FREE/BARGAIN — Science Fiction & Fantasy

[Dngrsone]

Originally Posted by andyh2000

I whole-heartedly second the recommendation (and for 'Cyteen'), but the link seems to be for an audio book. I can't find it in the amazon.co.uk Kindle store either. Not available as an ebook from Amazon?

Andrew

Cyteen is awesome, and I am looking forward to seeing digital copies.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by andyh2000

Still can't see it. UK:

Attachment 169236

US:

Attachment 169237

Am I missing something?

What you (and many others who post amazon.com links here) might be missing is that amazon.com links don't show you the US store unless you are in the US (or using a VPN). Generally, viewing amazon.com is like viewing your local amazon.store but with the pices displayed in US dollars (that is, not the US price, but the local price converted to US dollars). E.g. When I view amazon.com from New Zealand I see the same limited selection of books that are available on amazon.com.au, but with the Australian dollar price converted to US dollars.

[maddz]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

What you (and many others who post amazon.com links here) might be missing is that amazon.com links don't show you the US store unless you are in the US (or using a VPN). Generally, viewing amazon.com is like viewing your local amazon.store but with the pices displayed in US dollars (that is, not the US price, but the local price converted to US dollars). E.g. When I view amazon.com from New Zealand I see the same limited selection of books that are available on amazon.com.au, but with the Australian dollar price converted to US dollars.

If using a VPN, make sure you're logged out to view the full US list. It really astonishes me that publishers still haven't caught on that geo-restrictions loose them sales. I would love to replace a load of print editions with electronic editions but can't because the only electronic editions I see are foreign language. The galling thing is that the e-books are available in English in the European Amazonia, but not in the UK.

[bob.f]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

What you (and many others who post amazon.com links here) might be missing is that amazon.com links don't show you the US store unless you are in the US (or using a VPN). Generally, viewing amazon.com is like viewing your local amazon.store but with the pices displayed in US dollars (that is, not the US price, but the local price converted to US dollars). E.g. When I view amazon.com from New Zealand I see the same limited selection of books that are available on amazon.com.au, but with the Australian dollar price converted to US dollars.

Really? I wonder what the logic of this is. I'm not sure how often this holds true. For me, in UK with no VPN, I often hit a .com link for a book, whereupon .com informs me this book is not available for me to purchase and offers to redirect me to .uk.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by bob.f

Really? I wonder what the logic of this is. I'm not sure how often this holds true. For me, in UK with no VPN, I often hit a .com link for a book, whereupon .com informs me this book is not available for me to purchase and offers to redirect me to .uk.

That's right, so it doesn't show you the US store, you can't see the price of the book in the US.

Other retailers have ways to link to their regional stores without using a VPN. For Apple and Kobo you can change the country code in the URL. For Google Play you can append a country code (&gl=) to the URL. E.g.

C. J. Cherryh's Downbelow Station at the Google Play US store:
https://play.google.com/store/books/...AwAAQBAJ&gl=US

At the Google Play Canada Store:
https://play.google.com/store/books/...AwAAQBAJ&gl=CA

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

What you (and many others who post amazon.com links here) might be missing is that amazon.com links don't show you the US store unless you are in the US (or using a VPN). Generally, viewing amazon.com is like viewing your local amazon.store but with the pices displayed in US dollars (that is, not the US price, but the local price converted to US dollars). E.g. When I view amazon.com from New Zealand I see the same limited selection of books that are available on amazon.com.au, but with the Australian dollar price converted to US dollars.

...or unless you have a U.S.A. account, as I do, although I currently reside in another country.

[brudigia]

Originally Posted by Dngrsone

Cyteen is awesome, and I am looking forward to seeing digital copies.

Apologies, you are right, Cyteen is not yet in digital format (wonder why), I was thinking about Regenesis, waiting to go down, currently $8.99 in US

https://www.amazon.com/Regenesis-All...ords=regenesis

and €5.99 in Europe

https://www.amazon.it/dp/B00YBAUBQI/...v_ov_lig_dp_it

Kobo is matching prices, I believe, I did not check in Europe, and BN is doing the same.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I tend to agree that the sex is gratuitous at time.

I say what's wrong with a little gratuitous sex? Typically I wouldn't have even mentioned it, but wasn't sure what the rules were on that and didn't want to cause uproar.

What does bug me is why the book is still referred to as the first in a series when nothing has happened in 5 years. Even the swordandbarrow website news was last updated in 2014 and his story in Blackguards is from 2015.

In my very miniscule amount of research (looking at Amazon and then clicking 'buy') I didn't see any mention of it as the first in a series.

On Goodreads, the author did mention he was working on another book in the same world (though that was three years ago) but even then it didn't appear to be a sequel to Barrow.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

What you (and many others who post amazon.com links here) might be missing is that amazon.com links don't show you the US store unless you are in the US (or using a VPN). Generally, viewing amazon.com is like viewing your local amazon.store but with the pices displayed in US dollars (that is, not the US price, but the local price converted to US dollars). E.g. When I view amazon.com from New Zealand I see the same limited selection of books that are available on amazon.com.au, but with the Australian dollar price converted to US dollars.

When I click on Amazon.co.uk links, it takes me to Amazon.co.uk. I just checked it with the links provided for The Man With One of those Faces in the mystery thread.

[ZodWallop]

Arthur C. Clarke's 3001: The Final Odyssey, the fourth 'Space Odyssey' book and the final solo book he wrote, is on sale at Amazon for $1.99: 3001: The Final Odyssey

I love Clarke, especially his Space Odyssey books. However I do remember thinking that 3001 sapped some of the mystery and grandeur that the rest of the books in the series have.

But man, what a premise:

A thousand years after being cast into the frozen void of space by the supercomputer HAL, Frank Poole is brought back to life-and thrust into a world more technically advanced than the one he left behind. He discovers a world of human minds directly interfacing with computers; genetically-engineered dinosaur servants; and massive space elevators built around the Equator.

He also discovers an impending threat to humanity-lurking within the enigmatic monoliths. To fight it, Poole must join forces with David Bowman and HAL, now fused into one corporeal consciousness-and the only being with the power to thwart the monoliths' mysterious creators.

A continuation of Arthur C. Clarke's groundbreaking Space Odyssey series, 3001: The Final Odyssey takes readers on a journey full of mysticism, wonder, and suspense.

[ZodWallop]

And it's been on sale before, but Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama is on sale for $1.99.

Moreso than many other sci-fi writers, Clarke manages to still give me that sensawunda that made me read sci-fi in the first place.

An enormous cylindrical object appears in Earth's solar system, hurtling toward the sun. A ship is sent to explore the mysterious craft-which the denizens of the solar system name Rama-and what they find is intriguing evidence of a civilization far more advanced than ours. They find an interior stretching over 50 kilometers; a forbidding cylindrical sea; mysterious and inaccessible buildings; and strange machine-animal hybrids, or "biots," that inhabit the ship. But what they don't find is an alien presence. So who-and where-are the Ramans?

Often listed as one of Clarke's finest novels, Rendezvous With Rama has won both the Hugo and the Nebula Awards. A fast-paced and compelling story of an enigmatic encounter with alien technology, Rendezvous With Rama offers both answers and unsolved mysteries that continue to fascinate readers decades after its first publication.

[ekbell]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I say what's wrong with a little gratuitous sex? Typically I wouldn't have even mentioned it, but wasn't sure what the rules were on that and didn't want to cause uproar.

I'm not fond of gratuitous sex scenes as they have a tendency to be boring. (I consider it gratuitous if the scene could be skipped without losing information or when I start noticing the author appears to have a 'sex scene every x pages' schedule)

The more detailed the scene the more likely it is to be either boring or even actively unpleasant to read. As a general rule I consider suggestion and implication sexier then a detailed scene.

BTW none of this is an objection to a book having characters who frequently have sex.

[ZodWallop]

Richard A. Knaak's Black City Saint is on sale for $1.99 at Amazon.

Usually, I would quote the synopsis, but honestly, the one for this book is quite poor. Basically, it's an urban fantasy where Saint George (who goes by the name Nick Medea for some reason) is guarding a gateway between the fairy world and our world. The setting is 1920's Chicago and apparently the great fire wasn't caused by a cow kicking over a lamp, but by a dragon over the city. It's the first book in a series, for what that's worth.

[ratinox]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I say what's wrong with a little gratuitous sex? Typically I wouldn't have even mentioned it, but wasn't sure what the rules were on that and didn't want to cause uproar.

My opinion: If it's gratuitous then it does nothing to develop characters and nothing to advance the plot. It's dead weight. The existence of dead weight makes me question the competence of author and editor. Persistence across a larger body of work can cause me to drop an author from my reading list entirely.

[Section8]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Arthur C. Clarke's 3001: The Final Odyssey, the fourth 'Space Odyssey' book and the final solo book he wrote, is on sale at Amazon for $1.99: 3001: The Final Odyssey

I love Clarke, especially his Space Odyssey books. However I do remember thinking that 3001 sapped some of the mystery and grandeur that the rest of the books in the series have.

But man, what a premise:

Back in the 70's, I loved Arthur C. Clarke for the sense of wonder he evoked, and devoured every paperback of his I could find. However, reading 3001 a few years ago was a big let down for me. I guess my tastes have changed since then.

Clarke was always criticized for rather wooden characters, but I thought 3001 took that to the extreme. It would have to be traumatic for someone to suddenly wake up 1000 years after being attacked by a rogue computer in space and find that everyone and everything you ever knew or loved are ancient history. It's been a few years since I read it, but the only adjustment problems I recall Frank Poole having in 3001, was that he missed his dog.