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:

• “Awakening” by Judith Berman
• “The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs Of North Park After the Change” by Kij Johnson
• “Unique Chicken Goes In Reverse” by Andy Duncan

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! 😀

It’s a very spare week for free fiction, it appears – but there’s still enough to keep you busy!

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Only a single meager sf story on Manybooks.net this week:

• “The Soul Bottles” by Jay Lake

(there’s more from Mr Lake further down, BTW …)

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“Breathe” is the first episode of Shadow Unit, the online group writing project of Emma Bull, Elizabeth Bear, Sarah Monette and Will Shetterly. Emma Bull is the author this time.

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Here’s episode 6 of Jayme Lynn Blaschke‘s “Memory” sequence at No Fear Of the Future.

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Via the new Fantasy And Science Fiction Magazine blog comes news of free fiction from Matthew Hughes in the form of “A Little Learning“, an episode from his novel The Commons.

I’ve not read The Commons, but I have read Black Brillion – so I can tell you if you like metafictional games being played in the Jungian collective unconscious, you’ll want to spare the time for this!

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Episode 2 of Warren Ellis‘ new weekly freebie online comic Freakangels is up and about.

Remember – sassy girl in fishnets who pilots a steam powered gyrocopter around a flooded London. Everything else is gravy – and Freakangels being written by Ellis, that’s plenty of gravy to go around.

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Okay, let’s form up the Friday Flash Fictioneers!

Dan Pawley was late posting last week’s piece, so I figure we can blame all that “Monkeywrenching“.

Greg O’Byrne tells of “The Witch On Oasis“, while Gareth D Jones wishes he’d waited “Just One Day“.

Gareth L Powell would like to interrupt this program briefly for “A Word From Our Sponsor“.

Neil Beynon talks to “The Woodsman“, while Jay Lake wants “To Repair Man“.

Now spare a moment to listen to Dr Ian Hocking‘s “Mix Tape“; then maybe you’ll be up for a journey to “The Fayre” in the company of yours truly.

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And that’s it for this week, I’m afraid – though judging by past form that means we’ll have a bumper crop next week.

Don’t forget there’s fresh fiction coming back to Futurismic on 3rd March – and watch out for a little surprise over the course of this weekend, too!

By the way, if you have a tip-off or suggestion for FFF (or just about the site in general), we now have a funky new contact form for you to use.

In the meantime, I’ve got to get myself sorted out – I have a convention to attend tomorrow! I hope you all have a great weekend.

Roll up, roll up – get your free fiction right here!

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A short selection this week from ManyBooks.net:

• “Watch the Sky” by James H. Schmitz
• “Faithfully Yours” by Lou Tabakow
• “Blind Man’s Lantern” by Allen Kim Lang

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In connection to Manybooks.net, I received an email from the intriguingly-named Argonautica:

“I’ve been reading and reviewing the free fiction released at Project Gutenberg and Manybooks.net (Futurismic’s Free Friday Fiction turned me on to it!) at Free Speculative Fiction.

I became frustrated when I couldn’t find out any information about the (often forgotten) stories online, and consequently had a difficult time picking out stories to read, so I’ve been reviewing them and providing a synopsis as a guide for readers. I only have time to catch maybe 2/3 of them, and I don’t claim my reviews are great literature, but I figure something is better than nothing.

Anyway, I hope you find the site useful.”

Sounds like an interesting resource – thanks, Argonautica!

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Issue 12 of Apex Digest has been posted and features fiction from Sara King and Jason Sizemore, interviews with Jeremy Shipp, Sara King, and David Wong, and a handful of reviews.

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You probably already know about Tor‘s free ebooks mailing list, as it has been blogged by many sites more eminent than Futurismic, plus dugg, slashdotted and all the rest.

You might not have heard about the sweepstake to win an Asus EEE that you get entered into by signing up, though – I’ll let Scalzi explain the details, as it’s one of his books going out next week.

Apparently the prize is only on offer to US residents – the rest of us just have to settle for totally free DRM-clean PDF versions of some bestselling science fiction novels every week.

I don’t feel too cheated, myself – but if someone wants to send me an Asus EEE anyway, that would be very kind. 🙂

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An email arrived from Jetse de Vries, one of the Interzone Fiction Editors. He’s a writer in his own right, too, and Hub Magazine have just republished his story “Transcendence Express” as part of their most recent free downloadable issue.

Hub Magazine will email you their weekly PDF zine, if you like – go sign up on their website.

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I had a brief email from Shira Lipkin to say that she occasionally posts short fiction pieces on her LJ. How often, and what sort, she didn’t mention – so you’ll just have to go and see for yourself!

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A new arrival in the sidebar listings of other places that provide free fiction is Dog Versus Sandwich, which tags itself as “a webbed zine”. It looks pretty new, but they seem to be publishing stuff at a pretty fast clip. Go see what you think!

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Free science fiction comics action! The endearingly irascible Warren Ellis launches Freakangels today.

Freakangels is a completely free web-published comic written by Ellis and (beautifully) drawn by Paul Duffield.

As if a free comic written by Warren Ellis wasn’t inducement enough, here’s three more reasons to go take a look:

• it’s set in a flooded near-future London;
• it stars a tough but pretty girl who wears fishnet stockings;
• the girl in fishnets FLYS A STEAM-POWERED GYROCOPTER.

That last bit is what the marketing people call the USP, I believe. Works for me – here’s episode 1.

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Before we delve into the weekly flash fiction selection, I should take the time to point out another new addition to the sidebar of justice – 365 Tomorrows publishes a sub-600 word science fiction story every single day, and has been doing so for a couple of years now.

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And here we have the Friday Flash Fictioneers!

For your delectation and delight this week, we give you:

• “Tinman” by Neil Beynon
• “Fresh Meat” by Gareth L Powell
• “Vorpal” by Greg O’Byrne
• “Mercurial Nights” by Gareth D Jones
• “Sun” by Shaun C Green
• “Silver Eagle” by Justin Pickard
• and “Gabriel and Jezebel” by yours truly.

Jay Lake‘s in convention mode, so he gets a free pass! But here’s his piece from last week: “Feghoot in Uruk“

And finally, Dr Ian Hocking has another little slice available in the form of “Stone Sun” – but again with the random timing. I think I’ll email him and get him on board with the schedule …

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That’s your lot for this week. Do remember we’re always looking for your tip-offs and blatant self-plugging efforts; the Staff page is temporarily devoid of email addresses (in an attempt to cool down the Futurismic servers from an overload of Russian \/14gr/\ spam), but we’re going to have a neat little contact form set up in a few days time.

Until then, happy reading!