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Fiction

NEW FICTION: UNDER AN ARCTIC SKY by Stephen Gaskell

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We publish writers from all over the globe here at Futurismic, but this month I get to present a story by someone who lives damn near on my doorstep! Stephen Gaskell comes from Brighton here in the UK, but “Under an Arctic Sky” is as far from the faded Regency glamour of his seaside hometown as you could imagine. It’s a powerful story of dedication to a cause against the fiercest of oppression, and I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Under an Arctic Sky

by Stephen Gaskell

Slava ran.

Ran as fast as he could. His icy breath speared the air. His footfalls made slapping sounds against the packed snow. The temperature must have been minus forty, but he didn’t feel the cold.

He didn’t look back.

Didn’t want to see the oil well derricks. Didn’t want to see the scarred black tundra. Didn’t want to see the line of nodding donkeys and their belches of fire.

Most of all, he didn’t want to see how close the snowmobiles were, buzzing behind him like angry bees.

In his mind’s eye he streaked ahead to the northerly reaches of the Kanin peninsula. Past herds of caribou, past the last encampments of the Nenets, past the odd polar bear loping away on the horizon.

The back of his neck felt stiff, as though somebody had kicked him there with a steel-capped boot. He stretched a gloved hand over his head to rub at the aching spot.

And stopped dead.

There was something embedded in his neck. Continue reading NEW FICTION: UNDER AN ARCTIC SKY by Stephen Gaskell →

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Friday Free Fiction for 24th April

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It’s Friday evening here in the UK, which can only mean one thing – a big batch of free science fiction to read on the intertubes, of course! So, without further delay…

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Just the one at ManyBooks:

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And an old-school novel at FeedBooks:

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Because he’s too modest to just step up and tell you himself, Futurismic blogger Edward Willett asked me to mention:

I’ve posted the first two chapters of my upcoming novel Terra Insegura (sequel to the Aurora Award-nominated Marseguro) to my new-and-improved website. Bonus: I’ve also posted MP3s of myself reading said chapters. Terra Insegura is published by DAW Books and will be in bookstores May 5.

Go take a look!

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Season 2 of Shadow Unit continues with “Dragons”

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Jason Stoddard presents chapter 5.2 of Eternal Franchise

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Via pretty much everywhere:

Neil Gaiman, Lou Anders, Bryan Talbot, Hal Duncan, Catherynne M Valente, Chris Roberson, Paul S Kemp and Rhys Hughes contributed fiction and articles that are part of issue 5 of Heliotrope, an appreciation to the legendary writer, Michael Moorcock.

Go get your Elric on.

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Subterranean Online presents “The Ascendant” by Ted Kosmatka

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Strange Horizons presents “As He Was” by Kit St. Germain

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Tor.com presents “Bugs in the Arroyo” by Stephen Gould

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Here’s the stuff that the ubiquitous metaphorical feelers of SF Signal  probed out from the week:

  • Raygun Revival issue #52 features fiction by Andy Heizeler, L S King, Justin R Macumber, Keanan Brand, Jodi MacArthur, Martin Turton, Darrell B Nelson, and M Keaton
  • PulpGen presents “The Chalice of Circe” by Willard Hawkins

Big Pulp presents:

And finally, some more free excerpts:

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Here’s two weeks worth of  Friday Flash Fictionto make up for me sloping off early last week:

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And finally, a bonus for those of stern disposition (or a cephalopod festish) –The Complete Works of H P Lovecraft, available to read for free on the web. [via Matt Staggs]

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There you have it, folks. As always, get in touch if you have anything to plug, promote or recommend; our trained operators are waiting for your call – er, email. Have a great weekend!

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Friday Free Fiction for 17th April

Another week flies by – is it just me or are they getting faster? Haven’t I said that before? What if I’m caught in some sort of temporal loop in a simulated universe? What if none of you are actually real?

Ah, who cares – it’s Friday, and there’s free science fiction stories to read on the internet. Get stuck in!

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Here’s a couple at ManyBooks:

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And a bona fide classic from one of the genre’s best known names at FeedBooks:

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HUB Magazine presents “The Not Knowing” by Conrad Williams

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Subterranean Online presents “Under the Honey” by Liz Williams

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Strange Horizons presents “The Man Who Lost the Sea” by Theodore Sturgeon, a classic from 1959

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Jason Stoddard presents chapter 5.1 of Eternal Franchise

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Jeremiah Tolbert presents “The Kansas Jayhawk vs. The Midwest Monster Squad“; this awesome geek-gonzo (geekzo? gonzeek?) story was published in Interzone a few years back, and comes with my sincerest recommendation as a fun read.

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Shadow Unit has posted another DVD Extra:  “Disintegration”

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Via Tor.com (and others – saw it there first), Lone Star Stories are giving away a free PDF version of their recent anthology, the Lone Star Stories Reader.

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Via Cory at BoingBoing comes an opportunity to read a story originally written for him and his wife as a honeymoon gift: “(Nothing But) Flowers” by John McDaid

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Also via BoingBoing (and many many others), Steampunk Magazine returns after a long hiatus with the free-to-download 5th issue of the subgenre-defining zine.

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Just sneaking into my inbox before I leave the house comes a message from Lee Giminez:

I wanted to let you know that my science fiction short story, “September 12“, was just published in The Cynic Magazine.

Cheers, Lee!

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Unusually, we seem to have caught almost all the same things as SF Signal this week, though they do have a beefy round-up post from earlier today that might be worth looking through. And don’t forget they’ve collected links to all the free-to-read Hugo Award nominee stories as well.

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As my schedule in the world beyond the internet demands I be elsewhere this afternoon, I only have one piece of Friday Flash to report at the time of compiling this post, namely “Patterns” by Gaie Sebold. All later arrivals will be collected up in next week’s post, as always.

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And there’ you have it; don’t forget to send us your tip-offs, plugs and links about good sf stuff to read on the web. In the meantime, I’m off to London to meet none other than Tim Powers – have a good weekend!

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Friday Free Fiction for 10th April

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It’s Easter weekend! Even if the religious significance does nothing for you, the potential for a long weekend off is something to shout about. Because time off means time for reading stories…. and if you’ve not got anything specific in your reading queue, we’ve got your back right here with this week’s Friday Free Fiction round-up. Let’s go!

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A couple from ManyBooks:

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And a few from FeedBooks:

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Paolo Bacigalupi and Night Shade Books have made three of Paolo’s stories from his collection Pump Six – “The Calorie Man”, “Pop Squad” and “Yellow Card Man” – available as a free pdf for a reading group called Think Galactic. Bacigalupi’s one of the writers I fully expect to get very big very fast; go read these tales and find out why.

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Shadow Unit‘s latest episode is called “Sugar”

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HUB Magazine presents “Under a Bridge” by Paul Fairburn

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Apex Online has its monthly trio of fresh stories up:

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COSMOS Magazine presents “Fuel” by Matthew S Rotundo

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Subterranean Online starts off its spring edition with “A Tulip for Lucretius” by Ken MacLeod

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Strange Horizons presents “Husbandry” by Eugene Fischer

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Three new pieces at Lone Star Stories:

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As always, SF Signal has round-ups of its own, and a few scattered miscellania:

  • H P Lovecraft’s Magazine of Horror #5 is available as a free PDF download
  • The latest issue of AntipodeanSF contains fiction by S A Harris, Steve Duffy, Alan Baxter, Jamie Richter, Shaun A Saunders, Mark Farrugia, Felicity Dowker, Alan Richard, David Such, and Brendan D Carson
  • Aphelion presents fiction by Patrick Welch, Jeani Rector, Coffee Anderson, Jaimie L Elliott, Richard Tornello, Gary W Feather, E W Bonadio, Lee Gimenez, Tony Coles, Matt Spencer, Dale Carothers, McCamy Taylor and Larissa March

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Most of the Friday Flash Fictioneers are at EasterCon right now (and I wish I was there also); that means just a few offerings of microfiction for this week:

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And that’s pretty much it! Don’t forget to get in touch with recommendations and tip-offs (fictional or non-fictional; in the meantime, enjoy your weekend!

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Friday Free Fiction for 3rd April

It’s the first Friday of the month, which means the usual bumper crop of free science fiction stories for you to read… though I would just like to draw your attention to Futurismic‘s own contribution to April’s harvest, namely “A Programmatic Approach to Perfect Happiness“, penned by no less a luminary than Tim Pratt.

So, go read Tim’s story, then tuck in to whatever takes your fancy from the following fictional finger-buffet…

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A brace from ManyBooks:

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Four from FeedBooks:

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Yet more preliminary extra material from Season 2 of Shadow Unit: “Consumption”

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SpaceWesterns is keeping it old-school with a reprinted classic: “A Curious Pleasure Excursion” by Mark Twain

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New month, new issue of Clarkesworld:

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Is it just me, or has Farrago’s Wainscot had a redesign? Either which way, they’re got a new issue online with six stories for you to read:

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Back after a nasty hacker attack, Pantechnicon‘s latest issue went up last week. There’s a whole bunch of fiction to read there for nothing, so get to it. If you’re feeling particularly choosy, you can narrow it down to just the science fiction stuff.

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Unstoppable anthology-makin’-machine John Joseph Adams has launched the website for Federations, his new book of interstellar sf stories, which includes links to four free-to-read teaser tales:

There are downloadable mobile document formats available on the Federations site itself, if that’s your preference.

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Via pretty much everyone who contributed to it (and then some), the Hugo-nominated METAtropolis audiobook is available for free for a limited period at Audible.com.

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Jayme Lynn Blaschke presents the thirty-sixth fragment of his Memory.

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Jason Stoddard presents chapter 4.2 of Eternal Franchise

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The tireless SF Signal crew once again have a couple of posts collecting the free fiction from the past week, and they caught the following extras as well:

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Last but not least, here’s a little bit of Friday Flash Fiction for you:

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That should keep you occupied for a while, I think. Don’t forget to shoot us a message if there’s something you think warrants inclusion in next week’s round-up; in the meantime, have a good weekend.