Category: Last Words

Words Found Scratched inside a Drawer of the Second Mate’s Desk Aboard the Generation Ship Ausir (Last Words Series)

Posted on by Stewart

It’s Monday again! So here’s another entry in the Last Words series.

I’m still in a science fictional mood, so back to space we go! But not quite as far into space as with last week’s “Reported Final Words of God-Empress Min-Jo.” This week, we’ll turn away from space opera for another trope: that of the generation ship.

Words Found Scratched inside a Drawer of the Second Mate’s Desk Aboard the Generation Ship Ausir upon its Discovery, Bereft of Crew and Citizens, Seventy Years after its Vanishing

by Stewart C Baker

Don’t trust the captain’s——

Aren’t generation ships fun?

Oh. Wait. *reads the story he just wrote*

Aren’t generation ships dangerous?

This is actually my second foray into writing about them, the first being a full-length story that was one of my earliest published at something like pro rates. If you have a bit longer to spare, you can listen to that one, “Behind the First Years,” for free at StarShipSofa. (And apparently you can’t read it for free anywhere any more, because COSMOS has taken all their old fiction down. Huh. Will have to submit it somewhere. You can buy a shiny hardcover anthology which features it though, if you like.)

Reported Final Words of God-Empress Min-Jo (Last Words Series)

Posted on by Stewart

There are many genres of Science Fiction, and I enjoy pretty much all of them.

But perhaps my favourite is space opera. I love the breadth of the stories, the vast sweep of space, the clashes and conflicts of different factions of humanity (and/or aliens). And of course the larger-than-life heroes and villains with their dramatic plots, counter-plots, betrayals, and high-stakes winner-takes-all victories (or losses).

All of which is a roundabout way of saying that this week’s ‘Last Words’ story is space opera.

Reported Final Words of Immortal God-Empress Minre Jo, Conqueror of Half the Known Universe and Destroyer of the Rest, upon Being Asked by Her Assassin if She Repented any of Her Crimes.

by Stewart C Baker

Only forging you, my love . . .

Unlike last week’s piece about Baron Munchhausen, the influences in this one are much more modern.

Asimov’s Foundation series is probably the first space opera I remember reading, long before I knew the term. My mother had copies of them on our bookshelf, which I think I have now. And in high school, I read Iain M. Banks’ Culture novels (of which, Player of Games is my favourite). Dan Simmons’ Hyperion Cantos followed five or six years later. (I’m sure there were more in between, but I have a poor memory for titles.)

Most recently, though, and serving as more-or-less direct inspiration for this little story, I’ve devoured Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch trilogy, about a rogue ship-based A.I.

And most recently of all, A. Merc Rustad‘s utterly fantastic “Tomorrow When We See the Sun”, which you can read in Lightspeed for free. And should read. Right now. If you haven’t already. And even if you have, to be honest.

I think there might be the tiniest amount of Steven Brust’s Phoenix Guards in there, as well, even though that’s fantasy.

(Point of interest: This story was actually the first of these five-word stories I wrote, after an off-hand comment to the editors of Liminal Stories that I was going to send them a one-word story because they didn’t have a minimum wordcount.)

First in a Series of Free Weekly Micro-fiction Pieces – The Last Words of Baron Münchhausen

Posted on by Stewart

It’s a new year! If you use that whole Gregorian Calendar thing. Plus there’s a whole extra Monday at the end of next month.

This calls for something special, so I’ve decided that I’m going to run a series of micro-fiction pieces every Monday this year (except the first one, because I was too busy being indecisive).

All these little storylets will adhere to the following rules:

  • They will be no more than 5 words long
  • Their titles will be no more than 37 words long (this one explain the first rule)
  • Each will present the “last words” of a person or other being (or thing)

This is something I’m doing for fun, although I’d certainly prefer if other people find them amusing as well. Because they’re very, very short, I’ll likely also include a little bit of chatter about each week’s story or related notes of interest.

So to start us off, here’s one inspired by my love of tall tales, lies, and (more directly) by Alliteration Ink’s call for stories for their “No Shit” anthology, which ended a few days back and to which Matt Dovey and I submitted a co-written story.

I was (no shit) going to submit this there, but (alas!) they had a minimum wordcount of 2000 words.

The Last Words of Baron Münchhausen

by Stewart C Baker

No shit, there I was…

Baron Münchhausen, for those not familiar, was a fictitious German nobleman based on a real one (of a different name) who had a penchant for telling egregiously ridiculous stories about his travels to Russia, the bottom of the ocean, and the moon (among other places). He’s made a brief appearance at the very end of one of my other stories, Selections from the Aarne-Thompson Index for After the End of Things, which you can also read for free online, courtesy of the wonderful folks at The Sockdolager. (This story may or may not present the same Münchhausen.)

In other news, I’ll have a guest post up this Wednesday, by the inimitable Daniel M. Bensen. So if you want to learn how dinosaurs can fix your need for speed, be sure to keep an eye out for that.