Free Online Resources for Sci Fi and Fantasy Lovers

If there’s any group of readers who may be truly prepared to spend weeks sequestered alone by themselves or in small groups, it’s those of use who grew up on tales of interplanetary travel. There’s not a lot of extra room on spaceships, after all, and you can’t just run out to the movies or a coffee shop when you’re halfway through your burn to the mining colony on Ganymede. 

Unlike our fictional heroes, though, we have a few advantages. When it’s warm enough, we can open our windows, for one, but also we have access to a pretty good range of free Speculative Fiction stories that we can access instantly. 

The Libby App lets you use your library card to check out ebooks and audiobooks from your library’s digital collection. The app works for both IOS and Android and can be installed on most devices pretty easily. From there, you enter your information and can see what’s currently available to check out or put on hold. 

If you’re a fan of the classics, Project Gutenberg has been creating an archive of works that have passed into the public domain. While you won't find anything recent on there, a lot of the best Science Fiction and Fantasy novels really have held up to the test of time, and you might also enjoy the chance to see what folks a century ago got right (and wrong) about the far off days of the 21st Century. If you need some help narrowing it down, and lean towards the Sci-fi end of things, Popular Mechanics made this list of some of their favorites. 

Tor Books puts a lot of great Fantasy and Science Fiction short stories online for free, and also offers downloadable ebooks that are free for a limited time, including those from some of the most popular authors in the field. 

If you’re a Kindle user, or use the Kindle app on one of your devices, Amazon has a lot of free Science Fiction and Fantasy ebooks available, often from up-and-coming authors or the first book in a series, to give you a chance to try something new. 

If you want some fresh short works, check out Uncanny Magazine or Futurism, both of which put out new Fantasy, Science Fiction and science fact stories on a regular basis. Uncanny offers a well-reviewed Speculative Fiction podcase, as well, and Futurism features editorial staff from the short-lived revival of the famed OMNI Magazine. 

Of course, you don’t have to stick to just reading, Dust, on Youtube features original short Science Fiction films. If you’re more into the history and analysis of your favorite stories, check out PBS Digital Studios’ channel Storied. Storied comprises two series, “Monstrum,” hosted by professor of literature Emily Zarka, which explores legendary creatures from around the world, including their origins and social context, and “It’s Lit” hosted by Lindsay Ellis and Princess Weekes, which takes a look at all different genres of fiction. 

Educational Youtube Channels for Adults

At this point you may feel like you’ve reached the end of Netflix or may even be (gasp) tired of watching cat videos, and be thinking that you’d like to at least feel that you were using your time at home to learn a bit more about the world. 

Fortunately, there is a vast community of creators putting educational content up on Youtube for free. The ones below are just a few of my favorites, and tend to be of pretty high quality with good research and fact checking. Most of their videos are about 10-15 minutes long and are entertaining and informal in tone. 

Science and Nature: 

Animalogic: This Canadian channel is hosted by professional wildlife illustrator Danielle Dufault, and features a different creature every week. Some are cute, some are creepy, some a bit of both, but they’re all interesting. 

PBS Eons: Produced by PBS Digital Studios, this channel focuses on paleontology and prehistory, with a weekly deep-dive into different topics on prehistoric plants, animals and even weather 

Kurzgesagt - In a Nutshell: The title is from the German term for a quick summary of something complex, (hence “in a nutshell” in the English-language version), this channel presents brief but well-researched explorations of a wide range of science topics… with adorable animated birds. 

Kyle Hill: The long-haired former host of the “Mythbusters: The Search” show explores interesting physics, math and engineering questions, as well as the possible science behind your favorite superhero and and sci-fi shows, with occasional cheesy jokes. 

(note: up till recently, Hills content was hosted on a channel called Because Science, and his older content is still available there) 

It’s OK To Be Smart: Another excellent show from PBS Digital Studios, host Joe Hanson explores a different science-related topic every week. 

Smarter Every Day: One of the longest-running educational Youtube channels, since 2007 engineer Destin Sandin has been talking about the science behind everything from farming to rocket science. 

Arts and Culture

Films&Stuff: We all may have our favorite movie moments, but have you ever thought about how and why some scenes and some films work so well? Host Jonathan Burdett breaks down some of the nuts and bolts cinemetography used in our favorite blockbusters. 

Terrible Writing Advice: A humorous look at how to make a well-crafted story… be exploring exactly what NOT to do. Each video is an animated look at how typical storytelling tropes can be used and misused in a book or movie. 

Jesse The Reader: One of the most popular “Booktubers” (Youtubers who vlog (video blog) about books) Jesse talks about everything from his recent favorites to organizing your bookshelf. 

Lindsay Ellis: An often irreverent (with some adult language) take on books, movies and theater. Ellis tends to have longer video essays around 40-60 minutes and cover everything from the evolution of the “Phantom of the Opera” through books, plays and movies to a whole lecture series on film theory using the Michael Bay “Transformers” movies as a model. 

12tone: A look at how music theory applies to popular music as well as some more strange and abstract musical concepts. While 12tone does occasionally dives deep down some music theory rabbit holes, it’s mostly about breaking down things for the layman, and it features a lot of cute hand-drawn illustrations. 

Polyphonic: Video essays on popular music. Each episode takes a look at a popular song and talks about how it goes together, some history of the song and its place in pop culture at the time it was released, and the music’s impact. 

The Met: New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art has both virtual tours of its galleries and videos exploring certain collections, history and restoration. 

Curator’s Corner at the British Museum: The curators of the British Museum highlight some of their favorite parts of their collections, interesting facts and side projects. Highlights include using clever detective work to determine that a particular Viking was left handed, the evolution of Manga and figuring out the rules to a 3,000-year-old board game!

History, Social Studies and General Knowledge: 

Crash Course: This channel covers some of everything, from history to writing to film to biology. Good quality content and entertaining hosts make this a fun way to learn new things or to use a study aid for students. 

Today I Found Out: Strange historical events, the interesting origins of everyday words or things, and the occasional exploration of current developments. This Anglo-American channel, hosted by Simon Whistler, published a new video daily, ranging from five to twenty minutes in length, and often including some bonus trivia tangentially related to the main topic. 

CGP Grey: Wide-ranging and only sporadically published, Grey’s videos take close looks at geography, history, science, government and urban design, or whatever else catches the host’s interest at the time. Grey (an American living in London, who appears as a bespectacled stick figure in his videos) has a background in both physics and sociology, but also a great interest in political science and random trivia. 

These are just a few of the channels that I like, there are loads more out there, I’m sure you’ll find some of your own favorites over time!