f13.net

I use F13 to make my work hours more bearable and to retain my sanity. On slow days here, I usually try to find sites that provide good free fiction stories (novels, novellas, novelettes, short stories, etc) and have quite a list of such sites. Just thought that others here might be interested in some of these sites and maybe others can provide more links to keep me busy.

1. Baen free library
My main source of fantasy and sci-fi based novels for many a boring day.
Works are available in a variety of format (HTML, pdf, prc, etc)
Well known writers including Eric Flint, David Drake and Mercedes Lackey.
Has plenty of stand alone novels and many series including some in full.

http://www.baen.com/library

2. Baen's promotional CD's archives
This is an online archive of all the free promotional CD's released by Baen.
The CD's contain many more novels and series (in full) than the free library mentioned above.
Please note that while these have been release for free, you are strongly encouraged to purchase them to show them your support for what they are doing.

http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com

3. Wikisource
This is a sister site of Wikepedia which houses a large selection of titles for which copyrights have expired. Of particular note would be the almost complete selection of novels/stories from Robert E. Howard (Conan and other stories) and H.P.Lovecraft (Chtulhu mythos)

http://en.wikisource.org

4. Project Gutenberg's SF bookshelf
This is selected collection of sci-fi works which are no longer under copyright. You will find some 'classic' works here.

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Science_Fiction_%28Bookshelf%29


This list is not complete in anyway, I need to add a lot more sites, but its a start.

CNN.com

He said SCIFI not "What did Obama do today?  Aww, isn't he cuuuute?" stories.  And CNN isn't free.  You pay for it with brain cells.

Hey, he asked for scifi and fantasy, don't shoot the messenger.

The Adventurers (http://www.peldor.com/)

He's on hiatus now, but I read him for years. Skip the first hundred or so in and see if you like the writing style; he switched it up a few times so you shouldn't judge them all based on the first stories.

http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/

Google Books? (http://books.google.com)

There might be a few people out there that don't know about it!

I always thought that was restricted to searching and displaying only a few pages. Does it provide the entire book?

For out of copyright stuff, yes.  Lots of classics can be fully viewed.  You can search for only books that are fully viewable as well.

You can always look in my sig.  :awesome_for_real:

Sign up for the new Tor website coming soon. They send a free ebook every week in the run-up to the site launching. As in, OLD MAN'S WAR, SPIN, and so on -- major publications. The latest was A SHADOW IN SUMMER by Daniel Abraham.

http://tor.com/

Also, many of the year's award nominees get posted for judges to read every year. Locus Online usually has links.

Lastly, the best SF/F zine on the net is Strange Horizons.

http://www.strangehorizons.com/

Ah yes, my capacity for being non-productive at work has multiplied greatly. Thank you o great masters. Now to go check out all those links.  :thumbs_up:

Thanks for that!  My brother in law has now had four stories published in very quick succession and I think he might be interested in that site if he doesn't already know about it. 

They have published Hugo and Nebula nominees, are a paying market and SFWA considers them a legit sale in terms of applying for membership. So they have the cred if he's serious about pursuing it.

Tor's binding has gone to shit. All publisher's bindings are going to shit. Conspirisaw!

Tor's bindings have been shit since at least 1992.  That's when I first started losing covers off books I bought.  Fuck, there was even a "what's up with these crappy TOR book bindings" section in the Robert Jordan FAQ.

Tor hardcover = larger and more absorbent pages with uneven edges, and a heftier weight. Oh, and don't forget improperly fitting dust-jackets.

Go to that Gutenberg site (I think that's where I got mine from) and get the Edgar Rice Burroughs Mars series.  I had a really good time reading that at work on my PDA, while pretending to work.  The first 3 books are lots of fun.

Necro!

Tor's free book giveaways are back. One or two a month. This month was Will Shetterly and Emma Bull, one book each, War For The Oaks for her, don't remember what it was for him. You have to register on the site and join the newsletter I think.