Free Reads

Free Reads

Apex Books has made the following novel excerpts and complete short stories from our collections and anthologies free to read.

Note: Some of these excerpts and stories are hosted at Apex Magazine, our genre short fiction zine.

Plague Birds by Jason Sanford — Chapter One

Pimp My Airship by Maurice Broaddus — Chapter One

"Face" by Veronica Brush from the anthology Do Not Go Quietly edited by Jason Sizemore & Lesley Conner

"To Write" (Poem) by Annie Neugebauer from the anthology Do Not Go Quietly edited by Jason Sizemore & Lesley Conner

"Not My Circus, Not My Monkey" from the collection Cry Your Way Home by Damien Angelica Walters

"The Lightning Bird" from the collection Everything That's Underneath by Kristi Demeester

"Greener Pastures" from the collection Greener Pastures by Michael Wehunt

The Wicked by James Newman — Chapter One

Severance by Chris Bucholz — Chapter One

"Super Duper Fly" by Maurice Broaddus from the anthology Upside Down: Inverted Tropes in Storytelling edited by Jaym Gates and Monica Valentinelli

"Six Things We Found During the Autopsy" by Kuzhali Manickavel from the anthology The Apex Book of World SF: Volume 4 edited by Cristina Jurado and Lavie Tidhar

King of the Bastards by Brian Keene & Steven Shrewsbury — Chapter Three

The Lost Level by Brian Keene — Chapter One

"Enemy States" by Karin Lowachee from the anthology War Stories: New Military Science Fiction edited by Andrew Liptak and Jaym Gates

"Courtship in the Country of Machine-Gods" by Benjanun Sriduangkaew from the anthology The Apex Book of World SF: Volume 3 edited by Lavie Tidhar

"Sister Twelve: Confessions of a Party Monster" by Christopher Barzak from the anthology Glitter & Mayhem edited by John Klima, Lynne M. Thomas, and Michael Damian Thomas

"Such & Such Said to So & So" by Maria Davhana-Headley from the anthology Glitter & Mayhem edited by John Klima, Lynne M. Thomas, and Michael Damian Thomas

"A Hollow Play" by Amal El-Mohtar from the anthology Glitter & Mayhem edited by John Klima, Lynne M. Thomas, and Michael Damian Thomas

"Alternate Girl's Expatriate Life" by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz from the anthology The Apex Book of World SF: Volume 2 edited by Lavie Tidhar

"Trees of Bone" by Daliso Chaponda from the anthology The Apex Book of World SF: Volume 2 edited by Lavie Tidhar

"Ghosts of New York" by Jennifer Pelland from the anthology Dark Faith edited by Maurice Broaddus and Jerry Gordon

"The Days of Flaming Motorcycles" by Catherynne M. Valente from the anthology Dark Faith edited by Maurice Broaddus and Jerry Gordon

"An Evening in the City Coffeehouse, With Lydia on My Mind" by Aleksander Žiljak from the anthology The Apex Book of World SF: Volume 1 edited by Lavie Tidhar

"I Remember the Future" by Michael A. Burstein from the out-of-print collection I Remember the Future: The Award-Nominated Stories of Michael A. Burstein.

"Paying it Forward" by Michael A. Burstein from the out-of-print collection I Remember the Future: The Award-Nominated Stories of Michael A. Burstein.

"TeleAbsence" by Michael A. Burstein from the out-of-print collection I Remember the Future: The Award-Nominated Stories of Michael A. Burstein.

"Kaddish for the Last Survivor" by Michael A. Burstein from the out-of-print collection I Remember the Future: The Award-Nominated Stories of Michael A. Burstein.