I’ve been busy the last week creating issue #3 of my SF webzine, Flurb.
I lined up an amazing list of 13 contributors this time around: Anders, Di Filippo, Gunn, Herbert, Laidlaw, Metzger, Quaglia, Rucker, Saknussemm, Shirley, Sirius, Tonnies, and Watson!
Check out Flurb and post your comments here!
April 24th, 2007 at 10:13 pm
Wow! I really love Flurb. Thanks so much for this R.R., and thanks for you’re earlier books as well. As a teenager I read everything you ever wrote (that my library deigned to shelve).
I haven’t had the time to finish number three yet, but I just finished “That Certain Day With Magdalen”, and I’m very impressed.
Though I’m an atheist, I’ve spent a great deal of time studying the various religious texts and “The Thunder, Perfect Mind” has always been my favorite.
It seems to tie Buddhist Zen to Christianity in a remarkably prescient way that almost makes me want to suspend reason long enough to JUST BELIEVE. I won’t though. 🙂
Anyhow the story was very thought provoking, and original. I enjoyed the hell out of it.
April 25th, 2007 at 11:39 am
nothing by charles stross, wtf
April 25th, 2007 at 11:44 am
Oh, that’s a really kind comment, Ian. Why don’t you post your home address so all of the Flurb authors can come by to offer you their personal thanks.
As for Stross, yes he was in Flurb #2, but I guess you’re not aware that Charlie is temporarily unable to flurb — as he’s undergoing a petabyte memory upgrade somewhere deep beneath the surface of Mars.
April 25th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
I like the use of “flurb” as a verb. I think that from now on, whenever I plan to write something and someone asks me what I’m up to, I’ll tell them I’m “flurbing.”
April 25th, 2007 at 8:00 pm
Yes…Bob.
April 25th, 2007 at 10:10 pm
the childlike will inherit the kingdom..
April 25th, 2007 at 10:21 pm
Gotta love the culture of entitlement! Free stuff? Doesn’t contain the extra free stuff nobody promised you? Get mad!
April 26th, 2007 at 2:50 am
Oh I love Flurb!
Whenever I take life too seriously, I come here 🙂
April 26th, 2007 at 11:03 am
Rudy, an excellent Flurb! The Saknussemm piece made me think of a Robert Silverberg story about amnesia-producing drugs in the water supply making people forget random events or people. A mental patient found himself suddenly free from the traumatic memory which had ruined his life; he knew what the memory was, but not firsthand. On that subject, good luck to Charlie on his upgrade and hope he doesn’t accidentally reboot.
But how come there wasn’t a new story by Asimov?
April 27th, 2007 at 11:00 am
Rudy,
I enjoyed the Shirley piece very much (haven’t finished the whole issue yet).
It’s interesting to conjecture how you, the editor, would define SF, because the Magdalene piece seems to be on the cusp of other genres, or of being outside of genre altogether.
April 28th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
Keep up the good work Rudy. I love your stories. I’m still working my way through the current issue. I also like John Shirley’s and your other contributors. I would like to see more of Th. Metzger. What a unique voice.
Thank you for making these gems available.
Guy
May 21st, 2007 at 6:24 am
Hiya,
I’ve just converted all the stories to a series of Mobipocket Reader format .prc’s for my smart phone. Anyone want them? Rudy, would you like to post them on your site? If not, I can always put them up on a page on my site.
May 22nd, 2007 at 6:37 am
That’s interesting, Dersk. The issue seems somewhat remote to me as (i) I don’t think I have that kind of phone, and (ii) if I did have that kind of phone I probably wouldn’t be able to get .prc files to work, and (iii) if I could do all that I can’t imagine wanting to read a story on a phone.
In any case, I’d rather not get into posting alternate formats on FLURB, mainly because I don’t want to spend the extra time on a task that’s likely to benefit relatively frew readers. This is, after all, a free webzine done for idealism and not for money, and I have to be reasonable about how much I spend on it.
Stricktly speaking I’m not sure you should post the files yourself, as you don’t have individual agreements with the authors—and I’m not currently in the position to grant these rights, nor do I much feel like pestering my authors about whether they would grant these rights.
All this said, if someone actually wants these formats, they might consider privately contacting Dersk whose home page is?
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:19 am
you can reach me on derek at vandivere dot net. Haven’t really updated my home page in a number of years.
I find short stories are actually pretty good for smart phones…wouldn’t want to read a whole novel that way, but it’s handy when you’re stuck somewhere without a book.
July 23rd, 2007 at 5:30 pm
First, let me say that this is a great Flurb, and as always I’ll be anxiously awaiting the next instalment. Second, October is much too long to wait for Postsingular. Yes, it’s really not that far away, BUT STILL…
Alright. Third, Mr. Saknussemm scared the bejeezerous outta me with that Fitzpatrick’s Disease. I’d convert to Shirleyism, but he’d toss me out to gnash my teeth elsewhere. Anders’ touch on things rolls me on the floor with laughter, and thank you, Eileen Gunn, I’ll never watch Trek the same way again.
The Ribofunk monster strikes once more. I feel dirty and uplifted all at once. And I like it. My mind reels at the potential of a Herbert-verse. I shriek at the thought of getting caught in Mr. Tonnie’s temporal doughnut, always fried and never eaten.
Vlad for President, dammet. Blast it, Mr. Metzer, you make me doubt the veracity of my afternoon’s tossed salad! And thank goodness, Mr. Laidlaw, for revealing the ties that bind are deeper and more mysterious than xp’s.
When time comes for the Voyage to the Great Beyond, I hope i get Mr. Shook as a guide. And a direct line to the lazy-eight Sirius vaults. Is that too much to ask? Is it too much to need more Flurb?
September 12th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
The John Shirley piece was a highlight for me (as it evidently was for a number of other readers, judging from the above comments).
I blundered onto Flurb after wandering through the Terry Bisson showcase and going from hither to yon.
This sort of intellectual input is of vital importance to me, as living in Jakarta is pleasant but mentally rarely challenging. I blame it on Islam: “Everything you need to know, or think, or talk about is in The Holy Book.” Makes for some pretty intellectually stunted citizens.
Jesus was most likely much closer to the individual portrayed by Mr. Shirley than the dour, disapproving authoritarian figure in the Bible.
I invite my fellow fantasy-followers to visit me at http://www.iglu-cilutung.blogspot.com.
Aloha
BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB