Online Freebies

A very good day for free fiction with great free genre stories from many big sites - seriously awesome!. And a bit of an unusual gaming/fiction hybrid as Kobold Quarterly's free Midgard preview contains two short, short stories. And there;s more free fiction in a variety of formats (E-Book, Audio, Comic Book, etc).  More great free fiction links are available at SF Signal and Free SF Reader. And as always, lice are welcome. 

 The lovely lady to the left is from "Proper Villains Chapter Three: The Caper" below.




 
Fiction
At Beneath Ceaseless Skies: "A Song of Blackness" by Nancy Fulda. Fantasy.
     "I had never met this man, this gnarled old usurper who lounged on furniture emblazoned with my ancestors' crest."
At Beneath Ceaseless Skies: "Hold a Candle to The Devil" by Nicole M. Taylor. Fantasy.
    "Florence sat in Miss Em’s desk and felt small and wrong there."
At Black Gate: “The Daughter’s Dowry” by Aaron Bradford Starr. Fantasy.
    "I inserted the key into the lock, amazed at how free of corrosion or accumulated grit the inner mechanism was. Yr Neh cocked his ears forward in surprise as well. Our eyes met, and we smiled to each other as I turned the key."
At Nature:  "The Tell-Tale Ear" by Alex Shvartsman. Science Fiction.
    "We seem to be having an equipment malfunction. I can hear bits broadcast from the Grand Cayman Casino and Erectile Dysfunction marketing campaigns while at the office. Somebody get on top of this."
At Paizo:  "Proper Villains Chapter Three: The Caper" by Erik Scott de Bie. Fantasy.
     "Humming anxiously under his breath, Tarrant watched as the last cart of treasure arrived from the docks as the sun set. This time was always torture and ecstasy for him: he could hardly stand the waiting, and yet he could not help his excitement for the game to come."
At Project Gutenberg: "The Metal Moon" by Everett C. Smith and R.F. Starzl. Science Fiction.
"The ship was now coming close to the vast curve of the crystal city. The earthmen became aware that the part below the city level was a dull ugly black." from Wonder Stories Quarterly Winter 1932.
At Tor.com: "Jacks and Queens at the Green Mill" by Marie Rutkosk.
      "Few know that the Great Chicago Fire was started deliberately, bringing genocide to deadly creatures called Shades. Fewer still know that they didn't die, not quite...and one human will confront the truth when an ominous beauty makes him gamble for his life."
At The WiFiles:  "The Hunt" by John Krissilas. Speculative Fiction.
    "I had been tracking it for several kilometers, I reminded myself, and finally, finally my patience had paid off. This is it. The animal was pausing to graze, confident that it was free from danger, unaware of the fact that I’d been watching and waiting."
Reviewed at Variety SF:  "The Chronic Argonauts" by H. G. Wells. (1888).
    "About half-a-mile outside the village of Llyddwdd by the road that goes up over the eastern flank of the mountain called Pen-y-pwll to Rwstog is a large farm-building known as the Manse. It derives this title from the fact that it was at one rime the residence of the minister of the Calvinistic Methodists."
At Kobold Quaterly In Free Midgard Preview:  [Requires Free Membership]
     “At the Sign of the World Serpent” by Wade Rockett. Fantasy.“I confess that I do not like the look of this so-called inn,”said Benedict, gazing at the rickety building before them"  and “The Bloodtide” by Jeff Grubb. Fantasy. "It had all seemed so simple, back in Savoyne, safely behind the protection of the Raven’s Wall. A simple mission into the Wasted West, to the reputed wreckage of a particular now-dead necromancer’s tower."

Flash Fiction
At Daily Science Fiction: "This is the Way the World Begins" by C.L. Holland.
At 365 Tomorrows: "A Practical Trip" by Robert White. Science Fiction.

E-Books
At Free eBooks Daily:

• Worlds Unseen by Rachel Starr Thomson. Fantasy.
• Outside That Door by Judith Johnson Kypta. Fantasy.
• Arms of the Storm by M Todd Gallowglas. Fantasy.
• Extinct Doesn't Mean Forever by Phoenix Sullivan. Anthology.
• Wraith by Angel Lawson. YA Paranormal.

At Smashwords:

• "The Ocean Goddess and The Home Run Queen" by Regan Wolfrom. Fantasy. 9k.
• Ice Will Reveal by Eric T. Reynolds. Fantasy. 134k.
• "To Sail The Dark Sea"  by Steve Smy. Science Fiction. 10k.
• "Dead End Bridge" by Will Weisser. Science Fiction. 10k.
• "Half Past One" by Jennifer Douwes. Science Fiction. 5k.
• Songs for a Machine Age by Eric T. Reynolds. Science Fiction. 131k.
• "You Never Know What's Going to Come Through the Door" by Fred Schaefer. Horror. 3k.

Via Pixel of Ink:

• Oathbreaker: The Knight’s Tale by Colin McComb. Fantasy.

Audio Fiction
At Beneath Ceaseless Skies: "Cursed Motives" by Marissa Lingen. Fantasy.
     "Safy laughed despite herself. 'Unnatural? Of course I am.'"
At The Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs: Episode 22 - Tarzan of the Apes
    "Paul D’Arnot, Lieutenant from the French cruiser, has been captured by Mbonga’s tribe and subjected to the ordeal of torture by the cannibals."At SFFAudio: Two versions of  "The Nine Billion Names Of God" by Arthur C. Clarke.

Old Time Radio
At Journey Into: Mind Webs: "The Fog Horn" by Ray Bradbury.
At OTR Plot Spot: "'Return Trip" - Suspense (1946) and "The Talkers" - Theatre 5 (1964) up until around: 25 Oct.

Video
At Internet Archive:  The Invaders-Unseen Pilot pt I and II (1967). Science Fiction.
 
Comics
At Atomic Kommie Comics: "World War III with the Ants" Sci-Fi.
At The Yellowed Pages: "A Ghastly Tale - No.1" and "A Ghastly Tale - No.2"  Horror.

Other Genres
At Project Gutenberg: "The Vinland Champions" by Ottilie A. Liljencrantz. Historic Adventure. Vikings. 1904.