FREE SF

We've had an outstanding response from readers since our April 1st debut! Lady E. and I offer a low bow of thanks for your support. But that's not all! As a token of our esteem, we're going to direct you to some of the finest FREE SF currently on offer -- every story reviewed this biweek links up without charge!

One of your best bets for solving the dilemma about print vs. electronically published SF is Scifidimensions. Skeptics beware! After a visit to the fiction section, you're liable to lose that last shred of prejudice against e-zines.

Scifidimensions arrives decked out in basic black, with easy-on-the-eyes blue titled categories -- everything from breaking news to con-listings, author interviews, and contests -- a horde of opportunities in an easy access format. It's easy, no pop-up surfing to get to the fiction. Once you glide in, you can choose from over two dozen stories.

The most recent post (from Feb. 2002!), is "Light Music" by Bernie Ackerman, a brain-twisting, breathtaking saga of an artist-in-exile. Shastar, a xenophobic musical/psionic virtuoso, lives as a Lighthouse keeper on a desolate planet in orbit around a dwarf star. His improvisational psi-compositions and dances between 'pillars of fire' tune the beacon of the Lighthouse to spacetime probabilities and guide starships away from hazards. When Shastar discovers an alien life-form marooned in wasteland outside the Lighthouse, he defies the AI helpers and composes a musical/probability shift in an attempt to steer the alien away. There is an overabundance of tech-speak in this Nietzschean fable of self-redemption through Creation and Compassion, but its lyrical imagery and steady-telling overcomes the too-heavy science. Highly recommended.

"And Fechtner, She Played Her Fiddle Barefoot" by C.G. Dillon echoes Ackerman's Lighthouse theme, but precedes it in incept-date. We loved the corellations between these two stories, one of an inspired genius in exile, the other the story of a manure-shoveling mutant who keeps "the biomass gas turbines filled with methane produced from bosontu drippings". Dillon's tale is darker, more sinister than "Light Music". Still, it is a romantic/lyric satire and symbolically adroit. Dillon manages to tune a harmonic riff from two very risky themes: gender-mutants, and the old mutant-to-the-rescue idea. That it all works marvelously, is a testament to Dillon's quick paced narration and his expertly described denouement.

Scifidimensions offers belly-busting funny stories right alongside the more cerebrally intoxicating stuff. Two chuckle-a-paragraph escapades are: "Romeo and Juliet in O' Goorna", by Brenda Chapman and, "A Recipe For Clay-Roasted Suckling Damn-Beast", by John Ringo. Ringo's piece addresses the profound question of how to properly prepare a Damn-Beast. First you have to catch one! Chapman's inventive story of an alien recruited to play Shakespeare's Juliet is outlandish and wittily penned. Find out what happens when an exploding holoactor plays understudy to the injured alien-actress. We wish more writers showed this kind of free-wheeling creativity and that more editors recognized and appreciated it.

Finally, we suggest a real gem, "Forever, Goodbye" by John C. Snider. This Bradburyian vignette tugged my heartstrings darkly and showed how graceful a science fiction story can be without sacrificing its speculative roots. Snider weaves a bittersweet story of sibling rivalry. This character study of a man haunted by his over achieving genius sister stings with wisdom and blends nostalgia with futuristic vision, a very appreciated and rare SF vintage, like exotic wine.

We can't say enough about the fiction at Scifidimensions. The stories reviewed are only a sample. Click over and browse around, Scifidimensions is user and writer friendly, so leave your wallet at home and visit the fiction section, you'll have no doubt that short SF is alive and kicking once you've spent even ten minutes on this site.

Lady E.'s choice is an elementally charged e-zine sure to mystify and enchant you for no money down.

WOMEN in Harmony with Nature is the best way to describe the underlying current I sensed at Raven Electrick. This site's not just electric but eclectic. Expect a variety of fiction, and poetry, and compelling author photos -- did I mention all's free? The Editorial Alchemists here mingle Ancient and modern tales, twining the Primal to the technological, the ordinary to the Mysterious, in a way that can only be described as indelibly unique.

An outstanding site. One of my fave pieces here was, "Jack, the Ending" by Sandra Lindow. This poem is like quick-ritual, Banishment flavor. Doubt I'll ever look at a Jack O' Lantern quite the same way. "The Scales of Hermes" is a lyric-prayer to the Ancient God, eloquently rhymed by Romanko herself. All of the poems in the Raven Poetrick section are worthy -- and none of them are pretentious or laborious reads. If you want fresh, lyrical poems of the forested rather than academic variety this is a great little nook on the web.

Another treat is Raven Electrick's flash-fiction. Charlee Jacob's "The Spur" is a haunting look at the Mystic Means of Nature seen through a Sci-Fi flash -- and its blend of technopoetic writing and Archetypical Myth that makes Raven Electrick special. Another awesome flash piece is, 'The Return" by Dayle A. Dermatis. This coming of age flash blends ancestor worship and lunar travel through a poetically inventive conceit of "speaking trees". This piece is a flash SF triumph, recommended for both theme and technique. Flash fiction at Raven Electrick is way above par. As for the main course?

One of the best longer pieces at Raven Electrick is, "The Darkheart", by James David Collins. Everyman villager, Billus, seeks a quick route to the May festival in his home village of Wells. Darkheart Forest yields a shortcut and an encounter with a baleful, sentient oak named, "Elm". After trapping Billus with an amulet, Elm instructs the villager to bring him visitors. The diabolical geas is Collins' most effective stroke in this highly resonate tale. Collins writes in short, dark lines and weaves competently creepy imagery. The story resolves at a spiritual crux, suitably ambiguous and quintessentially animistic, in tune with Raven Electrick's Wiccan charms.

Carter Swart's, "Death in the Arboretum", continues with Pagan symbolism, this time weaving a "closed room" detective story. What killed Lazar Olmsted, retired multi-millionaire? Enter the dead man's arboretum, where he raised bees and rhododendrons (a lethal combination). I loved the description of the Olmstead House, a "spectacular if creepy northern California mansion", though I felt Swart's detective, octogenarian Penelope French, and her narrator-nephew, "Watson" Chalmers, were a bit over-the-top derivative. Still, the story transcends these flaws quite enjoyably due to its brevity and poetic/ritualistic undertones. An entirely successful "cozy."

Editor Karen A. Romanko displays courageous range in her choice of stories and this makes Raven Electrick a must-see site for original fiction. You'll have to click over yourself to see everything, but there's something for every taste, I promise. Maybe you'd like a Hemingwayesque fishermen's fable, "The Horned Toad", by Daniel A. Olivas, or a Cryogenic SF riff in 2115 by J. Alan Erwine, "The Coldness of Love and Death", or maybe one of Karen Romanko's own glamorous celebrity-tarnished-glitz SF offerings... You get the picture.

My final recommend from this very surfable site is "Fifty-Cent Demon" by Atk. Butterfly. An Indian shaman, Tecumceh rids a canning factory of a demon in its machines by stowing the evil spirit in cans. A good story that could improve through expansion, I think, more detail would have helped balance the needed large-cast of characters. However, Butterfly's story booms with novella-impact while breezing by at under 2k words. Check this one out.

Raven Electrick won't disappoint you, so click over and enjoy!

Finally, we'd like to mention, per usual, that we've left ourselves too little time to discuss one of the most important online pubs, SciFi.Com. Honestly, we want to give this familiar pub a column's worth of attention, and will post another bonus column next Tuesday!

Meanwhile you can occupy yourself with these two outstanding SF sites without spending a dime.

This bi-week we're giving out two Brand Awards The first Award goes to Bernie Ackerman for "Light Music". You won't lose money or time by verifying this choice. Congrats to Bernie and Scifidimensions. If and when we mention Mr. Ackerman's name again in our humble column, his name will be followed by the Brand.

Our second brand goes to Raven Electrick for flash-fiction, so it's a -- great Flash Fiction Brand. Congratulations to Karen A. Romanko and everyone at Raven Electrick. From now on, when we mention your site in our humble column, the Brand shall follow!

ALL readers, writers, and other celebrities are invited to the SFReader Discussion Forums.

Until Next Time,
Daniel E. Blackston

Firebrand Fiction Reviews: all content © Daniel E. Blackston