Acorns  Read mainstream story set in the U.S.A. Partly about acorns, but mostly not.

An Alien in Japan. Read about an alien. For the alien, Japan is a pretty alien place. There are all kinds of things which really defy comprehension. One of them being these strange creatures called dogs. Edible creatures ....

A Pilgrimage to Plaka Kalada  Read about a diffrerent planet. Ida Brahma is on a mission to the planet Plaka Kalada. She has two problems. One is that if her disguise is penetrated then she may end up dead. The other problem is Doctor Defrock.

Astral Talent  Read an Oolong Morblock story. An Oolong Morblock story. While Danzburg is in prison, his son Oswald (aged nine) is endangered by the exorcist Elmace. Elmace, who is a dangerous blunderer, summons Oswald's spirit from his sleeping body.

Bad Sex  Read about Milton. Terrence Azlenabek is one of the most difficult people to deal with. He believes in telling the truth, regardless of the consequences. And the truth regarding this guy John Milton? Well, the tabloid press is making a meal of it.

Basque  Read a time travel story. If the Basque language is to be studied in its ancient uncontaminated form, then the time travelers will have to get moving, fast. But are their observations innocent or genocidally destructive?

Consenting Adults  The rules of Business-Business are simple: keep your personal life out of it. But Burton wants to see Matilda again. He knows he might be putting his corporate career at stake. But, actually, it's rather more dangerous than that.

Consequences  Jervil makes an irretrivably error and ends up being cursed. He hopes he can get out of Asia alive. But the odds are against him.

Diving on the Wreck  Heineman does not have the temperament of a hero. Even so, he ends up diving on the wreck, struggling to save the lives of those not yet dead inside.

Gally Smith and the Massacre of the Orcs  Gally Smith faces the task of keeping alive the orclets in the face of the practitioners of genocide.

Gap Music  Read a story about recovered memory. Well, of course, everyone has to remember their previous lives. That's an acknowledged part of growing up. But for some people the process kicks in later than others. And the results can be a bit ... well ... you be the judge ....

Golf Course  Read a story about golf. Read a story about the afterlife. You've heard about Heaven and Hell. And Purgatory. And Limbo. But it's a bit more complicated than that. There is also Golf Course ....

Life and Death in Oolong Morblock  Read a story about life after death. Three months after committing the perfect murder, Mafling Yonrungon dies of a heart attack. However, although dead, he's not yet ready to call it quits.

Life on Planet Earth  Landing at Fort Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea, was the first totally inexplicable and utterly alien thing which the aliens did. After the invaders left, the people of planet Earth were left with something else which was extremely strange: each other.

Live on Channel 10  Everyone wants to be on TV, right? Horror story.

Mountaineering Complex  Just what is this contagious form of insanity known as "mountaineering"? Why has it been banned? And what can we expect to encounter if we bump up against an uncontrolled case of the disease?

Night on Bear Mountain   Read a science fiction story. Roy Pajelva faces a crisis in the virtual reality world of Bear Mountain when one of the teenagers under his care seems to be dying of hypothermia.

On the Wings of a Cockroach  Read a story about a poet. Jozanna Yu, poet, wakes up and finds she's been turned into a cockroach. Again. And she thinks she knows who's responsible. In fact, there's only one suspect - boyfriend Gregor Samsa. A story about being a poet and writing poetry - a story about creative writing.

Patriots  Even if you're a genuine patriot, and Jason is, that doesn't set you free from the need to play the game. And a pretty rough game it can be, too.

Quilting  Read a story about a terrorist - a story about terrorism. Some people aren't asked if they'd like to become the enemy. They're just born into a particular community, and that seals their fate. Even so, quilting would seem to be a harmless enough hobby. But it's surprising what can be turned into a lethal weapon, if you're imaginative enough.

Remembering Nagasaki   Read a story about nuclear war. Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it. But an individual act of recollection is no guarantee of safety in the face of a communal drive to destruction.

Swiss Toys  Read a story about robots. The question: can Switzerland's quest for world domination be halted? Or are the robots which have been unleashed by the Swiss just too much for the civilized world to handle?

Read a fantasy story. The Ghosting of Heineman Jubiladilia. That body is Heineman's. And if he can't get back into it, then he's dead.

The Kidney Bean Diet  Read a horror story. There's a certain amount of screaming coming from the neighbor's house. Does this mean the neighbor has a taste for violent videos? Or violent tastes?

The Secret History of Lord Dreldragon  Read a story set in the world of Drake Douay. The day before his arrest, Asquith North gets an anonymous letter. It is short and to the point. "What you call truth others call treason. Run if you value your life. You are only twenty-four years of age." But Asquith does not run.

The Suicide Bomber  Read a story about a suicide bomber. He doesn't think of himself as a suicide bomber. Or even as a terrorist. He genuinely believes that terrorism is not the answer. But, day by day, he has less and less to lose, and more and more reason to take action.

The Transfer of Patient Twenty-Seven  Mainstream story. (This kind of thing happens).

The Warden of Jestabel Zee - a fantasy story. In the face of a threat of violence ....

UFO Invasion - the Truth about Alien Abductions!!  Read a story about alien abductions. Each year, millions of Americans are abducted by aliens. But why? This lightly fictionalized account of a TRUE STORY supplies the answer.

Vorn the Gladiator  Read the story about Vorn the Gladiator. Vorn the Gladiator, fearing torture, flees the city of Chi'ash-lan, accompanied by Sharla the Swordswoman. Whom he can trust. He thinks.

Wet Leaves on the Track  The lump of icecream melting in the schoolyard is bigger than the house. The condom which has fallen on the neighboring town is larger than the town itself. But none of this drama brings to an end the mundane day-to-day tensions of the family.

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SF Novel

The Worshippers and the Way

Chapter One

        Singlefighter: aka Scala Nine singlefighter: a Nexus warmachine, a flying hunter-killer designed for deployment in a planetary atmosphere. It is powered by corrosion cells, in which small quantities of antimatter are destroyed by controlled contact with normative matter. The corrosion cells will power the machine for three days without recharge.

* * *

        So burning down from out of the sun
        The weapon struck -
        Hooked down from sundark sky -
        From sundark blindness burning -
        Brightness inexplicable in a shock
        Which sheered the dark to light,
        And by this revelation wreaked -

* * *

        - so burning down from out of the sun, burning down from out of the blind brightness, the singlefighter struck, and the hapless foe screamed in pain across the Openband, and wrecked went down in flaming agony. As the enemy fighter fell, Lupus Lon Oliver sent his own craft plunging down the gravity well. Down from the sky he came, his singlefighter hurtling down, low and lower, so low that the warning klaxons shrilled and screamed:
        "Pull up! Pull up!"
        Lupus pulled up, pulled out, pulled hard, wrenching his craft away from disaster in a wetness of sweat and orgasmic release, and screamed in triumph. In the throes of his battle-glory, he had a momentary vision of red-hot blood. The blood was seared across his vision-screens. The entire world was blood: blood made blind, blood made glory, triumph's glory, victory.
        "Ah," said Lupus, easing the singlefighter into a long slow barrel roll, feeling the sweetness easing to languorous content as the cosmos rolled about the axis of his craft, the briefness now completeness.

Read this complete science fiction novel on the web for free. (Note that it starts not at chapter one but with the prolog.)

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Fantasy Novel

The Witchlord and the Weaponmaster

A novel by Hugh Cook

Chapter Five

    Guardians: mercenaries who serve the Safrak Bank, which has long hired such warriors from Port Domax and Wen Endex - both places where Toxteth is the ruling language. As Guardians frequently settle in Safrak on retirement, Toxteth now dominates Safrak, and many geographers erroneously denote it as the sole language spoken in that archipelago.

* * *

        "Come here!" said Iva-Italis.
        The demon did not speak in the Toxteth of the Guardians of Safrak, nor the Galish with which Bankers habitually intercommunicated. Rather, it commanded Guest Gulkan in the Eparget of the horse tribes - just as Banker Sod had done when briefing Guest on his duties.
        "You!" said Iva-Italis. "Yes, you, hair-of-a-horse! Come here!"
        Guest hesitated. With the jade-green monolith revealed as a demon for real, the Weaponmaster found himself healthily afraid of the thing. The rock's proven demonhood gave substance to the breath-bating horror stories told about its temperament. Many a drunken Guardian had denounced it as a very vampire in its humors - a monster of deceit which would plead one close with pleasantries then snap away one's head to satisfy anthropophagous passions.
        Yet -
        Yet Safrak trusted the demon, for Icaria Scaria Iva-Italis was Guardian Prime of Safrak and Keeper of the Inner Sanctum, that most secret of all abditories. Did that say something of the falsity of rumor? Or did it, rather, say something rather unpleasant about the Bank itself?
        "I do not wish to repeat myself," said Iva-Italis. "Nor do I wish to have to raise my voice. Come here!"
        Guest Gulkan advanced, though - remembering tales of the demon's heat-biting displeasure - he did not venture too close. Though Guest thought himself momentarily innocent of any wrongdoing, he had learnt long ago that a child's subjectivity is no guide to the judgments of adults. And, truly, the trembling Weaponmaster felt a very child in the presence of the thunderous patriarchal authority of the Hall of Time.

Read this complete fantasy novel on the web for free.

(Note that it's pretty long, about 250,000 words - don't try to read it all at once.)

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