Free Ebooks

 

In the interest of treating you, dear readers, to some wonderful stories as a thank you, we're offering a series of free ebooks, at the interval of once every month or so, for the foreseeable future. From reprints of chapbooks to brand-new fiction from SubPress favorites and other authors, treat yourself to some fine reading, all available gratis.

SubPress ebooks are available in ePub format, without DRM.


We’re pleased to present a new tale by Tade Thompson, acclaimed author of The Wormwood Trilogy.

 

Cover illustration by Alison Sampson.

 

Robin Hearns has been kidnapped. Or murdered. Or kidnapped and murdered.

 

He isn’t sure.

 

What he does know is one moment he’s driving to work; the next, he’s in a pocket universe negotiating temperamental weather, robot guardians, and fireside chats with an improbable assassin. He isn’t hurt, and, barring liberty, all his needs are met. Is it the afterlife? Is he in a coma somewhere dreaming this?

 

Maybe he’ll stay. 

 

Or Maybe he’ll gather others like himself and try to escape…


We’re thrilled to present a new short story by acclaimed novelist and short story writer Kat Howard.

The cover art is by Galen Dara.

Ava is a sin eater. This responsibility requires her to consume the final sins of the dead so that those sins don’t cause the dead to return from their graves. Often this means she is burdened with secrets that she’d rather not know. Yet even a sin eater doesn’t know all the secrets of the dead, and sometimes those secrets rise up from the ground themselves.


Cover and interior illustrations by Brian Coldrick.

 

We’re thrilled to offer you a time creeper by Joe Hill this Halloween season. Enjoy A Sign of the Times.

 

Girl trouble got you down? Do bigger guys kick sand in your face? You don’t have to take it anymore! All you need to turn your life around is a positive mental attitude, an open mind... and an Elder Sign burned into your right hand.

 

The nastiest spells from the Necronomicon are all over the Internet and personal growth has never been easier. In this new era, rock hard abs, explosive earnings, and better, longer sex are all on offer; one need only learn a few arcane symbols and offer their soul to Father Dagon. 

 

Our kid Chester Swallow has had it up to here with his lousy job at the drive-thru and his rotten luck with the ladies. After watching a few how-to videos starring his favorite online influencer, he’s ready to take the plunge and sear an Elder Sign into his open palm. It’s a gutsy life choice and now things are going to change for Chester faster than you can say “Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn!!!”


In “The Small Hands of Chokedamp,” Josiah Bancroft gives us the first glimpse of the world of The Hexologists, his upcoming novel.

 

Isolde Wilby, captain of the newly minted Office of Ensorcelled Investigations, is on a merry chase when she happens upon an unlikely suspect: a potter smuggling a doll’s arm that radiates magic. Captain Wilby’s investigation is soon derailed by wealthy interests who underestimate her resolve. Finding herself far from help or the light of day, Isolde has little choice but to rely upon her wits, her hexes, and her bag of charmed relics to help her unravel the potter’s plot.


In this all-new tale, published here for the first time, World Fantasy Award winner K.J. Parker delivers his signature blend of action, humor, and unexpected but perfectly logical twists. Set in the tantalizingly detailed world of much of his other work, No Choice tells the story of a narrator from a landed and politically connected family with a history of losing scions in battle.

 

At first, it isn’t a stalled and seemingly doomed war that concerns the main character, but the fact that his father has been sentenced to death for a murder he most definitely did commit. Political maneuvering and family dynamics come in to play, but to no avail, so off to the wars the narrator sails.

 

There, he conceives a series of nested plans that may very well preserve the life of a man who deserves to die, win a war that nobody should be fighting, and maybe, just maybe, save his own skin in the bargain.


For centuries, the Scarlet Ziggurat, once the palace of a fabled Sorcerer Queen, has lain undisturbed beneath the dunes of the southern desert. Now Guyime, dispossessed king and wielder of the demon cursed Nameless Blade, has come to claim the ziggurat’s secrets. Guided by a mighty sorcerer, Guyime must defeat ancient and malign forces to claim his promised reward: release from the cursed sword on his back and the endless taunts of its demon inhabitant. But, in a world where magic equates to power, can any bargain be trusted?

The Scarlet Ziggurat is an exciting prequel adventure to the highly acclaimed Seven Swords series from New York Times bestselling author Anthony Ryan.