Free from the small press startup via KDP Select @
Amazon:
Quantum Zoo edited by D.J. Gelner & J.M. Ney-Grimm, a themed anthology of science fiction & fantasy stories, mainly by newbie-looking writers, but which has a contribution by Bridget McKenna (
ISFDB), editor of Aeon magazine.
From a ghost park to a time-travel penitentiary of murderers to a menagerie of Egyptian deities, Quantum Zoo presents 12 compelling stories involving 12 very different living exhibitions. Including a wonderfully atmospheric tale by Hugo- and Nebula-nominated Bridget McKenna.
Free again from the author via KDP Select @
Amazon:
The Helmsman: Director's Cut Edition by Bill Baldwin (
ISFDB,
Wikipedia), 1st in his eponymous milSF epic space opera series, revised from its original 1985 Warner paperback.
Originally published in 1983, when the novel sold thousands of copies in its first printing, The Helmsman is the starting point for Bill Baldwin's epic, eight-part militaristic space opera - The Helmsman Saga. Using actual histories of World Wars I and II as template, the novel chronicles the adventures of StarSailor and extraordinary Helmsman Wilf Brim during an epoch of discord and outright war among various star-nations within our own galaxy.
This special, "Director's Cut" Edition is heavily re-written, a la George Lucas' rewrite of the Star Wars Trilogy, to bring it more in line with later novels in the series, as well as existing "Director's Cut" Editions of Galactic Convoy, The Trophy; the five other "Director's Cut" editions to come; and the continuation novel now in the works: The Turning Tide.
The novel begins as Brim—a 21-year-old SubLieutenant in the Imperial Fleet—arrives at the Eorean Starwharves, a maintenance complex within the planet-spanning Fleet base on watery Gimmas-Haefdon. On first assignment since receiving his commission, Brim is fresh from The Helmsman's Academy, where he weathered years of torment from wealthy classmates because of his impoverished background. Heretofore, the Academy had been a "private club" for the scions of Imperial wealth; however, enormous numbers of casualties during the present war with the League of Dark Stars has called for desperate measures to expedite replacement of these losses.