Free SF, Fantasy and Horror Fiction for 07/18/2015
I’ve almost emptied out my vast Free Fiction warehouse, which is good because I’m about to expand the mecha-chinchilla farm in my basement. I’ve included one of my novels, since Book Five of that series, After The Fires Went Out: Amends, comes out on Wednesday, July 22nd.
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What’s Special About Today’s Free Fiction?
- If you love clowns or long-term cave-living, something strange from a couple months back: Unlikely Story #11.5 – April 2015 – The Journal of Unlikely Coulrophobia
- Abyss & Apex #55 – 3rd Quarter 2015
- Electric Spec #10.2
- Galaxy’s Edge #15 – July 2015
- Mirror Dance Summer 2015
- Perihelion July 2015
Written
- Abyss & Apex #55 – 3rd Quarter 2015 [Speculative Fiction Magazine]
- “Degrees of Separation” by Ruth Nestvold
- Flash Fiction:“The Probable Tradesman” by Gareth D. Jones
- Flash Fiction:“The Specialist” by Andrew Kaye
- Flash Fiction:“Via Memories” by Jeremiah Reinmiller
- “Mustard World” by James Victor
- “Prayer” by Mike Buckley
- “The Onmyoji’s Wife” by Kate MacLeod
- @Aurora Wolf:
- “A Chilling Affair” by Nathan Elwood [Weird]
- “Daycare Isn’t Dull” by Kara Hartz [Science Fiction]
- “The Disease” by Harriet Darling [Fantasy]
- “The Wreck of the CSS Virginia” by Douglas Kolacki [Fantasy]
- @Chilling Tales for Dark Nights: “Be Careful What You Wish For” by Boris Stravinsky [Horror – also available as YouTube video]
- Electric Spec #10.2 [Speculative Fiction Magazine]
- “Ageless Rock Star” by Malcolm Laughton
- “Cruising in an Event” by George Schaade
- “Details” by Jessica Kelly
- “Mass Exodus” by KC Grifant
- “Sowing Peace” by Jim Breyfogle
- Galaxy’s Edge #15 – July 2015 [Science Fiction Magazine]
- “A Mild Case of Death” by David Gerrold
- “Do Not Fear to Touch Flesh” by Leena Likitalo
- Flash Fiction:“Escape Mechanism” by Josh Vogt
- “Form and Void” by Elizabeth Bear [from 2012]
- “Islands in the Sargasso (Sargasso Containment)” by Alex Shvartsman
- “Miss Darcy’s First Intergalactic Ballet Class” by Dantzel Cherry
- “Multiples” by Robert Silverberg [from 1983]
- “Saul’s Diary” by Lawrence Person
- “The Colossal Death Ray” by Ron Collins
- “The Eagle Has Landed” by Robert J. Sawyer [from 2005]
- “Tidal Effects” by Jack McDevitt [from 1985]
- Mirror Dance Summer 2015 [Fantasy Magazine]
- “The Dancing Bear” by Cordelia Harrison
- “For Those Who Deserve It” by Alexander Léger-Small
- “The Girl Turns West” by Darcie Little Badger
- “The King’s Quarry” by Chandler Groover
- “The Other Minotaur” by Catherine Brooke
- Perihelion July 2015 [Science Fiction Magazine]
- “An Island in Your Arms” by James Patrick Riser
- “Deus Ex Machina” by Erin Lale
- Flash Fiction:“Dreamboat” by Robin Wyatt Dunn
- “Food, Glorious Food” by Joey To
- “Froggers” by Siobhan Gallagher
- “It’s, Like, So Boring at the End of the World” by Amy Sisson
- “Ooze Love” by Andrew James Woodyard
- “Rim’s End” by John Walters
- “Running Tangent” by Dale Ivan Smith and K.C. Ball
- “Shepherding” by Dave Creek
- “Technicality” by Holly Schofield
- @Short-Story.me:
- “Happily Ever After” by Eva Christine McClenny [Horror]
- “How to Interview a Goddess” by Samantha Bowsher [Fantasy]
- Unlikely Story #11.5 – April 2015 – The Journal of Unlikely Coulrophobia [Clown-based Speculative Fiction]
- “A Million Tiny Ropes” by Virginia M. Mohlere
- “Break the Face in the Jar by the Door” by Carlie St. George
- “Everyone’s A Clown” by Caroline M. Yoachim
- “Five Things Every Successful Clown Must Do” by Derek Manuel
- “Perfect Mime” by Sara K. McNeilly
Written – Flash
- @365 tomorrows:
- “Mr. Clean” by Rick Tobin [Science Fiction Flash]
- “What We Remember” by Thomas Desrochers [Science Fiction Flash]
- @Daily Science Fiction:
- “The Alchemist’s Wife” by Melody Marie Sage [Science Fiction Flash]
- “The Petals” by Mari Ness [Fairy Tale Flash]
- @Every Day Fiction: “The Knight” by Ty Karnitz [Fantasy Flash]
- @Farther Stars Than These: “Bacterium” by Mark Antony Rossi [Science Fiction Flash]
- @Nature: “Outpatient” by Dan Stout [Science Fiction Flash]
- @Short-Story.me:
- “Beauty and the Bot” by Athul Krishna A [Science Fiction Flash]
- “Death Is Half The Rush” by L. Christopher Hennessy [Horror Flash]
Written – Serialized
- @Paizo: Crisis of Faith by Michael J. Martinez – Chapter One: Trouble Brewing [Shared World Fantasy Serialization]
Audio
Free eBooks – Science Fiction
Beyond the Event Horizon: Episode One by Albert Sartison
Everything simply follows the laws of objective reality
The Earth is visited by incomers from space, but why?
A plan on the grandest scale our Galaxy has ever known, as old as mankind itself, finally enters its concluding phase, taking it Beyond the Event Horizon.
After first contact, which had not ended as the Earthlings expected, all traces of the visitors were lost in space, seemingly forever. But soon after, scientists noticed a mysterious gravitational anomaly not far from the Solar System as it journeyed around the centre of the Milky Way. To find out more, and perhaps discover the aliens’ secret, a research expedition fitted out with state-of-the-art scientific and military equipment sets out…
[Science Fiction Serial – First Episode
– Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Smashwords]
The Solar Wind by Laura E. Collins
The Earth is dying. The Great Impact of 2079 has rendered the Earth uninhabitable. It is now hundreds of years later.
After the sudden death of her husband, all Ava Amherst wants is to begin a peaceful new life away from Earth on the space station Orionis. Or so she thought. After arrival she discovers life is much more difficult than she was led to believe by the Intergalactic Transport Organization. People are unfriendly, they keep to themselves, and food is much more expensive than she anticipated.
Practically starving, Ava nearly faints walking home from work. She is startled by a powerful electric shock radiating through her when handsome starship captain Wesley Robinson, and his crewmember Naomi, surprisingly come to her aid. The sensation is all but forgotten because of her yearning to make new friends. Her happiness initially blinds her to some subtle clues that they are more than simple humans…
[Science Fiction / Post-Apocalyptic Novel – Amazon]
We, the People of the Clouds by Simon Kewin
For Marlon Smith the afterlife is a beach. The computer-generated world his consciousness inhabits provides for his every need. But then flaws begin to appear in the fabric of reality around him. Flaws that shouldn’t be possible. Flaws only he can see.
He has to move quickly, before his actions are spotted and edited out. He starts to uncover the truth of how the afterlife functions. As he does so, he reveals unexpected secrets about his own past, too.
And he also finds out about those who are intent on destroying his whole reality…
[Hard Science Fiction Novelette – Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Smashwords]
Free eBooks – Post-Apocalyptic and Dystopian
Coyote (After The Fires Went Out #1) by Regan Wolfrom
First came the comet. Then came the fires. Now we fight to save what’s left.
Baptiste, stranded 500 miles from his wife and daughter, at the northern edge of civilization, has made a vow to protect a teenage girl from the chaos that surrounds them. But as food and fuel runs out, and even friends prove they can’t be trusted, Baptiste realizes that this promise won’t be easy to keep.
[Post-Apocalyptic Novel – First of Series – Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Smashwords]
Iced (Chronicles of White World #1) by M. Terry Green
Though she doesn’t know her real name, Thirteen is sure of two things: survival and finding her sister. Nothing stands in her way—not the great Pacifica Ice Sheet nor the slavers she escaped—until her deadly hunt takes a maddening turn.
The first and only clue in her search is held by the survivor of a wrecked ice ship. But he’s not sharing. He has a daughter to rescue, and he needs Thirteen’s help.
In the unforgiving subzero, a wary alliance is formed. Although she’d do anything to find her sister and finally know her own name, Thirteen never forgets the first rule of the ice. You only get one mistake—your last.
[Post-Apocalyptic / Dystopian Novel – First of Series – Amazon]
Free eBooks – Post-Apocalyptic and Dystopian – Young Adult
Clone Three (The Clone Chronicles #1) by Patti Larsen
She must risk everything. She must remember. She must survive.
Clone Three wakes in a decaying city she is sure doesn’t match the one she came from. If only she could remember. She has a purpose at least–she must find her fellow clones and the statue whose image is embedded in her mind. But she is lost, surrounded by a dead and crumbling metropolis, fought over by the survivors of an illness that has ravaged humankind.
She must risk everything, including the safety of those who try to help her, in order to fulfill her task.
But is she this crumbling world’s salvation… or the source of its downfall?
[YA Dystopian Novel – First of Series – Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Smashwords]
Free eBooks – Cyberpunk
Life is a Beautiful Thing: Book One by Harmon Cooper
2083. A pollute-addicted therapist named Meme battles his way through his mind and LA at the seat of his pants alongside a beautiful android escort with a surprising secret. With the Federal Corporate Government hunting him, will he make it to safety in time?
The hunt is on.
[Cyberpunk Novel – First of Series – Amazon | B&N | Kobo]
The Culling (Alien Apocalypse #1) by JC Andrijeski
“Humans who ran got culled…”
Jet is a 19-year-old skag, one of the humans still living free on Earth following an invasion of creatures called the Nirreth. Squatting in the ruins of Vancouver, Jet and her family eke out an existence underground, hiding from culler ships and fighting off raiding humans.
No one knows where the alien ships take the people they steal, but they never return. When a culler finds Jet, she may discover the truth the hard way…and end up living among the very creatures that stole her planet and wiped out most of her race.
[Cyperunk / Dystopian Novella – First of Series – Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Smashwords]
Free eBooks – Steampunk
Driftmetal by J.C. Staudt
In a shattered world of airships and windborne cities, Captain Muller Jakes’ crew betrays him when his plot to steal a fortune in gravstone goes awry. A lost city, a deadly sabotage, and a series of narrow escapes will force him to choose between his freedom and the lives of thousands.
[Steampunk / Cyberpunk Novella – Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Smashwords]
Free eBooks – Fantasy
And Then There Were Giants by Greg Dragon
Years of martial arts training never prepared nineteen-year-old Alysia Knight for the battle she has to face. War is raging in the streets of New Jersey, and surviving the apocalypse means staying clear of monsters preying on the citizens. But all this will be the least of her worries when her parents become targets.
Death is inevitable, unless Alysia can muster up the courage and hone her abilities to defeat all that stands in her way. If not, she may end up losing more than her parents.
[Urban Fantasy Novella/Serial – First Episode – Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Smashwords]
The Lie (The Skyy Huntington Series #1) by Holly Hudspeth
Twenty-eight year old Skyy Huntington recently inherited a house and a good sum of money from her deceased grandfather. Soon after she relocates to Marblehead, Massachusetts to move into the new house, her world gets turned upside down when she encounters a mysterious entity in the cemetery while visiting her grandfather’s grave.
Skyy’s reality as she knows it ends once she discovers that the supernatural world is real, something she’s always been interested in. She’s afraid to tell anyone, even her lifelong best friend Christian Vane.
As she tries to discover more about the entity, she learns about a family lie that’s been kept secret for centuries that all started within Countess Elizabeth Bathory’s castle walls…
[Urban Fantasy Novel – First of Series – Amazon]
Free eBooks – Fantasy – Young Adult
Bloodlust: A Gladiator’s Tale (Domains of the Chosen #1) by C.P.D. Harris
He strove for freedom. She fought for glory. Together, they are unstoppable.
In the Domains of the Chosen, magic is power.
Yet the price of power is always steep. Uncontrolled magic nearly destroyed civilization once, and now the people of the Domains will only allow a few score men and women to wield it unfettered. To join these Chosen, immortal sovereigns of unmatched power, one must give up freedom and win the support of the people in gladiatorial combat. Gavin, an idealistic young Gladiator, struggles with the brutal realities of the arena, wondering if he even has a chance at glory.
Meeting Sadira, a peerless Gladiatrix who has already caught the eye of the Chosen, changes everything. Bold, deadly, and exciting, she sees greatness in Gavin and joins her destiny to his. This unlikely pair forms the nexus of a team of Gladiators destined for greatness. Together they will shed their blood, challenge nightmarish monsters, and strive to survive the deadly trials of the Great Games. And yet, none of this can prepare them for the challenges that await them outside the fighting grounds, where the mighty seek to control who will become champions. If they are to survive and prosper, they must do so by writing their fortunes in the sand of the arena with blood, spell and steel!
But what price victory?
[YA Epic Fantasy Novel – First of Series – Amazon]
Bloodlust: Will to Power (Domains of the Chosen #2) by C.P.D. Harris
The elite Gladiators of the Domains, masters of spell and blade strive to earn a place in the tournament of a lifetime. The Grand Champion of the Great Games will win a place among the Chosen, the immortal rulers of a sprawling empire. Sadira Lacivia, the most celebrated Gladiatrix of her day, stands foremost among those who will be tested. But there are those who are jealous of her success, and seek to humble her. Gavin Orphanus, a defender with little hope of advancing his standing, joins the Free Leagues, hoping to win enough fame and status to gain a place with the woman he loves. Joining forces with old friends, he soon becomes embroiled in a personal quest for vengeance that will take him to the brutal, bloody heart of the Great Games where he must face his nemesis: Valaran diVolcanus, the most feared fighter in the Death-Leagues. The implications of their rivalry will shake the very foundations of the Great Games and the Domains of the Chosen.
[YA Epic Fantasy Novel – Second of Series – Amazon]
Cutlass (Cutlass #1) by Ashley Nixon
Notorious pirate Barren Reed has one thing on his mind: Revenge against the man who killed his father. So kidnapping his enemy’s fiancée seems a perfect plan… until he actually does it.
Larkin Lee is more than a pretty face and fiancée to a powerful man. Her fierce personality is enough to make any pirate want to push her overboard.
But when the King of the Orient comes to Barren with a task — to find the Bloodstone, a powerful gem thought only to exist in legend, Barren sees another opportunity to destroy his enemy. Together, Barren, Larkin and a crew of pirates set off to find the stone, only to discover it caused the death of Barren’s own mother and Larkin’s, too. As his strongest allies turn into his greatest enemies, and the life of the girl he kidnapped becomes more important than he ever dreamed, Barren’s quest for revenge becomes a fight to save the Orient.
[YA Fantasy Novel – First of Series – Amazon]
Free eBooks – Fantasy – Paranormal and Romance
The Coven (The Crystal Coast #1) by Chrissy Lessey
She who holds the amulet, holds the power…
[Paranormal Fantasy Novel – First of Series – Amazon]
Free eBooks – Zombies
The Demon Dead (Tres Zombies) by Arthur M Wyatt
The living succumb and die quickly, only to rise again. Those who survive the initial event are set upon by the walking dead and soon join their ranks. But, a small group of survivors remain and soon realize all zombies are not created equal. In their fight for survival they encounter thugs, blood thirsty corpses and demonic forces they don’t understand. Together they struggle to survive as the world around them disintegrates.
[Zombie Novel – Amazon]