via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io PRIDE AND PUPPETRY Back | Next Contents PRIDE AND PUPPETRY by Christopher Stasheff “I thought show business was going to be fun,” Cairn muttered as he eyed the gateway to the city—the gateway, and the two huge guards who stood by its pillars, their …

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io “One-Niner confirms release. Switching to Launch Control, frequency two-zero-zero-decimal-three-zero. Speedbird One-Niner out.” “One-Niner out. All right. Retract docking booms.” via Pocket

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io Weary beyond weariness, Joklyne rubbed his burning eyes for the ninth time. Bed! If only he could tumble into a soft bed and sleep for a week. But to do that he must have a bed, and his most recent landlord had just evicted him for being too far beh…

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io He was squinting through the eyeslit of the tank, trying to make out whether that was a boulder five hundred yards in front of him, or just another swirl of dirt lingering in the still air, left by the Mark Ten Centurion in front of him, when the vo…

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io Michael J. Ferguson and Christopher L. Smith Flavor burst onto his palate like a mouthful of fireworks. Yes! That inevitable and delightful burn of heavenly nectar from an earthbound distillery. via Pocket

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io ROCHEFORT: Cheez, Boss! I thought they’d never cut you loose! Are you all right? BECQUEREL: Do I look all right? Pour me another one, damn it. via Pocket

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io In the Spring of 2003 I and an Indian driver soon-to-be-friend spent a month driving 2,000 miles across northern India. via Pocket

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io Sometimes you wonder what a particular dream might be like. Or even if it is a dream. The whole “the waking world is really a dream,” as typified by films like The Matrix, is a bit of an overdone trope now. That doesn’t mean you can’t imagine what o…

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io If you eat regularly at a restaurant, eventually the waiters and waitresses will come to know what you typically order. Especially if it’s breakfast or lunch. There used to be such a place here in my hometown called TRISH’S. via Pocket

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io You can’t hurry love, no you’ll just have to wait.…” So sang the Supremes. As humans we have been able to quantify a good many things. Love is not one of them. It remains as mysterious and fascinating as it ever was, likely since before the dawn of …

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io The muted whirring of the carefully padded bells from the wind-up alarm clock was enough to wake Enoch. Though he came awake slowly, he was immediately and acutely aware of the loose sheets that lay about him. Rather than rewrap the sheets snugly he…

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io Guns and bombs, or spears and arrows, or rocks and clubs: all variations on the same theme, and all of them outdated. Why, historically, has one country, or tribe, or fiefdom sought to overthrow another? To control its population and its resources, …

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via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io Christopher Rowe [christopherrowe.typepad.com] has published more than twenty short stories, and has been a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, and Theodore Sturgeon awards. via Pocket - THE CONTRARY GARDENER via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2NZbcvq

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