FREE/BARGAIN — Science Fiction & Fantasy

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by LJJohnson

Well, I agree with you about 50%. A bad cover makes we check the book with excruciating care, and even then second-guess whether to buy it or not. Usually, I won't buy it unless I have a really good recommendation from someone I trust, or a very high curiosity based on something unique in the summary.

A good cover can actually seduce me into a purchase with little checking (and sometimes buyers remorse after starting to read it).

I had a hard cover book say "take me home". Thinking I am glad it was used and cheap.

[Kieran Seymour]

Originally Posted by bgalbrecht

What's missing from the Rosetta Books edition?

The one obvious omission which stood out a mile...

Spoiler:

... was the part where the blind doctor throws himself out of the window, shortly after Bill has removed his bandages and started exploring the hospital.

It'd been about twenty-five years since I'd read it, and in that space of time I'd become far more familiar with the excellent 1981 TV adaptation, so I initially thought I was getting the two versions confused.

And it was at that point I dug out my old Penguin paperback and there it was. I suppose it could be a different edit, or maybe just an error on Rosetta's part, but it's not the full Penguin experience as it currently stands - I've just re-downloaded it from Amazon to check and it's still incomplete.

[ratinox]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The problem is that when the cover looks like Photoshop barfed, a lot of people won't read the book. I'm one of them.

Yup. It's not a matter of judging the book by the cover; it's deciding whether or not we are willing to pay for something which appeals to us -- or fails to do so.

[HarryT]

Moderator Notice
Please take the discussion of book covers elsewhere. This is not the place for it.

[Demingy]

Howl's Moving Castle is $1.99 in today's Kindle daily deals. https://smile.amazon.com/Howls-Movin...d_i=7533915011

[Conan46]

Thanks for posting Howl's Moving Castle!

[bfisher]

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman is on sale at Amazon.ca for $CDN 1.99
https://www.amazon.ca/Forever-War-Jo.../dp/B00PI184XG

A classic, won both the Hugo and Nebula

[TrevorViking]

Originally Posted by bfisher

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman is on sale at Amazon.ca for $CDN 1.99
https://www.amazon.ca/Forever-War-Jo.../dp/B00PI184XG

A classic, won both the Hugo and Nebula

This is the one that was on sale, strangely, for 25 cents a few months ago.

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by TrevorViking

This is the one that was on sale, strangely, for 25 cents a few months ago.

Sweet deal! Was that on Amazon.com?

[gbm]

In my email today.

Phoenix Pick Limited Time Retail Sale
Title of Book: The Best of Cordwainer Smith
Author: Cordwainer Smith
Regular Price: $5.99
Sale Price: $2.99

"No one ever wrote like Smith, with his special blend of intense myth-making and rich invention!"—Publishers Weekly

Cordwainer Smith was one of the original visionaries to think of humanity in terms of thousands of years in the future, spread out across the universe. This brilliant collection, often cited as the first of its kind, explores fundamental questions about ourselves and our treatment of the universe (and other beings) around us and ultimately what it means to be human.

Spoiler:

In “Scanners Live in Vain” we meet Martel, a human altered to be part machine—a scanner—to be able withstand the trauma space travel has on the body. Despite the stigma placed on him and his kind, he is able to regrasp his humanity to save another.

In “The Dead Lady of Clown Town” we get to know the underpeople—animals genetically altered to exist in human form, to better serve their human owners—and meet D’Joan, a dog-woman who will make readers question who is more human: the animals who simply want to be recognized as having the same right to life, or the people who created them to be inferior.

In “The Ballad of Lost C’mell” the notion of love being the most important equalizer there is—as first raised in “The Dead Lady of Clown Town”—is put into action when an underperson, C’mell, falls in love with Lord Jestocost. Who is to say her love for him is not as valid as any true-born human? She might be of cat descent, but she is all woman!

And in “A Planet Named Shayol” it is an underperson of bull descent, and beings so mutilated and deformed from their original human condition to be now considered demons of a hellish land, who retain and display the most humanity when Mankind commits the most inhumane action of all

.

Amazon
B&N
Kobo

bernie

Note:
If you have When the People Fell and We the Underpeople from Baen then you already have all these stories.

[LJJohnson]

Originally Posted by gbm

In my email today.

Phoenix Pick Limited Time Retail Sale
Title of Book: The Best of Cordwainer Smith
Author: Cordwainer Smith
Regular Price: $5.99
Sale Price: $2.99

[B]Note: [/B
If you have When the People Fell and We the Underpeople from Baen then you already have all these stories.

Speaking of Cordwainer Smith, has anyone heard any rumors about when the rest of Cordwainer Smith's stories might be ePublished? Yes, I know many of them are available as a DTB, but with my eyes, reading is decidedly uncomfortable with paper books, even with a 150-watt light shining on it. And both of the Baen books with his stories are unavailable.

The two current ebook compilations I'm aware of are Norstrilia (with the prequel, The Ballad of Lost C'Mell) and The Best of Cordwainer Smith. I have both, and have read them a few (10+) times. Depending on how you count the renamings and recombinations of stories, that accounts for 11 short stories and a short novel. According to the Cordwainer Smith site (http://www.cordwainer-smith.com/all-...-the-books.htm), that leaves 30+ short stories. I don't care if some of the stories are incomplete are not as good as his others. I think anything he wrote would be of value.

[gweeks]

Originally Posted by LJJohnson

Speaking of Cordwainer Smith, has anyone heard any rumors about when the rest of Cordwainer Smith's stories might be ePublished? Yes, I know many of them are available as a DTB, but with my eyes, reading is decidedly uncomfortable with paper books, even with a 150-watt light shining on it. And both of the Baen books with his stories are unavailable.

The two current ebook compilations I'm aware of are Norstrilia (with the prequel, The Ballad of Lost C'Mell) and The Best of Cordwainer Smith. I have both, and have read them a few (10+) times. Depending on how you count the renamings and recombinations of stories, that accounts for 11 short stories and a short novel. According to the Cordwainer Smith site (http://www.cordwainer-smith.com/all-...-the-books.htm), that leaves 30+ short stories. I don't care if some of the stories are incomplete are not as good as his others. I think anything he wrote would be of value.

If you are in Canada fadedpage.com has 8 of the short stories from Galaxy and If.

Greg

[gbm]

Originally Posted by LJJohnson

Speaking of Cordwainer Smith, has anyone heard any rumors about when the rest of Cordwainer Smith's stories might be ePublished? Yes, I know many of them are available as a DTB, but with my eyes, reading is decidedly uncomfortable with paper books, even with a 150-watt light shining on it. And both of the Baen books with his stories are unavailable.

The two current ebook compilations I'm aware of are Norstrilia (with the prequel, The Ballad of Lost C'Mell) and The Best of Cordwainer Smith. I have both, and have read them a few (10+) times. Depending on how you count the renamings and recombinations of stories, that accounts for 11 short stories and a short novel. According to the Cordwainer Smith site (http://www.cordwainer-smith.com/all-...-the-books.htm), that leaves 30+ short stories. I don't care if some of the stories are incomplete are not as good as his others. I think anything he wrote would be of value.

All I can suggest is to keep an eye out for more works from Phoenix Pick.

bernie

[Little.Egret]

Originally Posted by Little.Egret

Free for four days.

Empire of the One (Wine of the Gods Book 14) by Pam Uphoff

They crossed the dimensions to infiltrate another world and found it preparing for invasion and war. Can they use this strange world's social conventions to derail the invasion ?

I really enjoyed reading this one - both the old and new characters - all of which appear in later books

And now free for the first time (published May 2014)

Dancer (Wine of the Gods Book 15) by Pam Uphoff

Rael Withione was once one of the elite, allocated to guard the President of the Empire of the One
After the assassination attempt, she has a long recovery ahead.
Investigating her brother-in-law's murder was not part of her scheduled physical therapy.

Sequel to Empire of the One (Wine of the Gods Book 14) free last week but can be read as a stand alone. I enjoyed it (and the SF police procedural).

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by gbm

All I can suggest is to keep an eye out for more works from Phoenix Pick.

bernie

Phoenix Pick, the worst publisher in existence because they make eBooks worse than anyone else. Take a very messy Mobi, make that into an ePub with the mess in tact. That's what their ePub look like under the hood. Sometimes you won't be able to change the font, line-height, margins, or use night mode.