Good Freebies

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

 [art from "Stargazer" - linked below]




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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Flash Fiction

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Other Genres

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

More Free Fiction Links

Many good ones today!  [art for Subterranean Magazine, linked below]











Fiction
• At the WiFiles: "Memory, Hunger" by Valerie Z Lewis. Speculative Fiction.
     "The worst part is memory. It hits her at the strangest times. She’ll be walking downtown, following the crowd, when she’ll catch a glimpse of a bit of garbage on the sidewalk. A candy wrapper. Memory. She knows she used to eat things like that, but she can’t remember what it tastes like. She doesn’t want it anymore, even though she’s hungry all the time."

Now Posted: Electric Spec Volume 8, Issue 1

"Empathy Rocks" by Mark Rigney
      "Pink fire shoots from Quencher's mouth as he thumps his blood-black bass, and the flames belch outward, singeing the hair off at least half the kids in the first three rows."
"Strange Notes from Underground" by Jennifer Crow
      "Tsar Peter, called 'the Great,' built his city in a marsh. Not the best plan, one might say, yet when the Tsar of All the Russias makes up his mind, then all that remains is for his people to do, and to die. And die they did, in their hundreds and thousands."
"The Count is the Kingdom" by Rebecca Schwarz
      "A long, dark line appeared on the horizon. I kicked the mare into a trot, my heart racing. Perhaps I'd at last arrived at the end of the world and would be able to turn back toward home. I had begun to fear that I would never see my North again."
"Heart of a Magpie" by Kathryn Yelinek
     "Marion leaned closer to the white picket fence around her new backyard at ul. Towarnickiego 27. Finally she'd found a magpie that would consider eating bread out of her hand. Just six feet away, the magpie cocked its head, its black eyes fixed on the treat in her outstretched hand."
"The Secret Life of Princes" by David Barber
      "Dichley was skyping Gelda from the 3rd International ChronoCapture Conference in London. It was raining. It had rained since he got there. There was a woman's laughter off-camera and a slim hand put a glass topped with fruit and an umbrella at the keyboard."

Now Posted: Interstellar Fiction #8.

"Robot Origins" by Bruce H. Markuson
     "It all started with the speech my son, Avid, made at the university. “We are not machines. We are sentient beings with souls. This is the gift of the ancient ones. The ancient ones have spoken, we have always said.”"
"Biggest Times Infinity" by Shane D. Rhinewald
     “I’m confident an interim government will form in time. Even anarchists beg for rule again when everything goes to shit,” Commander James Whitehall said. “Still, we’ll likely be up here beyond our original mission. That means no more devouring half a dozen dehydrated noodle bowls per day. And yes, I’m looking at you, Frank.”
"Unfinished Projects" by Darren Goossens
     "He heard a bang and, halfway through swallowing, jerked his head around. He managed to avoid spraying beer on the pizza boxes on the coffee table. Should he investigate? Of course he should. Would he?"
"Stupid Manuscripts" by Antha Ann Adkins
     "Hugh needed to ace this interview with the mysterious SM, Inc. He had looked for work for over a year, and soon he’d have to drop some of his journal subscriptions. That would be tragic.

Now Posted: SQ Mag - Edition 7.

• "Unbound" by Dan Hankner (Sci-Fi)
• "Digital Reflections" by Kevin Rainak (Sci-Fi)
• "A Minor System" by W. B. Stickel (Horror)
• "Serial Fiction: Intangible (Part 2 of 6)" by A.A. Garrison(Fantasy)
• "Surface Stars" by Hansen Hovell Holladay(SciFi)
• "Eyes of the Child" by Robert Harkess (Paranormal Fantasy)
• "My Trip to the Circus" by Jason Lairamore(SciFi)

Now Posted: Subterranean Press Magazine - Spring 2013.

"The Seafarer" by Tobias S. Buckell.
     "The ten soldiers stopped their several days of running at the edge of the red stone cliff and looked out in awe over the gray ocean. A hundred feet below them the waves thudded against the rock and they inhaled the salt spray that slowly drifted up as a fine mist."
"Painted Birds and Shivered Bones" by Kat Howard.
      "The white bird flew through the clarion of the cathedral bells, winging its way through the rich music of their tolling to perch in the shelter of the church’s walls. The chiming continued, marking time into measured, holy hours."
"A Stranger Comes to Kalimpura" by Jay Lake.
     "The older I get, the less I understand about the world. When I was young, I was filled with energetic certainty. My faith in myself was unshaken and unshakeable. Or so I like to pretend, until I revisit the courts of memory. There I realize that I understood far less than I liked to believe."
"The Indelible Dark" by William Browning Spencer.
     "He watched the car come down the mountain. The autumn trees were full of muted color, and black clouds rolled in the sky, restive monsters bloated with rain. The road unraveled in a series of switchbacks, and the car, black, shiny as a beetle, appeared and disappeared amid the trees."
"The Prayer of Ninety Cats" by Caitlín R. Kiernan.
      "In this darkened theatre, the screen shines like the moon. More like the moon than this simile might imply, as the moon makes no light of her own, but instead adamantly casts off whatever the sun sends her way. The silver screen reflects the light pouring from the projector booth."
"The Syndrome" by Brian Francis Slattery.
     "The fundamental issue with my patients, as with all the undead, is that they’ve merged with the eternal. It happens somewhere in the transition from life to undeath—their first death, they call it—and they come out of it with no ordered memory as we understand it"

Flash Fiction

• At Every Day Fiction: "Nixon and the Aliens" by Peter Wood. Science Fiction.
• At 365 Tomorrows: "A Positive Alien Encounter" by J.D. Rice. Science Fiction.

Audio Fiction
• At Beam Me Up: Episode 355. Science - Science Fiction.
     Julie Wornan's melancholy post apocalyptic tale "Epilog" and  part 1 of "Know How Can Do" by Michael Blumlein.

• At Fantastic Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs: Beasts of Tarzan Episodes One and Two.
     "Tarzan’s arch-enemy, Nicholas Rokoff, has escaped from his prison cell in France! Almost immediately, Tarzan’s baby son is abducted."

Comic Books

• At Atomic Kommie Comics:  "Runaway Asteroid" Sci-Fi. 1969.
• At Digital Comics Museum: Planet Comics #4. Sci-Fi. 1940.
• At Paizo: Pathfinder Comics #1 is being serialized online Here (the first four pages are up)
• At War: Past, Present and Future: "Remember Makano" Sci-Fi. 1952.

Other Genres

• Audio at Tales of Old:  "Anezka" by Bruce Durham. Historical Fiction - Punic Wars. 
• Audio at Selected Shorts: Flash Forward - "Vanilla Bright Like Eminem" by Michel Faber and "North Country" by Roxane Gay".

Thor's Day Freebies

More great freeness! Illustration from "Hello, Moto" by Nnedi Okorafor.












@Tor.com: "Hello, Moto" by Nnedi Okorafor.

"This is a tale you will only hear once. Then it will be gone in a flash of green light. Maybe all will be well after that. Maybe the story has a happy ending. Maybe there is nothing but darkness when the story ends."

Now Posted: Beneath Ceaseless Skies - Issue #81
"Hence the King from Kagehana, Pt. I" by Michael Anthony Ashley.

"He shrugged into the straps of his cricket box and tested the mask of noise over the shuffle of his footsteps. The jostle irritated a chorus of angry chirping from the little territorial males. They didn’t like being forced together. Saga for his part offered them the only advice he knew: “Time is the mother of chance.” It was the Twelfth Knot and the favorite saying of Kagehana’s escape master. Employ enough patience and even the strongest prisons will show you a way out."

"Read This Quickly, For You Will Only Have a Moment..." by Stephen Case.

"The one who brings your food is named Osla. My birds are trained well, and this one will have struck at his eyes. Take this parchment quickly, speak his name, and he will fall like the rain outside your window. You must move quickly, for the first guard will be at the door."

Now Posted: Clarkesworld - Issue #62
"A Militant Peace" by David Klecha and Tobias S. Buckell.

"For Nong Mai Thuy, a Vietnamese Sergeant in the Marine Police, the invasion of North Korea starts with the parachute-snapping violence of a High Altitude, Low Opening jump deep in the middle of the inky black North Korean airspace at night. Here the air is the stillest, bleakest black. The bleakness of a world where electricity trickles only to the few in Pyongyang."

"The Smell of Orange Groves" by Lavie Tidhar.

"On the roof the solar panels were folded in on themselves, still asleep, yet uneasily stirring, as though they could sense the imminent coming of the sun. Boris stood on the edge of the roof. The roof was flat and the building's residents, his father's neighbors, had, over the years, planted and expanded an assortment of plants, in pots of clay and aluminum and wood, across the roof, turning it into a high-rise tropical garden."

"Silently and Very Fast (Part Two)" by Catherynne M. Valente.

"Humanity lived many years and ruled the earth, sometimes wisely, sometimes well, but mostly neither. After all this time on the throne, humanity longed for a child. All day long humanity imagined how wonderful its child would be, how loving and kind, how like and unlike humanity itself, how brilliant and beautiful"

Serial Fiction
@Paizo: "Blood and Money - Chapter Two: The Masquerade" by Steven Savile.

"The fact that someone wanted him dead was a bitter pill for Isra to swallow, but not a particularly surprising one. Act like an idiot long enough, splashing the cash and taking it as gospel that every woman in the city had been put there for your pleasure, and you were going to incur a certain amount of jealousy. That was just part of the image he had cultivated to hide the Nightwalker from prying eyes."

Audio
@Beneath Ceaseless Skies: "The Judge's Right Hand" by J.S. Bangs.

"The brand Adultery will scar her pretty cheeks, and our son will wear the Bastard brand his whole life. But those aren't the brands I'm worried about."

@Clarkesworld: "A Militant Peace" by David Klecha and Tobias S. Buckell, read by Mike Allen.

@StarShipSofa: "To Seek Her Fortune" by Nicole Kornher-Stace, read by Amy H. Sturgis.

"a Lady Explorer on a flying sentient ship, obsessed with visiting psychics and mystics to find an answer to a critical question." - Amazon.com

Cat Rambo, Tobias Buckell, and Other Great Free Fiction.

Some great free fiction today, including a pair of eZines - Lovecraft eZine (great horror fiction in the tradition of H. P. Lovecraft) and Schlock Magazine (a speculative fiction magazine linked for the first time here today). Also short stories from Tobias Buckell, Cat Rambo, and Eric J. Juneau. Some cool audio fiction and flash fiction round out today's links.

On a personal note, I am proud to announce that I have rejoined the award winning SF Signal as their free fiction linker, for want of a better term.

"Ha Ha! It must be remembered that Dave sent them links before and they won no awards. Then he takes a long term leave of absence and they start winning awards while he is away. Coincidence? I think not!!"









@Fantasy Magazine: "The Immortality Game" by Cat Rambo. [Also in audio form]

"Decades later the music was what really tipped Glen off. He heard a song on the radio, a brand new release, and remembered the day he’d first heard it, twenty years earlier."

@Subterranean Press: "Mirror, Mirror" by Tobias S. Buckell. YA.

"Can you see yourself in these glasses? They’re called mirrorshades. They’re antique; I found them via someone in Topeka at an estate sale. They’re not replicas, they’re actual mirrorshades. I think a cop wore them. Like thirty years ago."

@Lovecraft eZine: The June 2011 is now posted.

"The Case of the Galloway Eidolon" by Bruce Durham.

"Two had received severe chest wounds, their cotton shirts blood-soaked and torn from multiple swings of some bladed instrument. The third had suffered a more ghastly wound, a crushed cranium; the blow slicing bone and opening the forehead down to the mouth. His glazed eyes stared obscenely in opposite directions."

"The Call of the Dance" by William Meikle.

"Right from the get-go I knew there was something dodgy going on. When he showed me round the workshop he tried to explain the machinery to me. I ain’t got the schooling for stuff like that – there something about ether and emanations but it was all gobbledygook to me. I was just happy to get paid."

"Unearthly Awakening" by W.H. Pugmire.

"You have been excited by its legend – but it’s just a story for you, not something that dwells in haunted reality. I was mesmerized as you spoke of it, that day of yellow light, and so I could not resist going to look at it after we had our little meal."

"Dreams of Fire and Glass – part 2" by Neal Jansons.

"Almost submerged in the bathtub, lay a shape. It had a head, two arms and legs, but at that point the resemblance to humanity ended."

"Darius Roy’s Manic Grin" by Brian Barnett

"The walls were adequately padded. However the material appeared to be grimy from age and lack of care. Dr. Johansson made a mental note to bring up the issue with the health board. The facility was under poor management and he could stand by no longer to watch the patients suffer."

@Kasma SF: "Influx Capacitor" by Eric J. Juneau.

"A man with a receding hairline appeared at the foot of his bed, wearing a green-collared shirt and black pants. His arrival was accompanied by a loud whirring noise coming from a black box on his arm. The man had a bigger nose and a saggy face, but Martin knew he was looking at his future self."

The June issue of Schlock Magazine ["works of speculative fiction, exploring various subgenres through experimental fusions in style and format. Schlock’s contemporary themes take a playful and irreverent look at genre fiction, given individual flair by a regular rotation of writers and artists."] is now posted [via SF Signal] with:

• Fingertips by Colin Meldrum
• Tale from a Save Point by Nick Tramdack
• Juliette & Justine: Dance of the Mummies by Krista Bonello Rutter Giappone
• #260: Dark Entomology by KC Wilder
• a summer haunting by David Massengill
• Jungle by Peter Farrugia and Teodor Reljic
• Pirate! by Rachel Agius
• Oneiros and I by Bettina Borg Cardona

@SFFaudio: "The Marching Morons" by C.M. Kornbluth, read by William Coon. [via SF Signal]

"The story is set hundreds of years in the future: the date is 7-B-936. Its protagonist is John Barlow, a man from the past put into suspended animation by a freak accident involving a dental drill and anesthesia. He is revived in a dystopic future where the dysgenic breeding of humans has, in combination with intelligent people not having many children, overwhelmingly populated the world with morons."

@LibriVox: Metamorphosis or The Golden Ass by Lucius Apuleius.

"The story of the Metamorphosis, the tale of a man turned into a donkey that goes through many adventures to become a man again, inspired many other similar ones later on."

Serial Audio
@Beam Me Up: Episode #265 "Memory" part 2 by Michael Merriam.

"In the conclusion this week, Lucza Antreus finds out that what she want and what she has to do are not the same thing. We learn the real reason that her home planet and the rest of known space has spiraled into chaos and the sacrifices that will have to be made to arrest and reverse what has taken centuries to build up to."

@Author's Website: "The Starter" Episode #18 by Scott Sigler.

"Sunday Football on the UBS network brings you coverage of the Ionath Krakens' home opener against the Themala Dreadnaughts. It's Quentin on the field, while Chick McGee and Masarra the Observant bring you the action from the booth."

Fan Audio
@Misfits Audio Productions: "Green Lantern-Man Without Fear: It’s the Law."

"Sodam Yat says ‘Adieu’ to his loving parents on the planet Daxam while Sinestro gives Hal a few lessons in life on how to walk the straight and narrow path. Meanwhile, Lanterns gather on Oa as the Guardians hasten to make change!"

@Daily Science Fiction: "Sister" by Melissa Mead.
@Flashes in the Dark: "Balanced Breakfast" by Shawn El Naggar. Horror.
@Flashes in the Dark: "Cats and Dogs" by Henry Gribbin. Horror.
@365 tomorrows: "Last Supper" by Duncan Shields. Science Fiction.
@365 tomorrows: "Countermeasures" by Jessica Thomas. Science Fiction.
@365 tomorrows: "First Flight" by Andrew Bale. Science Fiction.
@Weirdyear: "The Non-Story of Sarah Hough and I" by Jake Sweet.
@Weirdyear: "The New Landlord" by Andre Farant.
@Weirdyear: "Whatever the Price" by Alan Zhukovski.
@Yesteryear Fiction: "The Mech-Maiden of Mesopotamia Part 5" by Nichole Beard. Fantasy.
@Yesteryear Fiction: "The Mech-Maiden of Mesopotamia Part 4" by Nichole Beard. Fantasy.
@Yesteryear Fiction: "The Mech-Maiden of Mesopotamia Part 3" by Nichole Beard. Fantasy.
@Eschatology: "Asher’s Ennui" by George Wilhite. Horror.
@The New Flesh: "The Whisperer" by Margie Hamilton. Horror.
@Quantum Muse: "The Tomato" DB Fuller.
@Brain Harvest: "Tincture of Regrets" by Kate Marshall. Speculative Fiction.

Many Freebies, Including George R. R. Martin's "The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr"

A ton of AWESOME today. George R. R. Martin's "The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr" is only one of the cool stories today. And there is an iPod full of worthy audio fiction (OK a cheap MP3 player full) , a video, and some very good gaming items. As Blur would say "Woo hoo!!!!!"



Fiction
@Fantasy Magazine: "The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr" by George R. R. Martin.
"One moment there was only the valley, caught in twilight. The only sounds were the cries of the mourning-birds coming out for the night, and the swift rush of water in the rocky stream that cut the woods."
Online and in MP3 (streaming and download).



@Ray Gun Revival: "White World" by Steve Stanton.
"Viki staged a party for their last night together. The food was catered but the drinks were bring-your-own. She had planned the details for weeks in advance, her fifth-floor apartment immaculate, completely sterile. All the guests had been instructed to be free of animal dander and scrubbed clean with disinfectant. Her young man Danny could not risk any contamination this late in his regime."

@Book View Cafe: "Signed in Blood" by P. R. Frost, from A Girl’s Guide to Guns and Monsters, edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Kerrie Hughes, February 2010.
"I knew words would flow easily from this pen. Beautiful words that melded together into a story."

@Book View Cafe: "California Demon" by Susan Wright.
"Read the urban fantasy story "California Demon" and find out what happens to Allay when she is possessed by a demon."

@Mindflights: "The Oracle of Themazuri" by Rachel V. Olivier.
"Dayo, like many girls her age, is a daydreamer. Unlike those girls, however, sometimes those daydreams come true. It is a gift, but it is a gift that has cost her everything."

Serial Fiction:
@Kat and Mouse: Guns for Hire: "Payback" - Part Two" by Abner Senires.
"Since the meet was in Southside near the Gibson Street Tunnel, I dropped four extra pistol magazines in my cargo pockets, grabbed a frag grenade, a smoke grenade, and made sure I had the FAL fully loaded with several extra magazines in the Shelby's trunk"

Classic SF
@Two-Fisted Tales of True-Life Weird Romance: ". . .and It Comes Out Here" by Lester del Rey, from Galaxy Science Fiction (Feb. 1951). In Jpeg scans.
"There is one fact no sane man can quarrel with ... everything has a beginning and an end. But some men aren't sane: thus it isn't always so!"

@BestScienceFictionStories: "A Logic Named Joe" by Murray Leinster (1946).
"a 1946 science fiction short story by Murray Leinster. It is about a network connected machine that can answer any and all questions!" Reviewed and linked to a free online version.


Audio Fiction
@Beam Me Up: Episode #254 featuring the conclusion of "The Utility of Love"” by David Steffen, read by Wilson Fowlie. And "Time Enough At Last" by Lynn Venable.

@The Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine: "Anakoinosis" by Tobias S. Buckell, produced by Marshal Latham. "Humans have come to the home world of an alien species known as the whiffets. The whiffets are eager to learn all that humans have to teach them. They are helping the humans repair the damage to their ship, but are the humans helping the whiffets? "

@The Classic Tales Podcast: Episode #203, "The Black Cat" by Edgar Allan Poe, read by B. J. Harrison.
"A convicted man tells of his descent into dissipation. For his love of animals, once his greatest comfort, proves to be his ultimate undoing."

@Cast Macabre: Episode #35, "The Night Stalker" by Raymond Gates, read by Barry J. Northern.

@Cthulhu: "The Curse of Kralitz" by Henry Kuttner.
A mythos related story by the SF great.

@LibriVox: PD Goth, by various (inc. Poe and Blackwood)
"A collection of spooky stories culled from etexts found on Project Gutenberg."

@LibriVox: The Book of a Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 04, by Anonymous, translated by Richard Francis Burton.
"A long series of cliff-hangers told by Shahrazad to her husband Shahryar, to prevent him from executing her. Many tales that have become independently famous come from the Book, among them Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and the voyages of Sinbad the Sailor."

Serial Audio
@The Author's Website: The Starter - Episode #7 by Scott Sigler.
"The rookies arrive on the TOUCHBACK after surviving their tests on the COMBINE, and this time Quentin is meeting the new recruits as the starting quarterback of the Krakens."


Flash Fiction
@365 tomorrows: "The Vote" by John Tudball.
@365 tomorrows: "Protocol" by Eric Poch.
@365 tomorrows: "Looking Glass" by N. Thomas Parshall.
@The New Flesh: "Immortality" by Robert Eccles.
@Every Day Fiction: "The Princess and the Bullfrog" by Vincent D. O’Connor.
@Flashes in the Dark: "Bloody Rejuvenation" by Joshua Scribner.
@The Daily Cabal: "On Reincarnation in Turkeys" by Luc Reid.
@Daily Science Fiction: "That's Show Business" by Bruce Boston.

Video
@VODO: Zenith (2011).
"A father and son, separated by decades and a cataclysm that has upturned the world, track a grand and elusive conspiracy in this cyberpunk thriller.

In the hellish future of 2044, human beings have become stupefied by the state of permanent happiness they’ve been genetically altered to experience. ‘Dumb’ Jack (Peter Scanavino) offers relief via drugs that bring his customers the welcome phenomenon of pain. But when Jack receives a mysterious videotape of his dead father, he sets out to unmask the dangerous conspiracy that has created this dystopian world."
Unfortunately distributed only through torrents, but if you trust your anti-virus software, this doesn't look bad.


Gaming
@A Character for Every Game: Labyrinth Lord Downloadables. A good roundup of the free Labyrinth Lord materials available on the web. Everything you need to start gaming after a few hours reading.








Short But Sweet.
@A Hamsterish Hoard of Dungeons and Dragons: [New Monster] Brass Jackal.
@The Land of NOD: [Encounters] Mu-Pan - Encounter XII / XIII.
@The Land of NOD: [Encounter] Mu-Pan - Encounter XIV.
@The Land of NOD: [Encounter] Mu-Pan - Encounter XV.
@A Character for Every Game: [New Magic Items] 6 More Magic Potions.
@Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets: [New Magic Item] Master Thief’s Club of Deception.
@Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets: [New Spell] Dead Freeze.
@Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets: [New Spell] Numberspeak.
@Strange Magic: [New Magic Items] 6 Minor Magic Items.
@Trollish Delver: [New Character Types] Burglar and Wildfarer for Tunnels and Trolls.
@DriveThruRPG: Dark Ages Basic Rules From White Wolf [free membership required].
@Blog on the Borderlands: [New Spell] Holy Weapon.

Tobias Buckell, Theodore Sturgeon, and Hot Elf Chicks.

It's Saturday and we (the royal "we" apparently) have a googleplex of chores to do, but here are a few rather cool free items from the digital multiverse.




Fiction
At Subterranean Press: "The Fall of Alacan" by Tobias S. Buckell.
"Mynza clung to the side of a stone tower like a bug to a wall. He was hundreds of feet above the dirt street below, halfway up to the bulging copper-plated dome at the very top of the tower. From here he could see the last few merchants of the day who camped out in front of the Mayor’s Mansion leaving their brightly colored stalls."


Online HERE.



At Munseys: "Hoiman and the Solar Circuit" by Gordon Dewey, from If: Worlds of Science Fiction (July 1952).

In e-book downloads at Munseys HERE and Project Gutenberg HERE.



Audio Fiction
The latest episode, number 88, of Spider on the Web is up featuring SF great Spider Robinson hosting readings of "Bianca's Hands" and "Godbody" by another SF great, Theodore Sturgeon.


In MP3 download HERE.




Fetidus is a complete online audio-book, "FETIDUS: The Damned Heir by James Durham. This "future-noir" urban fantasy features a talented cast and original music score, and can be freely downloaded and shared. Join us in the post-apocalyptic world of Art Blanchard, as he takes on a thrilling, twisted case set in the fetid alleys of Washington, DC, circa 2034." Likely R rated.


All twenty episodes are available streaming and in MP3 download HERE. [via The Guild of Cowry Catchers]



The Guild of Cowry Catchers is a series of serialized audio books (now on book three Ashes ). It is "a dark, nautical fantasy for people who shop in the grown-up section of the bookstore." I listened tp book 3, episode one and thought it quite well done, though I would recommend starting from book 1.

The latest episode is Book 3 – Episode 4. Streaming and in MP3 download HERE, or start with Book 1 – Episode 1 HERE (approximately R rated). This a good site to look around in as there are lots of extras.



Episode 11, Ignis, of The Witch Hunter Chronicles is now available.
"What awaits now? The kindling flame of hope? Or the destructive fires of punishment and vengeance? The final hours approach and the skies redden over Sevenpeaks…"

Streaming and in MP3 download HERE.

Flash Fiction
@Every Day Fiction: "God Machine" by Ajit Dhillon.
@Flashes in the Dark: "She Took in Silence" by Matthew C. Funk.
@365 tomorrows: "Incarnate" by Ian Rennie.

Gaming
At DriveThruRPG, Salvage Crew: Star Mogul Game.

"The focus of this game is on running a salvage crew operation and earning money. If your company goes broke, you simply open a new one and continue playing your opponents. A two or more player table top game. Future menacing alien encounters will be controlled by all players involved so no DM is necessary for this system."

In a free PDF download HERE. (free membership required).




At Earthdawn Blog: 255 Earthdawn Spells. "The Tableau Infractus Internet Archive released a collection of spells in four brand new fanzine Ebooks. The four books about elemental, illusionary, nethermantic and wizardry spells were collected from various internet sources. The layout of the Ebook spells is based on the editable Spellcards of Maskhim, which I introduced some time ago over here on the Earthdawn Blog."


In four PDF downloads HERE.




At Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets, for D&D or Labyrinth Lord:

"[New Spell] Encounter Iconic Nemesis" online HERE

and "[New Monster] Crimson Arbiter" online HERE.




At A Character for Every Game, "[Friday Map] the Ancient Temple of Torrel"

A nice ruined temple map for any fantasy rpg - HERE.




And at A Rust Monster Ate My Sword, "Hot Elf Chicks with Swords!" A must see -- Trust me, this is as safe for work as it gets (assuming it's safe to look at gaming sites at your work).

Online HERE.

Comics
At Crom!: "From Star-Studded Comics #14 (1968), comes this old-school adaptation of Robert E. Howard's 'Gods of the North'!"



Available in CBR download HERE.