FREE/BARGAIN - Science Fiction, Fantasy - 2015

[Manabi]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

Free from the small press re-publisher via KDP Select @ Amazon:

The Doppelgänger Gambit by Hugo-nominee Lee Killough (ISFDB, Wikipedia), 1st in her Brill/Maxwell series of sci-fi police procedural murder mysteries, originally out from Del Rey in 1979.

It looks like straightforward suicide to Detective Janna Brill. Starship outfitter Andy Kellener locked himself in his office after hours and took a fatal drug dose. But Brill’s exasperating new partner Mama Maxwell thinks it’s murder, and his chief suspect is Kellener’s partner Jorge Hazlett. The trouble is, Hazlett has an airtight alibi. In 2091's cashless society, every purchase is made with a data chip implanted in the individual’s wrist...and Hazlett’s bank records put him in a shopping mall clear across town at the time of his partner’s death. To get their man, Brill and Maxwell have to prove Hazlett faked his shopping spree...and possibly destroy law enforcement’s best tool since DNA for tracking suspects!

Sounds like a fun read, but that cover just makes me cringe. I think this one looks much better:

[Dr. Drib]

Lee Killough's newer covers are the worst covers I've ever seen on an ebook, in my opinion.

Those older covers from Ballantine are very nice.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Lee Killough's newer covers are the worst covers I've ever seen on an ebook, in my opinion.

Those older covers from Ballantine are very nice.

Ha! I sent the link to a friend who reads this genre and told her to ignore the cover! It really is quite awful.

[ATDrake]

Free again from the author via KDP Select @ Amazon:

Feeding the Feral Children by Star Wars tie-in author Dave Wolverton (ISFDB, Wikipedia) writing as David Farland, a fantasy short set in Ancient China, originally published in the Prime Books anthology The Way of the Wizard in 2010.

In 235 BC, a young man in China falls in love, but needs money to buy land in order to convince a young woman’s father that he is a worthy suitor.

Taking the dangerous new Silk Road into Persia, he must face giant pink-tusked elephants, desert sandstorms, and dangerous bandits.

But when all that he owns is stolen, he runs afoul of Mongol sorcerer, to the peril of his soul.

[peachiekene]

Originally Posted by Manabi

Sounds like a fun read, but that cover just makes me cringe. I think this one looks much better:

That new cover is really horrible. I'm not sure it could look more photoshopped* if they tried. The old one is pretty cute!

The book isn't free anymore, but it piqued my interest and I had some promotional credits - thus I grabbed it. Even though I broke my own rule of not grabbing books that are only sold by one retailer.
I definitely want this for my next read!

*I know most (if not all) covers are done digitally these days, but with the sheer amount of resources available, you'd think really terrible covers would be a thing of the past.

[ATDrake]

Free from the author via KDP Select @ Amazon:

Enhanced by Anne Kelleher (ISFDB), an sfnal short involving the ethics of genetic engineering, from the looks of it.

In a world where parents can choose to have their children's natural abilities "enhanced," what would you decide?

[septentrion]

Amazon bargains (and probably other retailers):

The first book in the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson is 2.99 $: http://www.amazon.com/Mistborn-Final.../dp/B002GYI9C4.

The Undead Pool, 12th book in the Hollows series by Kim Harrison, is 1.99 $: http://www.amazon.com/The-Undead-Poo.../dp/B00DB3DBGI.

Incarnate, the firts in the New Soul series by Jodi Meadows, is 1.99 $: http://www.amazon.com/Incarnate-Jodi.../dp/B005GG0K80.

[ATDrake]

Free from the author via KDP Select @ Amazon: (linkage for the lot)

Bones Burnt Black by Stephen Euin Cobb (ISFDB, Wikipedia), a sci-fi suspense novel involving a spaceship crew racing to outwit a serial killer saboteur in their midst, originally out from small imprint August Press in 2004.

A serial killer--brilliant, methodical and suicidal--sabotages a large commercial spacecraft's engines to set it on an eight-day trajectory to burn up in the sun, then remains aboard ship to murder and torment its passengers and crew. With no other ships near enough to reach them, rescue is impossible, and the few survivors fight their unknown enemy while trying to invent a way to survive the growing heat of the sun.

Indistinguishable from Magic: Predictions of Revolutionary Future Science, a mini-collection of his non-fiction-ish futurism essays, some originally published in Jim Baen's Universe magazine.

This collection of six articles--written by an experienced futurist who has interviewed over 300 people for their opinion about the future--describes several of the far future scientific and technological innovations which will transform our civilization from what it is now into an exponentially larger, faster, stronger and more dynamic civilization than can be contained on this planet, or in this solar system, or within this universe. These technologies will allow us to expand through those boundaries and find new unimagined boundaries beyond them to break through.

[ETA: turns out this one is also backlist and not self-pub]

Plague at Redhook, a hard sf novel involving a group of explorers affected by a mysterious ailment occurring on a planet which becomes under threat of destruction to keep it from spreading, also out from August Press in 1999.

Exploration of the newly discovered Earth-like planet Redhook stops when—for sixteen days—sleeping explorers refuse to wake, angry ones never calm down, and one lust-filled woman chases everyone. Assuming it to be a disease, the U.N. military places the planet under strict quarantine and, terrified it will spread, consider using thousands of nuclear warheads to destroy the plague by annihilating the entire biosphere of Redhook, along with all forty-seven infected explorers.

Cobb also offers a few additional self-pub-looking sfnal titles and some more futurism non-fic, if you're interested.

Free again from the author via KDP Select @ Amazon:

Almost All the Way Home From the Stars: Seven Science Fiction Stories by the late Campbell Award-winner & Hugo/Nebula-nominee Jay Lake (ISFDB, Wikipedia) & Nebula-nominee Ruth Nestvold (ISFDB, Wikipedia), their collection of collaborations on Exactly What It Says In The Title, which were mostly previously published, with some also appearing in those Gardner Dozois-edited Year's Best Science Fiction volumes.

Near future dystopia, colonies in space, galactic empires: this collection has it all! "Almost All the Way Home From the Stars" is a collection of seven science fiction short stories by award winning writers Jay Lake and Ruth Nestvold. The settings range from galactic empires on distant worlds, to a dystopia in the near future warped by fundamentalism, to an alternate US where slavery was never abolished.

Free again from the author via KDP Select @ Amazon:

Bernardo's House by Hugo & Nebula Award-winner James Patrick Kelly (ISFDB, Wikipedia), whom you may know best from his excellent short story "Think Like A Dinosaur", which was adapted into a The Outer Limits episode. This is domestic AI novella which was originally published as a Fictionwise-exclusive e-book short in 2004, and is now labelled as 1st in his Future Fiction series.

A domotic story, a conscious living house who speaks and shows, through the objects that fill her, the need to be inhabited, to be eternally possessed by a tenant.

Get ready for an unusual visit to "Bernardo's House", where the topic of home automation is inseparably interwoven with Artificial Intelligence: what would happen if such a House would lose her "beloved tenant", and if in his place - with a totally unexpected visit - came a strange figure? Unknown to the House, which will question each and every certainty of her life.

[Dngrsone]

That first one looks interesting enough to justify buying it at the current price...

[Laurablue]

These books by Stephen Euin Cobb are also free at Amazon.ca (as are the books linked in the post #248)
Skinbrain
Plague at Redhook
A Brief History of Predicting the Future

[Brendan Moody]

The new additions to the latest Humble Book Bundle have been announced. As usual, they're all at the "beat the average" tier (currently $12.59), and they are:

Joe R. Lansdale, Bleeding Shadows
Robert McCammon, I Travel by Night
Tim Powers, Salvage and Demolition
Elizabeth Bear, New Amsterdam
Thomas Ligotti, The Agonizing Resurrection of Victor Frankenstein and Other Gothic Tales

[Dngrsone]

Originally Posted by Brendan Moody

The new additions to the latest Humble Book Bundle have been announced. As usual, they're all at the "beat the average" tier (currently $12.59), and they are:

Joe R. Lansdale, Bleeding Shadows
Robert McCammon, I Travel by Night
Tim Powers, Salvage and Demolition
Elizabeth Bear, New Amsterdam
Thomas Ligotti, The Agonizing Resurrection of Victor Frankenstein and Other Gothic Tales

Awesome!

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by Brendan Moody

The new additions to the latest Humble Book Bundle have been announced. As usual, they're all at the "beat the average" tier (currently $12.59), and they are:

Joe R. Lansdale, Bleeding Shadows
Robert McCammon, I Travel by Night
Tim Powers, Salvage and Demolition
Elizabeth Bear, New Amsterdam
Thomas Ligotti, The Agonizing Resurrection of Victor Frankenstein and Other Gothic Tales

How did you find out? This was my first time purchasing a Humble Bundle and I didn't get notified about the new books. If this is normal for them it will be my last purchase.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

How did you find out? This was my first time purchasing a Humble Bundle and I didn't get notified about the new books. If this is normal for them it will be my last purchase.

If you're subscribed to their email in your account settings, they send out an auto-notice. Or one can check manually on Wednesdays after 11 AM Pacific Time (Tuesdays for the front-page gaming bundle) for the new additions which are a regular thing for the 2-week bundles. IIRC, they also notify on their blog as well.

That said, as long as you paid more than the average price at the time you made your own purchase, you automatically get all the new stuff added to your account. (And if not, you can always top up your purchase from your account page if there's anything you really wanted.)

[Andanzas]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

How did you find out? This was my first time purchasing a Humble Bundle and I didn't get notified about the new books. If this is normal for them it will be my last purchase.

New books are always added on Wednesdays (that is, one week after the bundle launches). And if you are subscribed to their books newsletter, you should have received an announcement (the topic was "Just when you thought this bundle was dead, it gets resurrected with Frankenstein!").

EDIT: Oh well.