Free Science Fiction & Fantasy Books Online

Introduction

This is a listing of sites that legally offer free books, for reading and listening (audio), for Science Fiction-Fantasy works.

All of these sites listed have content that is legal for them to distribute and for you to read and/or download..  If you find that any site listed is offering content that can not be legally transferred, please let me know in the comments below.

This list is not comprehensive and if you know of any other sites please post in the comments below or at our forums. 

Most entries at those sites that offer only online listening can be downloaded with the Firefox addon DownloadHelper.

A comprehensive alphabetical listing of free books for reading or listening can be found on these pages:

• 446 Places For Free Books Online
• 91 Places for Free Audio Books Online

Libraries are also an excellent source for reading and listening materials for Science Fiction-Fantasy.  To find out more information on your local library, the links here may help:  Library Information

There are 16 other book  pages here at Gizmo's covering other various popular book genres and offering links to free online books listed here:  Book Genre Pages

Although not involving ebooks, Rizar's Things to Come pages here at Gizmo's has some great information that will interest any SciFi buff.

Science Fiction/Fantasy (Reading)

365Tomorrows a free science fiction short story per day for online viewing.  They have been online since August, 2005, so there is a large collection of works here.

AdamWasserman  offers his scifi work "Gyges the Terrible" for free download in ebook format.  Also other fiction works at his site.

Arthur's Classic Novels (Science Fiction) - Arthur's classics of science fiction collection (450+).  Additional science fiction works are available there on this page.

Baen Free Library - A small library of downloadable science fiction novels in a variety of formats.

BaenCD - A small collection of science fiction books from Baen's promotional CDs.  They are downloadable in a variety of formats as well as viewable online.

BarbaraMurray offers the free ebook, P.E.A.C.E. on Earth, " cross-platform, multi-media serialized ebook set 3 million years into the future."

BestScienceFictionStories offers links to a large collection of new and classic short stories for reading, listening and download.

Bibliotastic has 22 free science fiction novels available.  These may be read online for free and without registration.  Downloads are available in Kindle, ePub and PDF after free registration.  I have not registered yet, so I do not know about spam possibilities.  These are original works by independent authors and are generally not available eslewhere.

BookGlutton  has a very interesting collection of 269 free science fiction novels for online reading with the added  feature of  groups available for discussion of the readings.  Nice combination of reading and socializing.  Suggested by an anonymous poster.

BooksOnlinePage has 3 full fantasy and 1 full science fiction novel, all by Hugh Cook  available for free online reading.

BookViewCafe offers the first of the four book "Starfarers Quartet" for free download in several formats or for reading online.  Several other books have now been added.  Thanks to "Guy Haha" for this.

BookYards (SF Fantasy) 51 novels available in pdf download.

CheeseburgerBrown offers 41 of his short stories for free viewing online.  Some are also available for download in pdf or kindle.

ClarkesworldMagazine offers free science fiction short stories for online viewing and also some audio versions.  A winner of the 2010 Hugo award for best Semiprozine.  Thanks to Knight_of_Pentacles for this.

CougarWebWorks has several of the works of Nowick Gray available for free download in pdf.

CrapHound has a few works of Cory Doctrow available for free download.

DigiLibraries offers 1236 free novels in its Science Fiction category.  All are available for free reading online or download in ePUB and some are also available in PDF.  This is a mix of classic and original works.  Thanks to Jonathan Malka for this suggestion.

DominicGreen offers 4 of his science fiction novels for free reading online.

DuncanLongPublications offers several works for free online viewing.  Generally, a pdf download costs money, but some are ad supported and are free.

Earthbound The 5 book science fiction series of Earthbound available for download in lit .pdb .pdf .txt .rtf.

EastofTheWeb offers a good number of scifi short works for reading online.  Thanks to Panzer for this.

eBooksDirectory has 80 free science fiction novels available.  Download/viewing options vary as these are links off site.  Some of the links are dead, but the books can still be found through other links availalable.  Interesting mix off new and classic science fiction.

ElegantSolutions offers 30 free science fiction novels for download in LIT (Microsoft Reader).  Most are classic works (still there are some unique ones) and  there are a few recent works here that are not available elsewhere.

FabienRoy offers his his scifi-thriller novel, Buckyball, for free download in pdf.  "James Pissola tells the story of how one night of partying with his best friend in South Beach changed his life. Listening to a specific song always transports him back to the same time and place, which happens to be the Miamillennium nightclub in Miami. These flashback moments are called life-turns and James claims to have lived over one hundred and seventy-one of them, some lasting between 13 and 26 years."

Fahim Farook  offers his humorous science fiction novel, Honest, The Martian Ate your dog, for free download or online viewing.

Feedbooks (Science Fiction) - nice size collection of original works downloadable in a variety of formats.  Also has listing of 1132 classic public domain works.

FeedBooks also has a nice listing of 31 public domain novels on time travel, a subject I almost always find interesting. There are a few on the list that I was not aware of and I have read quite a few of such stories.   All are available for free download in EPUB.

FictionFactor offers links to 13 science fiction novels.  Some are from Baen and other listings here, but there are some unique entries.  Download/viewing options vary as these are off site links.

Fiction Press (Science Fiction)  (Fantasy) a large collection of writings by new unsigned authors.

FreeEbooksBlog has 54 free novels for download in varying formats as these link off site.  Several of the Dr. Who series books are available.  There are also time limited offers of free books recently released. 

Free ebooks.net (Science Fiction) 64 free books available for online reading or download in pdf or MobiPocket.  Looks to be a mix of classic and modern. Registration is required.  The Standard (free) membership allows 5 books per month.  The classics can be gotten elsewhere, but there are some unique entries here.

FreeNovels.net  offers the science fiction novel, Flores Girl, The Children God Forgot, for free download in a variety of formats.

FreeOnlineNovels has a large and interesting collection of links to free science fiction novels.  Many of these are unique entries.   Some are available for online viewing and others for download in pdf, with a few downloadable in other formats.

Free SF Online over 2,000 links to books for reading online. 

GetFreeEBooks  has a nice listing of free sci fi books available for download.  There are new offerings added regularly.

Globusz (Science Fiction) 10 books for online viewing or download

Google Book Search (Science Fiction) 455 free classic scifi books for online viewing or download as pdf

Gutenberg (Science Fiction) Large collection available for download in several formats.

Gutenberg (Fantasy) Large collection available for download in several formats.

HeritageAuctionGalleries offers two works of James L. Halperin, The First Immortal and The Truth Machine, for free download in MS Word.

H.P.Lovecraft Archive offers all of the works of H.P.Lovecraft for online viewing.  Also offers information about him and links to other Lovecraft sites.

JamesDunavant offers his book, The Keepers of  Forever, for download in HTML. or online viewing.  A download compatible with PalmPilot is also available.

JeffInlo offers his book, Alien Cradle, for download in a large variety of formats and for online reading.

Joggoon has 13 classic science fiction novels available for free reading online.

KalinBooks has 4 science fiction novels of Kalin Ringkvist available for online viewing or download in pdf (with a fifth on the way.

KnowledgeRush has 39 classic science fiction works available for download in test or html.

LewisShiner  offers four of his novels, a good selection of his short stories, two screenplays and two audio books for free download at his Fiction Liberation Front website.  Thanks to "awh" for this.

Listverse  has a interesting top ten list (though there are 11 entries) of the free sci fi books on the web.

LLeeLowe offers 2 novels and some short stories for free reading online and free download in PDF.  Other formats are available (and linked) at other sites.  Also available are audio versions of the novels for free download.

ManyBooks (Science Fiction) 687 books downloadable in a variety of formats.

MartiinKolacek offers his science fiction/comedy book for free download in PDF or for Kindle.  Also available offsite for free download in ePub or prc (Palm) and for free readinng online.  Originally available in Czech language and now in English.  Thanks to "Werst" for the information on this.

MemoWare (Science Fiction) 659 ebooks downloadable in a number of formats.

Munsey's offers 1366 free books in its Science Fiction category.  These are available for download in varying formats.

Munsey'sMobile has more than 1000 free books in its Science Fiction category.  These are all available for free viewing online and are also available for download in PDF, PRC and ePUB.  These appear to be different works than those available on the regular Munsey's site, above.

OnlyFreeFiction offers 60 science fiction novels for free download in pdf.  This collection contains works I have not seen elsewhere.

PalaceofAmino has the 9 book "Bounty Hunter" series available for online viewing.

ProjectGutenbergAustralia  has its science fiction project page which has links to a large number of science fiction and fantasy novels online.  Viewing and download options vary.  Worth checking out as there is a lot of material here.

PyrSF offers the first book, The Crooked Letter,  from Sean Williams' Books of the Cataclysm series for free download in pdf.

Rachel Starr Thomson  offers "World's Unseen", the first of her "The Seventh World" trilogy for free download in a variety of formats, as well as online viewing at Smashwords.

RalphRobertMoore offers his work, Father Figure, for free download in pdf.

RandomStatic offers Newton's Sleep, a novel published in 2008, for free download in pdf or html.

Rifters offers the novels and short stories of Peter Watts for download in pdf.  Thanks to Ash for this suggestion.

ScienceFictionandFantasy has a small listing of public domain works available for download in text or html.  Most can be found elsewhere, but there are a few unique entries.

SFWA The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America offers some short stories and novellas of its members for free reading online or download in PDF.

ShadowUnit is an ongoing "story about a group of unrealistically sexy FBI agents struggling to protect humanity from the worst monsters imaginable".  Episodes are viewable online (with optional music) and some parts are available for download.  Features a wiki and an opportunity to talk to the story's characters.

Smashwords has several hundred free books in its Science Fiction category.  These are available for free online reading or download in a wide variety of formats.  These are generally unpublished works and unique to this site.  The site does also offer books for purchase, but all the works in this list are available for free.

SolarDrift An ongoing science fiction novel by Martin A. Hale.  Episodes are available for online vieiwng.  He also offers a few of his short stories for online viewing.

StarRigger offers some of the works of Jeffrey A. Carver for download in a large variety of formats.  All the novels of his Chaos Chronicles series as well as a few others are available for download as well as his recent novel Sunborn, which is available for free download for a limited time.

Suvudu  offers the first book in some of their acclaimed series for free download.  Interesting entries.

TheSeaLiesAfterDeath by Aubra Penner, is being released in parts, on 6 as of now, and the full 10 sections will eventually be available for free reading online. 

Tor.com has a good number of Science Fiction & Fantasy stories available for download in pdf, mobi pocket, html or ePub.  Also available for listening or download as MP3.

VirtualImprint Offers the ebook Lise for download in several formats. Lise is a sci-fi novel written by D. M. Arnold.  Lise picks up where The Lost Colony (Volume V of the Earthbound Series) ends, with different characters and a new setting. Thanks to "Guy Haha" for this.

Von'sBookshas free online science fiction written from a Christian prospective.  Most of these are incomplete, but there are several complete novels available for free reading online.  Main link is to the Scifi section, but there is also a Fantasy section.

Wattpad offers several hundred free scifi short stories.

Web-Books offers 78 free classic science fiction works, inlcuding a good selection of the classic pulp, Astounding Stories".  These are all available to read free online or for download in WEB and WEB database.  Viewing the downloads requires their Web Viewer (free) which is clean as far as I can tell

WorldWideSchool  has a good number of classic science fiction works available for online viewing.  A good number of HG Wells, Edgar Rice Burroughs along with individual works of several other authors.

ZenVirus offers several novels of Hugh Cook for free reading online.  You need to scroll down to find the free full length novels.

Science Fiction/Fantasy (Audio)

AudioBooksForFree has 64 Science Fiction and 132 Fantasy audio books for download in MP3 format.  However the free download is only available for bearable quality (8kBps) and segmented MP3 files.  Some interesting entries here that are not found elsewhere.

AudioBookTreasury (Science Fiction) has only one work (In A Thousand Years-Hans Christian Andersen) available for free download in MP3 (or complete work in Zip) or for listening online.

BooksShouldBeFree has 29 Science Fiction and 26 Fantasy audio books for download in very good quality MP3 format.  Some of the fantasy works were not what I consider fantasy, but the science fiction collection has a few unusual and interesting looking entries.

ClarkesworldMagazine offers free science fiction short stories for online viewing and also some audio versions.  A winner of the 2010 Hugo award for best Semiprozine.  Thanks to Knight_of_Pentacles for this.

Earthbound AudioBooks has the five volume Earthbound series available for download in very good quality MP3 or for streaming.

EscapePod offers free weekly audio science fiction short stories in podcast and mp3.  Thanks to Jon Maloney for this suggestion.

Internet Archive has listings for several variations of "science fiction"  in their keyword search under audio books.  Most are in Sci Fi and Science Fiction.

JimKelly (InternetArchive) the internet archive offers a number of works by Science Fiction writer Jim Kelly, originally offered as podcasts, for online listening or download in MP3 or Ogg Vorbis.

LibriVox offers 106 Science Fiction works as well as 96 Fantasy works available for download in MP3 (64kb/128kb) or ogg vorbis.  All are human read.  This is a very nice collection.

Lit2Go offers only one Science Fiction work (Invisible Man), but has a good number of Fantasy works available for download in very good quality MP3.  They are also available for online reading. (You need to enter Science Fiction or Fantasy as search keywords).

LLeeLowe offers 2 novels and some short stories for free reading online and free download in PDF.  Other formats are available (and linked) at other sites.  Also available are audio versions of the novels for free download.

MariaLectrix is a site that is primarily known for its books catering to a Catholic readership.  However, their Science fiction audio book section is a very interesting collection of serial books, mostly from the 1930s magazine Astounding Stories of Super Science.  They also have a nice collection under the Fantasy category.

PodCastle the associated site of EscapePod, above, offers podcasts and MP3 of fantasy related works.   Thanks to Ron Hudson for this suggestion.

Podiobooks has a collection of audio books that were originally released as podcasts.  Interesting collection that has sub-sections of Alternative History, Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Magical Realism and Science Fiction.  These are available for download in very good quality MP3.

SciFiSerial offers a daily dose of science fiction audio, either a short story or a book chapter presented in serial form.  Thanks to MrWednesday7 for this suggestion.

StoriesNow offers a small but interesting collection of free Science Fiction audio books for download in MP3.

Tor.com has a good number of Science Fiction & Fantasy stories available for download in pdf, mobi pocket, html or ePub.  Also available for listening or download as MP3.