... and I'll get my reading done.

Good stuff in the e-stuff:

Nicola Caines, "Time's Winged Chariot" Albedo One (not free). Aliens interfering with human genes... such fun. You want to be young (again)? How young? And what if you kept on getting younger? Caroline Mason faces exactly this issue. The problem of eternal youth is an interesting one, and people have been thinking about it for oh, thousands of years (mild irony there?). Caines deals with that quite well, but what really makes this as a story is the relationship between mother (Caroline, getting younger) and daughter (Chole, not getting younger).

Leslie What, "Post Hoc" Interfictions (not free). Post offices are such fascinating places, and provide such a rich realm of possibilities for things to happen. (And one of my favourite ever words is liminal - on the edges - and POs are exactly that, in so many ways). "Post Hoc" starts off as a fairly pathetic love story, I thought - girl desperately wants boy back, tries a variety of methods - but develops into an incredible and sometimes bizarre story of survival, and people helping each other in weird yet appropriate ways. I really liked the characters in this story (except the boyfriend, but I think that's meant to happen).

Rachel Pollack, "Burning Beard" Interfictions (not free (again)). It can be a tricksy thing, taking a well-known story or myth and giving it your own spin. Some manage well, some turn out pure hackwork. For me, Polack is definitely in the former category. She takes the story of Joseph (he of the dreams and many-coloured coat) and makes it her own - this Joseph is a bit disgruntled at his chances of making it into the history books, and also not impressed by what he foresees 'Burniing Beard' accomplishing for God. As a Christian, I thought that it addressed some of the issues modern Christians have towards the Old Testament, but I don't think Joseph would have felt that way. Nonetheless, I really liked it as a story.

Eric James Stone, "Tabloid Reporter to the Stars" Intergalactic Medicine Show (not free). This is a glorious first-contact story. The narrator made the mistake of faking a science story, and therefore got ostracised by the community - but got his chance at redemption by being the one reporter on a space voyage. The characters are great, the story is great - the conclusion is brilliant. This is what space stories should be like!

Doug Goodman, "Ice Dwarves" Space Westerns (free!). Herding of mammoths on Pluto, genetically engineered dragons... and a father/son relationship that is not a very happy one. Here, the characters aren't that fascinating - a bit too 2D - but I really liked the world Goodman creates.

Tarl Roger Kudrick, "Hot Fudge and Whipped Cream," The Town Drunk (free). Remember that Tim Tam ad where the woman gets a genie to give her a never-ending packet of biscuits? Imagine what would happen if that genie was a sociopath. Who was in the middle of playing poker with narky little imps.

Neil Ayres, "Bury Him in the Rose Garden" Three-Lobed Burning Eye (free). This is a very sad little story about a boy born illegitimate, and how his family deals with that.

Tina Connolly, "A Memory of Seafood," Yog's Notebook (not free). The lengths people will go to, to find the best food... this has food, rivalries, alien misunderstandings....

Bill Ket'pi, "Everything Life Carries on Without" Yog's Notebook (not free). What would the world be like if everyone stopped dying? Obviously there are problems with over population, but what would it do to people's heads? To morality and ethics, to religion and philosophy, to work and education? Read Ket'pi's story, and see if you think immortality would be worth it....