Margins
2012
First Published
3.39
Average Rating
432
Number of Pages

Audie Award Finalist, Original Work, 2014 In Rip-Off!, 13 of today’s best and most honored writers of speculative fiction face a challenge even they would be hard-pressed to Pick your favorite opening line from a classic piece of fiction (or even non-fiction) - then use it as the first sentence of an entirely original short story. In the world of Rip-Off!, "Call me Ishmael" introduces a tough-as-nails private eye - who carries a harpoon; The Wonderful Wizard of Oz inspires the tale of an aging female astronaut who’s being treated by a doctor named Dorothy Gale; and Huckleberry Finn leads to a wild ride with a foul-mouthed riverboat captain who plies the waters of Hell. Once you listen to Rip-Off! you’ll If Shakespeare or Dickens were alive today, they’d be ripping off the authors in this great collection. The stories included in Rip-Off! "Fireborn" by Robert Charles Wilson "The Evening Line" by Mike Resnick "No Decent Patrimony" by Elizabeth Bear "The Big Whale" by Allen M. Steele "Begone" by Daryl Gregory "The Red Menace" by Lavie Tidhar "Muse of Fire" by John Scalzi "Writer’s Block" by Nancy Kress "Highland Reel" by Jack Campbell "Karin Coxswain or Death as She Is Truly Lived" by Paul Di Filippo "The Lady Astronaut of Mars" by Mary Robinette Kowal "Every Fuzzy Beast of the Earth, Every Pink Fowl of the Air" by Tad Williams "Declaration" by James Patrick Kelly As a bonus, the authors introduce their stories, explaining what they ripped-off - and why. Rip-Off! was produced in partnership with SFWA - Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America. Gardner Dozois served as project editor. The full list of narrators Wil Wheaton, Scott Brick, Christian Rummel, Jonathan Davis, Khristine Hvam, L.J. Ganser, Stefan Rudnicki, David Marantz, Nicola Barber, Dina Pearlman, Allyson Johnson, Marc Vietor, and Ilyana Kadushin. For more books from the authors of Rip-Off! click here. ©2012 Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Avg Rating
3.39
Number of Ratings
901
5 STARS
11%
4 STARS
35%
3 STARS
41%
2 STARS
10%
1 STARS
4%
goodreads

Authors

Daryl Gregory
Daryl Gregory
Author · 17 books

Award-winning author of Revelator, The Album of Dr. Moreau, Spoonbenders, We Are All Completely Fine, and others. Some of his short fiction has been collected in Unpossible and Other Stories. He's won the World Fantasy Award, as well as the Shirley Jackson, Crawford, Asimov Readers, and Geffen awards, and his work has been short-listed for many other awards, including the Hugo, Nebula, and Sturgeon awards . His books have been translated in over a dozen languages, and have been named to best-of-the-year lists from NPR Books, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and Library Journal. He is also the writer of Flatline an interactive fiction game from 3 Minute Games, and comics such as Planet of the Apes. He's a frequent teacher of writing and is a regular instructor at the Viable Paradise Writing Workshop.

Lavie Tidhar
Lavie Tidhar
Author · 49 books

Lavie Tidhar was raised on a kibbutz in Israel. He has travelled extensively since he was a teenager, living in South Africa, the UK, Laos, and the small island nation of Vanuatu. Tidhar began publishing with a poetry collection in Hebrew in 1998, but soon moved to fiction, becoming a prolific author of short stories early in the 21st century. Temporal Spiders, Spatial Webs won the 2003 Clarke-Bradbury competition, sponsored by the European Space Agency, while The Night Train (2010) was a Sturgeon Award finalist. Linked story collection HebrewPunk (2007) contains stories of Jewish pulp fantasy. He co-wrote dark fantasy novel The Tel Aviv Dossier (2009) with Nir Yaniv. The Bookman Histories series, combining literary and historical characters with steampunk elements, includes The Bookman (2010), Camera Obscura (2011), and The Great Game (2012). Standalone novel Osama (2011) combines pulp adventure with a sophisticated look at the impact of terrorism. It won the 2012 World Fantasy Award, and was a finalist for the Campbell Memorial Award, British Science Fiction Award, and a Kitschie. His latest novels are Martian Sands and The Violent Century. Much of Tidhar’s best work is done at novella length, including An Occupation of Angels (2005), Cloud Permutations (2010), British Fantasy Award winner Gorel and the Pot-Bellied God (2011), and Jesus & the Eightfold Path (2011). Tidhar advocates bringing international SF to a wider audience, and has edited The Apex Book of World SF (2009) and The Apex Book of World SF 2 (2012). He is also editor-in-chief of the World SF Blog, and in 2011 was a finalist for a World Fantasy Award for his work there. He also edited A Dick and Jane Primer for Adults (2008); wrote Michael Marshall Smith: The Annotated Bibliography (2004); wrote weird picture book Going to The Moon (2012, with artist Paul McCaffery); and scripted one-shot comic Adolf Hitler’s I Dream of Ants! (2012, with artist Neil Struthers). Tidhar lives with his wife in London.

Allen M. Steele
Allen M. Steele
Author · 36 books

Before becoming a science fiction writer, Allen Steele was a journalist for newspapers and magazines in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Missouri, and his home state of Tennessee. But science fiction was his first love, so he eventually ditched journalism and began producing that which had made him decide to become a writer in the first place. Since then, Steele has published eighteen novels and nearly one hundred short stories. His work has received numerous accolades, including three Hugo Awards, and has been translated worldwide, mainly into languages he can’t read. He serves on the board of advisors for the Space Frontier Foundation and is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He also belongs to Sigma, a group of science fiction writers who frequently serve as unpaid consultants on matters regarding technology and security. Allen Steele is a lifelong space buff, and this interest has not only influenced his writing, it has taken him to some interesting places. He has witnessed numerous space shuttle launches from Kennedy Space Center and has flown NASA’s shuttle cockpit simulator at the Johnson Space Center. In 2001, he testified before the US House of Representatives in hearings regarding the future of space exploration. He would like very much to go into orbit, and hopes that one day he’ll be able to afford to do so. Steele lives in western Massachusetts with his wife, Linda, and a continual procession of adopted dogs. He collects vintage science fiction books and magazines, spacecraft model kits, and dreams.

Elizabeth Bear
Elizabeth Bear
Author · 59 books
What Goodreads really needs is a "currently WRITING" option for its default bookshelves...
Jack Campbell
Jack Campbell
Author · 43 books

Jack Campbell is a pseudonym for American science fiction author John G. Hemry. Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information. John G. Hemry is an American author of military science fiction novels. Drawing on his experience as a retired United States Navy officer, he has written the Stark's War and Paul Sinclair series. Under the name Jack Campbell, he has written four volumes of the Lost Fleet series, and on his website names two more forthcoming volumes. He has also written over a dozen short stories, many published in Analog magazine, and a number of non-fiction works. John G Hemry is a retired United States Navy officer. His father, Jack M. Hemry, also served in the navy and as John points out was a mustang. John grew up living in several places including Pensacola, San Diego, and Midway Island. John graduated from Lyons High School in Lyons in 1974 then attended the US Naval Academy (Class of '78) where he was labeled 'the un-midshipman' by his roommates. He lives in Maryland with his wife and three kids. His two eldest children are diagnosed as autistic and suffer from Neuro immune dysfunction syndrome (NIDS), an auto-immune ailment which causes their illness, but are progressing under treatment. John is a member of the SFWA Musketeers whose motto reads: 'The Pen is Mightier Than the Sword, but the Wise Person Carries Both'.

John Scalzi
John Scalzi
Author · 83 books

John Scalzi, having declared his absolute boredom with biographies, disappeared in a puff of glitter and lilac scent. (If you want to contact John, using the mail function here is a really bad way to do it. Go to his site and use the contact information you find there.)

Robert Charles Wilson
Robert Charles Wilson
Author · 22 books
I've been writing science fiction professionally since my first novel A Hidden Place was published in 1986. My books include Darwinia, Blind Lake, and the Hugo Award-winning Spin. My newest novel is The Affinities (April 2015).
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