To make up for last week’s short shrift, we have a fairly hefty crop of free fiction for you this Leap Day …
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Only the one from ManyBooks.net: “King’s Evil” by Avram Davidson
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Thanks to Neil Gaiman and the beneficence (or should that be marketing savvy?) of his publishers, you have a little less than a month in which to read the entirety of Gaiman’s novel American Gods online.
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Much-missed but fantastically busy Futurismic alumni Tobias Buckell has posted the first chapter of his forthcoming novel, Sly Mongoose.
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You’d have had to avoid practically every single genre fiction website there is to be unaware that issue four of Steampunk Magazine is now available to buy in hardcopy or download for free.
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Alastair Reynolds has revealed a second chapter from his new novel House Of Suns.
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Asimov’s has posted the beginning of Elizabeth Bear‘s story “Shoggoths in Bloom“.
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A message from Rudy Rucker:
“I’m still working on the second draft of [forthcoming novel] Hylozoic, without much time to think or write anything fresh for the blog. I do have a few new pictures, so to have something to weave among them, here’s an unused bit I cut from Hylozoic for being too arcane.”
I don’t know about you, but I just love the idea of anything being too arcane for a Rudy Rucker novel! One of my favourite writers, no contest, and a truly unique one at that.
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The SF Signal gang are still updating their list of Free Nebula Fiction. Here are the latest additions:
The titles of the latter two are works of genius in their own right.
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Via John Joseph Adams: As well as the Andy Duncan listed above, there’s another free story to be downloaded over at Nightshade Books in the form of Garth Nix’s Ditmar-nominated “Bad Luck, Trouble, Death, and Vampire Sex.” Many different formats to choose from!
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David Louis Edelman has a story in the recently-released Volume Two of the Solaris Book of New Science Fiction; he’s made it available on his website, so go and read “Mathralon” …. and then read his explanation of how it came to be written.
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More news from Shira Lipkin via email …
Firstly, Shira herself has a new piece of fiction called “Apostate” up on her LiveJournal, and she’s starting a seven day short fiction project over there as of tomorrow.
Secondly, M C A Hogarth is doing something quite interesting:
“She’s exploring an alien world and culture through their language; the Admonishments and Aphorisms of Kherishdar. A fascinating read, all sponsored by her readers. Bonus: The Aphorisms have illustrations!”
Cheers, Shira!
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Of course, it wouldn’t be a Friday without the Friday Flash Fictioneers!
The Fictioneers are a bit thin on the ground this week, but new recruit Ian Hocking is making up for lost time by musing on the nature and purpose of the form itself:
“Question: Is flash fiction an art form in itself, or an excuse to write for about thirty seconds, look challengingly at the cat and say, “And”? Who knows.”
And then he goes and raises the game on all of us by doing it in podcast form; today’s is called “The Pilgrim“.
Meanwhile, still killin’ the old-school way, Greg O’Byrne tells the tale of “Jazz Piano And Johnny Freefall“; Gareth D Jones is watching “Shooting Stars“, Neil Beynon shares a “Shard” and Jay Lake gives us “Imago“.
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That looks like your lot! Please get in touch via the Contact page with any tip-offs or blatant self-plugs you may have for next week.
And don’t forget – fresh new fiction right here on Futurismic this coming Monday! 😀
Slashdot notes a story that quotes a big wheel at Sony as being worried about the potential mainstream appeal of the Asus Eee and its ilk:
