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.…

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io - The Murder of Halley's Comet by Larry Niven and David Drake via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2THwmDz

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io - Suicide Mission by Christopher Stasheff via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2J3ekHV

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io - Lab Rats by Jody Lynn Nye via Instapaper https://ift.tt/2TJjyMU

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io MORRIGAN by Morris G. McGee Being a goddess isn't what it used to be; being a goddess in the Twentieth Century is almost sad; and being a goddess in Ireland has little future. Oh, I know there are a few who follow my ways: the I.R.A. via Pocket

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io TROOPER GLASSMAN pulled his helmet on, locking the gasket against the collar of his battle suit. He took a quick look at the little green indicator that showed suit integrity. Satisfied, he settled in to wait for his turn to enter the boarding tube.…

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io Max makes his living as a snatcher, jaunting back through time to retrieve Valuables for paying clients. He was in on the retrieval that brought Shakespeare back to twenty-second century. Only he never saw a penny on that retrieval. But this new job…

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io One human ship stands between the alien threat and the destruction of Earth. Captain Baraye and her crew must intercept the alien ship before it reaches the jump gate to sol system. The odds are stacked against them, but heroes come in all shapes an…

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io Jessie Ramirez showed her Illinois I.D. to the ticket taker of the Chicago Art Institute. As she put the card back in her pocket, she accidentally dropped her sketchbook and pencils. Sighing deeply, she picked them up and then walked inside. via Poc…

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io “DID SOMEBODY FART?” Michaels said, too loudly, hitching up his weapons belt as he stood over the aliens’ table. via Pocket

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io via Pocket

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451, among other wonderful books, once said that the library was his church. Nowadays we have many more ways to worship. eBooks and browsing the internet have changed the way we absorb knowledge. For many people it…

via FREE Fiction / Raindrop.io https://raindrop.io “I need to know who is trying to poison me.” I tried to keep the anger out of my face. This sorceress, a street magician I did not quite trust even if she did come with a recommendation from Brother Michael, was not responsible. via Pocket

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…