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!"

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.