))
Explore fantastical lands with Far-Fetched Fables! Do you sometimes wonder how things could be different, should be different? Do you feel the call of the bizarre and surreal? Each week, Nicola Seaton-Clark explores a little further into the rare and mysterious lands which lie just outside our familiar reality, forging paths of wonder, magic and delight! Podcasting the finest in genre fiction, Far-Fetched Fables puts the “wonders” in the District of Wonders podcast network. Like all shows in ...
…
continue reading
“Too Poor to Sin” by H.L. Fullerton (Originally published in Mysterion.) Grandfather squandered our family's fortune on forgiveness, forcing Father to enlist in the Legion and serve the angels. This was before he met Mother and they had me, though the angels' war still rages. Father doesn't say much about his years of service, except that it would'…
…
continue reading
“Penelope's Song” by Samuel Marzioli (Originally published in The Third Spectral Book of Horror Stories.) Penelope gazed through her bedroom window, mesmerized by the motion of the night. Flowers trembled, grass ruffled and trees swayed, flailing their branches. The sight of it unsettled her. In fifteen years she hadn’t learned much about the world…
…
continue reading
“Avarice” by Michael Rimar (Originally published in Darwin's Evolutions.) Shadow blocked the glare of Uttum’s twin suns. Saleem looked up at the source, a man dressed in robes pale as bleached bone. “Offering for the poor?” Saleem kept his tone weak and pitiful, offering his wicker basket to the stranger. “I have more than offerings for you, my you…
…
continue reading
“In the Late December” by Greg van Eekhout (Originally published in Strange Horizons.) Here's a secret of the North Pole: Santa powders his hands with talc before donning his thick red mittens. It is a small secret, true, but some would give anything to steal even that. A secret is a detail, and here in the late December, a detail is as precious as…
…
continue reading
“M” by Russell Hemmell (Originally published in Not One of Us.) We look like them, Christian thought, admiring the fresco in the charnel house and its ghastly figures, scary and eerily beautiful. He adjusted the heavy cloak over his shoulders. The evening was damp and cold, and he was tired after a whole day on the move. But he could not avoid that…
…
continue reading
“Customer Service Hobgoblin” by Paul R. Hardy (Originally published in Unidentified Funny Objects 5.) Beeep. "Good morning, you're through to Robin. How may I receive your prayer?" "Oh. Hello? My name is Bishop Augusto de Figueroa. Am I speaking to God?" "No, sir, my name's Robin. How can I --" "Well, young man, I wanted to talk to God. You see it'…
…
continue reading
“The Man Who Did Nothing” by Karen Traviss (Originally published in The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror: Seventeenth Annual Collection.) Hursley Rise, May 2 There was a boy – five, maybe six – sitting on half a discarded mattress by the kerb as Jeff drove down the road. At first he thought the child was trying to open a bottle of pop, but the closer h…
…
continue reading
“Psychopomps” by Judith Field(Originally published in The Colored Lens, Summer 2014.)Mark’s next door neighbour and business partner Pat kept telling him that power flowed through his veins. He took a breath and closed his eyes, trying to will the power back out again and into the ash wand in his outstretched hand. He pointed it at Pat’s door. A na…
…
continue reading
1
FarFetchedFables No 180 Dave Smeds
1:00:21
1:00:21
Riproduci in seguito
Riproduci in seguito
Liste
Like
Like aggiunto
1:00:21
“The Tavern at the Ford” by Dave Smeds(Originally published in Sword and Sorceress XXVIII.)Until that awful night, Azure had always assumed she would live out her entire life in thevillage. That’s how it had been for generations.Grandpa had shared the history one day while standing with her on the old stone bridge.“There used to be a ford there,” h…
…
continue reading
“Unraveling” by K.G. Anderson(Originally published in Triangulation: Beneath the Surface.)"Sarah -- he's using you!" My voice rose into the whine my daughter loathed, but I couldn't stop. I pressed the phone to my ear. "You're 16. I absolutely forbid -- "My runaway daughter informed me that she hated me."Have fun with the old witches," she said, an…
…
continue reading
“Mouth of the Jaguar” by Evan Dicken(Originally published in Heroic Fantasy Quarterly #20.)Hummingbird was to be the final sacrifice of the day. The man before her struggled on a raisedstone slab, chest heaving as a flock of blood-spattered priests pinned his arms and legs. Sunlight glitteredon the Cazonci's obsidian dagger--curved like a jaguar's …
…
continue reading
Main Story: “Perchance to Dream” by David Morrell(Originally published in Flights: Extreme Visions of Fantasy.)Dr. Baker.Dr. Baker.He came to my office on a Friday afternoon. Tall, slender, and sandy-haired, he had a thin, aristocratic face that might have been handsome if it weren’t so haggard. His eyes looked puffy. Red streaked their whites. I w…
…
continue reading
“The Hour of the Rat” by Donald Jacob Uitvlugt(Originally published in Cirsova Magazine #1.)shigururu ya winter rainnezumi no wataru a mouse runskoto no ue across the koto-- Yosa Buson (1716-1783)Nezumi's heart pounded as she pressed against the wall. She willed herself to be as invisible as the night all around her. She put a hand over her mouth s…
…
continue reading
“The Demi-Arcanist's Will” by Jakob Drud(Originally published in The Worlds of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Volume 2.)The cabinet was all but invisible in the fumes, except in the spot where Jarn Dinaris wove his grounding seam into Master Elosivan's seam of transmission. There the metal hissed and glowed in dark purples as they wove the com…
…
continue reading
Flash Fiction: “The Banshee Behind Beamon's Bakery” by Khalidaah Muhammad-Ali(Originally published in Diabolical Plots #21.)Most nights the alley behind Beamon’s Bakery is just an alley.The street lamp bleeds piss yellow light, casting jagged shadows around the overflowing dumpster and discarded boxes. The walls are tagged with gang signs, claiming…
…
continue reading
“Princess Cosima and the 1,000 Cats” by Sarah L. Byrne(Originally published in Betwixt #4.)"Provide ships or sails adapted to the heavenly breezes, and there will be some who will not fear even that void." -- Johannes Kepler, 1610The red palace was home to a thousand cats. Or so people said. Princess Cosima, twenty, beautiful and bored, walked thro…
…
continue reading
Main Story: “The Tower of Morning's Bones” by Hal Duncan(Originally published in Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy.)“Once upon a time, the land of Shuber and Hamazi,Many tongued Sumer, the great Land of princeship’s divine laws,Uri, the land having all that is appropriate,The land Martu, resting in security,The whole universe, the people …
…
continue reading
“The Seal of Sulaymaan” by Tracy Canfield(Originally published in Fantasy Magazine, July 2010.)Back when there were other ifriit to talk to, I’d tell them Morocco was as far as you can get from Mecca without leaving civilization. In Agadir, with its casinos and five-star hotels and nightclubs filled with Moroccan tourists sporting European fashions…
…
continue reading
“The Breeding Dust” by Dennis Mombauer(Originally published in Outliers of Speculative Fiction.)Silent, angular houses with white plaster, a sand-suffocated well and a couple of stunted palms huddled together on the low ground, a once bustling city that only the ghostly desert wind inhabited now.The sun gleamed down without mercy, hanging in the sk…
…
continue reading
“Where There's Magic” by Michelle Ann King(Originally published in Kaleidotrope, April 2016.)The witch had a favourite saying: where there's life, there's magic. There was a second part -- where there's magic, there's death -- but she usually kept that to herself.She placed the newborn into the father's arms. He gazed upon the babe with wonder, the…
…
continue reading
"“Princess Lily's Wedding” by Robert J. Santa(Originally published in Blood, Blade & Thruster.)"I love him, Daddy!"King Frederick breathed deeply. It had been a very long conversation with his youngest child, punctuated by much pouting and exasperated sighing and stomping of pretty feet. Frederick stood over her while she held her face in her hands…
…
continue reading
"“By Appointment to the Throne” by Alter S. Reiss(Originally published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies #155.)Getting up early enough to open a kitchen hurts. Leaving a warm bed before second watch makes your head ache, and you can feel the chill going from the cobbles through your feet and into your soul. When it's wet on top of the cold, it's the neare…
…
continue reading
"“Phoenix for the Amateur Chef” by Scott Huggins(Originally published in Sword and Sorceress 30.)The phoenix fell.Its sobbing death cry silenced by a coat of ravening flame, it corkscrewed to earth, bleeding dirty white fire across the dusk.What struck the cliff face above our heads was a ball of charred meat. We ducked the searing gobbet of flesh.…
…
continue reading
"“The Sickness” by Valjeanne Jeffers(Originally published in Griots: Sisters of the Spear.)The Bini warriors crouched in the high grass of the savanna. They'd passed the Fula borders a mile back, and now were a hundred yards from the Adobe mud city. At the forefront they were armed with sword and shield, behind them the archers readied their bows.G…
…
continue reading
"“The Centaur's Daughter” by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam(Originally published in A cappella Zoo.)As a little girl I never understood my father’s night self. It’s hard to be a kid whose father is two people. He changed every day with the sky. I cried at sunrise. I had trouble sleeping. Still do, and I’ve had seventeen years to process my father’s differen…
…
continue reading
"“Spirit Dance” by Douglas Smith(Originally published in Tesseracts 6, this work is the prequel story to Douglas's novel The Wolf at the End of the World.)In the beginning of things, men were as animals and animals as men. -- Cree legendVera made a warding sign as I entered the store, my hound Gelert trailing behind me. She pretended to wipe her ha…
…
continue reading
"“Bones of a Righteous Man” by Michael Ezell(Originally published in Fantasy for Good.)-- Has the life of a righteous man been taken?-- We find that it has, Excellency.-- And what shall become of the killer?-- He shall carry the bones of the righteous man until their weight does cause his death.The setting sun reflected in a million rose-hued spark…
…
continue reading
"Flash Fiction: “Never Leave Me” by Michelle Ann King(Originally published at Daily Science Fiction.)Katrine grew up with the stories, she knew them as well as her own name. First there was true love's kiss, then the fair maiden became the radiant bride, and she lived happily ever after.But the stories all stopped there, and Katrine hadn't realized…
…
continue reading
"Flash Fiction: “Mysterious Ways” by David Steffen(Originally published in Uncle John's Flush Fiction Anthology.)The afterlife was arbitrary, Sam Fichtner decided. There was no Heaven or Hell, only one place. He'd had plenty of time to ponder since he crossed over. The Hereafter was filled with endless rows of clear domes like the one he occupied, …
…
continue reading
1
FarFetchedFables No 159 L S Johnson
1:00:18
1:00:18
Riproduci in seguito
Riproduci in seguito
Liste
Like
Like aggiunto
1:00:18
"“Vendemiaire” by L.S. Johnson(Originally published in B is for Broken.)There was a time when Arianne could not see over the rows of her father’s grapevines. At the height of the summer the vineyard became a vast maze and she would follow her mother, watching her taste the grapes, her skirts swaying as she walked, a fine haze of dirt collecting on …
…
continue reading
"“Inundated” by Jonathan Laidlow(Originally published in Ecotones.)Yuri woke up to the sound of waves breaking at the end of the street, and knew that the undines had breached the final defences. Even his house, one of the furthest from the harbour, would be theirs once again, like the rest of the city.Jonathan Laidlow grew up in the North West of …
…
continue reading
“Another Beginning” by Michael McGlade(Originally published in Shimmer #29.)The Real BeginningÓgán loses Niamh to his best friend Malachy. Ógán and Niamh had been high school sweethearts, and the three of them had been inseparable -- the Three Blind Mice.Ógán stumbled onto this scene: the affair in full swing, the pair of them at it like otters in …
…
continue reading
"Main Story: “What the Blood Bog Takes” by Barbara A. Barnett Originally published in Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show #47.) On the Day of Sacrifice, my sister Asthore and I wait at the blood bog's edge, our feet sinking into the muddy shore. Asthore gawks with unbridled curiosity as the ceremonial procession emerges from the fog-…
…
continue reading
"“The Ministry of Sacred Affairs” by Claude Lalumière(Originally published in Here Be Monsters #7: Tongues and Teeth.)Lost in music, it takes some time for Leo to register that Rosa is calling his name, that her hand is trembling on his shoulder. He lays down his violin and clasps her wrinkled hands between his."Something terrible's happened next d…
…
continue reading
"Main Story: “Wallamelon” by Nisi Shawl(Originally published in Aeon #3.)The boys ran ahead of her as she walked, and circled back again like little dogs. Kevin urged her onto the path that cut across the vacant lot beside his house. Mercy was standing on a pile of rubble half the way through, her straight hair shining in the noonday sun like a lon…
…
continue reading
“The Sorcerer's Aprpentice” by Robert SilverbergOriginally published in Flights: Extreme Visions of Fantasy.)Gannin Thidrich was nearing the age of thirty and had come to Triggoin to study the art of sorcery, a profession for which he thought he had some aptitude, after failing at several for which he had none. He was a native of the Free City of S…
…
continue reading
"“The Adventurer's Wife” by Premee Mohamad(Originally published in She Walks In Shadows.)It was not till after the adventurer had been interred that we learned that the man had been married. My editor, Cheltenwick, did not even let the graveyard mud dry decently on his boots before he dispatched me to the widow’s house with instructions for a full …
…
continue reading
"“The Blind Queen's Daughter” by Scott Huggins(Originally published in Hides the Dark Tower.)The heavy mauls swung inward, the only thunder in the soft morning rain. The priests watched, trembling. The small man from Arabia stared hungrily at the widening hole.The bricks sealing the cell shivered, and Amren watched his father’s jaw tremble under th…
…
continue reading
1
FarFetchedFables No 150 Mattew Hughes
1:18:13
1:18:13
Riproduci in seguito
Riproduci in seguito
Liste
Like
Like aggiunto
1:18:13
"This Week: “The Inn of the Seven Blessings” by Matthew Hughes(Originally published in Rogues.)The thief Raffalon was sleeping away the noon-day heat behind some bracken a short distance from the forest road when the noise of the struggle awakened him. He rolled over onto his stomach, quietly drawing his knife in case of need. Then he lay still and…
…
continue reading
“The Temple of Thirteen Pleasures” by Laurence Raphael Brothers(Originally published in The Sockdolager #3.)"I'm sorry to summon you like this, Countess" said Marcus apologetically. We were sitting together on a divan in his townhouse drawing room. Lord Cyprian's heir was dressed in a deep crimson suit so dark it was almost black, with a ruffled wh…
…
continue reading
"This Week: “Caveat Emptor/Caveat Venditor” by Ed Ahern(Originally published in Silver Pen.)As warlocks go, Harald was a failure. Even though his curses were vigorously evil, and his pitches quite logical, he almost always lost the business. Harald partly blamed his sex. Most internet advertising for spells and curses came from witches. Those seeki…
…
continue reading
"This Week: “Dependent Assemblies” by Philip A. Suggars(Originally published in Interzone #262.)“Purity of blood, purity of spirit. One nation united by the river, one nation united under the sun” – Elias Rojas presidential campaign slogan, Buenos Aires 1894.Alfonso and Marcelo were cold and tired as they shovelled the dirt onto Celia’s small body …
…
continue reading
“Sea of Strangers” by Michael M. Jones(Originally published in Inscription.)There was a weird vibe in the halls before first period today. As I made my way towards homeroom, weaving between people with experienced ease, I picked up a thousand different emotions-- everything you’d expect from a building packed to the gills with hormone-ridden teenag…
…
continue reading
"“Languid in Rose” by Frances Silversmith(Originally published in Fantasy for Good.)Lilia I, Queen of Roses, reluctantly opened her eyes to yet another perfect day, courtesy of the Enchantment. The briar rose outside her windows threw moving shadows on the salmon-colored material curtains of her four-poster bed. What a disgustingly lovely sight.Lil…
…
continue reading
"First Story: “The Girl in the Windmill” by Wendy Nikel(Originally published in Enchanted Spark. Based on the Italian fairy tale "In Love with a Statue")Maartje van Dijk lived in a windmill.At the age of ten, her vater and moeder perished at sea, and she was sent to live with her Opa on the coast. Despite her grief, she grew to love him and he taug…
…
continue reading
sh Fiction: “Connection” by Lynette Meija(Originally published at Daily Science Fiction.)The magician wobbled a little on his bar stool."Ask me what I did for a living," he said. Somewhere deep inside of him a small voice was shouting to shut up, that he sounded like a fool, but he ignored it. His plane was likely delayed until morning, anyhow."I a…
…
continue reading
Flash Fiction: “Descanso Dream” by Jay Lake & Ruth Nestvold("Tales of the Rose Knights" #12, originally published at Daily Science Fiction.)Descanso is the smallest of the Rose Knights, and perhaps the strangest. He is a dream made flesh, a pale man with skin the white of the ocean's dead, riding a horse of fog and silk. His banners trail behind hi…
…
continue reading
"First Story: “The Bed of the Crimson King” by Filip Wiltgren(Originally published in Grimdark #9.)The king lies in his big bed under the crimson covers, and dreams of freedom. The bed is not his, not the way the grasses of the savanna were, but he must sleep in it. It is the king's bed, and he is the Crimson King, and he has no choice.He had no ch…
…
continue reading
"Flash Fiction: “The Robbed” by Tim W. Boiteau(Originally published at Every Day Fiction.)You can’t find your keys this morning, so your wife drives you to work.At dinner, it seems, the salt is lacking, but when you attempt to add some more, the shaker is bare.The only consolation at the end of such a troubling day, of course, is Aurelius, but he t…
…
continue reading
"Flash Fiction: “Hope for Enthos” by Addison Smith(Originally published in Fireside magazine.)The muted horns of passing cars drifted up to Enthos, where he sat on his ledge, peering over the street. The familiar lights and sounds were both comforting and maddening. The scent of flowers washed over him, the blossoms continuing their cycle of bloomi…
…
continue reading
