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Archive for the ‘Entertainment’ Category

The goal of the Tomorrow Project is to use science fiction to “spark conversations about the future.” This international project taps ideas from today’s emerging technologies, including synthetic biology, nanotechnology, and 3D printing, and spins out possible impacts on future society.

The good news is that it’s not all killer AIs and artificial plagues:) As they so succinctly put it,

Science fiction is a way to think about how we want the future to be.

Anthology Titles:

Enjoy, fellow futurists!

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Today we have a double dose of free fiction! The first comes from David D. Levine at Tor.com:

“Damage” is a tale of desperate times, desperate measures, and the inner life of a fighter spacecraft.

This thoughtful short story of a ship and its master has been nominated for the 2015 Nebula Awards. (If you liked Ann Leckie’s Ancillary trilogy I imagine this could appeal to you as well.) For more on the stories selected for this year’s Nebulas, including select links to full-text versions, check out the complete list of nominees.

The second dose is more like a raging river. Up and Coming is a collection of works by authors eligible for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2016, and is now available for free download. That’s over a million words of fiction!

The anthology is free free free but only until March 31. Get it while it’s available and enjoy:)

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26 Monkeys, Also The Abyss, by Kij Johnson (no relation:)

Winner of the 2009 World Fantasy Award.
Winner of the 2008 Asimov’s magazine Readers Award for best short story.
Final ballot, 2008 Hugo Award.
Final ballot, 2008 Nebula Award.
Mentioned on Locus Magazine’s 2008 Recommended Reading list.
Read by Diane Severson as a charming audio reading at StarShipSofa.com.

This lovely story is subtle but with great atmosphere, and the ending packs a punch. Find more of Kij’s fiction and poetry on her website.

Happy Leap Day, and enjoy!

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One of the best ways to understand writing and how to connect with an audience, I find, is to read. A lot. As I read, I ask myself which stories stick with me and why, which annoy me and why, which suck me in so completely that I forget to think about the how and focus only on the what.

For today’s free fiction we have the winner of the 2010 Hugo Award for Best Short Story, “Bridesicle”* [audio available from Escape Pod], by Will McIntosh. It’s a lovely twist on the classic science fiction theme of cryogenics, and it’s exactly the sort of story that sticks with me.

Originally published in Asimov’s, this touching tale also won the 2010 Asimov’s Reader Poll and was a finalist for the 2010 Nebula Award. If you like the story and want to explore the world further, the author also expanded the story into a full-length novel titled Love Minus Eighty.

Enjoy!

 

* Update: I originally posted a link to what I thought was a freely available version of the story text but! as it’s copyrighted material the link has been removed. It’s still a great story and it’s still available through Escape Pod, narrated by Amy Sturgis, or check out Love Minus Eighty.

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Today’s free fiction comes from Ann Leckie of Ancillary fame and more. “Hesperia and Glory” was her first SF&F sale, and she blogs about the story and her experience writing it as part of the Clarion West writers workshop:

…all the best advice in the world (and trust me, it was fabulous advice for the story I appeared to have written) isn’t useful if it’s not for your story.

“Hesperia and Glory” is available free as part of a special issue of Subterranean Magazine guest-edited by John Scalzi. Also in this issue, stories by Rachel Swirsky, Jo Walton, Elizabeth Bear and more.

Heck, since I’m at it, let me link two other Leckie stories I read in the past few weeks, both in the Imperial Radch universe:

Night’s Slow Poison from Tor.com
She Commands Me and I Obey from Strange Horizons

Enjoy!

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What’s this, what’s this? Libraries that will let you check out musical instruments plus have a librarian trained to help patrons with the tricky bits? That’s something I like.

Pennsylvania Libraries Will Let You Check Out a Ukulele
There’s a strange sound emerging from some Pennsylvania libraries. It’s not the sound of pages turning or scanners scanning—it’s the distinctive dainty, nimble strum that comes from a ukulele.

Even in the age of the internet libraries are incredible resources, and this just adds to the awesome. Not that I play ukelele, but that’s kind of the point. Libraries let you sample a wide variety of knowledge, experience, and perspectives. Yesterday a Moroccan cookbook, today space opera, tomorrow ukelele:)

How great is that?

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Today’s free fiction is a Best of 2015 collection from Tor.com. Available in PDF, EPUB & MOBI formats, the book download requires free login. Note that these and all other Tor.com stories are available free online but it’s great to get a prepackaged anthology as a jumping off point.

Some of the Best from Tor.com 2015

The stories were acquired by editors Ellen Datlow, Claire Eddy, Carl Engle-Laird, Liz Gorinsky, David G. Hartwell, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Beth Meacham, Marco Palmieri, and Ann VanderMeer.

Enjoy!

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Today’s #ThingILike* is West with the Night, a fabulous piece of non-fiction first published in 1942 by bush pilot, adventurer and racehorse trainer Beryl Markham. I picked it up in a second-hand store on the strength of the title and the back cover blurb. I’d never heard of the author, but when Ernest Hemingway says he wishes he could write so well, I pay attention. Glad I did.

“Did you read Beryl Markham’s book, West with the Night? I knew her fairly well in Africa and never would have suspected that she could and would put pen to paper except to write in her flyer’s log book. As it is, she has written so well, and marvelously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer. I felt that I was simply a carpenter with words, picking up whatever was furnished on the job and nailing them together and sometimes making an okay pig pen. But [she] can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves writers. The only parts of it that I know about personally, on account of having been there at the time and heard the other people’s stories, are absolutely true . . . I wish you would get it and read it because it is really a bloody wonderful book.”
— Ernest Hemingway

Recommended.
* Again, items in this series of Things I Like are linked for your information; no sponsors, no kickbacks, just a sampling of things that I find useful or fun or funny or sweet.

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The 2015 Locus Recommended Reading List

It’s the beginning of a new year and that, among other things, means year-end wrap-ups and award seasons. Locus Magazine, which has covered the science fiction and fantasy field since 1968, released its list of recommended reading for 2015. It is extensive. It covers material from novels to shorts, fantasy to non-fiction, and there seems to be something for everyone. The full list includes links or references for all entries so check it out if you want the full shebang.

If you’re short on available funds or want to sample an author before you dig deeper into their repertoire, then check out my abbreviated version below. It links to all of the list’s freely available stories (I think, although it’s a big collection and I may have missed one or two).

There’s a lot of excellent material here. I’ve read some of these pieces already but not all, and I look forward to catching up. Do check out the novels and other purchasable items too, if you have the wherewithal (and if you don’t, I highly recommend a library card!).

Enjoy!

 

NOVELLAS
‘‘Waters of Versailles’’, Kelly Robson (Tor.com 6/10/15)

NOVELETTES
‘‘And You Shall Know Her by the Trail of Dead’’, Brooke Bolander (Lightspeed 2/15)
‘‘Islands off the Coast of Capitola, 1978’’, David Herter (Tor.com 7/8/15)
‘‘Machine Learning’’, Nancy Kress (Future Visions)
‘‘Another Word for World’’, Ann Leckie (Future Visions)
‘‘Coming of the Light’’, Chen Qiufan (Clarkesworld 3/15)
‘‘Fabulous Beasts’’, Priya Sharma (Tor.com 7/27/15)
‘‘The Long Goodnight of Violet Wild’’, Catherynne M. Valente (Clarkesworld 1/15, 3/15)

SHORT STORIES
‘‘The Great Silence’’, Allora & Calzadilla & Ted Chiang (e-flux journal 56th Venice Biennale 5/8/2015)
‘‘Soteriology and Stephen Greenwood’’, Julia August (Unlikely Stories 10/15)
‘‘City of Ash’’, Paolo Bacigalupi (Matter 7/27/15)
‘‘Snow’’, Dale Bailey (Nightmare 6/15)
‘‘Unearthly Landscape by a Lady’’, Rebecca Campbell (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 10/15/15)
‘‘Hold-Time Violations’’, John Chu (Tor.com 10/7/15)
‘‘Three Cups of Grief, by Starlight’’, Aliette de Bodard (Clarkesworld 1/15)
‘‘Please Undo This Hurt’’, Seth Dickinson (Tor.com 9/16/15)
‘‘Madeleine’’, Amal El-Mohtar (Lightspeed 6/15)
‘‘A Shot of Salt Water’’, Lisa L. Hannett (The Dark 5/15)
‘‘Let Baser Things Devise’’, Berrien C. Henderson (Clarkesworld 4/15)
‘‘The Apartment Dweller’s Bestiary’’, Kij Johnson (Clarkesworld 1/15)
‘‘Cat Pictures Please’’, Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld 1/15)
‘‘Variations on an Apple’’, Yoon Ha Lee (Tor.com 10/14/15)
‘‘archival testimony fragments / minersong’’, Rose Lemberg (Uncanny 1-2/15)
‘‘The Game of Smash and Recovery’’, Kelly Link (Strange Horizons 10/17/15)
‘‘Descent’’, Carmen Maria Machado (Nightmare 2/15)
‘‘Hello, Hello’’, Seanan McGuire (Future Visions)
‘‘When Your Child Strays From God’’, Sam J. Miller (Clarkesworld 7/15)
‘‘The Smog Society’’, Chen Qiufan (Lightspeed 8/15)
‘‘The Empress in Her Glory’’, Robert Reed (Clarkesworld 4/15)
‘‘The Three Resurrections of Jessica Churchill’’, Kelly Robson (Clarkesworld 2/15)
‘‘Today I Am Paul’’, Martin L. Shoemaker (Clarkesworld 8/15)
‘‘The Karen Joy Fowler Book Club’’, Nike Sulway (Lightspeed 10/15)
‘‘The Pyramid of Krakow’’, Michael Swanwick (Tor.com 9/30/15)
‘‘The Lily and the Horn’’, Catherynne M. Valente (Fantasy 12/15)
‘‘Pocosin’’, Ursula Vernon (Apex 1/15)
‘‘Kaiju maximus®: ‘So Various, So Beautiful, So New’’’, Kai Ashante Wilson (Fantasy 12/15)
‘‘Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers’’, Alyssa Wong (Nightmare 10/15)
‘‘Seven Wonders of a Once and Future World’’, Caroline M. Yoachim (Lightspeed 9/15)

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I spend a lot of time online for work and play, and it struck me just how much free fiction I see in a typical day. Lots, is the short answer.

I’ve decided to use some of my posts to highlight (a mere fraction of) the excellent material out there. I’m drawn to good writing, intriguing characters and ideas, and speculative prognostication. I hope these stories will appeal to you too.

Today’s selection is “Zero Hours” by Tim Maughan (Medium, Sep 19, 2013) ~7 min read. It introduces us to the life and work of a 19-year old “zero hours retail contractor” in London 2023.

0714, Wanstead
Nicki is awake even before her mum calls her from the other side of the door. She’s sat up in bed, crackly FM radio ebbing from tiny supermarket grade speakers, her fingers flicking across her charity shop grade tablet’s touchscreen. She’s close to shutting down two auctions when a third pushes itself across her screen with its familiar white and green branded arrogance. Starbucks. Oxford Circus. 4 hour shift from 1415.

…

Enjoy!

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