Benjamin Rosenbaum's "Feature Development for Social Networking" (short story, free): A look at trending on social networks

This looks at trending on a social network when a new hot topic presents itself - from the point of view of both the users of it & of the software developers maintaining it. Hot topic in question is a new fast spreading contagious disease.

Fact sheet.

First published: Tor.com, 13 November 2013.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Benjamin Rosenbaum.

Carrie Vaughn's "The Best We Can" (short story, first contact, free)

This is hard sf. If you don't have the right taste, it probably will appear very dry.

Story summary.

An object has been found in a solar orbit. Something that's not natural. And not human. Story is speculation about what it could be & the fight of discoverer with the funding agencies to go look more closely at it.

See also.

1. James E Gunn's "The Listeners": Another hard sf & realistic look at a first contact scenario.

Fact sheet.

First published: Tor.com, 17 July 2013.

Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: A.

Added to my "best of 2013" list.

Related: Stories of Carrie Vaughn.

Rudy Rucker & Bruce Sterling's "Loco" (short story, weird physics, free)

Look this up only if you're into the really weird - with a lot of jargon. The only redeeming part I saw here, & the reason I'm writing this post, is a kind of robot I've not seen in fiction before - "folded" out of special flexible sheet material, & capable of shape shifting (automatic re-folding) based on application.

Fact sheet.

First published: Tor.com, 20 June 2012.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: C.
Related: Stories of Rudy Rucker, Bruce Sterling.

Mary E Pearson's "The Rotten Beast" (short story, cyborg, free)

How much of body renewal, past an accident e.g., by doctors before you start wondering if you are really yourself?

Fact sheet.

First published: Tor.com, 30 November 2011.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.

John Scalzi's "The President's Brain is Missing" (short story, satire, free): Ultimate in VIP security!

Technical idea here is a variant of van Vogt's "The Purpose": technology exists to keep a man's heart far away from body, still letting the man live normally. Here, it's the brain - though it's not "kept away", strictly, in the sense of van Vogt's story.

Story summary.

One morning, the personal physician of the US President finds the President's brain physically missing from his head, though he seems to be physically normal in observable ways! Alex Lipsyte of the Presidential staff will solve the mystery...

Fact sheet.

First published: Tor.com, July 2010.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of  John Scalzi.

Sean Craven's "Tourists" (short story, horror, free)

Interesting idea that might have worked well at flash fiction length; in the current avatar, interesting bits appear near end.

Aliens' sell copied-humans as souvenirs!

Fact sheet.

First published: tor.com, 17 February 2010.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.

Ian Tregillis' "What Doctor Gottlieb Saw" (short story, free): A telepathic woman grabs control of a WWII German training camp

A training camp to develop unusual abilities in people, like ability to move through solid matter! Among the talent here is an unusual woman - Gretel. Who would have thought she was after power?

This is the story of resident psychiatrist, Dr Gottlieb, playing detective & putting together the long chain of events that were behind an apparent accidental death.

See also.

1. Murray Leinster's "The Mole Pirate": Adventure involving a vehicle that acquires the ability to move through solid matter at the press of a button.

Fact sheet.

First published: tor.com, 8 June 2010.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.

Rachel Swirsky's "Eros, Philia, Agape" (novelette, love story, free): This android must find its own identity

Good enough read, but it has been done before. Probably the closest read I can off-hand recollect is the third (I think) story in Adam Link series of Eando Binder: girl falls in love with robot, but robot must break her heart & go out to be alone to figure out his own identity & how he can fit in among the humans.

Background & environment of the story will likely resonate better in some cultures than with others. This is not a story for global audiences.

Story summary.

Adriana is a lonely woman. To fight loneliness, she's purchased a custom-made android, Lucian, as companion. They fall in love. She helps him gain human (& property?) rights.

He figures his true status is that of a slave. Since he's free, he exercises his right to go away to meditate & discover his own identity - with no assurance that he will ever return.

So we have Adriana lonely again, & with a broken heart. Their adopted 4 year old daughter, Rose, & a pet bird provide additional opportunity for sentimental scenes.

Notes.

1. Torque Control has a very long discussion of this story.
2. I'm not clear what the title means.
   
   "Eros" probably has something to do with love.
   
   "Philia" with sex? But there is no overt sex here.
   
   "Agape" - wonderment? Again I don't see how it relates to the story.
   
   Update 18 April 2010: Micah clarifies the title in comments below. Thanks Micah.
   

Collected in.

1. Rich Horton (ed)'s "The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2010 Edition".
2. Jonathan Strahan (ed)'s "The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume 4" (2010).
   

Fact sheet.

First published: tor.com, 3 March 2009.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.
Nominated for Hugo Award 2010 in novelette category.
Related: Stories of Rachel Swirsky.

Charles Stross' "Overtime" (novelette, satire, free): Life in a British government office

Probably the most readable story I've seen from Stross so far - at least the jargon doesn't come in the way, is much less than his normal, & appears late in the story.

There is a separate underlying nonsense plot of Santa Claus' visit to office on Christmas eve. Only this Santa Claus is evil! And hero must throw him out before any damage is done.

I've a feeling its appeal is likely to be uneven across locales.

Fact sheet.

First published: tor.com, 23 December 2009.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: B.
Nominated for Hugo Award 2010 in novelette category.
Related: Stories of Charles Stross.

John Scalzi's "After the Coup" (short story, sports, humor, free)

I had an impression humor in Scalzi's fiction was intended only for US readers, but this one should be broadly comprehensible. Good stuff - sort of like A Bertram Chandler rewriting Fredric Brown's "Arena" (download), with the twisted rules Ender had to fight with in Card's "Ender's Game".

Story summary.

Diplomacy with aliens called Korbans requires one of the human "CDF soldiers", one who hasn't fought for years, to fight a sort of multi-round wrestling match in an arena with a Korban. And with rules all twisted against him. And he's required to lose, but not by a large margin!

Fun ensues.

Fact sheet.

First published: tor.com, sometime in July 2008.
Download full text from publisher's site.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of John Scalzi.

Rachel Swirsky's "A Memory of Wind" (novelette, feminist dystopia, free): An innocent girl is killed by her monster of a father

Sometimes very moving story of a young girl, sacrificed to please a god in the hope of getting a boon, by her own father - after luring her to sacrificial grounds by promise of her marriage.

Thing I didn't like about it was: it sounded like cruelty fetish. Early in the story, we know she's going to be killed by her dad; story is narrated by her spirit. Why drag us through the horror throughout the story? In fact, the girl herself & her mother knows she's about to be killed long before the story ends; we go through their detailed reactions awaiting her execution!

Two audiences will likely read more into this story than I could:

1. Readers familiar with ancient Greece. That's where this story is set.
2. Women. This is essentially a feminist dystopia - world seen from the eyes of a woman, a world whose rules are made by & for men, according to story's thesis.

Fact sheet.

First published: tor.com, 4 November 2009.
Download full text from publisher's site (note the online version is spread across 17 pages. Compressed HTML from download option in sidebar makes more convenient reading.)
Rating: A.
Nominated for Nebula Award 2009 in novelette category.
Related: Stories of Rachel Swirsky.

Harry Turtledove's "Vilcabamba" (novelette, alien invasion, free): Looking at colonial history with sf lenses

In spite of hype, I rarely find tor.com short fiction worth commenting on. Here is one of their rare good pieces.

It's mostly a retelling of the history of invasion of Americas by Europeans some centuries back, only it's aliens called Krolps who are doing to modern US & Canada (& rest of humanity in background) what the Europeans did to natives. And the fight back of natives is equally brave. And futile.

Title is the name of one of the cities founded by some Inca tribes in Peru while trying to "adapt" to raiding Spaniards - something that let them continue with old ways for a while ... but only for a while.

Fact sheet.

First published: tor.com, 4 February 2010.
Download full text from publisher's site (page says it's available in multiple formats, but I've always found the tor.com downloads corrupt except for default HTML).
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of Harry Turtledove; alien invasion stories.

Brandon Sanderson's "Firstborn" (novelette, space opera, free)

A galactic scale empire, arranged on feudal & caste based lines. A brilliant general sent out to subdue rebels. He's too good & helps empire expand a lot - until the emperor finds the general is too much of a threat.

General's clone is created - 20 years younger. Designed to defeat his older self. But two have opposite temperaments - general doesn't know how to lose, clone doesn't now how to win.

At some stage, we have a mugged & arbitrary scene that turns general into a monster, out to defeat the empire. Clone is on the side of empire, & will ultimately win by a simple & ridiculous observation that works because author says it works.

Overall, I'll call it a not-bad read, if long. Many space battles & their holographic simulations, & some jargon. Someone with a taste for space opera & retro-societies will probably like it more than I did.

Fact sheet.

First published: Sometime in 2008 in Leading Edge. Reprinted at Tor, 18 December 2008.
Rating: B.
Download full text from Tor.

Joel Priddy's "An Inordinate Fondness for Sweetie ’n Me" (comic, free)

All is quiet & serene when you sleep. Or so you thought...

Beautiful.

Fact sheet.

First published: 6 November 2008 at Tor & Joel Priddy's Beeswax.
Rating: A
Read at Tor.
Note: Joel Priddy's "Sweet n' Me" series of comics is now automatically picked up from his site by my original free fiction feed.

Tor giveaways

All the novels Tor made available once a week during the last few months to their mailing list subscribers are available on one page to everyone for a few more days, including in some more formats.

[Via More Words, Deeper Hole]

67 online stories: Tor, Keith Laumer collection, & 2 Indian ezines (Indian Science Fiction & Fantasy, & The Scientific Indian)

I've not read any from the list below, & in fact hadn't even heard of any author except Laumer, Scalzi, & Stross. So no comments on quality.

Tor's much talked about new site is live in a blog format with a stories-only feed, plus two stories already: John Scalzi's "After the Coup", & Charles Stross' "Down on the Farm".
Bug: Clicking the link of items in stories-only feed gives 404 error! Not sure if this also happens with their master feed. So it's useful only to get notifications when new stories are up; then go hunt on their site!

Free SF Reader linked Keith Laumer's collection "The Lighter Side" a week back. 10 stories, all online.

"Indian Science Fiction & Fantasy" appears to be a relic of dot com era, & has been long dead. But its archives still contain 47 original stories in English - all by Indian authors.

"The Scientific Indian" is run by an Indian in England. It has a stories-only feed, infrequently gets new story updates, & currently has 8 stories in archives. All stories are by Indian authors.