I knew it was too good to last; a solid week of sunny weather, and now it seems we’re back to grey skies and low temperatures. But hey, the sun always shines on the internet (provided you’re searching the right tags on Flickr), and there’s always free science fiction stories at Futurismic on a Friday afternoon…

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Via Jonathan Strahan, we discover that Night Shade Books have made Ted Chiang’s Hugo-nominated short story “Exhalation” available for free in a variety of formats: PDF, HTML, RTF and Mobipocket

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Mary Robinette Kowal is a Hugo nominee, too; go check out her “Evil Robot Monkey”

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Lou Anders of Pyr reveals that the short story “A Book of Silences” by James Enge is now gracing their free samples page; looks to be more in the fantasy line than we’re usually interested in here at Futurismic, but hey, nothing says you can’t read other stuff too, right?

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We’re up to chapter 4.1 with Jason Stoddard‘s Eternal Franchise

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A message from Lee Gimenez:

My science fiction story “The Wellness Center” was just published in the March edition of Aphelion Magazine.

Congratulations, Lee, and thanks for the tip-off!

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As we’ve thrown some fantasy into the mix, why not a soupcon of horror, too? Tim Lebbon announces an excerpt from his new novel Bar None:

It’s a novel of  ‘chilling suspense, apocalyptic beauty, and fine ales’.   So as a pre-weekend treat, the first ever extract is now available at Dread Central for your perusal and delectation. It reads with a soft fruity aromas, a smooth mouthfeel, and finishes with a dark and complex aftertaste.

Knowing Lebbon, he was probably half-cut when he wrote it, too…

[ Disclosure – Tim Lebbon is one of my clients, and is not really a heavy drinker. Or so he claims. ]

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The DVD Extras are coming thick and fast for Season 2 of Shadow Unit; this one’s called “Ice”

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Strange Horizons presents “The Spider in You” by Sean E Markey

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HUB Magazine presents “Hush a Bye” by Beverley Allen

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Mary Robinette Kowal pops up again, this time at BoingBoing in her capacity as editor of Shimmer Magazine:

“For Shimmer magazine’s 10th issue, we’ve got twelve fantastic new stories and an interview with none other than Cory Doctorow. In honor of Cory’s work with Creative Commons, we are giving away the pdf of issue ten as a free download.”

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Jayme Lynn Blaschke‘s Memory rolls onwards with its thirty-fifth chapter.

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The SF Signal crew have been gathering free fiction links like gangbusters this week, so it appears. There are two massive roundup posts as well as the following tidbits:

• “Article of Faith” by Mike Resnick has been added to the list of 2009 Hugo Award Finalists.
• An excerpt from Dan Abnett‘s Primeval: Extinction Event, based on the BBC series Primeval.
• The Cordwainer Smith Blog rounds up free Cordwainer Smith stories
• “Petrified” by Scott Edelman
• Charles Coleman Finlay‘s free online fiction as listed by the author himself.

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And finally, a fistful of Friday Flash Fiction:

• “Out of Mind” by Gaie Sebold
• “Ball & Chain” by Sarah Ellender
• “Mavis Beacon Teaches typing” by Sumit Dam
• “Still Rising” by Neil Beynon

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That should keep your eyeballs busy for a few hours… don’t forget to keep us informed if theres anything you think deserves a plug here at friday Free Fiction, and have a great weekend!

Five days of clear blue skies and fresh breezes have led me to suspect I’ve been displaced into a parallel dimension or simulated universe by some capricious deity or artificial intelligence… but hey, even a False Spring is better than no Spring at all, as far as I’m concerned.

And whatever reality I happen to be perceiving right now, it doesn’t seem to have any shortage of free fiction floating around in it…

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A lone classic novel at ManyBooks: Deathworld by Harry Harrison

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COSMOS Magazine presents “The Broken Hourglass” by Andy Heizler

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HUB Magazine presents “SBIR Proposal“ by Richard K Lyon

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Strange Horizons presents “Nira and I” by Shweta Narayan

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Tor.com presents “We Haven’t Got There Yet” by Harry Turtledove

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Jason Stoddard delivers chapter 3.1 of Eternal Franchise

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Jayme Lynn Blaschke is up to the 34th installment of Memory

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Chris Howard is giving away his novel Seaborn in digital form

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Jeffrey A Carver is giving away copies of his novel Sunborn in multiple DRM-free formats

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Subterranean Online presents “The Dry Spell” by James P Blaylock

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Weird Tales presents “All In” by Peter Atwood

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And as always our thanks to the tireless crew of the USS SF Signal, who boldly go further in search of free fiction online than almost anyone else:

• Chris Dolley is making his book Resonance available as a free download [and an intriguing brain-bender of a story it is, too]
• The latest issue of Concatenation has been posted and includes the story “The Invisible Hand” by Allan M Rees
• Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist presents “The Best Monkey” by Daniel Abraham
• The new issue of Ray Gun Revival features fiction by Adrian Simmons, Paula R Stiles, O Charles Swallows, Jr., Steven Gerard, Chip Meador, M Keaton, Keanan Brand, L S King, and Paul Christian Glenn
• Book View Cafe presents chapter 1 of The Betrayal by Pati Nagle

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Once again my schedule means I’ll miss the bulk of this week’s Friday Flash, but as ever it’ll be collected up in next week’s post. Meanwhile, Sumit Dam came in early enough to make the cut with “The Black Dog“.

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And that’s it for another week, it seems. Don’t forget to let us know of anything you think merits inclusion in Friday Free Fiction; in the meantime, have a good weekend!

I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to worry about how fast the weeks are flying by – it seems I scarcely finish wrapping up one weekly batch of free fiction before I start compiling another one.

But hey, it’s good to be busy, right? Right – so here’s this week’s batch of free sf online; a little smaller than usual, perhaps, but still plenty to be going on with…

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Just the one at ManyBooks:

• “The Eye of Alloria” by Rae Lori

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Gareth L Powell eschews flash fiction this week to reprint in full a story from his collection The Last Reef: “Hot Rain”

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Jason Stoddard continues to deliver chunks of his now-trunked novel Eternal Franchise; here’s chapter 2.3

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Tor.com is giving away electronic copies of Charles de Lint‘s novel Spiritwalk (if you’re a signed-in member of the site, natch, but that don’t cost nuffink, mistah). But you don’t need to log in or sign up to read “Eros, Philia, Agape” by Rachel Swirsky in the same place. How’s about that, eh?

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Brain Harvest presents “Sky and Sea” by Vylar Kaftan; I’ve also added the site to the sidebar of justice, and as they’ve got a decent RSS feed you can follow I’m going to stop linking to individual stories from now on. Only so many hours in the week, you dig?

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Book View Cafe presents “Something For Everyone” by Jennifer Stevenson

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Subterranean Press presents “Her Voice in a Bottle” by Tim Pratt

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Strange Horizons presents part 2 of “Diana Comet” by Sandra McDonald

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Shadow Unit Season 2 is warming up with DVD Extra #1:  “La Befana”

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Orbit Books are giving away the first chapter of This Is Not a Game, the new metaverse technothriller from Walter Jon Williams (which is currently whispering sweet nothings from my to-be-read shelf as I type…)

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And here are the crumbs that SF Signal‘s ever-hungering web-vacuum caught that we’d missed:

• Mindflights presents “The One with the Waggly Tail” by Marcie Lynn Tentchoff
• There’s a new online genre short fiction webzine by the name of The Hive Mind; they have an RSS feed for your convenience, which is a good move
• Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist has the full text of “Precision Set” by L E Modesitt, Jr., from the forthcoming Viewpoints Critical collection

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And finally here’s some Friday Flash Fiction:

• “Wanderlust” by Shaun C Green… as well as “Heralded by Iron“, and “Punk’s Not Dead” and “Colours Move” (he’s been on a catch-up mission this week, y’see)
• “Three Blue Things” by Sarah Ellender
• “The King’s Pleasure” by Gaie Sebold
• “The Loneliest Whale in the World” by Sumit Dam
• “Navita” by Gareth D Jones (a Latin translation, no less)

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And there you go – turned out to be more stuff than I thought!

Still, the more the merrier, so keep those tipoffs and plugs coming in through the usual channels. In the meantime, have a great weekend!

Is it springtime yet? It keeps trying to act like it here, but then winter comes bounding back in out of nowhere and letting my hopes down. Still, at least I’ve got plenty to read while I’m sat inside with the heating running… and so have you, because it’s Friday free fiction time at Futurismic!

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Just the one from ManyBooks:

• “The Gay Rebellion” by Robert W Chambers

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A couple more pieces of fiction round off the winter issue of Subterranean Online:

• “Three Fancies from the Infernal Garden” by C S E Cooney
• “Her Voice in a Bottle” by Tim Pratt

Tim Pratt fans (and you should all be Tim Pratt fans) should keep a close eye on this here website in the weeks to come! 😉

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New month, new issue of Clarkesworld:

• “Herding Vegetable Sheep” by Ekaterina Sedia
• “The Loyalty of Birds” by Rachel Sobel

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Likewise with Apex Online:

• “The Mind of a Pig” by Ekaterina Sedia (what is it with Ms. Sedia and animal story titles, eh?)
• “The Puma” by Theodora Goss
• “Head Music” by Lon Prater

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Strange Horizons presents “Diana Comet” by Sandra McDonald

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Rudy Rucker curates the seventh issue of his delightfully-named Flurb webzine, which contains all this:

• Madeline Ashby‘s “Off Track Betting“
• Charlie Anders‘ “The History of the Internet“
• Terry Bisson‘s “Billy and the Flying Saucer“
• Brian Garrison presenting 5 SF Poems
• Cody Goodfellow‘s “The Squonk Hunt“
• Robert Guffey‘s “Initiation“
• Alex Hardison‘s “Clouds in the Night“
• Richard Kadrey‘s “Trembling Blue Stars“
• Kek-W‘s “Cobalt Imperium“
• Simon Logan‘s “And They Will Not Be Stopped“
• Adam Rothstein‘s “Growth Industry“
• Rudy Rucker & John Shirley‘s “All Hangy“

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Guess who’s back? Yup, you guessed it – Shadow Unit is ramping up for Season 2 wirh “Lucky Day”

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Courtesy of Chris Roberson, here’s his story “Two Birds”

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Via pretty much everyone, Random House’s Suvudu genre fiction webhubsitecommunitythingy has a bunch of free full-novel PDFs to download. It’d be rude not to, wouldn’t it?

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Via Nick Mamatas comes news of a new super-short fiction outlet; Brain Harvest has kicked off with a super short piece from Mamatas called “Patmos Like Pink Elephants“.

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A message from the intriguingly named Kirk Ultra:

Hi, our website Electric Children has five short stories on it that I thought would be great for Friday Free Fiction. The first and newest is a sci-fi story called “Connector” by Dean Verheyen.

The second two are by Hillary Ferris: “Valentine” and “The Key“. And finally we have two short stories by Barbara Ann Crumm, “The Acid Journal” and “The General Store“. Hope you enjoy!

Cheers, Kirk!

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Via SF Signal we discover that Pyr is now offering The Crooked Letter by Sean Williams available as a free PDF download.

Speaking of SF Signal, it seem’s they are sticking with the bulk-posting of free fiction links, which if nothing else makes things a little easier for little old me…

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Time constraints once again mean that I’ll be unable to catch all the Friday Flash Fiction offerings, but here’s a few carried over from last week. From Sarah Ellender we have “The Torture Orchestra“, while Sumit Dam has been churning ’em out: there’s “Damocles“, plus five microfictions under the title “Running Without Scissors“.

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And there’s your lot! Don’t forget to drop us a line if you have any tip-offs; in the meantime, have a great weekend!

Cheer up – the weekend’s here! Well, near enough, if not quite for US readers… but I digress. It’s Friday, and that means it’s time for your weekly round-up for free science fiction stories on the web. Let’s rock.

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Just the one from FeedBooks:

• “Minor Detail” by John Michael Sharkey

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It’s Nebula nomination season, so expect more announcements like this in coming weeks; Asimov’s Magazine has made all their stories and novelettes that were nominated available online.

• “The Ray-Gun: A Love Story” by James Alan Gardner
• “Dark Rooms” by Lisa Goldstein
• “The Prophet of Flores” by Ted Kosmatka
• “Skull Valley” by Michael Cassutt
• “26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss” by Kij Johnson
• “Don’t Stop” by James Patrick Kelly
• “How Music Begins” by James Van Pelt

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You can download a PDF of the Ken Scholes story “Last Flight of the Goddess” for free… provided you’re a registered member of Tor.com, that is.

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Jason Stoddard has posted chapter 2.1 of his unpublished novel Eternal Franchise.

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Kim Lakin-Smith has released “The Killing Fields” – her story from the recent BSFA anthology, Celebration – on her website. There are downloadable formats for them what don’t like reading on no web page, too.

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More new fiction at Subterranean Online:

“A Four-Sided Triangle” is the latest pulp excursion by Mike Resnick’s singular creation, the Honorable Right Reverend Doctor Lucifer Jones.

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Strange Horizons presents “Sometimes We Arrive Home” by K Bird Lincoln

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Polu Texni presents the concluding part of “Very Truly Yours” by Seth Gordon

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Hub Magazine presents “Montgolfier Winter” by Alasdair Stuart

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SF Signal has a massive list of free stories recently added to the Free Speculative Fiction Online site. A couple of other bits they pointed out:

• the new issue of Australian sf webzine Antipodean features J D Brames, Liam Thorpe, Steve Duffy, Jan Napier, Mick Dawson, Shaun A Saunders, Mark Farrugia, Houston Dunleavy, Houston Dunleavy, and Felicity Dowker
• Author and game designer Greg Costikyan has a bunch of free-to-read stories from the bibliography page of his website..

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Due to events in the reality beyond the interwebs (where I am genuinely known to manifest from time to time, contrary to popular belief) I’m not going to be able to catch all the bits of Friday Flash this week, but rest assured they’ll be carried over into next week’s round-up, just as with “Tongue“, Neil Beynon’s offering from last week

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Non-fiction bonus – via BoingBoing (and a slew of other venues) comes news of the second issue of H+, the transhumanist magazine edited by R U Sirius. As you can see, there’s plenty of stuff for science fiction readers:

… “First Steps Toward Post Scarcity or Why It’s the End of the World as We Know it and You Should Feel Fine” by Jason Stoddard…

… John Shirley on Cyberpunk for the 21st Century…

… Paul McEnery talking to “Bio Gunk” SF writer Peter Watts…

H+ is free to download in PDF form from the magazine’s website. So get to it!

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And that’s your lot! As pointed out above, I’ll raise my hand to any errors and ommissions of lateness, as I’ve compiled this post a good few hours than I would normally, but anything that I’ve missed will be added into next week’s post. Until then, keep your tip-offs coming in and have yourselves a great weekend!