Four unlikely friends are permanently linked together when they install a beta “ultimate collaboration” tool on their computers—that allows them to teleport to and from each other’s homes at ease. Of course, they get more than they bargained for when they discover they can’t turn their connections off . . . . . . .
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The Slush Pile is a weekly short-fiction blog run by Hal Matthews that runs the gamut of speculative fiction. Updated every Wednesday, the stories can range in focus from power-armored paladins looking for love at the edge of space, to boys getting high with the monsters in their closets. . . .
Politics is dirty. Piracy is just a little smudged. Grif Vindh, Captain of the Fool’s Errand, has a problem: he knows too much. He knows the secret behind the late Baron Mogra Tylaris’ untimely demise. He knows about the shadowy organization behind it. And now he knows about the contingency plan the late baron put in place, in . . .
Four unlikely friends are permanently linked together when they install a beta “ultimate collaboration” tool on their computers—that allows them to teleport to and from each other’s homes at ease. Of course, they get more than they bargained for when they discover they can’t turn their connections off . . . . . . .
It’s the 22nd century, and intelligent alien life has just been found! Nobody cares. In New California, life is good for the students at St. Victoria’s High School. Sure, the teachers may be strict, lunch is served by robots without taste buds, and the field trips offworld can be a chore, but otherwise the future is bright! For Ruby, . . .
They are Smol takes place in the near-to-far future, and asks two very simple questions: (1) What if we aren’t alone in the universe? (2) What if the other aliens out there found us absolutely adorable? The They are Smol series, updated weekly, takes place after a disastrous first contact and the subsequent accidental invasion of Earth. Once . . .
Set in the far future when humanity has reached the stars and finds it is not the first to do so. Alien technology has been left behind by a long dead race. Ancient cities, abandoned starships, temples and fortified bunkers all contain artefacts and devices far in advance of what humans have been able to produce. Technology that . . .
A young man wakes up in a prison after being falsely convicted of a high-profile murder and sentenced to life. It’s not ordinary prison though, he’s in the middle of space on a floating prison called the Labyrinth, and he’s got to escape before it’s time to make way for the next wave of forgotten prisoners. Will he find . . .
In a cash-strapped universe, the no-nonsense JG Hull finds her niche maintaining outdated starships for barter by using her skills, bare hands and her decommissioned drydock, the Katanga Bay. She is so successful that her business cuts deep into the profits of the shady Dockmaster, who holds a monopoly on shipbuilding and maintenance across the universe and will stop at . . .
In the year 4025 a priest tells the 2000-year-old half-remembered story how Babe Ruth rose from nothing to become the world’s greatest man-tank gladiator. . . .
A sprawling fantastic tale of the ’60s, supposedly written by “legendary” B-movie director Larry Winchester. . . .
A paperboy is inspired to experiment with time/space after a mysterious apparition interrupts his morning route. Now he’s got a time portal. All he needs to do is figure out what it’s for. . . .
Dispatches From The Inter-Galactic is a series of loosely related satirical stories which take place in a galaxy full of various interstellar civilizations and numerous space faring species generally described as ‘consentients’. While there are numerous themes related to interstellar life, several of the stories directly relate to specific themes such as; The pan-galactic ramifications to the use of supersymetrical . . .
Jan 22, 2017: The Slush Pile is a collection of about 35 short stories, most science fiction or futuristic, with a fair sprinkling of horror, urban fantasy, and real life. It’s not always clear which of these a story is going to be when you start reading it, so I recommend you pick randomly from the table of contents rather than "Browse by Genre" to avoid spoilers!
These are the best kind of short stories, because they drop you right into an interesting scene [more . . .]
May 15, 2018: Full disclosure: this review is part of a review swap with the author. There may be some pre-existing bias.
. . . and with that out of the way: This is seriously my favorite thing to read right now.
A year ago I did a mini-review on my first impressions of this serial. There was only a single chapter then but of the 31 serials I reviewed that month this one had one of the [more . . .]