Hi folks – your Free Fiction was somewhat delayed this week thanks to some hosting-related downtime. But better late than never, eh?

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They’re keeping it old-school at Manybooks.net, as is traditional:

• “Greener Than You Think” by Ward Moore 
• “Victory” by Lester del Rey
• “The Untouchable” by Stephan A. Kallis
• “Gun for Hire” by D.M. Reynolds
• “A Transmutation of Muddles” by Horace Brown Fyfe
• “The First One” by Herbert D. Kastle
• “A Spaceship Named McGuire” by Randall Garrett
• “Card…Trick” by Gordon Randall Garrett
• “Attrition” by Jim Wannamaker
• “The Coffin Cure” by Alan Nourse
• “Letter of the Law” by Alan Nourse
• “The Native Soil” by Alan Nourse
• “PRoblem” by Alan E. Nourse
• “The Highest Treason” by Randall Garrett.

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David Barr Kirtley has the give-away bug; you can read “Save me Plz” and “Blood of Virgins” on his website, both of which appeared originally in Realms of Fantasy.

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From the folks at Orbit:

It’s only a …er… matter of weeks before [the new Iain M. Banks novel] Matter arrives in bookstores. The first Culture novel since Look to Windward, Matter is one of the most anticipated science fiction novels coming out this year. We’re thrilled to be publishing it, and thrilled to offer a first look at the stunning prologue.

At the risk of sounding boastful, I’ll tell you that I was lucky enough to be sent an ARC of Matter, and I can assure you it’s a book you’ll want to read if you have even the slightest fondness for space opera with a twist. Go check out that prologue if you don’t believe me – Iain M. Banks isn’t my authorial hero for nothing, you know..

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Free fiction in audio format!

How’s about John Wyndham‘s classic cosy catastrophe Day of the Triffids?

And over at Podiobooks you can download a free audiobook version of Grey by Jon Armstrong, a book originally published by Night Shade Books in February 2007.

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From my good web-buddy Doctor James “Big Dumb Object” Bloomer:

The new issue of Spacesuits and Sixguns Magazine is online and it includes my story “A Letter Of Complaint“. If you’ve ever done your grocery shopping online (as is increasingly common in the UK) – and have been left baffled at the produce that actually turns up – then this one is for you.

Get your shopping delivered? You lazy bum, James – I walk to the shops and hence lower my carbon footprint! 🙂 Well done on the story, man.

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You’d have to have been very busy (or very cynical) not to have noticed it’s Nebula season.

In addition to all their other hard work (without some of which these posts would be almost impossible) the SF Signal gang are keeping a list of Nebula nominated fiction complete with links to freely readable online versions where available.

So if you like your free fiction fresh, up-to-date and award nominated, that’s probably your best first port of call right now.

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It looks like the Friday Flash Fictioneers are up to nearly full complement this week. Let’s see what we have:

Neil Beynon has “The Cloud“, Dan Pawley is “Adrift“, Gareth L Powell is at “The Highest Point“, and Martin McGrath is “Leaving The World” – a definite thematic drift upwards, wouldn’t you say?

Down here on the ground, though, Gareth D Jones has a “Prequel“, Shaun C Green has a “Human Interest Story“, and yours truly takes on “Sturgeon’s Law” (hopefully without falling foul of it).

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Flash fiction bonus: more flash to read, and a market to submit to! Go take a look at the aptly named FlashFictionOnline.com.

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And a non-fiction bonus, via BoingBoing:

Julian Dibbell has released the text of his ground-breaking “My Tiny Life” as a free download through Lulu.com.

Part memoir and part ethnography, My Tiny Life is about the social life of the online, text-based virtual world LambdaMOO and my own brief encounter with it in the early ’90s. Andrew Leonard, in Salon, called it “the best book yet on the meaning of online life.”

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OK folks, that’s your lot for this week.

Don’t forget, we’re always wanting your tips, recommendations and shameless self-plugs. Even if your work turns up in one of the sites in the sidebar, we’ll still give it a mention here if you just let us know about it! Just drop me a line via the Staff page.

Have a great weekend!