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; andHuckleberry 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.
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