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 [2].
Most entries at those sites that offer only online listening can be downloaded with the Firefox [3] addon DownloadHelper [4].
A comprehensive alphabetical listing of free books for reading or listening can be found on these pages:
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 [7]
There are 15 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 [8]
Although not involving ebooks, Rizar's Things to Come [9] pages here at Gizmo's has some great information that will interest any SciFi buff.
Science Fiction/Fantasy (Reading)
365Tomorrows [10]
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 [11] 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) [12] - Arthur's classics of science fiction collection (450+). Additional science fiction works are available there on this page [13].
Baen Free Library [14] - A small library of downloadable science fiction novels in a variety of formats.
BaenCD [15] - 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 [16]
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 [17] offers links to a large collection of new and classic short stories for reading, listening and download.
BookGlutton [18] 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 [19] has 3 full fantasy and 1 full science fiction novel, all by Hugh Cook available for free online reading.
BookViewCafe [20] offers the first of the four book "Starfarers Quartet" for free download in several formats or for reading online. Thanks to "Guy Haha" for this.
BookYards (SF Fantasy) [21] 51 novels available in pdf download.
CheeseburgerBrown [22]offers 41 of his short stories for free viewing online. Some are also available for download in pdf or kindle.
ClarkesworldMagazine [23]
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 [24] has several of the works of Nowick Gray available for free download in pdf.
CrapHound [25]has a few works of Cory Doctrow available for free download.
DominicGreen [26]offers 4 of his science fiction novels for free reading online.
DuncanLongPublications [27] offers several works for free online viewing. Generally, a pdf download costs money, but some are ad supported and are free.
Earthbound [28] The 5 book science fiction series of Earthbound available for download in lit .pdb .pdf .txt .rtf.
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EastofTheWeb [30] offers a good number of scifi short works for reading online. Thanks to Panzer for this.
eBooksDirectory [31] 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.
FabienRoy [32]
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 [33] offers his humorous science fiction novel, Honest, The Martian Ate your dog, for free download or online viewing.
Feedbooks (Science Fiction) [34] - nice size collection of original works downloadable in a variety of formats. Also has listing of 1132 classic public domain [35] works.
FeedBooks [36]
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 [37]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) [38] (Fantasy) [39] a large collection of writings by new unsigned authors.
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FreeEbooksBlog [41] 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) [42] 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 [43] offers the science fiction novel, Flores Girl, The Children God Forgot, for free download in a variety of formats.
FreeOnlineNovels [44] 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 [45] over 2,000 links to books for reading online.
GetFreeEBooks [46] has a nice listing of free sci fi books available for download. There are new offerings added regularly.
Globusz (Science Fiction) [47] 10 books for online viewing or download
Google Book Search (Science Fiction) [48] 455 free classic scifi books for online viewing or download as pdf
Gutenberg (Science Fiction) [49] Large collection available for download in several formats
Gutenberg (Fantasy) [50] Large collection available for download in several formats
HeritageAuctionGalleries [51]offers two works of James L. Halperin, The First Immortal and The Truth Machine, for free download in MS Word.
H.P.Lovecraft Archive [52] offers all of the works of H.P.Lovecraft for online viewing. Also offers information about him and links to other Lovecraft sites.
JamesDunavant [53] offers his book, The Keepers of Forever, for download in HTML. or online viewing. A download compatible with PalmPilot is also available.
JeffInlo [54] offers his book, Alien Cradle, for download in a large variety of formats and for online reading.
KalinBooks [55] has 4 science fiction novels of Kalin Ringkvist available for online viewing or download in pdf (with a fifth on the way.
KnowledgeRush [56] has 39 classic science fiction works available for download in test or html.
LewisShiner [57] 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 [58] has a interesting top ten list (though there are 11 entries) of the free sci fi books on the web.
ManyBooks (Science Fiction) [59] 687 books downloadable in a variety of formats
MemoWare (Science Fiction) [60] 659 ebooks downloadable in a number of formats
OnlyFreeFiction [61] offers 60 science fiction novels for free download in pdf. This collection contains works I have not seen elsewhere.
PalaceofAmino [62] has the 9 book "Bounty Hunter" series available for online viewing.
ProjectGutenbergAustralia [63] 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.
PulpScienceFiction [64]offers the book, Pulp Science Fiction, for free download in pdf.
PyrSF [65]offers the first book, The Crooked Letter, from Sean Williams' Books of the Cataclysm series for free download in pdf.
Rachel Starr Thomson [66] 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 [67].
RalphRobertMoore [68] offers his work, Father Figure, for free download in pdf.
RandomStatic [69] offers Newton's Sleep, a novel published in 2008, for free download in pdf or html.
Rifters [70] offers the novels and short stories of Peter Watts for download in pdf. Thanks to Ash for this suggestion.
ScienceFictionandFantasy [71] 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.
Scifimatter [72] has a nice listing of free sci fi books available on the internet. Some are already listed here, but there are quite a few unique entries.
SFWA [73]
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 [74] 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.
SolarDrift [75] An ongoing science fiction novel by Martin A. Hale. Episodes are available for online vieiwng. He also offers a few of his short stories [76] for online viewing.
StarRigger [77]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 [78] offers the first book in some of their acclaimed series for free download. Interesting entries.
Tor.com [79] 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 [80] 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.
Wattpad [81] offers several hundred free scifi short stories.
WorldWideSchool [82] 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.
Science Fiction/Fantasy (Audio)
AudioBooksForFree has 64 Science Fiction [83]and 132 Fantasy [84]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.
AudioBooks.net has 18 Science Fiction [85] and 7 Fantasy [86] audio books. You must register (free) to download. While many are available elsewhere, there are some there I did not see elsewhere.
AudioBookTreasury (Science Fiction) [87] 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 [88] and 26 Fantasy [89] 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 [23]
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 [90] has the five volume Earthbound series available for download in very good quality MP3 or for streaming.
EscapePod [91]
offers free weekly audio science fiction short stories in podcast and mp3. Thanks to Jon Maloney for this suggestion.
Internet Archive [92] has listings for several variations of "science fiction" in their keyword search under audio books. Most are in Sci Fi [93] and Science Fiction. [94]
JimKelly (InternetArchive) [95] 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 [96] works as well as 96 Fantasy [97]works available for download in MP3 (64kb/128kb) or ogg vorbis. All are human read. This is a very nice collection.
Lit2Go [98] 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).
MariaLectrix [99] 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 [100] category.
PodCastle [101]
the associated site of EscapePod, above, offers podcasts and MP3 of fantasy related works. Thanks to Ron Hudson for this suggestion.
Podiobooks [102] 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 [103]
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 [104] offers a small but interesting collection of free Science Fiction audio books for download in MP3.
Tor.com [79] 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.
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