Free/Bargain Science Fiction/Fantasy in October 2013

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I seem to recall, from buying this bundle in an earlier offer, that the site has a rather arcane system for applying the coupon code. If memory serves me correctly, you have to pay by PayPal, and then apply the coupon code on the PayPal site itself, rather than on the store site.

I don't know if they've changed that since I bought it, though.

It is still an arcane system. You go through paypal, back to their site, and then apply the coupon code. Weird, but it does work.

[Buran]

Grabbed the Cold Equations trilogy; I used to read a lot of Trek novels, but now there don't seem to be as many published anymore. It used to be monthly.

Highly recommend the Duane Wizard series -- better-written than Harry Potter, full of wit, and makes you think that some fantasies just might have a chance of being true. They did get sequelitis later on, alas, but the earlier ones are wonderful.

[Brendan Moody]

There's still a Star Trek novel every month, which is what the schedule has been since it was cut back from two a month in 2005.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Brendan Moody

There's still a Star Trek novel every month, which is what the schedule has been since it was cut back from two a month in 2005.

The new Star Trek eBooks are released on the last Tuesday of the month except for the special eBook only novellas S&S are doing here and there these days.

[ATDrake]

This is really more horror so I'll post in that thread as well, but there's some dark fantasy and creepy speculative from World Fantasy Award nominees included, so:

Until October 31st, Chizine Publications are holding 50% off selected dark fantasy/horror collections and novels when you direct-buy. Many of the titles have blurb praise from Ellen Datlow, Cory Doctorow, and Locus and other magazines.

Discount is automatic and no coupon is needed; most titles work out to $5. Outside their own webstore and Weightless Books, CZP are distributed by HarperCollins in most outlets and the titles I spot-checked were priced around $11.10 CAD when I looked in the Kindle store.

They've overhauled their website since last I shopped there and the store login links are no longer obvious, but you should still get a DRM-free bundle of ePub/Mobi/PDF, though there may now be site backup/re-download limitations.

CZP have a blogpost with a list of links to the eligible titles, but there's no obvious way to link to just that, so you'll have to scroll down to the Oct 20th Halloween Sale announcement on their frontpage.

Sale titles are:

Every House is Haunted by Ian Rogers
Eutopia by David Nickle
Enter, Night by Michael Rowe (Lambda Literary and Spectrum Award-winning author)
Horror Story and Other Horror Stories by Robert Boyczuk
Hair Side, Flesh Side by Helen Marshall
The Hair Wreath and Other Stories by Halli Villegas
Monstrous Affections by David Nickle (Black Quill Award winner)
Picking Up the Ghost by Tone Milazzo
Stories from the Plague Years by Michael Marano (contains a Shirley Jackson Award nominee novella)
Remember Why You Fear Me by Robert Shearman (World Fantasy, British Fantasy, and Shirley Jackson Award-winning author; blurb says this collects his best reprint tales + 10 previously uncollected stories)
The World More Full of Weeping by Robert J. Wiersema

If you're strapped for cash around this time of the year, CZP has in the past held a more general 50% off almost everything sale on Black Friday if you think you can wait and see.

[pdurrant]

UK and Amazon Only:

Unnatural Creatures edited by Neil Gaiman, including a new story by Neil Gaiman.

Just £1.19 in today's UK Kindle Daily Deal.

"The griffin, the sunbird, manticores, unicorns — all manner of glorious creatures never captured in zoos, museums or photographs are packed vividly into this collection of stories. Neil Gaiman has included some of his own childhood favourites alongside stories classic and modern to spark the imagination of readers young and old. All contributors have given their work free to benefit Dave Eggers’ literacy charity, 826DC. Also includes a new Neil Gaiman Story."

[HarryT]

Thanks, Paul!

[odo]

I think this offer is only valid in Spain, but just in case: Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente for only €0.99:

http://www.amazon.es/Deathless-Cathe...thless+valente

[Marrella]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

UK and Amazon Only:

Unnatural Creatures edited by Neil Gaiman, including a new story by Neil Gaiman.

Just £1.19 in today's UK Kindle Daily Deal.

This is also the Daily Deal at Amazon.de. 1,39 €. Looks really good, I just bought it.

[ATDrake]

Backlist author consortium BookViewCafé are running a few monthly specials, good until the end of October (before midnight EST, I think; I missed out on one thing I wanted last month and forgot I still had the cart unchecked-out until around 10 PM PST, by which time it was too late).

All discounts should be automatic, no coupon required unless stated otherwise. BVC have changed their website and now require that you select ePub or Mobi format separately and no longer have a website login, but they say you can redownload your books from the provided links in your email receipt. It is, of course, all DRM-free and your money more-or-less goes directly to the authors.

They also have some downloadable free short stories which I'll list after:

Vonda N. McIntyre (ISFDB entry, Wikipedia) is offering her 1997 Nebula Award-winning historical fantasy set in an 17th century AU Versailles, The Moon and the Sun (ISFDB entry), for $2.50, which is 50% off the regular price. Apparently this has been optioned and may be coming out as a film adaptation at some point.

I think I'm going to pick this up. I'm a sucker for historical AU, and McIntyre did generously offer the first of her sf quartet, Starfarers (which I still haven't finished reading after like what, two years? ) free for quite some time previously and I did mostly like her Star Trek novels which I recall reading.

Doranna Durgin (ISFDB entry) is offering 40% off a backlist "real world/magic world" crossover high fantasy previously published by Baen in 1994, the 1st book in a trilogy within her Changespell Legacy universe: the Compton Crook Award-winning Dun Lady's Jess for $2.99.

She offers the 1998 Baen-published prequel to this free on Smashwords, as well: Barrenlands

Durgin's been pretty generous with the freebies and the discounts over the years. Unfortunately I've just never been able to really get into her writing (nothing wrong with it technically, just for some reason it doesn't click with me), but I'll give her prose another try, since apparently the Changespell books are considered some of her best fantasy work. And real world/magic world crossover stuff is another thing I'm a sucker for.

There are also some $0.99 cent specials:

Jennifer Stevenson's (ISFDB entry) The Hinky Brass Bed, the 1st in her Jewel Heiss comedic urban fantasy w/romance (I think) series, now renamed the Hinky Chicago series. This was originally published as The Brass Bed from Ballantine in 2008 and its ISFDB blurb says it was reviewed in Locus.

Pati Nagle's (ISFDB entry) looks-like-a-western-light-horror-but-I-could-be-wrong novel: Dead Man's Hand. Blurb says it's got gambling, tags say it's got zombies and magic (and places it more in the fantasy category).

Nagle also offers a free short story which I'll list below.

There are more $0.99 cent backlist romance specials (non-sfnal, as far as I can tell from the blurbs) from BVC authors Patricia Rice (Sourcebooks fantasy romance author) and Patricia Burroughs, previously published by Silhouette Desire and Fawcett Gold, which I mention here for the benefit of romance-reading sf/f fans who may not be keeping up with the dedicated romance deals/discussion thread. You can see the listings on the general BVC Specials page if interested.

Freebie downloadable short stories @ BVC (some placed rather non-intuitively so you have to dig for them):

Culture Control (post-apocalyptic sf) by Julianne Lee

The Cygnius Sedonai Caper (interstellar pet crime investigations sf) by Pati Nagle; excerpt from her multi-genre short story Coyote Ugly and Other Tales collection as well as the tie-in novel linked on the story page.

Premium Existence (advertising satire sf) by Sue Lange; if you like this, the author has a collection of her previously-published sf satire stories for $1.99: Uncategorized

Welcome to Welton (urban fantasy tagged with "sidhe" and "college") by Marie Brennan, prequel novelette to her Wilders series.

Hell by Any Other Name by Leah Cutter, a sample for her Baker's Dozen contemporary fantasy collection.

To Love the Difficult by Amy Casil, a sample for her Female Science Fiction Writer sf/f collection.

Dragon Treasure by Irene Radford (previously published as Phyllis Irene Radford, ISFDB entry), a sample from her Fantastical Ramblings fantasy collection, which was the one I missed out on last month for 99 cents. Eh, it'll probably go on sale again someday.

She's also got a collection of six steampunk stories going for a 50% off introductory special of $1.99: Steampunk Voyages. This, for reasons which escape me, is not advertised on the BVC special page, so I don't know how time-limited it is.

Mom and Dad at the Home Front (probably YA fantasy) by Sherwood Smith, a sample for her Whispered Magics sf/f/ya collection.

There's a bunch of other freebie shorts living as online-reading specials and samples on their website, but these were the ones with available ePub/Mobi/PDF downloads (some of the non-sample ones are time-limited features).

Enjoy!

[artifact]

A quick Heads-up that I was able to trick Kobo into a list prince discount and couponable (oct50 applied) on the new Penguin release Kris Longknife: Defender by switching the country code from USA to Vietnam under the account settings. USA price is non-couponable list at $7.99, $6.19 for the Vietnamese. $5.99 at Amazon. Purchased for $3-something with 50% off coupon.

[itisbomb]

Today's Nook Daily Find

10 books by Ray Bradybury are offered for $1.99 each at B&N.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/?dre...o=2190&sort=SA

They are:
1) Something Wicked This Way Comes
2) The Illustrated Man
3) Dandelion Wine
4) The October Country
5) One More for the Road
6) A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories
7) The Cat's Pajamas
8) Quicker than the Eye
9) Driving Blind
10) Now and Forever: Somewhere a Band Is Playing & Leviathan '99

[HarryT]

A great group of books from today's Sainsbury's 99p offer (price matched by Amazon):

Robin Hobbs' "Assassin" and "Fool" trilogies, the three volumes of "The Lord of the Rings", and "The Hobbit". 10 books in all.

Fortunately for my bank account I already have them all, but 10 wonderful books if you haven't read them.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Fortunately for my bank account I already have them all, but 10 wonderful books if you haven't read them.

Well, it's cost me £9.90.

I have already got The Hobbit and LotR, but bought at Fictionwise and the transfer to nook messed up my copy of LoTR, and £3.96 for a new set seems a very good deal.

I haven't read the Robin Hobb books. But a couple of fantasy series by a good author seems a bargain at £5.94. Certainly too good to pass up.

[HarryT]

They are excellent series. The "Fool's <whatever>" series is a sequel to the "Assassin's <whatever>" series, so read the assassin one first.