Plague Readings
Authors to the rescue!
Recently, a few authors decided to share their short stories with all of us to brighten the days and help with passing the time during quarantine days.
Here's the list of available readings, which will be updated as often as possible:
Adrian Tchaikovsky: Short Changes; available formats: PDF, Mobi, Epub
Paul Jessup: Surviving the Plague; formats: Epub, Mobi
Dave Hutchinson: Now Wash Your Hands; formats: Mobi, PDF
Tade Thompson: Household Gods and Other Narrative Ofences; formats: PDF, Mobi, Epub
Rachel Handley: Possible Words - Part 1
John Connolly: Sisters Strange; his web-exclusive novella from Charlie Parker series is available on his website
Neil Gaiman: collected short stories, essays, excerpts, and interviews are available on his website. For younger fans, his Mouse Circus offers online games and downloadable activities, as well as a special treat - videos of Neil reading the Graveyard Book
Mark Lawrence: The Visitor: Kill or Cure - short story available on TOR.com
Ben Jenkins: short stories and essays are available on his website
Stephen Hunt: first three books of the Sliding Void space opera series
Alexandra Wolfe: her collection of short speculative fictions As I Breathe is available to download for free for a limited time
Samuel West, English actor and theatre director, shares his poetry readings as suggested by his Twitter followers - you can listen to them on Sam's Soundcloud. He also shared to a YouTube link to his reading of The Day of the Triffids, which was unavailable for years.
Crime fiction publisher Fahrenheit Press pledges to offer free ebooks to those to anyone who can't afford to buy books for as long as the crisis lasts. They rotate rotate this free eBook offer to a new book every 24hrs.
The British Science-Fiction Association published a regularly updated collection of featured works donated by authors to keep us occupied.
In the graphic novels section, Melchester Rovers offer Scouted and Kick-Off, the first Roy of the Rovers’ fiction and graphic novel, free to download. They also cut the prices on all Season 1 titles by 25%.
2000 AD Comics: downloadable Kids Activity Pack, including colouring, word-search, draw-your-own-comic, and more. If you sign up to their Thrill-Mail newsletter, they will send you 480 pages of comics!
For younger book lovers, Audible Stories is a free service available in six languages for as long as schools are closed. No login required - just browse and listen. You can access it here.
Please remember - when you're availing of generosity of people who write for the living, consider leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads, and if you can - support the authors by purchasing ebooks or printed editions!