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.

* 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
Download full text.

Note: Why is this post so short?

AntipodeanSF magazine, #112 (September/October 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 #112 is available here.

Story list (best first).

1. Augusto Corvalan's "Space Drinks Are Really Cheap" (A); download; 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...
2. Wes Parish's "An Unexpected Solution To An Unexpected Problem" (B); download; 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.
3. David McVeigh's "Susan" (C); download; 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...
4. Miles Hurt's "The Colossal War" (C); download; 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.
5. Shaun A Saunders' "Scarcity" (C); download; 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.
6. Mark Tremble's "Access" (C); download; 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.
7. Adrian Gibb's "The Blood Choice" (C); download; 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.
8. Marcelo Rinesi's "Love Story" (C); download; non-genre: A woman kills her husband who's trying to fix their marriage that is falling apart.
9. Neil Cladingboel's "Deathmask" (C); download; 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...
10. Steve Duffy's "Waiting For The Silence" (C); download; 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".

Related: All AntiSF stories.