Showing posts with label Lester Del Rey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lester Del Rey. Show all posts

Thursday, March 28, 2013

More Goodies

 A few more freebies for today.

 [Art for Police Your Planet by Lester Del Rey in audio fiction]








Fiction
• At Aurora Wolf: "Swallowed by Darkness" by Jennifer M. Windrow. Fantasy.
    "Our date wasn’t going well. It had been obvious from the start.  However, I felt obligated to stick it out. I owed it to the good friend who’d thought “we’d be perfect for each other”. "

• At Daily Science Fiction: "Shadow Play" by Liz Argall.
     "Every time the shadow puppets play, someone is saying, goodbye. Someone is saying, please don't go. Someone is saying, if only, please. Someone is saying, I remember when, and laughing."

• At Paizo: "Bastard, Sword - Chapter Four: Illusions of Ice" by Tim Pratt. Fantasy.
     ""Probably," Hrym said. 'I can't be expected to remember every kind of thing I've slain. Listen, Manius, before we begin our crusade, do you mind giving me a few moments alone with Rodrick here?'"

• At Tor.com: "Running of the Bulls" by Harry Turtledove.
     "You are all a lost generation, she said back then. And anyone who looked at them as they spun their dizzy way through life would have had a hard time telling her she was wrong."

Flash Fiction
  • At Every Day Fiction: "Life of Eight" by Paul Miller. Science Fiction.
  • At Nature: "Sticky" by George Zebrowski. Science Fiction. 
  • At 365 Tomorrows: "Cold" by Bronwyn Seward. Science Fiction.
Audio Fiction
• At Escape Pod: "Keeping Tabs" by Kenneth Schneyer. Science Fiction.
      "I was so excited when I could finally buy a Tab. They cost so much, you know, but I saved up for maybe six months. I waitressed at Antonio’s in the North End, and let me tell you, it’s murder on the feet.  Those trays are heavy, too, and Nico screams at everybody the whole shift, not to mention the way you smell after six hours."

• At LibriVox: Police Your Planet by Lester Del Rey. Science Fiction.
     "Bruce Gordon looked at his ticket, grimaced at the ONE WAY stamped on it, then tore it into bits and let the pieces scatter over the floor. He counted them as they fell; thirty pieces in all, one for each year of his life. Little ones for the two years he'd wasted as a cop."

• At LibriVox: People of the Mist by H. Rider Haggard. Adventure.
     "Penniless Leonard Outram attempts to redress the undeserved loss of his family estates and fiancee by seeking his fortune in Africa."

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


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.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Free Audio Fiction and More

Today was very good day for free audio fiction, including pirates (Arr!) , fantasy, and SF. We also have some good gaming freebies, classic SF, and a bit more. Have a good Wednesday, avoid Gnaerkieans, and whatever you do, don't lesnerize!




Fiction
Serial Fiction
@Paizo.com: The Walkers from the Crypt by Howard Andrew Jones. Chapter Four: The Pendant.
"Prince Dolandryn explained that in life he'd known only a handful of spells, for he had bent his concentration upon necromantic studies to the exclusion of almost all other magics."




Classic SF
"No Strings Attached" by Lester del Rey, from IF: Worlds of Science Fiction (June 1954).
Poor Henry was an unhappy husband whose wife had a habit of using bad clichès. Alféar was a genii who was, quite like most humans, a creature of habit. Their murder compact was absolutely perfect, with—
At Munseys and Project Gutenberg.

"Oogie Finds Love" by Berkeley Livingston, from Amazing Stories (November 1948).
"It took a fierce battle with the prehistoric Cro-Magnons, and a modern wrestling match with the Russian Bear, before Oogie, the Caveman, finally won beautiful Sala for his woman."
At Munseys and Project Gutenberg.

Brood of the Dark Moon by Charles Willard Diffin, from Astounding Stories (August, September, October, and November 1931).
"Once more Chet, Walt and Diane are united in a wild ride to the Dark Moon—but this time they go as prisoners of their deadly enemy Schwartzmann."
At Munseys and Project Gutenberg.

"Islands" by Eric Flint, from The Warmasters (2004).
"Calopodius went to war to win glory. But after he loses his sight, he is afraid that glory will not befall him. So he finds ways other than battle to make a name for himself."
Reviewed and linked at BestScienceFictionStories.


Flash Fiction:




@Flashes in the Dark: "Fiona's Story (Part One)" by Lori Titus
@Everyday Fiction: "Serves Him Right" by K.C. Ball.
@The Daily Cabal: "The Fragile" by Jason Erik Lundberg.
@365 tomorrows: "Final Exam" by Ian Eller.
@Daily Science Fiction: "K is for Kinky" by Tim Pratt, Jenn Reese, Heather Shaw, Greg van Eekhout.


Audio Fiction:





@LibriVox: Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates by Howard Pyle.
"Swashbuckling tales of legendary pirates, buccaneers, and marooners, terrors of the Spanish Main." In MP3 and ogg downloads.

@PodCastle: Episode 149, Honing Sebastian by Elizabeth Engstrom, read by Kane Lynch.
"Sebastian found the paper sack at 0217 hours on Monday, the sixteenth of Aout, the day of our Lord Hammersmith 12. He saw it in the corner of the doorway of an old apothecary, and made note of all the details in his journal before he approached it."

@The Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine: Episode 96, Sides by Clay Dugger.
"Carl Stanley has survived the Zombie Apocalypse so far, but that’s not to say he’s escaped unscathed. As a matter of fact, he was bitten by a little girl zombie, and now, he’s starting to feel and act strangely…"

@StarShipSofa: Episode #181, highlighted by Arvies by Adam Troy Castro.
"Expect cute plush animals and amniotic fluid and a more or less happy ending for everybody, though the definition of happiness may depend on the truncated emotional capacity of those unable to feel anything else."

@ScottSigler.com: Tuesday Terror Episode #03, Loyalty Part 1 of 2
"'Loyalty' is written by Renee Jordan; edited and performed by Arioch Morningstar. It is an alternative future-history of The Rookie."

@19 Nocturne Boulevard: A Date With Dana, by Julie Hoverson, performed by a full cast.
"An AI and a blind date ....what could go wrong?"

Gaming

@Trollish Delver: A short Tunnels and Trolls GM adventure, The Forest of the Treelords.
"The town of Oakblade is an attraction to a great many adventurers looking to make a name for themselves as well as a sackful of treasure. You see, Oakblade is home to the Darklight Forest, a place of secrets where deadly creatures dwell. "






Small, But Cool, Gaming Freebies
@Daddy Grognard: An Adventure for Every Monster - Bears.
@The Land of NOD: [Encounter] Mu-Pan - Encounter VIII.
@Blog on the Borderlands: [New Monster] Scavenging Crawler.
@A Hamsterish Hoard of Dungeons and Dragons: [New Monster] Khetirr.
@The Savage AfterWorld: [New Monster] Soulrider.
@A Character for Every Game: [Magic Items] 6 Magic Potions.
@A Character for Every Game: Enchanters, a Labyrinth Lord Magic-User Subclass.
@A Character for Every Game: [New Spells] Enchanter Spells.
@Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets: [New Spell] Breath of the Gorgon.
@Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets: [New Magic Item] Spellsap.

Other News

TheOneRing.Net notes that Production Begins on the Hobbit movies. [via Greyhawk Grognard]