so you liked The Last Colony, huh?

So...you like John Scalzi and you liked his Hugo nominated novel The Last Colony? Missing out on that whole thing where DVDs has extras and deleted scenes but books don't?

Well, miss out no longer and head on over to Subterranean Online where Scalzi has a whole deleted chapter of The Last Colony up.

Why do I feel like a carnival barker right now? I don't rightly know, but quite obviously I need to go to bed.

Seriously, Scalzi's stuff is good and this is a fun way to see a bit of the "writer's process" and see what changes from draft to novel and why.

"Big Man: A Fable", by Joe Lansdale

I have to say, Joe Lansdale is nuts. Seriously. In a good way, but nuts.

How do I know this? Go read “Big Man: A Fable” over at Subterranean.

The First Paragraph:

Tim Burke was the only one to take the experimental pill. Nothing as complex as this pill had ever been invented, but since he was five foot one, his penis was small, he was balding, had flat feet and one leg shorter than the other, and an oversized mole on his nose that made that part of his face looked like an odd-shaped potato, he thought, what the hell?

The pill is supposed to make Tim beautiful, better and stronger. There would not be much of a story if everything went well for Tim. At first, it does, but the goodness only lasts a couple of paragraphs. Then it gets worse. He keeps growing. He doesn’t stop.

“Big Man” becomes absurd and grotesque, comic as only Lansdale does comic, sad, and hilarious. “Big Man” isn’t exactly a comedy, but there is some stuff so out there that it can only be comedy:

He grabbed up cars and people and chunked them high and far, tore the roof off of his own house and dropped it on them.

There is a better line about a woman with a child, but it’s worth waiting for.

With each paragraph and each page (only 2700 words to the story), “Big Man” becomes weirder and weirder. Tim Burke just keeps on growing and rampaging, like King Kong writ larger than ever.

“Big Man” is a grotesque and absurd delight.

Your Collar

When I wrote about the Hugo Short Story nominees I expressed how Elizabeth Bear’s “Tideline” was not a story I could get excited about and that it was not a story I would have nominated for the Hugo. I feel differently about “Your Collar”. A minotaur is freed from the labyrinth at Crete. This is not a beast, but a thinking creature which honors his commitments though Asterion cannot speak. Asterion is brought to England, to a Queen, and from that moment, knowing the legends of minotaurs, we (as readers) expect the story to go in one of two directions. Elizabeth Bear chooses another path. “Your Collar” is one of the best of all of Bear’s short fiction. The story is thoughtful, moving, intelligent, and surprising.

I sincerely hope that “Your Collar” is nominated for a 2009 Hugo. When I finished reading the story once, I started back at the beginning to get a bit more from the story the second time through.

Highly recommended.

The Sagan Diary!

Thanks to John Joseph Adams for this!

I've been way slack in my short fiction reading lately so I had not checked Subterranean Online recently. Subterranean has published online, for free, John Scalzi's novella The Sagan Diary!!!

I know what I'll be reading today.

Short Fiction 'Zines

In light of the Short Fiction discussions I have come across recently, here's a glimpse of what I'm reading.


Actively Read:
Subterranean Online
Strange Horizons
Lone Star Stories
Chiaroscuro
Clarkesworld
Weird Tales (subscription)
Heliotrope


Single Issue Pick Ups:
Steampunk Magazine # 1 (not so good)
Subterranean # 4 (the John Scalzi SFF cliche issue...it’s good, just not as great as the Online edition)
Electric Velocipede # 11
Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet # 20
Rabid Transit: Long Voyages, Great Lies (solid anthology of four stories)



I will definitely pick up more print editions of Subterranean. I really love this small press. I fully expect to order more from the Rabid Transit line of chapbooks. I still need to read EV and LCRW (still need to receive LCRW for that matter), so opinions forthcoming for those zines. I imagine I will purchase a chapbook or two from EV, though. I am very interested in the just published William Shunn chapbook.

I hope / intend on purchasing some One Story, Intergalactic Medicine Show, and perhaps Jim Baen's Universe at some time in the future.

What is readily apparent here is that I only subscribe to one magazine and that’s just because they had a great discount / deal for the subscription. Otherwise I probably would not subscribe to Weird Tales. I would love a similar offer for Asimov's or F&SF. When we're talking $5 (or so) at a time, it is easier to budget in a single issue of a zine. Pulling a subscription fee at any single time is a bit tougher and questionable if the value is there. For markets that only publish a couple of times a year, one at a time is a decent value and gives me a chance to see if this is something that is worth an additional investment. I don't know that I have that option with an Asimov's.

I know there are other free markets out there, but for whatever reason the Actively Read ones are the ones I have focused on before I decide to try to branch out again and find some more.

Subterranean Online: Fall 2007

The Fall 2007 issue of Subterranean Online has posted! Exciting news for short fiction!

Stories and articles will post throughout the Fall Quarter. This is without question my favorite zine right now.