Tag Archives: science fiction

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Friday Free Fiction for 6th February

Greetings, boys and girls – it’s Friday Free Fiction time here at Futurismic! I’m (technically) on holiday right now, so I hope you’ll forgive me skipping the preamble and getting to the nitty-gritty…

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Just the one at Manybooks:

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And one at Feedbooks:

  • “Tulan” by Caroll M Capps

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Guess who’s back? It’s the WTF Network, with a brief teaser for season 2 of Shadow Unit.

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Issue #4 of the Concept Sci-fi ezine is now available as a free download in both PDF and MobiPocket formats.

This issue includes short fiction from Jaine Fenn, author of Principles of Angels, and also from Sean Williams, author of the Astropolis series. You can also find fiction from Rod Slatter, Lee Giminez and Justin Ryan Schwan, and an interview with Michael Cobley, writer of Seeds of Earth, and the prologue and first two chapters of his book.

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New month, new issue of Clarkesworld Magazine:

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Here’s a vignette entitled “Vignette” about a character named Vignette. No prizes for guessing it’s by Jeff VanderMeer, then. 😉

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Chris Roberson‘s getting back into the giveaways: this week’s offering is “Secret Histories: Jake Carmody, 1961”

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Here’s the latest batch from Apex Online:

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Jake Freivald writes to tell us that the new issue of Flash Fiction Online features a new piece by friend-of-Futurismic Jay Lake, amongst other bite-sized fiction morsels.

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Strange Horizons presents “This Must Be the Place” by Elliott Bangs

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Jayme Lynn Blaschke delivers the thirty-third slice of his Memory

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Here’s the tidbits that were sifted out by the internet baleen of the SF Signal pod::

  • And at Lone Star Stories: “Chandra’s Game” by Samantha Henderson, “Eko and Narkiss” by Jeremy Adam Smith, and “On the Human Plan” by Jay Lake
  • Ray Gun Revival #50 features original fiction by Lou Antonelli, Jeff Schnaufer, Robert Evans, George S. Walker and Andy Heizeler
  • The latest issue of Sorcerous Signals is out with fiction by JJ Sergi, Rebecca Ip, Gerri Leen, Michael Drummond, Tory Brannigan, Joette Rozanski, Jon Ruyle, Kelly Madden, Lida Broadhurst, and James Stratton
  • “The Patriot Witch” by Charles Coleman Finlay [warning – PDF download]
  • Jeffrey A. Carver‘s Chaos Chronicles series – Neptune Crossing, Strange Attractors, and The Infinite Sea – have been added to the Baen Free Library. [note – I believe these are available from numerous other sources already]

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As always, we’ll wrap things up with some Friday Flash Fiction:

And here’s another of Gareth D Jones‘ translations series; “Fear an Ghondola” is “The Gondolier” in Gaelic Irish.

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That’s all you’re getting this time out. If there’s anything I’ve missed, you can blame it on me spending two whole days away from an RSS reader (yeah, I know; won’t happen again, I promise). But then if you’d sent in a message about it, I’d have known to include it… just a little hint for you there. 😉

Have a great weekend, folks.

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The stone canal

oil_rigJo Walton has a review of Ken MacLeod‘s The Sky Road over at Tor, looking at it as a standalone novel rather than the culmination of the Fall Revolution series:

The thing I never really appreciated, reading it as the culmination of the series, is the way in which Clovis’s story is shaped like fantasy. The woman comes to him through the fair, she is beautiful and perilous, she is something more than she seems, and they fall in love and she takes him into a world of enchantment.

I re-read this book for the third time recently and definitely agree with Jo’s conclusion that it works as a standalone novel, as well as an excellent choice as a introductory science fiction book.

[via Ken MacLeod][image from ccgd on flickr]

Blasphemous Geometries

To a Delightful Weekend in the Country: the New Generation of British SF

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This month in Blasphemous Geometries, Jonathan McCalmont takes a look at the new generation of British science fiction writers.

They can be hard to spot – for one thing, they’re not explicitly marketed as such. And furthermore, instead of describing futures defined by ever-increasing complexity, they seem preoccupied with the very British pursuit of “getting away from it all”.

Blasphemous Geometries by Jonathan McCalmont

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In the November 2003 issue of Science Fiction Studies, Roger Luckhurst wrote an article entitled “Cultural Governance, New Labour and the British SF Boom”. In the article, he describes the emergence of a new generation of British SF authors in the context of a series of cultural shifts that neatly coincided with the election of New Labour in 1997. With the once glorious political force that was New Labour now consuming itself in flames of incompetence, cowardice, corruption and authoritarianism, it seems an appropriate time to look ahead to the next cycle of boom and bust in British Science Fiction; to a generation of authors intent upon leaving it all behind. Continue reading To a Delightful Weekend in the Country: the New Generation of British SF →

Fiction

NEW FICTION: ERASING THE MAP by Marissa Lingen

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We’ve published a lot of wild and gonzo stuff at Futurismic in recent months, but we wouldn’t want you to make the mistake that’s all we like. And here’s an example: “Erasing the Map” by Marissa Lingen, which is subtle, quietly assertive, and handled perfectly.

Its thesis: If you could have traumatic memories surgically removed, would you take the risk of losing some of the memories you treasure? Read first, then make your mind up and tell us in the comments!

“Erasing the Map”

by Marissa Lingen

There was this one time, in college. I was arguing politics with this girl. Young Republican type. She had the blonde bob and the baby blue sweater, the whole works. I’d even seen her wear penny loafers. I liked her anyway. We were arguing about gun control, and I said there was absolutely no feeling in the world worse than killing another person.

I think if it had been another circumstance, another time, she would have responded by reaming me out about all the things she could think of that were worse. But it was a party. Maybe she thought I was cute. So instead, she batted those contact-lens-blue eyes at me and said, “And how many people have you killed?”

I said, “Just the one.”

It was the wrong answer, I knew, and the flirting look went off like a switch. But it was the only answer I could give. After she stared at me for a minute, I said, “It was an accident. I was ten years old.” She still didn’t say anything, so I said, “His name was Anthony, and he was my best friend.” Continue reading NEW FICTION: ERASING THE MAP by Marissa Lingen →

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Friday Free Fiction for 30th January

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Wow, it’s the end of January already – where the hell’s this year going to so fast, I ask you?

With another week comes another batch of free science fiction stories on the intertubes, lovingly collected from the RSS quagmire and presented for your edification and enjoyment. Bon appetit!

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Just the one from Manybooks:

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And just the one from Feedbooks:

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Polu Texni presents “Very Truly Yours, Part II” by Seth Gordon

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SpaceWesterns presents “The Reckoning” by John P Wilson

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Via the perpetrators themselves (and pretty much everyone else), here’s an opening sample from “Colliding Branes” by Bruce Sterling and Rudy Rucker.

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Some microfiction news from the Orbit gang:

Jeff Somers — author of The Electric Chruch, The Digital Plague, and the forthcoming The Eternal Prison — is tweeting a short story, a few lines at a time.

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On the subject of Twitter fiction, here’s another example: MidnightStories tweets a 140 character story every night at midnight, Texas time.

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Via EOS Books:

Harper Perennial is celebrating the short story this year, and each Sunday evening during 2009 will be posting a new story from both established authors and début authors. This year they have already published stories from Tony O’Neill, Simon Van Booy, and Mary Gaitskill. Check it out at www.fiftytwostories.com.

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Strange Horizons presents part two of “The Shangri-La Affair” by Lavie Tidhar

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Here’s Memory #32 by Jayme Lynn Blaschke

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In keeping with his manifesto of optimism, Jason Stoddard has decided that a lot of his trunk stories are now obsolete, set as they are in a future that now appears much less likely to actually become real (and let’s all hope he’s right on that point).

As a result, he’s releasing some free fiction to the web; first up on the block is his unpublished novel Eternal Franchise, to be serialised over the coming year, starting with chapter 1.1. The future depicted within may be obsolete, but Jason’s storytelling surely isn’t – so why not follow his RSS feed for a vision of the future that might have been?

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Via Chris Roberson:

BookSpot Central is featuring a preview of the first three chapters of The Dragon’s Nine Sons, if you haven’t read the book and would like to sample it.

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A Continuous Coast update from Kit O’Connell:

The latest fiction from the Creative Commons-licensed Continuous Coast project is available. The first five parts of Reesa Brown’s rescue ride are up as of now.

Those interested in learning more about the extreme sport of Gurge Riding depicted in the stories may also want to read these recent chat transcripts.

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The SF Signal gang, in addition to their traditional linkitude, are hosting some excerpts:

Several weeks back, I read and enjoyed Hater by David Moody, a tense thriller with science fictional leanings.

St Martin’s is allowing us to offer the first four chapters right here on SF Signal. Read Chapter 1 below. The next chapter will appear next week.

Meanwhile, here’s all the other gubbins they caught in their trawler-net of justice:

  • Infinite Canvas presents “The Day The Saucers Came” by Neil Gaiman [Editor’s note: I’ve heard him read this aloud, and it’s a super little story. Pure Gaiman all the way.]
  • Mindflights presents “Marionettes” by Mike Simon
  • The new issue of AntipodeanSF features fiction by Jill Smith, Julie Cohen Wornan, Kirstyn McDermott, Matthew Sanborn Smith, Angie Smibert, Shaun A Saunders, Richard Thorne, Mark Farrugia, Ashley Hibbert, and Felicity Dowker
  • M-BRANE SF is a new genre magazine available in PDF format

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Before we start with Friday Flash Fiction, here’s a message from a new contributor, Sumit Dam:

Thought I would let you know that I’m posting weekly Friday Flash too, over at Sumitsays.com. Last Friday’s offering was “The Unbearable Beings of Lightness“, my contribution to the Altered Film Titles challenge.

Thanks, Sumit! And here’s this week’s collection:

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And that’s all we have for you this week, ladies and gents. Don’t forget to keep us posted about any free sf that you hear of; we’ll link it here and give you a shout as well. In the meantime, have a great weekend!