All posts by Paul Raven

Blog

Erotic science fiction and fantasy flash fiction advent calendar?!

We get email… some of which is unprintable, naturally, but some of which is more… well, I think I’ll just let this one speak for itself:

‘Tis the season for gift-giving and independent publisher Circlet Press is in the spirit. Each day of December up to the 23rd, a free story will appear at circlet.com in what the publisher calls their “Erotic Sci-Fi Advent Calendar.”

Just like the advent calendars which deliver a chocolate treat each day, circlet.com will have one delicious short story of erotic fantasy or erotic science fiction. Stories will only be up for 24 hours, though, so visitors must return each day to collect their next gift.

The selection will be as eclectic as the publisher, including all sexualities and orientations, and a range of science fiction and fantasy topics from vampires to artificial intelligence. Some of the stories will be from Circlet’s new line of ebook publications, others will be drawn from anthologies the publisher has produced over the past 16 years.

There you have it, folks. I swear this season gets weirder every year…

Blog

Switzerland approves legal heroin program but keeps marijuana under control

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drug injection paraphenaliaSounds a bit topsy-turvy, doesn’t it? But it’s quite true – in a national vote last weekend the Swiss decided to make a controversial legal heroin program a permanent part of the country’s healthcare infrastructure, but rejected decriminalising cannabis. [image by Todd Huffman]

It’s a mixed blessing, I suppose. Hell knows the ‘war on drugs’ in the UK and the US has done absolutely nothing to eradicate the problem, and I guess if people are going to take smack then I’d rather they weren’t burgling my stuff to pay for it (as has happened). But it seems odd that people who can see the pragmatism in that idea seemingly can’t see the logic behind abandoning attempts to control the cultivation and consumption of a slightly psychoactive plant.

What say you, readers – should it be “no victim, no crime”, or should the law do its best to protect people from their own potentially self-harming choices?

Blog

Addiction clinic founder says computer games not addictive after all

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dualshock Playstation controllerThe headline says it all, though the recanting of video game addiction specialist Keith Bakker comes with qualifiers:

“…the more we work with these kids the less I believe we can call this addiction. What many of these kids need is their parents and their school teachers – this is a social problem.”
…
“This gaming problem is a result of the society we live in today,” Mr Bakker told BBC News. “Eighty per cent of the young people we see have been bullied at school and feel isolated. Many of the symptoms they have can be solved by going back to good old fashioned communication.”

It’s easy (and very tempting) to fall back on sarcasm here, but let’s just be thankful he’s learned something and will now stop putting loner kids through some sort of twelve-step program.

Incidentally, Bakker’s findings concur with those of the National Institute of Media and the Family, which for the first year ever has used its annual MEDIAwise ‘video games score-card’ to praise the gaming industry rather than excoriate it. Times are a-changin’. [image by William Hook]

Blog

The science fiction art of L E Spry

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It’s not often we feature artwork here at Futurismic, and it often occurs to me that I should look into addressing that oversight.

A recent spur of reminder came while browsing for images on Flickr recently, when I stumbled across the striking CGI images created by one L E Spry. While he’s quite keen on glistening starships and serried ranks of grumpy robots, he also produces images that fit into the near-future remit of Futurismic‘s aesthetic. Behold:

New Heights by L E Spry

Containment Zone by L E Spry

Channel by L E Spry

The uppermost one reminded me almost instantly of the Fastness from Iain M Banks‘ Feersum Endjinn, one of my favourite science fiction novels, but it could just as easily be a conurbation from a much closer future than the one depicted in that book. Some savvy publisher should be dropping Mr Spry a message, I think…

Do you think we should host more artwork here at Futurismic? Are there any waiting-to-be-discovered artists you think we should be checking out?

Fiction

NEW FICTION: WILLPOWER by Jason Stoddard

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I’m willing to bet a pretty big percentage of people reading this have harboured the fantasy of being an astronaut, even though you knew it was a virtually unattainable dream. But sometimes dreams can come true by the least expected route possible… even when those dreams are not necessarily your own.

Jason Stoddard is no stranger to the pages of Futurismic or numerous other science fiction publications, both online and off – and with good reason. In “Willpower” he walks the talk of his own ‘Positive SF’ manifesto, balancing old-school optimism and sensawunda with a plausible (and far from utopian) future setting. Enjoy!

Willpower

by Jason Stoddard

Michael Delgado needed something to do. Today. His last willfare job had ended last Friday, which meant tomorrow morning was contract breach. The foodcard would stop working, and the ever-efficient borgots of the Balboa Arms would be down to usher him out of his 300-square-foot studio apartment. Not that he’d miss it, with Van Nuys cranking to 105 today and him with only a swamp cooler.

He scanned quickly through the willfare crapwork and sinkers:

Job2309170342546

Dog walking, Cerritos area, 0.5D willfare credit (4 dogs, large, aggressive). ACCEPT >>

No way. Not for a half-day credit.

Job2309170342554

Street cleaning, crew of 16, Chinatown and surrounds, multiday contract. ACCEPT >>

(Currently 11 accepted)

Surrounds, as in southeast LA, no way.

Job2309170351565

Research assistant, UCLA medical campus, great status! Includes transpo and housing. Minimum 45-day contract (90 willfare creds), extensible to 90-days. Standard disclaimers. ACCEPT >>

And take a chance that the cancer they infect you with they might not be able to cure? Oh, no.

Michael Delgado frowned, the chant of the taxpayers echoing in his head. WE pay your salary, so you do what WE want. We want you to cut our grass, you get out here pronto! And Congress agreed. Needed for a smooth transition to a post-scarcity economy, they said. Allows them the dignity of productive work, they said. Gets them off the streets, they said. They who drove comfortably to jobs not-yet-outsourced in SUVs with large leases not-quite-paid.

And then:

Job2309170355443

Take my place on the Ares. 180 day contract. I’ll vouch for the full 720 willfare days, even if I have to pay ’em. I’m done. ACCEPT >>

Michael felt something like an electric shock as he eyeblinked on ACCEPT. Strange shivers worked up and down his spine. He heard something like a whisper, deep within his mind. He felt suddenly strong, powerful, alive.

Oh, no. Continue reading NEW FICTION: WILLPOWER by Jason Stoddard →