Futurismic

There’s something I want to know about Fridays – how do they always come round so quickly, even though the week seems interminably long? But before you ponder that poser, get stuck into this week’s selection of free online fiction…

***

Just a brace from ManyBooks.net:

• From The Hands of Hostile Gods by Darren R Hawkins
• “The Cosmic Express” by John Stewart Williamson

***

A fistful from FeedBooks, including a treat for Doctor Who geeks*:

• “Arena” by Frederic Brown
• “Prince Zaleski” by Matthew Phipps Shiel
• “The Diseases of Purgatory, Part 6” by Richard Kadrey
• Doctor Who and the Empire of Glass by Andy Lane
• Doctor Who: The Sands of Time by Justin Richards

*I’ll admit that I’m a little fuzzy on the copyright of those two titles, and I link to them only because FeedBooks have seen fit to publish the electronic versions. As suggested there, consult the copyright declaration for your country if in doubt.

***

Via Big Dumb Object:

With the recent death of Thomas M. Disch, some people may be looking to read some of his fiction (like me). The Sci Fiction archive has one of his stories, “Descending“, so you can at least get a taste.

***

Via the Double-Boing:

Indie comics publisher Boom! Studios is putting a bunch of its backlist comics (including the excellent Zombie Tales) online as free downloads. The titles they’re offering include Ninja Tales, Zombie Tales, Hero Squared, 2 Guns, Shmobots and Cthulhu Tales.

***

Speaking of BoingBoing, birthday-boy Cory Doctorow has news from Eileen Gunn:

“I’ve put up a new issue of the Infinite Matrix — in honor of Cory’s birthday and because I have three great stories the world needs to read: a reprint of Cory’s fine “Nimby and the Dimension Hoppers” and two excellent stories by writers from Eastern Europe: Serbian activist and writer Yasmina Tesanovic’s charming “Cats and Cars” and Ukrainian SF writer Yana Dubinianska’s spine-tingling “Barge over Black Water“.”

***

Via Commandant Sterling comes news of “Engineers’ Dreams” – a short story by George Dyson, son of uber-boffin Freeman Dyson. Sez Uncle Bruce:

“Okay, there’s Freeman, the inspiration of about a thousand widescreen-baroque space operas, there’s daughter Esther, the globetrotting internet maven, and there’s son George the kayak maker, who has now favored us with a fictional text.

Amazingly, this piece reads almost exactly like I would have imagined it. Try to imagine Hugo Gernsback writing “Ralph 124C41+”, only Hugo used to live in a treehouse, is a comprehensive scholar of extinct technologies, and has an IQ high enough to boil mercury.”

Sold! If you’re reading this, George, Futurismic’s always looking for more submissions…

***

Jack William Bell sez:

Here is a link to a cyberpunkish flash piece titled “Conditioning” which I put up with a CC license back in February.

***

Here’s the eighteenth fragment of Jayme Lynn Blaschke’s Memory:

Emperor Camargo smiled. “Indeed you are, Flavius. A very lucky man, indeed. Not many men get a second chance at life, or a third or a fourth or whatever the case may be in your unique situation.”

“All things being equal, I’d just as soon make this chance last a while. There’s nae anything pleasant about dying.”

***

The Shadow Unit “DVD extras” just keep a-comin’.

***

And to round off, here’s a smattering of Friday Flash Fiction:

• Shaun C Green is the “Respawner“!
• Phred Serenissima did it all “… For Oil“
• Neil Beynon has been listening to the “Doors“
• Sarah Ellender has been hanging out on the “Sunshine Underground“

***

And that’s your lot for this week. Don’t forget that the contact form is back open for all your plugs and tip-offs, so keep ‘em coming. In the meantime, have a great weekend!