A bit of a sparse week for free fiction this time … but there’s always the webzines listed in the sidebar if you’re running short. OK, here we go:

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Classic free fiction at ManyBooks.net: The Creature from Beyond Infinity by Henry Kuttner (1940), The Worm Ouroboros by E.R. Eddison (1922), “A Wind is Rising” by Robert Sheckley (1957, writing as Finn O’Donnevan)[edited to remove link to copyright infringing material; see comments], plus “Viewpoint” (1960) and “Unwise Child” by Randall Garrett (1962).

At Project Gutenburg, pointed out by none other than Warren Ellis as a formative influence in his reading as a young man, Space Prison by Tom Godwin, the author of the bleak classic short “The Cold Equations”.

And at Arthur’s Classic Novels: The Time Axis by Henry Kuttner (1948) and Stowaway to Mars by John Wyndham (1936).

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A heads-up from BoingBoing, which may not be news for those tech-obsessed (or financially fluid) enough to own an iPhone:

Josh [Klein] sez, “I wrote a sci-fi novel called “Roo’d” and released it under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. Even cooler, it was chosen for release for the eBook reader for the iPhone – the first modern novel released for the platform, and the second available after Tarzan. W00t! As a first-time author I could never have gotten this kind of feedback any other way – now everyone who hacks their iPhone can try out my book, and I’ve received tons of fabulous feedback. Go Creative Commons!”

You should be able to get Roo’d here at Josh’s own site, but it appears to be down at the moment (doubtless thanks to the BoingBoing effect), so maybe try the Google Cache or wait a while.

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The Friday Flash Fictioneers take the field somewhat reduced in numbers this week, but there’s always a few of the troops willing to man the trenches. Let’s see:

Gareth L Powell has been ill, so he’s using an excerpt of a story titled “Falling Apart” in lieu of a fresh offering.

Dan Pawley puts a twist in the tale with “The New Boss“.

Gareth D Jones is trying an experiment in viral memetic flash fiction with “Let Me Entertain You” – will we see it linked on MetaFilter and Digg before the weekend is out?

And lastly there’s “New kid blues” by yours truly, which probably shows the influence of the Philip K Dick anthology I reviewed recently.

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That’s your lot! Don’t forget to drop me a line at my address as found on the Staff page if there’s something you think deserves a mention of Friday Free Fiction. In the meantime, have a good weekend!

Okay ladies and gents, boys and girls, here’s your weekly fistful of free fiction.

Before I begin, though, I’d just like to draw your attention to the sidebar, where I’ve been adding as many science/speculative fiction webzines as I know addresses for. Not only should this act as a useful reading list for you guys, it also means you can drop us a line about any we don’t know yet – so please do.

Right, onwards!

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James Patrick Kelly has finally finished the epic podcasting marathon that has been his novel, Look Into The Sun, and you can get the whole lot (all 34 installments!) at his "freereads" blog.

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New at ManyBooks.net:

• "Attention Saint Patrick" by Murray Leinster (1960)
• "On Handling the Data" by M.I. Mayfield (1959)
• "Unspecialist" by Murray F. Yaco (1960)
• "The Creature from Cleveland Depths" by Fritz Leiber
• "I Remember Lemuria" (1948) and "The Return of Sathanas" (1948) by Richard S. Shaver
• Gladiator by Philip Wylie.

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Ben Peek has posted Chapter 1 from his book Black Sheep.

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Two heads-up posts in one week from BoingBoing. Firstly:

"[Rick Dakan‘s] Mile Zero [the sequel to Geek Mafia] is a labyrinth of twists and turnabouts, filled with charming geek humor, thoroughly likable characters, and a relentless plot that you won’t be able to put down. Don’t take my word for it — it’s Creative Commons licensed, and you can download the text and check it out for yourself."

And secondly, via a BoingBoing reader:

"Mindwebs was a radio series produced in Madison, Wisconsin in the late 70’s and early 80’s. It features semi-dramatized readings of stories by authors such as Norman Spinrad, Arthur C. Clarke, Gordon R. Dickson, and Ray Bradbury. I’ve been listening to it on the bus and it’s really entertaining!"

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News from Sir John of Scalzi:

"I’m delighted to announce that Subterranean Press has decided to post the complete text of “The Sagan Diary” at Subterranean Online […] and don’t forget the audio version is also freely available."

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Chris Roberson returns to free-fiction Friday action this week with a story called "Granma Stemple".

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These aren’t really science fiction, but certainly are free: 201 Stories by Anton Chekhov, via Jeremiah Tolbert.

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Friday Flash Fictioneers in effect … but first, a brief word from James Bloomer of Big Dumb Object:

"Just thought I’d mention that I’m posting a piece of flash fiction
every day in November (my alternative to NaNoWriMo) on my writing blog – and consequently some of it is both Flash, and on a Friday. So you could say that I’m popping into the FFF club for one month …"

Welcome aboard, James! We’re short a few crew this week, for various reasons, so that’s well-timed.

Meanwhile, Martin McGrath has a continuing disregard for the ‘Friday’ part of the title, but as he’s a nice chap we’ll let him off. He posted "The Decision That Changed The Life Of Fabrice Colliseo" last Sunday.

Gareth D. Jones tells of a different sort of "Cat Burglar".

Neil Beynon remembers "Amber".

Justin Pickard is using NaNoWriMo extracts again – this week, he has "Creeping Doubts". Not about the NaNo project, we hope, Justin!

Gareth L. Powell is in a sober mood with "Where Were You When The Fun Stopped?"

An last but not least (or so I hope) is my attempt to win the not-very-prestigious (and, indeed, non-existent) award for the shortest title for a piece of short-short science fiction ever – it’s just called "J".

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That’s your lot for this week. Don’t forget that if you (or someone you know) have a piece of free fiction that you’d like us to tell the world about, or if you’d like to join the ranks of the Friday Flash Fictioneers, please just drop me an email using my address on the staff page. Just make sure you put "Friday Free Fiction" in the email subject line so it doesn’t get chomped by my spam-traps.

Have fun!

Here’s your free fiction fix for the weekend:

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Speculative fiction e-zine Heliotrope issue #3 has been posted with fiction by Brendan Connell, Tina Connolly and Rob Vagle, as well as articles by Jeffrey Ford, Michael Moorcock and Jeff Vandermeer.

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From Andy Cox, head honcho (and my boss) at Interzone:

"Jay Lake has posted his story "All Our Heroes are Bastards", originally published in issue 35 of The Third Alternative (now Black Static), on his website. Recommended!"

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More fine freebies from the folk at Subterranean:

"The serial of Daniel Abraham‘s that we’re running this November, The Support Technician Tango, is definitely not sf. Think of Connie Willis in her madcap comic mode and you’ll be closer to the pleasures Tango has to offer. Look for a chapter or two every weekday over at Subterranean Online."

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Free science fiction online at ManyBooks.net: "Unwise Child" by Gordon Randall Garrett, "Tight Squeeze" by Dean Charles Ing and "Indirection" by Everett B. Cole.

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Mentioned here at Futurismic earlier this week, but worthy of a re-plug – the inimitable Bruce Sterling has a short story in a most untraditional venue. Read "The Interoperation" at Technology Review.

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Friday Flash Fictioneers in tha hiz-ouse!

Martin McGrath slipped in late last week with "Stone Must Roll" – technically a rule-breaker on length terms, but we’re all friends here.

Which means we’ll excuse also Shaun C Green for posting a 2500-word short called "Half-Day of the Dead". Because, as he points out, everything goes better with zombies.

Gareth D Jones cocks a snook at superheroes with "The Ironic Man"; he also posted a late catch-up earlier in the week called "The Planet Sweets".

Neil Beynon shares some backstory from his ongoing NaNoWriMo effort: "Hakon’s Folly".

Justin Pickard is also NaNoing (if that’s a real verb). His excerpt is called "Paper Boats in the Blue Hour".

Gareth L Powell has a bleak little nugget called "The Point Furthest From The Sun".

And in one of those strangely synchronistic happenstances, both Dan Pawley and myself hit on the same theme, albeit from different angles. Dan’s is called "Abduction", and mine is "Alien Abduction".

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As always, please get in touch (use my email address as on the Staff page) with anything you’d like to be announced … and please put "Futurismic Free Fiction" in the subject line. I’ve had to batten down the spam-traps recently, but I have a filter installed that will let through anything with that subject. If I don’t respond to your email, please try again, or leave a comment here if that doesn’t work.

In the meantime, enjoy your weekend!