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:

• “The Calm Man” by Frank Belknap Long

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And an old-school novel at FeedBooks:

• The Great White Queen by William Le Queux

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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:

• “Holding Fire” by Georgey Fluharty
• “Kenna’s Song” by Betsy Dornbusch
• “Long Way From Home” by Alice Folkart

And finally, some more free excerpts:

• Dead if I Do by Tate Hallaway
• World’s End by Mark Chadbourn
• The Discovery of Socket Greeny by Tony Bertauski

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

• “Courtship Considered As Twelve Variations On The Game Of Chess” by Sumit Dam
• “Funeral” by Shaun C Green
• “GOOGLED24C36E6D230D48D” by Neil Beynon
• An excerpt from Gareth L Powell‘s forthcoming story “Fallout“
• “Huddle Formation” by Sumit Dam
• “Move On” by Neil Beynon
• “Lucy’s Toy” by Sarah Ellender

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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!

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:

• “Song in a Minor Key” by Catherine Lucile Moore
• “The Right People” by Adam Rakunas (Futurismic reprint!)

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

• “Beyond Lies the Wub” by Philip K Dick

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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!