Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, an online fiction magazine, is doing a promotion this month where they’re making one story from each of their first four issues available as a free sample. Readers of this blog may be interested to note that the first free story, “Trill and the Beanstalk,” features a character named Colonel Kirtley, and as you’d expect he’s basically a giant dick, e.g.:
“Let me put this in terms that your tiny mind can grasp,” Kirtley said. “You can either put that thing out of commission and come home a hero, or you can die trying. Frankly I don’t care which. But if you come back here and their elevator is still functioning, I’m going to drop a bomb on their station — and it’s going to be duct-taped to your ass. The Chinese government will not claim Mars. Do I make myself clear?”
The site looks like this:
Here’s a letter from the editor giving the lowdown:
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To Readers of Science Fiction and Fantasy everywhere,
When you have something great, you want everyone to know. So you tell people about it. You share it. You pass it along to friends everywhere. Well, that’s what we’re doing with InterGalactic Medicine Show. We want to make sure everyone has had a chance to check out what we’re doing, so we’re offering up a sampling of our stories – for free.
During the month of February we are going to make one story from each of our first four issues available at no charge. Two stories will be set free on February 1st, and two more on February 15th. Just visit www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com and explore the table of contents; the free stories will be clearly marked.
Issue one’s free story will be “Trill and The Beanstalk” by Edmund R. Schubert, issue two’s will be “Yazoo Queen” by Orson Scott Card (from his Alvin Maker series), issue three’s “Xoco’s Fire” by Oliver Dale, and issue four’s “Tabloid Reporter To The Stars” by Eric James Stone. Each story is fully illustrated by artists who were commissioned to create artwork to accompany that tale — as is every story published in IGMS.
“Tabloid Reporter To The Stars” will also be featured in the upcoming InterGalactic Medicine Show anthology from Tor, which will be out this August (we wanted you to get a sneak peek of the anthology, too). However, the other three stories aren’t available anywhere except the online version of IGMS.
It’s really quite simple. Great stories. Custom illustrations. Free. We’re pleased with and proud of the magazine we’re publishing; now we’re passing it along to our friends and telling them about it. We hope you’ll enjoy it and do the same.
Edmund R. Schubert
Editor, Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show
www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com
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