Space Probe Logo    RussellWeb logo - click to return to homepage


Here is a complete listing of my short fiction stories.

 Most of my work is available for you to download for free.

Space Probe is the on-line home of my speculative fiction writing. I was introduced to Science Fiction as a young teenager and have been hooked ever since.

My early reading was broad and diverse, spanning from the pulp adventures of Perry Rhodan, E E 'Doc' Smith's Lensmen series, tons of Robert Silverberg stories (I couldn't get enough of him), Isaac Asimov's 'Robot' stories and the classic 'Nightfall', some Ursula Le Guin, 1984 (of course), and on, and on, and on.

More recently the works that have really inspired me include Kim Stanley Robinson's "Mars" trilogy; Niven, Pournelle and Barnes' "The Legacy of Heorot"; Greg Bear's "Eon"; Solaris and (from outside the genre, selected for their fast pace and riveting action) Matthew Reilly's books.

I have been trying to write, on and off, for over 25 years. I had a drive for it in my teenage years that was not encouraged and fizzled out. I then wrote poetry sporadically and have just returned to writing science fiction.

My greatest frustration has been in trying to follow the traditional route of getting editors & publishers to accept my work. The long waiting times while work is considered, combined with often negligible feedback and unwillingness to accept simultaneous submissions has meant I've been spending extraordinary amounts of time trying to place my stories in places where other people can enjoy them. The recent contraction of the short story market has made that even harder.

Fundamentally I'm not out to make money from my short stories: I just want to share my creative thoughts with people like you, people who enjoy good fiction. That's why I'm making my work available for free on this website.

I hope you enjoy the stories and maybe sometimes you'd like to drop me some feedback - a small bit of encouragement can go a long way - thanks.

If you have any feedback on the site or my stories please feel free to drop me a line at:



Last updated: 25/04/2011
 Information on the Creative Commons "Attribution - Non-Commercial - NoDerivs 2.0 England and Wales" license can be found here

© 2009, 2010, 2011 Lee Russell

In The Web - 2011

NEW LISTING  Set in the Isle of Thanet in south-east England, this story collates some ideas that have been brewing in me over the past few years. Thanet is a very deprived area of the UK but its urgent need for help doesn't seem to penetrate far enough into civil society. The towns and villages are home to some lovely people but the decline of most forms of primary economic activity is slowly rotting the area from the core out. People in Thanet must wonder sometimes if the wider world cares about them - in this story one privileged man has to confront his prejudices about these people. How will that experience change him?

Here are some original concept drawings for this story:
Mertin sees tendrils from a bio-web portal spreading across a street.
Ashleigh passing over into the bio-web.

Published in Jupiter SF magazine issue 34.
SFcrowsnest.com - review of Jupiter SF issue 34: "A really good story set about 300 years in the future... Very well written!"
sfrevu.com - review of Jupiter SF issue 34: " This was an effective story about a bleak future that ended on a positive note and a very good read."

The Blessed Light - 2011

NEW LISTING  This is the final version of a story that I began in 2007. It takes a look at terrorism in the context of a vulnerable mining colony on Titan and ultimately requires a father to make a very hard choice: save his daughter or save one of the the moral foundations of the society he is responsible for...What will he choose to do?

Open story icon [Normal A4 format .pdf] Click on the picture to open the story.

Open story icon [ePUB format] Click on the picture to open the story.

© Lee Russell, 2011
Published under a Creative Commons "Attribution - Non-Commercial - NoDerivs 2.0 England and Wales" license

Bunker - 2011

NEW LISTING  I started tinkering with ideas for this story in 2006 and by 2008 had a reasonable draft. The story examines how small groups might survive in bunkers after a major war has decimated Earth, destroying nearly all plant life on the surface and leaving the planet very short of free oxygen for respiration. When your Bunker starts to fail, what would you do if you had the opportunity to escape and survive at the cost of selling out your companions?

Readers might feel that 'Bunker' plagiarises Phlip K Dick's "The Penultimate Truth" - it does not. I read that story after writing this one, but Dick's novel-length work is clearly a stronger piece. You might also worry that 'Bunker' is somewhat cliched - I guess that is for you to determine, although the social setting is based on real-life observation and I hope is quite fresh.

Open story icon [Normal A4 format .pdf] Click on the picture to open the story.

Open story icon [ePUB format] Click on the picture to open the story.

© Lee Russell, 2011
Published under a Creative Commons "Attribution - Non-Commercial - NoDerivs 2.0 England and Wales" license

See Jon Swim - 2011

NEW LISTING  I started this story in 2007 - it considers what life might be like for an isolated,manic-depressive, who is exposed to an alien organism that wants to communicate with him.

Open story icon [Normal A4 format .pdf] Click on the picture to open the story.

Open story icon [ePUB format] Click on the picture to open the story.

© Lee Russell, 2011
Published under a Creative Commons "Attribution - Non-Commercial - NoDerivs 2.0 England and Wales" license

Dining with Mr Reeves - 2011

NEW LISTING  In 2007 I got fascinated by the idea of how evolution might drive changes in Homo-Sapiens after a group colonised Mars. As they evolved would they remain human?

Some readers have said that this story doesn't offer anything new. To an extent that feedback is valid, particularly as the theme of preparing someone to live on Mars was explored in detail in Frederik Pohl's "Man Plus". I hadn't read that story before writing "Dining with Mr Reeves" but this story reflects my take on this theme - the final judgement sits with you, the reader. I hope you enjoy the tale

Open story icon [Normal A4 format .pdf] Click on the picture to open the story.

Open story icon [ePUB format] Click on the picture to open the story.

© Lee Russell, 2011
Published under a Creative Commons "Attribution - Non-Commercial - NoDerivs 2.0 England and Wales" license

Labouring for New UK - 2009

 A very direct comment on current UK politics that ponders on what might be in store if a hard-line fascist goverment hiding in left-wing clothes was allowed to consolidate power un-checked. Not particularly a genre tale but writing it freed my mind to start thinking more creatively about other things.

Open story icon [Normal A4 format .pdf] Click on the folder to open the story.

Open story icon [ePUB format] Click on the folder to open the story.

© Lee Russell, 2009
Published under a Creative Commons "Attribution - Non-Commercial - NoDerivs 2.0 England and Wales" license

Swimming in the FastWarm Current - 2009

 I love this story and feedback on it has been very positive. It considers an extremely radical solution for human survival after the planet is devastated by over-exploitation of its natural resources. After thousands of years spent inside other animals' bodies, will people remember how to be "human" again? I was completely surprised by the ending of this tale when it turns out to be a cliche-free tale of true love.

Published in Jupiter SF magazine issue 27.
sfrevu.com - review of Jupiter SF issue 27: "Russell is another first-time author and he shows quite a bit of talent here."
SFcrowsnest.com - review of Jupiter SF issue 27: "An engaging story, swimmingly good!"
SF Site.com - review of Jupiter SF issue 27: "...[the story is] rather nice, if again fairly conventional. The revealed history is enjoyable."
Jupiter SF #27 blog, 21/1/10: "... Lee Russells first story, a wonderful piece which shows he's got a great future ahead of him."

Moon Dive - 2007

 I had great fun writing this tale. I'd just finished reading Martin Farr's book on Cave Diving when I started to wonder what it would be like to take that sport out into the solar system. I was also fascinated at this time with an image of Saturn's moon Hyperion,showing a shadowy grey and strangely mottled surface.

Update - 25/04/11: The story has so far accrued 3 rejections with comments that it is interesting and somebody will probably want to publish it. Finding that "somebody" become too time-consuming so this story was merged with "Deep Trouble" in a major red-edit. The original "Moon Dive" story has been mothballed and will not be released here.

Skin - 2011

NEW LISTING  Written in 2006, this story is intended as a direct criticism of society's obsession with people's appearance, or what Ben Elton has called "style over content".

Open story icon [Normal A4 format] Click on the picture to open the story.

Open story icon [ePUB format] Click on the picture to open the story.

© Lee Russell, 2011
Published under a Creative Commons "Attribution - Non-Commercial - NoDerivs 2.0 England and Wales" license

Deep Trouble - 2006

 I love this story. It follows a group of social elite characters (Prime Minister, military chiefs etc) as they are forced to move into a submarine bunker after a new wave of climate-change induced glaciation engulfs Europe. With two rejections so far, this story is up for re-editing and another submission.

Update - 25/4/11: After several submissions and a major re-edit following its merger with "Moon Dive" this story has still not found a home. Trying to place the story has become too time-consuming, so I am releasing it on the website for free - I hope you enjoy it!

Open story icon [Normal A4 format] Click on the picture to open the story.

Open story icon [ePUB format] Click on the picture to open the story.

© Lee Russell, 2011
Published under a Creative Commons "Attribution - Non-Commercial - NoDerivs 2.0 England and Wales" license

Dream Walking - 2011

REVISED LISTING  From 2006 - In this story I consider what it might be like to commit murder through a networked computer game.

Open story icon [Normal A4 format] Click on the picture to open the story.

Open story icon [ePUB format] Click on the picture to open the story.

© Lee Russell, 2011
Published under a Creative Commons "Attribution - Non-Commercial - NoDerivs 2.0 England and Wales" license

Nowhere to Go - 2011

NEW LISTING  A pretty straight forward "coping with disaster" story from 2006. This is an early 2006 piece and by no means my best work. It mostly allowed me to start thinking about plot development and characterisation, as well as exorcising a few personal demons on the way.

Open story icon [Normal A4 format] Click on the picture to open the story.

Open story icon [ePUB format] Click on the picture to open the story.

© Lee Russell, 2011
Published under a Creative Commons "Attribution - Non-Commercial - NoDerivs 2.0 England and Wales" license

Bright Dawn - 2011

NEW LISTING  This is the first story I started working on in 2006. My writing skills were not very developed at this stage and it is a somewhat cliched tale of scientists spawning a parallel universe from a particle accelerator experiment. This was an important learning lesson for me on character and plot development, manuscript formatting and the mechanics of submitting to editors.

Open story icon [Normal A4 format] Click on the picture to open the story.

Open story icon [ePUB format] Click on the picture to open the story.

© Lee Russell, 2011
Published under a Creative Commons "Attribution - Non-Commercial - NoDerivs 2.0 England and Wales" license

© Lee Russell, 2006 - 2011