Free (Kindle KDP) Engines of Desire by William Barton [Space Opera Adventure]

[ATDrake]

Very little in the KDP exclusive-or-else slushpile that isn't a repeat. I think that authors are beginning to recognize the drawbacks in the KDP Select program, which IMHO is a good thing, even if it nets us fewer backlist sf/fantasy freebies in the short term.

The Engine of Desire by William Barton (ISFDB, Wikipedia) was originally published in Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine in 2002 and was nominated for Locus Magazine's Best Novella Award. This is part of his "Silvergirl" far future sf space colonization setting which I gather is one of his more important creations.

Anyway, free for who knows how long (IIRC, the previous two title-featured Barton freebies were good for at least two days) @ Amazon main UK DE ES FR IT

Description
The Engine of Desire is space opera adventure on the grandest scale of all.

Humanity, out among the stars, has been bulldozed by an interstellar war beyond all comprehension. The human race has been wiped out almost to the last person, all that's left of our proud race, once numbering in the hundreds of trillions, are a few lost soldiers. Those and the sentient tools dead humanity left behind when it fell.

Crystal is one of those tools, an optimod space pilot wandering the wreckage of the galaxy, trying to make his way among the nonhuman survivors, trying to find others like himself, looking for the last remnants of the gods who created him.

Consuelo Saah Baehr returns with a literary/women's fiction/maybe-proto-chick-lit novel originally out from Putnam in 1982: Nothing To Lose

Much-paperbacked horror/thriller author Robert W. Walker returns with an advice guide: Dead On Writing (The How-To Book to Die For)

Monica Marie Jones says that she is a contributing author to a particular Chicken Soup for the Soul series book, and she's been a columnist for some other stuff listed in her bio. She offers two social drama/thrillers in her urban fiction "Floss" series about ambitious young professionals: Linkage for them both and a stubborn Prime "free" thing.

Of AJ Brown the ISFDB knows naught. But his short story mini-collection is published by newbie small horror press Dark Continents which is in the ISFDB for minor works (some Scott Nicholson among them), so : Along the Splintered Path

Former Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine alumna Phoenix C. Sullivan's sf/fantasy anthology is a repeat, but it might introduce you to some new authors to keep an eye out for: Extinct Doesn't Mean Forever

Luli Gray's YA fantasy sequel to her 1995-Houghton Mifflin-printed novel is a repeat, but the last time we saw it was last year, so if you missed it and the original was a favourite of yours growing up or whatever: FALCON'S DRAGON

You know where the last time I read a mystery set in a place called Lagash where the accepted orthodoxy of the world's beliefs were being called into question amidst rising social unrest was? It was in Isaac Asimov's classic Nightfall, that was where.

Since I almost never see decent Ancient Babylonian-set anything in print-publication, much less stuff sfnally derived from it, here's some kind of self-pub historical murder mystery/personal enlightenment novel by one David Jordan, who from skimming the sample seems able to write coherent grammatical sentences which don't make me want to wish a plague of cockroaches upon his daily bread and has hopefully done some decent research to put into: The Priests of Lagash

And just because I like big lizardy things with teeth, here's Jan Hawkins' self-pub travelogue of touring Australian sites where presumably there were fossil finds and such: An Australian Dinosaur Tour (Around The Campfire)

And for the benefit of any other aspiring travelogue self-pubbers in the audience who hope to one day get someone to pay $2.99 for their travelogue at the regular price, I will include a link to Bob the Angry Flower's Quick Guide to the Apostrophe, You Idiots, which IMHO can never be linked or repeated enough. Trust me, your readers will thank you for taking Bob's advice.

Happy reading, if you happen to spot something you think you might like or your appearance of professional competence is vastly improved by following the teachings of Bob the Angry Flower, who happens to be a fellow Canadian, by the way.

ETA: Denise A. Agnew, who's got an official Ellora's Cave freebie in the other thread, offers a "sensual historical romance" set during San Francisco's 1906 earthquake: Love from the Ashes

ETA 2: Also Ellora alumna Tawny Taylor (pseudonym of Sydney Allan) offers an erotic romance trio of shorts (paranormal, BDSM, menage) which is not KDP but playing pricing catchup with Smashwords: Threesome: A Trio of Sinfully Decadent Erotic Stories

Berkley-published Barbara Bretton (previously included for a romance, but she seems to write cozies nowadays) has a geo-restricted cookbook of her favourite recipes, which is not available to Canadians: A Skillet, a Spatula, and a Dream (ETA 3: But it's available free to all via Smashwords, no matter where they live in the world.)

[Blue Tyson]

Select's been going for around 3 months now, hasn't it?

The Engine of Desire is very good, too.

[ATDrake]

It's now past the initial 90 day period, and a lot of the repeats may be from authors starting the new round of 90 day exclusivity or trying to use up their remaining free days before opting out.

Minor updates:

ISFDBed Alex Irvine offers a "gonzo SF novella": Mystery Hill

Minor ISFDBed Lee Allen Howard returns with a set of horror shorts: Severed Relations

Formerly Big-6-published IMDBed screenwriter Ryne Douglas Pearson returns with a cops vs killer thriller: All For One

Donna Fasano who's written as Donna Clayton for Harlequin offers: The Merry-Go-Round, a romantic comedy

Robert W. Walker returns yet again with a short collection of: Thrice Told Tales

Minor ISFDBed Tracy L. Carbone offers another horror short: Stone Man

Sourcebooks-published Lisa Renee Jones' omnibus edition of her paranormal romance is only free for the day, according to the blurb, which basically means the next two hours until midnight Pacific Time: Underground Guardians BOX SET: Includes 'Protector' and 'Healer'

Carina Press-published Bonnie Dee repeats her Liquid Silver-published paranormal romantic suspense: Shifter, P.I. (werewolf detective)

Canadian Jamieson Wolf, whose erotic romances are available via Fictionwise, re-offers his non-romantic comedic murder mystery series set amidst a soap opera cast, if you missed the first volume of these: Hope Falls Season 1

[Blue Tyson]

The Irvine is definitely a good one.