Free fiction: Audio of two stories from Ann & Jeff VanderMeer's "Fast Ships, Black Sails"

Link.

Online are audio of Rhys Hughes' "Castor On Troubled Waters" & Katherine Sparrow's "Pirate Solutions".

I think this anthology was published last year - focused in pirate fiction.

Related.

1. Works of Jeff VanderMeer.
2. Buy "Fast Ships, Black Sails" from Amazon.
   

Jeff Vandermeer's "Fixing Hanover" (short story, steampunk)

A genius inventor builds a magic machine (an airship!). His government uses it as a superweapon its neighbors have no defense against. His country becomes an ever expanding Empire.

One fine day, he sees the destruction his creation has wrought. Filled with remorse, he escapes & finds life in a far away land.

Now, several years later, the Empire has located him & is coming to take him back.

Notes.

Each of the 3 main ideas of the story are old tropes: genius inventor, remorseful war-winner turns his back on war, & new superweapon neighbors have no defense against. Three good sf examples, all online, of the last one:

1. Murray Leinster's "Morale" (download).
2. Robert Heinlein's "Solution Unsatisfactory" (download).
3. H G Wells' "The Land Ironclads" (download).

Collected in.

1. David Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer (Ed)'s "Year's Best SF 14" (2009).

Fact sheet.

First published: Nick Gevers (Eds)'s Extraordinary Engines (2008).
Rating: B.

Some save-the-anthology thoughts from Jeff VanderMeer

It has been a while since we have been hearing of the troubles of short fiction print magazines. But this is the first time I've seen a talk in similar vein about anthologies.

Free fiction: Some English fiction from Finland

Jeff VanderMeer, in his roundup of Finnish fanzines, lists 3 downloadable issues of 2 different zines containing fiction in English:

1. Usva: "a webzine publishing speculative fiction (fantasy, science fiction, horror stories, mainstream prose with a speculative twist) - short stories, poetry, articles, photos and illustrations." 2006 & 2007 International Issues are in English (pdf files). A lot more fiction in Finnish is also available at the site.
2. Kosmoskynä: "published by Finnish Science Fiction Writers Association." Cosmos Pen English special edition (pdf) includes one short story.

Other zines in his roundup include more fiction, but in Finnish.