It’s that time of week again, when thoughts turn to leaving the office, not working for a few days … and reading some stories. Here’s a whole bunch of good stuff to get your eyeballs tucked into.

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The weekly selection from Manybooks.net, including a couple of early pieces from sf legend Robert Silverberg:

• “Impact” by Irving Cox – “They were languorous, anarchic, shameless in their pleasures . . . were they lower than man . . . or higher?”
• “The Nothing Equation” by Tom Godwin – “The space ships were miracles of power and precision; the men who manned them, rich in endurance and courage. Every detail had been checked and double checked; every detail except …”
• “Postmark Ganymede” by Robert Silverberg – “Consider the poor mailman of the future. To “sleet and snow and dead of night”–things that must not keep him from his appointed rounds–will be added, sub-zero void, meteors, and planets that won’t stay put. Maybe he’ll decide that for six cents an ounce it just ain’t worth it.”
• “The Hunted Heroes” by Robert Silverberg – “The planet itself was tough enough–barren, desolate, forbidding; enough to stop the most adventurous and dedicated. But they had to run head-on against a mad genius who had a motto: Death to all Terrans!” NOOOOO!
• “The Man Who Hated Mars” by Gordon Randall Garrett – “To escape from Mars, all Clayton had to do was the impossible. Break out of a crack-proof exile camp–get onto a ship that couldn’t be boarded–smash through an impenetrable wall of steel. Perhaps he could do all these things, but he discovered that Mars did evil things to men; that he wasn’t even Clayton any more. He was only–THE MAN WHO HATED MARS.” NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!1

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Via SF Signal we discover another what seems to be some sort of alternative or addition to services like Manybooks.net that has a much slicker front-end, plus charts and all that web2.0 stuff.

The titles all look pretty familiar (lots of Doctorow and Stross) but you might want to go poke around the science fiction section of Feedbooks anyway. Just in case. 😉

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Via a number of places, but I think I spotted it at Scalzi‘s first (so that’s who I’m quoting):

“Australian science fiction writer Simon Hayes and Freemantle Publishing have posted the first of Hayes’s satirical Hal Spacejock novels online for you to download and try. Simon sends me copies of the series from time to time […] and they’re definitely fun, and (intentionally) humorous science fiction is hard enough to find as it is. Give it a look and if you like it, they’ll arrange to send you some actual books, at a discount of both the cover price and […] international postage.”

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Via Friday Flash Fictioneer Gareth D Jones:

“… a ‘Fiction Special’ issue of Wales-based ezine Estronomicon is now online for you to download, featuring ten short stories.”

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Missed this one last week: Captain Bruce Sterling recommends heading over to HarperCollins, where you can currently read the entirety of Invisible Armies by Jon Evans:

(((That’s a pretty good book, actually. It’s kind of a tough-as-nails technothriller from a leftie Seattle 99er perspective. People who aren’t morons and like thriller novels ought to read this.)))

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Elizabeth Bear and Emma Bull have released the “season finale” novel Refining Fire over at Shadow Unit this week in daily instalments; I think the whole thing should be there by the weekend. If you’ve not checked it out yet, there’s quarter of a million words of free fiction there now – and that’s just the first season.

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Via Lou Anders, there’s a neatly collated selection of free-to-read sample chapters over at Pyr Books.

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Michael Roberts slips in just behind the cut-off deadline with another Tale of the Singularity: “Lord Cthulhu Walks the Desert“.

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And finally, your selection from the Friday Flash Fictioneers:

• Phred Serenissima‘s story from last week is “Garden Variety“; this week’s is called “Choices“.
• Gareth D Jones decries the ravages of war (and drugs) in “The Hastening of Battle“.
• Neil Beynon proves that you can get inspiration from blog posts here at Futurismic in “Touched“
• Don’t worry; Shaun C Green‘s “Spaceman” isn’t a cover version of the old 4 Non Blondes track.
• Gaie Sebold gets all po-mo with “Little Red Hoodie“

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That’s your dose for the week, folks – should be enough to keep you going. Don’t forget to feed us your tips, plugs and suggestions as always. Have a great weekend!

Like a beachcomber, I’ve been plucking bits of genre fiction flotsam from the beach of the intarwebs …

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A couple of old-school novels from Manybooks.net:

• The Defiant Agents by Andre Norton (“Alien technology scavenged by U.S. and Russian scientists has started a race to colonize planets outside our solar system — and the U.S. scientists are losing! In a desperate move the U.S. government decides to use a group of Apache volunteers in an experimental attempt to colonize a primitive planet, but before they can even begin their spaceship crashes on the planet Topaz …”)
• Black Oxen by Gertrude Atherton (According to the notes, “[t]his tale of scientific rejuvenation was the number one best seller of 1923.” Crikey!)

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Here’s the fifth and final instalment of the WTFBBQ extras/teaser/supplementary gubbins from Shadow Unit:

Chaz craned his neck to peer over Brady’s shoulder at the kebabs. “Don’t leave them too long,” he said, because he knew it would be annoying.

Lau grinned at Chaz across the barbeque, and the heat in his face had nothing to do with the gas fire. “You have no sense of self-preservation.”

Less than a fortnight until the season finale, folks!

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We’ll let the Subterranean gang speak for themselves:

It’s been a busy couple of weeks for Subterranean Online. First up, we have Part One of a new novella by SubPress favorite Norman Partridge. Hit the pavement with “Road Dogs,” but be sure to pack the proper armament.

Meanwhile, Joe R. Lansdale’s Unchained again, this time on the subject of Henry Kuttner. If that’s not enough new material, take a quick look at Kealan Patrick Burke’s review of Thomas Ligotti’s worthy gathering of tales, Teatro Grottesco.

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I got some email from Sam J Miller:

Two weeks ago, the new issue of the fabulous free online sci-fi magazine Atomjack went live and it includes my story “Monkey Heaven“, narrated by a dissatisfied helper monkey. Hoped you might be able to include a link to it when you do this Friday’s fabulous free fiction lineup.

We’d have done it even without the flattery, Sam – thanks for the tip!

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A couple of brief mentions cribbed from SF Signal (who in turn got them via Locus Online):

• Fantasy Book Spot offers “Nano Comes to Clifford Falls” by Nancy Kress. (I’ve heard this as a podcast, I believe; excellent story.)
• Cosmos has “Not Enough Stars in the Night” by Brendan DuBois.

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The unstoppable (and, sadly, still unlinkable) Cole Kitchen brings yet more additions and alterations to the Sidebar of Free Fictional Justice::

• Flashquake – a paying online market for ‘flash literature’, no less
• Goblin Fruit – a webzine devoted to “poetry of the fantastical”
• COSMOS Magazine offers online fiction as well as pop science articles.
• Apex Digest seems to have changed its name to Apex Online. Starting in the first week in June they plan to become a weekly publication.
• Abyss & Apex (which is not the same as Apex Online). Their issue 26 is now up.

Thanks, Cole. I was pretty sure I had added Abyss & Apex before now, but it appears I hallucinated that particular episode. I think it’s time I cut down on the coffee and Red Bull …

CORRECTION: From Jason Sizemore (see comment below): “Apex Digest is still a print publication. Apex Online (which we’ve been doing for three years) is a separate entity. The change is that Apex Online will become weekly instead of monthly.” Sorry Jason – I’ll check my facts properly in future!

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So, that brings us to the Friday Flash Fictioneers – let’s see who we have this week:

• Greg O’Byrne missed the boat last week (sorry Greg) with this reworking of his earlier piece “Interstellar“.
• Ian Hocking delivers his microscopic pieces (which he limits to a mere 100 words) in audio format (because, like most Mac users I know, he’s an insufferable show-off*); today’s offering is called “Rescue“
• Neil Beynon gets nostalgic when he thinks about “Mary“.
• I’m not even going to ask Gareth L Powell about his “Brown Water“.
• Clive Birnie aims to strike terror into the hearts of all web2.0 enthusiasts by explaining “How Twitter Stole His Life“.
• Sarah Ellender examines some of the perils and pitfalls of urban living in “A Stupid Place To (Jurassic) Park“.
• And in the midst of all this fictional frivolity, Greg O’Byrne returns to remind us “What Really Matters“.

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That’s your lot, folks. Don’t forget to keep sending us your plugs and tip-offs … and there’s still time to apply to be a blogger here at Futurismic, too. Have a great weekend!

[* He’s a lovely man, really; I don’t hold the Mac stuff against him. Not much, anyway. 😉 ]

It’s a slim week for free fiction once again, but we’ve still scoured the web for every morsel we could find. And isn’t anything a feast to a starving person? So get stuck in!

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One story and one novel from Manybooks.net:

• Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy (Super-mega-old-school – published 1887!)
• “The Airlords of Han“ by Philip Francis Nowlan (Not so old – published 1928)

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Episode 7 of Shadow Unit is Elizabeth Bear’s “Overkill“:

It always started with the phone.

Tonight, that was the only familiar thing, because when Chaz Villette woke groaning to its warble the first thing he remembered was that he wasn’t in his own bed. The second thing he remembered was to try not to disturb the warm, heavy weight pillowed on his numb left arm as he fumbled for the night stand with his right. Her hair was in his mouth, her breath warm against his neck as he opened the phone without bothering to squint at the name on the display. He whispered, “Villette.”

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The thirteenth instalment of Memory will hopefully not prove unlucky for Jayme Lynn Blaschke:

Parric’s wingtip slapped Flavius with a glancing blow across the side of his head, sending him sprawling to the ground. Flavius sprang back up, his face scarlet and eyes blazing.

“Wha’d ya go and do that for?” he shouted at Parric, one fist held ready as his other hand rubbed the side of his head.

“Your obsessings with the Empress is getting you dead once already,” Parric shot back, his featherscales ruffled with agitation. “And almosting me, too. You are needing to self-examining, Flavius, and asking yourself if your ruttings with the Empress are worth the consequences.”

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After a brief interlude Warren Ellis‘s Freakangels are back for episode 13. If you’ve been following it, you’ll know it’s already showing lots of promise. If you’ve not been following it, why not start now, huh?

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And let’s round it all off with the measured marching pace of the Friday Flash Fictioneers:

• Neil Beynon seems to have sustained a nasty “Fracture” during his holiday in New Zealand (of which I am not even slightly jealous)
• Gareth L Powell takes the “Last Dance With Alice“
• Dan Pawley‘s back in the saddle after some “Dead Time“
• Shaun C Green reports in from the “Interdiction Zone“
• Gaie Sebold has been conducting “An Experiment“
• Phred Serenissima remembers “Daddy’s Girl“

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Looks like that’s your lot for this week – though there’s still masses of good stuff over in the Sidebar Of Free-Fictional Justice, so why not do another webzine a favour and pay them a visit?

In the meantime, keep us posted with your tips – and have a great weekend!

Another seven days have passed in the magical land of Intarwub, and they have deposited the usual cargo of free fictional nuggets on their way through; consider this your menu, your guide, your pre-flight check-list …

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A single full book (and a very old one at that) from Manybooks.net:

• Pharaoh’s Broker: Being the Very Remarkable Experiences in Another World of Isidor Werner by Ellsworth Douglass

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Unpublished Heinlein news from Subterranean Online:

“… we’re delighted to bring to light a teleplay co-written by Robert A. Heinlein more than 50 years ago. Delilah and the Space Rigger, is based, of course, on the classic short story. For insight into the practical way in which Heinlein approached writing for the screen, we’re also printing John Scalzi’s introduction.”

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From Cory Doctorow:

“I’ve just put up my site for Little Brother, my young adult novel about hacker kids who use technology to reclaim the Bill of Rights from the DHS after a terrorist attack on San Francisco.”

Being as it’s a Doctorow title, it comes in many flavours and there are many things you are legally allowed to do with it – pretty much anything except sell it for money.

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Eos are giving away the entirety of Sarah Douglass’s The Serpent Bride as an ebook:

Rescued from unspeakable horror, Ishbel Brunelle has devoted her life to a Serpent cult that reads the future in the entrails of its human sacrifices. But the Serpent has larger plans for Ishbel than merely being archpriestess, plans that call for a dangerous royal marriage balancing on the edge between treachery and devotion, and an eerie, eldritch warning: Prepare for the Lord of Elcho Falling . . .

A bit fantasy for Futurismic readers, perhaps, but an entire free book is not to be sniffed at.

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An email from John T Cullen:

Hi, Futurismic – please check out the free novels and other work at http://www.johntcullen.com/.

I’m the former editor of the late Far Sector SFFH, once the oldest professional webmag of SF/F/H. I’m also the second person in history to release serial chapters of whole novels (1996-7). I think we have a new pioneering effort going on, to be explained in a year or two if it works out. Please come visit.

I remain to be convinced of the validity of that serial-chapter-release business (wasn’t that the standard publishing business model of the Victorian era? Edit in light of clarification from Mr Cullen: serial chapters online), but Mr Cullen sure does have a whole lot of work there on his site. Go take a look.

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Yet more WTFBBQ action from Shadow Unit:

Esther Falkner spent twenty minutes wondering what to do with her hair.

At work, she wore it up, severe and businesslike. At home, she left it loose and long. It was another way to remind herself, Leave the job at the job. Leave home at home.

But compartmentalizing was a temporary coping strategy at best. It failed to account for a backyard potluck barbeque with her co-workers.

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A message from Nathan Lilly reminds us of yet more good shizzle at SpaceWesterns.com: “A Man Called Mister Brown: Mr. Green (part 3 of 8)” by A.R. Yngve, and “Octopus Tanks” by Max Gladstone. If the latter isn’t the best story title you’ve read all week, I want to know why!

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A message from Gary Ballard:

I saw that you write up free fiction on Fridays and wondered if you’d like to cover my blog novel. It’s called Under the Amoral Bridge and it’s being updated weekly with a new chapter and/or supplementary material.

Consider it covered, Gary! Least we can do for someone who bought some ad space is let the RSS readers know about it too.

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Here’s Memory #12 from Jayme Lynn Blaschke:

Thunder boiled up through Flavius’ arm, threatening to tear muscle from bone and split his skin. It roared through his shoulder and into his head.

His head! His head! His head! Lightning flashed behind his eyes, blinding bursts of fire that swelled within his skull as the terrible pressure built up. Were all the killer waves racing ahead of a storm to ram themselves into a teacup, it’d still be a faint whisper of the torrent pouring into him.

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And now it’s Friday Flash Fiction time! Let’s see what we have …

• Shaun C Green channels Justin Pickard in “Binary Visions“
• Justin Pickard (the real one) pitches one out from the depths of Dissertation Hell – it’s “Sublime“
• Dan Pawley wants to tell you about “Alice“
• Gareth D Jones wants to tell you about “Rosetta“
• Neil Beynon is smoking “Quantum Cigars“
• Sarah Ellender keeps it super-short with “Liquid Smoke“
• Phred Serenissima is engaged in “The Great Debate“

Apologies this week from Gareth L Powell; he’s celebrating having topped the Interzone reader’s poll. Congratulations, Gareth – well deserved.

Added bonus: not exactly flash, and not exactly a story, but long-time web-buddy and all-round smart dude Sterling “Chip” Camden posted a speculative piece of writing entitled “Conversation with a neighbour” which you might find worth reading.

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What’s that? You want more free fiction? More than I manage to link to here every week?

Well, you’re in luck – I am reliably informed by the SF Signal crew that Free Speculative Fiction Online (the most accurately named website ever) has had a recent update with masses more titles, many of which haven’t been mentioned here. So if you find these weekly round-ups insufficient, that’s where you want to be clicking next.

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Oh, you want dead-tree reading material as well? Good grief, you’re a demanding lot!

Lucky for you, the Magazine of Fantasy And Science Fiction is offering you a free copy of the July 2008 issue; all you have to do in exchange is blog about it.

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And that’s about your lot, folks – until next week, at least! In the meantime, keep those plugs and tip-offs rolling in, and have a great weekend.