Tag Archives: science fiction

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Friday Free Fiction for 20th March

Five days of clear blue skies and fresh breezes have led me to suspect I’ve been displaced into a parallel dimension or simulated universe by some capricious deity or artificial intelligence… but hey, even a False Spring is better than no Spring at all, as far as I’m concerned.

And whatever reality I happen to be perceiving right now, it doesn’t seem to have any shortage of free fiction floating around in it…

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A lone classic novel at ManyBooks: Deathworld by Harry Harrison

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COSMOS Magazine presents “The Broken Hourglass” by Andy Heizler

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HUB Magazine presents “SBIR Proposal“ by Richard K Lyon

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Strange Horizons presents “Nira and I” by Shweta Narayan

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Tor.com presents “We Haven’t Got There Yet” by Harry Turtledove

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Jason Stoddard delivers chapter 3.1 of Eternal Franchise

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Jayme Lynn Blaschke is up to the 34th installment of Memory

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Chris Howard is giving away his novel Seaborn in digital form

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Jeffrey A Carver is giving away copies of his novel Sunborn in multiple DRM-free formats

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Subterranean Online presents “The Dry Spell” by James P Blaylock

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Weird Tales presents “All In” by Peter Atwood

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And as always our thanks to the tireless crew of the USS SF Signal, who boldly go further in search of free fiction online than almost anyone else:

  • Chris Dolley is making his book Resonance available as a free download [and an intriguing brain-bender of a story it is, too]
  • The latest issue of Concatenation has been posted and includes the story “The Invisible Hand” by Allan M Rees
  • Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist presents “The Best Monkey” by Daniel Abraham
  • The new issue of Ray Gun Revival features fiction by Adrian Simmons, Paula R Stiles, O Charles Swallows, Jr., Steven Gerard, Chip Meador, M Keaton, Keanan Brand, L S King, and Paul Christian Glenn
  • Book View Cafe presents chapter 1 of The Betrayal by Pati Nagle

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Once again my schedule means I’ll miss the bulk of this week’s Friday Flash, but as ever it’ll be collected up in next week’s post. Meanwhile, Sumit Dam came in early enough to make the cut with “The Black Dog“.

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And that’s it for another week, it seems. Don’t forget to let us know of anything you think merits inclusion in Friday Free Fiction; in the meantime, have a good weekend!

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Battlestar Galactica producers and cast address United Nations

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Battlestar Galactica cylonNo, seriously. The UN invited some of the cast and crew behind successful TV sf series Battlestar Galactica to the United Nations Economic and Social Council to discuss the similarities between the show’s storylines and real-life politics in a changing world:

Some of the thematic parallels seemed a bit forced, but the show’s scenes about human rights and terrorism fit particularly well. UN officials continually mentioned eerie echoes of the real world in “Battlestar.”

“I’ve heard these words from people before, and they weren’t actors,” said Robert Orr, a UN assistant secretary-general for policy planning. He singled out the “Battlestar” story arc on New Caprica that deals with issues of insurgency and terrorism, and thanked Moore and Eick for creating a show which gave people cause to think about such issues.

Moore said that he continually tried to use “Battlestar” to flip familiar situations and put the audience in uncomfortable spots — such as creating situations where humans resorted to suicide bombings and torture against the Cylons, the supposed “villains” at the start of the show who gradually become more sympathetic.

Quite how much impact this will have on UN policy (if any) remains to be seen, but it’s refreshing to see people taking science fiction seriously for its deep themes rather than snarking about its surface tropes. [image by chanchan222]

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The economics of fiction

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No, nothing to do with bailouts or closed banks; this video is seven minutes of discussion between two economists, Tyler Cowen and Robin Hanson, on the economic value of fiction:

If you’re not too familiar with the language of economic academia (it’s a little opaque, to say the least), Bill Benzon’s summary of their points might be helpful:

It’s about signaling (a term of art in economics). Your preferences in fiction, and the way you articulate those preferences, signal your attitudes, values, and ideas to others. Fiction is a way of “getting people in touch with each other.”

The point is also raised that fiction can in some cases have intrinsic cognitive value as well, but the central idea – that your taste in fiction is an external signal about the sort of person you are – is an interesting one, especially for fans of genre fiction like ourselves. The obvious (and over-simple) response would be a kind of “fans are Slans” argument… but that would be to fail at being properly objective about the whole thing, to ignore the need for a proper examination of what makes genre fiction different to ‘straight’ fiction (which I suspect is, in many respects, a much smaller difference than it may seem from this side of the fence).

But what is it about science fiction that has made it such a socially cohesive artform by comparison to, say, romance novels? Is this simply a function of its minority status in the larger field of literature, or is it something to do with the riffs it tends to repeat, and the way those riffs resonate with readers? Or is it a separate (but related) part of the mindset that science fiction just happens to appeal to?

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How SF moves with the times: MacLeod, Banks et al weigh in

green_rocket1The Beeb rounds up various of our favorite skiffiers to ask the perennial question: does the genre need to stay up to date with the latest breakthroughs in order to be relevant? Ken MacLeod‘s comment:

Science fiction is the only form of literature that sets out to bring home to our imaginations the surprising universe that science has discovered. How well it does that job depends on its scientific accuracy – up to a point.

If we as readers catch a writer getting some well-established scientific fact wrong, we may suspect that we’re reading incompetent science fiction – or mainstream literature.

Spiffing.

[image from jurvetson on flickr]

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New low-cost webzine – Alternative Coordinates

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Via James at Big Dumb Object comes news of a new science fiction webzine, Alternative Coordinates:

Issue one of new SF magazine Alternative Coordinates is online. The web site looks nice, which has got to be a priority for new webzines. You can read a preview of each story, but full access to the issue costs $2, which I think has to be applauded. The price is low enough to be trivial to many people, yet with volume it means the magazine could make money, probably more than advertising?

Alternative Coordinates - science fiction webzine

James is right, it certainly looks good. The low-price electronic ‘zine model has been tried before, of course, but the economic and techno-cultural landscapes are changing so fast that previous successes and failures are no certain guide to future performance… and if the team behind Alternative Coordinates have made as much of an effort with the magazine itself as they have with the presentation of the website, then US$2 seems a pretty reasonable price to place on six short stories for which the writers have been paid.

If you take the plunge and buy an issue, do pop back and let us know what you think of it!