First Monday Free Fiction: Bug-Eyed Monsters and the Women Who Love Them

Bug-Eyed Monsters and the Women Who Love ThemWelcome to the March 2020 edition of First Monday Free Fiction. To recap, inspired by Kristine Kathryn Rusch who posts a free short story every week on her blog, I’ll post a free story on every first Monday of the month. It will remain free to read on this blog for one month, then I’ll take it down and post another story.

Because of the Retro Science Fiction Reviews project, I have been spending a lot of time in the so-called golden age of science fiction of late. So what could be more fitting for this edition of First Monday Free Fiction then a story from Bug-Eyed Monsters and the Women Who Love Them, a collection parodistic takes on some golden and silver age gender tropes. So put on your brass bikini, grab your ray gun and prepare to learn the whole shocking truth about…

Bug-Eyed Monsters and the Women Who Love Them

Captain Crash Martigan of the rocket scout squad of New Pluto City was on patrol again, defending the domed city and its inhabitants from the bug-eyed monsters.

Of course, bug-eyed monsters wasn’t their real name. No, the primitive species native to New Pluto had a long and official Latinate name that no one could ever remember. So the colonists took to calling them bug-eyed monsters, because — well — that’s what they looked like.

For reasons only known to themselves, the bug-eyed monsters had taken to attacking New Pluto City and its inhabitants, killing the men and kidnapping the women. Of late, the attacks had gotten out of hand, which was where men like Crash, true heroes of the new frontier of space, came in.

The cockpit alarm chimed, telling Crash that a bug-eyed monster was near. So he landed his flyer, popped open the canopy and jumped out, looking very steely and manly in his gleaming silver spacesuit.

 

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This story was available on this blog for one month only, but you can still read “Bug-Eyed Monsters and the Women Who Love Them” in the eponymous collection. And if you click on the First Monday Free Fiction tag, you can read this month’s free story.

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