Another Place Where Blood and Oil Cause Interstellar War

My apologies for posting this so late. But look at the good news: I'm finally on schedule! One post today, and one post tomorrow. Anyways, onto the stories. Today we have "Elsewhere" by Benjamin Rosenbaum, "Metal and Flesh" by Steven R. Stewart, and "Victory" by Lester del Rey. Dig in.

One Distant Scape

Along with watching Stargate, I've been trying to get myself into Farscape. It's an interesting show. And I will admit that it was a little hard to get into at first because of the puppets and the ridiculous costumes. However, the show is beginning to grow on me, ridiculous costumes and all. When you realize that the creators just wanted to have fun making the show rather than make something serious out of it, you begin to cave in a little bit and start to have fun along with it.

I'm not quite finished with the first season yet. So thus far there has not been much of an overall story line like in Stargate. But I suppose if I keep watching, one will pop up. Keep following me. I will try to post something up here as I finish/begin each season.

To the Stars Through a Little Gate

For the last couple of months, I've been watching Stargate SG1. And within the last couple of days, I entered into season six. This means that I am now halfway through the series. What do I think of it? It's a fun show. It can be somewhat campy at times, but it never outweighs the fun.

An Immersion, an Origin, and One Big Shot

Here's the first of three posts for the day. It's another tardy short story post. Look for two more posts today. I will be very angry with myself if I do not get them up.

So, the stories. Let's make this quick and simple. We'll start off with Aliette de Bodard's "Immersion," followed by Ari Goelman's "Origin," and ending the post with "One Shot" by James Blish. Good stories. Hope you enjoy.

James Dean, a Dragon Queen, and a Bunch of Leadies

Where does all our time go? It's already Saturday, and I haven't had too much of a chance to write this out most of the week. Well, let's just get all of these tardy posts out of the way today. We might as well, right? There are three four late posts counting this one. I had planned to post all of them today, but I'm just getting this post up now, late on Saturday night. I'll get the other two three posts up for you tomorrow. I hope that sounds good for you. And then we'll start the week off fresh with a couple more posts from me for the new schedule. Wow, a lot more work than I expected. For me, right now, it's it's not being on time, but rather making sure that I get this stuff done and out. Then I can worry about being on time.

Back to main point of this post, the stories. There's three of them again. Just like always. This post, the stories include "The Cristóbal Effect" by Simon McCaffery, "Catastrophe Baker and the Dragon Queen" by Mike Resnick, and, last but definitely not least, "The Defenders" by Philip K. Dick. Here are your stories. Let your weekend of reading now commence.

The Land of the Second Diminsion

It's taken me quite a while, but over the last couple of months, I have been flipping, on and off, through the pages of Edwin A. Abbott's Flatland. And now I am just about two-thirds of the way through it. The story itself is quite interesting, and considering the date it was  written just adds to this story's intrigue.

Written before the turn of the century, this story plays with the idea of life existing in a two-dimensional universe. Something makes me want to say this story was definitely ahead of its time. Well, of what I have read so far, much of it is not a story, but rather full of descriptions of this two-dimensional universe and the beings which possess it.

Their society consists of a rigid class system, with isosceles triangles at the bottom and circles at the top. The main character, and our narrator, is a lawyer of the square class.

There are a few more rules and laws of the world that the main character discusses, but I will save that for another time. Perhaps next week, after i finish reading this fun story.

If you are interested in reading this story, it's available over at Project Gutenberg. Just follow this link.

* * * * *

Any of you who follow me may have noticed that I forgot to post what I said I would over the weekend. This is part of me trying to make up for that. Look for another post or two later tonight, and then another one or two tomorrow night. I really want to make up for my transgressions.

The Cosmic, Specter-Bombing Internet

Wow, I totally forgot about posting last week. And this is the weekend that I was going to do that big conversion. I guess being out of town over a weekend will sometimes do that to you. However, I do have the stories that I meant to post about last week ready and waiting to get posted now. So let's get those suckers up. I'll do my normal punishing of myself by posting another three stories tomorrow morning as well as another two posts tomorrow evening (one for last week and one actually for tomorrow night).

The stories I have for you tonight are pretty awesome. The first one comes from Technology Review's Science Fiction anthology. It's "Specter-Bombing the Beer Goggles" by Paul Di Filippo. The second story comes from the New Yorker's special sci-fi edition earlier this month. The story? "My Internet" by Jonathan Lethem. The classic story of science fiction this month, coming from the year 1930, is "Cosmic Express" by Jack Williamson. My apologies ahead of time for the lack of stories available online. But I wouldn't worry about it if I were you. You'll be getting another handful of stories tomorrow.

Get Your Hands Off Me, You Damn, Dirty Ape!

You want to know what that idea I had to save for a rainy day? Well, here it is. A couple of weeks ago, I watched Planet of the Apes. Not the newer version with Mark Wahlberg. No, the original movie. The one starring Charlton Heston. Now, I'll grant that the movie is a little dated with its sets and dialogue, but otherwise it's a great movie.

Accountants, a Captain, Some Superheroes, and the Great Nothing Beyond

Hey everyone. Getting on here late as usual again. Let's see. It looks like I've managed to scrounge up four stories for you this week. Yes, you read that correctly. Four stories. Why the extra one? Well, it's the first of June and I've only just receive a couple of new magazine issues on my Kindle. Let's use up the rest of May if we can first. Next week I'll start to get you your stories from June. There will be three of them again. So don't get used to having four. I'm only spoiling you today. (This is where I would use an emoticon of a smiley face sticking out its tongue.)

Your four stories this week are "The Cross-Time Accountants Fail to Kill Hitler Because Chuck Berry Does the Twist" by C. C. Finlay, "Captain Quasar and the So-Called Emperor of the Universe" by Milo James Fowler, "The Non-Event" by Mike Carey, and "The Nothing Equation" by Tom Godwin. I could probably go on chit-chatting, but let's move on

Attention: Some Changes to Come Later this Month

This really isn't a big deal. Just that it's the beginning of a new month, and I'm already planning for a few weeks from now. I haven't done anything yet except make a couple of plans.

Anyway, here's the problem and what I plan to do about it: Way back in December, I made a New Year's Resolution to post at least twice a week, with one article being on short stories and the other on whatever (though it seems to have turned into a place for all my brain droppings about the books I read and movies I watch). I really like doing this. It pushes me to do something different, and it's turned something that felt at first like a chore into a pleasure. Right now, I post at the end of the week, on Fridays and Saturdays. The problem is that I often find myself scrambling at the last minute trying to muster something up for a post.  I don't know if it's because I'm posting at the end of the week or not, but anyways, this bad habit has got to change. And that's where this plan comes in. Sometime after the middle of the month, I'm going to move the days I post those articles from the end of the week to the beginning. This means instead of getting the posts on Friday and Saturday, I'll start posting them on Monday and Tuesday. This is not only a test for you, the readers, but also for me. I hope that posting at the beginning of the week will prove to be a better motivator than posting at the end of the week. Don't worry. This does not mean that there will be a couple of posts missing this month. Without the change, it looks like June would see five set of posts, and I plan to give you five sets of posts, starting tonight with four (yes, you heard me, four) short stories and tomorrow on that thing I promised to save for a rainy day.