Good Freebies

Another collection of great free fiction from many sources! Be sure to check them all out and save them however you like - many won't be available forever.  And check out Regan Wolfrom's SF Signal post for good, accurate free links despite the occasionally crack inspired claims at the beginning of his posts.

 [art from "Stargazer" - linked below]




Fiction
• At Amazon:  "Speculative Fiction The Ultimate Collection" by David K Scholes [Kindle Edition].
     "A collection of some 23 speculative fiction short stories including science fiction, alternate history, science fantasy and an alternate reality story."

• At Author's Site: "Shadows on the Moon" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Urban Fantasy.
     "They say anything can happen in New York, but I don’t think most of the people who say that take it as literally as the folks in this delicate little fantasy."

• At Author's Site: "Gnome on Girl on Gnome: A Love Story – Part 1 of 2" by Regan Wolfrom.
     "Despite her best intentions, Marguerite Frunklin had never been in love before. She’d been in lust, as had all the girls back home in Ohio when they’d first found out James Franco was studying for a PhD in English, but love was something magical and mysterious to her. It was something she’d been forced to cobble together in her mind with a soulful blend of romantic passages from Twilight and Fifty Shades of Gray"

• At Daily Science Fiction: "Puppet Man" by Cate Gardner.
     "Walter's wife needed a hobby. In Walter's opinion, it was more of a want than a need, but he didn't dare argue the point. When Maeve needed something, she had to have it. After all, it was how they'd become a couple. She paced the living room, fingers working themselves into knots."

• At Nightmare: "Feminine Endings" by Neil Gaiman. Horror.
      "Let us begin this letter, this prelude to an encounter, formally, as a declaration, in the old-fashioned way: I love you. You do not know me (although you have seen me, smiled at me, placed coins in the palm of my hand). I know you (although not so well as I would like. I want to be there when your eyes flutter open in the morning, and you see me, and you smile. Surely this would be paradise enough?)."

• At Paizo: "Stargazer - Chapter Three: Blood and Information"  by Chris A. Jackson. Fantasy.
     "Katapesh being Katapesh, however, this particular temple was far from the humble hermitages and shrines one might find on a distant coast or otherwise uninhabited island. The head priest wore fine robes, and looked as if it had been some time since he last slept out under the open sky. He sat at a beautiful wooden table next to the reflecting pool, and looked none too pleased at being interrupted."

• At Tor.com: "Super Bass" by Kai Ashante Wilson. Fantasy.
     "Gian returns to Sea-john from the Kingdom's wars certain that he has skills beyond killing, death and destruction. He needs to prove to himself that love is just as strong, if not stronger, than his hate. The Summer King gives him this opportunity."

Flash Fiction

• At Beware the Hairy Mango: "Newtreesean" by Matthew Sanborn Smith. Audio. Weird.
• At Beware the Hairy Mango: "Computer Porn" by Matthew Sanborn Smith. Audio. Weird.
• At Daily Science Fiction: "Airship Hope" by Laurel Amberdine. 
• At Flashes in the Dark: "The Beginning" by Dave Dormer.
• At Flashes in the Dark: "The Eleventh Hour" by Michael A. Kechula. Horror.
• At Nature: "An Alien Named Tim" by Michael Haynes. Science Fiction.
• At Quantum Muse: "Cold" by Harris Tobias.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "The Seven Year Scream" by Aldous Mercer. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Home Is Where the Heart Is" by Roger Hammons. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At Clarkesworld: "The Banquet of the Lords of Night" by Liz Williams.
     "The growing rain blurs the lamps of the Isle de Saint Luce so that they look like dandelion clocks, their down blown away on the wind. The light makes de Rais squint and peer, but the parcel warms his breast, in spite of the rain. Heat seeps through him like the taste of honey."

• At LibriVox: "Time Crime" by H. Beam Piper. Science Fiction.
     "The Paratime Police had a real headache this time! Tracing one man in a population of millions is easy--compared to finding one gang hiding out on one of billions of probability lines!"

• At LibriVox: Astounding Stories 01, January 1930
      "In January of 1930 a new magazine with a flashy color cover appeared on newsstands, Astounding Stories of Super-Science. Filled with stories of adventure, sometimes with only a tinge of science, this magazine was to host and nurture many science fiction giants like Murray Leinster and Ray Cummings and would help inspire many of the writers of the 'Golden Age of Science Fiction.'"

• At 19 Nocturne Boulevard: "Scream Queen" Horror.
      "Tiffany Romaine, an aging star of direct to video horror, finds things to not be what they seem at the horror convention 'Schlock-O-Con!'"

• At PodCastle: "Oracle Gretel" by Julia Rios. Fantasy.
     "Gretel was in love with her boss. Ms. L. Thorne spoke in short, clipped sentences, and when she smiled, which was rare, it looked like the curved edge of a wicked blade."

• At StarShipSofa: "Mitigation" by Tobias Buckell & Karl Schroeder. Science Fiction.
     No Description

Other Genres

• Audio at Every Photo Tells: "Obscurities – Part 03" by Mick Bordet.
• Audio at Forgotten Classics: "The Mouse in the Mountain, chapters 7-8" by Norbert Davis. Noir.
• Fiction at The New Yorker: "The Dark Arts" by Ben Marcus.

Back for More, eh?

Some very good freebies today! (I know I say that often, but it's always true.)  From modern fantasy at Black Gate to classic science fiction at LibriVox, there's something for everyone. And if for some unfathomable reason you want a break from these genre's, there are a couple of good entries in the other genres category.  And be sure to check out Best science Fiction stories and Variety SF for reviewed free fiction (with links to the free stories) and the latest SFFAudio podcast which discusses the free, serialized Tarzan of the Apes podcast.

[Art from the "The Poison Well" linked below.]





Fiction
At Black Gate: "The Poison Well" by Judith Berman. Fantasy.
       "Manvayar urged Raven down the bank of the high road and onto the lane, into the green shadows of the forest. He noticed that the country folk had done some cutting and coppicing along the edge of the lane, but further in the wood was an impenetrable tangle. The lord of this place had not even fired the brush for hunting".

At The WiFiles: "Weaver’s Needle" by Nancy Cole Silverman. Speculative Fiction.
     "It happened more than forty years ago, but there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about it.  Sometimes the memory’s prompted by some TV news story, ‘bout someone who has gotten themselves lost in the Superstition Mountains outside Phoenix. Story never ends well."

Flash Fiction

• At Daily Science Fiction: "Speed of Love" by Deborah Walker.
• At Quantum Muse: "Skin and Scale"  by Patricia Todd.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Life Star" by Jae Miles. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
At Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs: Episode 04 - The Return of Tarzan Adventure.
      "Tarzan has been waylaid in the Rue Maule by a band of cut-throats in the rooms of a woman under the sway of the evil Nicholas Rokoff. "

At LibriVox: "Naudsonce"  by H. Beam Piper. Science Fiction.
      "Bishop Berkeley's famous question about the sound of a falling tree may have no standing in Science. But there is a highly interesting question about "sound" that Science needs to consider...."

At Toasted Cake: "Super Psych" by J. M. Vogel. Paranormal.
     "The supernatural set could be so sensitive."

Old Time Radio

• At Journey Into: "Lieutenant Hornblower: The Landing" by C.S. Forester. Adventure.
• At Relic Radio: "Homicide House" - The Haunting Hour. Horror. 1944.

Other Genres

• Audio at Crime City Central: "Out On Joppa" by Robert War.
• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "A Muse’s Tale" by Rohini Gupta.

Free Enough

Some great fiction today including the conclusion of Eric Scott de Bie's "Proper Villains,"  new fiction from Tor and Nature, classic ghost stories from the Nineteen Teens at Project Gutenberg and Tor, four more stories at Phantasmacore, flash fiction, and audio fiction. And don't miss today's free fiction links at SF Signal.

 Concerning e-books: Information has been brought to my attention that complicates matters [thank you]. While I still consider free as being something that is given to, or taken by, you that cannot be taken away, the fact that some companies at Amazon do not use DRM and the fact that I don't have time to check them individually means that e-book listings will continue irregularly (just like before). So concerning yesterday's notice about e-books, I'll just quote the classic Gilda Radner character Emily Litella, "Never mind."
 
[Art from "Foundation" below].
 
Fiction
At Nature: "Glass Future" by Deborah Walker. Science Fiction.
      “Do you think she's post-human?” I whisper to my husband. She looks too good to be real.
At Paizo:  "Proper Villains - Chapter Four: The Reward"  by Erik Scott de Bie. Fantasy.
     Link is to all four parts. "He awoke in a cold spray of brackish water. The Hellknight who'd roused him drew back the half-empty bucket, then brought it forward again for another go. This time, Tarrant inhaled half the putrid stuff and gagged. "Is that really necessary?" he coughed."
At Project Gutenberg:  Great Ghost Stories by Various. Horror. 1918.
         "The Were-Wolf" - "We waited for some time, but the report of the gun did not reach us, and my elder brother then said, 'Our father has followed the wolf, and will not be back for some time. Marcella, let us wash the blood from your mouth, and then we will leave this corner, and go to the fire and warm ourselves.'"
At Tor.com:  "Foundation" by Ann Aguirre. Horror.
    "I don’t remember how the sun feels.It’s an abstract concept for me, something I know exists, but doesn’t have the meaning it once did."
At Tor.com:  "The Shadowy Third" by Ellen Glasgow. Horror. Ghost. 1916.
     “He didn’t mention me by name. Can there be a mistake?” I stood, incredulous yet ecstatic, before the superintendent of the hospital.
At Pantasmacore: 

"Dangerous Rendezvous" by Grove Koger.
     "No doubt about it, Eric Francis was my father’s meal ticket. Oh, Dad corresponded now and then with Talbot Mundy and knew Sax Rohmer well enough to have a drink with him when they happened to be in Manhattan at the same time, but the big markets had them sewn up tight."
"Dying Day" by Michael C. Keith.
     "TAKE THE DREAD OUT OF DEAD! SCHEDULE YOUR PRACTICE DYING DAY NOW BY CALLING 1-800-DEAD-DAY. DON’T WAIT UNTIL IT’S TOO LATE, read the huge digital billboard along Route 95 between Boston and Providence."
"Montalov’s Box" by Michael Griffin.
      "Some wives fear losing their husband to an office affair, some to a heart attack. Each morning Sveta watches her husband leave for work and thinks maybe today’s the day he annihilates the universe."
 "Assignment" by Sayuri Yamada.
     ‘All the students have spent their time on this project. It’s not only you. Look at this. The temperature is rising unnaturally. The air is dirty. Many species are disappearing. It’s a shambles.’

Flash Fiction
At Daily Science Fiction: "My Mother's Body" by Christie Yant.
At Every Day Fiction: "Rags to Riches" by Robert Swartwood. Horror. Jinn.
At 365 Tomorrows: "Old Cars Never Die" by Clint Wilson. Science Fiction.


Audio Fiction
At SFFAudio: Two Versions of "Time And Time Again" by H. Beam Piper. Science Fiction.
     "To upset the stable, mighty stream of time would probably take an enormous concentration of energy. And it's not to be expected that a man would get a second chance at life. But an atomic might accomplish both—"
At Drama Pod: Unhinged Worlds (Season Premiere) S02 Ep01 "Exit 34"
At Drama Pod: Unhinged Worlds (Season Premiere) S02 Ep02 "The Bench"