StarShipSofa

Coming Up… Main Fiction: “The Memory-Setter’s Apprentice” by Alvaro Zinos-Amaro Originally published at: Fantasy Scroll Mag Those who survive combat with the Sarakul return home with holes in their memories. As memory-setters, it’s our job to delve inside their skulls and repair the damage. Alvaro Zinos-Amaro is co-author, with Robert Silverberg, of  When the Blue Shift Comes . Alvaro’s short fict...

Coming Up… Short Fiction: “Potential” by Mark Lawrence Interview:  Evo and Sheila Terra Shevo Main Fiction: “A Concert of Flowers” by Kate O’Connor Originally published at Daily Science Fiction, reprinted in Fantasy Scroll Mag. The packed concert hall was far from silent. People whispered to their neighbors, fancy clothing rustled, jewelry chimed. In the wings, William Reis waited, the sound of hi...

Coming Up… Short Fiction: “The Universe Reef” by Tobias S. Buckell Jackson buckles his leathers tighter, and pulls on a fur. “The height causes that cold,” he shouts. “We’re like mountaineers!” I want to flee the bitter cold and escape the wind, which seems to pierce my skin and scrub my bones. But I don’t want to miss seeing the Stone Table with my own eyes. Tobias S. Buckell is a New York Times...

Coming Up… Show Sponsor: Octagon Technology Short Fiction: The Piratical Sabbital, by Ian Whates You’re good, you know that? Well yes, I do realise that’s what you’re paid to be. No, really, I wasn’t being a smart-ass… sorry. I just never realised it was going to be this realistic. Ian Whates lives in a quiet Cambridgeshire village with his partner, Helen, Honey, a manic cocker spaniel, and Calvin...

Coming Up… Show Sponsor: Octagon Technology Main Fiction: Lullaby, by Anna North Originally published in Robot Uprisings, edited by John Joseph Adams and Daniel H. Wilson I never wanted to move to my grandfather’s house in the first place. He died before I was born, but Mom talked all the time about what a genius he was, and that year I hated everything Mom liked. I was sixteen, my dad had died th...

Coming up… Show Sponsor: Octagon Technology Fact: Ray Harryhausen by Marc Zicree Mr SciFi . Main Fiction: “Bots d’Armor” by Cat Rambo Cat Rambo lives, writes, and teaches by the shores of an eagle-haunted lake in the Pacific Northwest. Her 150+ fiction publications include stories in Asimov’s, Clarkesworld Magazine, and Tor.com. Her short story, “Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain,” fro...

Coming Up…. Interview: Andy Weir – The Martian Fact: Science News by J J Campanella Main Fiction: “Digital Rights” by Brent Knowles The Assistant responsible for the primary thruster arrangement killed itself just ten days after Izzy arrived on the solar station. The panicked chatter of the other Assistants prevented them from continuing with their own duties. Horror, speculation, and worse of all...

Coming Up… Main Fiction: “Not Smart, Not Clever”, by E Saxey E. Saxey is a queer Londoner and fan of floral-flavour chocolate, whose work has appeared in Apex, Holdfast, Daily Science Fiction and Spacewitch Moonshots, and anthologies including The Lowest Heaven and Pandemonium: The Rite of Spring. Narrated by Elizabeth Armancas Ibba Armancas is a nomadic screenwriter/director based in Los Angeles...

Coming Up… Main Fiction: Subduction, by Paul Berger Paul M. Berger has been a Japanese bureaucrat, an M.I.T. program administrator, an Internet entrepreneur, a butterfly wrangler, a museum tour guide and (God help him) a Wall Street recruiter, all of which, in the aggregate, may have prepared him for nothing except the cretion of speculative fiction. His work has appeared in publications including...

Coming up… Main Fiction: Unexpected Launch, by Alan Baxter (Originally published in Anywhere But Earth anthology by Coeur De Lion Publications ) Gareth stared, open mouthed, at flames blooming massive and silent against a backdrop of stars. Bright, molten debris spun out from orange and black clouds, folding in on themselves without more oxygen to fuel them. Then the deep black of space, an ocean...

Coming up… Fact: Mr SciFi talks Ray Bradbury  01 Main Fiction: Schools of Clay, by Derek Kunksen 15:30 Derek Künsken is a writer of science fiction and fantasy living in Gatineau, Québec. His fiction has appeared in Analog, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Black Gate, On Spec, the three Escape Artists podcasts, several anthologies, and multiple times in Asimov’s. In 2012, he was short-listed for the Auror...

Coming Up… Fact: News About Rosetta by Katherine Inskip  03:40 Main Fiction: “Old Paint” by Megan Lindholm 26:30 I was only nine when it happened, so I may not have the details absolutely right. But I know the heart of my story, and the heart is always what matters in a tale like mine. Megan Lindholm was born in Oakland California in 1952, and spent the first ten years of her life in California. S...

Coming Up…. Main Fiction: “I Love You Like Water” by Angela Slatter  02:00 The desert laps at the edge of the city – what used to be a conurbation is now one city short. The place where two cities met is a sand trap. The inhabitants of the place that got swallowed, the hardy few who stayed, are referred to as “sand crabs”. Specialising in dark fantasy and horror, Angela Slatter is the author of th...

Coming up… Interview: Assistant Editor for StarShipSofa Jeremy Szal 02:00 Main Fiction: “The Mouse Ran Down” by Adrian Tchaikovsky 20:50 Adrian Tchaikovsky is the author of the acclaimed Shadows of the Apt fantasy series, from the first volume, Empire In Black and Gold in 2008 to the final book, Seal of the Worm, in 2014, with a new series and a standalone science fiction novel scheduled for 2015....

Support the Kickstarter campaign for SofaCon 2015! Music: The Wreck of the Cassie Dee by David Bradshaw Science News by J J Campanella Main Fiction: “Bulk Food” by Peter Watts and Laurie Channer Peter Watts is a (former) scientist, author, and convicted felon who spent the first two decades of his adult life as a marine biologist. After fleeing academia for science fiction he became known for the...

Coming up… SofaCON 2   Fact: Looking Back At Genre History by Amy H. Sturgis Main fiction: “A Long ‘Til Spring” by Dennis M. Lane (Narrated by the author) It had been a long day of walking through the auburn jungle for Billy Bob and the other young ‘uns.   Dennis M. Lane is a South Africa based writer who has seen his work gaining more of an audience over 2013. His 2012 collection of stories and p...

Coming Up… Interview: Rajan Khanna  talking about Falling Sky  01:00 Main Fiction: “Ghost in the Machine” by Ralph Roberts Marcus Teague sat hunched over in the cramped confines of the 16 GB USB thumb drive. The muscles of his mighty arms rippled as he cleaned his wizard’s sword, running the polishing spell up and down the blade with precision.    Ralph Roberts is a decorated Vietnam Veteran and w...

Coming Up Interview: Eric Brown Main Fiction: Frozen Woman by Eric Brown Narrated by Leonie Bisset Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/starshipsofa . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Coming up… Fact: Maven by Katherine Inskip Main Fiction: “The Mistress of Fishes” by Octavia Cade Octavia Cade is a PhD candidate in science communication at the University of Otago in New Zealand. Her short fiction has appeared in Strange Horizons, Cosmos Magazine, and Aurealis, amongst other places. “Trading Rosemary” is her first novella, published earlier this year by Masque Books and narrated...

Coming Up Interview: James Morrow Main Fiction: Iron Shroud by James Morrow   “Jonathan Hobbwright cannot discourse upon the formic thoughts that flicker through the minds of ants, and he is similarly ignorant concerning the psyches of locusts, toads, moles, apes, and bishops, but he can tell you what it’s like to be in hell. The abyss has become his fixed abode. Perdition is now his permanent add...

Coming up… Two shorts about love and loss by Kathryn Cramer Short fiction 1: “Disextinction, Inc.” by Kathryn Cramer  01:00 “For his biology project, Jason decided to resurrect the passenger pigeon.”   Kathryn Cramer lives in Westport, NY. She is an editor of the  Hieroglyph project , inspired by Neal Stephenson and sponsored by the  Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State Universi...

Coming up… Cover Art:  Stephan Martiniere Main Fiction: “The Prelate’s Commission” by Jeffrey Ford  03:30 “The new fresco that graced the inner dome of the Cathedral of St. Elovisus was a masterpiece of perspective and illusion—the fall of the rebel angels into hell. They hurtled downward through an aquamarine sky swirled with pale pink clouds, their feathers disintegrating in the descent, their f...

Coming up… Fact: Science News by J J Campanella 01:20 Main Fiction: “The Dream Detective” by Lisa Tuttle  33:00 Lisa Tuttle is an American-born science fiction, fantasy, and horror author. She has published more than a dozen novels, seven short story collections, and several non-fiction titles. She has also edited several anthologies and reviewed books for various publications. She has been living...

Coming up… Main Fiction: “Predvestniki” by Greg Kurzawa  03:20 Greg Kurzawa studied theology at a small university in Big Sandy, Texas before entering a career in Information Technology. He has lived in Texas, Colorado, and North Carolina, but currently resides in Omaha, Nebraska. His work can be found in Clarkesworld, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Interzone, and Gray’s Sporting Journal. Narrator: Nick...

Coming up… Cover Art by Yohann Schepacz Yohann Schepacz is a french concept artist in such sectors as video games, film, and traditional print media. A consummate consumer of the unknown and unknowable, his detailed paintings leave the viewer with a longing for the worlds that exist just, tantalizingly, beyond the confines of the screen. You can view more of his work at yohannschepacz dot tumblr d...