Chipped from the granite of regular internet content, we present to you the fictional gems prised out from the unyielding seam. Or something like that, anyway!
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Here’s a handful from ManyBooks.net:
- “The Night Of The Long Knives” by Fritz Reuter Leiber Jr.
- “Heist Job on Thizar” by Gordon Randall Garrett – (“In the future, we may discover new planets; our ships may rocket to new worlds; robots may be smarter than people. But we’ll still have slick characters willing and able to turn a fast buck–even though they have to be smarter than Einstein to do it.”)
- “A World Called Crimson” by John Darius Granger – (“There was a boy and a girl and a strange new planet; the planet was alive with hideous dangers. But the boy and girl were very young and all Robin wanted to know was: “Who stole my doll?”” Well, there’s your human angle, right there.)
- The Great White Queen by William le Queux – A “Lost Race” tale, apparently, from 1897 – all 90k+ words of it!
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It’s a veritable Richard Kadrey-fest at FeedBooks:
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The latest Clarkesworld is in the wild, as reported by Nick Mamatas:
“Regular readers may remember that I “got Lishy” with Paul Jessup‘s “The Secret in the House of Smiles“, which is our fiction feature this month.
Also, get those fingers ready to write cranky letters about our non-fiction feature Cheer Up Emo Kid! Being Depressed (or Gay) is Not All in Your Genes.”
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You can download Pantechnicon #7, or just read it all online – the choice, dear reader, is yours!
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Via BoingBoing:
“Little Fuzzy is [H. Beam] Piper‘s masterpiece, a tight, neat science fiction story that epitomizes the golden age of sf. It concerns a prospector on a distant world who discovers a potentially sentient aboriginal race (the “Fuzzies”), and his ensuing fight – fists, lawyers and even guns – to get them recognized as sentient beings.
Little Fuzzy is in the public domain, so there’s both a free ebook and a free audiobook recording available of the text.”
Never read it myself, but I remember my mother adoring it – and she’s got great taste. She thinks I’m handsome and intelligent, so she must do. 😉
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Cthulhu be praised! Via Metafilter, Selected Stories of H P Lovecraft! (Nearly fifty or so, by the look of it – can the fabric of reality handle that much terror?)
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A morsel of fiction from Peter Watts – “Family Values“:
“Screw this. I’m sick of being outnumbered by morons. I’m calling in reinforcements.”
We all know that feeling, AMIRITE?
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Jayme Lynn Blaschke is up to instalment 14 of Memory:
“You bastard.” Flavius’ voice was a low growl. “You let them kill me twenty-seven times?“
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A last-minute submission from Jake Freivald:
“The new issue of Flash Fiction Online is up with two new stories (one sci fi, one horror), a classic flash (literary), an essay by SFWA member Dave Hoing (call it literary, I guess), and, for the writers out there, the first installment of a new column by award-winning author Bruce Holland Rogers about writing the short-short form.”
Cheers, Jake!
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And finally, speaking of flash fiction, it’s those fine and fulsome Friday Flash Fictioneers:
- Gareth L Powell needs a stiff gin and a sit-down while he deals with his “Mid Life Crisis“
- Neil Beynon‘s breath fogs up “The Cold Glass“
- Justin Pickard is stuck in “The Terminal“
- Shaun C Green is “Earthbound“
- Sarah Ellender enters into “The Baker’s Bargain“
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And that’s everything pre-deadline for this week, ladies and gents. Keep those tips and plugs coming in – and have a great weekend!