Our weekly exploration of free and inexpensive short fiction available on the internet. Here are a few stories we’ve read that we wanted you to know about.
“A Recipe for Magic” by Kat Howard and Fran Wilde (2017, free at Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy blog, free to download for Nook)
“A Recipe for Magic,” co-written by Kat Howard and Fran Wilde, features a curious kind of shop: at the Night and Day Bakery, magic spells are baked directly into pastries and confections,
November 13th, 2017. Jana Nyman, Tadiana Jones and Marion Deeds | Fran Wilde, Kat Howard, Neil Gaiman, Philip K. Dick | Horror, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
“The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe (1846, free at Project Gutenberg)
Our narrator Montresor, an Italian nobleman, explains ― in a suspiciously vague way ― how his friend Fortunato has mortally offended and insulted him. Montresor sets himself on a course of implacable revenge … but he wants to do so in a way that Fortunato understands that Montresor is the source of revenge,
October 30th, 2017. Tadiana Jones, Bill Capossere, Kat Hooper and Nathan Okerlund | Dennis Danvers, Edgar Allan Poe, M.R. James, Nick Mamatas, Ray Bradbury | Audio, Horror, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
“Crispin’s Model” by Max Gladstone (Oct. 2017, free at Tor.com, 99c Kindle version)
A young woman, Delilah Dane, moves from Savannah to New York City to pursue her theatrical dreams; the cost of living in NYC being what it is, she supplements her waitressing income by posing for artists. (Nothing more than posing — she has very strict rules about conduct and respect.) After an extremely weird interview and some ground rules which are eccentric even by artists’ standards,
October 23rd, 2017. Jana Nyman, Tadiana Jones and Skye Walker | Max Gladstone, Nancy Kress | Horror, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
Our weekly exploration of free and inexpensive short fiction available on the internet. Here are a few stories we’ve read that we wanted you to know about.
“The Secret Life of Bots” by Suzanne Palmer (Sept. 2017, free at Clarkesworld). 2018 Hugo award winner (novelette).
Fans of WALL-E will particularly appreciate this whimsically poignant tale about an outdated robot with a can-do attitude. Robot #9 is reactivated by its spaceship after a lengthy time in storage, and is assigned the task of ridding the Ship of a particularly destructive “biological infestation” (the bots begin to call it the “ratbug,” though Bot 9 privately questions the accuracy of that moniker) that is chewing apart bots and other parts of the Ship.
October 2nd, 2017. Tadiana Jones and Skye Walker | Sarah Gailey, Suzanne Palmer | Hugo Award, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
“Red Bark and Ambergris” by Kate Marshall (Aug. 2017, free at Beneath Ceaseless Skies, 99c Kindle magazine issue)
Sarai is forcibly taken from her paradisiacal island home by the queen’s men when they discover that the young girl has the magical ability of a scent-maker, one who can concoct fragrances that will powerfully affect people, evoking memories and calling forth emotions.
September 25th, 2017. Tadiana Jones and Marion Deeds | Horror, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
“The Walking-Stick Forest” by Anna Tambour (2014, free on Tor.com, 99c Kindle version)
This is an excellent dark and fantastical short story, set in 1924 in Scotland. Athol Farquar is a veteran of World War I who now lives a solitary life as a carver ― or, more accurately, a shaper ― of wooden walking sticks. He has a deep affinity for blackthorn wood and the forests around his home,
August 14th, 2017. Tadiana Jones | Carrie Vaughn, Mary Robinette Kowal | Horror, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 6 comments |
“Biting Tongues” by Amal El-Mohtar (2011, free at Uncanny, $3.99 Kindle magazine issue. First printed in The WisCon Chronicles (Vol 5): Writing and Racial Identity)
“Biting Tongues” is a speculative poem which slowly reveals the tenaciousness of the character or characters involved, through a progression from social expectations of their voice and bodies to their true form.
August 7th, 2017. Skye Walker, Tadiana Jones and Bill Capossere | Amal El-Mohtar, Jennifer Fallon, T. Kingfisher | Horror, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Red Handed: The Fine Art of Strange Crimes by Matt Kindt
Red Handed: The Fine Art of Strange Crimes by Matt Kindt is a fantastic, but demanding book to read. It is about police detective Gould who, like a modern-day Sherlock Holmes, seems capable of solving all cases. However, unlike Holmes, who never seems to be personally impacted by the cases he solves, Gould changes as a character. Gould not only changes his job from police detective to private detective by the end of the novel;
July 29th, 2017. Brad Hawley | SFF Reviews | no comments |
“As Good as New” by Charlie Jane Anders (2014, free at Tor.com, 99c Kindle version)
Marisol Guzmán, a pre-med student who decided that being a doctor was a better career choice than a playwright, is saved from the end of the world only because she’s housecleaning a mansion when massive earthquakes began.
July 24th, 2017. Tadiana Jones and Kat Hooper | Arthur C. Clarke, Charlie Jane Anders, Kat Howard, Seanan McGuire | Audio, Locus Award, Nebula Award, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
“The Evaluators: To Trade with Aliens, You Must Adapt” by N.K. Jemisin (2016, free on Wired)
About two hundred years in our future, humanity is engaged in exploring other planets and worlds and meeting alien civilizations. Wei Aiuha is part of a team that is engaging in discussions with a newly discovered alien race, the Manka, to see if humans can develop a relationship with the Manka and engage in some profitable trade with them. Back on earth, Thandiwe Solomon is trying to decipher Aiuha’s personal logs from her meetings with the Manka two years earlier.
July 3rd, 2017. Tadiana Jones and Katie Burton | N.K. Jemisin, Neil Gaiman | Horror, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
COMMENT Book #3 of this trilogy is very much a heist story, and I quite enjoyed it!
Pirate stories and heist stories... Do we ever get enough of them?
Very interesting, Ulrich! Thanks for clueing me in!
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