Good grief, it’s Friday again – and Friday means free fiction! Here’s what flowed through town on the RSS river this week:

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From Manybooks.net:

• “The Memory of Mars” by Raymond F Jones (“As soon as I’m well we’ll go to Mars for a vacation again,” Alice would say. But now she was dead, and the surgeons said she was not even human. In his misery, Hastings knew two things: he loved his wife; but they had never been off Earth!)
• “Hail to the Chief” by Gordon Randall Garrett

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More Who stuff from FeedBooks:

• Doctor Who and the Scales of Injustice by Gary Russell

And some shorts by Philip Francis Nowlan:

• “The Prince Of Mars Returns“
• “Armageddon 2419AD“

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Apex Online have a story by none other than Nick Mamatas, outgoing Clarkesworld editor: “Summon, Bind, Banish“.

Alick, in Egypt, with his wife, Rose. Nineteen aught-four. White-kneed tourists. Rose, several days into their trip, starts acting oddly, imperiously. She has always wanted to travel, but Alick

There’s something I want to know about Fridays – how do they always come round so quickly, even though the week seems interminably long? But before you ponder that poser, get stuck into this week’s selection of free online fiction…

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Just a brace from ManyBooks.net:

• From The Hands of Hostile Gods by Darren R Hawkins
• “The Cosmic Express” by John Stewart Williamson

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A fistful from FeedBooks, including a treat for Doctor Who geeks*:

• “Arena” by Frederic Brown
• “Prince Zaleski” by Matthew Phipps Shiel
• “The Diseases of Purgatory, Part 6” by Richard Kadrey
• Doctor Who and the Empire of Glass by Andy Lane
• Doctor Who: The Sands of Time by Justin Richards

*I’ll admit that I’m a little fuzzy on the copyright of those two titles, and I link to them only because FeedBooks have seen fit to publish the electronic versions. As suggested there, consult the copyright declaration for your country if in doubt.

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Via Big Dumb Object:

With the recent death of Thomas M. Disch, some people may be looking to read some of his fiction (like me). The Sci Fiction archive has one of his stories, “Descending“, so you can at least get a taste.

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Via the Double-Boing:

Indie comics publisher Boom! Studios is putting a bunch of its backlist comics (including the excellent Zombie Tales) online as free downloads. The titles they

Good grief, would you believe it’s Friday already? Well, it surely is – and Friday means free fiction at Futurismic, as is customary. Eyeballs at the ready? Let’s go!

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Here’s another couple of titles from ManyBooks.net:

• Vandals of the Void by James Morgan Walsh
• “Valley of the Croen” by Lee Tarbell

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Everything went a bit loopy with the Feedbooks RSS feed over the weekend, and I ended up with about 400 titles in my feed-reader, most of which seemed to be boxing-themed, for some odd reason. I think I only cleared out the duffers, and the sf titles I’ve already linked, but you may want to go browse around and check just in case.

Otherwise, there’s another huge wodge of Richard Kadrey‘s stuff:

• “Mouse Lights“
• “The Birth of Athena“
• “Herzog’s Benediction“
• “A Cautionary Tale“
• “The Enigma Event“
• “Field Trip“
• “Zombie“
• “Pembroke’s Saga“
• “Ubiquitous Computing“
• “The Tears of the Moon“

Plus another novel by Matthew Phipps Shiel:

• The Lord of the Sea

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Another free fiction site via SF Signal; Munseys, which has the following for your reading pleasure:

• “The Stars, My Brothers” by Edmond Hamilton
• “The Premiere” by Richard Sabia
• “The Great Potlatch Riots” by Allen Kim Lang
• “Pharaoh’s Broker” by Ellsworth Douglass

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Also via SF Signal are a few freebies from Solaris Books: a short story called “Tornado of Sparks” by James Maxey, originally published in The Solaris Book of New Fantasy, and the ongoing serialisation of Chris Roberson’s Three Unbroken.

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EOS Books are giving away a free electronic version of Karen Traviss‘ novel City of Pearl.

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At Subterranean Online this week, there’s an appreciation of Mike Resnick by Nancy Kress as well as a novella from Resnick, “Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge“.

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And last but not least, your weekly helping of Friday Flash:

• Sarah Ellender is “Demon Driven“
• Justin Pickard has been poking around in “The Landsberger Vats“
• Gareth L Powell is stuck in the “Departure Lounge“
• Neil Beynon makes “The Climb“

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And there it is; that should keep you busy for a while. Weekend web warriors should keep an eye on their feed readers over the next few days, as Futurismic begins syndicating its new resident webcomic – watch this space!

In the meantime, your tip-offs and shameless self-plugs are always welcome – FFF submission deadline is 1800 GMT.

Have a great weekend!