The wind was blowing again. Sometimes he wondered if it ever stopped, or would just blow on and on forever. He couldn’t remember it blowing this much before the end of the world, but before then he’d had a lot more on his mind...
The man entered my office uneasily. “Dr. Ware?” He was my last patient of the day, Henry Greenfield, an emergency referral. “Come in, Mr. Greenfield. Have a seat here by my desk.” “Thanks for taking me on such short notice. I saw my regular doctor earlier this afternoon, and he sent me straight to you.”...
Thank you for calling CyberSeven Systems. Your call is important to us. Please be aware that it may be recorded for training purposes. “Yes, hi, I need help. Urgent help. I …” You now have three options...
Alan was a veteran of the Theta-Eridani wars of aught six. Many thought Earth should never have gotten involved in an interstellar border dispute, that it was none of our business. “No blood for tralphium!” was one of many anti-war chants. Turns out, the protests took longer to coordinate than the war itself...
Master Peaseblossom sits alone in his dark workshop. It is a haggard, wheezing old thing: The walls sag beaten and bruised black; the floor, half-drowned in clutter, struggles to catch its breath beneath the heavy odour of saltpetre and sulphur that hangs over it like an old London fog...
The coffee machine beeps. This is your cue. “Good morning, sir,” your house assistant says. “I’m afraid it’s time for you to get up.” “Hey, pal. How’s the weekends? See you at work today!” your friend’s voice screeches off your answerphone. You lie in the darkness...
The world was scheduled to end at midnight on December 31st, 4012. Unfortunately, there was no one there to see it. The four heralds of the apocalypse charged forth; ready to usher in the end of mankind, then spent most of the day cantering across empty sea bottoms, flattened mountain ranges, and...
The Street Fighter wandered past the ruined shores of Arlington. Over the hill, he could see them gathering by the remains of Reagan International Airport. The Road Warriors. He wondered if they would accept him. The mean Streets were nothing compared to the Open Road...
—I was born on a wet April morning— —You said to start at the beginning. —I told you I’d co-operate; there’s no need to threaten me. —Look, mister, we’re spinning our wheels here. Do you want me to tell the story or don’t you...
I’ll tell you here and now, being a Quality Assurance consultant sometimes feels like taking candy from a baby. Especially when I run across nimrod executives who couldn’t engineer their way out of a wet paper bag...
Always Celine held her hand up to the horizontal slash in the mountain wall. A soft breeze tickled her palm, barely discernible but for its temperature: much cooler than the arid summer air that had made their week in the Ardèche so torturous. “What do you think?” Dermot asked...
This weekend only, as a special promotion, we’re giving away the Kindle edition of the omnibus volume containing Henry Vogel’s first three novels, Scout’s Honor, Scout’s Oath, and Scout’s Duty, absolutely free!...
Rampant Loon Press is excited to announce the release of Stupefying Stories 1.17, featuring the cover story, THE RANSOM OF PRINCESS STARSHINE, by Philip K. Dick Award finalist and Campbell Award-winning author AMY ...
You don’t exactly feel like you’ve won the lottery when you get cancer. But that’s how my doctor made it sound, when he called me into his office to discuss the test results for the lump on my right arm, just inside the bend of the elbow...
It’s coming right at you! Rampant Loon Press is relieved excited to announce the release of Stupefying Stories 1.16, featuring: I LIVE THE WARRIOR’S LIFE • by Robert Lowell Russell No one knew how Mel summoned Brother Crow to this world, but the trickster was delighted...
When the lights went out, when things went bang, when every room filled with rusty smoke and the smell of rotting electric fish, when all this happened...
Political science was not his field, but Eugene McCarthy Bennett, PhD, developed a new political theory as he sat on the cat-clawed sofa in his living room, drinking lukewarm beer and watching the six o’clock news...
After two thousand years of isolation, the lost colony world of Aashla has reestablished contact with the rest of galactic civilization. Princess Callan of Mordan, and her royal consort, Terran Scout David Rice, were the people who made that happen. Now, they lead the mission to ensure that Aashla’s unique culture is not overwhelmed...
Return to a future… Of bold galactic explorers and lost space colonies, where beautiful heroines and brave heroes battle treacherous villains with swords and airships! Return to a future… Of planetary romance and high adventure, where action moves at the speed of light and danger lurks around every corner...
Tiny sparks in the transvisor gave it life, the inviting warm glow building in the lens hood. The familiar tang of ozone and hot selenium followed, and soon the xerographic plates were clacking through the drum, giving a jerky-but-animated view of something happening at the other end of the wire. Deep in the transvisor...
Fear #7 has occurred to me, and it is unspeakable. It slipped in through an unguarded moment, vinegar and bloody-iron across the tongue. Even though I know it’s not real, like the six manifestations before it, I can’t stop myself from responding as if it is...
The happiest day of my life happened when I was eight years old. I can still picture it vividly, even after all these years: racing toward the playground on my bicycle while my father ran alongside me on the bike path, offering cheerful words of encouragement. The air was filled with floating dandelion fuzz...
I never told her I loved her. Yes, I asked her to be my girlfriend, and yes, I asked her if she would marry me, and to both questions she answered, “Yes.” But that was before I looked at myself with the eyes of the universe and saw nothing but emptiness...
The roots writhed, like gnarled fingers seeking purchase. “There, there,” Anthea crooned, “nearly done.” A pernicious root encircled one wrist. With a snip from her secateurs, the offending appendage dropped to the conservatory floor and lay there, twitching. Content in the warmth, surrounded by the rustle of leaves, she hummed as she worked...