Poe, Asher, and Other Great Free Fiction

Some quite good sounding ones today.














@Author's Site: "The Women of Whale Rock" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. [Available until Monday]. Contemporary Fantasy.

"Whale Rock’s sheriff, Dan Retsler, considers himself a practical man. But he has no explanation for the horrible deaths that take place on his beach. Nor does he know why so many locals fear the sea. The answer lies in legends of mermaids—not the pretty kind, but the kind that lure sailors to their deaths"

@Author's Site: "The Almost Last Voyage of the Wind-ship Escarpment" by Martha Wells [via SF Signal]

Jai scratched her lip beneath the curve of her tusk, and said, as if to herself, "We could jump over the side, swim for it, until Kiev could pick us up." Foreigners and exiles were only permitted to set foot on the floating city of Issila at the trading platforms, so that was where they waited, the fresh salt-tempered wind pulling at their hair and clothes, the sun warm and bright.

@Subterranean: "Balfour and Meriwether in The Vampire of Kabul" by Daniel Abraham.

"And yet, also I feel the nostalgia of old hunts, old games, old enemies now lost to history, and feel again not the rush of conflict but its echo. And recall the unparalleled eyes of a most singular woman I once knew…"

Serial Fiction
@Paizo: "The Box - Chapter One: Win Some, Lose Some" by Bill Ward. Fantasy.

"Most Chelaxians assume every Varisian’s a thief. In Kostin’s case, they’d be right."

@More Red Ink: "Exo-Skeleton Town (Part 1 of 4)" by Jeffrey Ford. Fantasy.

"An hour ago I came out of Spid's Smoke House and saw Clark Gable scoring a couple balls of dung off an Aphid twice his size."

Audio Fiction
@StarShipSofa: Episode #205 "The Gurnard" by Neal Asher and "Speed of Dreams" by Will Ludwigsen.






@Internet Archive: The LibriVox "The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Raven Edition, Volume 1"
Includes "The Unparalleled Adventures of One Hans Pfaal," "The Gold-Bug," "Four Beasts in One - The Homo-Cameleopard," "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," "The Mystery of Marie Roget," "The Balloon-Hoax," "Manuscript Found in a Bottle," and " The Oval Portrait."