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Posts Tagged ‘science fiction’

Some of the Best from Tor.com 2015

Posted in Entertainment, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 8, 2016| Leave a Comment »

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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Locus + Recommended + Free

Posted in Entertainment, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 1, 2016| Leave a Comment »

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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Free Fiction Monday

Posted in Entertainment, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on January 25, 2016| Leave a Comment »

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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The Best Sort of Oddity

Posted in Entertainment, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 11, 2016| Leave a Comment »

David Bowie 1947–2016

Bowie was a great artist and an inspiration to so many, including those of us in the science and science fiction communities. A lot will be written about him in the next while so I’ll just leave you with one small sign of his influence, on and off the planet.

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#nospoilers Please!

Posted in Entertainment, Holidays, Likes, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on December 16, 2015| 2 Comments »

Star Wars: The Force Awakens has premiered and the hype it is a-ramping! I’m excited. Really excited, like Fanboys excited, but I can’t see the movie just yet. Why not? Why am I not suited up in a Han Solo outfit (complete with super cool hip holster) and posting this from the ticket line at my local theatre? Because Star Wars isn’t just my thing, it’s a family thing.

See, I grew up without a television. My father had a minor (read major) TV problem and realized that having one meant watching one. All the time. So no TV. What we did have was a black and white lab monitor and a tape of Star Wars. On Betamax:)

We watched that tape a lot. Until the video track died, actually, and for a while after that. Most nights after dinner, Dad would make giant bowls of popcorn spackled together with butter and salt and we’d settle on the couch for the movie.

The. Movie.

Yeah, I was that kid, the geeky one who could quote the whole thing. (Droid dialog included, of course. I can’t tell you what it means to have your mostly secret childhood obsession become the new cultural darling, but I may not have to. Maybe you were that geeky kid too. Awesome, right?)

The original Star Wars was a great movie but it was also an anchor in turbulent times. My parents split up around then, my mother had health issues, I moved to a new school. The usual kinds of transitions children go through, and need a foundation to weather well.

Star Wars, and the bond that formed with my brother and father around science fiction and fantasy, was a big part of that anchor. It’s also a big part of why I write speculative fiction. In the way only fiction can, the movie proved that the good guys can win, that wrongs can be righted, and that a scrappy band of rag-tag rebels can change the course of history. (Also that parsecs are a measure of time, support garments aren’t necessary in space, and that no matter what Obi-Wan says, stormtroopers can’t shoot worth a damn. Hey, nothing’s perfect;)

My father also read us Tolkien, and when the The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings movies came out we all went together. Now those movies are done but we have a new hope (see what I did there?;). This year I’m going home for Christmas, and for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

But, that means I won’t be able to see the movie for ten days. In the meantime? There’s time for a bit of fun:

So have a great time at the movie whenever you can get there, but #nospoilers please!

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Posted in Food and..., Funny, Holidays, tagged , , , , , , , , , on November 26, 2015| Leave a Comment »

For all those in or of the United States, Happy Thanksgiving:)

For the first time I can remember I’m not back at my familial homestead partaking in traditional Thanksgiving Day festivities. The decision not to travel makes sense but it’s still a little weird, not least because I’m in a country where they celebrated the holiday last month (now that’s weird;).

So I’m a little sad with the missing of the family (not too sad, though, as I’ll see them in a few weeks) but feeling thankful for all the wonderful people in my life. I hope you are too.

Let me leave you with a link to John Scalzi’s science fictional Thanksgiving Day grace, which he wrote as a handy guide for those who may be called on to lead their tables in thanks. This timeless classic includes such gems as:

We also thank you for once again not allowing our technology to gain sentience, to launch our own missiles at us, to send a robot back in time to kill the mother of the human resistance, to enslave us all, and finally to use our bodies as batteries. That doesn’t even make sense from an energy-management point of view, Lord, and you’d think the robots would know that. But in your wisdom, you haven’t made it an issue yet, so thank you.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Monday, Busy, So Have Some Free Fiction

Posted in Science!, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 23, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Between regular life and my super exciting NaNoWriMo experiment, my schedule has been a bit busy of late. (Hence the relative quiet here.) So I thought I’d start your week off right, with some free fiction.

Today’s selection is a new collection of shorts produced by none other than Microsoft, which is venturing into the fiction futurism business. What’s it all about?

Future Visions: Original Science Fiction Stories Inspired by Microsoft is an anthology of short stories written by some of today’s greatest science fiction authors. These visionary stories explore prediction science, quantum computing, real-time translation, machine learning, and much more. The contributing authors were inspired by inside access to leading-edge work, including in-person visits to Microsoft’s research labs, to craft new works that predict the near-future of technology and examine its complex relationship to our core humanity.

How will the technologies the company is exploring affect our world? They’ve brought together a pretty great group of authors and artists to speculate on that very topic. Contributors include Elizabeth Bear, Greg Bear, David Brin, Nancy Kress, Ann Leckie, Jack McDevitt, Seanan McGuire, Robert J. Sawyer, Blue Delliquanti and Michele Rosenthal, and Joey Camacho.

This link takes you to a Microsoft news page with jumps to Amazon and other download sites where you can get the e-book file for free free free.

Enjoy!

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Back to Work? No, Back to the Future!

Posted in Entertainment, Likes, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 21, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Today is Back to the Future Day! In honor of Marty McFly’s time travel to the future in the second installment of that classic movie series, I shall microwave all beverages for exactly 1 minute and 21 seconds, wonder when I’ll finally be able to buy a real hoverboard, and think fondly of mad scientists.

You know, pretty much a normal day here at Chez J 🙂

FYI: I really did go back to work, but only after reading Neil deGrasse Tyson’s tweets on living in the future (us, now!), and Charlie Jane Anders’ 11 Incredible Secrets About The Making Of Back To The Future (because she is awesome and so is the movie), and then, heck, a couple of Star Wars articles, because Star Wars! Ahem.

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New Story At Terraform!

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 15, 2015| Leave a Comment »

I’m very pleased to announce that my new story “The NuCorYou Guide for New Corporate Persons” (complete with terrific animated artwork by Gustavo Torres) is now up at Terraform!

We say this all the time, but: ours is a science-fictional world. Those Democratic debates? Staged like the Thunder Dome, sponsored by Facebook, with candidates talking marijuana and the finer points of Democratic Socialism? Couldn’t have made that up. As for Bernie Sanders railing against the catastrophic effects of corporate personhood, well—have we got a story for you. —The Eds.

The story is free and available to all. Enjoy!

NuCorYouTerraform

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I Like a Little Fiction with My Science

Posted in Entertainment, Likes, Reviews, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 13, 2015| Leave a Comment »

I finally got to see The Martian this past weekend, and if you’ve been following the reviews at all my reaction will come as no surprise: it was great. What’s that, you’ve been busy/off the grid/media fasting? Here’s a trailer.

I read Andy Weir’s book last year so the specifics weren’t a surprise, but in this case knowing the story did nothing to detract from the experience. The execution, whether in terms of writing, acting, directing, or visuals, was a delight. The movie compressed the story in exactly the right ways, maintaining dynamism and tension in what could have been a dull one-man alone setting.

Also, no stupid characters were required to move the plot. Yay! You may not agree with every decision, but at no point did the script make some hapless individual look down at a big red button under glass and say, “Gosh, I know they told me not to touch anything but I wonder what this does,” literally or otherwise. Also times two, smart, strong characters, women included. How refreshing is that?

 

A lot has been written about the movie, and about Weir’s journey from self-published indie author to Hollywood hit, and it’s both interesting and well-deserved (see here and here and here and here, for examples).

As an entertainment consumer both versions scored high for me. As a writer, I was impressed by Weir’s concrete attention to detail, his willingness to dig himself into seemingly impossible holes, and his facility at getting out of them in realistic ways. Drew Goddard did an excellent job translating the book into a screenplay (I’d expect nothing less from this Buffy/Angel/Alias+ alum) for Ridley Scott.

I came out of the theatre kicking myself for not studying more math in school. Astronauts are awesome, and while most of us will never make that exalted level, there’s nothing to say we can’t try. (Ok, fine, my eyesight is bad and I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume that astronauts need to be able to do more than 10 pushups, but you get my point.)

Helping kids (and everyone else) see that science is about exploration, discovery, innovation, capability and (in this case) freaking outer space?

That’s exactly the kind of story I can get behind. Recommended.

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