Happy Holidays

We have found some great freebies for you this Christmas Eve.  As always there's an eclectic selection of genres and formats so there should be something for virtually everyone.

As some of the more observant readers may have noticed, there is a new "gadget" on the right hand called QD Radio.  Here we will stream classic genre old time radio and modern readings of public domain stories. Today it's Ray Bradbury's classic story "Mars is Heaven" adapted by the classic radio program Escape.  These will change almost daily.



[Art for Islands of Space in Audio Fiction]




Fiction
• At Electric Velocipede: "Glass Boxes and Clockwork Gods" by Damien Walters Grintalis.
     "When the one in red gives up and screams, no one makes a sound. We turn our faces away or rest our foreheads against the glass and wait. It won’t take long. Big is quick with the remaking. In between the screams, sharp snaps punctuate the air with exclamation points of splintered bone and leaking marrow."

• At Interstellar Fiction: "Alms Race" by Deborah Walker. Science Fiction.
     "Erin felt in her pocket and pulled out a ten-euro coin. She tossed it into the newman’s plate, which was already primed with a couple of euros and what looked like a very old, very green fifty pence piece."

• At L5R: "Scenes from the Empire" by Robert Denton & Seth Mason. Fantasy. Samurai.
      "Asako Jirou walked through the bustling movement of TwinForksCity, peasants and samurai alike parting quickly as the shugenja strode by. The man wasn’t certain if it was the mark denoting his status as an Inquisitor that inspired such behavior, or the Crane’s generally friendly attitude towards the Phoenix, but he didn’t much care."

• At Mindflights: "Beyond the Sky" by Lily Best. Fantasy.
     "It’s not that bad, really.  I just have to take some extra precautions…like double-checking under my bed for the things that really do live there.  In general, I’ve learned the best strategy is to avoid people.  Nothing is more unnerving and revealing than seeing the kind of things that a person attracts."

• At The WiFiles: "The Reluctant Soul" By Tala Bar.
     "Hassida the Stork felt frustrated. The man lying on the bed was almost dead – but almost, since his Soul refused to leave the inanimated body. That Soul was destined to go to a newborn baby, and it was the Stork’s task to take it there, but Hassida had no power over the Soul as long as it was still attached to the body, and what was she to do?"

Serial Fiction
• At Author's site: "Thieves' Honor - Episode 21 The Rescuers, Part 2" by Keanan Brand
     "I'm an engineer. I invent things. I maintain things." Through dusty glasses, Alerio stared at the expanse of desert, his face as forlorn as that of any mariner forced to travel without his ship. "I'm not supposed to sweat."

• At Author's site: "Kat and Mouse: Ties That Bind" - Part One" by Abner Senires.
      "Revell, the burly and bearded owner, was restocking the liquor bottles that lined the mirrored back counter. Mouse, my partner and fellow ronin, was perched on a bar stool, working over a plate piled with breakfast pastries."

Flash Fiction

• At Daily Science Fiction: "The Hades Hotline" by Alex Petri. 
• At Quantum Muse: "Project Holmes" by Patrick Wiley.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Pan-Galactic Travel Agency" by Desmond Hussey. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction

• At Author's Site: "The MVP Episode #11" by Scott Sigler. Science Fiction. Football.
      "Quentin gets the best birthday present he never knew he wanted. An unexpected conflict  on the Hypatia, Quentin's yacht, threatens to change the entire season before it even begins."

• At Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs:  "Episode 13 - The Return of Tarzan"
       "Traveling by steamer down the west coast of Africa towards Cape Town, Tarzan has made fast friends with Hazel Strong, Jane Porter’s best friend. Unfortunately, Nicholas Rokoff is on board disguised as Monsieur Thuran."


• At LibriVox: "Phantoms of Reality" by Ray Cummings. Science Fiction.
      "Red Sensua's knife came up dripping—and the two adventurers knew that chaos and bloody revolution had been unleashed in that shadowy kingdom of the fourth dimension." from Astounding, January, 1930.

• At LibriVox: "Islands of Space" by John W. Campbell. Science Fiction.
    "As Earth's faster-than-light spaceship hung in the void between galaxies, Arcot, Wade, Morey and Fuller could see below them, like a vast shining horizon, the mass of stars that formed their own island universe. Morey worked a moment with his slide rule, then said, "We made good time! Twenty-nine light years in ten seconds! Yet you had it on at only half power...." (1956).

• At Toasted Cake: "Bad Elf" by Samuel Montgomery-Blinn.
      "They tried to give me other jobs more suitable to my gifts, like reindeer euthanasia technician and pest exterminator."

Comics

• At Digital Comics Museum: Saäri #01 Adventure (1951)
• At Digital Comics Museum: Amazing Mystery Funnies #21 Some Sci-Fi. (195X)
• At Digital Comics Museum: Black Magic #19. Horror. (1952)
• At Heroines: Cave Girl "Shadow-God of Korchak" Adventure. (1953)
• At The Horrors of It All: "Demons of the Sun" Horror. (1952)
• At Seduction of the Innocent: "Santa's Claws" Horror. (1970).

Other Genres

• Audio at Crime City Central: "Grammar Got Run Over by a Reindeer" by E E Kennedy.
• Audio at LibriVox: "Thorstein of the Mere: A Saga of the Northmen in Lakeland" by William Gershom Collingwood. YA Adventure.
• Audio at 19 Nocturne Boulevard: Brown Monkey's "A Very Sherman Bear Christmas"
• Fiction at Author's Site: "Canopy" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Holiday.
• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "The Gift" by Mysti Parker.

Midweek Links

Still short of time but some great free fiction and audio links today including a story by Ursula K. Le Guin.











@Cosmos: "Endangered species" by Joel Richards.

"They're offering a million pounds to send a hunting party back in time... another million if they return with a head."

@Lightspeed: "The Island of the Immortals" by Ursula K. Le Guin.

"Somebody asked me if I’d heard that there were immortal people on the Yendian Plane, and somebody else told me that there were, so when I got there, I asked about them."

Now Posted: Untied Shoelaces of the Mind - Issue 5. SF/Fantasy/Horror flash.

Audio
@Beam Me Up: Episode #280 "After Hours at the Black hole" by C.J. Wolf and "Tale for all the World" by Devin Miller

@Drama Pod: "Image of the Gods" by Alan Edward Nourse.

@Drama Pod: "The Last Evolution" by John Campbell Jr. read by Winfred Henson.

"An evolution involving man and machine.

@Drama Pod: "The Big Fix" by George Oliver Smith.

"The hero of this story needs to fix a race but there is just one problem, everyone can read minds and that makes it tricky."

@Dunesteef: "Death And Michelle Jenkins" by Christopher Munroe.

Michelle’s mother and father aren’t quite sure about their daughter’s most recent choice in her love life. Sure, the kid with the Mohawk and the sternum piercing was not what they’d hoped for, but now she’s going out with The Grim Reaper?

@LibriVox: "Montezuma’s Castle and Other Weird Tales" by Charles B. Cory.

"This is a collection of weird tales inspired from the natural history expeditions of the author"

@Lightspeed: "The Island of the Immortals" by Ursula K. Le Guin, read by Gabrielle De Cuir.
See above.

@PodCastle: "Middle Aged Weirdo in a Cadillac" by George R. Galuschak, read by Norm Sherman.

She raises her head and looks at him: middle-aged weirdo in a Cadillac. Tom Cruise shades; charcoal suit; porkpie hat; looks about 40, like her dad. Probably smokes; a hint of ash about him.

Serial Audio
@Author's Site: "The Starter Episode 33" by Scott Sigler.

The tension between Quentin and Ju has finally come to a head. Ju's purposefully detrimental antics on the field are hurting the Krakens in more ways than one: the standings, the team unity, and the their ability to excel.

@Cthulhu: "The Damned, part 3" Horror.

Four eZines, The Black Star Passes, and More.

More great free eZines today as well as a few more single stories. There are a few big-name writers as well as several promising newcomers. And for fans of classic SF, libriVox has a free audiobook of "The Black Star Passes" by John Wood Campbell Jr.. I'm still catching up, so it will probably be at least a week before some categories make more than a token appearance.

Today's illustration is from the serial linked below, "The Seventh Execution" by Amber E. Scott.








Now Posted: Flurb #12

• "Fjaerland" by Rudy Rucker and Paul Di Filippo.
• "The Onset of a Paranormal Romance" by Bruce Sterling.
• "The Curse of the Were-Penis" by Emily C. Skaftun.
• "Everything Is Broken" by John Shirley.
• "Pulped And Bound Monsters" by Adam Callaway
• "The Oyster and Alice O." by Anna Tambour.
• "The Robert Armstrong Syndicated Newspaper Strip" by A. S. Salinas.
• "Gertrude and Ludwig Spin A Web" by Justin Patrick Moore.
• "I Can’t Escape From You" by Brendan Byrne.
• "Xuanito" by Ernest Hogan.
• "Big Ripples Without a Splash" by Don Webb.
• "Concerning Tavia" by Martin Hayes.
• "Walls Between Worlds" by Will Ellwood.
• "After the Thaw" by Eileen Gunn.

Now Posted The Fifth Dimension Ed. 13, #3 Sept. 2011

• "God Felt Regret" by D.N. Calkins.
• "Ghost in Rock" by Ross Gresham.
• "A Return to Paradise" by Tony Peak.
• "Cold Comfort" by Jennifer Rachel Baumer.

Now Posted: New Myths #16. Speculative Fiction.

• "At the Center of the World" by Kenneth Mark Hoover.
• "Bread Crumbs and Thigh Bones" by Amy Sundberg.
• "Out of Frozen Shadow" by Sylvia Hiven.
• "Expiration Date" by Yeoryios Pantazis.

Now Posted: Electric Spec V. 6, #3 August 31, 2011. Speculative Fiction.

• "Monkey Talk" by T. Lucas Earle.
• "Justice Like a Mighty River" by Alter S. Reiss.
• "The Coincidence Factory" by Fredrick Obermeyer.
• "Tooth and Claw" by Rina Gonzales.
• "Stranded (with Porkchop)" by Rich Matrunick.

@Wiley Writers: "The Fortress of Solicitude" by Laura Givens. Superhero.

"Extra! Extra! Sex-crazed girls killing local lads in the streets of Newark! Read all about it! It’s 1938 and Kong the Avenger is out to solve the most bizarre case of his short career as a mystery man. He may need a little help from his friends."

@Ray Gun Revival: "Galactic Wonders" by Matthew Wuertz. Science Fiction.

"The unpretentious headquarters of Galactic Wonders is a suite of rooms in a one-story building in Naperville, just outside of Chicago. I think the space was designed for a dentist or doctor because there’s a lobby just inside the front door with a sliding glass window on the far wall."

@Aoife's Kiss: "The Suicide Inspector" by J. J. Steinfeld. Science Fiction.

"Though I wasn't a Rebel or a Weasel from the Underground, I once despaired totally of having a sensible place in society. My hopelessness was so thorough that thoughts of death occupied me night and day. My current work now bathes all my previous dark thoughts in the deepest irony. Just a year ago I wished to extinguish myself. I was simultaneously drifting and dangling, questioning the wisdom of the State, a breath away from curses and irrevocable acts."

Serial Fiction
@Paizo: "The Seventh Execution -Chapter Two: The Faithful False" by Amber E. Scott. Fantasy.

"We retreated into a network of side streets where we could escape if necessary and where we'd easily hear anyone approaching. The night was cool enough to frost our breath. The smell of refuse lingered beneath the familiar city smells of dirt, sweat, horse dung, and boiled potatoes."

@LibriVox: "The Black Star Passes" by John Wood Campbell Jr., read by "KirksVoice"

"A sky pirate armed with superior weapons of his own invention… First contact with an alien race dangerous enough to threaten the safety of two planets… The arrival of an unseen dark sun whose attendant marauders aimed at the very end of civilization in this Solar System."

@Wiley Writers: "The Fortress of Solicitude" by Laura Givens. Superhero. [See above]

Various Cool Free Fiction

Some varied goodies today, so there is likely something for most tastes.

E-Fiction

John DeNardo at SF Signal listed quite a bit of free fiction yesterday and rather than reinvent the wheel and post several links with a "via SF Signal," the SF Signal post is HERE.






Inner City by Scott Norton is a free online Sci/Fi/Adventure/Romance novel.
"The cities have gated their walls to lock all else out. Those in rural areas have been reduced to savages eeking out a primitive existence. When a seven year old Callen Carrus, a boy from the city, faces a personal crises and runs away, he's chased outside the city walls. What happens to him there will set him on a quest that will lead to him risking his life in search of answers."

Online HERE.




And DargonZine has its latest issue, Volume 23 Number 4, online with, "Hubris" by D'Artagnon Wells and "The Far Patrol" by Liam Donahue.

Online HERE.




Audio Fiction

At Escape Pod, "Endosymbiont" by Blake Charlton, read by Mur Lafferty.
"Stephanie started to protest but then stopped. A terrifying memory flashed through her mind. “Mom said they might take me to a hospital for the dead.” She didn’t know what that meant but the memory was clear. 'She said you’d keep me here to fool me into thinking I’m still alive.'"

A very interesting story, but one that will tear your heart out.

Streaming and in MP3 download HERE.


At Beam Me Up, part two of Nancy Fulda’s “Knowing Neither Kith….”
"The tension begins to really build as a mysterious evil preys on kith and kin alike. It looks as though evil will once again be freed to destroy the people. The obligation to save everyone falls on a reluctant outcast with little interest in saving the very people who have rejected her in the past."

Streaming and in MP3 download HERE. (Part one is here)


And a couple of free professional, mystery podcasts. Mystery isn't really a focus of QuasarDragon, but it is a kindred genre with a tiny bit of overlap. And the odds are at least a few QD readers like this genre.


Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine has several free audio fiction stories available online.

For streaming and MP3 downloads HERE.




And Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine also has a free podcast of mystery audio fiction.



Streaming and in MP3 download HERE. (Found via SFFAudio)





Comics

At The Horrors of it All, "The Halls of Horror" from Adventures into the Unknown #18 (April 1951).

Classic pre-code horror


Online HERE.





At Grantbridge Street & Other Misadventures, "The Magic Hammer" a 1957 Jack Kirby story of Thor well before the Marvel character of the same name.



Online HERE. (warning, although this comic is G rated, there are R rated posts there.)



At The Comic Book Catacombs, a pure 1950's skiffy story "Mission to Malooka" from Amazing Adventures (Oct 1951).


Online HERE.





At Steve Ditko Comics Weblog, a three-page short sf story called "Automata Ultima"


Online HERE.




At Diversions of the Groovy Kind a cool adaptation of John W. Campbell's classic short story "Who Goes There?" on which The Thing From Another World (1951) and The Thing (1982) are based. Great SF/Horror.

Online HERE.



Other

At DanMeth.Com "The Fantasy World Map #12 In A Series of Pop-Cultural Charts" an interesting, "accurate map of the entire fantasy world." Unusual choices make it more interesting than I would have expected. Lidsville?



Online HERE (via Tor.com)