FREE/BARGAIN — Science Fiction & Fantasy

[Dr. Drib]

I got a boatload of free Open Road John Brunner titles about 12-13 years ago. Including ALL authors, it was probably around 150-200 titles. Maybe more; I don't remember.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I got a boatload of free Open Road John Brunner titles about 12-13 years ago. Including ALL authors, it was probably around 150-200 titles. Maybe more; I don't remember.

Despite this being the Science Fiction thread, I don't have a time machine to go back and pick up those freebies.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Despite this being the Science Fiction thread, I don't have a time machine to go back and pick up those freebies.

I thought 'we' all got those downloads - or most of them, anyway. I remember members of Mobileread going crazy over such a haul.

[lkmiller]

I was just thinking that you probably don't need a time machine unless you've lost a backup between now and the Great Open Road Giveaway!

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by lkmiller

I was just thinking that you probably don't need a time machine unless you've lost a backup between now and the Great Open Road Giveaway!

Sadly, I must have missed out on it.

If any of you have The Compleat Traveller in Black on your TBR and have never got around to it, I do recommend it as a great read.

[maddz]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Sadly, I must have missed out on it.

If any of you have The Compleat Traveller in Black on your TBR and have never got around to it, I do recommend it as a great read.

I remember checking it out at the time and it seems it was pretty well US only.

[lkmiller]

Originally Posted by maddz

I remember checking it out at the time and it seems it was pretty well US only.

Oh, that's true. So you would need time travel and regular travel for those deals.

[DNSB]

The original 1971 edition of The Traveler in Black had 4 stories. The story titled The Things That Are Gods was added in the 1979 edition and the title changed to The Compleat Traveller in Black. There was an ebook edition that only had the 4 original stories but added Compleat to the title. I ran into it back in 2016 and had fun getting a refund so I could get the complete Compleat edition.

There was also an edition that added a sixth story according to Amazon, Kobo, etc. a few of years back. Since it was in Kobo Plus, I downloaded it but it seems to have the same 5 stories as the edition I downloaded a decade back with the Open Road copyright showing 2014.

[salty-horse]

Flowers for the Sea by Zin E. Rocklyn is $2 on Amazon.com (only)

Winner of the Shirley Jackson Award
Winner of the Pulver Award
An Ignyte Award Finalist
A Library Journal Editor's Pick! A Den of Geeks Best Books of 2021!

Flowers for the Sea is a dark, dazzling debut novella that reads like Rosemary's Baby by way of Octavia E. Butler
We are a people who do not forget.
Survivors from a flooded kingdom struggle alone on an ark. Resources are scant, and ravenous beasts circle. Their fangs are sharp.
Among the refugees is Iraxi: ostracized, despised, and a commoner who refused a prince, she's pregnant with a child that might be more than human. Her fate may be darker and more powerful than she can imagine.
Zin E. Rocklyn's extraordinary debut is a lush, gothic fantasy about the prices we pay and the vengeance we seek.

[ballfresno]

Originally Posted by salty-horse

Solaris has a sale on all of Derek Kunsken's Quantum Evolution books, to celebrate the release of the new title.

Thanks! Got the ones I didn't already have. Mind you, I've not read any of them yet so a bit of a (not very expensive) punt but hopefully I will enjoy them!

[salty-horse]

Breath of the Dragon (Breathmarked #1) by Shannon Lee & Fonda Lee (no relation) is $3 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)

A young warrior dreams of proving his worth in the elite Guardian Tournament, fighting not only for himself but the fate of everything he loves.

Sixteen-year-old Jun dreams of proving his worth as a warrior in the elite Guardian’s Tournament, held every six years to entrust the magical Scroll of Heaven to a new protector. Eager to prove his skills, Jun hopes that a win will restore his father’s pride—righting a horrible mistake that caused their banishment from his home, mother, and twin brother.

But Jun’s father strictly forbids him from participating. He believes there is no future in Jun honing his skills as a warrior, especially considering Jun is not breathmarked, born with a patch of dragon scales and blessed with special abilities like his twin. Determined to be the next Guardian, Jun stows away in the wagon of Chang and his daughter, Ren, performers on their way to the capital where the tournament will take place.

As Jun competes, he quickly realizes he may be fighting for not just a better life, but the fate of the country itself and the very survival of everyone he cares about.

From an interview:

Where did the inspiration for Breath of the Dragon come from?

Shannon: I have been sitting with some of my father’s story ideas that he created for himself as vehicles in film and television. They are all different yet they all carry similar themes, and I began to wonder if it might be possible to weave these characters, themes, locations and philosophies into one narrative in one world. So I started to play with doing just that, and created a thirty or so page treatment of the journey I felt could bring these all together. Never having written a fiction book on my own (yet) and wanting the book to have life sooner than my procrastination might allow, I went looking for someone to co-author this with me and found the perfection of Fonda Lee, who, of course, evolved what I started so deftly and skillfully!

Fonda: Bruce Lee is such an iconic figure for me personally—as an Asian American, a martial artist, and a storyteller. So the inspiration really came from him and from Shannon’s idea to introduce his enduring ethos into a new fantasy world entirely of our own making.

[salty-horse]

Harmattan Season by Tochi Onyebuchi is $3 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)
High on my wishlist.

**“This is a brilliant blending of worlds and traditions—West African lore meets Easy Rawlins—which makes for something absolutely devourable. And that’s exactly what I did. Without a doubt, this is Onyebuchi at his best!” —Jason Reynolds

Fortune always left whatever room I walked into, which is why I don’t leave my place much these days...**

Veteran and private eye Boubacar doesn’t need much—least of all trouble—but trouble always seems to find him. Work has dried up, and he’d rather be left alone to deal with his bills as the Harmattan rolls in to coat the city in dust, but Bouba is a down on his luck deux-fois, suspended between two cultures and two worlds.

When a bleeding woman stumbles onto his doorway, only to vanish just as quickly, Bouba reluctantly finds himself enmeshed in the secrets of a city boiling on the brink of violence. The French occupiers are keen to keep the peace at any cost, and the indigenous dugulen have long been shattered into restless factions vying for a chance to reclaim their lost heritage and abilities. As each hard-won clue reveals horrifying new truths, Bouba may have to carve out parts of himself he’s long kept hidden, and decide what he’s willing to offer next.

From the visionary author of Riot Baby and Goliath, Harmattan Season is a gripping fantasy noir in the tradition of Chandler, Hammond, and Christie that will have you by the throat—both dryly funny and unforgettably evocative.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by salty-horse

Harmattan Season by Tochi Onyebuchi is $3 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)
High on my wishlist.

Hey, that sounds very good!

Another big novel of his, Riot Baby is also $3, but only at Amazon

Winner of the World Fantasy Award, ALA Alex Award, New England Book Award for Fiction, Ignyte Award, and AABMC Literary Award

Ella has a Thing. She sees a classmate grow up to become a caring nurse. A neighbor's son murdered in a drive-by shooting. Things that haven't happened yet. Kev, born while Los Angeles burned around them, wants to protect his sister from a power that could destroy her. But when Kev is incarcerated, Ella must decide what it means to watch her brother suffer while holding the ability to wreck cities in her hands.

Rooted in the hope that can live in anger, Riot Baby is as much an intimate family story as a global dystopian narrative. It burns fearlessly toward revolution and has quietly devastating things to say about love, fury, and the Black American experience. Ella and Kev are both shockingly human and immeasurably powerful. Their childhoods are defined and destroyed by racism. Their futures might alter the world.

[salty-horse]

One Message Remains by Premee Mohamed is $3 on the publisher's website to celebrate its nomination for the Canadian Aurora Awards
This is a short story collection. Contents

[Cactus Chef]

The Big Book of Cyberpunk by Jared Shurin is $2 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)

*A genre-defining—*and redefining—collection of the boldest, most rebellious, and most prescient speculative fiction, featuring stories from all over the globe.

“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”

Almost forty years ago, William Gibson wrote the line that began *Neuromancer—*and a movement that would change the face of science fiction.
Award-winning anthologist Jared Shurin brings together over a hundred stories from more than twenty-five countries that both establish and subvert the classic cyberpunk tropes and aesthetic—from gritty, near-future noir to pulse-pounding action. Urban rebels undermine monolithic corporate overlords. Daring heists are conducted through back alleys and the darkest parts of the online world. There’s dangerous new technology, cybernetic enhancements, scheming AI, corporate mercenaries, improbable weapons, and roguish hackers. These tales examine the near-now, extrapolating the most provocative trends into fascinating and plausible futures.

We live in an increasingly cyberpunk world—packed with complex technologies and globalized social trends. A world so bizarre that even futurists couldn’t explain it—though many authors in this book have come closer than most. As both an introduction to the genre and the perfect compendium for the lifelong fan, The Big Book of Cyberpunk offers a hundred ways to understand where we are and where we’re going.