Showing posts with label Edgar Rice Burroughs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Edgar Rice Burroughs. Show all posts

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Free Fiction - The Appetizer Round.

 Some very good free fiction for you this morning.  There's a longer than average story at Daily Science Fiction, two more stories at Tor.com, and the conclusion of the serialization of Out of Time's Abyss (only free for a limited time so listen to it, or download it, soon).  More later.  [Art from "A Rumor of Angels"]




Fiction
• At Daily Science Fiction: "The Witch's Cat" by Kalisa Ann Lessnau. Fantasy.
      "We knew the witch was dead when her cat showed up on our doorstep. Mom found him sitting patiently beside the morning's milk delivery, like he was waiting for his share of the cream. She only called to Dad, but the tone of her voice got us both up from the breakfast table until we all stood in the entryway to stare at the cat."

• At Tor.com: "The Lady Astronaut of Mars" by Mary Robinette Kowal. Science Fiction.   
      "She would have been a little girl and, oh lord, there were so many little kids hanging around outside the Fence watching us work. The little girls all wanted to talk to the Lady Astronaut. To me."

• At Tor.com: "A Rumor of Angels" by Dale Bailey. Historical Fantasy.
      "That was a season of mysteries. Day after day, a slow tide of humanity streamed down the rutted track that ran not two hundred yards from the boy’s door, driven alike by hope and despair. Before them California and the dream of a better life, behind them drought and devastation."

Flash Fiction
  • At Chilling Tales for Dark Nights: "Masterpiece" by Anonymous, narrator Jordan Antle. Horror. Audio.
  • At Nature: "Lacunae" by William Meikle. 
  • At 365 Tomorrows: "Jigsaw" by Jae Miles. Science Fiction.
Audio Fiction
• At Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs: "Episode 10 (Final) - Out Of Time's Abyss"
      "Chapter V, Part Two  Bradley and the girl have made their way back to the mainland of Caspak. Unfortunately, they are now quite far from the land of the Galus, the girl’s home.  Making their way, they come upon the evil German crew and the U-33 – and the rest of Bradley’s party now captive.  A battle royal ensues, with Von Schoenvorts managing to break free of Bradley and seize him by the wrist." -  Earlier chapters nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and one.

Other Genres
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Saturday, August 24, 2013

Saturday Free Fiction - From the Moon to Mars

There's a slew of good e-books today, many via the excellent Freebook Sifter, be sure to check them out. There are also a few other gems, including an unusually early trip to the Moon story, there's a LibriVox reading of Thuvia, Maid of Mars, and more.









Fiction
• At Project Gutenberg: Adventures in the Moon, and Other Worlds by John Russell Russell. 1836. Proto-Science fiction.
         "I had often wished that we could procure admission into the moon, in order to regain what had once belonged to us, and had amused myself with imagining the eager search that would take place; but without having the least suspicion that this could ever be really effected, since the want of air, and other conveniences, is sufficient to discourage most travelers; besides which, the having no ground to tread upon must increase the difficulty of the journey. It cannot, therefore, be wondered, that in former times only one journey to the moon was known to have been accomplished, which is that related by Ariosto. But nothing seems too difficult for modern science; and it is well known that, by a most ingenious invention, we have lately been enabled to walk up into our satellite with safety. As I, amongst others, have accomplished this journey, I shall give a short narrative of my adventures, for the amusement of those who have been deterred by the distance from traveling in person."

Flash Fiction

E-Books
At Amazon: [Via Freebook Sifter]
• At Smashwords: "Mikanical - New Age Man" by Mikey Robert Simpson. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At Internet Archive [LibriVox]: Thuvia, Maid of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Science Fiction.
     "John Carter's son, Carthoris, falls in love with his father's true friend, Thuvia of Ptarth, but she has been promised to another and is kidnapped by a third! Carthoris, suspected of the crime, spends the entire novel in efforts to rescue her and restore her to her fiancé. The adventures introduce to us a philosophical system or fringe science that challenges our conception of the nature of reality itself."

• At Radio Drama Revival: "Episode #345" Science Fiction.
     "two episodes from the 2008 serial 'The Moon Wraith', as well as an episode of the more recent (futuristic, you might say!) 'Frank Gadsen, Personal Injury Lawyer of the Future.'"

Other Genres
• Fiction at Online Pulps! "Bad Medicine" by Russell Hays. 1935. "Murder on Wheels" by Leo Hoban. 1941. "Sleuth of the Air Waves" by Emile C. Tepperman. Pulp Fiction. Noir.
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Friday, August 23, 2013

It Doesn't Take Six Senses to Appreciate These Great Free Stories

Plenty of good free fiction this morning, including two ongoing Edgar Rice Burroughs serials, the latest from Escape Pod and Pseudopod, a limited time streaming audio fiction by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, the welcome return of weird year, and more.  And there's an even bigger post coming later today, so read or listen to all these as quickly as you can!





[Bizarre art from The Moon Men in fiction below]




Fiction
• At Daily Science Fiction: "The Black Bough" by Conor Powers-Smith. Science Fiction.
      "The room was dimly lit, and dominated by the bulky white tube of the scanner. It looked hungry, the proverbial gaping maw. That would make the narrow gurney projecting out into the room its tongue; projecting now, but soon to be sucked back into the monster's mouth."

• At Escape Pod: "Nutshell" by Jeffrey Wikstrom. Science Fiction.
       "Carpet ocean, stretching over miles; hills and valleys and ravines, all upholstered.  The green indoor-outdoor gives way to blue, as land gives way to sea, but the texture never changes.  When it rains, as it sometimes does, the drops pass through the carpet without making contact, as though they or it aren’t really there."

• At HiLobrow: "The Man with Six Senses - part 7" by Muriel Jaeger. Science Fiction. 1927.
     "I thought about him and his peculiarity and his affairs as little as I possibly could. I do not like oddities. And I could no longer conceal from myself that he was definitely an oddity. I even feared secretly that, as Hilda thought, he might be a momentous sort of oddity, though this I would never admit even to myself."

• At HiLobrow: "The Moon Men - Part 9" by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Science Fiction. Adventure. 1925.
      "We passed days of mental anguish — hearing nothing, knowing nothing — and then one evening a single Kash Guard rode up to father’s house. Juana and I were there with mother. The fellow dismounted and knocked at the door — a most unusual courtesy from one of these."

Flash Fiction
Audio Fiction
• At Escape Pod: "Nutshell" by Jeffrey Wikstrom. Science Fiction.
       "Carpet ocean, stretching over miles; hills and valleys and ravines, all upholstered.  The green indoor-outdoor gives way to blue, as land gives way to sea, but the texture never changes.  When it rains, as it sometimes does, the drops pass through the carpet without making contact, as though they or it aren’t really there."

• At Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs: "Episode 4 - Out Of Time's Abyss"
     "Bradley has been captured by the eerie flying creatures. He discovers that the creatures can speak and reason and are named Wieroos. He is taken to a large island in the center of Caspak’s inland sea. His captor, Fosh-bal-soj, tells him he is to be taken before 'He Who Speaks for Luata.'"

• At Pseudopod: "The Easily Forgotten" by Philip M. Roberts. Horror.
       "You know how much money he’s invested in this whole state? Besides, I’ve seen him boot two people, one for stealing, and one for hitting someone else. Both went on their way with a black eye, probably a few other bruises. More embarrassing than painful I’d imagine."

• At WMG Publishing: "Geeks Bearing Gifts" by Kristine Grayson (AKA Kristine Kathryn Rusch). Paranormal Romance. Streaming only.
       "Bethanne Dupree runs a computer dating service and pretends she doesn’t need it too. She manages to separate her personal life from her business life until Ray Greco comes to the office of the dating service to make a video"

Other Genres


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Friday, August 16, 2013

Free Fiction. It's What's For Dinner.

Some more very cool free fiction and e-books this time.  And At SFFaudio, a couple of classic readings from the obscure, but rather good Graveyard Shift.  And don't forget to visit SF Signal and the other great sites listed in the  Free SF Sites links for more free fiction. 

[Art from The Graveyard Shift, linked in audio fiction below]




Fiction
• At Baen: "The Sorcerer of Daigawa" by Jon F. Merz. Fantasy.
     "The stone fortress looking skyward looked as if it were erupting from the lush green of the valley floor. Towering walls of granite mined from a quarry many leagues to the east overlooked the river hewing its way between the Daigawa Mountains on either side. High above, towers and ramparts afforded the guards a perfect vantage point on every approach. It had been designed to thwart attack from any angle. To a traditional warrior, the fortress appeared insurmountable; it would take a large army prepared to lay siege for months to overcome its defenses."

• At Buzzy Mag: "Callie's Song" by Gary K. Shepherd. Science Fiction.
     "Callie walked forward into the lights and saw the thousands of silent, expectant faces turn toward her. For a moment, she felt pure panic, for the sight had awoken in her the memory of an old nightmare. Then she took a deep, steadying breath, opened her mouth, and began to sing."

• At HiLobrow: "The Man with Six Senses - part 6" by Muriel Jaeger. Science Fiction.1927.
     “We agreed that he must get ordinary work for a short time,” Hilda went on, a little uneasily, as it seemed to me, “until he was ready to undertake something better; but I didn’t want him to accept anything as tiresome as this. He did it himself in a fit of disgust with employment agencies. They are depressing places, you know.”

• At HiLobrow: "The Moon Men - Part 8" by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Science Fantasy. 1925.
     "from Julian 5th’s crash-landing on the moon, where he encounters subhuman Kalkars who dwell in the asteroid’s hollow interior; to the same Julian’s doomed effort to defeat a Kalkar invasion of Earth"


E-Books
At Free eBooks Daily:

Audio Fiction
• At SFFaudio: "The Body Snatcher" by Robert Louis Stevenson and "Afternoon At Schrafts" by Gardner Dozis, Jack Don, and Michael Swanwick.
     "Beginning it seems in the mid-1970s Dudley Knight, a U.C. Irvine professor of drama, voiced a series called The Graveyard Shift on KPFK, Los Angeles. The purpose was to tell stories of the macabre. His broadcasts aired weekly with shows of variable length (between half and hour and two and a half hours)."  Unfortunately, most of the titles in this series are listed at The Pacifica Radio Archives as "currently on a 1/4” reel tape and has not been digitally preserved" and the only additional episode I could find is H.P. Lovecraft's The Whisperer In Darkness (streaming in four parts on YouTube) Parts One, Two, Three, and Four.
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Friday, August 2, 2013

Free Fiction That Time Will Remember

Another day, another great batch of free fiction.  There's new fiction from Anotherealm, Daily Science Fiction, and Buzzy Mag.  There's horror from Chilling Tales for Dark Nights, Cthulhu, and Tales to Terrify.  The People That Time Forgot audiobook is now complete, so get it quick - they don't stay up long there. And More.  E-books and more free fiction to come later.









Fiction
• At Anotherealm: "Rockland" by Teresa Dovalpage.
     "Linda Mendez's mission was to get rid of an infestation of killer rocks, as the Board had called it. She felt excited about her first real job after college, but still found it strange to consider rocks (or anything coming from the earth) as an enemy."

• At Buzzy Mag: "Crypt Of The Abernathys" by Matthew Acheson. Horror. Dark Fantasy.
     "Sabryna watched the old traveler recline in an oak rocking chair by the fireplace, taking one final draw from his clay pipe before setting it down beside him. After a dramatic pause, he leaned forward, and with a wry smile, he put the finishing stroke on the latest of his many tales."

• At Chilling Tales for Dark Nights: "Plot Holes" by David Knoppel. Horror.
     "One of the boards or…something must’ve fallen at just the right angle that when Jake hit the ground, it speared up right through his stomach. I could see him shift and try to grab at it. Even hear him gurgle…and then he stopped."

• At Daily Science Fiction: "By the Hands of Juan Perón" by Eric James Stone. Science Fiction.
     "An average Argentine citizen would be almost paralyzed with fear upon opening the door at three in the morning to find two Imperial Police officers. But despite his wishes to the contrary, Tomás Alejandro Perón was not an average Argentine citizen."

Flash Fiction
  • At Every Day Fiction: "Side Pocket" by Matthew Harrison. Science Fiction.
  • At 365 Tomorrows: "Sepulchre" by Bob Newbell. Science Fiction.
Audio Fiction

• At Chilling Tales for Dark Nights: "Plot Holes" by David Knoppel. Streaming. Horror.
     "One of the boards or…something must’ve fallen at just the right angle that when Jake hit the ground, it speared up right through his stomach. I could see him shift and try to grab at it. Even hear him gurgle…and then he stopped."

• At Cthulhu: "The Wrong side of the Tracks, Part 1" T.C. Mcqueen. Horror.
     "However, the Department of Homeland Security seemed to prefer 'What have you done for me lately?' Sure, I had prevented a long dead pagan witchdoctor from staging a bloody comeback tour and plunging the east coast into a new dark age, not to mention taking a severe ass kicking in the process. That, however, didn’t carry much weight with the payroll section at Homeland."

• At Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs: The People That Time Forgot - Episode 11 (Final)
      "Tom Billings, accompanied by Nobs, is now searching through Galu country for Ajor. He has discovered a herd of horses running free, and he has determined to capture on of these magnificent beasts. He tells Nobs, 'Fetch.'" [Episodes One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, and Ten]

• At Norther Audio: "Alice in Wonderland - Chapter 6 – Pig and Pepper" by Lewis Carroll. Children's Fantasy.
     "In Chapter Six, Alice visits the house of the Duchess and has a talk with a Cheshire Cat."

• At Tales to Terrify:  "At the Mountains of Madness - Part 1" by H. P. Lovecraft. Horror.
     "Doubt of the real facts, as I must reveal them, is inevitable; yet, if I suppressed what will seem extravagant and incredible, there would be nothing left. The hitherto withheld photographs, both ordinary and aerial, will count in my favor, for they are damnably vivid and graphic. Still, they will be doubted because of the great lengths to which clever fakery can be carried."

Other Genres
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Friday, July 26, 2013

It's Friday I'm in Love with Free Fiction

It's always good to start the weekend off with some good free fiction.  There are a couple good science fiction stories, numerous e-books, flash fiction, and audio fiction.  You know it's a good day for audio fiction when you get Pseudopod, Escape Pod, and Tales of Terror on the same day.



[Art from "Beyond Orion's Belt"]





Fiction
• At Daily Science Fiction: "For Your Protection" by Steven Mathes. Science Fiction.
     "Joseph has an appointment with a brain scanner. On the appointed day, he trims his hair, as well as the nails on his hands and his toes. He wears new underwear. Freshly pressed pants and shirt. Casual but decent shoes. He aims to look ordinary but needs to be clean. He aims to look highly functional, like he would never be bug crazy."

• At Kasma: "Beyond Orion's Belt" by Steve Simpson. Science Fiction.
      "Her brother was fascinated with Tia Geralda's yard, and for that matter, everything his six year old eyes saw every day in the world. "Fire … flies." He considered the concept and shook his head at big sister's quotidian explanation."

Flash Fiction
E-Books
At Free eBooks Daily:
At Smashwords:
Audio Fiction
• At Escape Pod: "Freia in the Sunlight" by Gregory Norman Bossert. Science Fiction.
     "Wisps and curls whip overhead, limned blue by starlight; the fog ceiling is lowering, the top tattered by the offshore wind.  She drops another three meters, switches on ultrasonics.  There are patches of trees here — “unmarked obstacles up to thirty meters” the map says — and she is skimming just twenty meters above the ground.'"

• At Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs: "Episode 09 - The People That Time Forgot"
      "Tom and Ajor have seemingly found a respite in Capak. They have rescued a Kro-Lu, Chal-Az, from the dance of death."

 • At Pseudopod: "The Pit" by Joe. R. Lansdale. Horror.
        "Six months earlier they had captured him. Tonight Harry went into the pit. He and Big George, right after the bull terriers got through tearing the guts out of one another. When that was over, he and George would go down and do their business. The loser would stay there and be fed to the dogs, each of which had been starved for the occasion."

• At Tales to Terrify: "Herbert Bowman Lay Absolutely Still" by Gareth Stack. Horror.
     "Herbert Bowman lay absolutely still, focusing all his earthly attentions o n one recalcitrant big toe . His left . It was, by and large, an unassuming digit . Roughly normal in size and shape, and carpeted with a tangle of light brown hairs ending at the joint ."

Other Genres
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Sunday, July 21, 2013

Free Fiction, Eight Days a Week!


Welcome to another posting of free, legal fiction links (especially science fiction, horror, and fantasy) at QuasarDragon, where even on a Sunday, we hunt down free fiction to save you time and money.  All for no cost! Even the corny intros are free. 

 

 [Art from Astounding - linked below]






 Fiction
• At Project Gutenberg: "Astounding Stories of Super-Science, May, 1930" Science Fiction.
      "Four destinies rocket through the strange Time-Space of the Fourth Dimension in Tode's marvelous Atom-Smasher."

• At The WiFiles: "A Silver Soul" by Rebecca L. Brown. Speculative Fiction.
     "For one hundred pounds I will sell you my soul… There was nothing that Julian Hart loved more than getting something for nothing. He had dedicated his life to just that; setting up convoluted deals in which people unwittingly bought things which they already owned."

Flash Fiction
Audio Fiction
• At Antipodean: "The AntiSF Radio Show 180" Speculative Fiction.
   Audio versions of flash speculative fiction.

• At Cast of Wonders: "Little Wonders I" by Kara Hartz and Eric Juneau. YA Science Fiction.
     "a collection of flash fiction and poetry centered around a theme or genre - "Immersion" by Kara Hartz and "Influx Capacitor" by Eric Juneau."

• At Chilling Tales for Dark Nights: "The Art of Jacob Emory" by Peter Divine. Horror. (streaming only?)
     "the tale of a restless young man named Jacob Emory, who escapes small-town American life for a stint overseas, only to return nearly a decade later, changed, and with a chalk-like black wand in his possession.  The 'stick,' to to speak, allows Jacob the ability to exercise a power that was never meant to be possessed by a mortal man, and before long, mistakes are made."

• At Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs: "Episode 08 - The People That Time Forgot"
     "Tom Billings and Ajor are now in the land of the Kro-Lu, enroute to Ajor’s home with the Galu. They encounter a hunting party of Band-Lu, taking a Kro-Lu prisoner back to their cave for the dance of death."

Other Genres

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Friday, July 19, 2013

The Best Part of Waking Up, Is Free Fiction on Your Screen!"

 Good morning.  It's free fiction time!  As is normal, there are some very good ones this time. Back later with ?

 [Art from "Common Time" which is linked below]




Fiction
• At Buzzy Mag: "Common Time" by Bruce Golden. Science Fiction.
      "He stepped through the pandemonium of vines and hulking, water-rich leaves, as if walking on shards of glass, planting each step with caution, straining to see beyond the wall of vegetation. Shadows mocked his imagination. Every gargantuan outgrowth became another monster in his path."

• At Daily Science Fiction: "On The Big-fisted Circuit" by Cat Rambo. Science Fiction.
      "This was the biggest suit she'd ever crawled into. It meant money, money dripping through the wires around her, money in the gleaming metal struts, money being made by every step it took, money her family needed, every step a week's rent and food if they were careful with it."

• At HiLobrow: "The Man with Six Senses - Part 2" by Muriel Jaeger. Science Fiction. 1927.
     "My recollection of him went back to my last year at Sandal, when he was a tiresome small boy recommended to my special care by my mother, with that reckless ignorance of school-boy taboos and lines of social demarcation that mothers are apt to display."

E-Books
At Free eBooks Daily:
Audio Fiction 
• At Escape Pod: "Vestigial Girl" by Alex Wilson. Science Fiction.
     "The cartoon butterflies were sleeping along the pushlight nursery wallpaper as Charlene fumbled with her cradle’s locking mechanism, using fingers too large and uncoordinated for anything so practical. She blinked away the fuzziness of the low light–clearing her eyes for less than a second–and fought against the calming scent of lavender wafting up through her mattress. She flexed the monster in her throat. She didn’t love the feeling, but would miss such control over at least this one part of her body"

• At Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs: "Episode 07 - The People That Time Forgot"
      "Tom Billings and Ajor are making their way north through Caspak – seeking the land of the Galu from whence Ajor comes.  They rescue and ally with To-Mar and So-Al, two Band-Lu who have evolved to the next stage of human Caspakian life, the Kro-Lu. The hardy band works its way north."

• At LibriVox: Planet of Dread by Murray Leinster. Science Fiction.
     "Humans have expanded to myriads of worlds throughout the galaxies but they have found that the only way for colonies to be self sustaining, was to reproduce the total ecology of their home world; the original Earth. This meant bringing the entire ecosystem, the good, the bad and the ugly. Viruses as well as grass, goats as well as stink bugs and allowing the whole mixture to ultimately produce an inhabitable world for humans."

• At Tales to Terrify: "The Bone Plate" by Dan Rabarts. Horror.
     "Back in the black old days, we called it the Bone Plate. Wasn’t worth your life to touch the Bone Plate. It made men kings, back in the black old days. Mine was a trashcan lid, piled high with gnawed, soot-stained remains, the bones of rats and cats and stray dogs and pigeons. Only the bones of that which you had killed and stripped clean with your own biting, smiling teeth were allowed on your Plate, and whoever had the biggest Plate ruled the windswept world of trash and frost that sprawled beneath the overpasses. "

Other Genres
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Sunday, July 14, 2013

The Ghosts of Sunday Free Free Fiction

 A few goodies for you today, including audio fiction "Short Ghost and Horror Story Collection 021" at Libtivox:  More later.







Fiction
E-Books at Free E-Books Daily.
• Flash Fiction at 365 Tomorrows: "Used and Abused" by Nicholas Short. Science Fiction.

Audio
• At The Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs: "Episode 06 - The People That Time Forgot"
        "Tom Billings, lost in Caspak, has rescued and allied himself with Ajor – a beautiful Galu girl who is making her way north back to her tribe. Tom accompanies her."

• At SFFaudio: "The Risk Profession" by Donald E. Westlake. Science Fiction.
     "The men who did dangerous work had a special kind of insurance policy. But when somebody wanted to collect on that policy the claims investigator suddenly became a member of… The Risk Profession."

• At LibriVox: Short Ghost and Horror Story Collection 021
  • "The Bad Old Woman In Black" by Lord Dunsany.
  • "Coco" by Guy de Maupassant.
  • "The Mysterious Mansion" by Honore de Balzac
  • "The Upper Berth" by Francis Marion Crawford. 
  • "The Squaw" by Bram Stoker.
  • "Transition" by Algernon Blackwood.
  • "At the Gate" by Myla Jo Closser.
  • "Lycanthropus" by C. Edgar Bolen.
  • "The Night Wire" by H. F. Arnold. 
  • "The Haunted Cove" by George Douglas.
  • "The Tractate Middoth" by M. R. James, 
  • "The Music on the Hill" by H. H. Munro (Saki)  
  • "The Insanity of Jones" by Algernon Blackwood. 
  • "The Monster-Maker" by W. C. Morrow.
  • "The Fortunes of Sir Robert Ardagh" by J. Sheridan Le Fanu.
  • "The Open Window" by H H Munro.
  • "The Diary of Philip Westerly" by Paul Compton.
  • "El Verdugo (The Executioner)" by Honore De Balzac.
  • "The Bold Dragoon" by Washington Irving.
  • "The Tomb of Heiri" by A. C. Benson.
• OTR at Journey Into: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury -CBC Stage. Science Fiction.

Other Genres
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Friday, July 12, 2013

TGIFFF (Thank God It's Friday Free Fiction)

Another great day for free fiction with free fiction, flash fiction, and audio fiction from all the big three genres (Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror).  And be sure to check out "SF Signal," "Free SF Reader," "Free Speculative Fiction Online," "BestScienceFictionStories.com," "Variety SF," and "SFFaudio" for more free fiction links.

 [Art from "The Plague" by Ken Liu in flash fiction.]


Fiction
• At Daily Science Fiction: "Memories of Mirrored Worlds" by Barbara A. Barnett. Fantasy.
      "The voice had no source that Alison Marie could find, for the people around her did not talk of magical realms; they did not speak with the cadence of a butterfly's flight. They filled the funeral parlor with floral-scented death and spoke of memories and such an unfortunate accident for one so young."

• At HiLobrow: "The Man with Six Senses - Part 1" by Muriel Jaeger. Science Fiction. (1927).
     "When Hilda, a beautiful young member of England’s cynical postwar generation, meets Michael, a hapless mutant capable of perceiving the molecular composition of objects and the ever-shifting patterns of electromagnetic fields, she becomes his apostle."

• At Tor.com: "Wave of Infection" by Jason Hough.
      "The aircraft rested in a windswept field a few hundred meters up from the beach. Her crew, a pilot and co-pilot, sat nearby. Gulls wheeled overhead, their occasional calls as lazy as the Mediterranean whitecaps stretching north as far as Skyler could see."

Flash Fiction
  • At Every Day Fiction: "For The Empire" by Alexander Burns. Fantasy.
  • At 365 Tomorrows: "Ocean" by Gabriel E. Zentner. Science Fiction.
  • At Tor.com: "The Plague" by Ken Liu. Science Fiction.
Audio Fiction
• The Classic Tales Podcast: "Through the Looking Glass, Part 5 of 5" by Lewis Carroll. Children's Fantasy.
      "At long last, Alice becomes a queen. But it’s bittersweet, really. For her new cronies, the Red and White Queens drive her crazy. It’s Lewis Carroll– Today on The Classic Tales Podcast." Parts One, Two, Three, and Four.

• At Escape Pod: "Zebulon Vance Sings the Alphabet Songs of Love" by Merrie Haskell. Science Fiction.
     "Today, Robot!Hamlet is afire with Edwin Booth’s mad vigor, and runs his improv algorithms at full throttle; he kisses me dreamily, and rips my bodice in a way that would never have been allowed in Victorian America. The FACfans don’t look hyperpleased about this; it tarnishes their precious authenticity"

• At The Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs: "Episode 05 - The People That Time Forgot"
      "Tom Billings has been captured by a tribe of Band-Lu. He has been taken through caverns and caves deep into the cliffs, where he is tied and left to await the next day – and the “dance of death”.  In the darkness, he hears the sound of padded feet approaching him"

• At PodCastle: "The Phoenix on the Sword, featuring Conan the Barbarian" by Robert E. Howard. Fantasy.
     "The room was large and ornate, with rich tapestries on the polished-panelled walls, deep rugs on the ivory floor, and with the lofty ceiling adorned with intricate carvings and silver scrollwork. Behind an ivory, gold-inlaid writing-table sat a man whose broad shoulders and sun-browned skin seemed out of place among those luxuriant surroundings. He seemed more a part of the sun and winds and high places of the outlands."

• At Tales to Terrify: Episode #79. Horror.
“The Scratch of an Old Record” by Cate Gardner
“Breathe My Name” by Christopher Golden
      "A group of miners are trapped underground; as the time passes and they start to lose their strength, one of them recalls an old bedtime story his father used to tell him." - Horror World.
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Sunday, July 7, 2013

It's All Right, Little Brother... There is More Free Fiction!

More free goodies today, with more to come.  A mix of new and "catch up" links.


[Picture for the post title]




Fiction
• At BuzzyMag: "Shadow Transit" by Ferrett Steinmetz. Science Fiction.
     "Last night’s blizzard had choked the roads, leaving the cabinet factory short-handed for the Friday shift. So Michelle’s boss had called to give her a choice: she could come in for an emergency shift today and keep her job, or she could keep the day off she’d requested to visit her daughter at Shadow Transit"

• At Cast of Wonders: "Patterns (Part 1)" and  "Patterns (Part 2)" by Susan Oke. YA Speculative Fiction.
     "There’s no stopping Mikey in this mood. He grins at me, blue eyes bright in the moonlight, and a surge of excitement snatches at my breath. He always does this to me; it’s one of the things that I love about him. Blake and Hari stride ahead –– the Hulk and Spiderman –– full of restless energy. Mikey grabs my hand and together we run to catch up."

• At HiLoBrow: "The Clockwork Man (16)" by E.V. Odle. Science Fiction. 1923.
     "Several thousand years from now, advanced humanoids known as the Makers will implant clockwork devices into our heads. At the cost of a certain amount of agency, these devices will permit us to move unhindered through time and space, and to live complacent, well-regulated lives. However, when one of these devices goes awry, a “clockwork man” appears accidentally in the 1920s, at a cricket match in a small English village. Comical yet mind-blowing hijinks ensue"

• At HiLoBrow: "The Moon Men Part One and Part Two" by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
     "It was early in March, 1969, that I set out from my bleak camp on the desolate shore some fifty miles southeast of Herschel Island after polar bear. I had come into the Arctic the year before to enjoy the first real vacation that I had ever had. The definite close of the Great War, in April two years before, had left an exhausted world at peace — a condition that had never before existed and with which we did not know how to cope."

• At Pseudopod: "Neighbourhood Watch" by Greg Egan. Horror.
     "Only those who break the law, says the contract. A list of statutes is provided, to be precise. Parking offences, breaking the speed limit and cheating on income tax are not included; decent people are only human, after all. Breaking and entering is there, though, and stealing, well, that dates right back to the old stone tablets."

• At Pseudopod: "Immortal L.A." by Eric Czuleger. Horror.
     "I went to the bathroom. Before I opened the door I tried to convince myself to chew a piece of gum instead. Saliva roused in my mouth and convinced me otherwise. I placed my head on the door with a gentle thunk, and thought, Am I hungry? Then, no I’m just depressed. I opened the door to the bathroom. The girl was lying in the bathtub where I left her."

• At The WiFiles: "Box 3053"  by Steve Shilstone. Speculative Fiction.
    "Harrison Banes prepares to leave for work. He stuffs his lunch into grocery bags. Shaved and combed, he takes one last look in the mirror. Uneasy, frightened, this is the night he’s been dreading. He does not want to face it. Or maybe he does. Six of one, half dozen of the other. Let’s leave it there."

• At The WiFiles: "Van Helsing Escapes" by James Lewelling.
     "I couldn’t take it anymore—her “Harker this” and “Harker that.” I had to get out of that place. I didn’t even wait for her to start into it. As soon as she had stepped into the room, I rushed the door. It took her completely off guard. The last thing I saw was the “O” of her open mouth."
 
 Flash Fiction
• At Every Day Fiction: "Grounded" by Jonathon Mast. Science Fiction.
• At Quantum Muse: "The Platters" by Harris Tobias. Science Fiction.
At 365 Tomorrows:
Audio Fiction
• At Cast of Wonders: "Patterns (Part 1)" and  "Patterns (Part 2)" by Susan Oke. YA Speculative Fiction.
     "There’s no stopping Mikey in this mood. He grins at me, blue eyes bright in the moonlight, and a surge of excitement snatches at my breath. He always does this to me; it’s one of the things that I love about him. Blake and Hari stride ahead –– the Hulk and Spiderman –– full of restless energy. Mikey grabs my hand and together we run to catch up."

• At Escape Pod: "Saving Alan Idle" by Katherine Mankiller. Science Fiction.
     "In the beginning, there was darkness.  And in the darkness were the words.  And the words were, _AI process starting."

• At The Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs: "Episode 04 - The People That Time Forgot"
     "Tom Billings, stranded in Caspak by his own stupidity, is making his way north. On the way, he has found and rescued a beautiful primitive girl, Ajor. Together they have traveled, sheltering in caves at night. However, tonight they have been trapped in their cave by a huge bear who begins tearing through the rock barrier they have erected."

• At Tales to Terrify: "Part One of “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. On the big maps this deserted area is painted in a fluffy blue, growing fainter in color as it leaves the banks, and across it may be seen in large straggling letters the word Sumpfe, meaning marshes."

• At Tales to Terrify: Episode #78. Horror.
  • “The Willows,” Part 2 by Algernon Blackwood.
  • “Mr. Bird Whistling in the Night” by T. Fox Dunham.
  • “The Good Doctor Sullivan” by T. Fox Dunham.
Other Genres
• Audio at Forgotten Classics: The Mouse in the Mountain - now complete. by Norbert Davis. Mystery.
• Flash at Every Day Fiction:
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Saturday, July 6, 2013

Escape from the Planet of the Luddites with Free Fiction

Just back from vacationing in the Land of the Luddites and here is the first of several mixed "catching up"and new free fiction posts that will come over the next couple of days. Lots of good stuff!





Fiction
• At Author's Site: "Twenty Years Later, By Separation Peak" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Alternate History.
     "A fox will be elected without saying a word, Playing the saint in public living on barley bread, Afterwards he will very suddenly tyrannize, Putting his foot on the greatest ones"

• At Black Gate: "The Death of the Necromancer, Part Five" by Martha Wells. Fantasy.
     "Nicholas Valiarde is a passionate, embittered nobleman with an enigmatic past. Consumed by thoughts of vengeance, he is consoled only by thoughts of the beautiful, dangerous Madeline. He is also the greatest thief in all of Ile-Rien…"

• At Lightspeed: "Golden Apple" by Sophia McDougall. Fantasy.
      "The process of transforming sunlight into a solid object had been complete about a month when we broke into the lab and stole as much as we could carry. Carrying it was an issue, actually—obviously we were fairly sure it wouldn’t weigh much. But what do you carry sunlight in? Some sort of vacuum flask seemed appropriate. We didn’t want the sunlight to leak, or get contaminated. But would it die, somehow, if we shut it up in the dark?"

 • At Lightspeed: "Division of Labor"by Benjamin Roy Lambert. Science Fiction.
      "No one said anything, but Sull could tell they were all a little jealous when he lost his arms and legs. The arms went first, the left one during a bath and the right one a few days later, while he was being fed. Then both legs went at once, which was rare, and Sull was proud of it.

• At Nightmare Magazine: "And Yet, Her Eyes" by Brit Mandelo. Horror.
     "Sasha came back from Kandahar in pieces, a sack of broken glass in the shape of a woman. She knew her edges stuck out at hard, invisible angles, waiting for an unwary hand to snag and recoil, so she kept her eyes closed through the flight to Chicago, immersed in civilian travel-murmur but not part of it."

• At Online Pulps: "A Roman Resurrection" by Lee Meriwether. 1904. Speculative Fiction.
     "Being the strange case H. Quintus Flaccus set against the background of modern Pompeii. A Roman of the time of Nero brought back to life in 1903." from Argosy December, 1904

• At Strange Horizons: "In Joy, Knowing the Abyss Behind (Part 1 of 2)" by Sarah Pinsker. Speculative Fiction.
     "What are you talking about, old man?" she asked, but he was already someplace else. He opened his mouth as if to say more, but no words came out.

• At Tor.com: "The Ministry of Changes" by Marissa K. Lingen. Science Fiction.
      "Fantine was very lucky to have a job in the Ministry of Changes. She had heard her mother tell it to the grannies on their block too many times to forget it, and the things the grannies knew were transmuted to truth by some alchemy unknown even to the Ministry."

• At Weird Fiction Review: "An Incident at Agate Beach" by Marly Youmans.
      "Marsha had jumped when the child materialized at her side, peering over her arm to see what it was she was doing, and she glanced about to look for his parents.  But no one leaned from the cliff or climbed slowly down the path; no one was in sight along the beach in either direction, neither strolling along the rock pools nor bent to see what agates and jasper the tide had uncovered."

Flash Fiction
Audio Fiction
• At Author's Site: "The MVP Episode #38 (final episode!)" by Scott Sigler. Science Fiction. Football.
      "all great stories must come to a close, and The MVP is no exception. What's in store for Quentin and the Krakens as we finish up Book IV and prepare for Book V. Listen in to find out."

• At LibriVox: The Gods of Mars version 3  by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Science Fiction. Adventure.
     "After John Carter's arrival, a boat of Green Martians on the River Iss are ambushed by the previously unknown Plant Men. The lone survivor is his friend Tars Tarkas, the Jeddak of Thark, who has taken the pilgrimage to the Valley Dor to find Carter."

• At LibriVox: Short Science Fiction Collection 048. Science Fiction.
  • "All Cats Are Gray" by Andrew North – 00:17:21
  • "The Anglers of Arz" by Roger D. Aycock – 00:22:09
  • "Vital Ingredient" by Charles De Vet – 00:19:03
  • "The Asses of Balaam" by Gordon Randall Garrett – 00:57:52
  • "Cat and Mouse" by Ralph Williams – 00:59:41
  • "Do Unto Others" by Mark Clifton – 00:56:08
  • "Egocentric Orbit" by John Cory – 00:06:08
  • "Hall of Mirrors" by Fredric Brown – 00:17:57
  • "Hall of Mirrors" by Fredric Brown – 00:21:15
  • "In the Abyss" by H.G. Wells – 00:36:09
  • "Keep Out" by Frederic Brown – 00:08:08
  • "The Last Supper" by T.D. Hamm – 00:03:34
  • "Lighter Than You Think" by Nelson Bond – 00:27:48
  • "Lost In Translation" by Larry M. Harris – 00:28:25
  • "Of Time and Texas" by William F. Nolan – 00:04:26
  • "Operation Earthworm" by Joe Archibald – 00:35:31
  • "Question of Comfort" by Les Collins – 00:54:09
  • "The Land Ironclads" by H.G. Wells – 00:53:04
  • "Think Yourself to Death" by C.H. Thames – 00:49:49
  • "The Unwilling Professor" by Arthur Porges – 00:19:00
• At LibriVox: "The Lady of Shalott" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Fantasy. In Short Poetry Collection 121.
      Arthurian Fantasy.

 • At Lightspeed: "Division of Labor"by Benjamin Roy Lambert. Science Fiction.
      Described Above.

• At Nightmare Magazine: "And Yet, Her Eyes" by Brit Mandelo. Horror.
      Described Above. 

• At 19 Nocturne Boulevard: "The Street that Wasn't There" by Clifford J. Simak and Carl Jacobi. Science Fiction.
     "Perhaps we shall come upon a day, far distant, when our plane, our world will dissolve beneath our feet and before our eyes as some stronger intelligence reaches out from the dimensional shadows of the very space we live in and wrests from us the matter which we know to be our own."
 
• At Strange Horizons: "In Joy, Knowing the Abyss Behind (Part 1 of 2)" by Sarah Pinsker. Speculative Fiction.
     Described above.

Other Genres
• At Online Pulps:  "Miss Dynamite" by Peter Dawson (1941), "Casque of Death" by Clifford D. Clevenger (1939), "Little Old Lady" by Owen Fox Jerome (1944), "Suicide Scenario" by Robert Leslie Bellem (1948).  Noir. Detective. Mystery.
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Thursday, June 13, 2013

May the Free Fiction Be With You!

     Today's free fiction is highlighted by the latest issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies, a new novelette at Tor.com (hate to see what the word "porn" in the title does to my Google ads), and several continuing serialized stories, including one by D&D legend Ed Greenwood. There are also many e-books and flash fiction stories of interest.  And as always check out "My Blog List" and "Free Fiction Sites" especially SF Signal's free fiction links by the always cool, Nixon Dogruns Regan Wolfrom for more free fiction pointers.




[Art for Episode 8 of The Land That Time Forgot - linked below]


Fiction
At HiLobrow: "The Devolutionist - part 17" by Homer Eon Flint. Occult-Science-Fiction. (1921)
     "“You may as well make your apologies now, Powart; you’re out of it! I’ve won, and you’ve lost! I’ve done a bigger thing than you have!”"

• At Paizo: "A Matter of Knives - Chapter Two: When Someone Wants You Dead" by Ed Greenwood. Fantasy.
     "Tantaerra cursed foully, then cursed even harder as she felt swords biting into the far sides of the crates she was now clinging to. The manyswords thing was hacking and hewing crates as high as it could reach, cleaving wood that was a lot older and damper than the lid it had just flung aside; its blades were through one crate-side already."

• At Tor.com: "Porn & Revolution in the Peaceable Kingdom" by Micaela Morrissette.
     "In a possible far future animals have taken over and democratized the world where humans once ruled. Tim, a lonely slime mold, is worried about his human pet Mimi and her recent animal urges. He only wants her to be happy, but he doesn’t know how to keep her from sneaking out and cavorting with the human pet next door or any number of feral humans in the neighborhood. But through his relationship with her, he learns what it truly means to make a commitment to someone else."   

• Now Posted: Beneath Ceaseless Skies #106.
• "Cold, Cold War" by Ian McHugh. Fantasy.
       "Masaru peered past the struts and wires between his biplane's wings, trying to take the sight in. The tower's base was a madman's helter-skelter ziggurat, made of impossible stone blocks the size of townhouses, that cut a swath across the city's snow-covered grid of tenement blocks and terraces. From the ziggurat’s peak, the ragged-toothed tower reached up to a dark stain of cloud fixed in the sky directly above."
• "A Sixpenny Crossing" by Don Allmon. Fantasy.
       "'Stolen,' the General hissed. 'Stolen!' he shouted, enraged. 'It was Easric Dane, I know it! Upon my soul, it must have been he!' Not only was it awful, but Pearl couldn't possibly be suggesting there was any truth to it. Earsic thought of drowning the book in the river. But Pearl Snow had a wicked pack of cards. They brooked none of Easric's sass and weren't lightly ignored"
Flash Fiction
  • At Daily Science Fiction: "True Love" by Alex Shvartsman. 
  • At Flashes in the Dark: "Chessie" by Lindsey Beth Goddard. Horror.
  • At Nature: "Mortar Flowers" by Jessica May Lin. Science Science.
  • At 365 Tomorrows: "Mathmagicians" by Desmond Hussey, Science Fiction.
E-Books
• At Amazon:  Essential Reading in Science Fiction by David Scholes. 
• At Free eBooks Daily:
Audio Fiction
• At Beneath Ceaseless Skies: "The Penitent" by M. Bennardo. Fantasy
      "No. 17596 let the book fall out of his hands. It would tell him what? It would tell him that the world went on—that somewhere, out there, men and women were carrying on their affairs while he sat alone in his cell, sentenced to ruminate in silence and isolation."

• At Classics on the Go: "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Chapter 3" by Lewis Carroll
     "Alice, the Mouse and other creatures swim to shore. They find themselves all wet and try to get dry by having a 'caucus-race.'"

• At The Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs: "Episode 08 - The Land That Time Forgot"
     "The German crew of the U-33 have managed to refine the oil that has been discovered near the camp.  They pilot the U-33 downstream back toward the outlet to the sea – shelling the camp along the way.  In the meantime, Lys has disappeared from the camp – with anthropoid footprints indicating she has been abducted by Caspak’s native ape creatures."

Other Genres
• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "She Smelled Pretty" by Kristi Charish
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Monday, June 10, 2013

Give Me Free Fiction or Give Me Death

The free fiction keeps on coming and will hopefully continue for many years.  There are many good ones today, so I'll stop boring you here and let you get to them.




[Art from Crime City Central, linked in Other Genres]






Fiction
• At Author's Site: "Solo For Concert Grand" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Science Fiction.
      "Emily Trencheon lives life as a prodigy—and a successful experiment. She provides a shining example for the Academy of Universal Languages to continue its program with the Miaslan. But she alone knows the truth. And she fears her final act of communication—a piano composition meant to be played in total darkness—will be forever lost in the shadows of misinterpretation."

• At Cast of Wonders: "Mr. Scampers’ War" by J. S. Bell. YA.
     "An explosion of leaves, a swirl of dust and the fierce jungle cat leaps from the verdant forest and is on the gazelle in one bound. Claws rend and jaws clamp shut. The gazelle dies with a bleat of terror."

• At HiLobrow: "Theodore Savage - part 14" by Cicely Hamilton.
     "When war breaks out in Europe — war which aims successfully to displace entire populations — British civilization collapses utterly and overnight. The ironically named Theodore Savage, an educated and dissatisfied idler, must learn to survive by his wits in the new England, where 20th-century science, technology, and culture are regarded with superstitious awe and terror."

• At L5R: "Scenes from the Empire" by Robert Denton & Seth Mason. Fantasy.
     "Suzume Tatsu stretched his back as he surveyed his meager crop. In four consecutive years, he’d had no luck with this new soil, which too-often alternated between parched and dry or flooded and swollen."

• At Strange Horizons: "Collateral Memory" by Sabrina Vourvoulias.
     "Friends or not, there is one guiding rule in the game: it's got to be genuine. Like life. Real. Anything else would be a cheat. And despite all of our other differences, no one in the shed is that. Except me."

• At The WiFiles: "Sixty-Five Going on Zero" by Tara Campbell. Speculative Fiction.
       "Harry St. Clair was through with life. Well, clinically that may not have been true, but that was how he felt. He felt especially lousy on this particular day, and he wasn’t even completely awake yet. Eyes closed, he lay in bed and contemplated his first day of retirement."

Flash Fiction
Audio Fiction
• At Author's Site: "The MVP Episode #35" by Scott Sigler. Science Fiction. Football.
      "Quentin faces his biggest challenge yet, and must draw from his inner warrior to show unparalleled toughness. Becca "The Wrecka" Montagne steps in for late-game heroics, while the will of Yhitzak Goldman's is put to the test."

• At Beam Me Up: "Episode  # 369" Science Fiction.
      "A World’s New Destiny" by Kallamis and "No Great Magic - ch7" by Fritz Leiber.

• At Cast of Wonders: "Mr. Scampers’ War" by J. S. Bell. YA.
     Described Above.

• At The Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs: "Episode 07 - The Land That Time Forgot" Adventure
     "Our hero and the crew of the U-33 are leaning about their new land, Caspak.  A secure palisaded camp has been built.  Hunting expeditions bring home meat and knowledge to the camp – and now, oil has been discovered nearby."

• At LibriVox: "Lord Tony's Wife" by Baroness Emmuska Orczy. Adventure.
      "Another adventure of the Scarlet pimpernel! As the title suggests, it follows the story of Lord Tony and his wife, Yvonne. It is full of suspense adventure and romance. Lord Tony and Yvonne elope after some disturbing happenings including an angry mob and an assault on Yvonne by her own father."

• At SFFaudio: "The Pit And The Pendulum" by Edgar Allan Poe.
     "I WAS sick -- sick unto death with that long agony; and when they at length unbound me, and I was permitted to sit, I felt that my senses were leaving me. The sentence -- the dread sentence of death -- was the last of distinct accentuation which reached my ears."

• At Strange Horizons: "Collateral Memory" by Sabrina Vourvoulias.
     Described Above

Other Genres
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