I don’t know about you, but I’m planning to spend this week assiduously avoiding watching the news. A big batch of free fiction should help…

***

Again, only the one super-shorty from Manybooks:

• “Hard Guy” by H B Carleton

***

Most of Feedbooks‘ output appears on Manybooks first… but Feedbooks offer more versions and a much better interface, and that’s market forces, folks. So here’s the links:

• “Cully” by Jack Egan
• “A Question of Courage” by Jesse Franklin Bone
• “Cerebrum” by Albert Teichner
• The People of the Ruins by Edward Shanks
• “It Could Be Anything” by John Keith Laumer
• “Get Out Of Our Skies!” by E K Jarvis
• “Tomorrow“, “The Lanson Screen” by Arthur Leo Zagat
• “The Dope on Mars” by John Michael Sharkey (And they only just found water there! Damned stoners get everywhere… )
• The Blue Germ by Maurice Nicoll

***

Paul McAuley‘s still churning out the free stuff; here’s The Quiet War, chapters six and seven.

***

Subterranean Online has posted the second instalment of Chris Roberson‘s “Mirror Of Fiery Brightness”

***

This week’s offering from Strange Horizons: “Swan Song” by Joanne Merriam.

***

Via SF Signal: “The Transhuman Singularity” is a science fiction virtuality space opera by Michael Blade

***

At The Future Fire:

• “One Drop” by David Dumitru
• “Getting Down and Dirty” by Michael Johnson
• “Avatar on the Belts 3: Aither” by William J. Piovano
• “Suburban Alchemist” by Rob Sharp

***

Tor.com has an original short story from one of my personal favourite authors, Rudy Rucker: “Jack and the Aktuals, or, Physical Applications of Transfinite Set Theory”

***

Two new pieces from SpaceWesterns:

• “The Mound—Part IV” by H.P. Lovecraft & Zealia Bishop
• “Better than Gold” by Robert Mancebo

***

And let’s end with a handful of Friday Flash:

• Clive Birnie tells the tale of “The Identity Thief 3.0“
• Sarah Ellender wants to know “What Lies On The Other Side“
• Gareth L Powell‘s hanging out with the “Chip Heads“
• Neil Beynon remembers “When“

***

And that’s your lot, folks. Keep those tip-offs and plugs coming in – deadline is 1800 GMT every Friday. In the meantime, have a great weekend!

It’s Friday, and this week the free fiction cup runneth over…

***

Just one (very short) story from Manybooks:

• “Cully” by Jack Egan

***

Feedbooks have yet another Futurismic re-release: “Maquech” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

And a bunch of other stuff:

• Refuge by Richard Herley
• “Children Of Tomorrow” by Arthur Leo Zagat
• “Seven Out Of Time” by Arthur Leo Zagat
• “The Putnam Tradition” by Sonya Dorman
• “I’m A Stranger Here Myself” by Mack Reynolds

***

Here’s another couple of free chapters from The Quiet War by Paul McAuley; chapter 4 parts one and two, and chapter 5.

***

Via SF Signal, Elizabeth Bear is in on the free excerpts game, too. Here are chapters one, two, and three of All the Windwracked Stars.

***

It’s new issue time at Subterranean Online:

Chris Roberson kicks off the Fall 2008 issue of Subterranean Online with part one of a long novelette set in the world of his Celestial Empire, in which the future space race doesn’t go quite as anyone intended. “Mirror of Fiery Brightness” is action filled, the result of strange conjectures, and imbued with humanity, as are most of Chris’ entries in this future history.

***

This week’s offering from Strange Horizons: “Kimberley Ann Duray Is Not Afraid” by Leah Bobet.

***

From the charmingly affable Paul Cornell (yeah, that guy who writes Doctor Who scripts; he does other stuff too, y’know):

I was very pleased to have a story included in Pyr Books’ new original SF anthology Fast Forward 2, which will soon be available in all good book stores. I was even more pleased when editor Lou Anders told me he’d be launching the anthology by putting my story “Catherine Drewe”, complete, up on the Pyr website…

***

Tor have got a new original Terry Bisson story available to read in full; it’s called “Catch ‘Em In The Act“.

***

Via the superbly-monikered Cat Rambo, who’s holding the fort at Jeff VanderMeer’s Ecstatic Days at the moment:

The new issue of Farrago’s Wainscot is up, which includes my story, “The Fisherman’s Child“.

***

SpaceWesterns have got themselves a spiffy RSS feed, which makes keeping on top of their updates much easier from my point of view. It also means I’m pleased to report that the following stories have materialised over there:

• A serialised version of H.P. Lovecraft and Zelia Bishop‘s “The Mound” in seven parts; latest updates are parts two and three.
• Amanda Spikol‘s “Old Habits“, which is apparently a prequel to “A Few Sunsets Too Many“.

***

Being the beginning of the month, it’s new issue time for many a webzine. First up, Clarkesworld:

• “Gift of the Kites” by Jim C. Hines
• “Passwords” by John A. McDermott

***

From Apex Online:

• “Blakenjel” by Lavie Tidhar
• “Hunting Aliens” by Erik Williams
• “I Know an Old Lady” by Nathan Rosen
• Spoiled Meat by Ryan C. Thomas
• “Dick Does Time” by Adam Roberts

***

Lone Star Stories:

• “The Toymaker’s Grief” by Hal Duncan
• “This Is How We Remember” by Jaime Lee Moyer
• “Needle and Thread” by Ann Leckie and Rachel Swirsky

***

Reflection’s Edge seems to lean toward fantasy, but the new issue has one story marked out as sf:

• “Roots as Deep as Mountains” by Thane Thompson

***

Via BoingBoing, Small Beer Press are at it again:

To celebrate the publication of Kelly Link‘s new collection, Pretty Monsters, most of Kelly’s previous collection Magic for Beginners is now available as a free download in various completely open formats with no Digital Rights Management (DRM) strings attached. It is licensed under a Creative Commons (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0) license…

***

John Joseph Adams just can’t stop himself – maybe he got bitten by something?

I’ve just added the following two free stories to the Free Stories & Excerpts page of The Living Dead’s website:

• “The Dead Kid” by Darrell Schweitzer
  
• “Beautiful Stuff“ by Susan Palwick
  

There’s now six free stories here on the website in their entirety, plus all the excerpts. Be sure to keep checking back to see more!

(I’ve only linked to the HTML versions; there are other portable formats available too.)

***

Pick up the twenty-fifth piece of Jayme Lynn Blaschke‘s Memory… but mind you don’t cut yourself.

***

A quick message from Ben Rawluk:

Here’s another shameless, shameless self-plug for some of my short-short fiction: “Night on the Compost Heap“. Thanks!

***

And while we’re talking short-short fiction, here’s a handful of Friday Flash:

• “Thomas and the Machine” by Gaie Sebold
• “Avan” by Neil Beynon
• “Carried Out to the Sea” by Shaun C Green

Nothing new from Phred Serenissima this week, but he has collected together his previous Friday Flash stories into a digital book called Consent To Be Monitored, now available on Scribd.

***

That’s it for this week – plenty to keep you busy there, I’m thinking. Don’t forget to send us your plugs, links and pitches before 1800 GMT next week… but for now, have a great weekend!

Another week, another inbox brimming with free-to-read science fiction stories. Hell knows we could all do with a bit of escapism right now… so dive on in, free fiction fans!

***

Manybooks is keepin’ it old-school, yo:

• Captain Gardiner of the International Police – A Secret Service Novel of the Future by Allen Robert Dodd
• Ladies Whose Bright Eyes by Ford Madox Ford

***

Meanwhile, over at Feedbooks:

• Another Futurismic reissue: “Hooking Up” by Tom Doyle
• “Alchymical Romance” by Lee Battersby
• The Infinite Sea by Jeffrey A Carver (the final book of the Chaos Chronicles)

***

You can read yet more of Paul McAuley‘s new novel; chapter three of The Quiet War awaits your eyeballs.

***

Futurismic alumnus Tobias Buckell has been throwing up the first few chapters of his new novel Sly Mongoose on his website: here are chapters 1, 2 and 3.

***

This week’s Strange Horizons fiction offering is “Cowboy Angel (Part 2)” by Samantha Cope.

***

From the people at Apex:

For your consideration, “What You Know” (PDF) by Geoffrey Girard, one of the exciting new stories in Jodi Lee’s Apex anthology Courting Morpheus.

***

Via SF Signal:

• Mike Gordon has posted free excerpts of his novel Tracks at his website
• Douglas Clegg goes one further with the entire text of his novel Afterlife
• SpaceWesterns presents Part 1 of “The Mound” by H. P. Lovecraft and & Zealia Bishop

***

Gwyneth Jones has just made available the entire text of her seminal Bold As Love novel, the first in the series of the same name, in PDF format.

***

A message from dj lotu5:

Hi! Previously, I submitted my story “Tissue Banking”, which you linked to. Here is another story in the same vein that you may enjoy: “Laser Skin Reinscription“

***

Here’s your Friday Flash Fiction action for the week:

• Sarah Ellender got hers by “Mail Order“
• Greg O’Byrne has “Windows For Eyes“
• Neil Beynon has been taking “Lessons“
• Gareth L Powell is watching “Aztec Jaguars Falling“
• Phred Serenissima insists on your “Consent“

***

Non-sf online comics bonus via Scumlord Warren Ellis:

Paul Sizer’s been serialising his new music graphic novel BPM online while the physical book’s been printing in Malaysia. As I write, there’s something like 47 pages of the book up there for free reading.

I took a quick look, and ended up devouring the lot; beautiful colourful artwork, and if you’ve ever been into the DJ/club/dance music scene, it should be right up your street.

***

That’s your fiction thrift for the week, folks – hope you enjoy. Don’t forget to send in your tip-offs and shameless self-plugs for next week; deadline is 1800 GMT every Friday! Have a great weekend…

The world of finance may be in a flux, but there’s no shortage of free fiction flooding through the marketplace. Thrifty science fiction readers, get clicking!

***

Just the one from Manybooks, an Uncanny Tales anthology from 1916.

***

Feedbooks have been on a little Mary Robinette Kowal binge:

• “Portrait of Ari“
• “For Solo Cello, op. 12“
• “Death Comes But Twice“
• “Cerbo in Vitra ujo“
• “This Little Pig“
• “The Bound Man“

And they’ve a couple of titles for Doctor Who fen, also:

• Doctor Who: Human Nature by Paul Cornell
• Doctor Who: Nightshade by Mark Gatiss

***

Via SF Signal, more classic shorts at the bizarrely-named Munseys:

• “Postmark Ganymede” by Robert Silverberg
• “The Hunted Heroes” by Robert Silverberg
• “The Nothing Equation” by Tom Godwin

***

Aussie pop-sci outpost COSMOS Magazine has published “Micro Expressions” by Stephen Gaskell.

***

This week’s red-letter free-fiction announcement (in my humble opinion) is issue #6 of the irregular sf webzine Flurb, as curated by the endearingly oddball Rudy Rucker. In this issue, we have some Futurismic favourites among the new names:

• Rudy Rucker – “Qlone“
• Madeline Ashby – “Fitting a New Suit“
• Michael Blumlein – “The Big One“
• Brian Garrison – 3 SF Poems
• Charles Platt – “The Gnirut Test“
• Brendan Byrne – “The Loa and the Gaping Jaw“
• Jetse de Vries – “Random Acts of Cosmic Whimsy“
• Bruce Sterling – “Computer Entertainment Thirty-Five Years From Today“

***

This week’s offering at Strange Horizons: “Cowboy Angel (part 1 of 2)” by Samantha Cope

***

Some topical Alaskan political sf courtesy of Gordon van Gelder at F&SF:

…in the meantime, all the recent light cast on the political scene in Alaska (compliments of the nomination of the state’s governor for Republican V.P.), we’ve gotten permission to reprint George Guthridge‘s “Nine Whispered Opinions Regarding the Alaskan Secession” for a month. This story first appeared in our July 2004 All-American issue. It will only be on our site until October 20, 2008.

***

Mind you don’t cut yourself on Jayme Lyn Blaschke‘s 24th sliver of Memory.

***

Subterranean Online has a timely reminder…

… that we’re in the homestretch for Mike Resnick’s companion novella to his multi-award winning Kirinyaga series of stories. We think Kilimanjaro stands proudly with those earlier stories.

***

Paul McAuley has posted up the second chapter of his new novel The Quiet War for you to read. I finished the book a few weeks ago, and I think it’s well worth your time, but go take a taste and decide for yourself.

***

Via John Joseph Adams, Shimmer Magazine is getting into the spirit of International Talk Like A Pirate Day:

In honor of this most glorious holiday, Shimmer is making the electronic edition of the Pirate Issue freely available, for September 19th only.

Won’t you help us spread the word? Free pirate booty, there for the taking!

Wired’s GeekDad blog is in on the act as well; they’ve got a sample story from the forthcoming anthology of piratical fiction from the ever-prolific VanderMeers:

… top of my list so far has been Boojum, by Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette.  And, as a special bonus for GeekDad readers [and anyone else, I guess], the publisher [Night Shade Books] has agreed to make this story available as an exclusive [pdf] download.

***

Thanks to the tireless SF Signal gang for spotting this one; Antipodean SF is up to issue number 124, which is a pretty impressive run. There’s a big old bunch of stories to be found there, too.

***

A brief message from Ben Rawluk:

A flash fiction piece I wrote is available [over at NegativeSpace.net]; it’s called “Phone System World“.

***

And finally, some Friday Flash Fiction:

• Phred Serenissima is headed for “Sanctuary Mons“
• Gareth D Jones is all about the “Grammar“
• Gaie Sebold has been drinking from the “Font of Inspiration“
• Neil Beynon has “Fallen“

***

And that’s it for another week, free fiction fans. I’m off to dose the heck out of the head-cold I seem to have acquired; in the meantime, keep your tip-offs and plugs coming in, and have a great weekend!