Clarkesworld Magazine - Science Fiction and Fantasy : A Militant Peace by David Klecha and Tobi. I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. —Albert Einstein For Nong Mai Thuy, a Vietnamese sergeant in the Marine Police, the invasion of North Korea starts with the parachute-snapping violence of a High Altitude, Low Opening jump deep in the middle of the inky black North Korean airspace at night. Here the air is the stillest, bleakest black. The bleakness of a world where electricity trickles only to the few in Pyongyang. This is good for Mai. When she thuds into the ground the specialized, carefully fitted, motorized armor hisses slightly as it adjusts to the impact.
"Duc? " "I am safe," her partner responds in her ear over the faint distortion of high-end crypto. They are officially on the ground. Beyond the darkness are some nine and a half million North Korean forces that aren't going to respond well to what has just happened. And Mai wonders: how many of them are already on the way to try and kill her right now? It isn't right. "What? " "Mai! " Short story: ILU-486. Summary: In the not-so-distant future of Virginia, the Personhood Act has outlawed abortion and chemical birth control. That doesn’t mean they don’t exist, though. for Evil Dr. Em and the twitter brigade Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?
James 2:25 About fifteen percent of Merrimack, Virginia was unemployed, but by god, they had congressmen looking out for them. “In this desensitized society, there is a shortening list of things that criminals consider punishment,” droned Representative Carter, a white man from Maryville. One of these aforementioned unemployed people was Penelope Gallagher, a tall thin woman with a horsey face and a nervous twitch in her eye whenever she heard the sounds of a congressional meeting on the television. “If jail isn’t a deterrent, then we need punishments that will work. Her husband was asleep in front of the set, supine and sprawled on the recliner. “Yeah? “Ms. The Battle of York. Sleeper. Erica L. Satifka: "Five Days to a Better... - Daily Science Fiction. Stephen Reid Case: "What the Elfmaid... - Daily Science Fiction.
JD DeHart: "Man in the Bottle" -... - Daily Science Fiction. October 31 "Toadwords" by Nathaniel Lee... - Daily Science Fiction. Isaac Asimov’s Favorite Story “The Last Question” Read by Isaac Asimov— and by Leonard Nimoy. Isaac Asimov, one of the most prolific creators in science-fiction history, wrote or edited more than 500 books in his lifetime, including the high-profile ones we all recognize like I, Robot and the Foundation series (hear a version dramatized here). But which piece of this massive body of work did Asimov himself consider his favorite?
Always a fan of clarity, the man didn’t leave that issue shrouded in mystery: the honor belongs to “The Last Question,” which first appeared in the November 1956 issue of Science Fiction Quarterly. It’s now available in Isaac Asimov: The Complete Stories, Vol. 1. “Why is it my favorite?” Asimov later wrote. “For one thing I got the idea all at once and didn’t have to fiddle with it; and I wrote it in white-heat and scarcely had to change a word.
You certainly won’t forget who wrote the story if you listen to it in Asimov’s own voice in the video at the top of the post. Related Content: Listen to Isaac Asimov read his favorite short story "The Last Question" Isaac Asimov wrote "The Last Question" in one sitting. It appeared in the November 1956 issue of Science Fiction Quarterly and Asimov said it was "by far my favorite story of all those I have written. " It's fun hearing Asimov read it in his energetic Brooklyn accent. But if you listen to Leonard Nimoy's magnificent reading (below), you'll understand why it is usually much better to have a trained actor read a story, instead of the author. [via] report this ad Will malfunction or incompetence start World War Three? Eric Schlosser’s book and film Command and Control look at the terrifying prospects of nuclear friendly fire, where one of America’s nukes detonates on US soil.
Far-out new essay anthology by Alan Moore, Warren Ellis, Iain Sinclair, Gazelle Amber Valentine, and more Published by the fine fringe culture explorers at Daily Grail, the new essay anthology Spirits of Place features stories by the likes of Alan Moore, Maria J. Cut the cable cord intelligently with this HD antenna. City of Ash — Matter. Maria dreamed of her father flying and knew things would be alright. She woke in the morning, and for the first time in more than a year, she felt refreshed.
It didn’t matter that she was covered in sweat from sleeping in the hot, close basement of the abandoned house, or that that the ashy scent of wildfire smoke had invaded their makeshift bedroom, or that her cough was back. None of it bothered her the way it had before, because she finally felt hopeful. She got up, climbed the basement stairs, and stepped out into the oven heat of Phoenix morning, squinting and wrinkling her nose at the ashy irritants in the air. She stretched, working out the kinks of sleep. Smoke from the Sierras shrouded everything in an acrid mist, again — California blowing in.
Maria coughed and blew her nose. She headed across the lava rock backyard for the outhouse, her flip-flops slapping her heels as she went. On a clear day, the Taiyang gleamed. Papa said it was almost alive. Amazing, surely. Never mind. Free Short Stories - Hourglass Tales, by Sunny Jackson - SF Stories from Fictional Worlds. Bitter Grounds. We hope you enjoy this reprint, which first appeared in the Mojo: Conjure Stories anthology and subsequently in the collection Fragile Things. 1. “Come back early or never come” In every way that counted, I was dead. Inside somewhere maybe I was screaming and weeping and howling like an animal, but that was another person deep inside, another person who had no access to the face and lips and mouth and head, so on the surface I just shrugged and smiled and kept moving.
Sometimes I telephoned her. The me who was screaming was so far inside that nobody knew he was even there at all. A couple of hours down the highway my cell phone started to ring. When I stopped for gas I took all the cash I could on every card I had. The first two nights I slept in the car. I was halfway through Tennessee when I realized I needed a bath badly enough to pay for it. Awoke at 4:00 AM, and knew it was time to get back on the road. I went down to the lobby. The night manager shrugged. He picked up his briefcase? The Smog Society. eZines. Given the Advantage of the Blade. Life-pod. And We Were Left Darkling. Python. Uncanny Magazine Year Two. Last year, three-time Hugo Award winner Lynne M. Thomas & three-time Hugo Award finalist Michael Damian Thomas ran the Uncanny Magazine Year One Kickstarter. We promised to bring you stunning cover art, passionate science fiction and fantasy fiction and poetry, gorgeous prose, and provocative nonfiction by writers from every conceivable background.
Not to mention a fantastic podcast featuring exclusive content. With the hard work of the best staff and contributors in the world, Uncanny Magazine delivered everything as promised. Though Uncanny has developed several additional funding streams to make the magazine sustainable, we’re not quite there yet. If you’ve been looking for an opportunity to join or rejoin the Space Unicorn Ranger Corps, now’s your chance!
Our Year Two goals will bring Uncanny closer to sustainability by paying for more great content and making sure the magazine’s business infrastructure is solidified. Short Stories! Nonfiction! Poetry! Art! Space Unicorns! Lynne M. Uncanny Magazine Year Two. The Invention of Separate People. EP506: Harvester Dreams. Filed in 13 and Up, Podcasts on October 13, 2015 with no comments by Michael J. DeLucaread by Paul Cram This story was originally appeared in The Homeless Moon 4.Discuss on our forums. For a list of all Escape Pod stories, authors and narrators, visit our sortable Wikipedia page author Michael J.
DeLuca about the author… from the author’s website: That would be me. I’m a freelance web designer/developer as well. Narrator Paul Cram about the narrator… Paul Cram grew up performing on stage and in more recent years traveling the United States working on independent films. Paul’s voice is newer to the world of audio than it is to other acting forms. When not on a movie set or in a recording booth, Paul can be found deep-frying chicken wings with his sister in her kitchen, or quarreling about pop-culture with his little brother around one the 10,000 lakes of Minnesota. You can find his website Paul Cram Actor or IMDB. Harvester Dreams by Michael J. Morning flooded the transparent womb of the ob room. Time Shards. Tragic Business. EP507: The Call of the Sky.
Filed in 10 and Up, Podcasts on October 22, 2015 with 2 comments by Cliff Winnigread by Marguerite Kenner This story was originally published in the anthology When the Hero Comes Home: 2.Discuss on our forums. For a list of all Escape Pod stories, authors and narrators, visit our sortable Wikipedia page author Cliff Winnig about the author… from the author’s website: Cliff Winnig’s short fiction appears in the anthologies That Ain’t Right: Historical Accounts of the Miskatonic Valley, Gears and Levers 3, When the Hero Comes Home: 2, Footprints and elsewhere. Cliff is a graduate of the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop and a three-time finalist in the Writers of the Future Contest.
When not writing, Cliff plays sitar, studies tai chi and aikido, and does choral singing and social dance, including ballroom, swing, salsa, and Argentine tango. Narrator Marguerite Kenner about the narrator… The Call of the Sky by Cliff Winnig We wouldn’t be syncing, though. “Nope.” “Sure.” “Ah.” Water Rights. EP509: Broken. The Pipes of Pan. When We Were Giants. Tea Time. Beacon 23: Little Noises. EP513: Adaptation and Predation. On the day Auston Habershaw was born, Skylab fell from the heavens. This foretold two possible fates: supervillain or scifi/fantasy author. Fortunately he chose the latter, and spends his time imagining the could-be and the never-was rather than disintegrating the moon with his volcano laser. He lives and works in Boston, MA. Auston is a winner of the Writers of the Future Contest (2nd place in quarter 1, 2014) and has published stories in Analog, The Sword and Laser Anthology, and Stupefying Stories.
His debut novel, The Iron Ring (Book 1 in the Saga of the Redeemed), will be released on 2/10/15. narrator Jeff Ronner about the narrator… Jeff Ronner is a voice actor, audio engineer, and sound designer. Adaptation and Predation by Auston Habershaw Everyone thrives in someone else’s version of hell. I’d seen more than a few fall—Dryth tourists to little fluffly Lhassa pups, all screaming their way down into the abyss. For that reason, among others, I came here to kill people for money.
“Sir?” Beneath the Silent Stars. Portfolio. Lightspeed Magazine. Lightspeed Magazine. Lightspeed Magazine. Lightspeed Magazine. EP516: Married. Filed in 13 and Up, Podcasts on January 6, 2016 with 1 comment by Helena Bell narrated by Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali This story first appeared in UPGRADED.Discuss on our forums. For a list of all Escape Pod stories, authors and narrators, visit our sortable Wikipedia pageThank you for visiting us on Facebook and Twitter author Helena Bell about the author… Helena Bell is a poet and writer living in Raleigh, North Carolina where she is an MFAcandidate in Fiction at NC State University.
About the narrator… Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali lives in Houston, Texas with her husband of twenty-five years and three children. Of her alter ego, K from the planet Vega, it is rumored that she owns a time machine and knows the secret to long youth. Narrator Khaalidah Muhammad-Ali Married by Helena Bell The last part of himself my husband will lose to his ghost will be his teeth. When my husband and his ghost sleep, I lift the corners of his mouth and peer inside him with a dim flashlight. “Good,” he says. “What?” Mr. Lightspeed Magazine. Free - The Top 100 Best Free Kindle Books On Amazon - Digital Book Today. Lightspeed Magazine. Lightspeed Magazine. Lightspeed Magazine. Lightspeed Magazine. Tim Pratt » Blog Archive » Manic Nixie Dream Girl. As an enticement to get people to contribute to my Kickstarter for Closing Doors, the last Marla Mason novel, here’s a Marla story that has never appeared online before: “Manic Nixie Dream Girl”.
If you like it, you can show your appreciation by hurling money at me or encouraging others to do so, or both. www.kickstarter.com/projects/timpratt/closing-doors-the-last-marla-mason-novel “We’re looking for a monster,” Marla said. “Except at this point we’re pretty sure it just looks like a person.” The small, white-whiskered old man sitting in the velvet armchair across from her nodded thoughtfully. Marla shrugged. Sanford Cole, the legendary and immortal (so far) figure recently awakened (again) from magical slumber to serve as chief sorcerer of San Francisco, stroked his neat little beard.
Marla smiled. “I will give you what information I have on the creature,” Cole said. “I know,” Cole said. Marla snorted. B winced. “Yeah, your life is one of interminable suffering, and so on. B nodded. Black Baccara by Jay Lake and Ruth Nestvold. Baccara is one of the dark ones from among the ranks of the Rose Knights. She is a pale woman, needle-thin with large eyes dark as bruises. She always goes clad in satin of a color that falls somewhere between maroon and leaf mold. Baccara follows battle rather than leading it like most of her fellows, always in the service of the Armies of the Moon.
Baccara can hear the whispers of the departing souls of the dead. From them she bargains for secrets. And the Velvet Knight always keeps her bargains. She chanced upon a forest ambush one early winter's day. "I am a cartographer," he announced to her, as if they'd met over two bottles of ale in some wayside tavern. "Of course you are," she answered quietly. He smiled through the pale draining of his face. After scanning for hidden archers or worse, she crouched before him, tugging the scabbard of her slim blade upward so as not to snag upon the ground should his attackers return. "Orange," he said, then his breath fled his body.
Love. The End. - Daily Science Fiction. "Caged Earth" by Chonghao Liu. March 11.... - Daily Science Fiction. Galactic Weather Report by Julia Nolan. This Monday, the speed of light is expected to decrease by ninety percent. We've issued a travel warning and recommend that interstellar travel only commence if there are no other options. If necessary, please proceed through specially designated wormholes. Fortunately, gravity will decrease by a balmy ten percent, so it's looking to be a great week on your home planet. On Tuesday, travel warnings remain in effect, but the electron and proton charges are expected to increase three percent.
Wednesday's night sky will provide a dazzling display as dark matter mass shifts from several thousand years ago contract the spiral of the Milky Way. On Thursday, a shift in the uncertainty constant will allow certain people to briefly blink from high-energy states to lower ones. Friday is expected to be calm, with a slight chance of entropic reversals. Although the outlook for Saturday is still unclear, our highest probability estimates point to light speed increasing to ten times its normal state.
Believe Me by Jennifer Della'Zanna. Just one more hill and I would be home. As I topped the rise, the county sheriff's car filled my vision, parked in my driveway. My 14-year-old was babysitting his sister for the first time. What happened? I pulled onto the grass, jumped out of the car, and sprinted toward the house. The door opened as I approached. "Mom! You have to see this! " Her pink hooded sweatshirt covered something that moved. She flashed a bright smile. I glanced at Roger, the town sheriff, whose daughter went to kindergarten with mine.
"Unicorn? " "In the garden. "Why didn't you call me? " "I called animal control, but they didn't.... "They, uh, they called it into us as a possible... well... hoax. " "I recognized the name, though, and I was coming out this way anyway," said the Sheriff. "Look," I said. "But, Mom--" I held up my hand and said, "John, you can get in big trouble for perpetrating a hoax.
" "Mom, it wasn't just the--" "This," I said, pulling back the hood again, "is a goat. John tugged at my arm. "Mom! " Let There Be Light by Chen Qiufan (translated by Ken Liu) The Curse of Giants by Jose Pablo Iriarte. Harlekin by Jay Lake and Ruth Nestvold. Chatter Monkey by Caroline Couderc. A Cure Over Coffee by Pontius Paiva. The Old Blue Notebook by Victor Fernando R. Ocampo. "Incarnadine" by J.C. Runolfson.... - Daily Science Fiction. You're Doing the Best You Can by Heather Morris. "Meat and Fire" by Matthew F. Amati.... - Daily Science Fiction. "Android One" by Richard Ankers.... - Daily Science Fiction. Beneath Ceaseless Skies - Call and Answer, Plant and Harvest by Cat Rambo. Lightspeed Magazine. A Dance to End Our Final Day by Beth Cato - Evil Girlfriend Media Evil Girlfriend Media. Lightspeed Magazine.
Lightspeed Magazine. Cup and Table. Lightspeed Magazine. Fireflies, those Femme Fatales by Christopher Stieha. Searching for Slave Leia. Lightspeed Magazine. Lightspeed Magazine. Uncanny Magazine Year Three: The Space Unicorn Flies Again! Strange Horizons is creating A Weekly Speculative Fiction Magazine | Patreon. The Cavern of the Screaming Eyes. Strange Horizons - A Magazine of Speculative Fiction. Metaphorosis - beautifully made science fiction and fantasy. The Wind Shall Blow by Gregory Norman Bossert. Lightspeed Magazine. Lightspeed Magazine. Lightspeed Magazine. Thistles and Barley by Kamila Zeman Miller. Razbliuto in Ink by Wendy Nikel. - Daily Science Fiction. February 9 "The First Time" by Peter A.... - Daily Science Fiction. February 8 "Dangers of Delivery"... - Daily Science Fiction. 2016 Nebula Awards Ballot Announced. Cat Pictures Please by Naomi Kritzer. Fiction. Free eBooks. Fantasy Fiction.
Science fiction.