L. Frank Baum: The Tin Woodman of Oz (Book 12)

Title: The Tin Woodman of Oz
Author: L. Frank Baum
Publication Date: 1918

The Tin Woodman, Nick Chopper, is unexpectedly reunited with his Munchkin sweetheart Nimmie Amee from the days when he was flesh and blood. Along the way, Nick discovers a fellow tin man, Captain Fyter, as well as a Frankenstein-like creature made from their combined parts. (Wikipedia entry, showing the original cover)

Link: The Tin Woodman of Oz

Technorati Tags: speculative fiction, book, fantasy, novel, Baum, Oz

Nature's Futures

Publication Date: 2005 - 2006
Synopsis: A series of one page science fiction stories published in the scientific journal Nature on the topic of "Futures" and reprinted by Science Fact & Fiction Concatenation. (story index).

Read the current stories:
Ted Chiang: What's Expected of Us (pdf)
Henry Gee: Are We Not Men (pdf)
Ellen Klages: Ringing Up Baby (pdf)
Robert A. Metzger: Perchance to Dream (pdf)
Charles Stross: MAXO Signals (pdf)

Technorati Tags: science fiction, futures, Nature, ShortStory

L. Frank Baum: The Lost Princess of Oz (Book 11)

Title: Tik-Tok of Oz
Author: L. Frank Baum
Publication Date: 1917

Concerning the disappearance of Princess Ozma, the ruler of Oz. When she is discovered missing, four search parties are sent out, one for each of Oz's four countries. Most of the book covers Dorothy and the Wizard's efforts to find her. Meanwhile, Cayke the Cookie Cook discovers that her magic dishpan (on which she bakes her famous cookies) has been stolen. Along with the Frogman, they leave their mountain in the Winkie Country to find the pan. (Wikipedia entry, showing the original cover)

Read the Book: The Lost Princess of Oz

Technorati Tags: speculative fiction, book, fantasy, novel, Baum, Oz

Daikaijuzine

New speculative fiction e-zine Daikaijuzine released its first issue September 21st (DAIKAIJUZINE Release 1.0 (Godzilla)).

From the editor Richard Crawford:

My goal with Daikaijuzine, then, was to create a single place where readers could find top quality speculative fiction. I didn't want to limit it to science fiction or to fantasy; I wanted writers to feel like they could contribute anything, and I wanted readers to feel like they could find high quality fiction, poetry, and essays all in one place, regardless of genre. And while the focus is definitely on speculative fiction, I think there's definitely room for mainstream fiction as well.

It definitely looks promising.

Technorati Tags: speculative fiction, science fiction, fantasy, short+story, poetry, horror

Ted Chiang: Seventy-two Letters

Title: 72 Letters
Author: Ted Chiang
Original Publication Date: 2000

From a review in Fantasy and Science Fiction:

As he did in his Nebula-winning first published story, "Tower of Babylon," Chiang gives us a world in which the erroneous scientific notions of a past era are instead correct, and he develops the implications in delightfully convincing detail. In "Seventy-Two Letters," cabbalistic magic – the stuff that brought the Golem of Prague to life – combines with medieval biological theory to create an alternate Industrial Revolution and a weird shadow of genetics. Chiang conjures some wonderful images – factories powered by tireless ceramic statues, children playing with mini-golems like wind-up toys – but it's the rigor with which he has worked out the rules of this other science that amazes and amuses most. Next time you hear someone complain that there are no new ideas in SF anymore, hand 'em "Seventy-Two Letters" and a plate of crow.

Chaing won the Sidewise prize for alternative history in 2000 with this story.

Read the story: Seventy-two Letters

Technorati Tags: speculative fiction, science fiction, fantasy, novella

L. Frank Baum: Rinkitink in Oz (Book 10)

Title: Rinkitink in Oz
Author: L. Frank Baum
Publication Date: 1916

Prince Inga of Pingaree and King Rinkitink and their companions have adventures that lead to the land of the Nomes and, eventually, Oz. This book only ends up in Oz at the end, because Baum originally wrote it as a non-Oz book, entitled King Rinkitink, and only rewrote it later. (Wikipedia entry, showing the original cover)

Read the book: Rinkitink in Oz

Technorati Tags: speculative fiction, book, fantasy, novel, Baum, Oz

Helix: A Speculative Fiction Quarterly

Helix is a relatively new free online speculative fiction magazine. The Fall 2006 issue is out, with stories and poetry by Terry Bison and others. The only drawback: it only issues four times a year.

Technorati Tags: speculative fiction, science fiction, fantasy, short story, poetry

L. Frank Baum: Scarecrow of Oz (Book 9)

Title: Scarecrow of Oz
Author: L. Frank Baum
Publication Date: 1915

Cap'n Bill and Trot journey to Oz and, with the help of the Scarecrow, overthrow the cruel King Krewl of Jinxland. Cap'n Bill and Trot had previously appeared in two other novels by Baum, The Sea Fairies and Sky Island. Based in part upon the 1914 silent film, His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz. (Wikipedia entry, showing the original cover)

Book Link: Scarecrow of Oz

Technorati Tags: speculative fiction, book, fantasy, novel, Baum, Oz

David Brin: Those Eyes

Title: Those Eyes
Author: David Brin
Publication Date: 1994
A late night talk radio host confronts UFOs head on.

Link: Those Eyes

Technorati Tags: speculative fiction, science fiction, short story, novella, novelette, Brin

L. Frank Baum: Tik-Tok of Oz (Book 8)

Title: Tik-Tok of Oz
Author: L. Frank Baum
Publication Date: 1914

Betsy Bobbin, a girl from Oklahoma is shipwrecked with her mule, Hank in the Rose Kingdom. She meets the Shaggy Man there and the two try to rescue the Shaggy Man's brother from the Nome King. This book is partly based upon Baum's stage musical, The Tik-Tok Man of Oz, which was in turn based on Ozma of Oz.

(Wikipedia entry on the Oz books, showing the original cover)

Link: Tik-Tok of Oz

Technorati Tags: speculative fiction, book, fantasy, novel, Baum, Oz

Ted Chiang: Understand

Title: Understand
Author: Ted Chiang
First Publication Date:1991
Synopsis: A man gains intelligence and perception after hormone injections stimulate neuron growth and connections in his brain, ultimately resulting in a completely different way of viewing the world. In introducing the story Chiang says:

The initial impulse to write "Understand" arose from an offhand remark made by my roommate in college; he was reading Sartre's Nausea at the time, whose protagonist finds only meaninglessness in everything he sees. But what would it be like, my roommate wondered, to find meaning and order in everything you saw? To me that suggested a kind of heightened perception, which in turn suggested superintelligence. I started thinking about the point at which quantitative improvements -- better memory, faster pattern recognition -- turn into a qualitative difference, a fundamentally different mode of cognition.

What will happen when such an enhanced human meets another with similar mental powers but different motives and outlook?

Link: Understand

Technorati Tags: speculative fiction, science fiction, Ted Chiang, novelette