Make Up Monday

Some great free fiction to start this make up Monday. [art from The Divinity Student, now up to part 7 in fiction]


 


Fiction
• At Black Gate: "Vestments of Pestilence" by John C. Hocking. Fantasy.
     "The newcomer was bareheaded and wore a long gray cloak of elegant design. He let it fall open as he approached and we saw he wore the cuirass of an officer in the royal guard of the house of Flavius. His hair was black and cropped close to his narrow skull, his face high cheek-boned and stern, with darkly probing eyes. He looked like someone well used to telling others what to do and I had the dismal feeling he was about to live up to his appearance."

At Aurora Wolf:

• "Make a Wish" by Edward Ahern.
     "George, named for his father and grandfather, and Anaea, named for a butterfly, fidgeted at their desks. Anaea’s nickname was Nea. George had no nickname except for the secret one that Nea called him."

• "The Path of the Sun" by Lillian Csernica.
       "Tabor stood atop the cliff looking out across the sea.  The cold breeze cut through his homespun shirt and pants and ruffled his brown hair.  Sunset, falling on the sea in a wide path of shining gold.  The path started in the breakers tumbling across the sand and stretched all the way to the horizon.  Where did it go?"

• At L5R: "Face the Madness, Part 3" by Shawn Carman & Seth Mason. Fantasy Rokugan.
      "Moto Dairei licked his lips and tried not to think about the water that was still on the bottle at his hip. He had taken a drink only a few moments ago and, in the part of his mind that could think about such things clearly and reasonably, he understood that he was not really thirsty again. It was merely the image of the vast wasteland before him, the Western Wastes, his people had once called it, that tricked his mind into thinking that he was dying of thirst" Conclusion.

• At Weird Fiction Review: "The Divinity Student: Part Seven" by Michael Cisco. 
     "The Divinity Student scowls through the window at a metallic sky turning  cobalt-colored at the end of the day, strange high clouds moving fast. Behind him, Miss Woodwind is measuring his notebook on the scale, her neat hands setting weights with care on the balance. She comes out from behind her card table, moving toward him, holding the book in front of her and stabbing at him with it."

Flash Fiction

• At Beware the Hairy Mango: "Easy Bake Lovin’" by Matthew Sanborn Smith. Audio. Weird Fiction.
• At Chilling Tales for Dark Nights: "ASMR" Horror. Audio.
• At Daily Science Fiction: "Worldbuilding" by Alex Shvartsman.
• At Every Day Fiction: "Croak Tree" by Matt Athanasiou. Horror.
• At Flashes in the Dark: "Siobhan" by Jim Mountfield. Horror.
• At  Quantum Muse: "Pipes" by Harris Tobias.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "After" by Ryan C. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At Author's Site: "Bones are White #12: Hero" by Scott Sigler. Science Fiction    
      "This week’s tale comes from the GFL era of the Siglerverse, but a deeper, darker, more dangerous corner. If the victors write the history books, this is a story about what happens when history’s losers learn their own off-book version of things."

• At Beam Me Up: "Part 3 of Dave" by Dean Gills.Science Fiction.
     No Description found.

• At Clarkesworld: "First Principle" by Nancy Kress, read by Kate Baker. Science Fiction.
      "He was even bigger than I expected. All three of them were. Barb and I watched on the link screen as they waited for the transport bay to pressurize, as they climbed out of the rover. Dr. Langley, in his rotation as council leader, made a welcome speech. The parents managed exhausted smiles, but the boy scowled."

• At Toasted Cake: "Curse" by Samantha Henderson.
     "Her son was a year grown when the dream started. Always it began in the pantry, at first — she was tallying the beer, or the bags of grain, when the first joints of her fingers started to itch. Little more than a prickling warmth, then a fierce burning, and as she twisted and scratched them for relief they sprouted fur, some gray, some brown."

Other Genres

• Audio at Crime City Central: "A Dead Body" by Jim Harrington.
• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "Grocery Bags" by Sarah M Blood.

Galaxy's Edge

Now Posted: Galaxy's Edge #4.
   A great ezine that contains a mixture of new and reprinted science fiction stories.  Edited by Mike Resnick (a fantastic writer himself), it is worth a read.










Fiction
• "Out of All Them Bright Stars" by Nancy Kress. 1985.
      "So I’m filling the catsup bottles at the end of the night, and I’m listening to the radio Charlie has stuck up on top of a movable panel in the ceiling, when the door opens and one of them walks in. I know right away it’s one of them—no chance to make a mistake about that—even though it’s got on a nice suit and a brim hat like Humphrey Bogart used to wear in Casablanca."

• "Sisters" by Nick T. Chan
     "In the still moments before dawn, when all is as dark as the bottom of the sea, I turn my head from my sister and dream—and in my dream we are not conjoined. We are not fused from breast to stomach. I am not destined to cast spells until Isabella dies. Instead, I walk straight. I do not crab-scuttle with her. Alone and proud, I am with the love of my life. When I wake, I can’t remember his face."

• "Correspondence With a Breeder" by Janis Ian. 2005
     "I am hoping we can communicate via satelnet regarding this project, as I am pressed for sunturns and must get this in quickly or my lectern will be degrading me."

• "The Prayer Ladder" by Marina J. Lostetter
      "The ladder stretches up and up before me. Into the sky, past the clouds—past the sun, perhaps. I cannot see the top, but I know it ends in Heaven."

• "Amazingland" by Tom Gerencer
      "In retrospect, what happened next was probably predictable, but hindsight only counts if time runs backwards, and in that case, there’d be funeral cake, and restroom visits would be frightening."

• "Good News From the Vatican" by Robert Silverberg. 1971.
      "This is the morning everyone has been waiting for, when at last the robot cardinal is to be elected pope. There can no longer be any doubt of the outcome. The conclave has been deadlocked for many days between the obstinate advocates of Cardinal Asciuga of Milan and Cardinal Carciofo of Genoa, and word has gone out that a compromise is in the making"

• "I Am Lonely" by Ed McKeown
      "I am lonely. I have been so for a long time. This all started so differently when I was shiny and new, the height of human science and innovation. Everyone loved me. Humanity would speak to the universe and to time itself through my high-tech hull. I was Hermes, messenger from Earth, come to carry the word 'We are here.'"

• "Nekropolis" by Maureen McHugh 1994.
      "I have been with my present owner since I was twenty-one. That was pretty long ago, I am twenty-six now. I was a good student, I got good marks, so I was purchased to oversee cleaning and supplies. This is much better than if I were a pretty girl and had to rely on looks. Then I would be used up in a few years. I’m rather plain, with a square jaw and unexceptional hair."

• "Garuda Superior" by Jeff Calhoun.
      "The garuda climbed high and banked once more before swooping in to release its spear like a guided missile. The monoceratops kicked up a dust cloud in a futile effort to escape. The spear plunged into the horned reptile’s flank and through it to its innards, knocking the herbivore on its back. Six feet pawed the air helplessly before falling eternally still."

• "The Pro" by Edmond Hamilton. 1964.
      "“God, yes.” Burnett moved his shoulders, half grinning. “Creepy, and proud. I invented that thing. Thirty years ago come August, in my ‘Stardream’ novel, I designed her and built her and launched her and landed her on Mars, and got a cent a word for her from the old Wonder Stories.”" 

• "Dark Universe  (Part 4)" by Daniel F. Galouye. 1961.
      "Hardly aware Mogan was no longer with him, Jared welcomed the intimate security of the passageway’s walls as they closed in about him once more. The zip-hiss that had accounted for the Zivver leader’s absence was only an insignificant memory against his greater dismay."

Now Posted: Clarkesworls Issue 84, September 2013

It's Clarkesworld, huzzah!  A seriously great magazine whose stories have won countless awards.  Read it! You'll love it.














Fiction

• "Mar Pacifico" by Greg Mellor.
     "A pale dawn spread across the Pacific as my dead mother emerged from the waves."

• "The Promise of Space"  by Jim Kelly
     "I haven’t yet had the chance to review that capture. We were married in 2043. Presumably we met before that?"

• "One Flesh" by Mark Bourne and Elizabeth Bourne
      "Jupiter’s immense horizon appears flat as a flitter, stretching beyond the reach of vision. Cloud banks the size of continents drift in what might be sky. Organic molecules paint them in autumn colors: oranges and browns and peach and gold. Behind the clouds, the rising sun shines like a silver coin"

• "Out of Copyright" by Charles Sheffield. 1989. 
     "Troubleshooting. A splendid idea, and one that I agree with totally in principle. Bang! One bullet, and trouble bites the dust. But unfortunately, trouble doesn’t know the rules. Trouble won’t stay dead."

• "First Principle" by Nancy Kress. 2011.
     "He was even bigger than I expected. All three of them were. Barb and I watched on the link screen as they waited for the transport bay to pressurize, as they climbed out of the rover. Dr. Langley, in his rotation as council leader, made a welcome speech. The parents managed exhausted smiles, but the boy scowled."

Non-Fiction

• "Aliens, Robots, Spaceships and . . . Popsicles? SF on American Radio, Then and Now" by Mark Cole 
• "Organic Synthesis: A Conversation" with Ken Liu by Jeremy L. C. Jones 
• "Another Word: I am an Endangered Species" by Alethea Kontis 
• "Editor's Desk: Post-Apocalyptic Publishing" by Neil Clarke 
• ART - "Silent Oracle" by Matt Dixon

Free Fiction to Help Us Forget That Ben Affleck Is Now Batman.

More great free fiction, including a pair of stories from Kristine Kathryn Rusch, an SF story by Nancy Kress, a Ken Liu story in both audio and text format, the latest episode of the Antipodean podcast, audio by Eleanor Arnason at Clarkesworld, and a ton of e-books after the fold (including David Drake and John Ringo).  I'd say to check out Regan Wolfrom's SF Signal post for more free fiction e-book links, but since many of you have come here from there, I won't.  [Art from Ken Liu's story at Drabblecast]



Fiction
At Baen [via SF Signal]

• "Migration" by Nancy Kress. Science Fiction
     "Welcome to Freedom, a Libertarian society, the only planet in the Coalition where genetic engineering is not only allowed but common. But that hasn’t changed things for the pupcats, with their drive to migrate yearly back to the ice from which they came. Shipped off planet, captured, sold, many suffer and die each year from being kept away, so Lukas has come to put a stop to it."

• "The Hanging Judge" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Science Fiction
    "No matter how remote, colonies need law and order like anywhere else. Someone has to hold people accountable and keep the criminals at bay, right? You’d think a judge who travels with an execution chamber and a prison ship would be feared throughout the Colonies, but Judge Morell quickly discovers that’s not true of everyone in this interesting tale"

• "Flipping the Switch" by Jamie Todd Rubin. Science Fiction.
   "No journey to the stars could begin without a starship, and so we continue our journey with a tale about one of those without whom colonization of the stars will never happen: a colonial ship pilot, called upon to take an adventure and sacrifice life at home, until he begins realizing the cost. Did he make the right decision? Would you choose the same?"

• "The Bricks of Eta Cassiopeiae" by Brad R. Torgersen. Science Fiction
     "Someone has to go and prepare planets for colonist’s arrival. In some cases, this will consist of advance teams of volunteers or government officials, in others, perhaps laborers will be recruited. In the case of our next story, those laborers are prisoners working off their hard time. The service in the brick fields is far better than other options, however. Unless, of course, one of your fellow inmates wants even more ."

• "The Far Side of the Wilderness" by Alex Shvartsman . Science Fiction
       "Sometimes human colonists themselves can be away so long, they begin seeing the Earth as a romantic, hopeful place different from what their ancestors who founded the colony might remember. In a reverse of our other stories, a bit of a Moses-esque promised land mythology arises amongst a religious sect of isolated colonists in regards to the Earthly home they left behind, driving some of them to live for one goal: to return home. But what if home is not the place their legends recall?"

• "Legio Patria Nostra (The Legion is Our Country)" by William C. Dietz. Science Fiction
     "If the moon had a name, it was a Hudathan name, since the satellite was orbiting a world that the Hudathans laid claim to. But, like everything else in the sector of space sandwiched between the Hudathan Empire and the Confederacy of Sentient Beings, the moon was open to attack."

• At Drabblecast: "The Call of the Pancake Factory" by Ken Liu. Comedy. Horror,
      "The bar is plenty kitschy: goofy statues made from coconuts everywhere and strings of shell beads hanging from the ceiling. I smile when I see a coconut sporting a pair of mouse ears made from scallop shells." Also flash audio "Lovecraft" by Chris Munroe.


• At WMG Publishing: "Advisors at Naptime" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Science Fiction. Humor.
     "She’s important because the grown-ups believe she’s an average five-year-old. Average five-year-olds have uses for bad guys who want to conquer the world. Only no one realizes that Carol isn’t average. Carol’s smart. And tired. And will do anything to get her nap"


Audio Fiction
• At Antipodean: The AntipodeanSF Radio Show #181.
     The 181st episode of this quality flash fiction podcast, featuring audio speculative fiction stories.

• At Clarkesworld: "The Lovers" by Eleanor Arnason.
     "There was a woman of the Ahara. She came of a good line within the lineage1 and grew up to be tall and broad with thick, glossy fur. Her eyes were pale gray, an unusual color in that part of the world. From childhood on, her nickname was Eyes-of-crystal. If she had a fault, it lay in her personality. She was a bit too fierce and solitary"

• At Drabblecast: "The Call of the Pancake Factory" by Ken Liu. Comedy. Horror,
      "The bar is plenty kitschy: goofy statues made from coconuts everywhere and strings of shell beads hanging from the ceiling. I smile when I see a coconut sporting a pair of mouse ears made from scallop shells." Also flash audio "Lovecraft" by Chris Munroe.
 
• At Internet Archive [LibriVox]: John Silence by Algernon Blackwood. Horror. Dark Fantasy.
       "There are, it would appear, certain wholly unremarkable persons, with none of the characteristics that invite adventure, who yet once or twice in the course of their smooth lives undergo an experience so strange that the world catches its breath—and looks the other way! And it was cases of this kind, perhaps, more than any other, that fell into the wide-spread net of John Silence, the psychic doctor, and, appealing to his deep humanity, to his patience, and to his great qualities of spiritual sympathy, led often to the revelation of problems of the strangest complexity, and of the profoundest possible human interest." Text here and here.

• At Tales to Terrify: "The Red Empress" part one of The Black Fire Concerto by Mike Allen. Dark Fantasy.
     "She settled in her chair on the stage, balanced the soundbox of her harp between her knees, braced its neck against her shoulder and caressed the strings. All twenty-two were in tune, and their song brought a sliver of comfort, for as long as she was allowed to play, she would live another day."

Other Genres
• Audio at Selected Shorts: "Odd Couples"

 E-Books after fold

Go Ahead, Make My Free Speculative Fiction Day.

I really can't say enough good about this morning's free fiction.  There are new and classic stories by big name writers (Rusch, Kress, Liu, Sheckley), stories at great pro sites (Lightspeed, Strange Horizons, PodCastle, StarShipSofa), stories at some of the best flash fiction sites, an audio version of the BSFA shortlisted "Limited Edition" and a reading of a classic SF story by the supercool and talented Julie Julie Hoverson.  And there's more to come! [Art from "Breathless in the Deep"]


Fiction
• At Author's Site: "Killing Time" by  Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Science Fiction.
       "JP pedals her ancient Schwinn with Paula on the handle-bars, laughing, her head thrown back. Paula keeps her bare feet outstretched, afraid that her toes will get caught in the spokes. The morning is bright, the sun a yellow demon that will create haze in the afternoon. It is seven a.m. It is summer. And they are off to play tennis before arrival of the blistering heat."

• At Lightspeed: "Breathless in the Deep" by Cory Skerry. Fantasy.
     "When Jantz spotted a black skeleton jutting up above the water, at first she thought it was just a tide-battered tree, but before long she could make out the shredded ropes and scraps of sail. The wooden bones were the charred yardarms of a sunken ship."

• At Lightspeed: "End Game" by Nancy Kress. Science Fiction.
     "Allen Dodson was sitting in seventh-grade math class, staring at the back of Peggy Corcoran’s head, when he had the insight that changed the world. First his own world and then, eventually, like dominos toppling in predestined rhythm, everybody else’s, until nothing could ever be the same again. Although we didn’t, of course, know that back then."

• At Strange Horizons: "A Plant (Whose Name is Destroyed)" by Seth Dickinson.
     "He must in retrospect have been a god the entire time. He has not just now transcended whatever limen encompasses the mortal. Rather, Naveen has systematically eliminated all other hypotheses regarding Hayden's provenance, and only this remains."

Flash Fiction

• At Daily Science Fiction: "Nova Verba, Mundus Novus" by Ken Liu. Magical Realism.
• At Every Day Fiction: "Giuseppe’s Boughs" by Brandon Nolta. Fantasy.
• At Flashes in the Dark: "And The Darkness Fell" by Dawn Napier. Horror.
• At Strange Horizons: "Abduction" by Laura Madeline Wiseman. Poem.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "Intentional Paradox" by Clint Wilson. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At Lightspeed: "Breathless in the Deep" by Cory Skerry. Fantasy.
     "When Jantz spotted a black skeleton jutting up above the water, at first she thought it was just a tide-battered tree, but before long she could make out the shredded ropes and scraps of sail. The wooden bones were the charred yardarms of a sunken ship."

• At 19 Nocturne Boulevard: "Ask a Foolish Question" by Robert Sheckley. Science Fiction.
      "It's well established now that the way you put a question often determines not only the answer you'll get, but the type of answer possible. So ... a mechanical answerer, geared to produce the ultimate revelations in reference to anything you want to know, might have unsuspected limitations."

• At PodCastle: "Far as You Can Go" by Greg van Eekhout. Fantasy.
     "I didn’t go to school because I was allergic to the neuroboosters, but that didn’t mean I was stupid. It just meant I had a lot of time on my hands. Mostly, I hung out with Beeman, scrap-combing all over Ex-Town and trading metal and electronic bits and whatever for food and goods and services. We were good businessmen."

• At StarShipSofa: "Limited Edition" by Tim Maughan.
     "Eugene Sureshot, one mile tall, strides through the wasteland. Where his limited edition trainers hit the ground deserts bloom, city blocks rise and mountains rip themselves from the ground. Vistas erupt from each footfall, spreading like bacteria, mingling, creating landscapes. New places from the dead ground. Civilisations rise, intricate detail evolves around the soles of giant feet."

• At Strange Horizons: "A Plant (Whose Name is Destroyed)" by Seth Dickinson.
     "He must in retrospect have been a god the entire time. He has not just now transcended whatever limen encompasses the mortal. Rather, Naveen has systematically eliminated all other hypotheses regarding Hayden's provenance, and only this remains."

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"

Great Freebies By Kress, Dick, Sigler, and More.

There's some really great stuff today.  Lightspeed has a pair of cool sounding stories, including  "Beyond the Reach of His Gods" illustrated to the left and a Nancy Kress SF story in both text and audio. And there's much more free fiction including two magazines. There's some classic SF at LibriVox and Protecting Project Pulp and Scott Sigler starts the audio of his latest GFL novel (always awesome).  There may be a second freebies post* today as I haven't even looked at the Comics, Gaming, and E-Book sites yet - and my team of free fiction super-ninja spies are currently raiding SF Signal's Free Fiction Links.


Fiction
At Daily Science Fiction: "Caput Mortuum" by Andrew Kay. 
     "The Master's voice trickles from the speaking tube. "Renán," he says, his voice an urgent orange but matte with kindness, "please come downstairs."
At Lightspeed: "Beyond the Reach of His Gods" by Brian Ruckley. Fantasy.
     "An unseen log boomed against Wolfrun’s hull. In the last few days, Rhuan of the Grey Hall had taken to posting a lookout on the prow, to ward against just such events. This great, fat monstrosity of a river seemed at times to carry almost as much debris as it did water."
At Lightspeed: "Art of War" by Nancy Kress. Science Fiction.
    “Return fire!” the colonel ordered, bleeding on the deck of her ship, ferocity raging in her nonetheless controlled voice.
At Philippine Genre Stories: "The New Daughter" by Dean Francis Alfar. Fantasy.
     "When the boy inevitably grew up, married and moved away with his own growing family, the toymaker decided to make a girl."
At Strange Horizons: "The Lord of Discarded Things" by Lavie Tidhar. Speculative Fiction.
     "There were still alte-zachen men in Jaffa and Central Station in those days, as there always were and always will be, and chief amongst them was Ibrahim, he who was sometimes called The Lord of Discarded Things." 


Now Posted: Innsmouth Magazine #11. Horror.

• "The Dark Island" by William Meikle.
• "The Drowned Ballet" by Kirsten Alene.
• "Charlotte Babbage and the Engine of Liberia" by Andrew Dombalagian.
• "The Boston Look" by Evan Dicken
• "Prayer to the Priest of Dreams" by| Josh Storey.
• "Dinner at Majak’s" by Nghi Vo.

 Now Posted: Resident Aliens October/November Issue.

• "Silence of the Imbeciles" by John C. Conway. Speculative Fiction.
• "The Light in Everything" by Dan Grace. Speculative Fiction.
• "Masters of the Earth" by Margaret Karmazin. Science Fiction.
• "The Newborn" by Alex Mellen. Science Fiction.
• "A Different Blessing" by Milton Davis. Zombies.

Audio Fiction
At Author’s Site: The MVP Episode #1 by Scott Sigler. Science Fiction.
     "If you recall the end of Book III in this series, our fighting Krakens were stranded in a place they did not want to be, about to be boarded by sentients they did not want to meet. We pick up the story right from there."
At LibriVox:  "Omega: The Last Days of the World" by Camille Flammarion. Science Fiction. 1894.
     "On 25th century Earth, a comet is on a path to collide with the Earth ending it all. Astronomers predict different scenarios as to how they will all die depending on the chemical composition of the comet. Omega probes the philosophical and political consequences that arise as the human race faces the end of the world."
At LibriVox: "The Eyes Have It and Tony and the Beetles" by Philip K. Dick. Science Fiction.
     "Aliens have invaded the earth! Horrible one celled creatures disguised as normal human beings" and "10 year old Tony grows up fast when history catches up with the human race. A sobering look at human history .. and our probable future."
At Lightspeed: "Art of War" by Nancy Kress. Science Fiction.
    “Return fire!” the colonel ordered, bleeding on the deck of her ship, ferocity raging in her nonetheless controlled voice.
At Protecting Project Pulp: “The Way Down the Hill” by Tim Powers. Speculative Fiction. 1982.
     "The rich, leathery smell of Latakia tobacco told me that old Bill was there, and I soon identified him by the long, blackened meerschaum pipe he somehow found again every time. The little girl puffing at it gave me a raised eyebrow."
At Toasted Cake: "Your Cities" by Anaea Lay. Speculative Fiction.
     "It's like the city just shrugged," somebody whispered. 


*Or if I get too busy or too lazy, they'll be up tomorrow.

Free Fantasy, SF, and Horror

Some very good free fiction today (new, classic, and audio)










@Fantasy Magazine:"The Machine" by M. Rickert. Fantasy.

"Graveyards creak with too many bones, and the weight of headstones, and when the wind blows the air is dusty with the dead. Ah life, its hoary inevitability. What’s the point?"

Now Posted: Expanded Horizons #30 (July 2011). Speculative Fiction.
"The School" by Lavie Tidhar.

"There had been another boy at the school, called Ender, but he’d attacked and seriously hurt and in at least one case we knew of killed one of the other boys, and they finally had to put him down, though he kept protesting, the day they came for him, that it wasn’t his fault."

"A Handful of Earth" by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

"He left, crates filled with earth, bound for England. Left us behind, promising to send for us. We believed him. But as the days went by, I realized he’d lied."

"Standing in Line at the End of the World: How One Man Became a God As Told to Isha Kiss" by Malon Edwards.

"For you, the Day of the Redeemer is a day to throw off the genteel and chaste Iaran shackles of society, let your hair down (or preen your crest feathers or touch-up your nacreous black lips), raise your petticoats and fulfill your every desire."

"The Representative" by T.N. Collie.

"Alex Haley, a man big on freedom and dignity, once said, “When you clench your fist, no one can put anything in your hand.” Well, my hands were clenched when the woman’s business card appeared in one of them as I sat outside of Beanie’s Café sipping a zebra mocha."

@Week in Rewind: Free Kindle eBook: “Draugr” by Arthur Slade [via SF Signal]. Horror.

“Are you afraid of the dead?” her grandfather asked. Sarah Asmundson will discover the answer to that question. She is prepared for her grandfather’s scary stories, but is anything but prepared when events from the story about a draugr–a man who comes back from the dead–begin to happen around her.

Serial Fiction
@Author's Site. "The Journals of Doctor Mormeck (Mountain)–Entry #13" by Jeff VanderMeer. Science Fiction.

"It has been five days since my last confession, father, and I have sinned…Except I don’t believe in God or priests, despite the fact Marty does, and my “father” was my mother, too,"

@L5R: "Goddess (Part 1)" by Shawn Carman. Fantasy.

"The Hiruma scout carefully surveyed the land to the south and then crept back down the stone outcropping like the shadow of a cloud crossing a midday garden. He hurried back to the command group and bowed sharply. “There is movement again to the south, my lord Benjiro-sama,” he reported. “I believe the Destroyers definitely know that we are here, and are moving to separate any avenue of escape we might have.”"

Classic SF/Horror
@Gutenberg: A Book of Ghosts by S. Baring-Gould (1904). Horror. Ghost Stories.

"If He Went Out For a Walk They Trotted Forth With Him, Some Before, Some Following."

@Munseys and Project Gutenberg: Pharaoh's Broker by Ellsworth Douglass (1899). Science Fiction. Mars.

"I now understood the more composed behaviour of the women. They were accustomed to the idea of being taken in war, and never suffered slaughter or hardship thereby, but merely a change of masters. As they now left the Park they eyed me curiously, as if wondering from what sort of new master they had escaped. I imagined I could detect some signs of disappointment among them, at being cheated out of a trip to a new star or being dismissed from the service of a god. "

@Munseys and Project Gutenberg: "The Premiere" by Richard Sabia, from Amazing Science Fiction Stories September 1959. Science Fiction.

"The young actor was great.... They didn't realize just how great until the night of"

@Munseys and Project Gutenberg:"The Merchants of Venus" by A. H. Phelps, rom Galaxy Science Fiction March 1954.

"A pioneer movement is like a building—the foundation is never built for beauty!"

@Internet Archive: "The Black Brain" by Robert Bloch, from Fantastic Adventures (March 1943). [via Marooned - Science Fiction & Fantasy books on Mars]

"If this was the brain of a Martian millions of years, how could it be alive? How could it keep on growing?"

Reviewed Free SF
BestScienceFictionStories.com: "Cucumber Gravy" by Susan Palwick (2001). Science Fiction.

"I do not need the government crawling up my backside to regulate me, and I have a lot more customers this way, and I make a lot more money. Being legal would be nothing but a pain in the ass, even if I didn’t have to worry about keeping people from finding out about the space cucumbers."

BestScienceFictionStories.com: "Ej-Es" by Nancy Kress (2003). Science Fiction.

"You had to be a little insane to leave Earth for the Corps, knowing that when (if) you ever returned, all you had known would have been dust for centuries."

Escape Pod has posted it's 300th episode!! "We Go Back" by Tim Pratt, read by Mur Lafferty. Science Fiction.

"My best friend Jenny Kay climbed in through my window and nearly stepped on my head. If I’d been sleeping a foot closer to the wall, I would’ve gotten a face full of her boot, but instead I just snapped awake and said “What who what now?” and blinked a lot."

@Beam Me Up: "Greeters" by Zachery Cole. "What is it like to be a greeter for a big box department store now imagine you have been built expressly for that purpose – and all you want is a little time to figure out how the world works."and part 1 of "Paid" by Deanna knippling. "Boregard is both a multi-dimensional time traveler or a down and out gum-shoe. Neither and both are correct depending on what version of himself you ask….." Science Fiction.


@SFF audio: "The Stolen Bacillus" by H.G. Wells, read by Dawn Keenan.

"An anarchist, intent on wreaking ruin on a city, steals a phial from a bacteriologist."

@LibriVox: A new reading of The Time Machine by H. G. Wells, read by Mark F. Smith. Science Fiction.

"Surely the Time Traveler threw great dinner parties! His guests were treated to a once-in-forever trial of a miniature time machine – an exquisite miniature that acted so flawlessly as to appear to be stage magic."

@LibriVox: A new reading of Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, read by Caden Vaughn Clegg.

"Frankenstein starts to recover from his exertion and recounts his story to Walton. Before beginning his story, Frankenstein warns Walton of the wretched effects of allowing ambition to push one to aim beyond what one is capable of achieving."

@LibriVox: Violet: A Fairy Story by Caroline Snowden Guild, many readers.

"A charming fairytale -- with realistic touches -- from the mid-19th Century."

Serial Audio
@Journey Into: "Cyberpunk (Part 1)" by D.K. Thompson, full cast. [Via David Barr Kirtley] Science Fiction.

"Log on or die. Test gamer Billy Gibson didn't realize his next job would change his life and family forever."

@Author's Site: "The Starter (Episode 22)" by Scott Sigler. Science Fiction.

"Quentin and the Krakens head to To to square off against Quentin's favorite team from his childhood. Quentin will lead his team against Frank Zimmer, the best QB in the league, and the hero of Quentin's youth. Will the Krakens prevail?"

@Triplanetary: The Adventures of Superman "The Radar Rocket (Parts 1-5)"

"Leapin' lizards! Jimmy Olsen is trapped in space aboard the radar rocket. Can even Superman save him?"

Fan Audio
@Misfits Audio: "GL-Man Without Fear: “History Lesson – Part 1”"

"Sodam Yat, holder of the mighty Ion powers, has questions for Guy and Kyle about Sinestro. In an attempt to find such answers the trio consults the great “Book of Oa”, which explains exactly how the most disciplined GL became their most feared foe!"