Creative Commons Science Fiction and Fantasy

[badducky]

Whilst perusing Kelly Link's brilliant short story anthology that she has graciously released under a creative commons license at the Small Beer Press website (http://www.lcrw.net/kellylink/sth/Kelly_Link_Stranger_Things.htm) a thought bubble formed somewhere between the ceiling and my brain:

We should make a kind of list of the stuff that authors have creative commons licensed, and made available on-line. I'm not talking about self-published crud, or BS like the things that wash ashore on my blog. I mean honest-to-goodness trad published books and texts that are now CC, and readable on-line.

Baen Books Free Library, many titles and authors
http://www.baen.com/library/defaultTitles.htm

Mayer Brenner
http://www.mayerbrenner.com/download/

Mike Brotherton
http://www.mikebrotherton.com/novels/index.html

Escape Pod
http://escapepod.org/

Rachel Caine
http://www.rachelcaine.com/free.html

Cory Doctorow
www.craphound.com

Neil Gaiman
http://browseinside.harpercollins.com/index.aspx?isbn13=9780060558123&WT.mc_id=author_AmerGods_FullAccess_022208 <--The Gaiman says that's the link for American Gods. I haven't gotten it to work. Let me know if anyone figures this one out.

http://harpercoln.vo.llnwd.net/o16/StudyInEmerald_full.mp3 <-- Not technically CC, but an awesome audio link that belongs >somewhere<
http://www.dccomics.com/media/excerpts/1696_1.pdf <--DC Comics giving away Issue #1 of Sandman! Is it CC? I DON'T CARE! It's free, and on-line.
http://www.neilgaiman.com/p/Cool%20Stuff/Short%20Stories <-- Short Stories.

John Kessel
http://lcrw.net/kessel/#Free

Kelly Link
http://www.lcrw.net/kellylink/sth/Kelly_Link_Stranger_Things.htm

Nick Mamatas
http://www.moveunderground.org/

Maureen McHugh
http://www.lcrw.net/mchugh/McHugh_Mothers.htm

Ben Rosenbaum
http://www.lcrw.net/rosenbaum/Rosenbaum_Ant_King.html

Brandon Sanderson
http://www.brandonsanderson.com/book/Warbreaker/page/20/WARBREAKER-The-Free-Fantasy-Book-Download

Lewis Shiner
http://www.lewisshiner.com/liberation/index.htm

Charles Stross
http://www.accelerando.org/

Jeff VanderMeer's Novella "The Situation"
http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/files/Situation-Wired-Final.pdf

Vernor Vinge
http://vrinimi.org/rainbowsend.html
(This one doesn't look to be CC-licensed, but that's okay. The spirit of the CC is present.)

Peter Watts
http://www.rifters.com/real/shorts.htm

And seriously, guys and dolls, I *know* I'm forgetting people. There's a name on the tip of my damn tongue...

Anywho, check it and add your links. For some unfathomable reason, Sci-Fi and Fantasy authors are up on the latest tech and cutting edge futurism. We should celebrate it with a list of worthies.

[Albedo]

Charles Stross has put the whole text of Accelerando (http://www.accelerando.org/) online under CCL.

[Smiling Ted]

Check out the Baen publishing website at http://www.baen.com/. They have free samples and a free library online.

[Shweta]

Will Shetterly has published some stuff CC, I think, but I'm not entirely sure what's available.

ETA: Awesome idea, Badducky :)

[badducky]

Shweta, I'm going to try to edit these things in alphabetical order in my OP, but I may space out and wander off.

Feel free, oh mighty mods, to adjust the list as new resources arrive.

[Bartholomew]

Aren't most of the Lovecraftian critters Creative Commons? Or Public Domain? Or am I just misinformed?

[badducky]

Google it, and provide a link. Please, don't just speculate. Do some research so we can all benefit from the awesome CC-licensed fiction.

[Smiling Ted]

Aren't most of the Lovecraftian critters Creative Commons? Or Public Domain? Or am I just misinformed?

The copyright status for Lovecraft's work is complicated, but not Creative Commons. (Check here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovecraft#Intellectual_property).)

You might be thinking of the fact that Lovecraft carried on a wide correspondence with other writers, and encouraged them to make use of his Cthulhu Mythos, including the fictitious Necronomicon. In essence, he was sort of a "shared worlds" pioneer, decades before WoW, Thieves' World, or fan fiction.

[Nyna]

Peter Watts has his books up online -- and he is very, very, awesome.

http://www.rifters.com/

I recommend 'Blindsight'!

[AnneMarble]

Here's a link to Vernor Vinge's Rainbows End (http://vrinimi.org/rainbowsend.html) in HTML format (from his official web site).

[badducky]

Updated.

[Smiling Ted]

WikiSource (http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Main_Page), as run by Wikipedia. Its fiction category has both fantasy and science fiction sections.

[badducky]

Added Rachel Caine's short stories on her website.

[badducky]

Updated to add podcasters Escape Pod, who release all of their podcasts under a CC license.

[badducky]

Hey, I spent so long looking for this thread, I forgot what I was going to update.

Sticky?

Yes/No?

[Pthom]

Sure. Any votes for existing stickies that should come down? PM me.

[Sharon Mock]

Nick Mamatas, (http://www.moveunderground.org/)Move Under Ground. (http://www.moveunderground.org/)

(I get no kickbacks from this post...)

[badducky]

Hey, if anyone can figure out how to get Neil Gaiman's "American Gods" giveaway link to work, let me know.

[Shweta]

I don't think this has anything badducky hasn't posted, and it's old, but this link (http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/5512) is interesting.

wrt. Will Shetterly, I keep finding references to Gospel of the Knife being CC licensed, but can no longer find it up online. Not sure what's up with that.

[badducky]

Updated to include John Kessel's Creative Commonsed Short Story Collection.

Now, I'm going to go read some of it. I expect great things.

[badducky]

Updated to add Lewis Shiner.