Tag Archives: science fiction

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Friday Free Fiction for 15th May

Once again, the weekend has sneaked up on me almost without being noticed… if it weren’t for G-Cal and Remember The Milk I’d probably forget to eat most days. But Friday tends to stick in the mind, because that’s the day I wrap up another big list of the past week’s free science fiction stories on the intertubes. Onward!

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Here’s few from FeedBooks:

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Missed this one last week (only human, sorry!); a message from Jeffrey A Carver via Tor.com:

Eternity’s End is my Nebula-nominated novel about a star rigger named Legroeder who sets out in search of the lost ship Impris, Flying Dutchman of the stars. And along the way, encounters interstellar pirates and some deep-cyber romance. This book is free range, free running, cage free, up on the web for you to download for free!

Go fetch!

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Issue #86 of HUB Magazine includes two stories:

  • “Wink” by Lucy Kemnitzer
  • “Tastes of the Dark” by Malin Larsson

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Even though Jason Stoddard has now sold the hardback rights to Eternal Franchise, he’s still giving the whole thing away; we’re up to chapter 7.1

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Another DVD extra from Shadow Unit Season 2: “Scene”

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Strange Horizons presents part one and part two of “The Rising Waters” by Benjamin Crowell

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From the prolific Lee Gimenez:

I just wanted to let you know that my short story “Unhistory” was just published in the May 2009 issue of Orion’s Child Magazine.

Bravo, Lee!

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From Nancy Jane Moore:

On Book View Cafe this week, you can read:

“Cat T’ai Chi“, a graphic whimsey by Ursula K Le Guin; “Running the Road“, a longish flash fiction from Nancy Jane Moore; Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff‘s “Heroes“, which is novelette-length; “Waterwoman Nude“, a brand new story from Kate Daniel; a memoir from BVC’s newest member Alma Alexander, “Houses in Africa“; and a bonus scene — not in the print book — from Pati Nagle‘s new book, The Betrayal.

And that’s just a tiny amount of the free material available on the Book View Cafe site, which has everything from serialized novels to plays.

You heard the lady – go take a look.

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And here’s a few extras via SF Signal and their diligent inter-ma-web filtration-elves:

  • Afterburn SF presents “Ten Little Phobias” by Bev Vincent
  • Issue 131 of AntipodeanSF has appeared, including stories by Kieran Salsone, Tom Williams, David Scholes, Mark Farrugia, Shaun A Saunders, Jamie Richter, Scott Wilson, Jan Napier, Simon Petrie, and Mika F Cella
  • Marie Brennan is offering (in multiple formats) the free novella “Deeds of Men“…a story that takes place between Midnight Never Come and her upcoming novel In Ashes Lie.
  • Baen’s Webscription presents “The Menace from Earth” by Robert Heinlein

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And it looks like that’s the lot. Unfortunately, Keyboard Cat is contractually unable to play me off unless I bribe his management with cargo containers full of fresh tuna, so I’ll simply end with the usual request to keep us posted about anything you think merits inclusion in next week’s round-up, and the suggestion that you have yourself a damn good weekend. *waves*

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Jason Stoddard gets hardback publication deal on two Creative Commons novels

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Jason Stoddard's Winning Mars (Creative Commons edition cover art)Well, this is the sort of announcement that makes the hard work of running a webzine worthwhile! Jason Stoddard, a regular fixture in Futurismic‘s fiction section (and a genuinely super guy to boot) has sold two novels to genre fiction small press Prime Books, an outfit that publishes novels by fine writers such as Nick Mamatas and Ekaterina Sedia and anthologies by editors including Rich Horton and John Joseph Adams.

That would be worthy of celebration as it stands, but there’s an extra angle that makes Stoddard’s deal unusual – both novels have already been released for free under Creative Commons licenses. Let’s let Jason explain:

In a phrase, completely unexpectedly. Sean contacted me to see if Winning Mars and Eternal Franchise were available. I did a quick google of Sean’s name and company, saw that he was an established small press that worked with solid authors, and sent a quick email back saying yes, the books were available, but that both had been released into the wild. I fully expected the typical publisher reaction: you killed them there books, son, when you released ’em. But no. Sean has to go and restore my faith in humanity and the publishing industry.

On behalf of Futurismic, I’d like to roundly congratulate Jason on this great news, and Sean Wallace for taking this unusual step; it’s a vindication of Creative Commons licensing, and it’s a publisher picking up a writer in whom I have great faith. I’m proud that Futurismic got to be part of Jason’s journey to publication – Chris and I have seen many writers whose stories we’ve published here go on to bigger and better things, and I hope there will be more to come in the future.

Which means the final thank-you goes to you, the readers – it’s your attention and love of good fiction that brings great writers to our door. Keep reading – together, we can find more of them. 🙂

If you’ve not read any of Jason’s work before (or if you simply feel the need to reacquaint yourself with it), all his Futurismic publications are tagged with his name. Enjoy!

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Friday Free Fiction for 8th May

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The days are getting longer and brighter; it’ll be summer before we know what’s hit us. But at least the weekly rituals of life are there to keep us in some cyclic tradition of normalcy – rituals like rounding up big batches of free science fiction stories every Friday!

And as it’s a new month, there’s lots of new stuff from our fellow webzines, so get clicking…

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A triptych at Manybooks:

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And a bunch from Feedbooks:

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New for May at Clarkesworld:

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New stuff from Apex Online:

And as an added bonus, Open Your Eyes by Paul Jessup is being made available as a free PDF download for the remainder of May.

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Subterranean Online presents:

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Here’s episode 2.03 of Shadow Unit: “Sin Eater”

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Jason Stoddard presents chapter 6.2 of Eternal Franchise

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Tor.com presents “Last Son of Tomorrow” by Greg Van Eekhout

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Strange Horizons presents “The Rising Waters” by Benjamin Crowell

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COSMOS Magazine presents “Delivering Tomorrow, Today” by Robert Friedman

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HUB Magazine #85 includes “Old Clothes” by Chris Cyr

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A message from Chris Odhner:

My brother is publishing a new free short story *every day* for the next year.

Thanks, Chris!

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A message from from Jake Freivald:

The latest edition of Flash Fiction Online is up. Two of our three new flashes are SF: “Jack Rabbit” by Isaac Espriu and “Billions of Stars” by KJ Kabza.

Cheers, Jake!

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And thanks as always to SF Signal, without whose ubiquitous free-fictional panopticon we would have missed the following:

  • There’s a bunch of new additions to the Suvudu free library:
  • Fusion Fragment presents “For the Love of Ceelie” by Matthew Sanborn Smith
  • The New Yorker presents “The Slows” by Gail Hareven
  • The New Yorker has also published the JG Ballard story “The Autobiography of J.G.B.“
  • The Nautilus Engine‘s May 2009 issue includes fiction from Fabio Fernandes, LL Wise, Daniel Stiles, KM Rockwood, Violet Hilton, Jason L Corner, JD Riso, Mimi Vaquer, and Heath Lowrance
  • Episode #22 of Contagious by Scott Sigler is available for download in PDF and MP3 formats.
  • The latest issue of Aphelion includes fiction by T Richard Williams, Jon Wesick, Joel Realubit, Roderick D Turner, Terry Larson, E S Strout, Ed Barol, Joseph T Christopher, Mary Kiorden Hayden, Tyler Hardin, Philip Roberts, Ken Kraus, and Dan Edelman

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And finally Sumit Dam steps in with some Friday Flash: “The Reunion”

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And that’s your lot! Don’t forget to drop us a line about anything you think warrants inclusion in a future Friday Free Fiction; in the meantime, have a great weekend!

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Does Asimov’s Foundation trilogy hold wisdom about the current crisis?

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Asimov's Foundation Trilogy in SpanishMartin Börjesson has just been re-reading Asimov’s famous Foundation Trilogy, and found himself wondering whether the books are any use as a way of reframing the current global situation with regard to economics and geopolitics.

Here it is worth noting that the main inspiration too this novel, which started as a series of short stories by a 22 year old Asimov, published from 1942 and forward, came from Gibbon’s famous work “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”. When I see it in this perspective I can’t avoid thinking of the role of the monasteries which worked as knowledge capsules during the dark ages.

What does Dr Seldon say about what causes the fall of the Empire:

  • a rising bureaucracy
  • a receding initiative
  • a freezing of caste
  • a damming of curiosity
  • …a hundred other factors

And the effects will be:

  • its accumulated knowledge will decay
  • the order it has imposed will vanish
  • interstellar wars will be endless
  • interstellar trade will decay
  • population will decline
  • worlds will lose touch with the main body of the Galaxy
  • …and so matters will remain

Do these bullets sound familiar?

Well, of course they do; the ways that big systems collapse are well-known to historians and science fiction writers alike; it’s the political types and economists who seem to have the wilful blind spot in this case.

Can books like Foundation help us see things more clearly? Sure – if you’re the sort of person who’s willing to look for those analogies and think them through for yourself. As a tool to bring the message to the masses, though, I doubt they’re of any greater utility than a celebrity cook-book. [image by draXus]