MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Free backlist & small press books @ Smashwords, iTunes, et al.

ATDrake · 04-04-2012, 09:30 PM

Just what it says in the title. There's actually a fair amount to fill in here, but I'll have to hunt it down again.

A decent-sized chunk of it can probably still be found in the freebie/bargain thread from Read an Ebook Week while you wait, but there are quite a few sf/f authors who have stuff on their websites which I'll have to go back through my bookmarks for.

John Moore (ISFDB, humourous fairy-tale satirical fantasy). Formerly published by Baen & Ace. Sadly out of print, but 1 e-book couponable via Fictionwise. Offers a PDF download of an unpublished sci-fi humour technothriller involving French Canadian separatists: Heat Sink

I've read all of his books which I've managed to buy. He's very funny and highly recommended.

Mayer Alan Brenner (ISFDB, light adventure quest fantasy, IIRC). Formerly published by DAW and offers the entirety of his late 80s DAW-published Dance of the Gods series free to all in multiple formats (older ones which may require conversion for modern readers) under a Creative Commons license on his website: Linkage to the lot (and he has a Paypal tipjar).

Lewis Shiner (ISFDB; cyberpunk, magic realism, fantasy & musical elements in literary speculative fiction). Published by Baen, Doubleday, and currently in print from Subterranean Press. Offers in PDF (and convertable HTML) significant chunk of backlist under Creative Commons license at his website: Fiction Liberation Front

Charles Stross (alternate timeline travel, far future, and space opera science fiction, Lovecraftian bureaucracy, near future technotopia). Published by Ace & Orbit. Offers two published novels and a small-pressed story collection free to download under a restricted Creative Commons license at his blog.

My favourite works from him are the Laundry series, which combines a very entertaining riff on pop-culture/sci-fi/fantasy tropes with a creepy lurking anticipatory horror.

Also, the more seriously Lovecraftian short "A Colder War" in his TOAST collection (one of the freebies) is excellently chilling and highly recommended.

Peter Watts (ISFDB; near future marine apocalyptic, far future space exploration, etc.). Published by Tor. Offers a significant portion of his backlist free to download under a Creative Commons license at his website where he also has a tipjar.

A Canadian author, and one I quite like, even though I'm actually not all that fond of the worlds he's created, though that may just have to do with some of them being near-future bleak dystopias.

Best stories, IMHO, "The Island" (a Hugo winner), "Fractals", "Bulk Food" (very funny satire, and even funnier if you know that Watts is a marine biologist who used to live in the very sort of area described), all free on his website.

Rudy Rucker (ISFDB, Wikipedia; cyberpunk, steampunk, other speculative @ $4.95 ePub or Mobi (really needs to offer a multi-format bundle) directly from author; also other titles couponable at Fictionwise, etc.) noted in Charles Stross' blog that he has recently started assembling proper e-book versions of some of his works to sell, currently with complete collections of his short stories and essays and a backlist novel thus far. He also has a long-standing Creative Commons release of at least two of his novels (downloadable in PDF from his website) and offers PDFs of behind-the-scenes author's notes for many of his works. The Ware Tetralogy and Postsingular are the CC freebies and can also be found in conversion on Feedbooks and/or Manybooks.

I'm not into cyberpunk, but the complete collection of all his sf short stories for just $5 sounds like a pretty good deal, and I may just get it to try out, since he's been pretty generous with the Creative Commons freebies and I like world-building notes.

Karl Schroeder (ISFDB, Wikipedia; far future & technotopia sf) offers his debut novel, published by Tor in 2000, for free download under a Creative Commons license on his website. He also offers a few PDF stories and intends to add more. He'll also be doing a time-limited free e-book promotion in conjunction with Tor.com starting April 25th; details in this post by Pete731 who spotted it.

Doranna Durgin (ISFDB, urban & high fantasy, action/adventure romantic suspenses @ $0.99-$4.49 via Smashwords). Published by Baen and Harlequin. Offers a Baen-published fantasy (likely just for a limited time): Wolverine's Daughter

NB: some of her separately-available short stories are collected within the multi-author compilation The Heart of Dog, which I bought during the Read an E-Book Week sale. To be honest, I couldn't really get into the writings of hers which I tried, but she'd been pretty generous with the freebies so I wanted to get something, and there were stories from Tanya Huff and John Zakour, whom I know I like, inside, and the proceeds went to the author's dog's medical bills, so it was for a good cause.

Phillippa "Pip" Ballantine (steampunk & historical fantasy @ $0.99-$3.99 via Smashwords as Philippa, as Pip). Published by HarperCollins. Offers a 2005 Dragon Moon Press historical urban fantasy with Shakespeare & elves in it: Chasing the Bard

04-04-2012, 09:30 PM	#3
ATDrake Wizzard Posts: 11,517 Karma: 33048258 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Roundworld Device: Kindle 2 International, Sony PRS-T1, BlackBerry PlayBook, Acer Iconia	This space reserved for speculative fiction freebies Just what it says in the title. There's actually a fair amount to fill in here, but I'll have to hunt it down again. A decent-sized chunk of it can probably still be found in the freebie/bargain thread from Read an Ebook Week while you wait, but there are quite a few sf/f authors who have stuff on their websites which I'll have to go back through my bookmarks for. John Moore (ISFDB, humourous fairy-tale satirical fantasy). Formerly published by Baen & Ace. Sadly out of print, but 1 e-book couponable via Fictionwise. Offers a PDF download of an unpublished sci-fi humour technothriller involving French Canadian separatists: Heat Sink I've read all of his books which I've managed to buy. He's very funny and highly recommended. Mayer Alan Brenner (ISFDB, light adventure quest fantasy, IIRC). Formerly published by DAW and offers the entirety of his late 80s DAW-published Dance of the Gods series free to all in multiple formats (older ones which may require conversion for modern readers) under a Creative Commons license on his website: Linkage to the lot (and he has a Paypal tipjar). Lewis Shiner (ISFDB; cyberpunk, magic realism, fantasy & musical elements in literary speculative fiction). Published by Baen, Doubleday, and currently in print from Subterranean Press. Offers in PDF (and convertable HTML) significant chunk of backlist under Creative Commons license at his website: Fiction Liberation Front Charles Stross (alternate timeline travel, far future, and space opera science fiction, Lovecraftian bureaucracy, near future technotopia). Published by Ace & Orbit. Offers two published novels and a small-pressed story collection free to download under a restricted Creative Commons license at his blog. My favourite works from him are the Laundry series, which combines a very entertaining riff on pop-culture/sci-fi/fantasy tropes with a creepy lurking anticipatory horror. Also, the more seriously Lovecraftian short "A Colder War" in his TOAST collection (one of the freebies) is excellently chilling and highly recommended. Peter Watts (ISFDB; near future marine apocalyptic, far future space exploration, etc.). Published by Tor. Offers a significant portion of his backlist free to download under a Creative Commons license at his website where he also has a tipjar. A Canadian author, and one I quite like, even though I'm actually not all that fond of the worlds he's created, though that may just have to do with some of them being near-future bleak dystopias. Best stories, IMHO, "The Island" (a Hugo winner), "Fractals", "Bulk Food" (very funny satire, and even funnier if you know that Watts is a marine biologist who used to live in the very sort of area described), all free on his website. Rudy Rucker (ISFDB, Wikipedia; cyberpunk, steampunk, other speculative @ $4.95 ePub or Mobi (really needs to offer a multi-format bundle) directly from author; also other titles couponable at Fictionwise, etc.) noted in Charles Stross' blog that he has recently started assembling proper e-book versions of some of his works to sell, currently with complete collections of his short stories and essays and a backlist novel thus far. He also has a long-standing Creative Commons release of at least two of his novels (downloadable in PDF from his website) and offers PDFs of behind-the-scenes author's notes for many of his works. The Ware Tetralogy and Postsingular are the CC freebies and can also be found in conversion on Feedbooks and/or Manybooks. I'm not into cyberpunk, but the complete collection of all his sf short stories for just $5 sounds like a pretty good deal, and I may just get it to try out, since he's been pretty generous with the Creative Commons freebies and I like world-building notes. Karl Schroeder (ISFDB, Wikipedia; far future & technotopia sf) offers his debut novel, published by Tor in 2000, for free download under a Creative Commons license on his website. He also offers a few PDF stories and intends to add more. He'll also be doing a time-limited free e-book promotion in conjunction with Tor.com starting April 25th; details in this post by Pete731 who spotted it. Doranna Durgin (ISFDB, urban & high fantasy, action/adventure romantic suspenses @ $0.99-$4.49 via Smashwords). Published by Baen and Harlequin. Offers a Baen-published fantasy (likely just for a limited time): Wolverine's Daughter NB: some of her separately-available short stories are collected within the multi-author compilation The Heart of Dog, which I bought during the Read an E-Book Week sale. To be honest, I couldn't really get into the writings of hers which I tried, but she'd been pretty generous with the freebies so I wanted to get something, and there were stories from Tanya Huff and John Zakour, whom I know I like, inside, and the proceeds went to the author's dog's medical bills, so it was for a good cause. Phillippa "Pip" Ballantine (steampunk & historical fantasy @ $0.99-$3.99 via Smashwords as Philippa, as Pip). Published by HarperCollins. Offers a 2005 Dragon Moon Press historical urban fantasy with Shakespeare & elves in it: Chasing the Bard Last edited by ATDrake; 04-28-2012 at 03:48 PM.