Celebrating the Birth . . . Robert Sheckley, Esther Friesner, and Sheri Tepper

July 16th is a great day genre history as three (at least) great author's were born on this day.  Between them, the have been nominated and won numerous awards, including Hugos and Nebulas. Be sure to read the free/listen to the free fiction and, if you can afford it, look for their works online or at your favorite brick-and-mortar book store.

Robert Sheckley (July 16, 1928 – December 9, 2005)
      One of the greats, Sheckley wrote countless SF short stories that were published and adapted to radio starting during the 1950s.  He was a Hugo and Nebula nominated, writer whose works have been reprinted in numerous anthologies.  Sheckley's style ranged from humorous (e,g. "Skulking Permit" to rather dark (e.g. "The Seventh Victim").   Fortunately for us, with such a large body of work, many of his stories are freely available. 


Fiction
At Project Gutenberg:

• "Ask a Foolish Question" Science Fiction. 1953.
• "Bad Medicine" Science Fiction.
• "Beside Still Waters" Science Fiction. 1953.
• "Cost of Living" Science Fiction. 1952.
• "Death Wish" Science Fiction. 1956.
• "Diplomatic Immunity" Science Fiction. 1953.
• "Forever" Science Fiction. 1959.
• "Hour of Battle" Science Fiction. 1953.
• "Keep Your Shape" Science Fiction. 1953.
• "Leech" Science Fiction. 1952.
• "One Man's Poison" Science Fiction. 1953.
• "Status Civilization" Science Fiction.
• "Warm" Science Fiction. 1953.
• "Warrior Race" Science Fiction. 1952.
• "Watchbird" Science Fiction. 1953.

• At SFFaudio: "The Seventh Victim" (PDF Scan) Science Fiction. 1953.

Audio Fiction
At LibriVox (All Direct MP3 downloads)

•  "Ask a Foolish Question" (Version One)
•  "Ask a Foolish Question" (Version Two)
• "Bad Medicine"
• "Beside Still Waters" (Version One)
• "Beside Still Waters" (Version Two)
• "Cost of Living"
• "Death Wish"
• "Forever"
• "The Hour of Battle"
• "The Leech"
• "One Man's Poison"
• "Warm"
• "Warrior Race" (Version One)
• "Warrior Race" (Version Two)
• "Watchbird" (Version One)
• "Watchbird" Part One and Part Two. (Version Two)

• At LibriVox: "Status Civilization, The" 
     "Will Barrent awakes without memories just before being deposited on Omega, a planet for criminals where the average life expectancy is 3 years. He’s listed as a murderer and released into the illicit society as a 'peon' the lowest class imaginable."

Other Audio Readings

• At Drabblecast: "The Store of the Worlds" by Robert Sheckley. Fantasy.
• At Miette's Bedtime Story: "On an Experience in a Cornfield" 
• At SFFaudio: "Beside Still Waters"
• Non-Fiction at SFFaudio: "Writing Class"
• At StarShipSofa: "Watchbird"

Old Time Radio 
At The Internet Archive (All Direct MP3 downloads)

• "Bad Medicine" - X Minus One
• "Death Wish" - X Minus One
• "Early Model" - X Minus One
• "Gray Flannel Armor" X Minus One
• "Gun without a Bang, The" - Mindwebs
• "Language of Love, The" - Mindwebs
• "Lifeboat Mutiny, The" - X Minus One
• "Native Problem, The" - X Minus One
• "Petrified World, The" - Mindwebs
• "Protection" X Minus One
• "Restricted Area" - Mindwebs
• "Seventh Victim, The" - X Minus One
• "Shape" - Sci-Fi Radio
• "Skulking Permit" - X Minus One
• "Something for Nothing" - X Minus One
• "Trap" - X Minus One
• "Wind Is Rising, A" - X Minus One

Other Old Time Radio and Dramatization.

• At Relic Radio: "Watchbird" - Tales of Tomorrow
• At 19 Nocturne Boulevard: "The Leech" adapted by Julie Hoverson.
• At Old Time Radio Downloads "Watchbird"-SF68
• A few more at SFFaudio

Esther Friesner (born July 16, 1951)
     Writer/Editor extrordinaire, Friesner has won two Nebulas and been nominated for the Hugo. Along with her own worlds, she has also written a couple novels in the Star Trek universe.  She is known, among other things, for her 










 
• At Baen.com: "Benny Comes Home"
     "Crazy, that's what she is," Gertrude Rosenfeld (née Gratz) told everyone on the IRT local. She couldn't help it: Like all the Gratz women, she was possessed of an internal amplification system that was the bane of librarians, movie theatre ushers, and sermonizing rabbis everywhere. "My poor sister, she's gone out of her mind. It has to be. There's no other reason for her to be doing something like this. I don't know where to hide my head from shame."

• At Baen.com: "Gunsel and Gretel"
     "It was a hot, humid, L.A. afternoon, a day when the ceiling fan just stirs the air around slow, like a witch's brew, the kind of day that makes me ask myself why I ever left the cool shade of the German forests for this city, this office, this job. Lucky for me, all I had to do to find the answer was open the paper and see Hitler's smiling face. There are worse things in this world than muggy weather, hard-nosed cops, and overdue dentist bills."

• Audio fiction at PodCastle: "Sweet, Savage Sorcerer"
       "Arrows whizzed past her as Narielle drummed slender heels into the heaving sides of her faithful unicorn, Thunderwind. Her bosom rose and fell in perfect cadence with the noble steed’s movements as the Black Tower of Burning Doom thrust its massive structure into view. Behind her, the sun was setting in a fiery ball, quenching its flames slowly, achingly, in the moist depths of the Lesser Sea of Northern Alraziah-le-Fethynauri’in-ebu-Korfiamminettash."

Other

• Bio at Princess of Myth.
• Interview at Baen.com.

Sheri Stewart Tepper (born July 16, 1929)
She is an excellent "author of science fiction, horror and mystery novels; she is particularly known as a feminist science fiction writer."  Her works include The True Game trilogy of trilogies.  Unfortunately, I was unable to find any legal free stories by this author.


Other:

• Website
• Interview at Strange Horizons.