David Such's "Tristesse" (flash fiction, science fiction, humor, free, minor post)

A man is forcibly taken to "International Space Station" & his brain rewired without his consent to remove "redundancy" inherent in human brain! When done, he's told "you must be very careful what you wish for. Within a limited distance you have the ability to manifest new realities." He, of course, wishes to be out of his confinement - with terrible consequences.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, #119 (April/May 2008).
Rating: A
Download full text.

Tavis Potts' "Eye-Pod" (flash fiction, cyberpunk, free, minor post)

Narrator gets a natural eye replaced with an "Eye-Pod" - "a bio-organic-silicon hybrid" device. "Instant information wired to my mind, immersive entertainment, peer-to-peer mind networking ... it even has an alarm directly wired into my body!"

While the concept of implants like this is nothing new in science fiction, thing that pushes this story to top league - in my book, anyway - is: the author manages to tell the story on this subject without a lot of jargon. Focus is on story - the only kind of cyberpunk I like.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, #119 (April/May 2008).
Rating: A
Download full text.

Francis Conaty's "A Child's Justice" (flash fiction, non-genre, free, minor post)

A child's interpretation of elders' dictate has doomed a man's life!

It's a good story except for one fault - the 3-year old here just doesn't behave like any 3-year-old I've known.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, #119 (April/May 2008).
Rating: B
Download full text.

Shaun A Saunders' "Dreaming The Futures To Be" (flash fiction, non-genre, free, minor post)

Supposedly a motivational story. Herbert Wells (I suppose H G Wells is implied), a scifi writer financially pressed & yet unpublished is struggling with his inner voice - whether to skip writing & go do a real job, or stick to writing. No prizes for guessing which option won.

A far more interesting story on generally this theme is Lavie Tidhar's "The Master". Caution: Tidhar's story won't go down well with those whose sympathies lie on the Arab side in Arab/Israel conflict; it's politically a very biased story.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, #119 (April/May 2008).
Rating: B
Download full text.

Alan Delaney's "A New Arrival" (flash fiction, science fiction, free, minor post)

Description of a future dystopia that has already been well hashed in literature - an all knowing state's treatment of its citizens as machines. Oh - and I've a feeling everyone will not look at this story as dystopia (though I do).

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, #119 (April/May 2008).
Rating: B
Download full text.

Hannah Steenbock's "Something New Under The Sun" (flash fiction, non-genre, free, minor post)

A woman who cares about sick birds has been brought a new one of a kind she hasn't seen before.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, #119 (April/May 2008).
Rating: C
Download full text.

João Ventura's "Bad Manners" (flash fiction, science fiction, free, minor post)

Mumbo-jumbo about practically unlimited information storage capacity of a black hole, a technique to retrieve it via "ultrastrings and infrastrings" by physically sitting on something called a "white hole", discovery of FTL travel so people can go to white hole for data archival, & wrecking of entire experiment because one of black/white holes is a sentient creature that had a blast due to indigestion!

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, #119 (April/May 2008).
Rating: C
Download full text.

Luke Kepreotis' "Finite Horror, Infinite Hope" (flash fiction, fantasy, free, minor post)

It appears to be mix of two stories I'm familiar with - Jack Williamson's "Born of the Sun"; & a kids' story I studied in probably primary school where a little kid faces the ravaging Taimur Lane - the Central Asian raider of India sometime in history. Williamson's is hopeless, boys' story is good motivational one for little kids. But I found this Kepreotis' mix rather uninteresting.

A winged alien creature called Cosmic Holocaust has flown through space & landed on earth. To destroy earth because humans are irresponsible. A little girl faces him, arguing if she is brave enough to face him, isn't there hope for humanity. And he sees the light! Earth is saved.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, #119 (April/May 2008).
Rating: C
Download full text.

Leslie Blake's "The Bowl Of Stew" (flash fiction, non-genre, free, minor post)

I didn't really get this story - if there is a story here. A man wakes up to find him in a dungeon - he doesn't remember anything, & is afraid of a bowl of stew in the cell.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, #119 (April/May 2008).
Rating: C
Download full text.

Rachael Ryan's "Saint" (flash fiction, fantasy, free, minor post)

You really need a taste in blood-sucking & human-eating demons to like this story. "Saint" hunts "demons" with the aid of his crew, & drinks the victims blood! At the end of the story, I wasn't really clear if the Saint himself was the demon.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, #119 (April/May 2008).
Rating: C
Download full text.