"It owned her.
Maybe it—the fear, the darkness, The Creep—wouldn't take her this morning, but she knew it was out there.
No, not out there. In here.
In her head.
The worst place of all. This was an inside job all the way. The monster rummaged in the rooms of her mind, hid in cramped closets, staked out the shadowed corners of her psyche. What scared her most was the knowledge that she had built that monster herself, bit by bit, sewn it from scraps of memory and the threads of what-if, imagined it to life. The cellar of her head-house was a Frankenstein laboratory for bringing strange creatures to life."
3.5 out of 5
http://www.hauntedcomputer.com/skullringx.htm
Friday, February 03, 2012
Interview: The Lifecycle of Software Objects - Ted Chiang
"Peter Orullian: Let’s get underway by having you give us a snapshot of your work to set the stage for our conversation: genres you write in, recognitions, etc., publishing vitals, if you will.
Ted Chiang: I write science fiction short stories. I have a collection of my stories, STORIES OF YOUR LIFE AND OTHERS, published by Small Beer Press, and I recently had a novella, THE LIFECYCLE OF SOFTWARE OBJECTS, published as a standalone volume by Subterranean Press. As for recognitions, I guess you mean awards? My work has won four Nebulas, four Hugos, and four Locus awards."
4 out of 5
http://sf-fantasy.suvudu.com/2012/01/interview-the-lifecycle-of-software-objects-by-ted-chiang.html
Ted Chiang: I write science fiction short stories. I have a collection of my stories, STORIES OF YOUR LIFE AND OTHERS, published by Small Beer Press, and I recently had a novella, THE LIFECYCLE OF SOFTWARE OBJECTS, published as a standalone volume by Subterranean Press. As for recognitions, I guess you mean awards? My work has won four Nebulas, four Hugos, and four Locus awards."
4 out of 5
http://sf-fantasy.suvudu.com/2012/01/interview-the-lifecycle-of-software-objects-by-ted-chiang.html
Wednesday, February 01, 2012
Venom - Christian Cantrell
Human Legacy Project and Democracy Device protection.
3.5 out of 5
http://www.livingdigitally.net/books/venom/venom.html
3.5 out of 5
http://www.livingdigitally.net/books/venom/venom.html
The Copenhagen Interpretation - Paul Cornell
Fake alien Balance tampering ship story. Fake woman too. Most likely.
3.5 out of 5
http://www.asimovs.com/2012_02/images/TheCopenhagenInterpretation_Cornell.pdf
3.5 out of 5
http://www.asimovs.com/2012_02/images/TheCopenhagenInterpretation_Cornell.pdf
Killer 1-7 - David Drake and Karl Edward Wagner
""You've got some sort of wild man!" Lycon blurted with first glance.
"Nonsense!" Vonones snorted. "Look at the tiny scales, those talons! There may be a race somewhere with blue skin, but this thing's no more human than a mandrill is. The Numidians called it a lizard-ape in their tongue—a sauropithecus."
After that first startled impression, Lycon had to agree. The thing seemed far less human than any large ape, which it somewhat resembled. Probably those hairless limbs had made him think it was a man—that and the aura of malign intelligence its stare conveyed. But the collector had never seen anything like it, not in twenty years of professional hunting along the fringes of the known world.
Lizard-ape, or sauropithecus to render the word into Latin, seemed as good a name as any for the beast. Lycon could not even decide whether it was mammal or reptile, nor even guess its sex. It was scaled and exuded an acrid reptilian scent, but its movements and poise were feline. Ape-like, it walked erect in a forward crouch, and its long forelimbs seemed adapted for gripping and climbing. It would be about man-height if it straightened fully, and Lycon estimated its lean weight close to that of a big leopard. Its face was cat-like, low-browed and triangular of jaw. A wedge-shaped, earless skull thrust forward upon a snaky neck, and it had no more nostrils than a lizard did. Its eyes looked straight forward with human intensity, but were slit-pupiled and showed a swift nictitating membrane.
"This came from the Aures Mountains?" Lycon questioned wonderingly.
"It did. There was a big lot of gazelles and elephants that one of my agents jobbed from the Numidians. This thing came with them, and all I know about it is what Dama wrote me when he sent the shipment: that a band of Numidians saw a hilltop explode and found this animal when they went to see what had happened."
"A hilltop exploded!"
The dealer shrugged. "That's all he wrote."
Lycon studied the cage in silence.
"Why did you weld the cage shut instead of putting a chain and lock on it?"
"That's the way it came," Vonones explained. "I'll have to knock the door loose and put a proper lock on it before sending it off tomorrow, or those idiots at Rome will wreck a good cage trying to smash it open, and never a denarius for the damage. I guess the Numidians just didn't have a lock—I'm a little surprised they even had an iron cage."
Lycon frowned, uncomfortable at the way the beast stared back at him. "It's its eyes," he reflected. "I wish all my crew looked that bright.""
4 out of 5
http://www.baenebooks.com/chapters/0743435869/0743435869.htm?blurb
"Nonsense!" Vonones snorted. "Look at the tiny scales, those talons! There may be a race somewhere with blue skin, but this thing's no more human than a mandrill is. The Numidians called it a lizard-ape in their tongue—a sauropithecus."
After that first startled impression, Lycon had to agree. The thing seemed far less human than any large ape, which it somewhat resembled. Probably those hairless limbs had made him think it was a man—that and the aura of malign intelligence its stare conveyed. But the collector had never seen anything like it, not in twenty years of professional hunting along the fringes of the known world.
Lizard-ape, or sauropithecus to render the word into Latin, seemed as good a name as any for the beast. Lycon could not even decide whether it was mammal or reptile, nor even guess its sex. It was scaled and exuded an acrid reptilian scent, but its movements and poise were feline. Ape-like, it walked erect in a forward crouch, and its long forelimbs seemed adapted for gripping and climbing. It would be about man-height if it straightened fully, and Lycon estimated its lean weight close to that of a big leopard. Its face was cat-like, low-browed and triangular of jaw. A wedge-shaped, earless skull thrust forward upon a snaky neck, and it had no more nostrils than a lizard did. Its eyes looked straight forward with human intensity, but were slit-pupiled and showed a swift nictitating membrane.
"This came from the Aures Mountains?" Lycon questioned wonderingly.
"It did. There was a big lot of gazelles and elephants that one of my agents jobbed from the Numidians. This thing came with them, and all I know about it is what Dama wrote me when he sent the shipment: that a band of Numidians saw a hilltop explode and found this animal when they went to see what had happened."
"A hilltop exploded!"
The dealer shrugged. "That's all he wrote."
Lycon studied the cage in silence.
"Why did you weld the cage shut instead of putting a chain and lock on it?"
"That's the way it came," Vonones explained. "I'll have to knock the door loose and put a proper lock on it before sending it off tomorrow, or those idiots at Rome will wreck a good cage trying to smash it open, and never a denarius for the damage. I guess the Numidians just didn't have a lock—I'm a little surprised they even had an iron cage."
Lycon frowned, uncomfortable at the way the beast stared back at him. "It's its eyes," he reflected. "I wish all my crew looked that bright.""
4 out of 5
http://www.baenebooks.com/chapters/0743435869/0743435869.htm?blurb
Anansi Island - Christian Cantrell
Spiders, millions of them - and hybrid experiments to escape. Maybe.
3.5 out of 5
http://www.livingdigitally.net/books/anansi/anansi_island.html
3.5 out of 5
http://www.livingdigitally.net/books/anansi/anansi_island.html
Monday, January 30, 2012
Integrity - Steven Saville
"“If one green bottle should accidently fall… it might just crack its skull and lie bleeding to death in Marylebone Lane.”"
or following Konstantin ends violently.
3.5 out of 5
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/37062
or following Konstantin ends violently.
3.5 out of 5
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/37062
The Stoker Memorandum - Lavie Tidhar
"Have you heard of the Jekyll-Frankenstein serum?"
3.5 out of 5
http://dailysciencefiction.com/hither-and-yon/alternative-history/lavie-tidhar/the-stoker-memorandum
3.5 out of 5
http://dailysciencefiction.com/hither-and-yon/alternative-history/lavie-tidhar/the-stoker-memorandum
Sunday, January 29, 2012
This Is Now - Michael Marshall Smith
This Is Now - Michael Marshall Smith
Think we'll stay away from the suckers.
3 out of 5
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/vampires/ne...
http://pseudopod.org/2012/01/27/pseudopod-266-this-is-now/
Think we'll stay away from the suckers.
3 out of 5
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/vampires/ne...
http://pseudopod.org/2012/01/27/pseudopod-266-this-is-now/
The Questing Mind - Kristine Kathryn Rusch
artificial intelligence pathways.
3.5 out of 5
http://kriswrites.com/2012/01/23/free-fiction-monday-the-questing-mind/
3.5 out of 5
http://kriswrites.com/2012/01/23/free-fiction-monday-the-questing-mind/
Bears Discover Fire - Terry Bisson
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Fast One - Paul Cain
A gangster is happily doing what they do when another wants to hire him to work for him and run some stuff.
He doesn't like this idea, but taking over would be ok.
Things escalate, everybody dies, mostly.
3 out of 5
http://www.munseys.com/diskfour/fastonedex.htm
He doesn't like this idea, but taking over would be ok.
Things escalate, everybody dies, mostly.
3 out of 5
http://www.munseys.com/diskfour/fastonedex.htm
The Thrill of the Hunt - Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Bullets work on magical people, too.
3.5 out of 5
http://kriswrites.com/2012/01/16/free-fiction-monday-the-thrill-of-the-hunt/
3.5 out of 5
http://kriswrites.com/2012/01/16/free-fiction-monday-the-thrill-of-the-hunt/
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Ranks of Bronze - David Drake
Ranks of Bronze finds a Roman Legion shanghaied and put to work for a group of interstellar traders. These rapacious types have agreements to solve conflicts by conflict - but only at the technology level of the locals. So if you have primitive barbarians with swords and shields - you send in your slave legion to fight them. Not too many better at the sword and shield game anywhere in space, it seems.
It also follows the maturation of a callow 18 year old rich tribune into an effective and rashly lead from the front type of officer. And you only know what the Legion knows, which is interesting.
And eventually, the Legion tire of dying for strange commanders and decided that spacejacking is the way to go.
4 out of 5
http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/03-SlammersCD/SlammersCD/Ranks%20of%20Bronze/Ranks_of_Bronze.htm
It also follows the maturation of a callow 18 year old rich tribune into an effective and rashly lead from the front type of officer. And you only know what the Legion knows, which is interesting.
And eventually, the Legion tire of dying for strange commanders and decided that spacejacking is the way to go.
4 out of 5
http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/03-SlammersCD/SlammersCD/Ranks%20of%20Bronze/Ranks_of_Bronze.htm
Rasputin's Bastards - David Nickle
"Fyodor Kolyokov hadn't needed the isolation tank for a long time: not since the early days when all needs Physick were safely defined by the razor-wire fences of City 512. But need and desire often mingle to the same effect, and so as soon as he found a way, Kolyokov moved the tank from Russia to America. Hang the risk, he told himself. The tank was as much a part of his life as his eyes and his lungs and his heart. "
4 out of 5
http://davidnickle.blogspot.com/2012/01/rasputins-bastards-is-available-for-pre.html
4 out of 5
http://davidnickle.blogspot.com/2012/01/rasputins-bastards-is-available-for-pre.html
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Blue Remembered Earth 1 - Alastair Reynolds
"So it was the blowpipe, then, as if there had been any doubt. Nothing else had the power to shake the ground like that. A hundred or more kilometres to the west, at this very moment, a payload was racing through the bowels of the Earth, slamming along a rifle-straight vacuum tunnel that would eventually bring it right under the party. Simple physics dictated that there would be recoil from the magnetic pushers, recoil that could only be absorbed by the awesome counterweight of the Earth itself. Launching masses eastwards delayed the sun’s fall to the west. It made the day last infinitesimally longer. On the day of her scattering, the sun had slowed for its daughter."
3 out of 5
http://www.gollancz.co.uk/2012/01/blue-remembered-earth-chapter-one/
3 out of 5
http://www.gollancz.co.uk/2012/01/blue-remembered-earth-chapter-one/
A Hand For Each - J. Kathleen Cheney
Heart squeeze for bodies.
3.5 out of 5
http://jkathleencheney.wordpress.com/free-fiction/a-hand-for-each/
3.5 out of 5
http://jkathleencheney.wordpress.com/free-fiction/a-hand-for-each/
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Memories of the Dead Man - Douglas Smith
Last of a team, looking to kill some Priests and helping out mother and son in Entity land.
4 out of 5
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/50326
4 out of 5
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/50326
Return of the Night of the Living Dead Monkey from Sunset Boulevard - Anonymous-9 Anonymous-9
Goats, no zombie.
4 out of 5
http://theflashfictionoffensive.blogspot.com/2011/10/anonymous-9-promo.html
4 out of 5
http://theflashfictionoffensive.blogspot.com/2011/10/anonymous-9-promo.html
Faith 1 - John Love
"Only a Sakhran would be polite enough to describe it as a Command Post. It was a collection of three sheds (two plus an outside toilet) to which Madsen and two others had travelled by tracked groundcar. It was the only collection of buildings anywhere near the area where they had calculated, from the lifeboat’s last known trajectory, that the crashlanding might have occurred. Their orders were to set up at the command post and quarter the desert with the remotely-piloted drone to spot any survivors. It hadn’t worked. The drone was a low-budget, short-range model, and its optical circuits were trashed. Ironically (would Sarabt have seen this as the eleventh irony?) it had been assembled by Sakhrans, as part of a failing Commonwealth re-employment project.
In fact, the whole thing was rather half-assed. Yes, they’d told him, it would be easier just to quarter the desert with a flier, but all piloted fliers (Bast 3 didn’t have that many) were commandeered. In case, they told him, She came back."
3.5 out of 5
http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2012/01/exclusive-excerpt-faith-by-john-love/
In fact, the whole thing was rather half-assed. Yes, they’d told him, it would be easier just to quarter the desert with a flier, but all piloted fliers (Bast 3 didn’t have that many) were commandeered. In case, they told him, She came back."
3.5 out of 5
http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2012/01/exclusive-excerpt-faith-by-john-love/
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Blue Remembered Earth Prologue - Alastair Reynolds
"Memphis paused for breath. It must have been hard, carrying Sunday and also having to keep his own balance. ‘The artilect sensed the presence of Sunday’s machines, the ones inside her head. It worked out how to talk to them, how to make Sunday think there was someone calling.’
The idea of a machine tricking his sister – tricking her well enough that she had nearly convinced Geoffrey as well – was enough to chill him even as he sweated uphill.
‘What would have happened if she hadn’t fallen?’
‘The tank might have tried to persuade her to help it. Or it might have been trying to exploit some deeper vulnerability. Whatever it did, it caused your sister to go into seizure.’
3.5 out of 5
http://www.gollancz.co.uk/2012/01/blue-remembered-earth-prologue/
The idea of a machine tricking his sister – tricking her well enough that she had nearly convinced Geoffrey as well – was enough to chill him even as he sweated uphill.
‘What would have happened if she hadn’t fallen?’
‘The tank might have tried to persuade her to help it. Or it might have been trying to exploit some deeper vulnerability. Whatever it did, it caused your sister to go into seizure.’
3.5 out of 5
http://www.gollancz.co.uk/2012/01/blue-remembered-earth-prologue/
Eloi Eloi Lama Sabachthani - William Hope Hodgson
The Eyes of God - Peter Watts
The Eyes Of God - Peter Watts
The Shadow Knows what lurks in your heart you big ol' Chester.
3.5 out of 5
http://sad.duckandcover.cx/watts/
The Shadow Knows what lurks in your heart you big ol' Chester.
3.5 out of 5
http://sad.duckandcover.cx/watts/
Subterranean Online 20 - William Schafer
Just 3.13 here and pretty dull, except for the Resnick. Plus a sword article.
Subterranean Online 20 : Subterranean Online 20 - William Schafer
Subterranean Online 20 : White Lines on a Green Field - Catherynne M. Valente
Subterranean Online 20 : SHAKA II - Mike Resnick
Subterranean Online 20 : Antiquities and Tangibles - Tim Pratt
Subterranean Online 20 : Balfour and Meriwether in The Vampire of Kabul - Daniel Abraham
Coyote game.
3 out of 5
Tchaka fleet empire fall.
3.5 out of 5
Maybe partners in this stuff.
3 out of 5
Problems with dead granddad, etc.
3 out of 5
2.5 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/fall-2011/
Subterranean Online 20 : Subterranean Online 20 - William Schafer
Subterranean Online 20 : White Lines on a Green Field - Catherynne M. Valente
Subterranean Online 20 : SHAKA II - Mike Resnick
Subterranean Online 20 : Antiquities and Tangibles - Tim Pratt
Subterranean Online 20 : Balfour and Meriwether in The Vampire of Kabul - Daniel Abraham
Coyote game.
3 out of 5
Tchaka fleet empire fall.
3.5 out of 5
Maybe partners in this stuff.
3 out of 5
Problems with dead granddad, etc.
3 out of 5
2.5 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/fall-2011/
Shaka II - Mike Resnick
Tchaka fleet empire fall.
3.5 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/fall-2011/fiction-shaka-ii-by-mike-resnick/
3.5 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/fall-2011/fiction-shaka-ii-by-mike-resnick/
Blue Remembered Earth Prologue - Alastair Reynolds
"It is necessary to speak of beginnings. Understand one thing, though, above all else. Whatever brought us to this moment, this declaration, could never have had a single cause. If we have learned anything, it’s that life is never that simple, never that schematic.
You might say it was the moment when our grandmother set her mind to her last great deed. Or that it started when Ocular found something worthy of Arethusa’s attention, a smudge of puzzling detail on a planet circling another star, and Arethusa in turn felt honour bound to share that discovery with our grandmother."
3.5 out of 5
http://www.gollancz.co.uk/2012/01/blue-remembered-earth/
You might say it was the moment when our grandmother set her mind to her last great deed. Or that it started when Ocular found something worthy of Arethusa’s attention, a smudge of puzzling detail on a planet circling another star, and Arethusa in turn felt honour bound to share that discovery with our grandmother."
3.5 out of 5
http://www.gollancz.co.uk/2012/01/blue-remembered-earth/
Monday, January 16, 2012
Balfour And Meriwether In The Vampire Of Kabul - Daniel Abraham
Problems with dead granddad, etc.
3 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/fall-2011/fiction-balfour-and-meriwether-in-the-vampire-of-kabul-by-daniel-abraham/
3 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/fall-2011/fiction-balfour-and-meriwether-in-the-vampire-of-kabul-by-daniel-abraham/
Antiquities And Tangibles - Tim Pratt
Maybe partners in this stuff.
3 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/fall-2011/fiction-antiquities-and-tangibles-by-tim-pratt/
3 out of 5
http://subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/fall-2011/fiction-antiquities-and-tangibles-by-tim-pratt/
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