It's a Beautiful Day in the Free Fiction Neighborhood.

Four more free fiction stories at Tor.com is certainly a highlight of this morning's free fiction. Project Gutenberg has a 1985 science fiction novel, there's flash fiction, including one by Gregory Benford, and audio stories at Podcast and SFFaudio.








Fiction
• At Project Gutenberg: First on the Moon by Jeff Sutton. Science Fiction. Science Fiction. 1958.
     "The four men had been scrutinized, watched, investigated, and intensively trained for more than a year. They were the best men to be found for that first, all-important flight to the Moon—the pioneer manned rocket that would give either the East or the West control over the Earth."

• At Tor.com: "Old Dead Futures" by Tina Connolly. Science Fiction.
      "a young boy’s ability to change the future makes him valuable to the government. But that same ability keeps him trapped in a wheelchair and at the mercy of those who would use him. When our present is fixed, how can we see a different future?"

• At Tor.com: "Contains Multitudes" by Ben Burgis. Science Fiction.   
      "Being a teenager is tough. Being part of the first generation of teenagers to share their body and soul with one of the aliens who just barely destroyed the earth: way tougher."

• At Tor.com: "Dragonkin" by Lavie Tidhar. Fantasy.
       "There are kin and there are –kin. There are not many dragons, but there are many who think they are, or want to be, or claim to remember being."

• At Tor.com: "One" by Nancy Kress. Science Fiction.
      "a science fiction novella about an angry young boxer who, after experiencing a concussion in a bout, is able to sense what people are thinking and predict their every move. He finds this useful in boxing but not great for personal relationships and turns to artificial means to deaden the sensations."
 
Flash Fiction

• At Daily Science Fiction: "The Flight Stone" by KJ Kabza. Science Fiction.
• At Every Day Fiction: "Close Encounters of the Worst Kind" by Y.N. Thom. Science Fiction.
• At Flashes in the Dark: "The Solidarity of Cows" by Reed Beebe. Horror.
• At Nature: "Think Big" by Gregory Benford. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Faceless" by Bob Newbell. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At PodCastle: "Selected Program Notes From the Retrospective Exhibition of Theresa Rosenberg Latimer" by Kenneth Schneyer. Fantasy.
     "Most biographers agree that Latimer and Meszaros were already lovers by the time this work was completed.  Is this apparent from the composition or technique?  From the pose of the model?  As you proceed through the exhibit, note similarities and differences between this and other portrayals of Meszaros over the next 34 years."

• At SFFaudio: "Fishhead" by Irvin S. Cobb. Horror.
     "He uttered no cry, but his eyes popped out, and his mouth set in a square shape of agony"

Thursday Morning

Some great free fantasy and SF this morning. Likely a second post tonight and I'm working on comics and RPG posts for either later this week or this weekend.

Illustration from "The Box" by Bill Ward.










@Cosmos: "Deep Clean" by Adam Brown and Paul Haines.

"The unit is purely cognitive," she says. No shots, no pills. It's something brand new, this addiction therapy. Neon Kumar sits there listening to nothing.

@Tor.com: "Grace Immaculate" by Gregory Benford,

"The first SETI signal turned up not in a concerted search for messages, but at the Australian Fast Transients study that looked for variable stars. This radio array picked up quick, pulsed signals from a source 134 light-years away. They appeared again consecutively 33 hours apart."

Now Posted: Beneath Ceaseless Skies #80
"Held Close in Syllables of Light" by Rose Lemberg.

Abruptly his stronghold folded. His names struck. He tore my mind-veil off. Before I could react, the names retreated, reformed his stronghold. All too powerful for me. He laughed. “The Raker’s daughter has taken a single two-syllable. Women, huh. Weaker even than your mother. So be more sensible than her, sweet Vendelin....”'

"To the Gods of Time and Engines, a Gift" by Dean Wells.

Cecily grabbed a shard from the mirror, traced an unsteady line along the flesh of her wrist. Scars and metal piercings adorned her arms where she’d cut herself before. “They demand the spilling of blood,” Granduncle would always say, when he bothered to notice her at all. “They envy us, you see, and covet the iron flowing freely in our veins.”

Now Posted: Goblin Fruit: Autumn 2011
Featuring fantasy poetry, most with an audio version available, by Josiah J. Eikelboom, Ruth Stacey, Nina Pelaez, Nancy Sheng, C.S. MacCath, Dan Campbell, S. Brackett Robertson, Sarah Colona, Marigny Michel, Joseph Harker, Liza Graham, Cheryl Stiles, Erik Amundsen, Lyn C. A. Gardner, and Joshua Davis.

Serial Fiction
@Kat and Mouse: "Into The Woods - Part Four" by Abner Senires.

"We had landed at the edge of a wide clearing. In the center stood a low, single-story, weatherbeaten cabin that looked like it had been built well over two hundred years ago. Shingles were missing from the roof, a brick chimney slouched against the side of the cabin, and a tall pile of chopped firewood hunched next to a covered front porch."

@Paizo: "The Box - Chapter Four: Nothing Gained" by Bill Ward.

"Move back!" Kostin shouted, barely parrying a spear thrust to the gut. There were more than a score of the things, each scarcely taller than Shess but like no humanoid Kostin had ever seen. Green-skinned, bedecked with shaggy ropes of dark moss, and armed with crude spears and clubs of human bone, the naked savages fought silently, almost impassively. The sheer weight and surprise of them had pushed Kostin back until he collided with Aeventius.

Audio
@Beneath Ceaseless Skies: "The Magick" by Kristina C. Mottla.

"Out from her hands where the book once rested, a butterfly flapped clumsily toward the shutters."