Free/Bargain Science Fiction/Fantasy April 2013

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by koland

And now it's gone back up (the hardcover, tho, is only $3.99)

That didn't last long.

[scottken]

A few Neil Gaiman books currently on sale at Amazon US for $3.99:

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman Main
From Publishers Weekly
When a scatterbrained Satanist nun goofs up a baby-switching scheme and delivers the infant Antichrist to the wrong couple, it's just the beginning of the comic errors in the divine plan for Armageddon which this fast-paced novel by two British writers zanily details. Aziraphale, an angel who doubles as a rare-book dealer, and Crowley, a demon friend who's assigned to the same territory, like life on Earth too much to allow the long-planned war between Heaven and Hell to happen. They set out to find the Antichrist and avert Armageddon, on the way encountering the last living descendant of Agnes Nutter, Anathema, who's been deciphering accurate prophecies of the world's doom but is unaware she's living in the same town as the Antichrist, now a thoroughly human and normal 11-year-old named Adam. As the appointed day and hour approach, Aziraphale and Crowley blunder through seas of fire and rains of fish, and come across a misguided witch hunter, a middle-aged fortune teller and the Four Horsepersons of the Apocalypse. It's up to Adam in the neatly tied end, as his humanity prevails over the Divine Plan and earthly bungling. Some humor is strictly British, but most will appeal even to Americans "and other aliens." Literary Guild alternate.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Anansi Boys Main
From Publishers Weekly
Fat Charlie Nancy's normal life is turned upside down when his father dies and a brother he never knew he had shows up at his doorstep. When that brother, Spider, starts to wear out his welcome, Fat Charlie learns that his father was not a man but the trickster god, Anansi, and both he and Spider have inherited some of Dad's godliness. This leads Fat Charlie to explore his own godly heritage in order to be rid of Spider. Listeners of Coraline can attest that Gaiman is a fine reader, so any narrators who read his novels have a lot to live up to. Lenny Henry, however, is absolutely the perfect choice to read Anansi Boys—he not only has Gaiman's cadences and style down pat, but he also ranges his accent from British to Caribbean with ease and provides distinct and memorable voices for all of the characters. An absolutely top-notch performance, one that makes a terrific book even better.


Neverwhere Main
Richard Mayhew is a young man with a good heart and an ordinarylife, which is changed forever when he stops to help a girl he finds bleeding on a London sidewalk. His small act of kindness propels him into a world he never dreamed existed. There are people who fall through the cracks, and Richard has become one of them. And he must learn to survive in this city of shadows and darkness, monsters and saints, murderers and angels, if he is ever to return to the London that he knew.


American Gods 10th Anniversary Edition Main
Shadow gets out of prison early when his wife is killed in a car crash. At a loss, he takes up with a mysterious character called Wednesday, who is much more than he appears. In fact, Wednesday is an old god, once known as Odin the All-father, who is roaming America rounding up his forgotten fellows in preparation for an epic battle against the upstart deities of the Internet, credit cards, television, and all that is wired. Shadow agrees to help Wednesday, and they whirl through a psycho-spiritual storm that becomes all too real in its manifestations. For instance, Shadow's dead wife Laura keeps showing up, and not just as a ghost--the difficulty of their continuing relationship is by turns grim and darkly funny, just like the rest of the book.

Armed only with some coin tricks and a sense of purpose, Shadow travels through, around, and underneath the visible surface of things, digging up all the powerful myths Americans brought with them in their journeys to this land as well as the ones that were already here. Shadow's road story is the heart of the novel, and it's here that Gaiman offers up the details that make this such a cinematic book--the distinctly American foods and diversions, the bizarre roadside attractions, the decrepit gods reduced to shell games and prostitution. "This is a bad land for Gods," says Shadow.

[caleb72]

Thanks for that. Picked up Good Omens because I haven't read that one.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by caleb72

Thanks for that. Picked up Good Omens because I haven't read that one.

You are in for a treat.

[BetterRead]

Hounded, the first book in the Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne, is currently on sale for $2.99.

http://www.amazon.com/Hounded-Druid-...dp/B004J4WN0I/

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/houn...rne/1031186473

http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Hound...K6w/page1.html

Atticus O’Sullivan, last of the Druids, lives peacefully in Arizona, running an occult bookshop and shape-shifting in his spare time to hunt with his Irish wolfhound. His neighbors and customers think that this handsome, tattooed Irish dude is about twenty-one years old—when in actuality, he’s twenty-one centuries old. Not to mention: He draws his power from the earth, possesses a sharp wit, and wields an even sharper magical sword known as Fragarach, the Answerer.

Unfortunately, a very angry Celtic god wants that sword, and he’s hounded Atticus for centuries. Now the determined deity has tracked him down, and Atticus will need all his power—plus the help of a seductive goddess of death, his vampire and werewolf team of attorneys, a sexy bartender possessed by a Hindu witch, and some good old-fashioned luck of the Irish—to kick some Celtic arse and deliver himself from evil.

[kindlekitten]

a client of mine turned me onto the Iron Druid Chronicles last year, good quirky read! ( a MUST for dog lovers!)

[caleb72]

This one is even cheaper now at $1.24. Even I picked it up this time.

Originally Posted by caleb72

Conan the Defender by Robert Jordan is currently $2.15 at Amazon (US).



Amazon (US): LINK

[caleb72]

Another Orson Scott Card novel. This time it's Future Games. $2.99 at Amazon (US).

Human competition is eternal. No matter what the future brings, sports will be a part of it. But what forms will these games take? Who will be the spectator, who will play? Will aliens be our opponents or machines? What rules will we play by? What will be at stake? What rewards will be reaped by the victors? What fates await the defeated? Will the entire universe be our arena or will our world be smaller than today? Visionary authors speculate on what swifter, higher, stronger will mean in the near and distant future.

Amazon (US): LINK

[koland]

Originally Posted by caleb72

This one is even cheaper now at $1.24. Even I picked it up this time.

too bad it's now 8 days after the original posting

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by koland

too bad it's now 8 days after the original posting

This was a second drop for the same book.

But this drop only lasted a day according to ereaderiq.com and it's already over now.

[caleb72]

Originally Posted by caleb72

Paul of Dune by Brian Herbert is available at Amazon (US) for $3.79.



Amazon (US): LINK

This one seems to have dropped again for the moment. This time to $2.68.

[scottken]

The Perfect Host, Volume V of the Collected Short Stories of Theodore Sturgeon, is currently only $4.74 at Amazon US. Main

I bought this -- its the full book which matches the hardcover I own, with the foreward by Larry McMurtry and the story notes by Paul Williams. Note, there is another kindle listing for $2.49 which is not the same book, merely some out of copyright Sturgeon stories.

None of the other Sturgeon books are discounted, and this beats the next best price I could get for these ebooks (i.e., the kobo price of $11.49 + 35% off coupon = $7.77)

[koland]

The Emperors Knife ($9.99 Kindle), the first novel in the Tower and Knife Trilogy by Mazarkis Williams, is this week's Free Friday selection at Barnes & Noble, courtesy of publisher Night Shade Books.

There is a cancer at the heart of the mighty Cerani Empire: a plague that marks each victim with a fragment of a greater design. Geometric patterns spread across the skin, until the victim dies in agony or becomes a Carrier, doing the bidding of an evil intelligence.

The lost prince Sarmin, the emperor's only surviving brother, lies locked in a hidden room. As the pattern draws closer to the palace he is at last remembered: now he awaits a bride, Mesema, a Windreader from the northern plains. She is accustomed to riding free across the grasslands and finds the Imperial Court stifling, but she soon realizes the politicking is not a game. It is in deadly earnest.

Eyul, the imperial assassin, is burdened by the atrocities he has committed. As commanded, he bears the emperor's Knife to the desert in search of a cure for the pattern-markings.

As long-planned conspiracies boil over into open violence, the enemy moves towards victory. Now only three people stand in his way: a lost prince, a world-weary killer, and a young girl from the steppes who saw a path in a pattern once, among the waving grasses.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-...=9781597803854

note: I could not get my B&N copy to download, either via the web or my tablet. anyone else have better luck? Is B&N's license server down?

[GeckoFriend]

Originally Posted by koland

....

note: I could not get my B&N copy to download, either via the web or my tablet. anyone else have better luck? Is B&N's license server down?

I can't download either - "Oops! TechnicalDifficulties"

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by koland

The Emperors Knife ($9.99 Kindle), the first novel in the Tower and Knife Trilogy by Mazarkis Williams, is this week's Free Friday selection at Barnes & Noble, courtesy of publisher Night Shade Books.

Showing at $11.06 for me on Amazon. Anyway I reported it at Amazon since they often pricematch the free friday deals.

Originally Posted by GeckoFriend

I can't download either - "Oops! TechnicalDifficulties"

Same here