Free (Kobo) Far-Seer by Robert J. Sawyer [Award-Win Sci-Fi Dinosaur Galileo Novel]

[ATDrake]

Far-Seer by Canadian author Robert J. Sawyer (ISFDB, Wikipedia, SFE), who also happens to be one of our fellow MR member authors, is the 1st novel in his Quintaglio Ascension trilogy of xeno-exploration science fiction novels, set on a planetful of intelligent dinosaurs who are on the cusp of making the leap from a medieval-ish to more modern age, with spot-the-scientific-figure analogues, this installment setting up the premise of the inhabitants discovering the scientific method even as they resist unwelcome revelations about their world, free for a limited time courtesy of the author himself, in part to celebrate his recent receiving of the Order of Canada, one of our highest national honours.

This was originally published in 1992 by Ace Books and was the 1992 winner of the HOMer Award for Best Novel (this was apparently a Readers' Choice prize given out by members of the old CompuServe service) as well as a nominee for the Aurora Awards. The included bonus short story did actually win both an Aurora and a HOMer.

This trilogy happens to be one of my very favourites ever of Sawyer's work (though the 2nd novel is my actual favourite of the set, for the Galapagos finch analogues done with arctic pterodactyls), and I think I technically own this particular title in it thrice over now: in an ancient SFBC hardcover edition, the Tor TPB reprint (apparently mildly revised, though I was never able to figure out what, if anything, had changed), and this very e-book, which I snapped up when it was on 99 cent sale a few months ago. I do not in the least regret spending money on it thrice, as it was well worth it every time.

Currently free through the end of 2016 @ Kobo (ADE-DRM ePub available worldwide), and you can read a wealth of supplementary material about the writing of the book and the background of the series over at the author's dedicated webpage for it.

Incidentally, a good chunk of Sawyer's excellent previously Ace-published backlist has now reverted to him, and he's selling them at Kobo for reasonable prices made even more reasonable by the fact that they're couponable. Aside from the rest of the Quintaglio Ascension trilogy, I especially recommend Golden Fleece, which is an excellent locked-room murder mystery which takes place on a spaceship, and Factoring Humanity is also pretty good, for an interesting look at the ethics of AI and alien contact.

Description
Sixty-five million years ago, aliens transplanted Earth's dinosaurs to another world. Now, intelligent saurians -- the Quintaglios -- have emerged. Afsan, the Quintaglio counterpart of Galileo, must convince his people of the truth about their place in the universe before astronomical forces rip the dinosaurs' new home apart.

This exclusive Kobo edition contains the Aurora Award-winning short story Just Like Old Times.

[ATDrake]

Just a reminder that this will probably be the last day to pick up this freebie which officially expires at the end of the year.

Unless the price-reset has to be done manually like some of the regular monthly freebies seem to do and would probably wait until after the holiday weekend .