Comments on: "So happens this dog achieved the rank of colonel in the United States Army."

"So happens this dog achieved the rank of colonel in the United States Army."

grobstein — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:12:25 -0800

They were in the stairwell that led down to the commode, a dangerous place in its time, the Grand Central Station Men's, but for different reasons. I saw the dirt tracks leading there, and I left the monkeys in the chandelier and followed them. I kept to the tracks careful as I could. There were pits and corrugations everywhere in the old tile, any one of which could hide a man killing gob of explosive. At my back I heard Spot complain: "Leave 'em be, Blacks. We've warned 'em, ain't we? If they blow themselves up, it ain't on us."

UXO, BOMB DOG by Eliot Fintushel (single-link short fiction)

By: Fraxas

Fraxas — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:47:23 -0800

Decent story marred by overuse of neologism. Next time, let's write a morality play that people can understand without a slang-dictionary nobody's written, OK Eliot?

By: From Bklyn

From Bklyn — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:55:50 -0800

I'll come back to this: interesting site, not the bomb, necessarily, but thanks. see what I did there? Didja see it? Didja? Didja?

By: Joe Beese

Joe Beese — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:08:10 -0800

I urge dog lovers to pay attention to the "BOMB DOG" in the title and calculate the risks of the story going to a place they'd rather not go.

By: Krrrlson

Krrrlson — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:11:21 -0800

I urge dog lovers to pay attention to the "BOMB DOG" in the title and calculate the risks of the story going to a place they'd rather not go. Nah, it's safe.

By: grobstein

grobstein — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:11:25 -0800

Don't listen to him!

By: potsmokinghippieoverlord

potsmokinghippieoverlord — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:16:04 -0800

Is this like "Marley & Me," except with explosives?

By: grobstein

grobstein — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:20:53 -0800

See also CHIPS, WAR DOG, who single-handedly captured a machine-gun nest in Italy in WWII.

By: RakDaddy

RakDaddy — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:27:57 -0800

Seeing how every other site and print rag seems to be folding, I think it's a small miracle that Paul Graham Raven & Co. can publish new fiction every month. Also, (blatant self-promotion ahoy) Futurismic gave me my first SF sale last year. That was cool.

By: lalochezia

lalochezia — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:06:54 -0800

Urgent News abut Bomb Dogs from the Day Today

By: Amanojaku

Amanojaku — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:45:37 -0800

Seeing how every other site and print rag seems to be folding, I think it's a small miracle that Paul Graham Raven & Co. can publish new fiction every month. Are they? The short SF mags are still chugging along, and there's no shortage of fiction websites on the sidebar. They also only publish one piece of fiction a month; the print mags do about twelve times that. But hey: free is free, lasting since 2001 is more than a lot of those sites have managed, and they have stories by Marisa Lingen and David Walton and yourself, Mysterious Up and Coming Science Fiction Writer.

By: RakDaddy

RakDaddy — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:58:36 -0800

Apex is on hiatus. Talebones is turning into an annual anthology next year. Lone Star Stories is closing up shop. F&SF went bi-monthly after its March edition, and the Big Three's circulation has been on a downward spiral forever. There are signs of hope, but there needs to be a big leap in publication to keep things rolling and healthy. Also, if you click on my username, you'll find my real name, which you could plunk into Futurismic's search bar. Self-linking just seemed a bit gauche.

By: Amanojaku

Amanojaku — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:47:42 -0800

Well, people have been forecasting doom n' gloom for the print mags for ... well, forever, like you said, so I'm not too worried about that, at least. And I'm so used to nobody listing any info in profiles that I didn't even think to do that. Thanks; I'm off to go enjoy your story.

By: grobstein

grobstein — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:24:08 -0800

I dropped into a bookstore not too long ago, and happened to pick up Analog and Asimov's and F&SF. They were all there, but they were all really disappointing. I read and enjoy a few new SF novels a year, but it seems like the old prestige mags are 90+% crap. =(

By: Amanojaku

Amanojaku — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 23:49:39 -0800

Well, it's short fiction: the hit-or-miss element is kind of the nature of the beast. I find that typically, even if I thought those same issues were 90% crap, too -- and quality or personal preference between individual issues is another factor -- I doubt it would be the same 90% you didn't like, which seems kind of interesting. Anyway, they must be doing something right: Asimov's usually dominates the awards, Analog has the highest readership, and F&SF ... well, I just like F&SF, personally. I mean, they've run most of Gene Wolf's short stuff, so even if I don't like every story in every issue, it works out in the end.

By: Amanojaku

Amanojaku — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 23:51:25 -0800

In fact, I just realized we're having this discussion in a thread for an Eliot Fintushel story, who's published in Asimov's quite a bit.