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.

Shaun A Saunders' "Global Consumables" (flash fiction, non-genre, free)

Global Consumables is the last manufacturing company left on earth, functioning with just 3 employees! Because of market downturn, they've just fired one of the 3, & now next in line is worried!

Fact sheet.

First published: Antipodean SF, #120 (May/June 2008).
Rating: C
Download full text.

END.

Shaun A Saunders' "Equal Opportunity" (flash fiction, non-genre, free)

This could have come from Ayn Rand - rule of the mediocre over the competent.

Such an old trope ought to be boring, except that it's being taken far too seriously by segment-the-electorate politicians in India - actually turning the crazy premise into laws. Search for "reservations in education & government jobs" on news.google.co.in for some real-life sampling.

Mediocre-mongering boss in this story is way too dumb. Wish they were like that in real life!

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, #109 (June/July 2007).
Rating: B
Download full text.

END.

Shaun A Saunders' "A Fine Madness" (flash fiction, science fiction, free, minor post)

Shaun A Saunders's "A Fine Madness" (B); download; science fiction, humor: Second landing of aliens "from light-years thence" on White House lawns gets a rather cold reception & is generally not newsworthy, just like the first visit several decades ago!

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, #110 (July/August 2007).
Rating: B
Download full text.

Shaun A Saunders' "Dreaming The Futures To Be" (flash fiction, non-genre, free, minor post)

Supposedly a motivational story. Herbert Wells (I suppose H G Wells is implied), a scifi writer financially pressed & yet unpublished is struggling with his inner voice - whether to skip writing & go do a real job, or stick to writing. No prizes for guessing which option won.

A far more interesting story on generally this theme is Lavie Tidhar's "The Master". Caution: Tidhar's story won't go down well with those whose sympathies lie on the Arab side in Arab/Israel conflict; it's politically a very biased story.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF, #119 (April/May 2008).
Rating: B
Download full text.

* Shaun A Saunders' "What Else But War" (flash fiction, non-genre)

A man lets a salesman sell him very expensive & unnecessary gadgets, instead of the specific thing he went to buy in the first place.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #111 (August/September 2007).
Rating: C
Download full text.

Note: Why is this post so short?

* Shaun A Saunders' "Golden Age" (flash fiction, 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.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #118 (March/April 2008).
Rating: B
Download full text.

Note: Why is this post so short?

* Shaun A Saunders' "Scarcity" (flash fiction, 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.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #112 (September/October 2007).
Rating: C
Download full text.

Note: Why is this post so short?

* Shaun A Saunders' "Flash" (flash fiction, 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.

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #113 (October/November 2007).
Rating: C
Download full text.

Note: Why is this post so short?

* Shaun A Saunders' "A Bumper Year" (flash fiction, non-genre)

In a crazy totalitarian regime, a clueless Secretary of Commerce sitting in his ivory tower has made factories produce so much more than can be sold that all physical space is filled with manufactured goods! And the politician is still not happy, because this year's growth cannot exceed last years.

Appears to be inspired by Frederik Pohl's "The Midas Plague", or some imitation; Pohl's original is an interesting story.

Fact sheet.

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

Note: Why is this post so short?

* Shaun A Saunders' "I Spy" (flash fiction, science fiction)

In a society of conformists with government snooping even in your most private spaces, a girl wants privacy & this expectation has her mother worried because she doesn't fit!

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #114 (November/December 2007).
Rating: A
Download full text.

Note: Why is this post so short?

* Shaun A Saunders' "CRT" (flash fiction, 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.

Fact sheet.

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


Note: Why is this post so short?

* Shaun A Saunders' "ZAN" (flash fiction, non-genre)

A victim's narration of their torture - with a humorous ending to make it appear an apolitical story.

Fact sheet.

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

Note: Why is this post so short?

AntipodeanSF magazine, #111 (August/September 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 #111 is available here.

Story list (best first).

1. Karen Maric's "Fighting For Peace" (A); download; science fiction, humor: A meeting of diplomats of a multi-species colony goes the way most meetings go... Colorful characters reminded me of Jack Vance's "Meet Miss Universe".
2. Townsend Walker's "Pretty Lady" (B); download; non-genre: Second of the two parts spoiled it for me. First part is a moving account of the burial of a man, narrated by his little boy who doesn't even know his daddy is dead.
3. Francis Conaty's "The Fatal Adventure" (B); download; science fiction: A gaming company into immersive virtual reality adventures has made the game so thrilling there have been 3 deaths in a year due to extreme fear. Now the company is under cops' scanner, & there is a real chance it will be shut down & operators will end up in jail.
4. Tom Williams' "Florescence" (B); download; science fiction: A man making pass at a woman in her magic garden with active plants receives a quick death at the hands of plants! Story reminded me of Arthur Clarke's "The Reluctant Orchid", but Clarke's version is infinitely more nuanced & entertaining.
5. Frank Roger's "Catch A Last Breath" (B); download; science fiction: An experiment "changing the nature of time. We are speeding up time by chopping off a bit of every minute" is too successful - with disastrous consequences.
6. Tavis Potts' "True Love" (B); download; non-genre: A man poisons his dear girlfriend (or wife) to save her from painful death; she's suffering from some kind of a fatal disease.
7. Craig Miles' "Greenhouse Gases" (B); download; science fiction: A panel of dinosaur scientists debating "the best solution to increasing greenhouse gases, or coping with the impact of rising temperatures". A worthy suggests it's natural due to undersea seismic activity, & heralds the down of a new ice age; he's promptly killed by panel chairman & served as dinner!
8. Liam Brennan's "The Space Between Us" (C); download; science fiction: A spaceman dies somewhere away from earth. We aren't told where but it's in darkness & due to his air running out. Story is of his last thoughts before death, later parents laying flowers at his grave on earth.
9. Shaun A Saunders' "What Else But War" (C); download; non-genre: A man lets a salesman sell him very expensive & unnecessary gadgets, instead of the specific thing he went to buy in the first place.
10. Steve Duffy's "Of Pairs And Straights" (C); download; non-genre: Description of a game of playing cards somewhere. I didn't follow all the nuances of the game, but I don't see what is worth reading here.

Related: All AntiSF stories.

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.

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.

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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[2/3] 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 2 (stories #9 to #13, all B-rated); go to part 1 (stories ranked #1 to #8, all A-rated) or part 3 (stories #14 to #20, all C-rated).

1. Jaimie Ringering's "Winter Hair" (B); download; self-ref; fantasy: A girl grieves for her sister who died in a car accident. I might have rated it A if it were not such a sad story; sad stories aren't my kind. Very well told.
2. Jenny Mounfield's "Immortality" (B); download; self-ref; fantasy: A man realizes the horrible nature of immortality granted by drinking a magic syrup - after drinking it!
3. Chris Pavey's "The Poisoning" (B); download; self-ref; non-genre: In a medieval society, a woman in love with the king & rejected by him poisons him. Only, through means I could not grasp, it's she who actually got poisoned by the king.
4. Brenton Tomlinson's "Wake-Up Call" (B); download; self-ref; science fiction, humor: A futuristic alarm clock that is designed to "gently shake" the user gets him "gently roll him out of bed" due to a defect, with disastrous consequences for someone who "slept close to his window".
5. Shaun A Saunders' "A Bumper Year" (B); download; self-ref; non-genre: In a crazy totalitarian regime, a clueless Secretary of Commerce sitting in his ivory tower has made factories produce so much more than can be sold that all physical space is filled with manufactured goods! And the politician is still not happy, because this year's growth cannot exceed last years.

Continued to part 3 for remaining stories...

AntipodeanSF magazine, issue 114 (November/December 2007): Annotated table of contents

10 tiny stories, 2 good. See opening remarks of #116 for any non-obvious conventions in the listing below. Full issue #114 is available here.

Story list (best first).

1. Bart Meehan's "Heaven, As Built By Tackleby Ames" (A); download; science fiction, humor: Be prepared for unpleasant consequences if you don't keep the employees - engaged in building the machine to hold your uploaded consciousness - happy! Added to my best of the year 2007 list.
2. Shaun A Saunders' "I Spy" (A); download; science fiction: In a society of conformists with government snooping even in your most private spaces, a girl wants privacy & this expectation has her mother worried because she doesn't fit!
3. Peter Tennant's "The Death Of A Man" (B); download; science fiction: In a twist on Theodore Sturgeon's "More Than Human", we have a gestalt of telepaths called The Twelve. Among them is King, a brilliant "biogenticist". The gestalt has convinced King that they are now the highest form of life on earth, & must kill off all mere humans. King has developed a virus, to be released to wind, that will kill off anyone without telepathic gene. He is made to release this by gestalt - only he is the first one to die! Gestalt had convinced him that he was among them - to make him develop the virus.
   I failed to read the logic of telepaths. They themselves were not competent even to develop this virus or identify the "telepathic gene", & depended on a human; yet they wipe out all humans as if they will never need them again!
4. Robin Hillard's "Selling The Plan" (B); download, non-genre: Devil's contract with padre will make them both happy!
5. Matt Tighe's "Apocalypse...Now?" (C); download; fantasy: The "four horsemen" - Death, Famine, Pestilence, & War, were to meet to bring about apocalypse, but are forced to postpone because Pestilence cannot come to meeting now. I suppose "four horsemen" has some biblical significance; it didn't mean anything to me - though the story has the flavor of some similar stories in India.
6. Barbara J Holten's "Things That Make You Go MMMMM" (C); download; fantasy: A woman executive is magically transported from boardroom to magical lands, & then returns after some adventures.
7. Bren MacDibble's "For The Love Of Mike" (C); download; fantasy: Tale of a woman deeply in (romantic) love.
8. Amanda Pillar's "Wishes" (C); download; fantasy: A woman suffering from terminal cancer wishes there were a way to survive. A demon or something kills her, turning her into ghost so she can survive!
9. Carl Palmer's "Love Your Pet" (C); download: Probably intended to be read a humor, this light story is probably best called horror. A psychopath in the year 2099 is helping reduce the population of unwanted pets & uncaring pet owners - by shooting both the strays & their owners (strays have id tags identifying owners in this future).
10. Andrea Gawthorne's "Conversations At A Garden Party" (C); download: A society where it is fashionable for women to wear a little flower garden on their heads, instead of normal hair!

Related: All stories from AntipodeanSF magazine.

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.

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.