elusive conspiracy in this cyberpunk thriller.

In the hellish future of 2044, human beings have become stupefied by the state of permanent happiness they’ve been genetically altered to experience. ‘Dumb’ Jack (Peter Scanavino) offers relief via drugs that bring his customers the welcome phenomenon of pain. But when Jack receives a mysterious videotape of his dead father, he sets out to unmask the dangerous conspiracy that has created this dystopian world."
Unfortunately distributed only through torrents, but if you trust your anti-virus software, this doesn't look bad.


Gaming
@A Character for Every Game: Labyrinth Lord Downloadables. A good roundup of the free Labyrinth Lord materials available on the web. Everything you need to start gaming after a few hours reading.








Short But Sweet.
@A Hamsterish Hoard of Dungeons and Dragons: [New Monster] Brass Jackal.
@The Land of NOD: [Encounters] Mu-Pan - Encounter XII / XIII.
@The Land of NOD: [Encounter] Mu-Pan - Encounter XIV.
@The Land of NOD: [Encounter] Mu-Pan - Encounter XV.
@A Character for Every Game: [New Magic Items] 6 More Magic Potions.
@Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets: [New Magic Item] Master Thief’s Club of Deception.
@Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets: [New Spell] Dead Freeze.
@Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets: [New Spell] Numberspeak.
@Strange Magic: [New Magic Items] 6 Minor Magic Items.
@Trollish Delver: [New Character Types] Burglar and Wildfarer for Tunnels and Trolls.
@DriveThruRPG: Dark Ages Basic Rules From White Wolf [free membership required].
@Blog on the Borderlands: [New Spell] Holy Weapon.