* Steve Duffy's "Of Pairs And Straights" (flash fiction, 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.

Fact sheet.

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

Note: Why is this post so short?

* Steve Duffy's "Waiting For The Silence" (flash fiction, 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".

Fact sheet.

First published: AntipodeanSF magazine, #112 (September/October 2007).
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, #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.