Short Stories
Free Books
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Home Again, Home AgainShort Stories by: Cory Doctorow
The customs officer isn't even human, so it feels like just another R&R, another halting conversation carried on in ugly trade-speak, another bewilderment of queues and luggage carousels. Outside: another spaceport, surrounded by the variegated h...
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The Helpful RobotsShort Stories by: Robert J. Shea
They had come to pass judgement on him. He had violated their law--willfully, ignorantly, and very deliberately.
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Gravity's AngelShort Stories by: Tom Maddox
Author's note: This story concerns a future in which Congress continued funding for the SSC, which of course did not happen in our timeline, where instead of gravity's angel we have a large, mostly empty tunnel beneath the Texas plains. I would also ...
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G.O.D.Short Stories by: Jay Lake
Gods died. Everyone understood that. János just didn't understand why it had to be his problem. They gave him ropes and tools and maps and told him to do the right thing. No one provided any details on how to choose a god...
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FryupdaleShort Stories by: Mark Staniforth
Porn stars and serial killers, Nazis and nymphomaniacs, hunchbacks and bare-knuckle boxers: just a few of the disparate cast of characters who call the remote moorland community of Fryupdale their home. These 18 short stories reveal the unflinching t...
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From Tabusintac to TokyoShort Stories by: Jeremiah Sutherland
True stories only slightly embellished. We must have gotten the ones who didn't want to teach. You've never seen a more bitter group of people outside of the post office. Dressed in their black habits with stiff white bits around their heads, they st...
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FiddlerShort Stories by: H. Courreges LeBlanc
"You might say so," I said, ignoring the look Harnie gave me. Nobody talked about her; I wondered how this fellow had even heard about her. "Ain't a fiddle, though. It's a cello, like in the symphony." The stranger shrugged. "Close enough." "She ai...
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Four EyesShort Stories by: Tobias Buckell
La Llorona looked down at the water by her waist. "And after she killed herself," she whispered, "she searched the edges of waters everywhere, hoping to find her two lost children." Her voice hardened. "Thank you for telling him this Jimiti. You are ...
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Dirty WorkShort Stories by: Lewis Shiner
An ex-football player investigates a rape case. The office smelled like money. Brand new carpet, somebody's expensive perfume still hanging in the air. The chairs in the waiting room are leather and the copy machine has a million attachments and the...
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Death Comes But TwiceShort Stories by: Mary Robinette Kowal
When Dr V came to see me some weeks ago, he brought with him the bottle of strychnine that now sits empty upon my desk. He was in high spirits, because his latest alchemical experiment had been a success, and brought the strychnine in order to demons...
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Dan TrexShort Stories by: Michael E. Shea
The merchants, nobles, and the slaves lucky enough to attend had waited outside Dan Trex's arena for days. They knew the value of entertainment in such a dark world. They wore cowls to protect themselves from the sun as they waited. Entire businesses...
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Clash of the SissiesShort Stories by: Graham Parke
"Barend and I met as kids. This was years before he became famous for inventing the easy-foldable map, and infamous for the large number of bodies he decided to bury in his back yard..."What do you do when an old friend becomes famous? Alex has some ...
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A Brief Guide To Other HistoriesShort Stories by: Paul McAuley
A short story that shares the same multiverse as Cowboy Angels and was first published in Postscripts #15.
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Blood, Sweat & TeaShort Stories by: Tom Reynolds
Real-life stories from the London Ambulance Service based on Tom Reynold's award-winning blog, Random Acts of Reality.
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AmbushShort Stories by: Ann Wilson
Should he simply eliminate DarLowrie, or would it be better to capture and question him? The second, Owajima decided almost immediately. That would be more difficult, but it might be a good idea to discover the agent reckless enough to teach such ski...
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AccelerandoShort Stories by: Charles Stross
The book is a collection of nine short stories telling the tale of three generations of a highly dysfunctional family before, during, and after a technological singularity. It was originally written as a series of novelettes and novellas, all pub...
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Cupid's mazeShort Stories by: Mark Souza
A short story - Sean has popped the question and dreads the drive across the bleak Kansas landscape on Valentine's Day to announce his intentions to his fiancee Janet's parents. When he sees a sign for a corn maze, he pulls in for a momentary repriev...
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Other Sides: 12 Webfiction TalesShort Stories by: Various Authors
The advent of digital publishing has seen the rise of a new breed of writers: independent, experimental and unfettered by convention. This brand new anthology features a small sampling of these very writers, in a speculative fiction collection that w...
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King Albert's Words of AdviceShort Stories by: Michael Allen
In this entertaining collection of short stories you will meet a host of engaging characters. There’s King Albert, who has a harem of 500 wives, and serious problems in keeping them all happy; then there’s a young lady whose Granny asks her to sleep ...