The fourth volume of the annual Unidentified Funny Objects series features the theme of dark humor. What happens when you ask some of the genre's masters to interpret this theme? The enclosed twenty-three darkly humorous tales range from black comedy to biting satire to morbid irony and everything in between. Inside this book you'll find Faustian bargains gone awry, time-traveling ghosts, flawed supervillains, talking hamsters, and much more. Featuring stories by: George R. R. Martin Neil Gaiman Andrew Kaye Caroline M. Yoachim Esther Friesner Brent C. Smith Laura Pearlman Tim Pratt Piers Anthony Ian Creasey Oliver Buckram Anaea Lay Karen Haber Eric Kaplan Jody Lynn Nye Tina Gower Zach Shephard Mike Resnick James Aquilone Michael J. Martinez Tina Connolly Gini Koch Jonathan Ems
SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY, HUMOR The Unidentified Funny Objects series delivers an annual dose of funny, zany, and unusual science fiction and fantasy stories. All-new fiction from the genre's top voices! * A long time ago in a galaxy close enough not to violate any copyrights, the clone army fighting for the side of the evil empire is made up of a bunch of bros named Chad. * Can a couple of wise guys from New Jersey broker a sit down between two groups of warring aliens? * Witness an epic battle of mad science vs. dark magic. * US presidents elected in 1860 and 1960 were both assassinated. What's going to happen to whoever's elected in 2060? * Beware the dragon polite enough to return your drone after it breached the barriers between worlds and bonked him on the snout.
SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY, HUMOR * Aztec Astronauts * Punster Prophets * Apocalyptic Apps * Cantankerous Cryptids * and the Duck Knight Fifth annual volume of the Unidentified Funny Objects anthology series features eighteen lighthearted science fiction and fantasy tales from the masters of the genre. Read about planetary adoptions, secret agent princesses, alien cooking reality shows, rigged elections, magical insurance agents, and much more.
Comic and satirical, but also full of painful truths about being both a bright, sensitive middle schooler, and a so-called "model-minority" in a decidedly NOT-diverse town The next person who compares Chloe Cho with famous violinist Abigail Yang is going to HEAR it. Chloe has just about had it with people not knowing the difference between someone who's Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. She's had it with people thinking that everything she does well -- getting good grades, winning first chair in the orchestra, et CETera -- are because she's ASIAN.Of course, her own parents don't want to have anything to DO with their Korean background. Any time Chloe asks them a question they change the subject. They seem perfectly happy to be the only Asian family in town. It's only when Chloe's with her best friend, Shelly, that she doesn't feel like a total alien. Then a new teacher comes to town: Ms. Lee. She's Korean American, and for the first time Chloe has a person to talk to who seems to understand completely. For Ms. Lee's class, Chloe finally gets to explore her family history. But what she unearths is light-years away from what she expected.
Seventeen of the funniest science fiction stories published in the past decade (2005-2015), featuring alien invasions, global conspiracies, time travel and even animal uprisings. Fiction by Hugo and Nebula award winners and nominees as well as talented newcomers. Stories were selected by the Unidentified Funny Objects series curator Alex Shvartsman.
SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY, HUMOR * Cranky Goblin Cooks * Unscrupulous Chemists * Lecherous Space Pirates * Disagreeable Alien Symbiotes * Soul-Searching Snot Elementals The Unidentified Funny Objects series serves an annual dose of funny. zany, and unusual science fiction and fantasy stories. All-new fiction from the genre's top voices! Our sixth volume features a Mad Amos story by Alan Dean Foster, a Harry the Book tale by Mike Resnick, and an Alexander Outland short by Gini Koch. Jim Hines reimagines a Game of Thrones with goblins in it, Ken Liu begs a sentient AI to spare him, and Esther Friesner takes us on a tour of Chelm, complete with dragons and gratuitous footnotes. There are also tales of an interdimensional secret agent, a warrior-writer on a quest from an evil god, a necromancer intent on rehabilitating the image of his profession, and many more. TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword by Alex Shvartsman “A Game of Goblins” by Jim C. Hines “The Breakdown of Parasite/Host Relationship” by Paul R. Hardy “From This She Makes a Living?” by Esther Friesner “Twenty-Nine Responses to Inquiries About My Craigslist Post: Alien Spaceship for Sale $200, You Haul” by Tina Connolly “Tyler the Snot Elemental Scours the Newspaper, Searching for Change” by Zach Shephard “Agent of Chaos” by Jack Campbell “Display of Affection” by P. J. Sambeaux “The Great Manhattan Eat-Off” by Mike Resnick “An Evil Opportunity Employer” by Lawrence Watt-Evans “Common Scents” by Jody Lynn Nye “A Mountain Man and a Cat Walk into a Bar” by Alan Dean Foster “Lost and Found” by Laura Resnick “A Crawlspace Full of Prizes” by Bill Ferris “Return to Sender” by Melissa Mead “The Friendly Necromancer” by Rod M. Santos “An Open Letter to the Sentient AI Who Has Announced Its Intention to Take Over the Earth” by Ken Liu “Approved Expense” by David Vierling “Alexander Outland: Space Jockey” by Gini Koch “Dear Joyce” by Langley Hyde “Impress Me, Then We’ll Talk About the Money” by Tatiana Ivanova (translated from Russian by Alex Shvartsman)
29 hilarious science fiction & fantasy stories from some of today's best speculative writers. Inside you'll find: - A zombear - Tweeting aliens - Down-on-their-luck vampires - Time-twisting belly dancers - Moon Nazis - Stoned computers - Omnivorous sex-maniac pandas - and a spell-casting Albert Einstein
SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY, HUMOR The Unidentified Funny Objects series delivers an annual dose of funny, zany, and unusual science fiction and fantasy stories. All-new fiction from the genre's top voices! * Superheroes mired in government bureaucracy. * Cat cat-burglars. * Grandmotherly golems. * Literal-minded self-driving cars. * Evil overlords retired in Florida. * Indifferent aliens.
UFO2 is the second annual collection of humorous science fiction and fantasy short stories. Inside you'll find: - A golem on an interstellar cruise ship - Dragon-taunting for fun and profit - Time travel gone really wrong - Cubicle farm wizardry - Alien behemoths in Central Park
SCIENCE FICTION. FANTASY. HUMOR. This is the third annual volume of Unidentified Funny Objects and it contains twenty-three humorous short stories from some of the genre's best-known authors, as well as talented up-and-comers. These are some of the unlikely characters you will encounter in the pages of this book: * Hobo Satan * Vampire novelist * Traveling robot salesman * Brain-in-a-jar superhero * Jinn trapped in a mattress
