Monday Freebies

 Another roundup of great free science fiction, fantasy, and horror.



[Art from  "Beside Still Waters" in audio fiction below]





Fiction
• At Black Gate: “Devotion” By Robert Rhodes. Fantasy.
     "Piran’s blood ran cold, and his vision dimmed. He could not breathe, could not complete the arc of his sword. But the numbness passed like a chilling wave, and he cut down through the witch’s cloak, through the joint of neck and shoulder, collarbone and lung. She screamed — her voice terrible and shrill, crystal shattering on steel — and crumpled to the ground. She lay coughing, softly choking, then was still."

• At Cast of Wonders: "The Giant Who Dreamed of Summer" by Jess Hyslop. YA Fantasy.
     "What's this--another visitor? How tiresome. I thought I had seen the last of you when the guards departed. I thought I had finally been left to meet my end in peace."

•  At Cosmos: "The Pinocchio Complex" by Sarina Dorie.
     "She stepped closer, the sweet, Earth vanilla of her perfume overpowering the constant sulfur scent of Mars’s artificial atmosphere. 'You build toys. Puppets and dolls? Custom made, no?'"

• At Electric Velocipede: “The Tempting: A Love Story” by James Alan Gardner
    "Upon waking in a dampened bed—and it had been a poor idea to sleep in the Summer Room, but that was the way of Summer, wasn’t it? to make you forget its weight—your thoughts got all sidetracked by the languid scent of lilacs, and thunderstorms, and berries so fresh they were still hot from the sun."

• At L5R: "Coils of Madness, Part 1" by Seth Mason & Robert Denton. Fantasy.
     "The spirit worlds all shook slightly as he laughed at the words tumbling out of his thoughts. It was a secret joke, though, so he stopped his laughter quickly. He didn’t want the others to notice him. They took any excuse to say he was sick, or there was something wrong with him. Such little things they used as excuses, and he wouldn’t give them any more."

• At The WiFiles: "The Door" by Jennifer Cox. speculative fiction. 
      "“Hey Michael, can you grab the other end of this?” Stanley says, attempting to lift the heavy antique dresser. It is the final piece of furniture that needs to be removed from the guest room."

Flash Fiction

• At Beware the Hairy Mango: "Babygami" by Matthew Sanborn Smith. Audio. Weird.
• At Beware the Hairy Mango: "Ramón and You and Ramón" by Matthew Sanborn Smith. Audio. Weird.
• At Daily Science Fiction: "Shades Of The Father" by M. Adrian Sellers. 
• At Flashes in the Dark: "Mort’s Crossing, Population 10" by Flechewoun​ds. Horror.
• At Quantum Muse: "The Smell of Death…"  by Sergio Palumbo.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Never More Than Half a Billion" by Clint Wilson. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Fregh and Young Brawl at the Skev" by Alex Grover. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction

• At Author's Site: "The MVP Episode #30" by Scott Sigler.  Science Fiction. Football.
     The final game of the season against the To Pirates gives the Krakens an outside chance at making the playoffs. Can Quentin survive the saftey blitz of Ciudad Juarez, the leage's second-most lethal player of all time? Or will Ciudad send Barnes to "the gridiron of the immortals?"

• At Beam Me Up:  Episode #364. Science Fiction.
     Featuring "Trathh: Final Confrontation pt1" by David Scholes and "No Great Magic Ch2" by Fritz Leiber. - "The troupers of the Big Time lack no art to sway a crowd— or to change all history!"

• At Cast of Wonders: "The Giant Who Dreamed of Summer" by Jess Hyslop. YA Fantasy.
     Described Above

• At Cthulhu:  "The House on the Borderland - Conclusion" by William Hope Hodgson. Horror.
    No Description

• At Drama Pod: "Valley of the Dreams" by Stanley Weinbaum. Science Fiction. Mars.
     "Captain Harrison of the Ares expedition turned away from the little telescope in the bow of the rocket. "Two weeks more, at the most," he remarked. "Mars only retrogrades for seventy days in all, relative to the earth, and we've got to be homeward bound during that period, or wait a year and a half for old Mother Earth to go around the sun and catch up with us again. How'd you like to spend a winter here?"

• At Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs: "Episode 18 - The Beasts of Tarzan"
     "Tarzan and Jane have been reunited on board the Kincaid. Mugambi and Tarzan’s beasts are safely aboard, and Rokoff has gone to meet his Maker under the fangs of Sheeta. The remainder of Rokoff’s thugs have been subdued and are now loyal to Tarzan – all seems right with the world, except …"

• At LibriVox: "The Airlords of Han" by Philip Francis Nowlan.  Science Fiction.
     "Airlords of Han is the 2nd Buck Rogers story, the sequel to Armageddon 2419 A.D.. Anthony Rogers takes the fight to free 25th Century America to the Han overlords. From the March, 1929 issue of Amazing Stories."

• At SFFaudio: "Beside Still Waters" by Robert Sheckley. Science Fiction.
     "When people talk about getting away from it all, they are usually thinking about our great open spaces out west. But to science fiction writers, that would be practically in the heart of Times Square. When a man of the future wants solitude he picks a slab of rock floating in space four light years east of Andromeda. Here is a gentle little story about a man who sought the solitude of such a location. And who did he take along for company? None other than Charles the Robot."

• At SFFaudio: "The Willows" by Algernon Blackwood. Horror.
     "After leaving Vienna, and long before you come to Budapest, the Danube enters a region of singular loneliness and desolation, where its waters spread away on all sides regardless of a main channel, and the country becomes a swamp for miles upon miles, covered by a vast sea of low willow-bushes."

• At Toasted Cake: "Sapience and Maternal Instincts" by Krystal Claxton.
     She had my teeth. I hadn't expected to recognize myself in her, but when she greeted me, her maroon lips parting into a crescent, there they were."

 Other Genres

• Audio at Crime City Central: "What Goes Around" by R J Ellory.
• Audio at Selected Shorts: "Dorothy Parker’s Wicked Pen"
• Audio at Tales of Old: "Meg Harper" by Gretchen Tessmer. Historical Fiction.
• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "Fine Young Cannibals" by Rich Matrunick

Fiction Magazines, H. G. Wells, Comics, and More

A ton of free reading today. Three magazines have their latest issues online, Beneath Ceaseless Skies (a long time favorite) and two I haven't linked to before. Schrodinger's Mouse "Tomorrow's best science fiction today" and LingerFiction, which publishes "stories within the confines of fantasy, science-fiction and horror." Both new magazines were found via Kristine Ong Muslim's website. Also chapter one of a new Erik Mona story, classic genre fiction, flash fiction, and a boatload of comics. Today's illustration is for "Batmen of Luna" in the comics Section below.







Beneath Ceaseless Skies has its 67th issue online with:
"Memories of Her" by Greg Linklater.
"My hand is seamed with quartz and gravel. It used to have folds of skin a witch could trace. No fingernails now, only the squares I scratched with a rusty blade for some reason I’ve long since forgotten."


"Dancing the Warrior" Part 3 by Marie Brennan.
"Kerestel decided quickly enough that he wouldn’t tell anybody—but he didn’t have to. Silverfires were trained to notice things, after all. Marwen spotted it the next morning, and before breakfast was over the uproar had begun."

And audio fiction "Love, Resurrected" by Cat Rambo from Issue #65.
"Three years after her death, she still labored in his service."


Schrodinger's Mouse has its Spring 2011 issue online with fiction and poetry.
"In Service of a Greater Cause" by Alex Shvartsman.
"Her head held high and her hand squeezing a small silver cross pendant, Susan Pennell walked into the den of evil."

"SnapBack" by John F. D. Taff.
"Personnel Report: Two agents present situations where input is necessary. Possible termination of grid access and extraction of agents may be necessary. Highlights below. Detailed report will be filed per Protocol 7 indices."

"Jane's Head" by Vincent Scarsella.
"Dearest Jane, I have your head. It's frozen, of course, preserved the past three years in a stainless steel box filled with liquid nitrogen"

"Almost Nighttime" by Kristine Ong Muslim.
"Like the loneliest kettle in the world, / it totters on creaky joints and pours"

"Inner Circles" by Pat Tompkins.
"a moon to planet / as Io to Jupiter"


The April issue of LingerFiction is online with:


"The Hiders" by Heather Fowler.
"We hid because it lowered our chances for selection. All knew of the agreement accepted with the Kharal years ago, and, at each interval, on the appointed day, until the act had been completed so that we might recommence our regular activities"

"The Tare in the Garden" by George W. Latimer, Jr.
"Evan scanned the surroundings. No other weeds had sprung up. It was not a stray from the wild flowers in the naturalized sections of the garden. It was unlike anything he had ever seen."

"Snow in July" by Rick McQuiston.
"There were far stranger things that took precedence in his weary mind. Like the fact that even though the power was not out, the air conditioning still would not work, as well as his ceiling fan, desk fan, and even his refrigerator. "

"Othertongues" by Elizabeth Barrette.
"In the breathless dark between stars, / there is no air to carry sound."

"A Universe Inside You" by Marina Lee Sable.
"You awake one morning / to find your sight turned inward,"


Serial Fiction:
@Paizo.com: "Two Pieces of Tarnished Silver" Chapter One by Erik Mona.
"According to the navigator, the Queen's Lament had been less than a week from Quantium when the winds died, and the long voyage from distant Vudra had left them but a few days of provisions when the sails went slack and the ship fell still."

Classic SF/Fantasy:
@Hairy Green Eyeball 3: "Armageddon - 2419 A.D." by Philip Francis Nowlan, from Amazing Stories (Aug. 1928). - The first Buck Rogers story in JPG Scans.
"They had all they needed for their magnificently luxurious and degraded scheme of civilization within the walls of the fifteen cities of sparkling glass they had flung skyward on the sites of ancient American centers, into the bowels oh the earth underneath them, and with relatively small surrounding areas of agriculture."

@Project Gutenberg: The Sea Lady by H. G. Wells (1902). Mermaid fantasy/social satire.
"Such previous landings of mermaids as have left a record, have all a flavour of doubt. Even the very circumstantial account of that Bruges Sea Lady, who was so clever at fancy work, gives occasion to the sceptic. I must confess that I was absolutely incredulous of such things until a year ago." [via Triplanetary]







@365 tomorrows: "Remember O’ahu" by Roi R. Czechvala.
@Weird Year: "Golde’s Mine" by Troy Manning.
@Weird Year: "Dr. Pants" by Colleen Chen.
@Eschatology: "The Created" by Timothy Remp.
@Eschatology: "Nova" by Joe Jablonski.
@Eschatology: "Searching, Hiding, Leaving" by James Bloomer.
@The New Flesh: "What's Knocking At My Door" by Michael Pelc.
@The New Flesh: "Cookie" by James Steele.
@Daily Science Fiction: "Selfless" by Kenneth S Kao.







@The Horrors of It All: "Sinister Return of the Priestess of Baal" from Baffling Mysteries #11 (Horror - Nov. 1952)






@The Warrior's Comic Book Den: "The Jungle" illustrated by Al Williamson, from Eerie (Horror - Nov. 1966).

@Parishi's Vision: Flash Gordon in "The Floating City" IJC #102 (Sci-Fi).

@Pappys Golden Age Comics Blogzine: "Ghost pirates of Skull Valley" from Ranger Comics #54 (Horror).

@The Comic Book Catacombs: Voodah in "Drums of the Tyrant Priestess"from Crown Comics #6 (Adventure - Summer 1946).

@Diversions of the Groovy Kind: Starlord in "Less Than Human" (Sci-Fi).

@Digital Comics Museum: Target Comics V2 #4 and V2 #12 (Both with Spacehawk and other adventure comics) (1941/1942).

@Ditko Comics: "The Thing From Below" from Out of This World #5 [Monster 1957].

@Atomic Kommie Comics: "BatMen of Luna" from Spacebusters #2 (Sci-Fi).

Other Coolness
@Golden Age Comic Book Stories: [Art] Edgar Rice Burroughs galleries of cover and interior art. The Venus Series, Pellucidar Series, and The Mars Series.