It’s Friday once again, which can only mean one thing – a big bunch of free science fiction stories to read on the intertubes!

Thanks to the wonders of Fusion-Modulated Temporal Blogging Technology (better known as “pre-scheduled posting”), I’ll actually be half-way up the country from my home by the time you read this, having compiled it beforehand… so if there’s anything I’ve missed, please accept my apologies, and my assurances that it’ll be rounded up for next week’s collection. That said, there’s plenty here to keep your eyeballs busy as it is…

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Here’s a whole shed-load from FeedBooks:

• “In the Orbit of Saturn” by Roman Frederick Starzl
• “Spawn of the Comet” by H Thompson Rich
• “Raiders Invisible” by Desmond Winter Hall
• “The Heads of Apex” by George Henry Weiss
• “The World Beyond” by Raymond King Cummings
• “The Einstein See-saw” by Miles John Breuer
• “Poisoned Air” by Sterner St Paul Meek

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Strange Horizons presents what is surely a candidate for Longest Titled Short Story Ever: “A Journal of Certain Events of Scientific Interest from the First Survey Voyage of the Southern Waters by HMS Ocelot, As Observed by Professor Thaddeus Boswell, DPhil, MSc; or, A Lullaby” by Helen Keeble, part the first and part the second

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Subterranean Online presents a new excursion into Jack Vance’s Dying Earth: “Sylgarmo’s Proclamation” by Lucius Shepard

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Here’s the latest instalment of Jason Stoddard‘s Eternal Franchise; we’re up to chapter 8.4

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Shadow Unit Season 2 continues with Episode 2.04: “Getaway“

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News from the courageous Jay Lake:

My short story “People of Leaf and Branch” is live at Fantasy magazine.

There’s also a sample from Jay’s new novel Green at Tor.com.

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Speaking of Tor.com, their latest full-sized piece of original fiction is “The City Quiet as Death” by Steven Utley and Michael Bishop

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Here’s fragment 38 of Jayme Lynn Blaschke‘s Memory

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The ever-prolific Lee Gimenez writes to inform us that his story “September 12th” is up at Aphelion.

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Last but certainly not least, over at SF Signal they’re continuing their nefarious and underhand quest to make me look like the lazy mountebank I surely am by collating daily (daily!) free fiction round–ups. So go and wreak revenge on my behalf by clicking through and hopefully overloading their servers or something. That’ll show ’em. 😉

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Oh, you want more? OK, so here’s a non-fiction bonus for you: in case you’ve not seen it already, the new edition of H+ Magazine is available to buy, read online in a fancy Flash interface or download as a free PDF. Can’t say they don’t give you options, them transhumanist types…

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And that’s your lot. Don’t forget to send smoke signals if you want to head us off at the pass with something you think we might otherwise miss in next week’s selection! But otherwise, have yourselves as good a weekend as you can.