Free Books Online
Free books, stories, excerpts, and music online.
If you're under 18, there's something here your parents don't want
you to see.
So I'm asking you to leave. Now.
Building Semi-Literates - by Fred Reed.
"The promiscuous reading that once was common among intelligent
children provided an unordered but broad schooling that the schools
couldn't, and were not expected to. Much of it was of no lasting
value, as for example the literally dozens and dozens of Hardy Boys,
the old and new Tom Swifts, the Nancy Drews, the Plastic Man and Wonder
Woman and Classics Illustrated comics that we inhaled by sheaves in
drug stores. They taught speed and fluency."
A Colony Again - by Fred Reed.
“Only 41 percent of graduate students tested in 2003 could be classified
as ‘proficient’ in prose—reading and understanding information in short
texts—down 10 percentage points since 1992. Of college graduates,
only 31 percent were classified as proficient—compared with 40 percent
in 1992.”
What Americans Think About Schools
Children and Reading or Memories of Bizarro World and My First Real
Brush With Guilt - by John Ross
Baen on their free CDs: "The publisher figures you will start reading
many of the genuinely first-rate novels provided herein, and discover
that you really don't want to continue reading on a computer screen.
So what will you do? There are several million words here, so
it is pretty likely you will stop reading, and since the artwork is very
memorable and can be found on the cover of the accompanying novel, he
thinks it is likely that you will notice it the next time you see it in
a bookstore-and that you will Buy the Book!"
Disclaimer
Why Read?
Why Free?
Janis Ian
Security Engineering
Project Gutenberg
Other Book Archives Online
Athelstane.co.uk
Baen Free Online Library, CDs, and Excerpts
Scifi.com Classic and Original SF Archive
NightLands Webzine
David Drake
Terry Pratchett
Mercedes Lackey
Murray Leinster
H. Beam Piper
Neil Gaiman
Jerry Pournelle and S.M. Stirling
H.G. Wells
William Gibson
Alice Sheldon - aka James Tiptree, Jr.,
Racoona Sheldon
Charles Stross
Charles Darwin
Robert A. Heinlein
Russian SF
J.B.S. Haldane - and many Newbery Award Books.
Serial Novels
Sample Chapters of Books
Miscellaneous Stories
Stories I Haven't Read
Magazines on the Web
Audio Books - Separate webpage.
Gharlane of Eddore
Professor Steven Dutch
Politically Incorrect, Controversial, Hilarious
Comedy, Parody, Satire
SF Databases
SF Authors
Articles, etc.
The Internet Debacle - by Janis Ian
"Let's take it from my personal experience. My site
( www.janisian.com )
gets an average of 75,000 hits a year. Not bad for someone whose last
hit record was in 1975. When Napster was running full-tilt, we received
about 100 hits a month from people who'd downloaded Society's Child or
At Seventeen for free, then decided they wanted more information. Of
those 100 people (and these are only the ones who let us know how they'd
found the site), 15 bought CDs. Not huge sales, right? No record
company is interested in 180 extra sales a year. But… that translates
into $2700, which is a lot of money in my book. And that doesn't
include the ones who bought the CDs in stores, or who came to my shows."
Janis Ian also
gives away some of her music on her site.
Back to Section Index
Here's the blurb on the back of
Far Side of the Stars - by David Drake, published by Baen.
"Inside this book you will find a CD ROM that contains over 40
full-length novels, with no encryptions or other schemes to make you
feel dumb and incompetent. You can just click on a title and read it or
print it out. It gets worse: there are also pictures, short stories,
wargame paraphernalia, and other tasty items.
But be very wary. The publisher did not provide this out of the
goodness of his heart, if he has a heart. He figures you will
start reading many of the genuinely first-rate novels provided herein,
and discover that you really don't want to continue reading on a
computer screen.
So what will you do? There are several million words here, so
it is pretty likely you will stop reading, and since the artwork is very
memorable and can be found on the cover of the accompanying novel, he
thinks it is likely that you will notice it the next time you see it in
a bookstore-and that you will Buy the Book!
Worst of all, you many make copies of any of the novels (or anything
else) on the disk and share them with your friends! (But you may
not sell them.)
Could there be a more nefarious scheme for increasing profits?
Just remember: you have been warned."
Copyright - by Fred Reed.
Back to Section Index
Announcement that
Security Engineering is online for free download.
:>Date: Sat, 26 Aug 2006 09:36:46 +0100
:>From: Ross Anderson
:>Subject: Security Engineering
:>
:>After several years of argument, I've persuaded my publisher to let me put
:>my book "Security Engineering" online for free download:
:> http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/book.html
:>
:>My book draws on a lot of the experience shared in this list, and has become
:>a standard textbook in the field.
:>
:>The publishers thought for years that it was too risky to let authors put
:>books online but they are gradually learning that this isn't so. Putting a
:>book online often increases its sales; more people read it and those who
:>find it useful often go buy a copy.
:>
:>Enjoy! Ross Anderson, Cambridge University
:>------------------------------
The New C Standard: An Economic and Cultural Commentary - by Derek Jones.
"The book is an analysis of every single word in the ANSI C99 standard,
sentence by sentence (all 2022 sentences), with references to all the
committee discussions and decisions and history and ... etc etc." - Mark Atwood
Another free computer related book on line as a pdf file:
The Unix-Haters Handbook - Editors: Simson Garfinkel, Daniel Weise,
and Steven Strassmann. ISBN: 1-56884-203-1
FreeTechBooks.com - "Free computer science and engineering books (+
lecture notes)"
Back to Section Index
Free Sci-Fi Online
thethunderchild.com/Books/OutofCopyright.html -
List of free SF at Project Gutenberg.
"This database consists of science fiction books available from the
Project Gutenberg website. (Fantasy books are not included at
this time.) This list may not be comprehensive. Please email
us with any additions [and thanks to all who have done so!]
Non-English speaking countries are also encouraged to email us with
their public domain sci fi and fantasy offerings on the web." - Thanks
to Caroline, The Thunder Child.
More SF at Project Gutenberg:
Bad Medicine by
Robert Sheckley.
Project Gutenberg indexes
and search engine.
There's a lot more than SciFi at Project Gutenberg. See
here for a small sample of suggested
authors and works.
Project Gutenberg Australia - Contains many works by
Stanley G. Weinbaum. These works may still be under copyright
outside of Australia.
Includes "The Monster Mine" (by P.G. M.) (1845)--Text--HTML This is an
early Australian 'Science Fiction' story, which first appeared in The
South Australian Odd Fellows' Magazine, August, 1845.
www.freesfonline.de
- Free Speculative Fiction Online. "All stories are
available for free."
Complete F/SF Books and Stories online - Maintained by Jim Freund.
The Online Books Page - "Listing over 25,000 free books on the
Web." "The Online Books Page is a website that facilitates
access to books that are freely readable over the Internet. It also
aims to encourage the development of such online books, for the benefit
and edification of all."
New Online Books Page at the University of Pennsylvania.
The
Alex Catalogue of Electronic Texts is a collection of public
domain documents from American and English literature as well as Western
philosophy.
Electronic Text Center at
University of Virgina Library.
"With generous support from the Mellon Foundation, the Early American
Fiction (EAF) project consists of 886 volumes (230,016 pages) from 136
authors including Louisa May Alcott, William Wells Brown, Lydia Maria
Child, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Edgar Alan Poe, Susanna
Rowson, and Mark Twain."
Livius - Articles on Ancient History.
The Internet Medieval Sourcebook
As of October 20, 2006: "Listing over 25,000 free books on the Web."
Literature.org - "The Online Literature Library"
An Online Library of Literature
Read. Learn. Think.
Welcome to literature.org. This site is here to try to
bring real books to people through the Internet.
www.online-literature.com
- The Literature Network! "We offer searchable online literature
for the student, educator, or enthusiast. We currently have over
1200 full books and over 2000 short stories and poems by over 250
authors. Our quotations database has over 8500 quotes." - 2006-10-18.
Books-On-Line Home Page - As of 2006-10-23: "45204 mostly FREE
Books-On-Line A Directory of books that are posted on the net and
available for downloading at no charge along with new books being
published."
E.g:
The Man Who was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton. That's on the
Bartleby website,
which also has free books online.
Alexandria Digital Library - "The Alexandria Digital Library (ADL)
is a distributed digital library with collections of georeferenced
materials. ADL includes the operational library, with various nodes and
collections, and the research program through which digital library
architectures, gazetteer applications, educational applications, and
software components are modeled, prototyped, and evaluated."
www.readassist.org - "Links to sources of books, and shorter works,
published electronically, for reading on the computer screen, or
downloading to e-readers." Not all works or free or in easily
readable format.
Rosetta Books - Commercial site. Several Douglas Adams
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books available for purchase as
e-books.
TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home.
Web Book Publications - "Download is absolutely FREE. No
registration is required and no ads are included - but limited to 10
times a day. The downloadable version is in EXE or ZIP format
(collectively called web-books)."
Scifi at Web-Books
Back to Section Index
Athelstane E-Books - "The Athelstane website is a collection of
e-books, today numbering no less than 300." British out of
copyright books from the 1800s.
"This website is entirely funded from a meagre pension, and is an act
of philanthropy."
"We used to put the books out as a single xhtml file for each book,
but now because of the bandwidth used up by people who really only want
a momentary glimpse of the book, we keep these in a place on the
website that only approved users have access to."
What is the Athelstane website? - Much practical advice for
software to read e-text as an audiobook.
Back to Section Index
Baen Free Online SciFi
-
Click on the book's title to read online.
-
Select from the menu to download a zipped format of the book.
-
Any of the books can be ordered from the
Baen Website.
Baen Free SciFi CDs
-
Huge zipped files.
-
There's over 5 GB of files here.
Also available here.
The latter site can be navigated to read the books on each
CD.
-
Click on the CD name.
-
Then scroll down and click on "Launch the CD".
Free SF samples from Baen and Tor
-
A little difficult to navigate.
-
Lots of images to load.
-
You've got to guess which books have a free sample available.
-
Click on the book's image when in doubt.
-
If you like the book, you can order it.
Comments on the excerpts of "The World Turned Upside Down"
Preview Edition
of Jim Baen's Online SF magazine
Universe.
Back to Section Index
SciFi.com classic/original fiction - "In almost six years of
groundbreaking online publishing, SCI FICTION and its editor, Ellen
Datlow, had an unparalleled record of critical success, earning 10 major
awards, including three Hugo Awards, four Nebula Awards and a World
Fantasy Award."
Hugo award winners at scifi.com:
Allamagoosa by Eric Frank Russell, 1955 Hugo Winner for short story.
The Transcendent Tigers - by R.A. Lafferty.
"It's a cheerfully told horror story." -
Nancy Lebovitz on
rec.arts.sf.written
Some specific original SF:
Luciferase - by Bruce Sterling.
The Canadian Who Came Almost All the Way Home From the Stars - by
Jay Lake and Ruth Nestvold
Even more classic SF short stories and novellas at scifi.com:
-and He Built a Crooked House - by Robert A. Heinlein
Night Ride - by Charles Beaumont
The Animal Fair - by Robert Bloch
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream - by Harlan Ellison Won
the 1968 Hugo award for short story.
Something Bright - by Zenna Henderson
Nine Hundred Grandmothers - by R.A. Lafferty
Land of the Great Horses - by R. A. Lafferty
Narrow Valley - by R. A. Lafferty
Slow Tuesday Night - by R.A. Lafferty. Short story of a
high-speed future. Nominated for the 1965 Nebula Award.
R.A. Lafferty Devotional Page
The Market in Aliens - by Barry N. Malzberg
Dance of the Dead - by Richard Matheson
The Ship Who Sang - by Anne McCaffrey
Casey Agonistes - by Richard McKenna
The Detweiler Boy - by Tom Reamy
The Pope of the Chimps - by Robert Silverberg
Sundance - by Robert Silverberg
Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons - by Cordwainer Smith
The Other Celia - by Theodore Sturgeon
Love is the Plan the Plan is Death - by James Tiptree, Jr.
Baby, You Were Great - by Kate Wilhelm
More classic SF:
The World Turned UpsideDown - Free sample from Baen.
Just as good as the classics from
Scifi.com
Rescue Party - by Arthur C. Clarke
The Menace from Earth - by Robert A. Heinlein
Hunting Problem - by Robert Sheckley
Black Destroyer - by A.E. Van Vogt
A Pail of Air - by Fritz Leiber. "Every time I remember 'A
Pail of Air' I want to go out and grab strangers and tell them,
'Here, read this, it's wonderful!'" -
Lawrence Watt-Evans on
rec.arts.sf.written
BBC Doctor Who Ebooks - "Rare and acclaimed Doctor Who novels
available to read for free!" From the BBC website.
Who Killed Kennedy - by David Bishop. "David Bishop has granted
permission to the NZDWFC to present this novel in ebook form."
Back to Section Index
The
Night Land - by William Hope Hodgeson, along with
other
Nightlandish works.
-
I liked the other works as much as the original.
-
They pay for works in the Universe of the Night Land.
-
The site is difficult to navigate.
-
- not easy to find the stories and artwork.
-
Well worth the effort.
-
Also available in hardcopy.
Similar in Genre:
The Complete Text of the works of H.P. Lovecraft
H.P. Lovecraft in Spanish and English
- PDF files.
I Cthulhu - by Neil Gaiman.
The LiveJournal of Zachary Marsh
The Smoker from the Shadows - by Harry S. Robins. J.R. "Bob"
Dobbs in the Chthulhuniverse.
www.eldritchdark.com - The Works of Clark Ashton Smith
The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - with the complete works
of Edgar Allan Poe
The First Men
- by Howard Fast (1960)
Many more works by Howard Fast
Back to Section Index
Combining links from Baen books available for free online:
-
Seas of Venus - Contains two novellas: "Surface Action" and
"The Jungle." Both take place in universe of Henry Kuttner's
"Clash by Night."
- The "Lieutenant Leary" Series. (Naval warfare in space.)
- The "Raj Whitehall" series. Co-written with S.M. Stirling.
-
The Sea Hag - Fantasy Novel.
-
The Tank Lords - Short stories and the
eponymous novella in the Hammer's Slammers Universe.
Mercenaries in the future.
-
Under the Hammer - The first "Hammer's Slammers" story.
-
Night March
-
Code-Name Feirefitz
-
The Tank Lords
-
Appendix
-
Afterword: We Happy Few
-
Cross the Stars - The story of Odysseus set in the "Hammer's
Slammers" universe. Novel.
- The "Belisarius" Series. Co-written with Eric Flint.
-
Northworld - The first book of "Northworld" trilogy. A
retelling of the Norse myths in a science fiction setting.
Baen and Tor are also using this as the free sample for "Northworld
Trilogy", which presumably consists of all three books.
-
Old Nathan - A tribute to Manly Wade Wellman's "Silver John"
stories. Short stories.
-
Redliners - burnt out assault troops have to safeguard unwilling
colonists. Possibly my favorite work by Drake.
-
Paying the Piper
Free online Samples for "The Lord of the Isles" Series:
There are more free samples of David Drake's work available from
Baen's Author Catalogue.
Back to Section Index
Short Stories by Terry Pratchett
-
The Sea and Little Fishes
-
Theatre of Cruelty
-
Troll Bridge
-
Turntables of the Night
www.lspace.org - The L-Space Web, A
Terry Pratchett / Discworld Web Site.
Terry Pratchett's books are even better. Good starter books
might be
Guards! Guards!
and
Going Postal.
Why Gandalf Never Married - 1985 talk by Terry Pratchett.
Back to Section Index
Murry Leinster at Project Gutenberg
Direct links to what's currently (2006-10-08) at Gutenberg:
Operation: Outer Space
Operation Terror
The Runaway Skyscraper
Space Tug
This World Is Taboo
At the Baen Free Library
Currently at Baen:
Med Ship Man - Classic SF.
Planets of Adventure
Back to Section Index
At the Baen Free Library
Current listing
Fiddler Fair - Short Stories
-
How I Spent My Summer Vacation
-
Aliens Ate My Pickup Truck
-
Small Print
-
Last Rights
-
Dumb Feast
-
Dance Track
-
Jihad
-
Balance
-
Dragon's Teeth
-
The Cup and the Caldron
-
Once and Future
-
Fiddler Fair
-
The Enemy of My Enemy
The Lark and the Wren
Bedlam Boyz
Werehunter
Beyond World's End
The Shadow of the Lion
On the Baen Free CD:
05-ScepteredIsleCD
This Sceptered Isle - With Roberta Gellis
Beyond World's End - With Rosemary Edghill
Brain Ships - With Anne McCaffery and Margaret Bell.
There's a lot more on the CD, including:
Bull God - by Roberta Gellis
You can download the whole CD as a zip file from
http://files.plebian.net/baencd/. May be up to 640MB.
No size is given.
You can also read the CD from
files.plebian.net.
Back to Section Index
H. Beam Piper at Project Gutenberg
Currently (2006-10-10) at Gutenberg:
Omnilingual - A classic SF novella.
"Ever since I first read
Omnilingual, I have considered it the
archetypal modern science fiction story, the way contemporaries thought
of "The Cold Equations" as the ultimate exemplar of what SF is all
about. So many attitudes of Campbellian SF are capsulated in
"Omnilingual" . . ." - Bill Patterson on
rec.arts.sf.written.
Current Listing of H. Beam Piper at Gutenberg. (2006-10-08)
The Answer
Crossroads of Destiny
Day of the Moron
Dearest
The Edge of the Knife
Flight From Tomorrow
Four-Day Planet
Genesis
Graveyard of Dreams
He Walked Around the Horses
Hunter Patrol
The Keeper
Last Enemy
Little Fuzzy - Classic SF novel.
The Mercenaries
Murder in the Gunroom
Naudsonce
Null-ABC
Omnilingual
Operation R.S.V.P.
Police Operation
Rebel Raider
The Return
Temple Trouble
Time and Time Again
Time Crime
Uller Uprising
Back to Section Index
Short Stories by Neil Gaiman Including:
The Case of Four and Twenty Blackbirds
I Cthulhu - a long-lost story by Neil Gaiman or What’s A
Tentacle-Faced Thing Like Me Doing In A Sunken City Like This
(Latitude 47 ° 9’ S, Longitude 126 ° 43’ W)?
A funny and chilling story.
Where is
Latitude 47 ° 9’ S, Longitude 126 ° 43’ W? Click the link
and to see it from 8000 km
(5000 mi) altitude. That bit on the right is the southern tip of
South America. The stuff at the bottom is Antarctica.
Easter Island is at 27S and 109W, roughly 2500 km (1500 mi) to the north.
A Study in Emerald - by Neil Gaiman. (5.1MB PDF file.)
Snow, Glass, Apples Copyright (c) 1994 Neil Gaiman.
"This story is posted to The Dreaming by permission." Horror.
Back to Section Index
The Prince - by Jerry Pournelle and S.M. Stirling.
The Prince is over one thousand pages of Military SF goodness. Two of
the best realistic Military SF writers.
The Prince combines a lot of books and short stories:
His Truth Goes Marching On - Short story by Jerry Pournelle
Silent Leges - Novella by Jerry Pournelle
The Mercenary - A novel of Falkenberg's Legion. Novellas. by Jerry Pournelle
West of Honor - Another novel of Falkenberg's Legion. Novellas. by Jerry Pournelle
Prince of Sparta - Pournelle and S.M. Stirling
Go Tell the Spartans - Pournelle and S.M. Stirling
Prince of Mercenaries - Pournelle and S.M. Stirling
The Strategy of Technology - non-fiction by Stefan T. Possony, Ph.D;
Jerry E. Pournelle, Ph.D. and Col. Francis X. Kane, Ph.D. (USAF
Ret.). © 1997 Jerry E. Pournelle.
Chapter 1 - The Technological War
Chapter 2 - An Overview of the Recent History of the Technological
War
Chapter 3 - The Nature of Technological Process
Chapter 4 - Strategic Analysis
"In war, the morale is to the physical as three is to one." - Napoleon Bonaparte
"In Technological War, organization and leadership is to the morale as
six is to three." - Possony, Pournelle, and Kane
Chapter 5 - Surprise
"It never troubles the wolf how many the sheep be." - Virgil
Chapter 6 - Assured Survival
Chapter 7 - The Nuclear Technology Race
Chapter 8 - What Kind of War Is This?
Chapter 9 - The Prevention of War
Back to Section Index
H.G. Wells at Project Gutenberg
Currently at Gutenberg: (A few stories have been given direct links.)
Ann Veronica, a modern love story
Anticipations
Of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress upon Human life and Thought
Certain Personal Matters
The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories
The Door in the Wall and Other Stories
An Englishman Looks at the World
First and Last Things
The First Men in the Moon
Floor Games
Floor Games; a companion volume to "Little Wars"
The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth
God the Invisible King
The History of Mr. Polly
In the Days of the Comet
In the Fourth Year
Anticipations of a World Peace (1918)
The Invisible Man
The Island of Doctor Moreau
Little Wars; a game for boys from twelve years of age to one hundred and fifty and for that more intelligent sort of girl who likes boys' games and books.
Love and Mr. Lewisham
The Magnificient Research
Mankind in the Making
A Modern Utopia
Mr. Britling Sees It Through
The New Machiavelli
The Research Magnificent
Secret Places of the Heart
The Sleeper Awakes
A Revised Edition of When the Sleeper Wakes
Soul of a Bishop
The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents
The Time Machine
Tono Bungay
Twelve Stories and a Dream
Wall in the Door and Other Stories
War and the future: Italy, France and Britain at war
The War in the Air
The War of the Worlds
What is Coming?
The Wheels of Chance: a Bicycling Idyll
When the Sleeper Wakes
The World Set Free
Back to Section Index
The Secret Sci-Fi Life of Alice B. Sheldon - on National Public Radio
Scifi.com has a some of her works. I'm at least partly color-blind
in Sheldon's range, but give some comments anyway.
-
Painwise - As by James Tiptree, Jr. "When the Xenons put
electrodes to his testicles, he was vastly entertained by the pretty
lights."
-
Beam Us Home - As by James Tiptree, Jr. Sort-of trekkie story
from 1969.
-
The Women Men Don't See As by James Tiptree, Jr. Goes along
for a while, and then it stops.
-
Love is the Plan the Plan is Death - As by James Tiptree, Jr.
If you want aliens with no humans anywhere, this is the story for you.
(How inhuman the aliens' thought processes are may be a matter of opinion).
-
The Screwfly Solution - Credited to Racoona Sheldon.
World-wide epidemic of strange behavior. Horror and
sadness. Still scifi.
Similar(?) works on scifi.com:
-
What I Didn't See - by Karen Joy Fowler, 2003 Nebula Award Winner.
-
Gather Blue Roses - by Pamela Sargent. (I actually remembered
this as being by Alice Sheldon).
-
This Tragic Glass - by Elizabeth Bear
-
Anyway - by M. Rickert
-
When It Changed - by Joanna Russ
-
The Funeral - by Kate Wilhelm
-
Consider Her Ways - by John Wyndham.
-
When I was Miss Dow - by Sonya Dorman
-
Un Bel Di - by Chelsea Quinn Yarbo
-
It Walks in Beauty - by Chan Davis. Dorothy J Heydt
places this story in context in rec.arts.sf.written.
"But now I have read the story. My, my. This was written by a
man? in 1958??? One of the more insightful, and forward-looking,
pieces of SF I've seen. (Who was this Chad guy, of whom I never
heard before?)
"But yeah, the attitude that to be a woman, a woman must be
totally sexually come-on all the time, and if she wants to read a
book, or work at an interesting job, or NOT be slavered over by
anonymous males, she must be not-really-a-woman-at-all who either
just can't compete, or has no sex drive."
rec.arts.sf.written.
Self-Made Man - Norah Vincent. The Author Disguised Herself
as a Man for Research.
"Jan. 23, 2006— Norah Vincent, author of "Self-Made Man," left her job
as a nationally syndicated opinion columnist for the Los Angeles Times
to research this book. For 18 months, she dressed up as a man at work
and in social situations. She even went on dates with women. Vincent
said the experience left her with a greater appreciation and
understanding of men — their emotions, their expectations and their
relationships with women." The excerpt is excellent.
Back to Section Index
William Gibson's
Website - with Excerpts.
Halo - by Tom Maddox. From
project.cyberpunk.ru
From the author: You may read these files, copy them, and distribute
them in any way you wish so long as you do not change them in any way
or receive money for them.
I have entered HALO into the distribution networks of the Net, but I
retain the copyright to the novel.
If you paid for these files, you were cheated; if you sold them,
you have cheated.
Otherwise, have fun and spread the book around.
Tom Maddox November, 1994
Back to Section Index
Accelerando
- Complete book by Charles Stross.
A Colder War - Complete novelette by Charles Stross.
Jury Service - by Charles Stross and Cory Doctorow.
Slow Tuesday Night - by R.A. Lafferty. Short story of a
high-speed future from 1965.
Back to Section Index
-and He Built a Crooked House - by Robert A. Heinlein.
Courtesy of SciFi.com
The Menace from Earth - by Robert A. Heinlein. Courtesy of
Baen publishing.
Variable Star (excerpts) - by Spider Robinson, based on a novel
outline by Robert A. Heinlein.
Baen's Catalog of Robert A. Heinlein - At the moment (2006-11-15)
it includes samples of
-
Farnham's Freehold
-
Expanded Universe
-
The Notebooks of Lazarus Long
The Ballad of Roger Young - by Frank Loesser. Referenced in
"Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein. The page has links to
MP3, Windows, and RealAudio versions of a recording by the West Point
Glee Club.
"It's quite a bit better than other mp3s I've heard elsewhere." - David
M. Silver.
BookLoons Reviews - Red Planet by Robert A. Heinlein. That
site has a link to a excerpt available on Amazon.com. An Amazon.com
account is required to view the excerpt.
Red Planet-Blue Pencil - "In 1949 Robert Heinlein submitted a
juvenile called 'Red Planet' to Scribners. They published it only
after many cuts and changes in the plot and this is the version
referred to as the 1949 edition in this article."
Back to Section Index
darwin-online.org.uk
- Complete Works of Charles Darwin.
"This site currently contains more than 50,000 searchable text pages and
40,000 images of both publications and handwritten manuscripts. There is
also the most comprehensive Darwin bibliography ever published and the
largest manuscript catalogue ever assembled. More than 150 ancillary
texts are also included, ranging from secondary reference works to
contemporary reviews, obituaries, published descriptions of Darwin's
Beagle specimens and important related works for understanding Darwin's
context."
Just a few notable works:
Origin of the Species
Voyage of the Beagle (1839)
The Descent of Man (1871)
Coral Reefs (1842)
Variation
The Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle (1838-43)
Back to Section Index
Judith Berman's Home Page
The Window - "Runner-up for the 1999 Theodore Sturgeon Memorial
Award; Locus Top Ten Stories of 1999."
The Poison Well. Complete work, illustrated, courtesy of
Black Gate.
The Fear Gun - "Asimov’s, July 2004. Finalist, 2005 Theodore
Sturgeon Award; one of Locus's 'Best of the Best' short stories for
2004."
Bear Daughter - Excerpt. "Finalist, 2006 Crawford Award; 2005
Locus Recommended Reading List."
Science Fiction Without the Future - 2002 Pioneer Award for Best
Critical Essay. "[P]robably the most important piece of science
fiction criticism in the last ten years." -- Bruce Sterling
Back to Section Index
www.lib.ru - Russian Sci-Fi
www.lib.ru/TRANSLATION - Russian Sci-Fi in English Translation.
http://lib.aldebaran.ru> - More Russian Sci-Fi.
home.freeuk.net/russica2 - A little page of Russian resources.
-
Russian ABC [Alphabet]
-
Say that in Russian
-
Russian Books Translated 1, 2, and 3
-
Books&Articles on Russia
-
Russian Paraphernalia
-
Russian Childrens' Plays
-
Russian Links
Back to Section Index
"Gentle fantasy" describes Haldane's Mr. Leakey stories perfectly.
Aimed at children they nevertheless hit adults as well. (Or at
least one adult.)
My Friend Mr Leakey - by JBS Haldane.
The following is courtesy
vidyaonline.net.
"These books can be downloaded only if their use is for purposes of
private study, research, criticism or review and not for commercial
reproduction in any form - electronic or printed."
Please respect their wishes.
A Meal with a Magician - by JBS Haldane. Also includes "A Day
in the Life of a Magician", "Mr. Leakey's Party", "Rats", "The Snake
with the Golden Teeth", "My Magic Collar Stud".
Their site also has
-
"Call it Courage" by Armstrong Sperry, Newbery Medalist 1941.
-
"Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon" by Dhan Gopal Mukerji, Newbery
Medalist 1928.
-
"Julie of the Wolves" by Jean Craighead George, Newbery Medalist 1973.
-
"Missing May" by Cynthia Rylant, Newbery Medalist 1993.
-
"It's Like This, Cat" by Emily Neville, Newbery Medalist 1964
-
1984: Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary
-
1931: The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth
-
"The Whipping Boy" by Sid Fleischman, Newbery Medalist 1987
-
"Sarah, Plain and Tall" by Patricia MacLachlan, Newbery Medalist 1986.
"Find more such books at
http://www.arvindguptatoys.com"
Back to Section Index
Fledgling - a bold new Liaden Universe® project from Sharon Lee and
Steve Miller. The story of Theo Waitley and how she came to have
a "kind of complicated" problem to lay before the delm of Korval.
Hunt for the Dymalon Cygnet - a Serial Novel in the Scattered
Worlds universe by Don Sakers. Links to many other Serial Novels
being web-published.
The Big Meow - by Diane Duane.
The Vondish Ambassador - Serial Novel in the Ethshar series
by Lawrence Watt-Evans
The Note Beside the Body - Non-serial short story by Lawrence
Watt-Evans.
Back to Section Index
Self-Made Man - Norah Vincent. The Author Disguised Herself
as a Man for Research.
"Jan. 23, 2006— Norah Vincent, author of "Self-Made Man," left her job
as a nationally syndicated opinion columnist for the Los Angeles Times
to research this book. For 18 months, she dressed up as a man at work
and in social situations. She even went on dates with women. Vincent
said the experience left her with a greater appreciation and
understanding of men — their emotions, their expectations and their
relationships with women." The excerpt is excellent.
Free SF samples from Baen and Tor
The Engine of Recall - PDF sample of a novel by Karl Schroeder.
Outward Bound - Chapters 1, 5, 13, and 19 from a novel by James P.
Hogan. This is one of the "Jupiter Novels" published by
Tor. They are intended to carry on in the tone and style of
Robert A. Heinlein's books for young adults. There may be more
samples on Hogan's site.
In the Eye of Heaven - by David Keck. Sample chapter(s).
Samples of the Dray Prescott novels by Alan Burt Akers.
Free eBooks from Mushroom eBooks
The Reaver Road - Sample chapter of the novel by Dave Duncan.
Resonance - by Chris Dolley. Sample chapters 1-32.
"Graham Smith is a 33 year-old office messenger. To the outside world
he's an obsessive-compulsive mute - weird but harmless. But to Graham
Smith, it's the world that's weird. And far from harmless. He sees
things others can't… or won't. He knows that roads can change course,
people disappear, office blocks migrate across town. All at night when
no one's looking. The world's an unstable place, still growing,
sloughing off layers of reality like dead skin. One day you drive by,
and it's changed."
Hunt for the Dymalon Cygnet - a Serial Novel in the Scattered
Worlds universe by Don Sakers. Links to many other Serial Novels
being web-published.
Warbreaker - by Brandon Sanderson is a donation-free serial novel.
The Vondish Ambassador - Serial Novel in the Ethshar series
by Lawrence Watt-Evans. Author of 1988 Hugo winning short story:
"Why I Left Harry's All-Night Hamburgers."
The Note Beside the Body - Non-serial short story by Lawrence
Watt-Evans.
David Gerrold's Website
David Gerrold is the Hugo and Nebula award winning author of the
Classic Star Trek episode "The Trouble with Tribbles". His site
has sample chapters of at least one novel:
Blood and Fire
The Trouble with Tribbles - available for free download as a PDF
file.
David Gerrold won the 1995 Hugo and 1994 Nebula awards for Novelette
with "The Martian Child."
Back to Section Index
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas - by Ursula K. Le Guin.
Won the Hugo short story award in 1974.
He Walked Among Us - by Norman Spinrad.
"PIRATE THIS BOOK!"
"Most newsgroups and websites pirating novels are not in it for the
money since there isn't any. They see themselves as providing a
service to readers. The writers of the books see it as
theft. It seems to me this shareware viral distribution can
bridge the gap."
"So all you pirates out there are invited to pirate HE WALKED AMONG
US provided you post the complete file including the copyright and
shareware notice. I'll even send you the file upon request and
post its URL on your site here!" - Norman Spinrad
The Machine Stops - by E. M. Forster
Short works by Larry Niven
microMEGAS - by Voltaire. "A daring and heretical yarn when
published in 1752, "microMEGAS" is the original SF short story, and
still one of the best." - Blake Linton Wilfong
They're Made out of Meat - by Terry Bisson. "From OMNI, April
1991. This story, which was a 1991 Nebula nominee, has been appearing
around the internet lately without my name attached. Several people
were kind enough to alert me, but the truth is I'm more flattered than
offended."
Meihem in ce Klasrum - 1946 by Dolton Edwards.
"This is the famous simplified spelling story. Dolton Edwards
seems to have been a one-off author and one wonders if he weren't
Campbell himself." - Joseph T. Major
eFanzines.com - "science fiction fanzines on-line"
Who Killed Science Fiction? - by Earl Kemp.
Standing Room Only - by Karen Joy Fowler. First
published in Asimov's August 1997.
The Horrow On Howth Hill - by Robert Anton Wilson. All the fun
of the
Illuminatus! trilogy in one short story.
The Narcissus Plague - by Lisa Goldstein
Tune Out of Time - short story by Philip E. High.
Metropolitan (excerpt) - by Walter John Williams.
"Metropolitan was nominated for a Nebula Award for Best Novel."
I Remember Pallaxi - by Walter John Williams. Excerpt
available to read online. PDF file available for download.
More info
.
Variable Star (excerpts) - by Spider Robinson. Novel outline by Robert
A. Heinlein.
The Final Gift
- by Michael A. Stackpole. Read to the end.
Ghost Stories - public domain ghost stories posted
to alt.books.ghost-fiction, courtesy Otzchiim (at) America On Line
home.epix.net/~wallison/abgf_faq.html - alt.books.ghost-fiction FAQ.
Many links to publishers of ghost fiction.
Knock by Fredric Brown. What follows is the story in its entirety:
"The last man on earth sat in his room. There was a knock on the door...."
- This appeared in the december 1948 issue of THRILLING WONDER STORIES.
Pigs is Pigs - by Ellis Parker Butler. "A story about guinea pigs,
beaurocracy and multiplication. First published in the September
1905 issue of American Magazine."
Before and After the Black Death: Money, Prices, and Wages
in Fourteenth-Century England - by John Henry Alexander Munro.
IDEAS: Economics and Finance Research - "Welcome to the
largest bibliographic database dedicated to Economics and available
freely on the Internet. Over 425'000 items of research can be browsed or
searched, and over 325'000 can be downloaded in full text! This site is
part of a large volunteer effort to enhance the free dissemination of
research in Economics, RePEc. To see the popularity of these services,
browse the statistics at LogEc."
There Will Come Soft Rains - By Ray Bradbury
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by Google
- by Bruce Sterling
The Hacker Crackdown - by Bruce Sterling. "Literary Freeware:
Not for Commercial Use."
Gone with the Trash - by Patrick Lussier & Brad Rines.
"The Interstellar Detritus Reclamation Company is losing garbage scows
at an alarming rate." Free PDF download.
The World of Maelstrom and Starfish - by Peter Watts. An
immersive website. The following quotes are displayed on the
website.
"Like some adrenaline-charged fusion of Clarke's The Deep Range and
Gibson's Neuromancer ... a major addition to early 21st-century hard
SF." — Publisher's Weekly
"Utterly repellent ... horrific porn." —Kirkus
Starfish - by Peter Watts.
Maelstrom - by Peter Watts.
Blindsight - by Peter Watts.
Scientist-author Peter Watts, a Canadian, has released Blindsight under
a Creative Commons license.
How Beautiful With Banners - by James Blish. Reminiscent of
Starfish.
Airborn and Skybreaker - by Kenneth Oppel. Immersive
Website. "Set in an imaginary past where giant airships rule the
skies...." Excerpts.
* Governor General's Award for Children's Literature
* Michael L Printz Honor Book (American Library Association)
* Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Award
* Red Maple Award (Ontario Library Association)
Luthor’s Gift - by Elliot S! Maggin. (Alternate Title: An Enemy's Gift)
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
- by Charles Mackay.
The Meaning of the Word - by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. Offworld
archaeology. See Also
Omnilingual by H. Beam Piper and
High Weir by Samuel R. Delany.
Riddles in the Dark, The Lost Version - The Riddle Game as it
originally appeared in The Hobbit compared to the subsequent
revision.
None So Blind - by Joe Haldeman. "This story, which
won the Locus and Hugo Awards for "Best Short Story of 1995,"
first appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine."
Eye of Argon - by Jim Theis. Classic fanfic. So bad,
it's good.
Eye of Argon - HTML version - with notes, publication details,
and the long lost ending.
Atlanta Nights
- by Travis Tea. The perfect companion to "Eye of Argon.
The story behind the book is funny, surprising, and enlightening.
Egoboo for Algernon - fanfiction by Terry Carr.
If All Books Were Written Like SciFi Stories
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - by Edward Gibbon
Alice in Wonderland - An Interactive Adventure
So You Wanna Build A Rocket? - Atomic Rocketships of the Space
Patrol on Project Rho.
Main page has Robert A. Heinlein's "Green Hills of Earth."
"Your imagination has been captured by the roaring rockets from
Heinlein's SPACE CADET or the Polaris from TOM CORBETT, SPACE CADET."
Worth it just for the scans of sf book and magazine covers.
Good Bad Books - from 1945, by George Orwell. "A type of book
which we hardly seem to produce in these days, but which flowered with
great richness in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, is
what Chesterton called the “good bad book”: that is, the kind of book
that has no literary pretensions but which remains readable when more
serious productions have perished."
The Boy Mechanic: Volume 1 - by Popular Mechanics Co. at
Project Gutenberg. Book referenced on
The Ghost Relations Department - "a weekly blog with new, obscure
or just plain odd information about the Disney Haunted Mansions."
Diana Wynne Jones Autobiography
Excerpts from "STET! Damnit!" - by Florence King. 'It is a
collection of around ten years' worth of Florence King's "National
Review" columns. What brought it to mind is that she quotes
another writer (whose name escapes me) therein in support of her
own personal credo: "I pledge allegiance to the English language."'
- J.D. Baldwin
Jerry Pournelle - Lots of "Chaos Manor" columns available
Parody of "Chaos Manor" columns.
Short stories of old computer risks - mongrel.html - by Les Earnest
Wired Magazine - 100 six word SF stories by famous people.
Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses - by Mark Twain
The 3 Most Important Things in Life - by Harlan Ellison
Too Good to be True: 150 Years of Mary Sue - by Pat Pflieger.
"She's amazingly intelligent, outrageously beautiful, adored
by all around her...."
Mary Sue in Beowulf - "'Hwæt!,' said Beowulf, looking really cute."
A Mary-Sue tale of the Heterodyne Boys - "Warning: quite silly."
Nine Men and a Little Lady - "Parodies virtually ALL the worst
possible traits and cliches in bad "Lord of the Rings" Mary Sue fics."
-
Sea Wasp in
rec.arts.sf.written.
The Very Secret Diaries
of the Lord of the Rings. by
Cassandra Claire
fanfiction.net
A Dry, Quiet War - novelette by Tony Daniel.
Church of the SubGenius - It's not what you think.
"SubSITE is the Official Website of The Church of the
SubGenius™ and is Maintained by The SubGenius™ Foundation,
Inc. in the name of J.R. "Bob" Dobbs - High Epopt & Living Slack
Master. Unless otherwise noted, all content is the exclusive property
of the The SubGenius™ Foundation, Inc. and may not be reproduced
in any form without prior written consent."
Evensong - by Lester del Ray. Complete Classic tale offered
as a free sample from the anthology "Dangerous Visions" edited by
Harlan Ellison.
On Thud and Blunder - essay by Poul Anderson.
After Life - novella
by Simon Funk. Hard copy available from
Lulu at cost.
Agent to the Stars - An Online Novel by John Scalzi.
"...a remarkably intelligent first-contact yarn, this book is absurd,
funny, and satirically perceptive." -- Booklist, 5/15/05
Also has a free sample of
Old Man's War
also by John Scalzi.
Foresight War by Anthony G. Williams. Excerpt from Authors Online.
Community - short story by Karl Schroeder.
Karl Schroeder's Website - There are probably more free online
works there, but it's difficult to be sure.
Black Brillion - First chapter of the novel by Matt Hughes.
Also has links to the first chapters of Fools Errant,
Fool Me Twice, A Little Learning, and Majestrum.
Pilgrim's Progress - by John Bunyan (1628-1688).
The Pilgrim’s Progress "From This World to That Which is to Come;
Delivered under the Similitude of a Dream." First published in 1678.
Christian Classics Ethereal Library
Gulliver's Travels - by Jonathon Swift.
Typography.
The Sobering Saga of Myrtle the Manuscript - A Cautionary Tale
- by Tappan King.
Where have all the proofreaders gone? - by Robert McHenry.
The Scribe's Problem Child - by Robert McHenry.
"The reason for having an editorial process is to minimize the
number of mistakes that get published by having many persons look at
any given piece of copy beforehand. One of the consultants I had to
deal with opined we should aim for 99.95% accuracy in copy, using a
number he had picked up in some class on quality control in
manufacturing. He changed the subject after we pointed out that this
would translate to an average of 5 typographic errors per page."
BooksForABuck.com - "Your source for affordable electronic
fiction." "We offer novel-length fiction specializing in science
fiction, mystery, fantasy, and romance. All of our books are either
free or only $1. Check it out (free first chapters for all
books)." - Rob Preece.
TuxMobil: Free eBooks and
AudioBooks for Mobile Computers.
www.ebookmall.com. . Great selection of pricey ebooks in
restrictive formats: Mobipocket, Adobe pdf, Palm Reader, Microsoft
Reader, etc.
Back to Section Index
Helix online SF magazine -
donation supported.
FLURB - A Webzine of Astonishing Tales.
Singing the Dead to Sleep - by Richard Kadrey.
Black Gate: Adventures in Fantasy Literature. Excerpts.
Asimov's SF Magazine
Reflections: The Cleve Cartmill Affair: One - by Robert
Silverberg, on Asimov's online.
"The anecdote out of science fiction’s history that almost everyone
has heard of is the tale of how Cleve Cartmill, a competent writer of
middling abilities, published a story describing the workings of the
atomic bomb in a 1944 issue of John Campbell’s magazine Astounding
Science Fiction, fourteen months before the first successful atomic
explosion at the Alamogordo testing grounds, thus causing a Federal
security agency to investigate both Cartmill and Campbell to see if
there had been a leak of top-secret military information."
Legions in Time - by Michael Swanwick. Courtesy Asimov's
Science Fiction Magazine.
[If you liked A.E. van Vogt's "The Weapon Shop"]
Almost certainly you will like Michael Swanwick's affectionate --and
very, very good -- van Vogt homage, "Legions in Time":
"Time criminals of the Dawn Era!" his voice thundered from a hidden
speaker. "Listen and obey!"
Excellent story.
Happy reading--
Pete Tillman
Closer - by Greg Egan. on
eidolon.net: Australian SF Online.
There are other stories available in their
fiction archive.
Preview Edition
of Jim Baen's Online SF magazine
Universe.
Baen Books Free to Disabled Readers
Nicola Griffith Interview on
Strange Horizons a weekly speculative fiction magazine.
"Writing a balanced, beautiful novel, where plot and character and
setting and pacing and narrative structure and imagery and, above all,
story work in harmony and true proportion is f***ing hard." - Nicola
Griffith.
Also on Strange Horizons
The War of the Flowers - by Brenda Cooper
"View nearly every story Strange Horizons has ever published in our
Archive, thanks to the kindness of our authors who allow us to keep
their material online."
Allegory - Tri-Annual Online Magazine of SF, Fantasy &
Horror. (Formerly Peridot Books).
Preview Edition
of Jim Baen's Online SF magazine
Universe.
Ralan's Webstravaganza - List of horror and SF markets for stories(?).
Duotrope's Digest - "a database of current markets for short
fiction and poetry."
StoryPilot - Science Fiction and Fantasy Market Search Engine.
Back to Section Index
Flower of Goronwy - by Michael Coney
The Object - by Leon Schoenfeld. "Just Who is Leon Schoenfeld
And Why does He Think He Can Write Science Fiction? Retired now
after a lifetime career as an Engineer in the Aerospace business I find
I have time on my hands and a mind that will not retire. So, what
better outlet than to let my imagination roam and weave the ideas
floating in my head into story telling?"
www.infinityplus.co.uk - Sf, fantasy, horror fiction. Full stories and extracts.
Infinity Plus A to Z - Different index to www.infinityplus.co.uk.
"More than two million words of fiction"
John Findley - Illustrator. A
good illustration can be worth a thousand words. The cover images
and internal illustrations of Golden Age SF magazines told great
stories all by themselves. See also ProjectRho.com's
So You Wanna Build A Rocket?.
Cosmos Magazine
www.ethshar.com
Infinity Beach Excerpt - by Jack McDevitt.
Empire - excerpts from a novel by Orson Scott Card.
Rainbow - by Michael McKenny
Crystal Rain Excerpt - by Tobias S. Buckell
Stories by John Steakley
Spindle - by Ian Taylor. The excerpt could almost be from Red
Dwarf.
Back to Section Index
Attack Vector: Tactical - Board game of space combat
simulation. Not free.
"It [Attack Vector: Tactical] is certainly the best boardgame
simulation of actual space combat physics I know of. Beyond the
physics model, it includes some clever 3-D display components, and a
lot of creatively buried math. The end result keeps the mental
overhead down to a minimum, letting you focus on the tactical
situation. If you're interested in space combat, this is highly
recommended." -- Jerry Pournelle, Ph.D. Co-Author of The Mote
In God's Eye and The Strategy of Technology
Even more about that game and site from the author:
"There is a thumbnail discussion of several issues which define
military spaceships in the introduction of the game, which is available
for free:
AVT_Tutorial.pdf
Back to Section Index
"Gharlane of Eddore is dead - But who the hell was the Usenet hero?"
from The Register
"Gharlane of Eddore was named after a character created by sci-fi legend
EE Smith. He asked EE Smith for permission to use the name before
embarking on a Usenet career that saw hundreds touched (and enraged) by
his frequent postings.
"He was extremely witty with a wide-ranging and extensive knowledge -
particularly anything sci-fi. His absolute hatred of poor acting,
writing or flimsy attention to detail caused many a spat with other
users. His frequent grumpiness didn't help much either.
But most of those offended at his remarks soon made up with
the man."
The announcement of Gharlane's death on Usenet.
Gharlane's SF Taxonomy
Gharlane's Lensman FAQ. If that link doesn't work try
here.
Gharlane of Eddore Memorial Posting (2002)
VENUS ON THE HALF-SHELL - One of Gharlane's many classic Usenet posts.
It concerns the start of Philip Jose Farmer's literary career.
Gharlane's Usenet posts, via
Google.
Gharlane of Eddore's Usenet Posts
Back to Section Index