Audie Award Finalist, Original Work, 2013
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
conceive: 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 agree: If Shakespeare or Dickens
were alive today, they'd be ripping off the authors in this great
collection.
The stories included in Rip-Off! are:
- "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.
