Short Stories

SHORT STORIES

POLITY 

THE GIRE & THE BIBRAT: Premonitions1 (Winter ’92), the forerunner to The Zone from Tony Lee at Pigasus Press. Now forms part of the collection Runcible Tales from Piper’s Ash.

THE THRAKE: Fiction Furnace 3 (Summer ’93) Hyperbook Publishing. The Engineer collection from Tanjen (1998). Hadrosaur Tales 16 (2003). And now The Engineer Reconditioned from Cosmos Books.

ADAPTOGENIC: Threads 2 (Jan ’92). Also to be found on Infinity Plus. Now in The Gabble from Macmillan.

BLUE HOLES & BLOODY WATERS: Threads 3 (April ’94) and now part of Runcible Tales.

ALWAYS WITH YOU: The Zone 5 (Summer ’96) Tony Lee’s Pigasus Press. And now part of Runcible Tales.

WALKING JOHN AND BIRD: Included in Runcible Tales from Piper’s Ash.

SPATTERJAY: Grotesque 8 (’95) Another one in The Engineer collection and now in The Engineer Reconditioned.

SNAIRLS: Grotesque 10 (’95) In that The Engineer collection again and The Engineer Reconditioned.

DRAGON IN THE FLOWER: Night Dreams 6 (Nov ’96) Subsequently published in Hadrosaur Tales in the USA (Nov ’98). Forms part of Runcible Tales, and also appears in Gridlinked.

THE GURNARD: The first part of this story was published in issue 8 of Night Dreams before it folded. Graeme Hurry then took it on and published the lot in Kimota 10 (’98). It will now form part of The Engineer Reconditioned collection published by Cosmos Books.

PUTREFACTORS: Zest 7 (’99). Now in The Gabble from Macmillan.

CHOUDAPT: Sci-fright. Now in The Gabble from Macmillan.

THE SEA OF DEATH: Interzone 169 (July 2001). Also to be found on the Dusk Site. Now in Owning the Future.

SCAR TISSUE: (7853) Bailey seeks vengeance for the death of his wife. A military format nanomycelium comes in handy. Published in Shadow Writers (Volume Two) edited by Paul Kane. Now in Owning the Future.

SOFTLY SPOKE THE GABBLEDUCK (9123 words) When you go after such a mythical beast in sheq country, be sure you remain the hunter, not the hunted. Published in Asimov’s, August 2005, vol 29 No 8. Now in The Gabble from Macmillan.

THE GABBLE: (12925) Polity taxonomists come to the planet Masada to unravel the secrets of the gabble, the gabbleducks, and the hooders… Published in Asimov’s March 2006. Now in The Gabble from Macmillan.

GARP & GERONAMID: (11,370 words) Garp is a reification – a high-tech zombie – and Geronamid is an AI implanted in the skull of that ‘one ton ambush predator’ an allosaur. Neither of them enemies you would like. Published in Interzone 199. Now in The Gabble from Macmillan.

ACEPHALOUS DREAMS (6961 words) Having a Csorian node implanted is obviously preferable to going to the disintegrator, isn’t it? To be published in Adventure (anthology — MonkeyBrain imprint). Now in The Gabble from Macmillan.

SNOW IN THE DESERT: (11,000 words) Snow is an albino, immortal, very dangerous, and someone wants his bollocks. Spectrum SF 8 (2002), David G Hartwell’s & Kathryn Cramer’s Year’s Best SF 8 (June 2003), and to be published in the Czech SF magazine Ikarie. Now in The Gabble from Macmillan.

BIOSHIP (2958) Biotech ship harvesting an alien sea, with captain who is nasty to it and the crew, with consequences. Now in Owning the Future.

THE RHINE’S WORLD INCIDENT (4812) A story about the Brockle from the Transformation trilogy. First published in Subterfuge edited by Ian Whates in 2008. Now in Owning the Future.

SHELL GAME (11949) A Polity story first published in Space Opera 2 edited by Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan in 2009. Now in Owning the Future.

ALIEN ARCHAEOLOGY (21384) Someone gets their hands on some alien technology and gets more than they bargained for. First appearance of Penny Royal. First published in Asimov’s in June 2007, then in The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection edited by Gardner Dozois. Now in The Gabble from Macmillan.

 

OWNER

PROCTORS: Included in The Engineer from Tanjen and now to appear in The Engineer Reconditionedfrom Cosmos Books.

THE OWNER: Included in The Engineer from Tanjen and now to appear in The Engineer Reconditionedfrom Cosmos Books.

TIGER TIGER: Kimota and now to form part of The Engineer Reconditioned collection from Cosmos Books.

MEMORIES OF EARTH (3679)  A man sleeps intermittently through the teraforming and establishment of a colony on a world. An Owner story. First published on the Pan Macmillan website and now in Owning the Future.

 

FANTASY

WOODSMITH: Threads 1 (’93) Geoff Lynas’s First Rung Publications.

JABLE SHARKS: Story Cellar 5 (’95) Subsequently released as part of The Engineer collection published by Tanjen. Check their website and the online bookstores. Check out the reviews on the Kimota and Borders websites. Now included in The Engineer Reconditioned from Cosmos Books.

JACK O’GRAVESTONES: Story Cellar 5 (’95)

THE DEVIL YOU KNOW: Sierra Heaven

THE BERSERKER CAPTAIN: Strange Pleasures (collection 2001) edited by Sean Wallace – Cosmos Books.

 

TIME-TRAVEL

THE TORBEAST’S PRISON: Kimota 13 (Autumn 2000) Now to form part of The Engineer Reconditioned collection from Cosmos Books.

 

MISCELLANEOUS

ANOTHER ENGLAND: Back Brain Recluse 14 (Autumn ’89) and subsequently translated by Christian Vallini for Cuenta Cero or Acronos in Argentina.

OUT OF THE LEAF-LIGHT: Nova SF 3 (Winter ’90). Profits from this issue of the magazine went to Greenpeace.

DEATH, THE PILOT, & THE DIAMOND: Works 10 (’95).

MASON’S RATS (I, II & III): The first two were published in issues 2 & 4 respectively of Orion (’92 & ’94). All three stories have now been released as a booklet by Graeme Hurry’s Kimota. Check their website or some of the online bookstores. The first story republished in Asimov’s.

MARIE & THE WITCHFINDER: Issue 13 Dementia 13 (’94)

THE GREAT AFRICAN VAMPIRE: Premonitions 2 (’92) then in issue 24 (Summer ’96) of the journal of the British vampyre society The Velvet Vampire. You can now find it on the Threads website as it is the forerunner to the novella Africa Zero published by Cosmos Books.

STINGING THINGS: Grotesque 4 (’94) Voted best in the issue of David Logan’s Mag.

THE FLAME: Alternaties 19 (Sept ’94)

FLOUNDERING (1820 words) You’ll never eat fish again.

HARBINGER (1085 words) Suit with mobile phone and Porsche gets shafted. All you need to know.

HAT CREATURES (2937 words) An utterly new slant on the history of the world.

OLD ROAD (1660 words) Drink drive warning.

TROPHIES (1420 words) Serial killers collect trophies.

CONVERSATIONS (4070) Three very strange chats.

JENNIFER (1477 words) Quite strange. I was having a bad day.

RETURN OF THE SHIP (2600) After their hellish experiences the crew of the Jable hunter return to land, and find they have brought hell with them.

THE BRICKLAYER (2738) The politically correct future for a bricklayer.

STONES OF STRAW: Threads 13 (Feb ’97)  

CAVEFISH: The Third Alternative 5 (Winter ’94) 

OCEANA FOODS: Grotesque 7 (’94)    

THE BACON: Threads 10 (April ’96)

ALTERNATIVE HOSPITAL: Kimota . Excellent website. Have a look!

SUCKER: Sackcloth & Ashes 4 (June’99)

ARTIFICIAL: The Zone No9 (Summer 2000).

WATCH CRAB: (4460 words) Large crab eats villains, and some other stuff. Published on Rick Kleffel’s site: http://trashotron.com/ 

PLASTIPAK (2523 words) Be amazed at what the plastics industry can produce. Published in issue one of Terror Tales, edited by Paul Kane and John B Ford (August 2003 – Rainfall Books).

THE VETERAN (5000 words) He was said to be a survivor of wars between the dense-tech humans. This was confirmed for Cheel when she saw him take off his face. Asimov’s vol. 28 no. 6 (June 2004). Also published in Japanes publisher Hayakawa’s SF Magazine, May 2005 issue, sold on March 25. Now in Owning the Future.

STROOD (5401) They aliens have arrived, and they want their dinner… Asimov’s vol. 28 no. 12 (Dec 2004). To be published in David G Hartwell & Kathryn Cramer’s The Year’s Best Science Fiction #10. And to be published in translation in ESLI (IF), the eldest SF periodical in Russia. Now in Owning the Future.

LAURA’S KNOT: (1272 words) Grief tangled in string. Published in Scheherazade 28, Nov 2005.

THE HALFMAN’S CELLAR: Received ‘honourable mention’ in the Writers of the future contest in ’91. Was published in Elizabeth Counihan’s Scheherazade issues 13 & 14 in ’94.

BAD TRAVELLING (5983) An unwelcome guest onboard looks upon the crew as a moveable feast … so to speak. Set on the seas of  ‘Jable Sharks’.

AN ALIEN ON CRETE (11773) It does what is says in the title. First published in Asimov’s Jan/Feb 2020.