Free Fiction. It's What's For Dinner.

Some more very cool free fiction and e-books this time.  And At SFFaudio, a couple of classic readings from the obscure, but rather good Graveyard Shift.  And don't forget to visit SF Signal and the other great sites listed in the  Free SF Sites links for more free fiction. 

[Art from The Graveyard Shift, linked in audio fiction below]




Fiction
• At Baen: "The Sorcerer of Daigawa" by Jon F. Merz. Fantasy.
     "The stone fortress looking skyward looked as if it were erupting from the lush green of the valley floor. Towering walls of granite mined from a quarry many leagues to the east overlooked the river hewing its way between the Daigawa Mountains on either side. High above, towers and ramparts afforded the guards a perfect vantage point on every approach. It had been designed to thwart attack from any angle. To a traditional warrior, the fortress appeared insurmountable; it would take a large army prepared to lay siege for months to overcome its defenses."

• At Buzzy Mag: "Callie's Song" by Gary K. Shepherd. Science Fiction.
     "Callie walked forward into the lights and saw the thousands of silent, expectant faces turn toward her. For a moment, she felt pure panic, for the sight had awoken in her the memory of an old nightmare. Then she took a deep, steadying breath, opened her mouth, and began to sing."

• At HiLobrow: "The Man with Six Senses - part 6" by Muriel Jaeger. Science Fiction.1927.
     “We agreed that he must get ordinary work for a short time,” Hilda went on, a little uneasily, as it seemed to me, “until he was ready to undertake something better; but I didn’t want him to accept anything as tiresome as this. He did it himself in a fit of disgust with employment agencies. They are depressing places, you know.”

• At HiLobrow: "The Moon Men - Part 8" by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Science Fantasy. 1925.
     "from Julian 5th’s crash-landing on the moon, where he encounters subhuman Kalkars who dwell in the asteroid’s hollow interior; to the same Julian’s doomed effort to defeat a Kalkar invasion of Earth"


E-Books
At Free eBooks Daily:

• Waiting to Die by Richard M. Cochran. Zombie Fiction.
• River's Heart by Kimberly Steele. Vampire Fiction.
• Wolfkind by Stephen Melling. Horror.
• Fireheart by Giulietta Maria Spudich. Fantasy.
• The Spirit Of A Witch by Sarah Jane Avory. Fantasy.
• Trainland by Richard Denoncourt. Dark Fantasy.
• The Locket Thief by Daniel Patrick. Fantasy.
• Bleeker Hill by Russell Mardell. Fantasy.

Audio Fiction
• At SFFaudio: "The Body Snatcher" by Robert Louis Stevenson and "Afternoon At Schrafts" by Gardner Dozis, Jack Don, and Michael Swanwick.
     "Beginning it seems in the mid-1970s Dudley Knight, a U.C. Irvine professor of drama, voiced a series called The Graveyard Shift on KPFK, Los Angeles. The purpose was to tell stories of the macabre. His broadcasts aired weekly with shows of variable length (between half and hour and two and a half hours)."  Unfortunately, most of the titles in this series are listed at The Pacifica Radio Archives as "currently on a 1/4” reel tape and has not been digitally preserved" and the only additional episode I could find is H.P. Lovecraft's The Whisperer In Darkness (streaming in four parts on YouTube) Parts One, Two, Three, and Four.

“To Err is Human, Free Fiction is Divine.”

There's even more great, free speculative fiction than usual today.  Be sure to check out those that sound interesting, and save everything that you can.



[Art from "Creatures of the Abyss" by Murray Leinster in audio fiction below]






Fiction
• At AE: "Put Out Every One" by Rich Larson.
      "The petrol leaks, dripping small craters into cool sand. The smell burns up inside Elliot’s nose. There’s a half-man lying at his feet, blurry in the dark. He is breathing hard. He is staring upward. There’s no starlight, but the sand glistens radioactive and Beasley provides some light where he stands beside Elliot, his skin glowing like a tribal god."

• At Buzzy Mag: "A Meek And Thankful Heart" by Jeff Somers.
     "The other customers of the Morgue knew him and regarded him as a weirdo. They didn’t notice anything different about him aside from the fact that he was taking up valuable bar space he usually had the good sense to abandon."

• At The Colored Lens: "No More Horizons – Part 2" by Adam C. Richardson.
      "'I’ll tell you why.' She rolled over to glare at me. 'You wouldn’t tell me because you’re a reporter, because you have to be the first one on the scene, so you can get the scoop on everyone else. Your journalist’s instinct is one thing, but you could at least mention it to your wife.'"

• At HiLobrow: "The Comet - part 4" by W.E.B. Du Bois. Science Fiction. (1920).
      "She stopped. She was alone. Alone! Alone on the streets — alone in the city — perhaps alone in the world! There crept in upon her the sense of deception — of creeping hands behind her back — of silent, moving things she could not see, — of voices hushed in fearsome conspiracy."

• At Lightspeed: "Mono No Aware"  by Ken Liu. Science Fiction.
     "The world is shaped like the kanji for umbrella, only written so poorly, like my handwriting, that all the parts are out of proportion."

• At Lightspeed: "The Huntsman" by Megan Arkenberg. Fantasy.
      "It’s the best bargain you’ll get in this town,” the faery woman says. She’s standing by a cracked kitchen sink with mold between the tiles, rinsing diced tomatoes and crooked green jalapeño rings. “A heart for a heart. And my heart’s more than what she’s used to, I’ll tell you that. You couldn’t find better if you went door-to-door from every house in the tithe-projects.”

• At Tor.com: "A Visit to the House on Terminal Hill" by Elizabeth Knox.
     "Tom Teal and Albert Barnes are government employees tasked with visiting a hard-to-reach house and convincing its inhabitant, a member of the Zarene family that controls the whole valley, that a large dam project is a good idea. But the Zarenes have their own way of doing things, and they don’t take kindly to outsiders…."

Flash Fiction

• At Daily Science Fiction: "Note to Self" by Hans Hergot.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "An Offer He Couldn’t Refuse" by Clint Wilson. Science Fiction.

E-Books
At Free eBooks Daily:

• The Rainbow Z by Zaria Garrison. Science Fiction.
• Change by Melissa Stevens. Fantasy.
• The Rush by Rachel Higginson. YA Paranormal.
• Dissever by Colee Firman. Paranormal.
• Dust to Dust: Fangs For Your Memories by Eden Crowne. Paranormal Romance.
• Dark County by Kit Tinsley. Horror.
• Becoming Sarah by Miranda Simon. Coming of Age Fantasy.
• Justice by Rhiannon Paille. YA Fantasy.
• The Journey of Secrets by J Robberts. Fantasy.
• Dimensional Shift: Waters of Babylon by Michelle Stone. Science Fiction/
• The Ghost of Josiah Grimshaw by Suzy Turner. YA Paranormal.
• Into Uncharted Seas by E. C. Williams. Science Fiction. 
• Faelorehn by Jenna Elizabeth Johnson. YA Paranormal Romance.
• Promise by Kristie Cook. Paranormal Romance.
• The Immortal American by L.B. Joramo. Historical Fantasy.
• Atazia by John Petts. YA Fantasy.
• The Vampires Of Livix Twin Pack by J Gordon Smith. Vampire Romance.
• Paranormal Legacy by Caitlin Hensley. YA Fantasy.
• Greenshift by Heidi Ruby Miller. SciFi Romance.
• Clandestine by Nicole Rae. YA Paranormal.

At Smashwords:

• "Blood Shadow: Book of Manuel" by Phil Wohl. Contemporary Fantasy.
• "Risky Enchantment" by Oona Roberts. Urban Fantasy.
• "Curse of Witch and War" by Matt Larkin. Epic Fantasy.
• "The Last Zoo" by Sara Zaske. Fantasy.
• "A Clone Of His Own" by Rik Hunik. Fantasy.
• "Feline Savior" by Kevin L. O'Brien. Paranormal.
• "Sky" by N. E. White. Fantasy.
• "Into the Weird: Nine Tales and then Four More" by Harry Kane. Weird.
• "The Final Flight of the Phaseship Lelantos" by Cory Mccoy. Space Opera.
• "The Hyacinth Rescue" by Rudolph Kohn, Jr. Science Fiction.
• "Wired For War" by J.D. Gallagher. Science Fiction. 66k words.
• "Ripples" by John Mc Caffrey. Horror. Ghost.
• "The Man Who Unzipped His Face" by Gareth Pryce. Horror.
• "Libertines: A Horror Story" by Grant Palmquist. Horror. Occult.
• "The Housefull Fear Room : The Journey" by Ridhwanul Haque. Weird.
• "The Boy Who Melted" by Travis McBee. Horror.
• "Heather" by Siobhan Harper. Horror.

Audio Fiction
• 19 Nocturne Boulevard: "Survival Tactics" by Al Sevcik. Science Fiction.
      "The robots were built to serve Man; to do his work, see to his comforts, make smooth his way. Then the robots figured out an additional service—putting Man out of his misery."  - from Amazing Science Fiction Stories October 1958

• At LibriVox: Creatures of the Abyss by Murray Leinster.
      "'The things that listen', whispered the superstitious fishermen when the strange occurrences began off the Philippine coast. How else explain the sudden disappearance of a vessel beneath a mysterious curtain of foam? The writhings of thousands of maddened fish trapped in a coffin-like area of ocean?"

• At LibriVox:: Treasure Island (dramatic reading)  by Robert Louis Stevenson. Adventure.
      "When a rough old seaman calling himself "the Captain" appears at the inn owned by Jim Hawkins' father, young Jim little dreams what adventures will follow in the man's wake. Soon, the once-peaceful inn is threatened by pirates, Jim's father is laid in his grave, and Jim finds himself in possession of a map showing the location of treasure buried by the legendary and notorious Captain Flint" 

• At Lightspeed: "The Huntsman" by Megan Arkenberg. Fantasy.
      Described Above

• At Protecting Project Pulp: "The Problem of Cell 13" by Jacques Futrelle
     "'Let’s suppose a case,” he said, after a moment. “Take a cell where prisoners under sentence of death are confined—men who are desperate and, maddened by fear, would take any chance to escape—suppose you were locked in such a cell. Could you escape?'
     'Certainly,' declared The Thinking Machine".- first published in 1905.

Old Time Radio

• At Plot Spot: "The Other Man" - 2000 Plus, "The Signal-Man" - Columbia Workshop, "The Potters of Firsk" by Jack Vance - Dimension X, "The Moon Moth" by Jack Vance - Seeing Ear Theatre.
• At Relic Radio: "The Robot Killer" on 2000 Plus.

Comics

• At Atomic Kommie Comics: "Death on the Earth-Mars Run!" Sci-Fi. (1952)
• At Atomic Kommie Comics: "Mission into Time" Sci-Fi. (1952)
• At The Horrors of It All: "Burn, Miser, Burn / Money Hungry" Horror. (1953/1971)
• At Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine: "My City Is No More!" Sci-Fi. A-Bomb. (1947)

Other Genres

• Audio at Author's Site: "The Second Bat Guano War Chapters 1-5" by J. M. Porup. [via Scott Sigler]
• Flash Fiction at Every Day Fiction: "The Waitress’s Tattoo" by Daniel Schoonmaker.

Free Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, Audio Fiction, and More

Another decent day of free entertainment.






Fiction
@Beneath Ceaseless Skies: Issue #66 featuring:
"Dancing the Warrior, Pt. I" by Marie Brennan.
"By sheer force of will, Sen forced herself upright. She hadn't won; that much was clear. If that had been the Grandmaster's test, then she'd failed, and this had all been a waste of everybody's time. She couldn't look at Kerestel, at Criel, at anything other than the Grandmaster's feet."

"The Fairy Gaol" by Heather Fawcett.
"I do not want his scrutiny now, with the cool blade of the dagger pressing against my thigh. On the nearest dance path, a woman laughs as a fat prince covers her ears and throat with wet kisses. I feign interest as he spins her across the path, through the starlight that pours into the atrium. Unbidden, I picture our last dance together, on a night so similar and so different."

And don't miss the latest BCS audio story "Mr Morrow Becomes Acquainted with the Delicate Art of Squid Keeping" by Geoffrey Maloney.
"They couldn't be serious, Morrow thought, could not possibly be...but then the Major allowed the squid to slip from his fingers and into his mouth."


Issue #38 (2nd Quarter 2011) of Abyss & Apex: Magazine of Speculative Fiction is out with:
Fermi’s Plague by C. W. Johnson.
"'But Ana,' he told her, 'how do you know the American CIA won’t slip something into your supplies? A bit of shrimp–you wouldn’t even taste it–and my throat would close up forever.' And he throttled himself theatrically."

Demonfire Ash by Helen E. Davis.
"Eyes still closed, Geoff Bowman shifted his head. Pain like an iron spike speared him from temple to temple. Sunlight burned through his still-closed lids; sounds hammered his ears. It was one hell of a hangover, but why would he have been drinking? Strong wine was not allowed to Journeyman Wizards, and he, despite his years, was the newest of Journeyman."

Something Wild by Manfred Gabriel.
"I am a creature of habit. I run the same course every evening. Down the hill into town, away from our modern subdivision and past the clapboard homes built a century before, when the railway rolled through filled with corn and wheat and soybeans, and barges laden with timber cleared from northern woods eased downriver. When the town was an entity onto itself, instead of the bedroom community it has become."

Bots D’Amor by Cat Rambo.
"The bots were going to run Linus out of room soon, if they didn’t scavenge away some piece vital to the ship’s functioning and leave him choking on vacuum first. He didn’t think anyone else had these problems with their ship bots. Galina would say it was his own fault for encouraging them."

Concrete by Nathaniel Lee.
"Trent sighed. Another late night of unpaid overtime, filling out forms in triplicate to update managers who didn’t care about a project that was doomed to failure. He would have minded more if he wasn’t already nervous about going home."

Hail to the Victors by Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon.
"The five of them sat in the sun, their photo-activated chlorophyll enhanced skins providing their lunch. They were beat and the sun was warm; they didn’t talk. Humans didn’t like being green‑-this was a necessary technology which could be turned on and off as needed in the face of the collapse of society and supply chains."

Trans by Paul Rogalus.
"Parker walks up the dimly lit sidewalk and stops at a nightclub called Altered States, looking out of place in his leather jacket. He hesitates at the door and adjusts the packbox on his back, puts on his mirror shades, then enters. At the bar he orders a Potion 9 and a set of green beans."


Serial Fiction:
@Paizo.com: "A Lesson in Taxonomy" by Dave Gross (Chapter Two: The Observation Post).
"I lowered my spyglass and compared what I had seen through the mist with Amadi's sketch of the dinosaurs. His illustrations were astonishing for both their simplicity and their accuracy. At first glance, the dinosaurs we observed from our treetop post appeared identical to the brachiosaurus."

Classic SF:
"Category Phoenix" by Boyd Ellanby, from Galaxy Science Fiction (May 1952).
"Man, it would appear, can adapt to any form of society ... but not one in which the knowledge of extending life becomes a passport to death!"
@Munseys and Project Gutenberg.


Audio Fiction





@StarShipSofa: Episode#183 featuring the short story "Atom Drive" by Charles Fontenay and main fiction "Linkworlds" by Will McIntosh with narrators Jim Philips and Dan Rabarts. And much more.



@The Drabblecast: Episode #200 "The Last Question" by Isaac Asimov, read/performed by a full cast. Very well done! Very good, though predictable, story.

"It all had a beginning in the original cosmic explosion, whatever that was, and it'll all have an end when all the stars run down. The sun will last twenty billion years and maybe the dwarfs will last a hundred billion for all the good they are. But just give us a trillion years and everything will be dark. Entropy has to increase to maximum, that's all..."

@Decoder Ring Theatre: The Red Panda Adventures #69 "Stop the Presses" (superhero/humor) - Campy fun.
"In the tradition of the great mystery men of radio, pulp fiction and the golden age of comics comes The Red Panda, famed protector of 1930s Toronto! Hiding his true identity as on of the city's wealthiest men behind a bright red domino mask, The Red Panda dispenses two-fisted pulp justice with strength, courage and eerie hypnotic powers. Joined in his quest by that Famed Fighting Female The Flying Squirrel, this terrific Twosome holds high the lamp of justice in a dark time!"

@LibriVox: The Mad Planet by Murray Leinster, read by Roger Melin.
"It is 30,000 years following dramatically changed climate conditions on earth [...] Much of the human and animal population would not survive the climate change, and indeed those few humans who did survive knew nothing of all which their predecessors had learned and built."


Flash Fiction



@Daily Science Fiction: "The Modern Prometheus" by Ed Wyrd.
@Every Day Fiction: "The Hurt Club" by James Van Pelt.
@Flashes in the Dark: "A Proper Burial" by Jim Bronyaur.
@365 tomorrows: "Red Tank" by John Xero.

Comics
@The Digital Comics Museum: The Lost World Archive Parts One and Two. Collecting the serialized Lost World stories from Planet Comics in CBR format.








@Four-Color Shadows: "The Man From Another World" from Journey into Unknown Worlds #19 (1953). Pure skiffy fun.






@Diversions of the Groovy Kind: "Destiny: Oblivion" by Kraft, Kirchner, and Nebres, from Haunt of Horror #5. Classic 1970's B&W horror .






@The Comic Book Catacombs: Auro, Lord of Jupiter vs. "The Tyrant of Jupiter" from Planet Comics #27 (1943). Hmm, a Tarzan-like character fighting a flying dinosaur on Jupiter, how did the Voyager and Galileo probes get it so wrong?



@The Warriors Comic Book Den: "The Thing from the Sea!" (Wally Wood art) from Eerie #2 (Aug. 1951) - The whole comic is available as a CBR download there.




@The Horrors of It All: "Bowser" by Richard Corben, a classic 1970's horror comic. "a creepy crawly classic"





Video
@The Internet Archive: Adventure Island (1947).
"Based on Robert Louis Stevenson's "Ebb Tide," this adventure pits a group of shipwrecked sailors against the mad ruler of a jungle island." A low-key adventure film in free Avi and Mpeg downloads.