More and More I'm Tkinking About Free Fiction

Some more great freebies, including stories by Cat Rambo and Dennis Etchison.  For more free fiction be sure to check out  Regan Wolfrom's free fiction listing at SF Signal, including his free for a time e-book After The Fires Went Out: Coyote.

Fiction

Now Posted:  Beneath Ceaseless Skies #151. Fantasy

 • "Rappaccini’s Crow" by Cat Rambo.
 "Doctor Rappaccini has a pet crow named Jonah. He says he raised it from a chick, but I have trouble imagining Doctor Rappaccini patiently nursing anything, tucking a blanket around it to keep it warm or feeding it mealworms and apple shards. If he has such a faculty for tenderness, he doesn’t exhibit it towards any of the patients here."

 • "Crossroads and Gateways" by Helen Marshall.
 "Dajan faced east, as he did every morning, greeting the Sun with a toothy smile that split the creases of his face. His spear was planted in the sand beside him, gripped by a fist hard and calloused. The wind tugged at the bright red cloth that hung from it. The sand dunes seemed smooth as elephant bones in the morning, limned in a brilliant gold. Brown and gold—the colors of the desert. Dajan’s colors."

• Now Posted: The Jul - Sept '14 Issue of The Lorelei Signal. Fantasy.

• "Almas" by Josie Growler
• "The Children of the Waterworks" by Paul Miller
• "The Cookie Maker" by Tom Howard
• "The Fox" by Nancy O'Toole
• "The Glass Lamp" by Cynthia Fucci
• "Grace" by Maureen Bowden
• "The House in the Desert" by Rose Strickman
• "The Queen Moon on her Throne" by Lawrence Buentello
• "The Queen of Storms" by Robert William Shmigelsky
• "Room 116" by Joyce Frohn

• At Nightmare Magazine: "Talking in the Dark" by Dennis Etchison. Horror.
"In the damp bedroom Victor Ripon sat hunched over his desk, making last-minute corrections on the ninth or tenth draft, he couldn’t remember which, of a letter to the one person in the world who might be able to help. Outside, puppies with the voices of children struggled against their leashes for a chance to be let in from the cold. He ignored them and bore down."



 Audio Fiction
• At Beneath Ceaseless Skies: "How the Wicker Knight Would Not Move" by Chris Willrich. Fantasy.
"At the Wicker Knight's feet Kverna faced the foe. "I do not hate you," she said to them. "You are as you are. Maybe Perfection has no choices. It is this thing behind me I hate. Leeching our hope, and returning nothing. At least without it we will meet our fates as human beings.""

At Forgotten Classics:

• People of the Mist by H. R. Haggard chapters 1-29. Adventure.
Now up through chapter 29, this is a serialized reading of the classic "lost race" adventure fantasy by the author of King Solomon's Mines and She. Eleven chapters to go, all should be available at the same link. [Warning - there are likely many unenlightened views in the story]
"Nay, I know not. You came out of the folly of your heart, to satisfy the desire of your heart. Listen, that tale I told you is true, and yet I did not tell you all the truth. Beyond that cliff live a people of great stature, and very fierce; a people whose custom it is to offer up strangers to their gods. Enter there, and they will kill you thus."

The e-book is free here and the original illustrations are online here.

• "Warrior Queen of Mars" by Alexander Blade. Science Fiction. Parts One, Two, and Three.

"Iceland was the perfect place for a secret military operation.  We thought of it, but so had the Martians — ages ago . . ."  First published in Fantastic Adventures, Sept. 1950. Text version here.










Gaming

• Now Posted at DriveThruRPG: Pathways #40.
"Avaricious Template" by Steve Russell
“I am rich beyond the dreams of avarice.” So says the avaricious frog
in the treasure room.

"Choose Your Own Adventure" by Liz Theis
The Pathfinder game is a branch of interactive fiction. Liz teaches you
how the RealmWorks tool can help you put more of the interactive in
your game.

"The Relunctant Bandits" by Creighton Broadhurst.
Well, this encounter is with the Relunctant bandits! An encounter
that could be played for laughs as well as screams.

• At DriveThruRPG: Mini Quest Double Feature: Revenge of the Kobold King.
"Mini Quests by Survive RPG offer compelling 2 page adventures that are great for a one-off session, convention play or for use as a side quest to your campaign. Mini-Quests is designed for any D20 fantasy system.This is a special Min-Quest double feature that includes KOBOLD CAPER and REVENGE OF THE KOBOLD KING. The characters are hired to recover missing livestock and end up in the middle of a war...with kobolds. No, this is not a comedy. Will they surive?"

Quasar Dragon Spotlight On . . . The War of the Worlds.

The story of The War of the Worlds begins not with H. G. Wells, but with Giovanni Schiaparelli's 1893 publication, La vita sul pianeta Marte (Life on Mars) and his earlier articles about his observations of the red planet. A talented astronomer, Schiaparelli was nevertheless fooled by optical illusions, caused by the limited technology of the era and imperfections of the human eye, and believed that he saw seas and channels.

The America astronomer Percival Lowell would compound the error and take Schiaparelli's "channels" to be  "canals" built by intelligent life. He speculated that the canals were used to bring water from the ice caps, that Mars was a dying planet and that a desperate civilization was trying to survive.  He posited many of these hypotheses in his 1896 book Mars.

Fresh off a string of successful science fiction novels, The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), and The Invisible Man (1897), H. G. Wells turned to Mars. Inspired by the science of the day, Wells asked himself the simple question, "What if this dying Martian civilization had the technology to reach Earth?" And the The War of the Worlds was born.



As virtually everyone knows, The War of the Worlds tells the story of an invasion by seemingly unstoppable army of Martians and their fighting-machines (an obvious inspiration for the Star Wars At-At, At-St).  Go ahead and give the book a quick read, it's quite good and practically microscopic when compared to most modern genre novels.  While not quite the first alien invasion story, it was the first truly popular.

The story would likely end there if it were not for the legendary 1938 Radio Adaptation (MP3 download) by Orson Welles and Mercury Theater. This adaptation, very loosely modeled after radio news bulletins of the time.  Despite announcements that it was an adaptation of The War of the Worlds there was a small panic at the time, though nothing at all like the sensationalist media reports of the time.  However, the media sensation over the the alleged panic would ensure that Well's masterpiece would remain in the public's mind for generations.  And it's timing, at the very beginning of the Golden Age of Science Fiction, would ensure that alien invasion stories, formerly rather rare, would become a dime a dozen.

Though The War of the Worlds has been adapted many times and in many formats (Movies, Television, Comic Books, Video Games, etc.) only two adaptations bear mentioning, and unfortunately both are still under copyright so links will be to Wikipedia). 

In 1953, Hollywood made its first film version of The War of the Worlds. This big budget film, directed by George Pal, was a popular and critical success, despite it's many deviations from the classic novel.  The film featured some of the best special effects of the 1950s, with Forbidden Planet being its only serious rival. Although this film is still copyrighted, the Lux Radio Theater adaptation (MP3 download) of the film adaptation is legally available.

The next, and most recent, big budget adaptation came in 2005 with the Steven Spielberg adaptation being reasonably successful, despite being weighed down by poor casting and an utterly unnecessary dysfunctional family sub-plot.  The special effects of this film certainly carried the sub-par storyline.This is the end of the adaptaions for now, but there will likely be many more adaptations in the future.  Each drifting further and further from the original greatness.

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

• At Every Day Fiction: "Portrait of a Young Man, With Vampire" by Carl Steiger. Horror.
• At SFFaudio: "Silly Asses" by Isaac Asimov. Humor. Science Fiction. Audio. 
• At SFFaudio: "Sentry" by Fredric Brown. Science Fiction. Audio.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Jobsworth" by Rob Sharp. Science Fiction.

E-Books
At Amazon: [Via Freebook Sifter]

• Legacy of Shadow: Master of the House by Michael J. Albert. Fantasy.
• Rocky (Tales of the Were) by Bianca D'Arc. Paranormal Romance. 
• Memory's Child by Lynnette Spratley. Science Fiction.
• Monsters of the Apocalypse by Jordan Rawlins. Post-Apocalyptic.
• Twisted Games (The Fate Trilogy) by Sarah J. Pepper. Paranormal. 
• Pinehurst: A Magical Olympian Adventure. YA Romantic Fantasy.
• The Dreamer - Book 1 of the War of the Wizards by Patrick Henry. Fantasy.
• Bluebell Cottage (The Legendary Sidhe Saga) by Heather M. J. L. Watson. Fantasy.
• The Sarrhian Seed (The Xualia Series) by Roger Elwell. Science Fiction. Space Opera.
• The Blood Gem (Luna Wynter Series) by M.E. Harmon. Paranormal.
• The Dragons of Tarnack by Heath L. Buckmaster. YA Fantasy
• The Rescuers by Wesley Barber. Science Fiction. Space Opera. 
• Thieves and Outcasts (Outcast Elf--Prolouge) by Dianna Moore. YA Fantasy.
• Ms. Omega Returns Volume 1 by Scott Lochmoeller. Superhero.
• The End of the Pier Affair by Sarah E Smith. Alternative History
• The Xenton Chronicles: The Invasion of the Coalts by W.M. Calloway. YA.
• Megan Enraged (Wizard - A Love Story) by Murphy Childs. Fantasy. Romance. 
• The Last Messenger by Fred Ludwig. Science Fiction.  
• Hold Me Never by Natalie Kristen. Dystopian.  
• Astral Essence (The Astral Series) by Nabille De La Luz. Paranormal.
• Cosmic Deities (The Storyteller) by Valentin Matcas. Military Science Fiction.
• Project Scarecrow The Serena Wilcox Time Travel Trilogy Book 1 by Natalie Buske Thomas.
• Storyland by Dawn Napier. Dark Fantasy.
• Silver Star: Drasno (The Altarian Chronicles) by Pauline Butler. Space Fantasy.
• Masada The Ambition by Kristen Powell. Fantasy.
• Swords and Souls 'Fair Folk' Chronicles by S Mangion-Cavarra. Fantasy. Arthurian. 
• Silver Star: The Lady Ispa by Pauline Butler. Fantasy.
• The Elder Origins by Bre Faucheux. Dark Fantasy.
• Kivashta Olenamir (Wizards and Mages) by Charles Diggs. Fantasy.
• Raven's Return (Seasons of the Fae) by R.J. Ross. Fairies
• In This Red Country (Red Country Trilogy) by J.P. Lantern. Science Fiction. Mars.
• Silver Star: The Begining (The Altarian Chronicles) by Pauline Butler. Space Fantasy.
• The Standing Stones by Fred Ludwig. Fantasy.

• 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.

Celebrating the Birth . . . Ray Bradbury

Ray Douglas Bradbury (August 22, 1920 – June 5, 2012)
      Ray Bradbury was, first and foremost, a great storyteller. Whether writing Science Fiction, Horror, or Dark Fantasy, his stories were always very accessible.  Among the many awards he has received are World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement in horror fiction, and being named a  SFWA Grand Master.  While he probably best known for Fahrenheit 451 which has been required reading in many schools, it is my humble opinion that his best works are his short stories, including those in The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man.  And although Bradbury was extremely diligent about copyright renewals, a few of his works are legally available.




Free fiction after fold

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

Free E-books and More

A few goodies today.

And don't forget to check out SF Signal, BestScienceFictionStories.com,Variety SF, Free SF Reader, and SFFaudio for more free fiction links.






Fiction
• At Online Pulps!: "Teacher From Mars" by Eando Binder. Science Fiction.
     " The old professor from the crimson planet feared Earth's savagery ... until humanity taught him a profound secret!" - from  Thrilling Wonder Stories, February, 1941

Flash Fiction

• At Beware the Hairy Mango: "Walkman" by Matthew Sanborn Smith.
• At Every Day Fiction: "Destiny Fell In Love" by Michelle Ann King. Fantasy.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "English Club" by Kevin Tidball.Science Fiction.

E-Books
At Free eBooks Daily:

• Night Realm by Darren G. Burton. Paranormal. 
• The Golden Queen by David Farland. Science Fiction & Fantasy.
• Darkness Comes This Way by Pixie Lynn Whitfield. YA Paranormal Urban Fantasy.
• Vampire Moon by J.R. Rain. Vampire Romance. 
• Dancing with Deception by Andrea Heltsley. YA Paranormal.
• The Sixth Discipline by Carmen Webster Buxton. Science Fiction.
• Spider Wars by Angela Carlie. YA Paranormal.
• Amazon Moon by James A. Haught. Historical. Amazons. 
• The Guardian's Apprentice by J. Michael Radcliffe. YA Fantasy.
• The Search for Artemis by P. D. Griffith. YA Fantasy.
• Alex and the Ring by Jeffrey Afiouni. YA Fantasy.
• Fairytale by Maggie Shayne. Fantasy Romance.

At Smashwords:

• Growl by Elaine Pierson. 83k words. YA Fantasy.
• "The Harpers" by L L Watkin. 9k words. Fantasy.
• "Key Service" by Rik Hunik. 3k words. Contemporary Fantasy.
• "Valens Remembered" by Sherrel Lee. 16k words. Urban Fantasy. 
• "The Dark Satin Of My Soul" by Nav Logan. 3k words. Fantasy.
• "Who Would You . . . Kill? The Series" by Sonof Shiv Charan. 14k words. Horror.
• "Engel: A Novelette of Terror" by Grant Palmquist. 20k words. Horror. Weird.
• "Corpse Prince" by Chelsea Anderson. 41k words. Horror. Undead.
• Death on Taurus by J.M. Porup. 92k words. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At LibriVox: "Beyond the Black River" by Robert E. Howard. Fantasy.
     "Conan the Barbarian in this exciting story is selling his sword to one of the civilized countries to help in it's push to claim lands from the primitive Picts. The Picts are not excited about the idea however. Old gods and mythical creatures are called up by the Pict witches to contest the invading army"

Other Genres

• At Online Pulps!: "The Tenth Question" by George Allan England. [1915] and "Blind Man's Fluff" by Robert Leslie Bellem [1950]. Pulp/Noir.

Wednesday Freebies

A few very good free fiction items today, including the latest issue if Indian SF (illustrated to the left) and Matthew Sanborn Smith's flash audio, Mars trilogy. More to come.













Fiction
• At Electric Velocipede: "Grandmother of Ghosts" by E. Catherine Tobler.
     "The boats have stopped coming. After three long weeks without a single boat, I have stopped looking to the sea. The last rowboat that came rests belly up farther down the shore. It reminds me of a beached whale; a calf at that, dead before it ever really began. A woman sits there at sunset each day, waiting for a sailor who will never return."

• At Nightmare Magazine: "Centipede Heartbeat" by Caspian Gray. Horror. 
      "Each time Lisa rested her head against Joette’s breasts, she heard the centipedes. In between heartbeats there was the tiny sound of hundreds of chitinous footsteps against bone, of miniature mandibles tearing at organs. Joette refused to admit to it, or maybe she didn’t know."

• Now Posted: Indian SF Issue 3 May – June 2013. Science Fiction. Fantasy.

"Five Ways to Fall In Love on Planet Porcelain" by Cat Rambo.
     "A world peopled by china figurines" 
"Bethany’s Bliss" by H. J. Harding.
      "Plants don’t grow from seeds to small shrubs in three weeks" 
"Pawn" by Timons Esaias.
     "Gritty realities associated with the game of chess"

Flash Fiction

• At Beware the Hairy Mango: "Episode 151 – Peer Pressure" by Matthew Sanborn Smith. Flash Audio
• At Beware the Hairy Mango: "Episode 152 – The Smartians" by Matthew Sanborn Smith. Flash Audio
• At Beware the Hairy Mango: "Episode 153 – MARShmallow" by Matthew Sanborn Smith. Flash Audio
• At Daily Science Fiction: "Swan Song" by Melissa Mead.
• At Flashes in the Dark: "The Door" by Michael A. Kechula. Horror.
• At Indian SF: "Regenesis" by Cynthia Ward. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Warriors" by Duncan Shields. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction

• At Decoder Ring Theatre: "Red Panda Adventures (93) - The Doctor Is In" Superhero.
     "an inescapable deathtrap carved into the very living rock of a mountainside seems like overkill doesn't it? Even if your targets are masked heroes with more lives than a bag of cats. If the Red Panda and the Flying Squirrel are to have any hope of escape, it will be because The Doctor Is In!"

• At Nightmare Magazine: "Centipede Heartbeat" by Caspian Gray. Horror.
     Described Above. 

Other Genres

• Audio at Forgotten Classics: "The Mouse in the Mountain, chapter 5" by Norbert Davis. Noir. 
• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "Twelve Bar Blues" • by Christopher Owenll.

Science and Hobbit News and a Bit More

A bit more coolness for you today.




Speculative Poetry
At Silver Blade:

• "On the Recycling Day" by Changming Yuan.
• "Expanding, Morning Mists" by Changming Yuan.
• "At an Autumn Auction" by Changming Yuan.
• "Rioting " by Changming Yuan.
• "The Plague Tree" by J. P. Wickwire.
• "Planet of the _______" by Laura Madeline Wiseman.
• "A Cautionary Note from the Time Thief " by Bruce Boston. 
• "Tinsel Rose" by Adele Gardner.

Audio Fiction
At The Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs: Episode 08 - The Return of Tarzan
      "Now in North Africa in the small town of Sidi Aissa, Tarzan has come to the rescue of a pretty dancing girl, and has fought a roomful of angry Arab men."

At Relic Radio: "The Sense Of Wonder" -  X Minus One. Science Fiction. OTR.

Science News

• "'Time Reversal' Research May Open Doors to Future Tech" ScienceDaily.
• "Mysterious Gravity Waves May Explain Clear-Skies Turbulence" LiveScience.
• "What really caused the Oracle at Delphi to utter mad prophesies?" io9
• "Mars Rover Discovery Revealed" NYT.
• "Golden Spike Company Unveils Plans to Fly Commercial Crews to the Moon" Wired.
• "Saturn Moon Enceladus Eyed for Sample-Return Mission" Space.com
• "Should the UN govern the internet?" CBC
• "Fossilized raindrops hold clues to early Earth?" Times of India.

 Hobbit and Oz News

•  "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – 13-minute TV special!"  [Video]
• "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" Review. Variety.
• "Hobbit TV spot 10 officially up" Video.
• "Sneak Peek Of Disney's "Oz The Great and Powerful"
• "Oz: The Great and Powerful Wallpapers"
• "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Wallpaper"
• "The Hobbit Movie: Will This Prequel Be as Awesome as X Men or as Terrible as The Phantom Menace"

Free E-Books, Hobbit Reviews, and More

Several interesting free e-books this time, as well as science news and Hobbit movie news. The first reviews are coming in and they are mixed. Purists hate it (of course, they hate every adaptation) but others are mostly enjoying it (issues with the 48 fps 3d aside). 

And I've noticed there are now advertisements linked to select words in the text (not put there by me).  To avoid confusion, I'll bold all real links and nothing else except the category titles.

[art from "New contender for oldest dinosaur" linked below]


E-Books
At Amazon: For Odin, for Thor, for Asgard. Fantasy. Mythology.

At Free eBooks Daily:

• Escape (The Prisoner and the Sun #1) by Brad Magnarella. YA Fantasy.
• Portal Arcane II - The Law of Three by J. Thorn. Dark Fantasy (Book I)
• Reveal by Brina Courtney. YA Sci-Fi Romance.
• Destiny of Angels by Wendy Steele. Horror.
• Dead or Alive by William Harms. Zombies.
• The Wailing by MR Graham.

At Smashwords:

• "The Signal" by Ulf Wolf. Fantasy 5k. 
• "The Dragon Heart Keeper" by L.L Hunter. Fantasy. 6k.
• "Nannies, Inc." by Ninfa Hayes. Fantasy 6k.
• "A Sprig of Holly" by J.A. Clement. Fantasy. 8k 
• "The 11th Floor" by Charles Culver. Horror. 20k.
• "Cora Frost: The Fasting Spider" by Matthew Smith. Horror. 8k.
• "The Water That Binds" by Scott Weaver. Horror. 1k.
• "Prevention Protocol" by A. D. Barncord. Science Fiction.3k.
• "The Reader" by Ulf Wolf. Science Fiction. 7k.

Gaming
"Washed Up Walkers (Battle Cards)" by Adrianna White.
     "created to turn an ordinary deck of playing cards into a brand new and exciting game that people of all ages can enjoy." Many more Battle Cards games here.

 Science News

• "Alien Solar Systems May Prove to be More Habitable than Ours" The Daily Galaxy.
• "New contender for oldest dinosaur" BBC.
• "NASA Needs Stronger Direction to Lead In Space: Report" Space.com
• "Africa's Homo Sapiens Were the First Techies" Science Daily.
• "Did Bacteria Fuel World's Worst Extinction?"
• "New NASA Mars Rover to Launch in 2020" NASA.
• "Opportunity Rover Finds Mars Minerals That Formed in Life-Friendly Water" Wired.
• "Can life emerge on planets around cooling stars?" Space Daily.

Hobbit News

• "OFFICIAL: Six incredible video clips from The Hobbit" The One Ring.
• "'The Hobbit' underwhelms critics in early reviews" Chicago Tribune.
• "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" Review. Cinema Blend.
• "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" Review Variety.
• "'The Hobbit' 3-D Early Review: Back Again, But Not Quite There" Review Movieline.
• "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" Review Comingsoon.net
• "This return to Middle-earth is just shy of greatness" Review IGN
• "16 Movies I’m Excited to See in 2013 [Trailers]" College Candy.

Free Fiction, Free Comics and Science News

I must sound like a broken record "more great free fiction *skip* "more great free fiction *skip* "more great free fiction *skip* "more great free fiction *skip*" but virtualy every day some great sites release more of it. (And infite thanks to them!).  Today's fiction includes a pair from outstanding magazine Lightspeed, one from The World SF Blog, and more worthwhile stories.  For this week only(?), New Scientist is posting a flash fiction story a day. Plus there are some cool classic comics and news of note (if you check out the Science News headlines, doesn't it seem that at least three of them sound like pulp era SF?)

[art for Star Trek Into Darkness in film news]






Fiction
At Author's Site: "Fate" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Fantasy.
      "She held a deck of cards in her left hand and cut it easily, sliding the top of the deck to the bottom. Her skin was pale white, her hair even whiter, and she wore a backless white evening dress. Grif could almost imagine her in the glassed-in cage on the lower levels, astride the white tigers."

At The Colored Lens: "Diffusion – Part 2" by Andrew Tisbert. science Fiction.
     "Billy watched as his clone looked down into the car. It felt as if time had stopped, as if the hail had become suspended in the cold gray air. Then the soldier looked away and disappeared."

At Daily Science Fiction: "The Show Must" by Matt London.
      "The soles of the dance shoes on Joan Jansen's feet were scored and coated with countless layers of rosin. She bent the shoes up and down, stretching the fabric, and inside, her feet. What else could she do? That was her routine"

At Lightspeed: "An Accounting" by Brian Evenson. Fantasy.
       "I have been ordered to write an honest accounting of how I became a Midwestern Jesus and the subsequent disastrous events thereby accruing, events for which I am, I am willing to admit, at least partly to blame. I know of no simpler way than to simply begin."

At Lightspeed: "The Perfect Match" by Ken Liu. Science Fiction.
       "Sai woke to the rousing first movement of Vivaldi’s violin concerto in C minor, “Il Sospetto.” He lay still for a minute, letting the music wash over him like a gentle Pacific breeze. The room brightened as the blinds gradually opened to the sunlight. Tilly had woken him right at the end of a light sleep cycle, the optimal time. He felt great: refreshed, optimistic, ready to jump out of bed."

At The World SF Blog: "Ceremony of Innocence" by Armando Salinas.
     "The rooms below were mostly dark and smelled. Damp melanomas stained the walls. Arthritic cables, knotted and almost fossilized with dust, crawled out of holes in the ceiling with naked light bulbs hanging like fruit. Whatever poor lighting there was, though, came mostly from the phosphorescent graffiti scribbled on every inch of wall. Occasionally, cheap portraits of saints and wooden crucifixes eclipsed the glowing artwork"

At Weird Fiction Review: "The Engine of Desire" by Livia Llewellyn. Horror.
       "Megan pulls the empty wine glass from her husband’s limp hand. His fingers brush the shag of the living room floor, sway to the sleepy sigh of his breath. Clocks tick in the kitchen and hallways, and when she places the glass on the coffee table, the clink against the wood shoots like a falling star through the silent house. Outside, in the neighborhood, the engine throbs and waits."

Reviewed Free Fiction

• At BestScienceFictionStories.com: "Anansi Island" by Christian Cantrell. Science Fiction. 2010.
• At Variety SF: "Exposure" by Eric Frank Russell. Science Fiction. 1950.

Flash Fiction

• At New Scientist: "Digital Eyes" by Tamara Rogers. Science Fiction.
• At New Scientist: "S3xD0ll" by Kevlin Henney. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "I, Rifle" by Jae Miles. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
At Lightspeed: "The Perfect Match" by Ken Liu. Science Fiction.
      described above.

At SFFAudio: "The Flying Machine" by Ray Bradbury.
     " a short “fantasy” set in a mythical China"

Comics
At Atomic Kommie Comics: ""Gambling Den of Space" Sci-Fi. 1940.
At Digital Comics Museum: Black Magic 020 Horror 1953 and Tales of Horror 002 Horror. 1952.
At The Horrors of It All: "Thing in the Graveyard / Third Grave on the Right..." Horror. 1952/1954.
At Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine: "two stories from consecutive issues of Captain Flight Comics" Sci-Fi. 1945/1946.

Other Genres
Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "Barrels" by Dirk Knight. Surreal.

Science News

• "For Lonely Astronauts, a Robotic Companion" The Atlantic.
• "Do Robots Rule the Galaxy?" Discovery News.
• "Voyager 1 Encounters New Region in Deep Space" Science Daily.
• "Curiosity rover: No big surprise in first soil test" PhysOrg.
• "Mars Rover Discovery Revealed" NYT.
• "Will a Secret Private Manned Mission to the Moon Be Announced This Week?" Wired.
• "Scary Rumors about the World Ending in 2012 Are Just Rumors" USA Gov.
• "Galaxy Grande: Milky Way May Be More Massive Than Thought" Scientific American.

Genre Film News

• "Video: see mastersmith Peter Lyon’s Hobbit weapons"
• "MrCere reviews ‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"
• "Main Poster of "Oz The Great and Powerful" Completes Triptych"
• "'Star Trek Into Darkness' gets an oddly familiar teaser poster"

Dark Fiction Magazine and a Few Headlines

Just a tiny bit more tonight.  There's new free audio fiction from Dark Fiction Magazine - link stolen without remorse from SF Signal. And a few headlines [Disclaimer: I wrote the "Bad Science Reporting 101" post. Don't want to link to myself without giving fair warning]





 


Audio Fiction
Dark Fiction Magazine #13 – The Drowned Lands: [Via SF Signal]

“And The North­men Brought Their Gods” by Lou Morgan. Horror.
      "It is said that be­fore the North­men sacked that most blessed of places, God’s own church at Lind­is­farne, dire portents"

“A Hum­ble But­ter­cup” by Emma Newman. Horror.
      The road end­ed with an abrupt drop in­to the ocean. Jim stood at the edge of the tar­mac, his car parked on the oth­er side of the bar­ri­er a few me­tres away."
 “Jetsam” by Adrian Faulkner. Horror.
     "The wa­ter that splashed over her feet was icey cold and sent a shiv­er up her, but she dare not stop, in­stead con­tin­u­ing to walk for­ward as each suc­ces­sive wave"
 “Swamp Tale” by Joshua Malbin. Horror.
     "A crane calls, a rat­tling, mu­si­cal sound like a stick dragged along a wood­en fence. An­oth­er joins it, then two more, then a cho­rus of dozens. They stand up from"

Hobbit News

• "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey(2012)" Movie Trailer.
• "Hobbitus Ille: The Latin Hobbit – ‘In foramine terrae habitabat hobbitus.’"
• "Hobbit fans already line up"

Science News

• "Elon Musk Wants to Build 80,000-Person Mars Colony"
• "Do missing Jupiters mean massive comet belts?"
• "Unexpected data from the Large Hadron Collider suggest the collisions may be producing a new type of matter"
• "Bad Science Reporting 101: No they didn't plan on blowing up the Moon"
• "In Nature, Fatal Attractions Can Be Part of Life"
• "Life on Mars: NASA says 'hold on a minute!'"
• "Dark matter running out of place to hide"
• "Giant Planet Slowly Dying"
• "Visit Machu Picchu with Huge 'Zoomable' Image

Ephemeral Links - Enduring Freebies and News

Quite a few interesting items, including several e-books, some eclectic news items that might be of interest and a three part CBC podcast about three orders of Medieval knights. It's been up awhile, but it's new to me.

 

 [Art From "The Sword Brothers – Knights Templars, Hospitallers and Teutonic Knights"  below]




E-Books
Via Pixel of Ink: Cerulean Isle by G.M. Browning. Fantasy. Pirates.

At Free eBooks Daily:

• Fast-Tracked by Tracy Rozzlynn. YA Fantasy.
• You Are Not a Planet and Other Stories by Sean Manseau. Speculative Fiction.
• Verita by Tracy Rozzlynn. YA Science Fiction.
• Yseult by Ruth Nestvold. Historical Fantasy.
• First Crossing by Tyla Grey. Paranormal Romance.

At Smashwords:

• "My Curious Ocean" by Ulf Wolf. Science Fiction. 9k.
• "The Royal Runaway" by Rory Mackay. Fantasy. 9k.
• "The Memory of a Salt Shaker" by Bernard Cox. Contemporary Fantasy. 5k.
• "Resurrection #1" by Tim  Curran. Horror. 22k.
• "Twas The Night Before Christmas (When The Aliens Appeared)" by Michael Carter. Sci-Fi Poem. 1k.
• "Death and Taxes" by Sansoucy Kathenor. Speculative Fiction. 21k.

Audio Non-Fiction
At Medievalists.Net: "The Sword Brothers – Knights Templars, Hospitallers and Teutonic Knights"
      "Life in the eleventh century was nasty, brutish and short. Most people lived and died a few miles from where they were born. Strangers were suspect and danger lurked everywhere. Who was in charge was a matter of opinion. Barons and local chiefs ruled as they wished. Those who would be king faced a skeptical and hostile world…we take the modern world for granted with its more or less stable patchwork of nation-states, each with its body of law and governance."

Science News

• "Quantum teleportation between atomic ensembles demonstrated for first time"
• "Astronomers pin down origins of 'mile markers' for expansion of universe"
• "Mars and Earth: Similar Building Blocks"
• "'Super-Jupiter' Around Massive Star Discovered"
• "A Tsunami in Switzerland? Lake Evidence Says Yes"
• "Instrument Delivered for NASA's Upcoming Mars Mission"
• "Born-Again Star Shows the Fate of Our Solar System"
• "Finding a direction of time in exotic particle transformations"
• "Private Moon Race May Spark Lunar 'Water Rush'"
• "Henley hit by 'mutant super rat' invasion"

Paleontology/History News

• "After 121 years, identification of 'grave robber' fossil solves a paleontological enigma"
• "Mary Rose: scientists identify shipwreck's archers"
• "An 11th-Century Scandal"
• "Civilization versus Barbarians? Fortification Techniques and Politics in Carolingian and Ottonian Borderlands"
• "Haraldr the Hard-Ruler and his poets"

Fantasy Films News

• "The amazing Middle-earth art of John Cockshaw"
• "Philippa Boyens: film powerplayer"
• "Watch a tantalising 7.5 minute fan-made Hobbit trailer and TV spot compilation!"
• "Oz The Great And Powerful – A MUST SEE film!"
• "Oz The Great and Powerful’s second trailer has been released [Movie Trailer]"
• "'Breaking Dawn' Ends 'Twilight' Franchise on Strong Note"

Freebies to Start the Weekend

Good morning (or afternoon, evening, night, etc.).  Another collection of freebies for your consideration. A couple of cool 'zines, fiction - both classic and new, some e-books, flash fiction, as well as audio and comics, huzzah! Especially notable are new stories at Cosmos and Nature, new audio at Dunesteef and Escape Pod, and a free e-book by my self-declared arch-enemy Regan Wolfrom (with enemies like that, who needs friends?).  And don't miss his free fiction roundup at SF Signal, I mostly avoided duplications, but the chance to swipe a link from the comments section was just too tempting - bazinga!

 [QD plans, but not promises, for the weekend. A review and at least one free fiction post.] 





Fiction
At Cosmos: "The Dragon" by Melanie Ree. Science Fiction.
     "There’s rubble and tents surrounded by a razor wire fence – nothing but a desolate hole. Could there really be enough technology in there to save me?"
At Nature: "Temporal Ventures Robbed  Me" by Scott C. Mikula. Science Fiction.
     "Don't let Temporal Ventures lure you in with their false advertising! They're just trying to cheat you out of your money, or if you're really lucky maybe they'll thump you on the head and pry it from your fingers in the name of 'science' or 'intertemporal law'."
At Project Gutenberg: "The Revolt of the Star Men" by Raymond Z. Gallun. Science Fiction.
     "A bulk dropped down on the nose of the craft. A pair of hands gripped the barrels of the machine gun and tore them from the mountings."  from Wonder Stories Quarterly Winter 1932.
At Project Gutenberg: "The Moon Destroyers" by Monroe K. Ruch. Science Fiction.
     "The tremendous speed of the dive brought them so close that they could see the skeletons of wrecked ships piled up at the base of the precipice."  from Wonder Stories Quarterly Winter 1932.
At Project Gutenberg:  King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard [Updated formats]

Magazines
Allegory Vol 19/49 Fall 2012 featuring (all SF, Fantasy, or Horror),

• "Job Hunting " by Diana Părpăriţă
• "Manifest Destiny" by James M. Hines
• "Eighty Feet Deep" by Kevin Doyle
• "Transfer" by Frank D. Rogers
• "Werld-Bilding" by Eric Del Carlo
• "The Man of Many Tongues " by Jake Walters
• "The Mechanic's Darling" by Elizabeth Twist

   
Quantum Muse October 2012 Edition.
    "Blood Secrets" by Linda Simser     Brothers find out they may have more in common than their vampire-killing blood.
     "The Angels"  by Mark White.
     This story begins with the sound of a single hand-clap and ends with a boy alone in the dark,     crying for his mother.
    "The Cave" by Harris Tobias
     It's dark down there, so dark
    "Chicken Coop" by Michele Dutcher
    A young woman finds fleeting sanctuary in a church while the rest of the world is dieing from the effects of induced insomnia.
     "Experiment 1919"  by Richard Tornello
     Let's find out what happens when we try this

E-Books
At Amazon: "Proxima" by Regan Wolfrom.  Science Fiction.
At Barnes and Noble:  Jane Carver of Waar by Jeremy Cesarec. Science Fantasy. [via SF Signal Comments]
Via Free eBooks Daily:  The Phoenix Conspiracy by Richard Sanders. Science Fiction Mystery.
     "Calvin, an intelligence operative, is sent to eliminate a dangerous traitor. But, as he chases his prey across the stars, he realizes they are both pawns in a shadowy chess game. One that threatens humankind everywhere."
Via Free eBooks Daily:  Lady Grace by Sandy Nathan. Science Fiction Adventure, Fantasy Paranormal.
     "What awaits them makes their worst dreams look like Bollywood frolics. Right away, they find out that evolution can work for evil as well as good. Going home requires a battle more deadly than any they've fought. "
At Smashwords:

• "Long Time Passing" by Thomas Watson. Science Fiction. 7k.
•  A Plain Jane Book One by Odette C. Bell. Space Opera. 92k.
• "Physics for Dogs" by Krista Joy. Science Fiction. 18k.
• "Richard" by Aelius Blythe. Science Fiction. 6k.
• The Battle for the Known Unknown by Bradley Stoke. Hard SF. 92k.
• "The Blight Of Mortloche" by William Ripley. Paranormal. 7k.
• Only A Glow by Nichelle Rae. Epic Fantasy. 148k.
• "L'il Gal Al and the Zombies of Amarillo" by Christine Rains. Horror. 12k.
• "Payment Of The Field Guard" by Artie Margrave. Weird. 20k.

Flash Fiction
At Flashpulp: "The Legend of the Lighter-Than-Air Sneaks" Weird. Audio.
At Flashes in the Dark: "Dinner With Connor" by Mark Camero. Horror.
At The New Flesh: "Bananahead" by Danger Slater. Horror.
At The New Flesh:  "The Devil's Bath Shack" by Jonathan Moon.
At Quantum Muse: "Mary Sue’s Unfortunate Sister" by Amanda Howard.
At Smashwords: The Society On Da Run #49 - Dragon Special.
At 365 Tomorrows: "The Alchemist" by Jae Miles. Science Fiction.
At Weirdyear: "The (Snow) White Pages" by Matthew Nadelhaf.Weird.
At Yesteryear Fiction: "The Oath" by James R Waggoner. Fantasy.

Audio 
At Classic Tales Podcast: Carmilla, part 2 of 4, by J. Sheridan Le Fanu. Vampire.
     "The enigma of Carmilla is darkly illumined. [. . .] And when a traveling hunchback offers to file her needle-like teeth, she flys into a passion she can barely control. But the girls do purchase something from the hunchback – a protective charm against vampires"
At Dunesteef:  "Harlan’s Wake" by John Mierau. Science Fiction.
     "Tyler left home to serve in the military. He was assigned to the security detail for the alien visitors known as Silvers. Nothing could be more shameful in the eyes of his family."
At Escape Pod: "The Garden of Earthly Delights" by Jay Caselberg. Science Fiction.
At Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs: Episode 21 of Tarzan of the Apes. Adventure.
     "The castaways have been found by a French vessel, which has landed sailors near their Tarzan’s cabin"

Comics
At Atomic Kommie Comics: Time Travelers "Amazons of Venus" Sci-Fi. 1950.
At Comic Book Catacombs: Tales of the Mystery Master: "The Web" Horror. 1944.
At Four-Color Shadows: "Green Horror" Horror. 1954.
At Heroines:  Sorceress of Zoon "Invasion of Bango & Zoda" Fantasy. 1940.
At Seduction of the Innocent!!: "Wage-Earners" Horror. 1951.

Other Genres
Audio at LibriVox: Rosalynde or, Euphues' Golden Legacie by Thomas Lodge.
     "This novel, which Shakespeare adapted in his pastoral comedy As You Like It, is the archetypal pastoral adventure."