Lovecraft, Leinster, Ellison, Rusch, and More

At the risk of sounding like a broken record (Those under 35 can Gooogle what that means) another day of good free items from around the internet. Unusual today, an irregular category Noir/Mystery for those whose tastes extend beyond the big four of SF, Fantasy, Horror, and Adventure.




E-Fiction
The Lovecraft eZine has its second monthly issue out with "Lovecraftian fiction ... about that discovery that the universe is not as it seems, that there are terrible, unimaginable things out there that care not a whit about mankind"

"Some Distant Baying Sound" by W.H. Pugmire
"A Different Morecambe" by Simon Kurt Unsworth
"False Light" by Adrian Chamberlin
and "Allure" by Josh Wagner


All online HERE.

Get this one quick, it's only up through this Sunday! At the author's website, "Dragon Slayer" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. [via Free SF Reader]
"Fifteen dragons have died in less than a century. Rumaad, a different kind of dragon, collects information about the killings the way some dragons collect jewels. So he’s perfectly suited to see the differences in the latest crime scene, the murder of a dragon he knows all too well. What he sees convinces him something has changed in his world—and not for the best."

Online HERE.


A pair of classic stories at Project Gutenberg via Triplanetary.

"Polaris of the Snows" by Charles B. Stilson (1915) Best described as a "snowy Tarzan." Available online and in e-book download HERE.


"The Mad Planet" by Murray Leinster (1920) An early story by one of the greats. In the future, humanity struggles against nature gone wild. Available online and in e-book download HERE.



Phoenix Pick is continuing their "Free eBook-a-Month" promotion, this month with Paul Cooks' Fortress on the Sun

"The Fortress refers to Ra, which is a 21st century prison camp that also acts as facility for harvesting metals--from the Sun. The prisoners have all been banished here for extreme crimes, but none of them remembers anything from their past."

More details and instructions at SF Signal HERE.



At Realms of Fantasy, Nebula nominee "How Interesting: A Tiny Man" by Harlan Ellison.
"I created a tiny man. It was very hard work. It took me a long time. But I did it, finally: he was five inches tall. Tiny; he was very tiny. And creating him, the creating of him, it seemed an awfully good idea at the time."


Online HERE. [via Variety SF]



A special link to Free SF Reader, an incredible source of free SF, fantasy, and horror. Indeed, it's so good that it's easy to take for granted.

A must see regularly site HERE.


Audio Fiction
At StarShipSofa, episode #178. Featuring readings of three stories nominated for the BSFA short story award.
"Flying in the Face of God" by Nina Allan
"The Shipmaker" by Aliette de Bodard
and "Arrhythmia" by’ Neil Williamson

Streaming and in MP3 download HERE.


Gaming
At DriveThruRPG, Game Geek #15. Avalon Games free fantasy gaming magazine featuring pathfinder compatible magic items and more.




In PDf download HERE. (free membership required)




At DriveThruRPG, Infinite Horizons #1
Originaly planned "to be all about Infinite Futures" Avalon Games Pathfinder compatible SF rpg, but instead supporting "all sort of games and game systems." "Each issue is packed full of great gaming, fiction, comics and review."


In PDf download HERE. (free membership required)




Comics
At Four-Color Shadows, "Doc Savage: The Crystal Monsters" from 1948.
The art is a little bland but a Doc Savage story is always cool.



Online HERE.



Mystery/Noir
At Spinetingler, "The Columbian" by Fred Snyder.
"The detective smeared the sweat on his forehead. 'Your brother’s in trouble again.'" Online HERE.

and "Less Than Living" by Jason Duke. "Saturday night I watch Postcards From The Edge, holding an empty fifth of Wild Turkey to my chest like it’s my life. Commercials interrupt every seven minutes because the movie is a heavily edited for television version run on the Lifetime channel." Online HERE.


At Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Podcast episode 18, "Award-winning mystery and Western fiction writer Bill Crider ... reading his story 'The Case of the Headless Man,' from the March 1998 EQMM."



In MP3 download HERE.






Other Coolness
The Voice of Middle Earth is an unusual podcast that muses "upon all things Tolkien and Middle Earth, and create music mixes that reflect the spirit of The Lord of the Rings." Pretty cool.

In MP3 downloads here, but the latest five episodes are only HERE [via Triplanetary]