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.

* 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
Download full text.

Note: Why is this post so short?

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

Cannot quite figure this one out. Either set in a post-scarcity society where doing any work is a shame, or in a society where working for government is considered low status. In the story, someone has got a government job, & he wants to get out of it, but doesn't seem to have an option.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #117 (February/March 2008).
Rating: C
Download full text.

Note: Why is this post so short?

AntipodeanSF magazine, #118 (March/April 2008): Annotated table of contents & review

10 tiny stories. See opening remarks of #116 for any non-obvious conventions in the listing below. Full issue #118 is available here.

Story list (best first).

1. Shaun A Saunders' "Golden Age" (B); download; 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.
2. Simon Petrie's "Stranger Than..." (B); download; 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.
3. Brendan D Carson's "Steel" (B); download; 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!
4. Paul Ryan's "Island" (B); download; 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!
5. David McVeigh's "The Gravity Bomb" (B); download; 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.
6. Jan Napier's "Oriental Bizarre" (B); download; non-genre: A woman's hopes of exotic adventures are dashed by mundane.
7. Jane Brown's "Where Am I" (B); download; 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.
8. Chris Broadribb's "The Whale" (C); download: 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.
9. Daniel S Santos' "The Man, the Faun, and the Washing Machine" (C); download; 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!
10. Peter van der Male's "Return From Avalon" (C); download; 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.

Related: All AntiSF stories.

[3/3] AntipodeanSF magazine, #117 (February/March 2008): Annotated table of contents & review

This post is not new content, but part of an earlier post. Original post is split because of Blogger constraints on label length. Begin at part 1 of this post for whole article on AntiSF #117.

Story list (best first).

I was forced to split this post into 3 parts due to Blogger label length constraints. This is part 3 (stories #14 to #20, all C-rated); go to part 1 (stories ranked #1 to #8, all A-rated) or part 2 (stories #9 to #13, all B-rated).

1. Paul Ryan's "Bad News" (C); download; self-ref; non-genre: Cannot quite figure this one out. Either set in a post-scarcity society where doing any work is a shame, or in a society where working for government is considered low status. In the story, someone has got a government job, & he wants to get out of it, but doesn't seem to have an option.
2. Ashley Callender's "Wildlife" (C); download; self-ref; science fiction: Life on a hostile icy world with local life, described by one of the human adventurers. I found parts incomprehensible.
3. David Siegel Bernstein's "Apostle Promotion" (C); download; self-ref; fantasy: Some commercial deal a god's agent is offering a man - to publicize the god's word!
4. Peter M Ball's "Avenue D Prayer" (C); download; self-ref; science fiction: Description of a world where temples are places with machines to artificially simulate your mind. You are expected to pay a fee per session, some of these places are cheaper than others, ... I had a feeling the idea is inspired by prayer machines in similar automated temples in Roger Zelazny's "Lord of Light".
   
5. Paul Minty's "Do People Dream of Rescuing Ships" (C); download; self-ref; science fiction: An android allowed loss of property that a human would not have. But I really missed how! Just didn't comprehend the point.
6. Natalie JE Potts' "The Bracelet" (C); download; self-ref; fantasy: I didn't really get the point of this story. A man is wearing a bracelet he got from somewhere to a cause he does not understand. Now the bracelet has amputated his hand!
   
7. Stuart Gibbon's "Star Light, Star Bright" (C); download; self-ref; fantasy: Cannot really make sense of it. A little boy thinks up of teasing his older sister while she's asleep. Then some magic happens - funny things happening with time & stars, ...!!! Appears to be a take on Alfred Bester's story of the same title where a young boy's innocent wishes to be left alone come true in ways adults would find horrible.