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“You will stand up now,” said the alien.
“You speak English?” I said. I was still reeling from being sucked from my bed, out through the window, by a ray of ochre light. Now I lay sprawled on the metallic floor of a triangular room that was windowless, doorless, ...
Books
She was never a big fan of the castle pond.
It lay at the fartherest corner, hidden by scrubby shrubs, and gnarly trees that dropped leaves into the nasty brown water. Frog spawn clung to the edges of the pond like an unfashionable necklace. Really big spiders waited for ...
Books
“Jordan! Did you pick the cat up from the vet ?” he looked startled, then guilty, then pushed the door shut with his foot. Sounded like she was in the kitchen. That meant it had been a hard day for her, which was always bad news.
“Uh, no. I forgot. I’ll do it ...
Books
David Gerrold
The Coelacanth Coat
A coat of coelacanth skin, royal blue with milky patches. Vat-grown to order and seamless. Lost tech out of the lost time. The fit always reminded Aurelia the coat was tailored for someone centuries dead: shoulders loose, waist tight, arms a little long.
When she got it, ...
Books
Dana Yamamoto was the worst martial artist in school. When she first stepped on the mat, Mirabelle Hayes jeered, “Are you dead?”
Dana didn’t challenge her to a duel. She just blushed and hunched.
“She means you’ve got your gi on backwards,” Samantha ...
Books
At the age of twelve I found a sword that spat lightning and hissed fire. Men came in its pursuit and it danced in my hand, carving them into the history books as my first kills.
It led me on. At thirteen my traveling companions taught me how to take the lightning and fire into myself and ...
Books
Jonathan Lethem
She was born not quite dead. The doctor at first said, “No head?”. Yet how to explain the thread of clumping sand that led from her spinal cord to more sand, two pounds of it expelled with the eponymous girl.
Given up in horror, Sandy landed in a foster home run by Betsy and Jim, ...
Books
Jim Butcher
Amelia Carol Buchanan, who has died aged 138, spent most of her life embroiled in controversy. Born in Launceston, Tasmania, she went on to study law at Universitas Indonesia. In her student days she was well known in activist circles, particularly in the Free Australia movement. Her activism ...
Books
Even before Cal could make out anything in the sky, a blaring cacaphony sounded up the Hudson toward where he stood among the crowd in Riverside Park. The sound grew louder and closer, and he realized after a moment that it wasn’t the flying machine that was making it, but the ...
Books
Jake jerked his head up. He’d been drooling. He wiped his face on his sleeve, looked around, then saw the message flashing on the screen. The scanning electron microscope had finally finished pumping down. They really needed that new machine.
He groggily clicked thru the startup ...
Books
‘Go and have a nice holiday with your auntie.’
Sure. Great idea. That was before whatever it was that happened, happened.
By the time I arrived in Sydney, my auntie was nowhere to be seen, and when I tried to go home the trains had stopped running, with no one to drive them. And the phones ...
Books
“When I brought home my history test the other day, I thought my dad was going to kill me,” John said.
His friend Sunil just shook his head. “I know, seriously. My stepdad was the same way when he found out I flunked math.”
“He just keeps saying ‘Sixty ...
Books
John Scalzi
Dr. Sarah Meckham knew how she felt by what she did. She knew she must feel nervous, because she kept dropping crumbs on the rug.
Companies fought over her for her neatness. No jet engine she designed, no part she machined, ever failed.
“Don’t worry,” said Lady Stirling. ...
Books
Remember, first of all, that this is no ordinary city. The wind has teeth and they bite exposed flesh — cover up, plan your route to minimise time spent outdoors, accept the inevitability that the clever wind will find its way to your wrists and cheeks.
The main attraction is the prison, a ...
Books
Alex Irvine
Drood set the huge box on a table in the near-empty cafeteria. His friends Thea and Hector stared at it.
“It’s huge,” Hector said. He turned the tag toward him and read “Franz Evan Hahn-Drood. Hey Drood, your middle name is Evan?”
“You should just give it ...
Books
Mr TempID#701536
(formerly known as Cyrus J Willard)
c/o YMCA Hostel
55 Jeff Kennett Boulevard
NEW MELBOURNE VIC 9001
AUSTRALIA
September 17, 2078
RE: DISCONNECTION ISSUES ARISING FROM NON-PAYMENT OF FEES
Dear Mr TempID#701536,
As per our recent correspondence, we reiterate that ...
Books
Jason Stoddard
“Perfect present for Junior.” A man wearing a bedraggled Santa suit stood behind a table on the sidewalk. A row of bright plastic phones lined the front of the table.
“How’d you know I have a son?”
“You do, don’t you?” the man asked, ...
Books
Although Freya had grown up in one of the deep cities, she hadn’t been inside a dwarf’s house since she was little. She hoped she remembered the etiquette.
Always refuse food or drink twice, but then take more than you want, because that compliments your host’s generosity. ...
Books
He dreams of a seduction of the flesh, of the muscle and the bone. He dreams of claws tenderly peeling the skin from him, reducing him to nothing. Just a heart.
*
He wakes to the cry of his own name. Fans are legion outside his hotel. They dog his shoot. They break onto his sets and caress ...
Books
Jonathan Lethem
Our tenuous ceasefire ends just before dawn with a barrage of German words in the font they call Fraktur. It’s a heavy bombardment with serifs that explode on impact. Fellow soldiers die, pierced by splinters of ‘t’ and ‘k’ and that weird ‘b’-shape that ...
