Free SF, Fantasy and Horror Fiction for 01/16/2015
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Written
- @Author’s Site: “Barsoom Billy” by Lou Antonelli [Martian Western]
- @Author’s Site – Pulped: Pulped by Tom Tinney: [Science Fiction Noir Serial]
- @Chilling Tales for Dark Nights:
- “It’s Cold Outside” by Ward Hocut [Horror – also available on YouTube]
- “Old Man Winter” by Jeffrey Ebright [Horror – also available on YouTube]
- Expanded Horizons #45 – January 2015 [Speculative Fiction Magazine]
- “Life on Earth” by Lisa Shapter
- “My Rightwise Home” by E. Saxey
- “To Megan, with Half My Heart” by Vida Cruz
- @Lightspeed Magazine:
- “He Came From a Place of Openness and Truth” by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam [Science Fiction]
- “The Lonely Heart” by Aliette de Bodard [Fantasy – also available in audio]
- @Mythic Delirium: “The Absence of Words” by Swapna Kishore [Speculative Fiction]
- @Nightmare Magazine: “The Hollow Man” by Norman Partridge [Horror]
- @Terraform: “CES 2067” by Sam Biddle [Science Fiction]
- @Tor: “And the Burned Moths Remain” by Benjanun Sriduangkaew [Science Fiction]
Written – Flash
- @365 tomorrows:
- “Awakening” by Michael Hughes [Science Fiction Flash]
- “Colour Me” by Steve Smith [Science Fiction Flash]
- “Interview With A Dictator” by Bob Newbell [Science Fiction Flash]
- “Relocation” by Duncan Shields [Science Fiction Flash]
- “Remote Angels” by Jae Miles [Science Fiction Flash]
- “The Futility of Flight” by Lydia Devadason [Science Fiction Flash]
- @Chilling Tales for Dark Nights: “Muddy” by Patrick Narvasa [Horror – also available on YouTube]
- @Daily Science Fiction:
- “Crowned” by Rebecca Fraimow [Magic Realism Flash]
- Dichotomous key to“animals” discovered by the first settlers on Quintana: Kepler-186F by Melanie Rees [Science Fiction Flash]
- “Masks” by S E Lewis [Science Fiction Flash]
- “Perfectly Justified Response” by Peter A Schaefer [Time Travel Flash]
- @Every Day Fiction:
- “Birthday O’Clock” by Sean Jones [Science Fiction Flash]
- “Hindsight” by Louise Lemieux [Fantasy Flash]
- “Rig #9” by Dan Blunk [Ghost Story Flash]
- “Separation” by Matthew King [Science Fiction Flash]
- “The Wind’s Betrayal” by M. P. Rossi [Fantasy Flash]
- @Farther Stars Than These: “Operation Destiny “ by Joseph Patchen [Science Fiction Flash]
- @Nature: “The left hands of lovers” by Emily Eckart [Science Fiction Flash]
Written – Serialized
- @Calamities Press: DOL 39 by Patrick W. Marsh: [Dystopian Horror Serialization]
- @Paizo: The Patch Man by Adam Heine – Chapter One: Warm Bodies [Shared World Fantasy Serialization]
- @Author’s Site: Musketeer Space by Tansy Rayner Roberts – Part 34 – “The New Aristocrats” [Space Opera Serialization]
Audio
- Beware the Hairy Mango #251 – “Pubic Flair” by Matthew Sanborn Smith [Carthaginian Mangoes?]
- Cast of Wonders #149 – “Bricks and Sunlight” by M. K. Hutchins [YA Fantasy]
- @Clarkesworld Magazine: “Cat Pictures Please” by Naomi Kritzer [Science Fiction]
- Drabblecast #347 – “Why I Hate Zombie Unicorns” by Laura Pearlman [Horror Comedy]
- Escape Pod #475 – “Homegrown Tomatoes” by Lara Elena Donnelley [Science Fiction]
- @Lightspeed Magazine: “The Lonely Heart” by Aliette de Bodard [Fantasy]
- Pseudopod #420 – “Lost In The Fog” by J.D. Beresford [Horror – from 1918]
- @SFFaudio: “The Calamander Chest” by Joseph Payne Brennan [Horror]
- Tales To Terrify #156 – “Blameless” by David Niall Wilson and “Who Is Like God” by B.E. Scully [Horror]
Audio – Radio Dramas
- @Boxcars711 Old Time Radio Pod:
- Lights Out –“Murder In The Script Department” [Horror Radio Drama – from 1943]
- The Witch’s Tale –“Graveyard Mansion” [Horror Radio Drama – from 1933]
- @Relic Radio:
- 2000 Plus –“The Other Man” [Science Fiction Radio Drama – from 1950]
- CBS Radio Mystery Theater –“Ghost At High Noon” [Horror Radio Drama – from 1974]
- The Mysterious Traveler –“The Accusing Corpse” [Horror/Weird Radio Drama – from 1944]
Audio – Serialized
- @Aftermath: Season 2, Episode 6 –“Omega” [Post-Apocalyptic Serial]
- Cthulhu #189 – The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers [Horror Collection Serialization]
- Welcome to Night Vale #60 – “Water Failure” [Fantasy Serial]
Free eBooks – Science Fiction
“Eat Fish And Die “ by S. Ron Mars
Stuck on a small planetoid, we find Major Joachim Merlot. He’s the military equivalent of a street sweeper, defending Earth against an alien race of stinking fish-like creatures. Merlot isn’t interested in being any kind of hero — he just wants to return home and see who won the office betting pool. His odds of making it back alive are only one in sixteen, but that doesn’t matter. He’s been issued a handy dandy Battle Ready Android with the fire power of an entire platoon. The only problem? He can’t let the android think too much. Too much thinking, you see, can upset it. And there’s the rub. Since everyone thinks most of the time, how can you figure out when it’s too much?
[Military Science Fiction Comedy Short Story – Amazon]
Freedom Club by Saul Garnell
The year is 2085, and the world dives blindly into capitalistic hysteria while dreaming of a technologic singularity. India and China now dominate as economic leaders, and people have become over-reliant on the cold logic of artificial intelligence. Who can save the world from such self inflicted decay?
Here we find Sumeet, the cream of Indian education, and a top notch investment banker. But he’s unhappy with the good life laid before him, and soon meets Shinzou Friemann, a mysterious consultant who offers solace from the fetters of unbridled Capitalism. But Shinzou is not all that he seems, and Sumeet is unwittingly drawn into the hunt for an unusual terrorist group. One where the lines between terrorist, freedom fighter, hero, and madman all break down… welcome to the Freedom Club.
Both men explore a future world overrun by consumerism, technology, and discontent. Where being human isn’t good enough, as God-like Sentient Beings threaten the very meaning of life. Written in a way that echoes John Brunner’s Stand on Zanzibar, Freedom Club is frighteningly prescient, and intensely powerful.
[Science Fiction / Cyberpunk / Dystopian Novel – Amazon]
OMEGA Exile (OMEGA #1) by Stephen Arseneault
For two thousand years, the Human run empire known as the Alliance of Major Planets (AMP) brought peace and stability to the five galaxies surrounding and including the Milky Way. Advances in technology, and a strong set of fair laws, had allowed a peaceful expansion of Human ideals. As the alliance aged, corruption crept in, allowing an overthow that placed a dozen ruling families in charge. Without clear leadership, the New Alliance began to decay, and without change, it will ultimately fail.
For Knog Beutcher, a three star veteran detective, living in the New Alliance is a struggle. He finds himself caught in the middle of the chaos as colonies rebel and populations riot. With the invasion of one of the galaxies by an external enemy, the alliance’s future becomes uncertain. Corruption, rebellion, intrigue and lawlessness have come to Knog’s world. His struggles have only just begun…
[Military Science Fiction Novel – First of Series – Amazon]
The New Wizards by Joe Sharp
Electro-magnetic fields have permeated our world, bombarding us from orbiting satellites, wriggling into our brains with micro-waves and radioactive cellphones, unseen and unavoidable. Everyday generations are born bathed in waves of radiation that, less than a century ago, did not even exist.
We were told the waves were harmless.
[Dark Science Fiction Novel – Amazon]
Free eBooks – Post-Apocalyptic and Dystopian
After The Ending (The Ending Series, #1) by Lindsey Fairleigh and Lindsey Pogue
The Virus spread. Billions died. The Ending began. We may have survived the apocalypse, but the Virus changed us.
When people started getting sick, “they” thought it was just the flu. My roommate, my boyfriend, my family…they’re all gone now. I got sick too. I should have died with them–with the rest of the world–but I didn’t. I thought witnessing the human population almost disappear off the face of the earth was the craziest thing I’d ever experience. I was so wrong. My name is Dani O’Connor, and I survived The Ending.
The Virus changed everything. The world I knew is gone, and life is backwards. We’ve all had to start over. I’ve been stripped of my home, my dreams…all that is me. I’m someone else now–broken and changed. Other survivors’ memories and emotions haunt me. They invade my mind until I can no longer separate them from my own. I won’t let them consume me. I can’t. My name is Zoe Cartwright, and I survived The Ending.
We’ve been inseparable for most of our lives, and now our friendship is all we have left. The aftermath of the Virus has stranded us on opposite sides of the United States. Trusting strangers, making sacrifices, killing–we’ll do anything to reach one another. Fear and pain may be unavoidable, but we’re strong…we’re survivors. But to continue surviving in this unfamiliar world plagued by Crazies and strange new abilities, we have to adapt. We have to evolve.
And more than anything, we have to find each other.
[Post-Apocalyptic Romance Novel – First of Series – Amazon]
Forecast by Chris Keith
When the bombs are dropped on Europe, Brad Sutcliffe and his crew of four are 132,000 feet above the continent carrying out weather experiments on board FABLE-1, the world’s largest helium balloon.
Stranded in the stratosphere with their oxygen running out and the world on fire beneath them, the crew makes the terrifying decision to abandon their balloon at the edge of space and return to what they can only speculate is the aftereffect of a nuclear exchange.
Having survived the bombs and the death-defying parachute jump, they now face the gravity of surviving the aftermath, eventually finding refuge in the White Room, where they face their biggest test – surviving each other.
From the moment they set foot back on land, they face the most gruelling, most challenging moment of their lives, when the terror and complexity of survival test the human spirit and the strength of individuals comes to the fore.
[Post-Apocalyptic Novel – Amazon]
The Last Man by Ryan King
Thank God for the dogs, thinks Sam, otherwise I’d go crazy.
It’s been over five years since a deadly plague swept the world and Sam is the only person left alive… at least as far as he knows. He roams a desolate land already rapidly reverting to nature with his canine companions. But there is still danger, and Sam may not be as alone as he thinks.
[Post-Apocalyptic Novella – Amazon]
Time and Again (The History Mystery Series #1) by Deborah Heal
Abby Thomas is spending the summer in a run-down old house with a bratty pre-teen named Merrideth she is supposed to tutor. Not a dream job. But it does come with perks.
There’s John Roberts, a devastatingly attractive neighbor who is almost too wonderful to be real.
And there’s the new computer program Beautiful Houses—also too amazing to be real. No one knows how it works, but with it she can rewind and fast-forward the lives of all the people who ever lived in the house, including Charlotte Miles.
In 1858, the house is a train stop on the Alton & Chicago Line. And Charlotte is stuck there serving meals to the passengers, wondering if she’ll ever get to have any fun. And then she meets two travelers who change her life forever.
[Time Travel Novel – First of Series – Amazon]
Free eBooks – Post-Apocalyptic and Dystopian – Young Adult
Warchild: Pawn (The Warchild #1) by Ernie Lindsey
The world ended long before Caroline Mathers was born, but that doesn’t mean life stops for the fourteen-year-old scout for the People’s Republic of Virginia. Abandoned by her parents, raised by her grandfather, she guards the forests surrounding their crumbling encampment, keeping a watchful eye on their devious and shadowy enemies from the north.
Drastic, terrifying change comes the day Caroline hears the sound that everyone dreads: distant drums echoing throughout their quiet valley, pounding to the beat of the war rhythm. With much-needed help from unlikely allies, Caroline leads her people in a breathtaking retreat, praying they’ll find salvation in their capitol city. Along the way, haunting dreams may reveal a look into her mystifying past.
[YA Dystopian Superhero Novel – First of Series – Amazon | B&N | Kobo]
Free eBooks – Fantasy
Happenstance by Cathy Wilson
Each survivor given a chance of eternal life or inevitable death! Which one will they choose?
[Fantasy Novelette – Amazon]
Yseult, Part I: Two Women by Ruth Nestvold
Yseult the Wise and Yseult the Fair, mother and daughter, are members of the proud race of the Feadh Ree, the Old Race in Eriu. New ways and a new religion are coming to their land, and despite all their magic, they may be powerless to stop it.
[Arthurian Fantasy Novella – First of Series – Amazon]
Free eBooks – Fantasy – Young Adult
Legacy Of The Golden Wielder (Void Wielder Trilogy) by Cesar Gonzalez
In planet of Va’siel, there exist beings who can control basic elements like fire, mind, void, and, water. Some even have power over advanced elements like poison, space, and lightning. These gifted people are known as element wielders.
But times are changing. For reasons unknown, no earth wielder has been born in over one hundred years. Without an earth wielder to keep balance, the planet has undergone a scorch. Food is scarce. Plants no longer grow in abundance. Humanity is headed toward extinction.
Young orphan, Aadi knows all this. He spends his days scouring the rowdy streets of Missea, doing his best to keep himself and his best friend alive. He takes each day one at a time, not giving the future much thought.
But an ancient evil is headed on a collision course with him. And a hidden power within his is urging to be set free. Aadi tries to ignore, but it relentlessly calls to him.
Will he be able to overcome his past and face the threat to Va’siel? And at what cost?
[YA Sword & Sorcery Novella – Prequel to Series – Amazon]
Free eBooks – Fantasy – Paranormal and Romance
Cat Walk Diaries, Book One – Goldie by Sofia O. Mansfield
The Cat Walk Agency hires models – only the most beautiful women are chosen. But there is another darker side-line business at this modeling agency. A few special women are hired for a short time by ‘men-of-means.’ The cost is high–it might be even higher for the women who are thus employed. Each of the women uses an alias. This is the story of Goldie.
It’s Goldie’s first date working for the Cat Walk Modeling agency. She’s very frightened, not knowing what to expect. Her client, Alex, is not at all what she anticipated. Is it love at first date?
[Contemporary Fantasy Romance Novelette – First of Series – Amazon]
Free eBooks – Horror
Sixtus by Tim Kizer
After becoming friends with a mysterious entity named Jeremy, Zack, a skinny fifteen-year-old nerd suffering from polydactyly, acquires a taste for killing.
First, he butchers his parents in their sleep. Then he cold-bloodedly rips out his schoolmate’s intestines. A few days later, Zack strangles a young woman before stealing her car. And that is just the beginning.
[Horror / Thriller Novelette – Amazon]
Free eBooks – Zombies
Voyage of the Dead – Book One Sovereign Spirit Saga by David Forsyth
Most survivors of the zombie apocalypse are aboard a ship that is well equipped to survive the end of civilization, while others struggle to survive in a world suddenly overrun by undead cannibals. This is an apocalyptic adventure set within a horror genre, full of blood, guts, violence and the human emotions that fuel our survival instincts. While some scenes include graphic violence, it is intended to be more exciting than disgusting and more about using your brains than eating them. Welcome Aboard and Bon Voyage!
[Zombie Novel – First of Series – Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Smashwords]