Free is the Best Price!

A ton of free fiction today, including new stories at some of the premiere online genre magazines. Also some classic SF, several free audio stories, flash fiction, and a few comics. Enjoy, I certainly will. [Today's illustration is for "The Fox" by Malinda Lo.]













@Lightspeed: "Mama, We are Zhenya, Your Son" by Tom Crosshill.
"I fell asleep in Dr. Olga’s big room, in the red university building by the Botanical Garden. I had a helmet on my head stuffed with wires. There were lots of lights and noises." Online and in MP3 audio.

@Subterranean Press: "The Fox" by Malinda Lo. "She was five days northeast of the village of "Anshu, forty-six days into her first circuit, as King’s Huntress, of the northernmost province in the Kingdom."

@Fantasy Magazine: "The House of Gears" by Jonathan L. Howard.
"The notes had referred to a Monsieur Samhet, who lived in a strange house in the hills. They were vague about Samhet’s accomplishments, but he seemed capable of resurrecting with an insolent ease that intrigued Cabal." Online and in MP3 audio.

@Strange Horizons: "Items Found in a Box Belonging to Jonas Connolly" by Laura E. Price.
"A woman swung toward us out of the sky on a knotted rope, a pistol in her free hand. The ocean roared around us; the hull sunk away from underneath us; my mother's grip on me shifted and tightened around my waist. "Hold tight," our rescuer said to us."

@Hub Magazine: "Cycloparalleladrine" by Saxon Bullock.
"So, it’s Friday night, and I’m already speeded up to my eyeballs. The whole world is like this exciting, multicoloured frenetic blur that sometimes resembles stuff I recognise, but I don’t care. I’m doing what I want. I’m down the club, dancing, larging it, throwing myself around, feeling like nothing matters."

@Daily Science Fiction: "Shards" by Leah Thomas.
"I want to tell you that I loved you, regardless of what I am. You should know that despite all you may learn in school, or from books, or from other children, I was capable of that. I may not have a heart, or a brain. But if I excelled at anything human, it was loving you."

@Mindflights: "Stars and Sons" by Robert J. Mendenhall.
"Man's first interstellar odyssey. But, for one man who has waited all his life to go, the cost may include his soul."

Serial Fiction:
@Kat and Mouse: "Payback" Part Five by Abner Senires.
"She sucked air between gritted teeth and nodded. 'You're the one who's supposed to get shot. Not me.'"

Classic and Reviewed SF
@Munseys and Project Gutenberg: "The Legion Of Lazarus" by Edmond Hamilton, from Imagination (April 1956).
"Being expelled from an air lock into deep space was the legal method of execution. But it was also the only way a man could qualify for—The Legion Of Lazarus"

@Munseys and Project Gutenberg: "The Giants From Outer Space" by Geoff St. Reynard, from Imagination (May 1954)
"Grim terror lurked in the void many light years from Earth. But Pinkham and his men were unaware of it—until suddenly they discovered—The Giants From Outer Space"

@Munseys and Project Gutenberg: "Moon Glow" by G. L. Vandenburg, from Amazing Stories (Nov. 1958).
"The Ajax XX was the first American space craft to make a successful landing on the moon. She had orbited the Earth's natural satellite for a day and a half before making history. The reason for orbiting was important. The Russians had been boasting for a number of years that they would be first."

@BestScienceFictionStories.com: "The Mad Scientist’s Daughter" by Theodora Goss. Reviewed and linked to.
"In London, we formed a club. It's very exclusive. There are only six members. Five of us live on the premises. Helen, who is married, lives in Bloomsbury, but she comes to have dinner with us twice a week. We need each other. [...] Who else could share or sympathize with our experiences?"

@Variety SF: "The Sultan of the Clouds" by Geoffrey A Landis. Briefly reviewed and linked to.
"Invitation from Carlos Fernando Delacroix Ortega de la Jolla y Nordwald-Gruenbaum." In smaller letters, it continued, "We find your researches on the ecology of Mars to be of some interest. We would like to invite you to visit our residences at Hypatia at your convenience and talk."






@Podcastle: Episode #153 "The Ghosts of New York" by Jennifer Pelland, read by Rashida Smith.
"She remembered flailing at the air, as if she could somehow sink her nails into it and cling there until help arrived. She remembered the crash and pop of the people who were landing mere seconds before her."

@Cthulhu: Episode #100 "The Mask of Romek" (Part 1) by T.C. Mcqueen.
Original fiction.

@19 Nocturne Boulevard: "When the Lamp Goes Out" by Julie Hoverson, performed by a full cast.
"A podcast crew watch a film with a spooooky past."

@The Drabblecast: Episode #202 "Boojum" (Part I) by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette.
"The ship had no name of her own, so her human crew called her the Lavinia Whateley. As far as anyone could tell, she didn’t mind. At least, her long grasping vanes curled—affectionately?" [Part two is available but only streaming]

@Cast Macabre: "All in the Family" by Sheldon Higdon, narrated by R. E. Chambliss.
"“Have you ever heard of the Turner Beast?” My grandpa asked while sitting in his wooden rocker by the fireplace. Jane shook her head from side to side as I took a sip of Moxie. Anna released a groan . . ."

@The Author's Site: "The Starter" Episode #10 by Scott Sigler.
"Quentin continues to develop his passing game in practice, but the Krakens look horribly exposed at right offensive guard -- if Quentin doesn't have protection, he won't have time to throw. As trade talk circulates, can Quentin separate business from friendship?"







@Flashes In The Dark: "Car" by Ryan Underhill.
@Flashes In The Dark: "Apology" by Henry Gribbin.
@365 tomorrows: "Fertilizer" by Duncan Shields.
@365 tomorrows: "Inside" by Jake Wagner.
@The New Flesh: "Unexpected Pregnancy" by Brian J. Smith.
@Strange Horizons: [Poem] "Serenissima" by Jo Walton.
@Daily Science Fiction: "The Pen Is Mightier" by Mik Wilkens.







@The Horrors of It All: "Hostage of the Unearthly" from Baffling Mysteries #20 (April 1954).
One of "the most bizarre monsteramas of the entire Golden Age era!"



@Atomic Kommie Comics: Spurs Jackson and His Space Vigilantes in "The Saucer Men" from Space Western Comics.

@Diversions of the Groovy Kind: Pellucidar "The World Within" (Feb. 1972).