Unfit Magazine: Vol. 2

By Daniel Scott White

This magazine includes stories by Ken Liu, Cat Rambo, Yoon Ha Lee, M. Yzmore, David R. Grigg, Michael Merriam, J.B. Toner, Tim Major and Eric Del Carlo. Edited by Daniel Scott White.

In Vol. 2, we take a closer look at the realms of cyberpunk and steampunk with a collection of stories that are both imaginative and convincing.

• Ken Liu expertly stretches time and dimensions in "Altogether Elsewhere, Vast Herds of Reindeer" to such a skilled degree you can hardly doubt the world he describes.
• In Cat Rambo's post-apocalyptic story "An Algorithm For Fools" we look at the relationship between cats and survivors who struggle to make sense of a world on the edge of extinction.
• David R. Grigg brings us "The Great Circus Robbery" which takes place in a world where the internal combustion engine outpaces the steam engine.
• With "Toys, Going Home" by Eric Del Carlo we follow the adventures of robot toys struggling to find their place in a world full of dangers.
• "Last Call on Lindisfarne" by J.B. Toner, is sure to make you smile when pirates go up against an order of priests concocting a special brew in space.
• In "Fast Gliding Down the Rails" Michael Merriam gives us a dark vision of a train ride from which riders can only escape by jumping into the abyss.
• "Like Clockwork" by Tim Mayor tells the story of a clock set to tick for eternity and a train that never stops running.
• M. Yzmore brings us an alternate timeline in "Troo Raccoon" which is about a world where another species, not humans, have evolved to dominate the landscape.
• If AI can someday control robots, why not whole ships set in the depths of space? "Interlingua" by Yoon Ha Lee is a masterful piece in which communication between ships and species is on the brink of being twisted and lost.

Here's to another great edition of Unfit Magazine!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Daniel Scott White
• Release date: Nov 25, 2018
• ISBN: 9780998124384

Daniel Scott White

Member of a band of Stray Tablets. Winner of more than fifty film festivals. I was born in the mountains but now live by the sea.

Book preview

UNFIT MAGAZINE

VOL. 2

EDITED BY

DANIEL SCOTT WHITE

LONGSHOT PRESS

Copyright

Published by Longshot Press

ISBN-13: 978-0-9981243-8-4

Unfit Magazine Vol. 2 © 2018

by Daniel Scott White

No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, without the written permission of the publisher. All rights reserved.

Smashwords Ebook Edition

Unfit Magazine is an imprint

of Longshot Press.

unfitmag.com

longshotpress.com

Compass

Overture

Altogether Elsewhere, Vast Herds of Reindeer

by Ken Liu

An Algorithm For Fools

by Cat Rambo

Toys, Going Home

by Eric Del Carlo

Fast Gliding Down the Rails

by Michael Merriam

Last Call on Lindisfarne

by J.B. Toner

The Great Circus Robbery

by David R. Grigg

Like Clockwork

by Tim Major

Troo Raccoon

by M. Yzmore

Interlingua

by Yoon Ha Lee

Your Turn

About the Editor

More from Longshot Press

Acknowledgments

All stories used by permission of the authors.

Thanks to Geoffrey Datema and Steve Coleman for their contributions to the cover artwork.

Overture

With so much publishing work on my plate, I often ask myself: What makes great writing? I'll attempt to answer this question through using a variety of sources I've come across over the years.

Perhaps my favorite answer comes from Milton Crane:

1. The sudden unforgettable revelation of character.

2. The vision of the world through another's eyes.

3. The glimpse of truth.

4. The capture of a moment in time.

Another answer comes from David Farland:

1. Is the concept fresh and original?

2. Is the form of the story developed well? In other words, are the characters believable and interesting? Is their world well-realized?

3. Is the story told beautifully? Does the author write concisely, with power, and use the language well?

There are many other lists out there. You'll find blog after blog with suggestions of what makes great writing.

We often hear that for a story to be good, it must appear as if it were real. Let’s take a closer look at that.

Here is something Ernest Hemingway once said: All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know. Hemingway was a fiction writer well-known for making the unreal seem real. But let’s be honest. When compared to someone like China Miéville, Hemingway was also a highly unimaginative writer.

In contrast to that, Poul Anderson once said: I think the first duty of all art, including fiction of any kind, is to entertain. That is to say, to hold interest. No matter how worthy the message of something, if it's dull, you're just not communicating.

Consider the possibilities of alternative timelines—such as those found in steampunk and cyberpunk—as a storytelling device. Can these timelines be made to seem as real as our own? And, isn’t that the bigger challenge, as opposed to writing fiction set within our own everyday world?

Now compare those opinions about great writing to a condensed quote from Harry Harrison:

"It was the overall attitude. The absolute taking for granted that SF had built-in limitations, could never compete with the Joyces and the Faulkners. Which is nonsense. Literature is literature, prose is prose.

The breakthrough I had was that all of the restrictions on SF were inside my head. If I thought that SF was a second-rate field of literary endeavour then everything that I wrote would be second-rate. Thought control is self-imposed. Realise that you are free to create in any way you want and you are free.

In Vol. 2 of Unfit, we take a closer look at the realms of cyberpunk and steampunk with a collection of stories which are both imaginative and convincing.

• Ken Liu expertly stretches time and dimensions in Altogether Elsewhere, Vast Herds of Reindeer to such a skilled degree you can hardly doubt the world he describes.

• In Cat Rambo’s post-apocalyptic story An Algorithm For Fools we look at the relationship between cats and survivors who struggle to make sense of a world on the edge of extinction.

• With Toys, Going Home by Eric Del Carlo we follow the adventures of robot toys struggling to find their place in a world full of dangers.

• In Fast Gliding Down the Rails Michael Merriam gives us a dark vision of a train ride from which riders can only escape by jumping into the abyss.

• Last Call on Lindisfarne by J.B. Toner, is sure to make you smile when pirates go up against an order of priests concocting a special brew in space.

• David R. Grigg brings us The Great Circus Robbery which takes place in a world where the internal combustion engine outpaces the steam engine.

• Like Clockwork by Tim Major tells the story of a clock set to tick for eternity and a train that never stops running.

• M. Yzmore brings us an alternate timeline in Troo Raccoon which is about a world where another species, not humans, have evolved to dominate the landscape.

• If AI can someday control robots, why not whole ships set in the depths of space? Interlingua by Yoon Ha Lee is a masterful piece in which communication between ships and species is on the brink of being twisted and lost.

I hope you enjoy these stories as much as I have. Here’s to another great edition of Unfit Magazine!

Daniel Scott White

Nov. 2018

Altogether Elsewhere, Vast Herds of Reindeer

Ken Liu

My name is Renée Tae-O Fayette. I’m in the sixth grade.

There is no school today. But that’s not what makes it special. I’m nervous and I can’t tell you why yet. I don’t want to jinx it.

My friend Sarah and I are working on our school project together in my bedroom.

I’m not old enough to create my own world, but I’m very happy with the world my parents have given me. My bedroom is a Klein bottle so I don’t ever feel like I’m boxed in. A warm yellow light suffuses the room and fades gradually into darkness at infinite distance. It’s old fashioned, like something from years ago, when designs still tried to hint at the old physical world. Yet the smooth, endless surface makes me feel secure, something to hang onto, being enclosed and outside at the same time. It is better than Sarah’s room in her home, which is a Weierstrass curve: continuous everywhere, but nowhere differentiable. Jagged fractals no matter how closely you look. It’s certainly very modern, but I don’t ever feel comfortable when I visit. So she comes over to our place a lot more often.

Everything good? Need anything? Dad asks.

He comes in and settles against the surface of my bedroom. The projection of his 20-dimensional figure into this 4-space begins as a dot that gradually grows into an outline that pulses slowly, bright, golden, though a little hazy. He’s distracted, but I don’t mind. Dad is an interior designer, and the services of the firm of Hugo Fayette and Z. E. Pei are in so much demand that he’s busy all the time, helping people build their dream worlds. But just because he has little time to spend with me doesn’t mean he’s not a good parent. For example, he’s so used to working in much higher dimensions that he finds four dimensions very boring. But he still designed my bedroom as a Klein bottle because experts agree that it is best for children to grow up in a four-dimensional environment.

We are all set, Sarah and I think together. Dad nods, and I get the feeling that he would like to think with me about the reason for our anxiety. But Sarah is there, and he feels he can’t bring it up. After a moment, he whisks away.

The project we are working on is about genetics and inheritance. Yesterday at school, Dr. Bai showed us how to decompose our consciousnesses into their constituent algorithms, each further broken down into routines and subroutines, until we got to individual instructions, the fundamental code. Then he explained to us how each of our parents gave us some of these algorithms, recombined and shuffled the routines during the process of our births, until we were whole persons, infant consciousnesses new to the universe.

Gross, Sarah thought.

It’s kind of cool, I thought back. It was neat to think that my