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Old 01-16-2026, 06:54 AM   #9819
salty-horse
Wizard
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Join Date: Sep 2008
Device: Kobo Clara 2E
Disquiet Gods (Sun Eater #6) by Christopher Ruocchio is £2 in the UK (Kobo, Amazon)

Darkome by Hannu Rajaniemi is £3 in the UK (Kobo, Amazon)
Rajaniemi's latest novel.
Quote:
Before the bio-terror attack, Darkome was a place where DIY genetics enthusiasts could communicate in peace. After the attack, they were pushed deep underground by a brutal government response. The perpetrators were from Darkome, and the biohacker community was simply too dangerous to be allowed to exist.

Inara was a member of Darkome, but was forced to leave when she realised she had a rare form of cancer which could only be controlled by accepting an Aspis medchip. It could monitor her health and pump her full of a cocktail of drugs to combat her illness, but it went against everything Darkome stood for. She had to choose between her community and her life.

But now Inara's Aspis appears to have malfunctioned. She can edit her own DNA on the fly, make herself stronger, improve her eyesight, move faster. It could be the genetic breakthrough of the millenium, but only if she can figure out how it works. And manage to stay ahead of everyone else who wants this new secret, and don't care if she dies as a result. Chased by Aspis, Darkome and the government, her new skills may be the only way Inara has to survive... but they may cost her everything, including her humanity...
Nine Goblins by T Kingfisher is $4 in the US (Kobo is on sale. Amazon is not.)
This is getting a trad pub now, and Amazon has an ebook with Tordotcom branding, while Kobo is still the self-published edition.
Quote:
Nessilka had been in any number of battles, and she couldn't remember the first ten minutes of any of them.

She had a theory that if you could remember the first ten minutes, you'd never, ever charge at anybody again, so parts of your brain blotted them out.

The problem was that she couldn't imagine why her brain would want her to continue charging at people, and this then led her to the theory that parts of her brain worked for the Goblin High Command, which she didn't like at all.

Regardless, it was ten minutes into the battle, and she couldn't remember what had just happened. There'd been a lot of yelling. Everyone yelled. No matter what species you were, elf, human, goblin, orc, random bystander, you yelled. There had been a lot of hitting things. Her shield was bent in four or five places, and her arms ached dreadfully.

Algol went by at high speed, shield raised, with Mishkin and Mushkin practically stepping on his heels. Mishkin had gotten a sword from somewhere, and was waving it dangerously close to Algol's kidneys.
She had no idea how the battle was going, but she didn't seem to be dead, so from her perspective, everything was really going rather well.
Unfortunately, Sergeant Nessilka had just seen a problem.

The problem stood on a little rise, just enough to lift him out of the battle proper. He looked human, and he wasn't wearing armor, or carrying any weapons.

He was doing something with his hands, and there was a blueness in the air around him—not really a blue light, per se, but the world around him was turning shades of blue, like something behind a pane of cobalt glass. That wasn't right. That was magic, that was.

A bolt of blueness streaked out from his open mouth, and hit a knot of goblins, who fell down.

Aw, hell, Nessilka thought. It's a wizard...
The Poisoned King (Impossible Creatures #2) by Katherine Rundell is £2 in the UK (Kobo, Amazon)
Quote:
When Christopher Forrester is unexpectedly woken by a miniature dragon chewing on his face, his heart leaps for joy. For months he's dreamed of returning to the Archipelago – the secret islands where all the creatures of myth still live. But he did not know it would involve a rescue mission on the back of a sphinx, or a plan to enter a dragon's lair. Nor did he imagine it would involve a girl with a flock of birds at her side, a new-hatched chick in her pocket and a ravenous hunger for justice...
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