Friday

It's Friday and to star the pre-weekend celebration, we have some free fiction, including another magazine, Residential Aliens, that is new to QuasarDragon, a fable by Lev Grossman, serial fiction, serial audio, and a pair of podcasts by two great audio fiction sites.

More this weekend, including flash, gaming, etc.







Now Posted: Residential Aliens Vol 5 - No 4 (June-July 2011) featuring short stories.

"Romeo’s Spectral Charisma" by S. G. Rogers. Speculative Fiction

"As Brynn Ludden lay there, feigning Romeo’s poison-induced demise, Juliet dispatched herself with a dagger. "

"Home Improvements" by Karina Fabian. Fantasy / Humor.

"You get all kinds in the private investigations business—especially when you are a dragon with a holy mage for a partner—but getting hired by a tuxedo-wearing grasshopper to recover his flying house has got to be a record."

"Ghost Planet" by Mary C. Moore. Science Fiction.

"The small shuttle zipped through space and time—ignoring stars sparkling in their exquisiteness, asteroid belts full of misty animation, planets alluring in their mystery, black holes empty of life."

@The Magician's Book: "The Seven Golden Keys" by Lev Grossman‏. [via SF Signal] Fantasy.

"Once upon a time, in a cottage deep in the woods in the heart of Eillory, there lived a man and his beautiful young daughter. Like many other young girls. The daughter was the apple of her father's eye. The man's wife had died soon after giving birth to their baby. And because of this, the girl was unusually beloved."

Serial Fiction
@AEG: "The Destroyer War, Part 16" by Shawn Carman. Fantasy.

"The soon sat sooner in Zokujin Mura these days, as the horizon had been artificially raised by a massive avalanche only a week earlier. The avalanche, alleged to have been the work of a Kuni lord and his zokujin allies, had eradicated a large group of the Destroyers’ beast troops, and cut off all avenue of escape for another, larger force of ironclads."

@ Escape Pod: Episode #298: "The Things" by Peter Watts, read by Kate Bake. Science Fiction.

"I see myself through the window, loping through the storm, wearing Blair. MacReady has told me to burn Blair if he comes back alone, but MacReady still thinks I am one of him. I am not: I am being Blair, and I am at the door. I am being Childs, and I let myself in. I take brief communion, tendrils writhing forth from my faces, intertwining: I am BlairChilds, exchanging news of the world"

@Pseudopod: Episode #235: "Flash On The Borderlands VIII - Warped Love" Horror.

"Three flash fictions about the strange shapes love can bend us into"
"In Memorian" by Matthew Chrulew, read by Philippa Ballantine, "Piecies" by M.C. Funk, read by Donna Lynch, "Home Is Where the Heart Is" by Bint Arab, read by Marshal Latham!

Serial Audio
@Guild of Cowry Catchers: "Cowry Catchers Book 3 – Episode 7" Fantasy.

After a three month hiatus, the story continues.

@World in a Satin Bag: "Chapter Twelve (Of Tunnels and Pitch)" by Shaun Duke [via SF Signal]

"In any case, now that things have gone terribly wrong in Traea, James and his companions (Darl and Pea) make their escape. But the tunnels under the earth are not what they seem..."