Out from under

I was surprised to discover, recently, that I have been living under a rock.

Once upon a time, I subscribed to Asimov’s, Analog and the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Then I decided, for reasons lost in the mists of college, that I didn’t like short stories. I hadn’t read an sf short story in years before I happened to tell F about Connie Willis’s marvelous “Blued Moon” and remembered how much I liked it. The local library provided a copy of Fire Watch, where that story is collected alongside several others of equal quality.

Then I saw that Neil Gaiman’s Hugo-nominated ”A Study In Emerald” was available online. I read it and was stunned. And look: SciFiction. SciFiction is published out by the SciFi channel, and edited by Ellen Datlow, who also edits the yearly “Best of Fantasy and Horror” anthologies and has edited numerous other sf collections.

SciFiction is an sf magazine as good as Asimov’s or F&SF—maybe better. And it is published online, for free. Every week there is a new story. It’s been published for more than four years. Four years during which I have been living under a rock. But now, lo!, I am free.

So what? Some crummy free online mag, publishing anonymous yahoos who couldn’t find an eyeball kick with an electrified eyeball kick finding machine?

Nope. Here are just a few of the stories you can go and read, right now, for free.

• ”The Empire of Ice Cream” by Jeffrey Ford, which won the Nebula this year, and deservedly so.
• ”Shadow Twin” by Gardner Dozios, George R.R. Martin, and Daniel Abraham. Reason #98478 why waking up in a vat is never good.
• ”At the Mouth of the River of Bees” by Kij Johnson. Owners of old dogs, beware.
• ”Castaway” by Gene Wolfe. That’s right: a Gene Wolfe story. Free. Online. Now. What the hell are you still reading this blog post for? Get out of here!

Filed under: sf