Partly, I suspect, due to us getting BoingBoinged last week, we’ve got a mailbox full of free fiction this time round:
From Karl Schroeder:
… I just thought I’d let you know that I’ve released a free ebook version of my first novel, Ventus, under a Creative Commons license. It’s available in a variety of formats from my website at www.kschroeder.com.
I’m delighted to be able to give something back to the community in this way, and I’m hopeful that people who haven’t been familiar with my work previously will get a good introduction to it with Ventus.
I’ve read quite a few of Karl’s novels now, and I’ll be making sure I get this one too.
From L. Lee Lowe:
You can read my online YA fantasy novel Mortal Ghost at http://mortalghost.blogspot.com ; it’s also going out as a podcast at http://lleelowe.com
More general short stories can be found at http://lowelands.blogspot.com
Next year I hope to begin serialising Corvus, my F/SF hybrid. It’s set in a slightly alternate future in which the minds of teen offenders are uploaded into computers on the pretext of rehabilitation – a form of virtual wilderness therapy. The novel is part thriller, part love story, part riff on the nature of consciousness. If you’re interested, you can read the first chapter here: http://corvus-lowe.blogspot.com
From Edward Willett (who mailed this in before he heard I’d hired him onto the team here at Futurismic):
I recently posted my 1999 YA SF novel Andy Nebula: Interstellar Rock Star (originally published in paperback by the now-defunct Roussan Publishers of Montreal) online in its entirety; it’s at www.edwardwillett.com/andynebula.htm.
I also have several previously published short stories online, and some sample chapters of books, all accessible at http://www.edwardwillett.com/sfanfantasy.htm. I’ll also be posting some sample chapters from my upcoming DAW book Marseguro in a couple of months
From Nancy Jane Moore:
In case you’d like to provide info on free SF in Spanish, here’s a
link to the latest issue of the Argentinian magazine, Sinergia:
http://www.nuevasinergia.com.ar/The current issue has one of my stories (in translation) and also a
translation of one by Lewis Shiner, as well as stories from writers from Argentina, Mexico, Peru and the Ukraine. Truly an international
publication.
From Rudy Rucker:
Flurb #4 is live!
It’s another fat and juicy issue, including stories and essays by: Charlie Anders, Kathleen Ann Goonan, John Kessel, Marc Laidlaw, Kim Stanley Robinson; also my meeting with Hieronymus Bosch; also pieces by three newer writers: David Agranoff, Gord Sellar, and Penlope Thomas; and also a group-written jam by “Gustav Flurbert”!
Crikey!
Now the stuff that we spotted elsewhere:
Cory Doctorow wrote a Creative Commons licensed story for Radar about ‘the day Google turned evil: "Scroogled". Read, share, rehash, remix, enjoy!
Strange Horizons publishes original short fiction every single week, as you probably already know … but Futurismic’s own Jeremy Tolbert especially recommends the latest from Eliot Fintushel, "How the Little Rabbi Grew".
The regulation selection from Manybooks.net:
- "Wind" by Charles Louis Fontenay
- "The Vortex Blaster" by E. E. "Doc" Smith
We have audio-books, too. From Darusha Wem:
I thought I ought to draw your attention to the podcasts at podiobooks.com . There are lots of SF novels serialized in audio there for free downloading pleasure, including my own cyberpunk novel Beautiful Red.
Added odd-ball bonuses, both via Metafilter:
- Dostoyevsky’s Crime And Punishment … as a Batman comic. Seriously. And don’t worry, it’s much shorter than the original novel.
- The University of Oxford’s Online Text Corpus Of Sumerian Literature. There’s got to be a few good ideas for modern stories in there.
And finally, more from the Friday Flash Fiction gang (because sometimes small is beautiful): Gareth L. Powell, Gareth D. Jones, Shaun C. Green, Neil Beynon and yours truly.
Enjoy!
**EDIT for late addition! From Beth Wodzinski:
In honor of International Talk Like A Pirate Day, we’ve made one of the stories from our upcoming pirate-themed issue (guest-edited by John Joseph Adams, release date Nov. 1) available for free download. The story is "The Sweet Realm," by Jill Snider Lum, and eager readers can grab a copy on our site: www.shimmerzine.com
That’s your lot.
Writers, editors and anyone else – if there’s something you want included in next week’s round-up, drop me (Paul Raven) a line using my email address on the Staff page.