Free (Kindle DRM-free) Lucifer Jones: Adventures by Mike Resnick [Retro Fantasy Romp]

[ATDrake]

Hey kids, slush! And hey grown-ups, new release Tuesdays are a bad time to add to the slushpile, mmmkay?

Phoenix Pick Press' new-release-Tuesdays addition to the KDP Select exclusive-or-else slushpile is a repeat of their April freebie, now yanked for KDP Select exclusive-or-elsitivity, should you have missed it when it was free in the format of your choice for an entire month earlier. You'll also pay more for the tie-in deal this time around, should you have neglected to pick it up when it was at $1.99 per book for the entire month of April earlier.

Adventures: The Chronicles of Lucifer Jones Vol I. 1922-26 by Mike Resnick was originally out from Warner's Questar line in the early 90s.

These are satiric retro-30s adventure spoofs starring an unrepentant conman preacher, with an occasionally vague fantasy-esque element (there's a dragon and an evil dentist bent on world domination in the 2nd one) which also have occasional satires of Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes, and other genre classics.

I've read the first three and they're pretty funny for the most part, though warnings for occasional potentially-annoying/offensive retro attitudes in the 1st person narration.

PPick are offering the 2nd and 3rd books in a 2-book DRM-free Mobi/ePub bundle as the tie-in deal for $2.99 per book (down from $4.99), buy-link via the right-hand link on the dedicated promo page here. Not quite as good a deal as the $1.99 per in April, but you had an entire month to pick that up.

Also for $2.99, you can get the 4th book which is a new release by Subterranean Press DRM-free in stealth MultiFormat (they ask you to pick a format in the cart, but once bought and in your library, you can change which one you prefer to download) via Weightless Books, which I bought during their 50% off International DRM-Free Day sale.

Anyway, the feature title is free without DRM for the next two days @ Amazon main UK DE ES FR IT

Description (PPick really need to work on having their blurbs describe the actual stories inside the book, rather than the authors of said stories)
Mike Resnick’s accomplishments (to date) include 64 novels, 21 collections, 40 anthologies, two screenplays and approximately 250 short stories—resulting in a couple of shelves of major awards (including five Hugos from 35 nominations and awards from various countries including Spain, France, Croatia and Japan).

Of all the characters that Mike has created, Lucifer Jones remains his favorite. We are proud to republish this hilarious series of adventures starring a most unique character.

Adventures is the first volume of the Chronicles.

THE CHRONICLES OF LUCIFER JONES

Being a Stirring Chronicle of Intrigue, Romance, Danger, Hairbreadth Escapes, and Thrilling Triumphs over Fierce Beasts and Fiercer Men in the Mysterious and Exotic Dark Continent, as Recounted by the Daring, Resourceful, Handsome, and Modest Christian Gentleman Who Experienced Them

If it hadn't been new release Tuesday with Phoenix Pick's accompanying promotion, this would have been the feature title and I thought about putting it into a separate thread.

But since it is new release Tuesday, which as I've mentioned is a bad time to add to the inundation already inherent to the slushpile, and I still need to eat and shower and move stuff into the new backpack instead of doing unpaid promotion for authors with sufficiently poor marketing skills that they need to rely on the kindness of strangers on the hopes of being noticed in the slushpile deluge to get attention for their book amidst all the other authors hoping to be noticed in the slushpile deluge, too bad, no solo feature for you. Plan better next time.

Ordinary Decent Criminal by Gretta Curran Browne is a 1999 Wolfhound release which the blurb says was the basis of a feature film starring Kevin Spacey and Helen Baxendale (who played a rather nifty Cordelia Gray in the TV adaptation of the P.D. James series).

Free with DRM for who knows how long @ Amazon main UK DE ES FR IT

Description
Crime doesn’t pay — but it can be a lot of fun.

Michael Lynch, suave, sardonic and sexy, strides the Dublin streets as if he owns them – the king of the Irish criminal underworld.He dreams up audacious robberies and carries them out with panache. He has only four passions in life: motorcycles, crime, his marriage to a wife he adores, and his love affair with her sister.Utterly confident, Michael decides to turn his career of crime into a work of art, culminating in the ultimate theft of priceless paintings from Dublin’s most prestigious art gallery, where he outwits the police, Interpol, and even the IRA.

The novel of the Miramax/Little Bird film starring Kevin Spacey, Linda Fiorentino, Helen Baxendale and Colin Farrell.

The rest of the slushpile which contains recognizable probably-non-repeat stuff which I'm giving myself 15 minutes to copy-paste/describe. Anything after that, I'm closing the window and walking away and those can wait for tomorrow's updates if they're still free and I feel like bothering.

Carina-published Robert Appleton returns with a sci-fi novella (maybe romantic): Cafe at the Edge of Outer Space

Mammoth anthology-included EC Sheedy returns with a contemporary romance written as Carole Dean: MAN FOR THE MORNING

ISFDBed David Farland/Dave Wolverton offers a fantasy short: We Blazed

Robert Doherty/Bob Mayer returns with some more sfnal/military action thrillers: Linkage for the lot

S.V. Peddle who IIRC is the pseudonym for a small-pressed writing couple returns with a humourous looking midlife crisis general/litfic: The Crone Club

Cheryl Potter offers the 1996-Robert Hale-published 1st in her historical suspense/thriller/maybe-horror series for which we've previously gotten another volume free: The Witch (The Witch Trilogy)

All Romance eBooks giveaway countdown featured author Eve Langlais (who turns out to be Canadian) and Stacy Kennedy offer a paranormal romance: Once Bitten, Forever Burned

I will mention one semi-important repeat for series fans: Janet Morris is re-offering one of her tales in the popular Thieves' World shared universe if you missed it earlier.

Happy reading, if indeed you managed to spot something you think you might like.

[OddCosine]

Thanks, as always.

The fourth Lucifer Jones book is also available as a DRM-free epub for $2.99 from Kobo, and should be couponable.

[ATDrake]

Geo-restricted (at least from a Canadian viewpoint) in all the major stores, which is why I linked to Weightless where as far as I can tell it's sold worldwide (and because they're a small publisher-owned outfit which carries other small presses, Baen-style).

But thanks for the extra link for people able to take advantage of the couponable discount price.

[ApK]

"Carina-publisher Robert Appleton returns with a sci-fi novella (maybe romantic): Cafe at the Edge of Outer Space"

At 10,000 words, 'novella' seems a bit grandiose.
I'm going to check that one out. I can move bite-size stories to the top of my TBR list without to much hassle..

Hey, I've been enjoying ATDrake's deal posts for quite a while now. I think it's about time I asked:
What the heck is "the slushpile."

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by ApK

What the heck is "the slushpile."

It's the traditional term for the mass of generally unsolicited manuscripts that agents, editors, etc. have to wade through to pick out the things which seem vaguely worthy of passing on to others further up the potential actual publication totem pole, see Wikipedia for sort-of-details.

George Alec Effinger had a really funny short story about "Tales from the Slushpile" in his A Thousand Deaths Sandor Courane collection, available via Fictionwise, which has a 55% off coupon this week.

[Blue Tyson]

I really liked the Ordinary Decent Criminal movie. So thanks!

[ATDrake]

Minor updates for new stuff that showed up today:

Carina-published Robert Appleton returns with a 15,000 word "novelette" which is apparently historical and sounds vaguely horror-ish: Sunset on Ramree: History's Deadliest Crocodile Attack

Former Scotland on Sunday article writer turned Zen monk Barry Graham returns with another of his gritty urban noir-ish litfic novels which quotes praise from some French outlet: When It All Comes Down to Dust

Edgar-nominated Libby Sternberg returns with two suspenseful historical PI mysteries in a series set during the 1940s, which look pretty promising: Linkage for the lot

Decadent Publishing returns to offer, well… there's a story that goes with exactly how I happen to recognize this author's name and works, and it's a really funny story, but probably not one you should be reading at work/home if anyone's prone to reading over your shoulder (no images, but swearing and coarse language in the both the comments and the bafflingly-and-OMGWTFBBQ-phrased quotes from the other book in the original commentaries linked to from that link). If you've ever wondered where the word "queeb" came from, well, now you know without without having to hit up the Urban Dictionary for an NSFW definition.

Anyway, this seems to be some sort of semi-sequel/vaguely-related work, and I clap my hands like a demented baby fur seal in glee to see this in the slushpile, because it's bound to provide sporfletastic entertainment of some sort or other (with bonus entertainment in the reviews, as well): Tender is the Knight It's a probably-erotic romance set amongst historical recreationist SCA cosplayers, by the way, for very loose values of "historical", "erotic", and "romance", if it's anything like the presumably-first book in the maybe-series was said to have gone.

Semi-significant repeats from Stephen Hunt who is reoffering the 1st in his sf space opera series (the 2nd of which was a shared feature title some weeks ago long after the 1st had expired) if you missed it and another books as well. Also, ISFDBed fellow MR member author Kathryn Lance is offering a repeat of her 1993 YA kid's adventure tale and ISFDBed fellow MR member editor Keith Brooke is offering some sfnal repeats from his Infinity Plus imprint, some of which have not been seen since December, according to my archive.

Romance readers should check Britomart's May Romance thread, which has some new and repeats by established authors.

Happy reading, if you manage to spot something you think you might like, sufficient that you hear no disappointed queeb sounds coming from any places, safe for work or otherwise.

[HarryT]

Thanks for all that - but what does a disappointed queeb sound like?

[plib]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Thanks for all that - but what does a disappointed queeb sound like?

Well, one would hope it's not wailing and gnashing of teeth, that could be rather painful. Maybe wailing and squishing of lips?

[koland]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

Decadent Publishing returns to offer, well… there's a story that goes with exactly how I happen to recognize this author's name and works,...

Same publisher, free for UK:

The Kraken's Mirror (The Kraken's Caribbean), Maureen O. Betita

Free US/UK:
Guarding the Coast by Samantha Gail