Nicole Rendall's "Everything Old Is New Again" (flash fiction, humor, free)

Sometimes the latest & greatest gizmos are less desirable than old working ones...

Funny thing is: it reminded me of my switch from Nokia dumbphone to Android smartphone. My mother has been bugging me to put the SIM card back in Nokia, or get a new SIM to keep Nokia alive. She finds Android's phone feature hopelessly complicated.

Fact sheet.

First published: Antipodean SF, February 2012.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: A.

"AntipodeanSF", January 2012 (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents & review

7 science fiction stories of flash fiction length. I liked one ("Bugsy!"), & found two at least readable ("The Lightning Gun", "When The Alphabet Vomits On A Birth Certificate").

1. Julie Wornan's "Bugsy!" (A); download: Little baby knows far more than her parents suspect...
2. Antoinette Rydyr's "The Lightning Gun" (B); download: A gun that hits the target 10 years after firing...
3. Jamie Richter's "When The Alphabet Vomits On A Birth Certificate" (B); download; humor: Crazy government requirements of would-be parents...
4. Christine Gladstone's "What If" (B); download: Lifecycle of life...
5. Des McNicholas' "The Candidate" (C); download: NASA is hell bent of keeping the fact secret that there is an impenetrable & invisible barrier around earth...
   See also: David Brin's "Crystal Spheres": Star travel is impossible because there is an invisible barrier around each star system that can only be breached from inside, not from outside...
6. Mark Webb's "Shipwrecked" (C); download: Elder aliens visiting earth some centuries ago cannot decide whether to destroy humanity seeing its cruelty, or help it mix with galactic culture in future...
7. David Scholes' "Trathh" (C); download: Adventures of some crash-landed aliens on earth. I didn't get the punchline, though.

Scott James Smith's "Distant Signals" (flash fiction, first contact, free)

Alien transmissions received a year ago have finally being decoded...

See also.

1. Isaac Asimov's "Youth" (download): similar ending.

Fact sheet.

First published: Antipodean SF, December 2011.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.

"AntipodeanSF", April 2011 (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents & review

10 pieces of flash fiction. I've only read the 4 labeled science fiction. Nothing really outstanding, but first two are at least readable. My rating is in brackets.

1. Gregor Macnamara's "What Was That?" (B); download: Someone at a freight yard has discovered a mysterious container, unaccounted for in any records - one that periodically makes a noise...
2. Marcelo Rinesi's "Love Is Not A Modal Logic" (B); download: The future of spam...
   
   
   Related: Kurt Vonnegut, Jr's "Confido" is a far more interesting story based on a similar idea. Another interesting variation of this theme occurs in Eric Frank Russell's "Postscript" (download).
   
3. Michael McDonald's "Galactonecronomicon" (C); download: Grave robber on an alien world meets Cthulhu!
4. Jeanie Laherty's "The Problem" (C); download: A chip implant for hardened criminals that is supposed to fix their behavior & make them fit for normal society. If only things were this simple...
   

Antipodean SF, #146 (August 2010) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents & review

I've only read the 7 science fiction stories from this issue; none particularly remarkable, nor totally crappy.
Caution: The link above is not permanent, & will be overwritten when next month's issue is posted. AntiSF's new issues get a permanent URL at their archive several days after the issue is posted - there is none at present. Individual story links below will, I think, continue working.

Note this is a flash fiction magazine - 10 pieces of flash fiction every month. Includes some fantasy or horror too that I've not read.

I personally found stories early in the list below better reads than ones that come later.

Links on authors fetch more fiction by authors.

1. Jamie Richter's "Switch"; download: Description of a specific debugging session of computer programmer, with an ethnic joke about Frenchmen thrown in near end.
2. David Kernot's "Starry Eyed Trio: Herschel"; download: A galactic-scale intelligence has discovered another intelligent species.
3. Pavelle Wesser's "Second Hand"; download; humor: A man is having an extra-marital relationship.
4. Wes Parish's "The Previously Unknown Kingdom Of The North Saxons"; download: A previously unknown kingdom in British history was very short lived because...
5. Robert N Stephenson's "iWorld"; download: A parody of Apple's habit of putting "i" before their products: a whole society that puts "i" before common words!
6. Shaun A Saunders' "Right Of Way"; download; dystopia: A city where crossing the road on foot is a criminal offense because it can lead to "unlawful interruption of the progression of a motor vehicle, driver of which was engaged in promotion of commerce"!
7. Susan Partridge's "A Civil Servant's Diary"; download: A society where those long dead can be brought back alive, & regularly are.

Aidan Doyle's "Upgrade" (flash fiction, Frankenstein, free)

This actually sounded a lot like Henry Kuttner 's "By These Presents" - a man makes a deal with the devil: make me immortal from everything except suicide, & you can have my soul if I ever do commit suicide!

Here we have a couple of robots - one in the role of Kuttner's devil, another in the role of Kuttner's human. End & motivations, of course, are different from Kuttner's story.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntiSF, #139 (January 2010).
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.

Matt Cowens' "Waste Not" (flash fiction, energy, free)

You know, we're responsible for not only the extinction of dinosaurs but of some ice ages in the past! This is how...

Fact sheet.

First published: Antipodean SF, #141 (March 2010).
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.

Brendan D Carson's "The Heresy of Darren Wexmouth" (flash fiction, Christianity, free): Sorry, technology not welcome here!

A visitor brings technological "light" to medieval Europe, & gets an unexpected response...

Fact sheet.

First published: Antipodean SF, #141 (March 2010).
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Brendan D Carson.

James C Clar's "Joyride" (flash fiction, humor, free)

Newly launched Mars rover of NASA vanishes after landing there. That's why the little boy gets scolded by his father!

Fact sheet.

First published: Antipodean SF, #140 (February 2010).
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.

Jamie Richter's "Aloha Or Bust" (flash fiction, humor, free)

Someone is putting pressure on a spaceship captain to make a detour to pick up some VIP passengers. But the captain is adamant, until he learns that the VIPs are...

Fact sheet.

First published: AntiSF, #139 (January 2010).
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.

Tom Williams' "Three Strikes" (flash fiction, AI, free)

What do you expect when bored AIs piloting military's attack planes go on strike, & their human masters act tough?

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, either April or May 2009 issue.
PS: Why have they stopped documenting publication month & number on issues & stories?
Rating: B.
Download full text from publisher's site.

Alan Baxter's "Terminal Illness" (flash fiction, free)

Daniel is a very sick child. His grief-stricken mother cannot leave his bedside.

But her husband has an idea that can cure their child. Only the treatment requires he should get his wife away from child's bedside for a while...

Note.

Plot has similarity with, in particular, parts of Philip K Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"

Fact sheet.

First published: Antipodean SF, #131 (April 2009).
Rating: B.
Download full text from publisher's site.

Mark Tremble's "In Development" (flash fiction, humor, free)

In an overcrowded city, the government has found a way of fixing things - move nearly everyone out to country for a while, then tear down the whole city & rebuild it to a new plan. Of course, everyone could not go; some had to stay back to help.

When the time came for crowds to return, they had a surprise waiting...

Fact sheet.

First published: Antipodean SF, #127 (December 2008).
Rating: B.
Download full text.
Related: Stories of Mark Tremble.

Simon Petrie's "Guy Walks Into a Bar ... (Theme and Variations)" (flash fiction, humor, free)

A collection of 4 very tiny, unlabeled, humorous stories (more like jokes) - all beginning with "Guy walks into a bar" & something happens. I liked first & the last.

Fact sheet.

First published: Antipodean SF, #127 (December 2008).
Rating: B.
Download full text.
Related: Stories of Simon Petrie.

Emma Goninon's "I Don't Know" (flash fiction, fantasy, free)

I normally avoid posting about fantasy, but this is a good one. And it's not poetry, even though the beginning looks like one.

Someone is very confused about her existence - cannot recall how she came to be in this state, until things get clarified for the reader...

Fact sheet.

First published: Antipodean SF, #122 (July/August 2008).
Rating: A
Download full text from Pandora Archive.

Nicole R Murphy's "Fate Of Rulers" (flash fiction, free)

It appears to be a take of James Blish's "Surface Tension".

A couple of guys are mystified by strange moving lights above, & wondering if they're aliens-bearing spaceships - till one of these strange things drops down & picks them up...

Great ending (but relatively ordinary main part).

Fact sheet.

First published: Antipodean SF, #122 (July/August 2008).
Rating: A
Download full text from Pandora Archive.

Tracie McBride's "House Arrest" (flash fiction, humor, free): An intelligent house takes its job very seriously!

When Angela "asked it for a little assistance with my weight loss programme", her house took the request more seriously than she intended. "It disconnected the phone every time I tried to call out for pizza. Then the fridge and pantry doors locked up, and I couldn't get into them unless I ran for an hour on the treadmill. And then, when I threatened to call in a technician, the house locked the doors and shut down the phone."

Fact sheet.

First published: Antipodean SF, #108 (May/June 2007).
Rating: A
Download full text.

Laura Goodin's "I'm Too Loud" (flash fiction, free)

"At one point or another, every woman wonders whether her husband is an alien. The strange smells, the bizarre interests, the dress sense".

A lighthearted & sometimes amusing story of a woman's discovery that her husband is a telepath - can "hear" the thoughts of their unborn boy still inside his mother's womb. Plus the uneasy process of her getting used to living with it.

For Indian readers: Can Abhimanu's learning - while still inside his mother's womb - of the technique to enter chakravyuh, while dad explained the technique to mom, be the original sf story of this class?

Fact sheet.

First published: Antipodean SF, #122 (July/August 2008).
Rating: A
Download full text.

Jason Fischer's "Toilet Town" (flash fiction, science fiction, free)

A story dealing with human waste disposal should be disgusting, right? No. Jason shows how. One of the most imaginative stories I've seen from AntiSF.

In a world where water is scarce but matter transport portals are cheap, a company called "Toilet Town" has built a human waste disposal system that makes everyone happy. Until a minor disturbance...

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, #108 (May/June 2007).
Rating: A
Download full text.

AntipodeanSF magazine, #120 (May/June 2008): Review

10 tiny stories. This link fetches the relevant story posts - listed in order of quality - best story first.

Full issue #120.

Related: All AntiSF stories.

END.

Susan Partridge's "Refugees" (flash fiction, non-genre, free)

A group of tsunami devastated Australians is headed west - towards Indian Ocean, to rebuild lost lives. Very well told story, though not exactly original.

Thing that hit me was: "Gone was my three bedroom unit, and the car. No petrol. Gone: all my books, CDs, DVDs, my plastic-bought identity."

Fact sheet.

First published: Antipodean SF, #120 (May/June 2008).
Rating: A
Download full text.

END.

David Such's "Black Hollow" (flash fiction, non-genre, free)

Description of an interesting ceremony - with a twist near end. Saying anything more will spoil the funny ending.

Fact sheet.

First published: Antipodean SF, #120 (May/June 2008).
Rating: B
Download full text.

END.

Melanie Rees' "Pre-Emptive" (flash fiction, science fiction, free)

Apparently a take on US occupation of Iraq, but told as an aliens' story.

Unnamed aliens, apparently humans but it's not explicitly stated, have bombed a populated city of an intelligent race on an alien planet - with the objective of mining its petroleum which is as abundant there as water on earth.

Fact sheet.

First published: Antipodean SF, #120 (May/June 2008).
Rating: B
Download full text.

END.

Frank Roger's "Incomplete Information" (flash fiction, non-genre, free)

A massive earthquake has destroyed San Fransisco, & sea has claimed much land around the US west coast. Frederick Dubarry had hired Oswald's hot-air balloon services at the eleventh hour; they lifted off just before the quake hit. Now the place below is all sea & no land in sight, & balloon is short on gas - they're both doomed.

Punchline is in a humorous vein, but I found the humor thin.

Fact sheet.

First published: Antipodean SF, #120 (May/June 2008).
Rating: B
Download full text.

END.

David Price's "The Astral Strike" (flash fiction, religion, free)

God, Jesus, Satan, St Peter, etc are out playing divine cricket. A ball hit from Satan's bat ended up as a super-fast-moving meteor & destroyed the New York City!

Fact sheet.

First published: Antipodean SF, #120 (May/June 2008).
Rating: B
Download full text.

END.

Shaun A Saunders' "Global Consumables" (flash fiction, non-genre, free)

Global Consumables is the last manufacturing company left on earth, functioning with just 3 employees! Because of market downturn, they've just fired one of the 3, & now next in line is worried!

Fact sheet.

First published: Antipodean SF, #120 (May/June 2008).
Rating: C
Download full text.

END.

Paul Ryan's "Lake" (flash fiction, non-genre, free)

Cannot really figure out the point of this story. Two friends are out fishing at the lake & gossiping.

Fact sheet.

First published: Antipodean SF, #120 (May/June 2008).
Rating: C
Download full text.

END.

Cheyenne Warlock's "The Witches Hammer Voyages" (flash fiction, free)

I missed the punchline here.

"The Witches Hammer" is a sea-going vessel stopping by at some port for repairs. Harbourmaster cannot quite figure out the ship's log, & the sailor Boston Gantry (probably ship's Captain) is explaining. I completely missed most of their conversation - lot of jargan, place names that don't mean anything to me, ...

Captain will give a gift to Harbourmaster that is supposed to do some magic, but I completely missed the point & ending - apparently something magical.

Fact sheet.

First published: Antipodean SF, #120 (May/June 2008).
Rating: C
Download full text.

END.

Daniel S S Santos' "Apocalypse, Now There's A Good Idea" (flash fiction, non-genre, free)

A group called Writers Against Unoriginality have acquired & actually use a weapon to kill off most humanity at the click of the button, because "Originality is dead. Everything's done. Any time we try to create something new, it's just a variation of someone else's idea. A perversion of something original." Resetting humanity by saving only some babies & a few adults to care for them will hopefully make originally return!

Fact sheet.

First published: Antipodean SF, #120 (May/June 2008).
Rating: C
Download full text.

END.

Christopher Elston's "Wired For Sound" (flash fiction, horror, free)

Cannot exactly know whether the old man featured in this story is free or thrown to dungeons by his grandsons for unspecified reasons along with others who are tortured.

What is clear is: the old man's idea of relaxation is to hear sounds of agony from victims of torture!

Fact sheet.

First published: Antipodean SF, #120 (May/June 2008).
Rating: C
Download full text.

END.

AntipodeanSF magazine, #109 (June/July 2007): Annotated table of contents & review

10 tiny stories, none particularly interesting. This link fetches the relevant story posts - listed in order of quality - best story first.

Full issue #109.

Related: All AntiSF stories.

Shaun A Saunders' "Equal Opportunity" (flash fiction, non-genre, free)

This could have come from Ayn Rand - rule of the mediocre over the competent.

Such an old trope ought to be boring, except that it's being taken far too seriously by segment-the-electorate politicians in India - actually turning the crazy premise into laws. Search for "reservations in education & government jobs" on news.google.co.in for some real-life sampling.

Mediocre-mongering boss in this story is way too dumb. Wish they were like that in real life!

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, #109 (June/July 2007).
Rating: B
Download full text.

END.

David Such's "Tagged" (flash fiction, science fiction, free): Yet another police state dystopia

Biometric ID cards ("ITag"s) are the citizen ID in this near future state. And their data is public!!! So companies use their data to deliver personalized ads!

A woman has fallen into the habit of overspending, driven by these ads. Her son, a programmer working on ITags software & with edit-access to government's ITags database, has figured the only way to wean her is to make her invisible to these target advertisers.

But the only way to do that is destroy her ITag, an illegal activity! And just destroying it doesn't work - government database pings personal tag gadget everyday! He must clear her from government database.

Means she's left with no citizen ID! And gets picked up by Homeland Security...

I've read so many stories of the ilk - it's beginning to get boring.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, #109 (June/July 2007).
Rating: B
Download full text.

END.

Simon Petrie's "The Elder" (flash fiction, science fiction, free)

This reads like essays I was sometimes asked to write in secondary school - world from the point of view of something non-human. Something could be a currency coin, a bicycle, a pen, ...

This is the story of semi-sentient tree. A little one learning about its own destiny, shaped by humans, from an elder tree.

There is an attempt at humor near end, but I didn't find that in good taste.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, #109 (June/July 2007).
Rating: B
Download full text.

END.

Owen Godfrey's "Really Nothing" (flash fiction, philosophy, free)

Some bumbling on the nature of "nothing". But readable.

In early 1990s, there was a very popular TV serial in India - "Mahabharat", based on the epic of the same name. It's opening music included passages from some ancient Sanskrit text - a discourse on the nature of "shoonya" - literally, the concept of zero or nothing. This story sounded similar in content, though perhaps less colorful, & stated in modern language.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, #109 (June/July 2007).
Rating: B
Download full text.

END.

Shane Jiraiya Cummings' "Dread Seasons Quartet: Pallid Wisps Of Snow (Winter)" (flash fiction, non-genre, free)

A woman feeling rejected by her man because she's "Getting old! Not as beautiful!" is taking an angry walk through Arctic snow when she gets mummified in snow.

If the mummification was based on an Arctic phenomenon, it escaped me; someone familiar with those places might be a better judge. To me it sounded like magic; one moment she was whole; next moment she was mummified.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, #109 (June/July 2007).
Rating: B
Download full text.

END.

Susan Partridge's "The Rape Of Io" (flash fiction, science fiction, free)

Story of colonization & annexation of others' territory retold - symbolically.

Jupiter's moon Io is inhabited with natives used to hot & volcanic local environment. Until earthmen decide they want to sell to natives & exploit their mines. Eventually, Io is annexed as a new state of US "to protect newly developed areas from indiscriminate exploitation".

A while later, tinkering with environment is so severe - everyone needed evacuation to earth. Now "Ionians" also live on earth - their own world uninhabitable.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, #109 (June/July 2007).
Rating: B
Download full text.

END.

David Kernot's "Chicken Soup" (flash fiction, science fiction, free)

Humanity is fighting a battle against "eight-foot tall mutant cockroaches, the product of a nuclear reactor leak during the Sydney Quake of 2051 that caused the insects to mutate and fuse with super bacterium Deinococcus Radiodurans; then grow."

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, #109 (June/July 2007).
Rating: B
Download full text.

END.

Tony Williams' "Disintegration" (flash fiction, science fiction, free)

An inventor with low self-esteem has created a "molecular disintegrator" & scheduled a live video show over the internet where he intends to kill a possum in a cage in his lab. Machine works, but not in the ways he had planned.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, #109 (June/July 2007).
Rating: B
Download full text.

END.

Melanie Atkinson's "Barrett And Quinlan In The Woods" (flash fiction, non-genre, free)

A scientist & his friend are in woods, looking for intelligent "shapeshifers" in the form of bears to make contact on behalf of humans. When the bear arrives, their attempts at contact result in a major tragedy.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, #109 (June/July 2007).
Rating: B
Download full text.

END.

Bill West's "On The Edge" (flash fiction, religion, free): Random & senseless mumbo-jumbo

A bunch of monks are torturing Brahmid, apparently their guru who feels no pain - in fact, he is ecstatic as earth is nearing its end, & he will have better opportunity in other world (I suppose he means after death).

In the last para, we are not clear if it was really happening, or is he just an ordinary man dreaming!

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, #109 (June/July 2007).
Rating: C
Download full text.

END.

AntipodeanSF magazine, #110 (July/August 2007): Annotated table of contents & review

10 tiny stories, 2 good (including an excellent one & another with a neat idea). This link fetches the relevant story posts - listed in order of quality - best story first.

Full issue #110 is available here.

Related: All AntiSF stories.

Julie Bailue's "Egg Sharing" (flash fiction, science fiction, free): Near future implications of sperm or egg donation

Two strangers uncomfortably share breakfast at a table in a restaurant; then go their separate ways. "They do not know they share a mother, Caroline, a woman so eager to have a baby she volunteered for the then-revolutionary egg-sharing scheme." One was naturally born; other through egg donation in a family unknown to genetic mother.

Scene of uncomfortable table sharing is so familiar to every Bombay suburban commuter who stops by at an Udupi joint!

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, #110 (July/August 2007).
Rating: A
Download full text.
Added to my best of the year 2007 list.

Andrew Leadbeatter's "All For An Orchidaceae" (flash fiction, science fiction, free): Extending MPAA "piracy" propaganda to seed companies

A world where companies selling genetically modified (GM) seeds are facing the "problem" of patent piracy - underground companies making the same seeds & selling at lower prices. And they've successfully lobbied with governments for very harsh penalties for those found in possession of these "pirated" seeds! Basis of scare-mongering is that pirated seeds are harmful to environment but identical originals are not!!!

Story is about an old retired man who wanted to win a local orchid competition - so brought cheap pirated orchid seeds. Now he faces extended incarceration.

I actually considered adding it to my best of the year 2007 list, though it didn't win in the end (I use somewhat arbitrary emotional criteria in the final pass). While there are many "piracy" propaganda stories around, this is the first one I've read that applies it to seeds. And very plausible.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, #110 (July/August 2007).
Rating: A
Download full text.

J Alan Brown's "Fine Tuning" (flash fiction, science fiction, free, minor post)

An interstellar spaceship captain hires a super-"Tuner" - someone who can compute the parameters to program the ship's computer to minimize the number of jumps in & out of hyperspace.

Last line sounded like it packed some punch, but I missed the punch: "Hopper Nockity only tunes once." Hopper Nockity is the Tuner. I wonder if he planned to quit just after impressing the boss.

Lot of hand-wavy text related to travel via hyperspace, but it felt good:(

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, #110 (July/August 2007).
Rating: B
Download full text.

Rodney J Smith's "Framework" (flash fiction, fantasy, free, minor post)

If you like fantasy, you will probably like it much more than I did - it's very well told.

A thief entered a long abandoned home after breaking glass; signs indicate the place had already looted by other thieves multiple times over. He finds a mirror with fantastically etched art - must have much antique value, even if not yet claimed by previous looters.

Turns of the mirror is magical, & thief is on to an unwelcome adventure...

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, #110 (July/August 2007).
Rating: B
Download full text.

Shaun A Saunders' "A Fine Madness" (flash fiction, science fiction, free, minor post)

Shaun A Saunders's "A Fine Madness" (B); download; science fiction, humor: Second landing of aliens "from light-years thence" on White House lawns gets a rather cold reception & is generally not newsworthy, just like the first visit several decades ago!

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, #110 (July/August 2007).
Rating: B
Download full text.

Meika Loofs Samorzewski's "Lie Back And Think Of Efficiency" (flash fiction, science fiction, free, minor post)

A woman, to concentrate on her career, has got her eggs frozen for future use & then undergone a medical procedure so she won't find baby faces cute in a womanly sort of way & won't have reproductive urges. But while recuperating from procedure, she's already having regrets.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, #110 (July/August 2007).
Rating: B
Download full text.

Angela Slatter's "Little Green Apples" (flash fiction, non-genre, free, minor post)

A woman model is pensive about her eating habits that are actually depriving the body of nutrition.

That's most of the story. But then there is the last para that is probably meant to give a twist, & that completely escaped me.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, #110 (July/August 2007).
Rating: B
Download full text.

Chris Pavey's "Assassin's Sorrow" (flash fiction, non-genre, free, minor post)

Kara is sad but not regretful after killing her lover (?) Lukid because he is "a murderer, an abuser, my peoples' rapist."

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, #110 (July/August 2007).
Rating: C
Download full text.

Charles Richard Laing's "Yum Yum" (flash fiction, non-genre, free, minor post)

A cannibal of tenant, on the third day of renting the house, is contemplating eating his lady landlord!

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, #110 (July/August 2007).
Rating: C
Download full text.

Deven Kivioja's "Sweat" (flash fiction, non-genre, free, minor post)

Not sure I got the punchline. Looks like it's about a sex affair between mother & son!

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, #110 (July/August 2007).
Rating: C
Download full text.

AntipodeanSF magazine, #119 (April/May 2008): Annotated table of contents & review

10 tiny stories, 2 good. This link fetches the relevant story posts - listed in order of quality - best story first.

Full issue #119 is available here.

Related: All AntiSF stories.

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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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* Tom Williams' "Florescence" (flash fiction, science fiction)

A man making pass at a woman in her magic garden with active plants receives a quick death at the hands of plants!

Story reminded me of Arthur Clarke's "The Reluctant Orchid", but Clarke's version is infinitely more nuanced & entertaining.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #111 (August/September 2007).
Rating: B
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Note: Why is this post so short?

* Tavis Potts' "True Love" (flash fiction, non-genre)

A man poisons his dear girlfriend (or wife) to save her from painful death; she's suffering from some kind of a fatal disease.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #111 (August/September 2007).
Rating: B
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* Craig Miles' "Greenhouse Gases" (flash fiction, science fiction)

A panel of dinosaur scientists debating "the best solution to increasing greenhouse gases, or coping with the impact of rising temperatures". A worthy suggests it's natural due to undersea seismic activity, & heralds the down of a new ice age; he's promptly killed by panel chairman & served as dinner!

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #111 (August/September 2007).
Rating: B
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* Frank Roger's "Catch A Last Breath" (flash fiction, science fiction)

An experiment "changing the nature of time. We are speeding up time by chopping off a bit of every minute" is too successful - with disastrous consequences.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #111 (August/September 2007).
Rating: B
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* Shaun A Saunders' "What Else But War" (flash fiction, non-genre)

A man lets a salesman sell him very expensive & unnecessary gadgets, instead of the specific thing he went to buy in the first place.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #111 (August/September 2007).
Rating: C
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* Liam Brennan's "The Space Between Us" (flash fiction, science fiction)

A spaceman dies somewhere away from earth. We aren't told where but it's in darkness & due to his air running out. Story is of his last thoughts before death, later parents laying flowers at his grave on earth.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #111 (August/September 2007).
Rating: C
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Note: Why is this post so short?

* Paul Ryan's "Island" (flash fiction, non-genre)

An agent, on a visit with a buyer to a now-uninhibitedly land of his mostly extinct tribe, is himself murdered by the buyer who can presumably now simply have the island without payment!

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #118 (March/April 2008).
Rating: B
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Note: Why is this post so short?

* Shaun A Saunders' "Golden Age" (flash fiction, science fiction)

A human starship was forced to perform a certain maneuver somewhere far off to get out of a tight situation, & ended up in the vicinity of earth as a side effect! We will slowly learn they are from earth in an alternate universe; this earth is rather unfamiliar! There is also a reference near end to "space rangers" - I suppose from Heinlein's book, but I haven't read that book.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #118 (March/April 2008).
Rating: B
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Note: Why is this post so short?

* Brendan D Carson's "Steel" (flash fiction, science fiction)

A scientist has turned an experimental subject into a superman, & then into a vegetable on death bed. But thanks to an inadvertent but kind action of a nurse in hospital, his disease is gone & now he is superman again!

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #118 (March/April 2008).
Rating: B
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Note: Why is this post so short?

* Simon Petrie's "Stranger Than..." (flash fiction, science fiction, humor)

Interesting rejection letter of an unsolicited submission to "Aldebaran Stories" - an sf magazine in some alien world. Story described a society similar to current humans, & it was rejected as so utterly implausible to be suitable even for this magazine specializing in the fantastic.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #118 (March/April 2008).
Rating: B
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* Steve Duffy's "Of Pairs And Straights" (flash fiction, non-genre)

Description of a game of playing cards somewhere. I didn't follow all the nuances of the game, but I don't see what is worth reading here.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #111 (August/September 2007).
Rating: C
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* Chris Broadribb's "The Whale" (flash fiction)

Cannot quite figure this out. A woman observing a whale from a rocky lookout has some mysterious experiences involving whale & a man - as if someone is attempting to contact her & than changed his mind.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #118 (March/April 2008).
Rating: C
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Note: Why is this post so short?

* Jan Napier's "Oriental Bizarre" (flash fiction, non-genre)

A woman's hopes of exotic adventures are dashed by mundane.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #118 (March/April 2008).
Rating: B
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* David McVeigh's "The Gravity Bomb" (flash fiction, science fiction)

Inventor of an antigravity device has his family kidnapped by authorities to force him to hand it over. He capitulates. Military has tested a gravity bomb based on it - only it's out of control. Even after it's turned off, some sort of antigravity wave keeps moving all over earth - bring destruction in its wake. Inventor has an inhibitor - to kill the effect - but wants to watch destruction for a while, as revenge because his family was threatened.

Reminded me of a story by Arthur Clarke - "The Road to the Sea". Some kind of a probability-changing propulsion system for a starship - tinkers with quantum probability of where a particle will be found in the universe - has gone out of control, & the wave is headed towards earth - threatening all life on it.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #118 (March/April 2008).
Rating: B
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Note: Why is this post so short?

* Jane Brown's "Where Am I" (flash fiction, science fiction)

A woman, in deep freeze after her clinical death - preserved with the hope of some-day resurrection, is becoming aware of her surroundings - possibly because stasis machinery has broken down.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #118 (March/April 2008).
Rating: B
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Note: Why is this post so short?

* Daniel S Santos' "The Man, the Faun, and the Washing Machine" (flash fiction, fantasy)

A boy has taken laundry to a "laundry-mat" (shop where you can rent a washing machine & drier), & finds a magical world with wizards & fauns inside one of the machines!

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #118 (March/April 2008).
Rating: C
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Note: Why is this post so short?

* Peter van der Male's "Return From Avalon" (flash fiction, religion)

Sounds like a rip off some Christian tale; to me it didn't mean anything. You might make better sense of it if these names mean anything to you: Gael, Gwyr, "one who now called himself Lothario, and the brothers, Lob and Iddig", & Merlin. Tone & ending is humorous.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #118 (March/April 2008).
Rating: C
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* Wes Parish's "An Unexpected Solution To An Unexpected Problem" (flash fiction, science fiction)

An English time traveler to past lands in Paris at a time where he tells locals "that the citizens of Paris killed their King and Queen before his time — and after ours." Local church authorities imprison him, in spite of believing his story, because what he says is dangerous. The names of characters - D'Artagnan, Athos, Porthos, Aramis, Morloques, Eloi, Oui-na, & Cardinal Mazarin - may mean something to those familiar with French history of relevant period; to me they didn't mean anything.

According to Rusty, some of the names mentioned are from Alexendre Dumas' "The Three Musketeers". I haven't read that.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #112 (September/October 2007).
Rating: B
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Note: Why is this post so short?

* David McVeigh's "Susan" (flash fiction, science fiction)

Beautifully written, but I cannot really figure out the punch line. A woman's conversations with a ghost, AI, or something that is supposed to lead to her self-discovery...

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #112 (September/October 2007).
Rating: C
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Note: Why is this post so short?

* Augusto Corvalan's "Space Drinks Are Really Cheap" (flash fiction, science fiction, humor)

A first contact story. Humans know aliens are arriving. There is a welcome committee & crowd when their ship touches down, & the first alien statement is so human...

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #112 (September/October 2007).
Rating: A
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* Adrian Gibb's "The Blood Choice" (science fiction, fantasy)

A vampire who has long since given up his instinctive love of human blood & has been living an ordinary human life is rediscovering his inherited instincts.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #112 (September/October 2007).
Rating: C
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Note: Why is this post so short?

* Mark Tremble's "Access" (flash fiction, science fiction)

Equivalent of a Roman gladiator, in a society so insecure it requires (electronic) proof of identity everywhere & lives in a closed habitat, has reached the day that will likely be the last of his life - only doors that will open to his id are the ones that lead to arena with the crowds waiting in the stalls.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #112 (September/October 2007).
Rating: C
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Note: Why is this post so short?

* Shaun A Saunders' "Scarcity" (flash fiction, non-genre)

Teachers of this business school are so badly paid they have to fight in faculty lunch room over a single biscuit!! Hey - even Indian business schools pay far better than that.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #112 (September/October 2007).
Rating: C
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Note: Why is this post so short?

* Miles Hurt's "The Colossal War" (flash fiction, non-genre)

It didn't quite work for me, but appears to be a rip off one of the novels (I think "The Autumn of the Patriarch", but am not sure) of Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

An insane king is being humored by the 3 lovers of his queen.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #112 (September/October 2007).
Rating: C
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* Marcelo Rinesi's "Love Story" (flash fiction, non-genre)

A woman kills her husband who's trying to fix their marriage that is falling apart.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #112 (September/October 2007).
Rating: C
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Note: Why is this post so short?

* Steve Duffy's "Waiting For The Silence" (flash fiction, religion)

Incomprehensible religious mumbo-jumbo. The "greater" half-brother of Jesus Christ is awaiting the powerful locals to come & crucify him for knowledge he possess. We are not told what knowledge he possess, but it has something to do with the "world to come crashing down".

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #112 (September/October 2007).
Rating: C
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Note: Why is this post so short?

* Neil Cladingboel's "Deathmask" (flash fiction, fantasy)

A ghost story. A high school boy wanting to win the "Best Halloween Mask" competition decides to physically remove the actual decaying face of a recently buried man by digging up his grave - who can beat the realism? But...

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #112 (September/October 2007).
Rating: C
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Note: Why is this post so short?

* Martin Livings' "An Evil Twin" (flash fiction, non-genre)

A political story: why is the petty criminal punished when the President of a powerful country can order the killing of thousands by military & no one thinks he is a criminal?

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #113 (October/November 2007).
Rating: B
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* Mark McAuliffe's "Ad Nauseum" (flash fiction, non-genre)

Very well written, very relevant, & somewhat dark. Relentless all-pervading advertising & spam are driving a man crazy.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #113 (October/November 2007).
Rating: B
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* David Such's "Dockland" (flash fiction, science fiction, humor)

An expert at culling alien vermin that often escape at an interstellar dockyard in human space has an unconventional solution to get rid of the alien "Death Slime".

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #113 (October/November 2007).
Rating: B
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Note: Why is this post so short?

* Craig Miles' "Interrogation" (flash fiction, non-genre)

Very well written, not implausible, & politically relevant - but rather dark. Law makers & enforcers make a mockery of fairness & decency in a world afraid of terrorists & willing to give enormous powers to government.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #113 (October/November 2007).
Rating: B
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* Susan Partridge's "The Oracle" (flash fiction, science fiction)

Nostalgic story from a future dystopia of times "when water fell out of the sky — a time when Earth had many trees... before the seas' oxygen- producing plankton were destroyed by nuclear-waste dumping in the Northern hemisphere". In this dystopia, humans no longer look like us - as a result of long crossing of human genome with animals.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #113 (October/November 2007).
Rating: C
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Note: Why is this post so short?