FREE/BARGAIN - Science Fiction, Fantasy - 2016

[rchiang]

Star Trek (TOS, TNG, JJVerse) novelizations available for $1.99 from Amazon:

Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Star Trek: Generations
Star Trek: First Contact
Star Trek: Insurrection
Star Trek: Nemesis
Star Trek (2009)
Star Trek Into Darkness

[ATDrake]

X-link to the DRM-free thread for an official RPG tie-in via Bundle of Holding:

Bundle of Laundry contains a repeat offer for the licensed adaptation of Charles Stross' excellent and entertaining The Laundry Files Lovecraftian spy thriller spoof urban fantasy series (portions of which are available to read for free as Hugo-nominated novelettes over at Tor.com, and via links on the author's own website), and is a very entertaining worldbuilding-exploring supplement to the main series, even if you don't game. (And it handily compiles a lot of the known info about the world into a nice near-encyclopedic format for read-along reference.)

I bought this last year when it was on offer coinciding with the then-upcoming release of the 5th book, and can recommend picking it up to go with the new release of the 6th book, The Nightmare Stacks, out today, if you like these sorts of things.

NB: although this is the official adaptation, the additional info is not canon for the series, just spinning off from the books and a few possibly-Jossed notes given to them by Stross, in case you were hoping for series-relevant tidbits.

[Fbone]

Grand Central Arena (Grand Central Arena #1) by Ryk E. Spoor is now FREE at Amazon. Baen 2010. GR 4.07.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...ies_dp_rw_ca_1

[Difflugia]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Grand Central Arena (Grand Central Arena #1) by Ryk E. Spoor is now FREE at Amazon. Baen 2010. GR 4.07.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...ies_dp_rw_ca_1

It's also free at Baen.

[ATDrake]

X-link to the Comics thread for some franchise tie-in stuff:

Humble Comics Bundle Star Trek presented by IDW contains both the newer titles from IDW proper, as well as their reprints of the old DC Comics and Gold Key-licensed lines, some of which a number of popular Star Trek tie-in novelists such as Diane Duane also contributed stories to (there is, in fact, a volume of Peter David-written stories in the bundle, according to one of the TPB blurbs).

[ATDrake]

Some non-couponable markdowns that are eligible for the 4x super bonus points holiday long weekend sale at Kobo US (no bonus points on user-selected books in Canada, unfortunately), and generally just cheap anyway:

• @ $1.99 (available in Canada) The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Hugo & Nebula nominee Ken Liu, a collection of his short fiction from Saga Press. I really liked the stories of his which showed up in the Hugo Voter Packet in previous years, and this in an auto-buy for me.
• @ $2.99 ($6.99 CAD) Driving Blind by Ray Bradbury, who should need no introduction to this thread. A collection of his short stories, out from HarperCollins.
• @ $2.99 ($9.99 CAD) The Wizard Hunters by Martha Wells. First in her Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy out from HarperCollins. She also has some self-republished backlist books originally out from Tor and Eos at that price-point, which are couponable/eligible for the extra VIP 10% off
• @ $4.99 ($9.99 CAD) Roma Eterna by Robert Silverberg, a collection of his alternate history stories about what if the Roman empire had survived into the present day, out from HarperCollins. This is a little on the pricier side, but if you happen to want to splurge while there's a bonus points offer, it's a decent deal. I really enjoyed these stories of these, and have them in an English hardcover and French paperback somewhere.

Also, for readers of Canadian and/or francophone sfnal fiction, x-link to the Kobo discounts thread for some Canada Day long weekend sales which have Canadian and French sf authors in them, as well as a daily rotating selection of sfnal authors in French translation for just $3.99 CAD with 5x bonus super points, if you're interested. There's Guy Gavriel Kay, Margaret Atwood, French authors Pierre Pevel, Fabrice Colin, and Pierre Pelot (including some of their actual Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire award-winning titles in the original language), and more among the lot, at the moment.

[datcha]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

Also, for readers of Canadian and/or francophone sfnal fiction, x-link to the Kobo discounts thread for some Canada Day long weekend sales which have Canadian and French sf authors in them, as well as a daily rotating selection of sfnal authors in French translation for just $3.99 CAD with 5x bonus super points, if you're interested. There's Guy Gavriel Kay, Margaret Atwood, French authors Pierre Pevel, Fabrice Colin, and Pierre Pelot (including some of their actual Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire award-winning titles in the original language), and more among the lot, at the moment.

eBooks in French

For readers living in France, or having usable access from other countries to the offer (I have no idea where outside France), the reseller chapitre.com has a similar offer of Bragelonne et Milady books (and some others). One hundred books are thus accessible everyday for 0.99 euros a book. Many are translations from English (older and recent books).

The entry point on the web is for me: http://ebook.chapitre.com/ , see #GrosseOP. The books change everyday, though the same titles may come back. They do not say how long it will last (could be until August 2nd, when the official sales period terminates in France). Recall time difference: I do not know at what time the list of eligible books changes.

I just discovered that this same offer is also accessible from Kobo (at least when it knows you as French) at https://store.kobobooks.com/. Theystate it stops next sunday at midnight (French time).

I would be interested in knowing whether this offer is accessible from other countries, through one of the vendors.

It never say whether the books have DRM. More precisely, the vendor may say "Contenu protégé" , i.e. protected content (DRM), or just say "nc", meaning "non communiqué", i.e. not communicated. Apparently, that is actually intended to mean that the book comes in several formats, some of which may have DRM. My experience, for what I bought (given the low price) is that they provide an ePub version without DRM. But I tried only books originally written in French, or translations from non-English languages. Maybe another user may confirm for translations from English.

It is strange that they will not tell when a book has no DRM, but they may be under "social" pressure not to do so. The major French publishers have power and a deep hatred of non-restricted culture (whatever the lies they may serve in the media).

[Little.Egret]

Originally Posted by datcha

eBooks in French

For readers living in France, or having usable access from other countries to the offer (I have no idea where outside France), the reseller chapitre.com has a similar offer of Bragelonne et Milady books (and some others). One hundred books are thus accessible everyday for 0.99 euros a book. Many are translations from English (older and recent books).

The entry point on the web is for me: http://ebook.chapitre.com/ The books change everyday, though the same titles may come back. They do not say how long it will last (could be until August 2nd, when the official sales period terminates in France). Recall time difference: I do not know at what time the list of eligible books changes.

I would be interested in knowing whether this offer is accessible from other countries.

It never say whether the books have DRM. More precisely, the vendor may say "Contenu protégé" , i.e. protected content (DRM), or just say "nc", meaning "non communiqué", i.e. not communicated. Apparently, that is actually intended to mean that the book comes in several formats, some of which may have DRM. My experience, for what I bought (given the low price) is that they provide an ePub version without DRM. But I tried only books originally written in French, or translations from non-English languages. Maybe another user may confirm for translations from English.

It is strange that they will not tell when a book has no DRM, but they may be under "social" pressure not to do so. The major French publishers have power and a deep hatred of non-restricted culture (whatever the lies they may serve in the media).

Even /Amazon/ don't always say there is no DRM.

But here I see "E-Book multi-format" and that usually includes Mobi for Kindle. If so DRM is impossible for that format unless download is from Amazon.

[datcha]

Originally Posted by Little.Egret

Even /Amazon/ don't always say there is no DRM.

But here I see "E-Book multi-format" and that usually includes Mobi for Kindle. If so DRM is impossible for that format unless download is from Amazon.

That seems logical, given that Amazon controls the whole thing.

BTW, I modified my post, as the offer is now also available from Kobo. Apparently exactly the same. But they states it stop on sunday at midnight (French hour).

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by datcha

I would be interested in knowing whether this offer is accessible from other countries, through one of the vendors.

Chapitre.com will let me signup from Canada, but it's all geo-restricted for me as I can't add anything non-physical to the cart, not even the free ebooks listed on the promo page. I just get the error message of "Désolé, ce produit est actuellement indisponible". OTOH, I can add things to my wishlist, which is handier than doing it at Amazon or Kobo, since the prices are included on the list and I can easily check if say, J'ai Lu has price-dropped a title in France and hopefully are carrying the sale through to Canada as well.

As it turns out, Bragelonne had such success with the #GrosseOP promo that the Facebook page for their main France operations says that they are repeating all 500 books in the promo over the weekend, with some links to vendors who carry them. Bragelonne Québec, who are well aware of the price discrepancy between the Canadian dollar and the Euro and just don't care, are also pushing the promo as just 100 books per day and also provide multi-vendor linkage, but Kobo Canada seems to have all of them listed at the discount price and eligible for 5x Bonus Super Points anyway, without having to wait for them to rotate.

Originally Posted by datcha

It never say whether the books have DRM. More precisely, the vendor may say "Contenu protégé" , i.e. protected content (DRM), or just say "nc", meaning "non communiqué", i.e. not communicated. Apparently, that is actually intended to mean that the book comes in several formats, some of which may have DRM. My experience, for what I bought (given the low price) is that they provide an ePub version without DRM. But I tried only books originally written in French, or translations from non-English languages. Maybe another user may confirm for translations from English.

In the case of the Chapitre.com listings which you provided in your post, scrolling down on the page to "Affiner par" on the sidebar to refine your search has a tickybox of "Protection numérique" for which one can see all 103 titles in the #GrosseOP sale are checked as "pas de protection", which looks a lot like a stealth DRM-free listing.

I'll note that Bragelonne also seem to be secretly DRM-free at iTunes, judging from the freebie sampler I was able to successfully transfer over from iBooks to another e-reader program.

Incidentally for readers wishing to look into vintage French science fiction from this sale, there are 60s/70s reprint titles in the Bragelonne Classique line by Michel Jeury (Wikipedia) and Jean-Pierre Andrevon (Wikipedia) in it, both of whom their Wikipedia entries seem to say they were strong influences in the French science fiction scene at the time. And fantasy novelist Magali Ségura (Wikipedia) is another Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire alumna, though only as a nominee, though she does have a Prix Bob-Morane. And Serge Brussolo (Wikipedia) is a Prix Apollo winner with some titles represented in the sale as well.

[Fbone]

Boundary by Eric Flint, Ryk E. Spoor is now FREE at Amazon. Baen 2006. GR 3.89.


https://smile.amazon.com/Boundary-Bo...ary+eric+flint

[murg]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Boundary by Eric Flint, Ryk E. Spoor is now FREE at Amazon. Baen 2006. GR 3.89.

It's also in the Baen Free Library, which means it'll be free for pretty much forever.

http://www.baen.com/boundary.html

[specficwriter]

Phoenix pick book of the month is a double by Joe Haldeman and Greg Benford. The Mars Girl and As Big As The Ritz.

http://www.phoenixpick.com/botm/Double.htm

[datcha]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Boundary by Eric Flint, Ryk E. Spoor is now FREE at Amazon. Baen 2006. GR 3.89.
https://smile.amazon.com/Boundary-Bo...ary+eric+flint

This book is free in Baen Free Library, along with many others. And Baen has a wider variety of ebooks formats available.

Actually, 3 books have been added to Baen Free Library in the past two months:

• Boundary by Eric Flint and Ryk E. Spoor
• Digital Knight by Ryk E. Spoor (ignore the red text about non-availability, and the shaded picture)
• Grand Central Arena by Ryk E. Spoor

[Little.Egret]

Originally Posted by datcha

This book is free in Baen Free Library, along with many others. And Baen has a wider variety of ebooks formats available.

Actually, 3 books have been added to Baen Free Library in the past two months:

• Boundary by Eric Flint and Ryk E. Spoor
• Digital Knight by Ryk E. Spoor (ignore the red text about non-availability, and the shaded picture)
• Grand Central Arena by Ryk E. Spoor

Normally Baen Free Library books are also free on Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/s/?url=search...publisher=Baen

However at present GCA and B are free in N&S America and in Australia but not free in Europe and UK.

I have enquired of Baen Support.