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.

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.

* David Kernot's "Entropy" (flash fiction, science fiction)

Apocalypse results when Lorenzo is teaching his pupil Marec how to magically move a physical object by just thinking about its movement via the "seventh" degree of freedom!

Fact sheet.

First published: AntiSF, #115 (December 2007/January 2008).
Rating: C
Download full text.

Note: Why is this post so short?

AntipodeanSF magazine, issue 115 (December 2007 - January 2008): Annotated table of contents

10 tiny stories, 1 worthy. See opening remarks of #116 for any non-obvious conventions in the listing below. Full issue #115 is available here.

Story list (best first).

1. Lynton Haggett's "The Favour" (A); download; fantasy: Two crooks, & only one convicted. Convict extracts his revenge. Not an original story idea - even the way revenge is taken, but well done.
2. Matthew Wallace's "Good Home Wanted" (B); download; sci-fi: Electronic message from a program on the net that claims to be an unwanted AI in danger of destruction. If you provide safe space on your PC, it will help you out in many ways. You are provided instructions to load it. Any takers?
3. David Kernot's "Entropy" (C); download; sci-fi: Apocalypse results when Lorenzo is teaching his pupil Marec how to magically move a physical object by just thinking about its movement via the "seventh" degree of freedom!
4. Shaun A Saunders' "CRT" (C); download; non-genre: Rude guards manhandle an innocent at a shop. CRT of title is "Consumer Response Team", a fancy name for shop's hired bullies.
5. Theutes' "Back Memory" (C); download; fantasy: On Gelhan, memory of everyone dead permeates the air in the form of small! This smell is called "Back Memory". May be I'm not very good at appreciating fantasy - I just didn't see anything worth reading in the story.
6. Richard Pitaniello's "Close Encounter" (C); download; fantasy: A suspected alien salesman puts his pitch to a human. Title comes from "Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind".
7. Joan Malpass' "Just Your Type" (C); download; fantasy: A female vampire (?) surprises & kills a security guard.
8. Simon P King's "The Barbeque Stopper" (C); download: Apparently a piece of humor, but even the point of the story escaped me. A world where there are no men younger than grandpa, & the explanation of the phenomenon that I cannot make out the head or tail of.
9. Des Rogers' "The Boardriders and Windsurfers" (C); download: Cannot figure out anything sensible in this story.
10. Nathan Burrage's "The 32 Paths" (C); download; religion: Cannot make out the head or tail of it, except that it has something to do with faith & religion.

Related: All stories from AntipodeanSF magazine.