Roll up, roll up – all the fun of the science fictional fair can be found in Futurismic‘s Friday Free Fiction roundup! Step right inside, and don’t mind the geeks, ma’am…

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Here’s a couple from ManyBooks:

• “Last Men in London” by Olaf Stapledon
• “My Father, the Cat” by Henry Slesar

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And here’s a bunch from Feedbooks:

• “The Man Who Saw the Future” by Edward Hamilton
• “Resurrection” by Robert Joseph Shea
• “Reluctant Genius” by Henry Slesar
• “Walls of Acid” by Henry Hasse
• “Shepherd of the Planets” by Alan Mattox
• “Strange Alliance” by Bryce Walton
• “The Three Eyes” by Maurice LeBlanc
• “The Great Gray Plague” by Raymond F Jones (some sort of proto-Drexlerian nano-pocalypse, maybe?)
• “Moment of Truth” by Basil Eugene Wells

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News of a free anthology from Mike Brotherton:

The anthology of astronomy stories I’ve been working on for the last year or two, off and on, is finally completed and available: Diamonds in the Sky.

The anthology is free and you can go there now and read the stories, most of which are original but a few of which are reprints from Analog or Asimov’s. Contributors include Hugo and Nebula award winning authors. Each story focuses on one or two key ideas from astronomy and should have some educational value, but are hopefully first and foremost simply entertaining and good quality stories. The project was funded by the National Science Foundation as a public education and outreach effort, and I’d like to reach as many readers as possible so please spread the word!

Via Jeremy Tolbert, who made the anthology website… and who you should seriously consider hiring to make yours, if you’re in need of one. Or maybe even if you’re not.

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Tor.com presents “A Weeping Czar Beholds the Fallen Moon” by Ken Scholes

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Strange Horizons presents “The First Time We Met” by Maria Deira

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Hub Magazine presents “A Little Mystery” by Len Bains

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COSMOS Magazine presents “Letting Go” by David Walton

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A message from Nancy Jane Moore:

I’ve put “Thirty-One Rules for Fulfilling Your Destiny” – the one piece of flash fiction in my PS Publishing Showcase collection, Conscientious Inconsistencies – up on Book View Cafe this week.

Thanks, Nancy!

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Issue #2 of Arkham Tales is now available for free download!

This issue contains fiction by K.S. Clay, Dev Jarrett, Jason Hardy, Bric Barnes, Bret Tallman, Matt Finucane, Catherine J. Gardner, John Jasper Owens, Diane Payne, and Garrett Calcaterra, and poetry by K.S. Conlon.

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Looks like I missed a few of the recent free chapters of Jason Stoddard‘s Eternal Franchise, so here are parts 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4 for you to get stuck into.

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SF Signal play host to the fourth and final of their excerpt chapters from David Moody‘s Hater. See also: Chapter 1, Chapter 2 and Chapter 3;

Furthermore, and perhaps in an effort to make things easier for your humble collator, most of SF Signal‘s free fiction listings for the week that aren’t featured here individually can all be found in one convenient post. Result!

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Finally, let’s see what the Friday Flash Fiction gang have been up to this week:

• Gareth L Powell has another excerpt in lieu of Friday Flash; this one is from a story called “The Winding Curve” which he co-wrote with Robert Starr.
• Gareth D Jones has another of his translations, namely “Yn Aavuilley Moal” – “Delayed Reaction” in Manx, no less.
  

And delivering the more regular format, we have the following:

• “Thirteen” by Neil Beynon
• “The Teachings of Fernet Branca” by Sumit Dam
• “The Swamp Witch” by Gaie Sebold

Plus Dan Pawley gets back in the saddle with a double dose: “The Folksinger” and “Lost in the Supermarket“.

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And that’s your lot, once again. Please forgive any typos or errors, as I’m trying to set up a new computer and have hence hurried through this round-up a little more than I should – I’m sure some eagle-eyed commeter will bring my attention to any mistakes! In the meantime, keep us posted with tip-offs and plugs, and have yourselves a great weekend.