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.

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.

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.

* 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
Download full text.

Note: Why is this post so short?

* David Such's "Immigration" (flash fiction, non-genre)

To meet their terrorist identification quota targets, corrupt visa officials are looking for scapegoats among innocent citizens.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, #116 (January/February 2008).
Rating: A
Download full text.

Note: Why is this post so short?

AntipodeanSF magazine, #113 (October/November 2007): Annotated table of contents & review

10 tiny stories. See opening remarks of #116 for any non-obvious conventions in the listing below. Full issue #113 is available here.

Story list (best first).

1. Mark McAuliffe's "Ad Nauseum" (B); download; non-genre: Very well written, very relevant, & somewhat dark. Relentless all-pervading advertising & spam are driving a man crazy.
2. Martin Livings' "An Evil Twin" (B); download; 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?
3. Craig Miles' "Interrogation" (B); download; 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.
4. David Such's "Dockland" (B); download; 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".
5. Susan Partridge's "The Oracle" (C); download; science fiction: Nostaligic 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.
6. Shaun A Saunders' "Flash" (C); download; non-genre: An argument about why leading a life of poverty writing flash fiction is better than being prosperous! Living in India, I've heard the argument for so long, it sounds tiring now.
7. Joe McNamara's "Social Work" (C); download; fantasy: A murderer justifies killing an innocent!
8. J P Overton's "Lumps" (C); download; non-genre: A man terribly sick with a fast-spreading strange sickness doesn't want to go to a doctor! Leaves house when his wife discovers he is so sick & faints - afraid that she will insist he go see a doctor immediately!
9. Stephen L Thompson's "Of Course" (C); download; science fiction: Apparently a well written story, but I cannot figure out the punchline. Aliens in a spaceship are in serious trouble. There is an unfamiliar quadrupedal creature in a corner of the room. Aliens don't quite recall what they did that has so disturbed them, & where this creature has come from.
10. Paul Sheringham's "Venom" (C); download; fantasy: I didn't really get this story. A victim & her torturer. An attempt at her escape is foiled. She eventually surprises him with a vicious attack, but there is hint this attempt is also futile.

Related: All AntiSF stories.
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AntipodeanSF magazine, issue 116 (January-February 2008): Annotated table of contents & review

Hmm... 10 stories, 2 qualify for my best of the year list, 3 more I will recommend without hesitation. Looks like the biggest haul I've yet had of good stories from a single magazine issue.

I also like the USP of this magazine - very tiny stories. No great time wasted even if you don't like something.

Here is the list of stories in the magazine, in order I liked them (best first). My rating is in brackets (ABC: A = worth your time, C = don't bother).

1. Peter MacGregor's "Ally's Torment" (A); download; fantasy: Gods from the perspective of Aleesha. I could have been more specific with description, but that would spoil the fantastic story ending. Added to my best of the year 2008 picks.
2. Glenn Davies's "In His Image" (A); download; fantasy: A young man builds & uses a time machine to go meet his dead grandfather, & discovers he doesn't want to return. Beautiful ending, though not original. Added to my best of the year 2008 picks.
3. Derek Smith's "Mobile Phones Are Addictive" (A); download; sci-fi, humor: A take on Wikipedia & nutty claims about cell phones.
4. Simon Petrie's "Fomalhaut 451" (A); download; sci-fi: While investigating the cause of an abandoned & dead deep space human habitat, Zia discover the horrific answer. Fomalhaut is name of the star in whose system the habitat is. While the title is obviously a take on Bradbury's famous story, I haven't read the original - so cannot connect the two.
5. David Such's "Immigration" (A); download; non-genre: To meet their terrorist identification quota targets, corrupt visa officials are looking for scapegoats among innocent citizens.
6. Alan Dawson's "The Wall" (B); download; non-genre, humor: Mobs are so unthinking - they cry out for manipulative leaders! Reminded me of a very lovely low-budget Hindi movie from 1970s - I think director was I S Johar but I cannot recall the title & neither Google nor IMDB are able to help. It was a parody of Indira Gandhi's government of mid 70s; a walled city called "Jan Gan Man Pradesh" ends up electing a funny ruler who does things like in this story.
7. Michael Schaper's "A Paper Man" (B); download; fantasy: A woman finally makes some money after the death of her unsuccessful man, using an idea that cames from the way his end came!
8. Ashley Arnold's "Gernsback's Monkeys" (B); download; humor: Genetically engineered monkey slaves of Mr Gernsback wish freedom.
9. Shaun A Saunders's "ZAN" (C); download; non-genre: A victim's narration of their torture - with a humorous ending to make it appear an apolitical story.
10. Ben Payne's "Risk Assessment" (C); download; non-genre: Four independent very tiny stories about life & death situations - where luck determines if someone lives or dies.

Related: All stories from AntipodeanSF magazine.