via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io "Issiot! Ffool! Lushsh!" hissed the cat and bit Spar somewhere. via Pocket - Ship of Shadows by Fritz Leiber via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2J4Ji2o

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io Pinlighting is a hell of a way to earn a living. Underhill was furious as he closed the door behind himself. It didn't make much sense to wear a uniform and look like a soldier if people didn't appreciate what you did. via Pocket - The Game of Rat and Dragon by Cordwainer Smith via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2TLDEGE

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io THEY MET AS total strangers. The meeting brought one fame, the other infamy. The outcome was the loss of countless lives. This is the tale of how it started. via Pocket - The Two That It Took by John Brunner via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2J1HUxr

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io Back | NextContents “RUN, HOLY MOTHER OF GOD, run!” screamed Faun, waking English from his straw pallet in the stables, where the horses were snorting and squealing and kicking their stall boards. For a moment longer, English’s mind insisted he was … - The Collaborator by Janet Morris via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2TEKzRF

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io THE TRADING POST was located on the satellite of a remote dwarf star. It was well defended with a Jotok garrison. That was a condition which those who the humans would one day call Puppeteers had imposed when it had been built several centuries befo… - SALES PITCH via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2J4BP3p

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io WHEN COLONEL TOWNE entered her office, Captain Billings rose and saluted. Towne didn’t seem intimidated as she returned the salute. “At ease, captain.” Billings relaxed. Standing at attention always worried him that he might come across as aggressiv… - SINGER-OF-TRUTH via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2TDaDwC

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io ONE YEAR after liberation music played in Munchen, upbeat melodies with a resounding sadness. Musicians with old instruments from the old world—mandolins, dulcimers, zithers—performed to knots of people on corners and across the stoops of the former…

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io THE KZIN LABELED “Gopher” used his ample time to think. Mostly he thought about the monkeys around him—their strange habits, their honorless deeds, their impenetrable contradictions. via Pocket

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io SANGER was the commando’s point man this morning. Twenty meters beyond the abandoned farmhouse, he walked into a Gerin killzone. Coils in each helmet cooled the trooper’s head and approximately half his blood supply, the next -best thing to total en…

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io “AWWWK! Frag the lieutenant! Frag the lieutenant! Arawwk!” The bird’s noise pierced the steamy midday air. In the tense silence that followed, Charlie Poindexter knew he was in trouble. “Quiet, Archy! Quiet!” he whispered. via Pocket

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io Shang-Ti rested in his great golden throne. His eyes were closed, his breath came and went like the ocean's tide, but he did not sleep. via Pocket - GORDON'S QUEST by Christopher Stasheff via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2EZAwyl

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io In the desert the Leader waited. He followed the laws of Allah, but he had seen the power of the desert spirits. Once more he was there to ask their aid. This made him very uncomfortable, but he had no choice. His nation was destitute. via Pocket - HEROES via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2NUSRPW

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io Tek arose out of the sand of the nearly endless desert that is the furthest boundary of form for Valhalla and Olympus. The exact location, paradoxically, was near one edge of the infinite ethereal plane. Such concerns of physics and geography were b… - BIRTH via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2F0qsoV

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io Mentor smiled slightly, almost seeming to enjoy the godling's discomfort. After a pause that was several seconds longer than needed, he nodded. Again Mentor nodded. Then he spoke slowly, choosing his words carefully. "You are young. We all were once… - OLD GODS AND NEW via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2NV4YwD

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io The Ritter Karl von Obersberg scraped some of the horse dung off his feet as he entered the village inn. Not that it would make much difference—the common room looked no better than the stable where he'd put his horses. via Pocket - CONSTANT NEVER via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2EZAzKx

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io Back | NextContents “THEY BROUGHT THEIR slaves with them, eh?” “Yes, sir—from a dozen different species, at least.” Major Dromio laid a stack of reconnaissance pictures on the desk in front of Admiral Vancouver. “Our Khalia have been busy boys. via … - Civilians by Christopher Stasheff via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2NV50of

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io THE MERCHANTMAN JABBED at the marauder with a spear of light—but the smaller ship leaped aside, almost seeming to disappear and reappear. The huge Terran vessel jabbed again, this time with its rear cannon, but the tiny marauder danced away, mocking… - Pirates by Christopher Stasheff via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2EZ6QBu

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io IN THE DARKNESS of space two ships fought against a dozen. via Pocket - Orphans by Christopher Stasheff via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2NV533p

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io Other than Imaro and Dossouye, Pomphis is my favorite character. At the time Imaro first began taking shape in my imagination, Pomphis was there, too. The idea of an outsized warrior like Imaro teaming up with a pygmy intrigued me. via Pocket - THE BLACKSMITH AND THE BAMBUTI via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2F0ufTi

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io I guess it’s fitting, in an ironic way, that the shortest story in this volume is another one about Pomphis. Like “The Blacksmith and the Bambuti,” this tale takes place in the time before Pomphis met Imaro. via Pocket - POMPHIS AND THE POOR MAN via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2NV54Ev

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io In the midst of writing my first Imaro stories back in the early 1970s, I made an ambitious effort to write a novel about the warrior’s mother, Katisa. via Pocket - KATISA via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2EZAFBT

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io  “Granma?” Sarah said, running into the cluttered living room. “Ronnie says Old Man Klunder isn’t real! Tell him he’s real! Tell him, Gran!” Virginia Hanning removed her glasses and set down her sewing as the children charged into the room. via Pock… - Starry, Starry Night — John Ringo via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2NT53ko

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io This was written around a painting by Hugo winner Frank Wu. Everyone else saw two humanoid aliens reaching their arms up for a low-hanging world. Me, I saw two guys going for a basketball. via Pocket - Monuments of Flesh and Stone via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2EZAHK1

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io If I were writing this today, I’d change his name to LeBron Kobe Jordan, but that’s about it. Nobody knew his real name, but that didn’t matter, because by the time he was ten years old they’d already renamed him Magic Abdul-Jordan, after three of t… - The Short, Star-Crossed Career Of Magic Abdul-Jordan via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2NRNIZd

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io To this day, every coach and every player in just about every sport stresses the importance of playing with emotion. Well, emotion is fine for the fans in the stands, but I had a sneaking suspicion that under certain conditions it could be a detrime… - The Big Guy via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2EZAIh3

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io There was a dragon terrorizing the barony of Bryngallad. The best archers and fighters in all the barony had tried to kill it, and had failed to even drive it away. The foul creature was burning crops, destroying villages, slaughtering livestock, an…

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io ". . . Then Verrol and Liaya challenged the Dark Queen herself," old Mikal said, drawing light from the hearthfire into pictures to illustrate his tale. Minute figures in jewel colors sprang into being, moving and reacting as if they were true being…

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io Jess heard Duchess Caitlin calling from the top of the tower. The girl sounded as though she was in genuine distress. Jess plumped the two full buckets of water she had been carrying under the nearest bench. via Pocket

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io Yes, I am aware of the irony. But how the hell else was I going to get them clothes? They couldn’t run around in those colorful silk gowns of theirs, cut tight enough to show every breath, but slit high enough on the sides to show their . . . assets…

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io The mammyth is out there. Unless, of course, it’s not. First there is a mammyth. Then there is no mammyth. Then there is. Unless there isn’t. How do you find a legendary, maybe mythical, creature? You may seek it with thimbles—and seek it with care.…