Free and Bargain Scifi/Fantasy for December 2012

[NightBird]

Originally Posted by hwlester

Thanks. "Dragon Keeper with Bonus Material" is on my TBR from where I picked it up for free several years ago... I decided to add this one for only 99 cents (although Sony added tax to bring it to $1.04). I'd have bought it from Kobo if I could have used a coupon on it.

BTW, your BOB link is broken.

Thanks - I fixed the link, and now BOB has lowered the price to $.69.

[koland]

Originally Posted by NightBird

Thanks - I fixed the link, and now BOB has lowered the price to $.69.

Too tempting, and I have some credit there... too bad it's actually 2 cents more than everywhere else, after they penalize me for wanting one book. Oh, and you can't use your credits on it or the tax, just on the penalty.

so, they lose the sale entirely.

[hwlester]

Originally Posted by NightBird

Thanks - I fixed the link, and now BOB has lowered the price to $.69.

Of course they did now that I already bought it. Well, I have both books in the same place now: Sony. Plus Alf helped me archive my copy for perpetuity.

[NightBird]

Originally Posted by hwlester

Of course they did now that I already bought it.

That's always the way.

Free fantasy short story from Blasted Heath: Santa's Christmas Eve Blues by Douglas Lindsay. Amazon UK

In this wonderful bitesize slice of yuletide magic, the very future of Christmas is in doubt. It's Christmas Eve, but just at the moment when he should be putting on his red suit and checking his beard for snowy whiteness, Santa is sitting in his underwear, drinking hot chocolate and singing the blues. Fortunately, anyone who thinks that Christmas can no longer be left in the hands of little people in green outfits, is about to be proved wrong. With fabulous characters and madcap rhymes, SANTA'S CHRISTMAS EVE BLUES is set to become a seasonal favourite with young and old for generations to come.

SANTA'S CHRISTMAS EVE BLUES is a 5000-word short story.

[RickEllert]

Ran into a Sci-Fi book called Echo's Revenge that I bought for my son a while ago. It was a truly unique book connecting reality with video games and futuristic technology. It was all over the place but that's what makes the story even better. Madness. Anyways its free in the Kindle store right now if anyone is interested in downloading the book.

http://amzn.to/VcoM9S

[basschick]

a funny, sometimes witty, quick read. thanks

Originally Posted by NightBird

Free fantasy short story from Blasted Heath: Santa's Christmas Eve Blues by Douglas Lindsay. Amazon UK

[DrNefario]

Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere seems to be £1.99 in he UK Kindle store right now. I don't know why.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Neverwhere-ebook/dp/B005NAE04E/

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere seems to be £1.99 in he UK Kindle store right now. I don't know why.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Neverwhere-ebook/dp/B005NAE04E/

Thanks - now bought.

[NightBird]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

I don't know why.

[NightBird]

Originally Posted by basschick

a funny, sometimes witty, quick read. thanks

YW! I read it last night and thought it was pretty cute. He is one of my new favorite authors.

[caleb72]

Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence is at $1.99 US at the moment at Amazon, Kobo and B&N.

AMAZON (US)

KOBO (US)

B&N (US)

[ozron]

For those who aren't freebied out, more recent freebies from Baen Books...

Oath of Swords (War God) by David Weber free @ Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Oath-Swords-Wa.../dp/B00ARPJAN6

Whom the gods would recruit, they first tick off . . .

Our Hero: The unlikely Paladin, Bahzell Bahnakson of the Horse Stealer Hradani. He's no knight in shining armor. He's a hradani, a race known for their uncontrollable rages, bloodthirsty tendencies, and inability to maintain civilized conduct. None of the other Five Races of man like the hradani. Besides his ethnic burden, Bahzell has problems of his own to deal with: a violated hostage bond, a vengeful prince, a price on his head. He doesn't want to mess with anybody else's problems, let alone a god's. Let alone the War God's! So how does he end up a thousand leagues from home, neck-deep in political intrigue, assassins, demons, psionicists, evil sorcery, white sorcery, dark gods, good gods, bad poets, greedy landlords, and most of Bortalik Bay Well, it's all the War God's fault. . . .

Time Traders by Andre Norton free @ Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Time-Traders-ebook/dp/B00ARPEKG8

DRAFTED INTO THE ARMY OF TIME

Intelligence agents have uncovered something which seems beyond belief, but the evidence is incontrovertible: the USA's greatest adversary on the world stage is sending its agents back through time! And someone or something unknown to our history is presenting them with technologies—and weapons—far beyond our most advanced science. We have only one option: create time-transfer technology ourselves, find the opposition's ancient source . . . and take it down.

When small-time criminal Ross Murdock and Apache rancher Travis Fox stumble separately onto America's secret time travel project, Operation Retrograde, they are faced with a challenge greater than either could have imagined possible. Their mere presence means that they know too much to go free. But Murdock and Fox have a thirst for adventure, and Operation Retrograde offers that in spades.

Both men will become time agents, finding reserves of inner heroism they had never expected. Their journeys will take the battle to the enemy, from ancient Britain to prehistoric America, and finally to the farthest reaches of interstellar space. . . .

In the Heart of Darkness (Belisarius Saga) by Eric Flint & David Drake free @ Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Heart-Darkness.../dp/B00ARPJC70

The Malwa Empire has conquered 6th century India and is forging the subcontinent's vast population into an invincible weapon of tyranny. Belisarius, the finest general of his age, must save the world. Guided by visions from a future that may never be, he and a band of comrades penetrate the Malwa heartland, seeking the core of the enemy's power. And when Belisarius leads the forces of good, only a fool would side with evil.

On Basilisk Station (Honor Harrington) by David Weber free @ Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Basilisk-Stati.../dp/B00ARPJBS0

INTRODUCING HONOR HARRINGTON

Having made him look a fool, she's been exiled to Basilisk Station in disgrace and set up for ruin by a superior who hates her.

Her demoralized crew blames her for their ship's humiliating posting to an out-of-the-way picket station.

The aborigines of the system's only habitable planet are smoking homicide-inducing hallucinogens.

Parliament isn't sure it wants to keep the place; the major local industry is smuggling; the merchant cartels want her head; the star-conquering, so-called "Republic" of Haven is Up To Something; and Honor Harrington has a single, over-age light cruiser with an armament that doesn't work to police the entire star system.

But the people out to get her have made one mistake. They've made her mad.

The Sea Hag by David Drake free @ Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/The-Sea-Hag-ebook/dp/B00ARPEEEQ

FROM PALACE . . . Dennis flees the crystal walls of Emath when he learns the truth behind the city his father rules.

TO WILDERNESS . . . The jungle enfolds him, tests his sword arm with monsters and his courage with nightmares more terrible than any monster.

FROM LOVE . . . Sword and spirit can win Dennis a princess--

TO BLACKEST WIZARDRY . . . But he can overcome the final evil only at the risk of all he has become--and his soul besides.

Starliner by David Drake free @ Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Starliner-ebook/dp/B00ARPEAU4

The Empress of Earth

Finest passenger liner in the galaxy —

Brightest link in the chain that binds the starflung civilization of the 23rd century—

Six thousand lives in a single hull, trembling through multiple universes to land on raw, often violent worlds, each with its own history and wonder —

The Empress of Earth

Neutral pawn in an interstellar war!

When hostile necessity knows no law, Ran Colville and the rest of the complement of the Empress of Earth must bring home their ship and the passengers entrusted to them. From the Captain on his bridge to the Cold Crewmen who work in conditions that differ from Hell only by name, they'll have their work cut out for them this voyage!

[ozron]

and more Baen freebies... from ereaderiq.com...

The Philosophical Strangler (Joe's World) by Eric Flint free @ Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Philosophical-.../dp/B00ARPEGKI

PHILOSOPHY: THE HANDS ON APPROACH

Mighty Greyboar, the world's greatest professional strangler, is dissatisfied with his lot in life. The work is steady and the pay is good, but what, he wonders, is the point of it all

But when he learns that there is a Supreme Philosophy of Life*, Greyboar the Strangler is Born Again! Still, just how can a professional man in good standing pay the bills with all this philosophical exploration getting in the way

That's what his hard-headed agent and manager Ignace wants to know! And Ignace's skepticism turns quickly into outright horror when Greyboar's philosophical preoccupation leads to one disaster after another . . .

—simple choke jobs turn into ethical quandaries . . .

—a bizarre artist and a deadly arms-master turn up to complicate their life . . .

—as if their new girlfriends haven't complicated it enough!

Before you know it, Greyboar the strangler and his disgruntled manager find themselves embroiled with an abbess at odds with her deity, heretics on the run, dwarves needing to be rescued, and then—worst of all!

Greyboar's long-estranged sister Gwendolyn, political activist and revolutionary, comes back to town asking Greyboar's help in an insane mission to the underworld. It's purely a noble cause, one which no self-respecting assassin would touch for a moment. But in the pursuit of Enlightenment, anything can happen. . . .

*What You want the details Hint: Entropy. For more on the secret, buy this book!

Star Soldiers by Andre Norton free @ Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Star-Soldiers-ebook/dp/B00ARPJA7W

Andre Norton-Grand Mistress of science fiction-presents a grand tapestry of the far-flung interstellar future, in which the first starships from Earth have burst out into the universe . . . only to run straight into the restraining grasp of the stagnant alien federation known as Central Control.

Only as interstellar mercenaries can humans go to the stars; the aliens who already dominate the galaxy allow no other recourse. But when Swordsman Third Class Kana Karr and his comrades-in-arms are betrayed and abandoned on a hostile world by their alien masters, the warriors from Earth begin a desperate but glorious march across a planet whose every sword is against them. Their actions may doom humanity's future . . . or lead the way to an empire of their own!

Four thousand years later, galactic civilization is collapsing, and the underfunded crew of an exploration starship is forced to set down on an uncharted planet: a mysterious, abandoned world that is achingly beautiful-and hauntingly familiar. Ranger Sergeant Kartr, telepath and stellar Patrolman, searches with his crewmates for the source of a beacon which may mean escape for them all. What he finds is far stranger: the first clue to what may become the greatest revelation in galactic history!

The defining events of future historyas only Andre Norton could tell them!

The Creatures of Man by Howard L. Myers free @ Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/The-Creatures-.../dp/B00ARPJ8ZQ

NOT ONLY STRANGER THAN YOU IMAGINE, STRANGER THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE

In a distant future when humans no longer need spaceships, but hurtle between the stars faster than light, propelled and protected by implants in their bodies, the galaxy has been divided between two battling factions who contend for dominance by economic maneuvering. Each side is determined to overwhelm the other, and is likely to abandon the "Econo-War" for a genuine shooting war if it thinks that defeat is imminent. Only one thing can avert the looming disaster: a talisman of great, almost supernatural power which has been lost for millennia on a minor world called Earth.

Here, The Econo-War is collected in one continuous novel-length narrative for the first time, along with other dazzling visions of future worlds: A planet where well-meaning busybodies from Earth try to "cure" the inhabitants of their craving for the exotic drug chocolate ... another planet where insects dimly recall myths of the humans who gave them intelligence before departing for the stars, and wonder if the strange creatures will ever return ... a brilliant concert pianist whose twin is the target of an inexplicable assassination plot which he must foil—because he and his "twin" share the same brain ... an intelligent weapon which was instructed billions of years ago to obliterate a race, but whose mission was frustrated by a slight malfunction—until now . . . and much more by a unique and original master of science fiction adventure.

"In the 1960s, Myers' stories came pouring out—almost every one of them excellent, ranging from the chilling to some of the wittiest science fiction stones ever written." —Eric Flint and Guy Gordon

Caliphate by Tom Kratman free @ Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Caliphate-ebook/dp/B00ARPJDLA

"Slavery is a part of Islam . . . Slavery is part of jihad, and jihad will remain as long there is Islam." —Sheikh Saleh Al-Fawzan, author of the religious textbook At-Tawhid ("Monotheism") and senior Saudi cleric.

Demography is destiny. In the 22nd century European deathbed demographics have turned the continent over to the more fertile Moslems. Atheism in Europe has been exterminated. Homosexuals are hanged, stoned or crucified. Such Christians as remain are relegated to dhimmitude, a form of second class citizenship. They are denied arms, denied civil rights, denied a voice, and specially taxed via the Koranic yizya. Their sons are taken as conscripted soldiers while their daughters are subject to the depredations of the continent's new masters.

In that world, Petra, a German girl sold into prostitution as a slave at the age of nine to pay her family's yizya, dreams of escape. Unlike most girls of the day, Petra can read. And in her only real possession, her grandmother's diary, a diary detailing the fall of European civilization, Petra has learned of a magic place across the sea: America.

But it will take more than magic to free Petra and Europe from their bonds; it will take guns, superior technology, and a reborn spirit of freedom.

The Warslayer by Rosemary Edghill free @ Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/The-Warslayer-ebook/dp/B00ARPJ9D2

LIVE THE LEGEND!

Gloria "Glory" McArdle plays Vixen the Slayer in a straight-to-syndication TV show where even the fans say the villain is the better actress. The wizards of Erchanen have been searching all the worlds to find a hero, and Vixen the Slayer is the last name on their list.

The Warmother, imprisoned a thousand years before by Ginnas the Warkiller, has broken free of her ancient chains. If a hero can't be found somewhere in all the universes to fight for them, the people of Erchanen are toast. But is it Glory they're looking for... or Vixen

It all seemed to be a perfectly straightforward misunderstanding when Belegir was explaining it in Glory's dressing room. The reality—if you could call it that—isn't just fighting for her life. Faced with a challenge like that, what can a girl do but pick up her magic sword and her stuffed elephant and give her trademark battle cry:

"Hi-yi-yi-yi! Come, Camrado! Evil wakes!"

The Course of Empire by K.D. Wentworth & Eric Flint free @ Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/The-Course-of-.../dp/B00ARPEJC8

WOULD THEY DESTROY EARTH IN ORDER TO SAVE IT

Conquered by the Jao twenty years ago, the Earth is shackled under alien tyranny—and threatened by the even more dangerous Ekhat, who are sending a genocidal extermination fleet to the solar system. Humanity's only chance rests with an unusual pair of allies: a young Jao prince, newly arrived to Terra to assume his duties, and a young human woman brought up amongst the Jao occupiers.

But both are under pressure from the opposing forces—a cruel Jao viceroy on one side, determined to drown all opposition in blood; a reckless human resistance on the other, perfectly prepared to shed it. Added to the mix is the fact that only by adopting some portions of human technology and using human sepoy troops can the haughty Jao hope to defeat the oncoming Ekhat attack—and then only by fighting the battle within the Sun itself.

[Critteranne]

I'm downloading those Baen books even though I already them. Just because. I'm surprised to see the books didn't inherit the titles from the print editions. I hope this isn't a trend for all the Baen books. Not having the reviews on both editions is a pain -- I like having those reviews available right there (yes, even the silly and useless reviews). Also, it makes the books look as if they came out of the blue, even if they are all by established authors. I hope eBook readers who don't know any better won't think that Baen is some new, unproven e-publisher.

It should be interesting to see how the whole "Baen eBooks on Amazon" thinige (Baen-a-Zon?) goes. I hope it works out well for Baen and the authors. I hope people stop posting those ridiculous one-star "The evil publisher didn't make this available for Kindle" reviews on Baen books!

[Blue Tyson]

Be interesting to see what ranks they peak at. Especially, say, On Basilisk Station.