Okay ladies and gents, boys and girls, here’s your weekly fistful of free fiction.

Before I begin, though, I’d just like to draw your attention to the sidebar, where I’ve been adding as many science/speculative fiction webzines as I know addresses for. Not only should this act as a useful reading list for you guys, it also means you can drop us a line about any we don’t know yet – so please do.

Right, onwards!

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James Patrick Kelly has finally finished the epic podcasting marathon that has been his novel, Look Into The Sun, and you can get the whole lot (all 34 installments!) at his "freereads" blog.

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New at ManyBooks.net:

• "Attention Saint Patrick" by Murray Leinster (1960)
• "On Handling the Data" by M.I. Mayfield (1959)
• "Unspecialist" by Murray F. Yaco (1960)
• "The Creature from Cleveland Depths" by Fritz Leiber
• "I Remember Lemuria" (1948) and "The Return of Sathanas" (1948) by Richard S. Shaver
• Gladiator by Philip Wylie.

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Ben Peek has posted Chapter 1 from his book Black Sheep.

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Two heads-up posts in one week from BoingBoing. Firstly:

"[Rick Dakan‘s] Mile Zero [the sequel to Geek Mafia] is a labyrinth of twists and turnabouts, filled with charming geek humor, thoroughly likable characters, and a relentless plot that you won’t be able to put down. Don’t take my word for it — it’s Creative Commons licensed, and you can download the text and check it out for yourself."

And secondly, via a BoingBoing reader:

"Mindwebs was a radio series produced in Madison, Wisconsin in the late 70’s and early 80’s. It features semi-dramatized readings of stories by authors such as Norman Spinrad, Arthur C. Clarke, Gordon R. Dickson, and Ray Bradbury. I’ve been listening to it on the bus and it’s really entertaining!"

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News from Sir John of Scalzi:

"I’m delighted to announce that Subterranean Press has decided to post the complete text of “The Sagan Diary” at Subterranean Online […] and don’t forget the audio version is also freely available."

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Chris Roberson returns to free-fiction Friday action this week with a story called "Granma Stemple".

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These aren’t really science fiction, but certainly are free: 201 Stories by Anton Chekhov, via Jeremiah Tolbert.

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Friday Flash Fictioneers in effect … but first, a brief word from James Bloomer of Big Dumb Object:

"Just thought I’d mention that I’m posting a piece of flash fiction
every day in November (my alternative to NaNoWriMo) on my writing blog – and consequently some of it is both Flash, and on a Friday. So you could say that I’m popping into the FFF club for one month …"

Welcome aboard, James! We’re short a few crew this week, for various reasons, so that’s well-timed.

Meanwhile, Martin McGrath has a continuing disregard for the ‘Friday’ part of the title, but as he’s a nice chap we’ll let him off. He posted "The Decision That Changed The Life Of Fabrice Colliseo" last Sunday.

Gareth D. Jones tells of a different sort of "Cat Burglar".

Neil Beynon remembers "Amber".

Justin Pickard is using NaNoWriMo extracts again – this week, he has "Creeping Doubts". Not about the NaNo project, we hope, Justin!

Gareth L. Powell is in a sober mood with "Where Were You When The Fun Stopped?"

An last but not least (or so I hope) is my attempt to win the not-very-prestigious (and, indeed, non-existent) award for the shortest title for a piece of short-short science fiction ever – it’s just called "J".

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That’s your lot for this week. Don’t forget that if you (or someone you know) have a piece of free fiction that you’d like us to tell the world about, or if you’d like to join the ranks of the Friday Flash Fictioneers, please just drop me an email using my address on the staff page. Just make sure you put "Friday Free Fiction" in the email subject line so it doesn’t get chomped by my spam-traps.

Have fun!

Here’s your free fiction fix for the weekend:

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Speculative fiction e-zine Heliotrope issue #3 has been posted with fiction by Brendan Connell, Tina Connolly and Rob Vagle, as well as articles by Jeffrey Ford, Michael Moorcock and Jeff Vandermeer.

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From Andy Cox, head honcho (and my boss) at Interzone:

"Jay Lake has posted his story "All Our Heroes are Bastards", originally published in issue 35 of The Third Alternative (now Black Static), on his website. Recommended!"

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More fine freebies from the folk at Subterranean:

"The serial of Daniel Abraham‘s that we’re running this November, The Support Technician Tango, is definitely not sf. Think of Connie Willis in her madcap comic mode and you’ll be closer to the pleasures Tango has to offer. Look for a chapter or two every weekday over at Subterranean Online."

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Free science fiction online at ManyBooks.net: "Unwise Child" by Gordon Randall Garrett, "Tight Squeeze" by Dean Charles Ing and "Indirection" by Everett B. Cole.

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Mentioned here at Futurismic earlier this week, but worthy of a re-plug – the inimitable Bruce Sterling has a short story in a most untraditional venue. Read "The Interoperation" at Technology Review.

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Friday Flash Fictioneers in tha hiz-ouse!

Martin McGrath slipped in late last week with "Stone Must Roll" – technically a rule-breaker on length terms, but we’re all friends here.

Which means we’ll excuse also Shaun C Green for posting a 2500-word short called "Half-Day of the Dead". Because, as he points out, everything goes better with zombies.

Gareth D Jones cocks a snook at superheroes with "The Ironic Man"; he also posted a late catch-up earlier in the week called "The Planet Sweets".

Neil Beynon shares some backstory from his ongoing NaNoWriMo effort: "Hakon’s Folly".

Justin Pickard is also NaNoing (if that’s a real verb). His excerpt is called "Paper Boats in the Blue Hour".

Gareth L Powell has a bleak little nugget called "The Point Furthest From The Sun".

And in one of those strangely synchronistic happenstances, both Dan Pawley and myself hit on the same theme, albeit from different angles. Dan’s is called "Abduction", and mine is "Alien Abduction".

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As always, please get in touch (use my email address as on the Staff page) with anything you’d like to be announced … and please put "Futurismic Free Fiction" in the subject line. I’ve had to batten down the spam-traps recently, but I have a filter installed that will let through anything with that subject. If I don’t respond to your email, please try again, or leave a comment here if that doesn’t work.

In the meantime, enjoy your weekend!

A fairly weighty haul of free fiction for you this week. Let’s see what we’ve got …

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We’ve got short stories!

ManyBooks.net: "With No Strings Attached" by Gordon Randall Garrett, "No Great Magic" by Fritz Leiber, "Subversive" by Mack Reynolds, "The Servant Problem" by Robert F. Young (1962) and "The Fourth Invasion" by Henry Josephs (1956).

Project Gutenberg: "The Red Room" by H. G. Wells.

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We have webzines!

Via Nick Mamatas, the latest Clarkesworld Magazine:

Check out Acid and Stoned Reindeer by Rebecca Ore!
And if you’d like to get agitated, why not read our latest commentary The Language of Defeat by Jeff Vandermeer.

I just read Rebecca Ore’s story – that’s quite a piece of work. Go see!

Screaming Dreams has a Halloween issue available as a PDF for you to download, too.

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We have book tasters!

Pyr has posted the first 3 chapters of Killswitch by Joel Shepherd.

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We have entire novels!

In the mailbox from Stefan Pernar:

I published my first science fiction (although I would like to call it science future 😉 ) novel a few days ago – you can find it at www.jame5.com.

From the blurb: "Jame5 is a "Sophie’s World" for futurists and singularitarians in which the author takes his readers trough a hard take off technical singularity with all its philosophical consequences. What is good and what is evil? Where are we coming from and where are we going? What are happiness and the meaning of life? What do prophets have in common with dictators? All of these questions and more are being touched in this novel …"

Sounds interesting. If anyone would like to send us a review, please do so!

Also, transrealist genius Rudy Rucker has released the entirety of his latest novel, Postsingular, as a Creative Commons download. It comes heartily recommended by me, if that’s worth anything to you.

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And it wouldn’t be Friday Free Fiction without the Friday Flash Fictioneers.

There are a few absentees this week; I know some of them are NaNoWriMo-ing, and that’s a reasonable excuse. (I wish I had one as good, but my fiction time this week was spent dealing with yesterday’s Futurismic hardware crisis …)

Justin Pickard is NaNoWriMo-ing too, but instead of ducking out, he’s posting excerpts – here’s "Traitor!".

Other contributors this week: Neil Beynon gives us "Rainbow"; Dan Pawley provides "My School Trip", and FFF’s founder Gareth L Powell donates "Sun Scrying".

We’d be more than pleased to invite new Fictioneers into the gang – drop us a line if you have a short piece you’d like us to include. The only rules are – it has to be under a thousand words, and it has to be published on your own site on a Friday!

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In case there’s not enough here to keep you busy (in which case I envy the amount of free time you have), Free Speculative Fiction Online has once again updated their (far more comprehensive) list with many new additions from writers old and new.

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Happy reading, and have a great weekend!

It’s Friday – and Friday means free fiction here at Futurismic. So here’s some stuff to fill up the spare hours of your Halloween weekend …

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The  big-name free fiction sites just keep churning out SF&F:

Project Gutenberg: "Sodom and Gomorrah, Texas" by R.A. Lafferty and "The Creature from Cleveland Depths" by Fritz Leiber.

ManyBooks.net: "The Big Bounce" by Walter Tevis, and "Daddy’s Caliban" by Jay Lake.

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Via SF Signal – Forbes magazine commissioned five writers with the following remit: "It’s the year 2027, and the world is undergoing a global financial crisis. The scene is an American workplace."

Here are the results:

• "Abstract" by Michael Bagnulo
• "Springtide" by Max Barry
• "Other People’s Money" by Cory Doctorow
• "The Position" by Warren Ellis
• "Factory" by Lowell Yaeger

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Chris Roberson‘s free fiction just keeps coming. Here’s something seasonal from his days with the Clockwork Storybook webzine – "Trick or Treat – A Public Service Announcement".

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Orbit Books has posted the first chapter of Devices and Desires by K.J. Parker.

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John C Wright is sharing the first chapter of his forthcoming Null-A Continuum novel.

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Via Warren Ellis: "Deadnauts" by Ted Kosmatka at IDEOMANCER – a webzine that’s new to me.

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Make way for the Friday Flash Fictioneers!

A double-whammy from Martin McGrath as he makes good his promise of playing catch-up – "The Fighter" and "The Unexpectedly Existential Life of Margaret Tome"; Shaun C Green presents "She Dances"; Gareth D Jones celebrates the birth of his daughter with "Precious Cargo"; Gareth L Powell provides an excerpt from an as-yet unpublished story, "Hot Rain"; and Dan Pawley gives us "Doppelgangers".

I’m smacking my metaphorical wrist for it, but I’ve not managed my time well enough to contribute this week. But that’s understandable – as Gareth Jones explains, we Flash Fictioneers are busy taking over the world.

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Have a good weekend!

It’s that time of week again! Here’s your free fiction to keep you busy over the weekend … or at work this afternoon, for those of you in the US! 🙂

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New old stories at ManyBooks.net: "The Stoker and the Stars" by Algis Budrys, "Gravity’s Angel" by Tom Maddox, "Toy Shop" by Harry Harrison, and "One-Shot" by James Blish.

And at Project Gutenberg: "Second Sight" by Alan E. Nourse.

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The unstoppably prolific Chris Roberson has a pretty hefty back-catalogue to draw on for his free fiction offerings: I missed last week’s "So Far From Us In All Ways" due to time restrictions, and this week there’s a chunk from his recently published novel Set The Seas On Fire, "A Fencing Lesson".

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An email from Nancy Jane Moore:

"I’m doing some serious blogging about self defense these days, and I
also happen to have a science fiction story — "Survival Skills" — that
illustrates some of my points."

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We’ve mentioned Strange Horizons more than a few times, but that’s not going to stop me doing it again, as Jason Stoddard (who has had stories published here at Futurismic and in loads of other venues) points out that one of his shorter pieces, the 4000-word "Making Payments", is up on SH right now.

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Friday Flashers in action this week: Gareth L Powell’s sliver of a story, "Fifty-Four Dodge"; Neil Beynon’s "The Anniversary", Shaun C Green’s racy and more than a trifle weird "Slip It In", and my own "I am a camera".

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As always – please get in touch with any announcements you’d like included here next time, be they stories, excerpts or podcasts. We don’t care about the format, as long as it’s free!