FREE/BARGAIN — Science Fiction & Fantasy

[ludovicus]

I'd like to recommend 'Fallen Dragon' as another of Peter F. Hamilton's great stand-alone books.

[lkmiller]

Originally Posted by mewmartigan

I agree. Great North Road is a great intro to Hamilton if you don't want a trilogy.

It might be almost as big as some author's trilogies though! I haven't read it myself. But my husband had the hardcover out from the library, and I recall it being an impressive doorstopper.

[mewmartigan]

Originally Posted by ludovicus

I'd like to recommend 'Fallen Dragon' as another of Peter F. Hamilton's great stand-alone books.

I have been waiting forever for this to go on sale or even drop a bit but it has been $11.99 for as long as I can remember. Eventually I'll have to bite the bullet.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by lkmiller

It might be almost as big as some author's trilogies though! I haven't read it myself. But my husband had the hardcover out from the library, and I recall it being an impressive doorstopper.

Yes, he likes 'em big. Anything less than 500 pages is a novelette to him

[DrLimu]

Tor.com Short Fiction Newsletter for January-February is now available for download (single file for free).

Stories from

• Elizabeth Bear
• John Chu
• Mary Robinette Kowal
• Mimi Mondal
• Annalee Newitz
• JY Yang

Availible as highly optimized epub (20MB), mobi (42MB[!]) and pdf (8MB).

[binaryhermit]

I suspect they fed the epub through Amazon's conversion tools which put a copy of the epub in the mobi file unless you pass them an undocumented flag, basically resulting in a mobi that's over twice the size

[Dr. Drib]

Got it.

Thank you!

[Kieran Seymour]

The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub is a Monthly Deal at amazon.co.uk - 99p

A chilling tale from two of the greatest storytellers of our time...

Twelve-year-old Jack spends his days alone in a deserted coastal town, his father gone, his mother dying. Then he meets a stranger - and embarks on a terrifying journey. For Jack must find the Talisman, the only thing that can save his mother.

His quest takes him into the menacing Territories, a parallel world where violence, surprise and the titanic struggle between good and evil reach across a mythic landscape.

[salty-horse]

There are several Kindle Daily Deals of interest on Amazon.com today, with a recurring theme of time travel:

The Black God's Drums by P. Djèlí Clark - $1.99 - Link. A Tor.com novella.

In an alternate New Orleans caught in the tangle of the American Civil War, the wall-scaling girl named Creeper yearns to escape the streets for the air--in particular, by earning a spot on-board the airship Midnight Robber. Creeper plans to earn Captain Ann-Marie’s trust with information she discovers about a Haitian scientist and a mysterious weapon he calls The Black God’s Drums.

But Creeper also has a secret herself: Oya, the African orisha of the wind and storms, speaks inside her head, and may have her own ulterior motivations.

Soon, Creeper, Oya, and the crew of the Midnight Robber are pulled into a perilous mission aimed to stop the Black God’s Drums from being unleashed and wiping out the entirety of New Orleans.

The Time Traveler's Almanac: A Time Travel Anthology by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer - $2.99 - Link
This is a collection of 65 time travel stories.

The Outlaws of Sherwood by Robin McKinley - $1.99 - Link.
This is a retelling of the Robin Hood story, with a focus on the Merry Men. More of a historical fiction, but she's a genre writer.

Time Salvager by Wesley Chu - $2.99 - Link
Part of a 2-book series.

Convicted criminal James Griffin-Mars is no one's hero. In his time, Earth is a toxic, abandoned world and humans have fled into the outer solar system to survive, eking out a fragile, doomed existence among the other planets and their moons. Those responsible for delaying humanity's demise believe time travel holds the key, and they have identified James, troubled though he is, as one of a select and expendable few ideally suited for the most dangerous job in history.

James is a chronman, undertaking missions into Earth's past to recover resources and treasure without altering the timeline. The laws governing use of time travel are absolute; break any one of them and, one way or another, your life is over. Most chronmen never reach old age; the stress of each jump through time, compounded by the risk to themselves and to the future, means that many chronmen rapidly reach their breaking point, and James Griffin-Mars is nearing his.

On a final mission that is to secure his retirement, James meets Elise Kim, an intriguing scientist from a previous century, who is fated to die during the destruction of an oceanic rig. Against his training and his common sense, and in violation of the chronmen's highest law, James brings Elise back to the future with him, saving her life, but turning them both into fugitives. Remaining free means losing themselves in the wild and poisonous wastes of Earth, somehow finding allies, and perhaps discovering what hope may yet remain for humanity's home world.

Last Year by Robert Charles Wilson - $2.99 - Link

Two events made September 1st a memorable day for Jesse Cullum. First, he lost a pair of Oakley sunglasses. Second, he saved the life of President Ulysses S. Grant.

In the near future of Robert Charles Wilson's Last Year, the technology exists to open doorways into the past--but not our past, not exactly. Each "past" is effectively an alternate world, identical to ours but only up to the date on which we access it. And a given "past" can only be reached once. After a passageway is open, it's the only road to that particular past; once closed, it can't be reopened.

A passageway has been opened to a version of late 19th-century Ohio. It's been in operation for most of a decade, but it's no secret, on either side of time. A small city has grown up around it to entertain visitors from our time, and many locals earn a good living catering to them. But like all such operations, it has a shelf life; as the "natives" become more sophisticated, their version of the "past" grows less attractive as a destination.

Jesse Cullum is a native. And he knows the passageway will be closing soon. He's fallen in love with a woman from our time, and he means to follow her back--no matter whose secrets he has to expose in order to do it.

[binaryhermit]

I think I'll get The Time Traveler's Almanac. Lowest price it's ever been according to eReaderIQ, some authors I've heard of, it's a rather extensive collection, I like Science Fiction short-form fiction, although admittedly I've read a couple of the stories.

[Fluribus]

Journey back in time to George R. R. Martin's wild days of love and youth at Amazon.com.

Wild Cards: Expanded Edition for $1.99.

Wild Cards II: Aces High for $1.99.

Wild Cards III: Jokers Wild for $1.99.

We also have:

Richard Matheson - Somewhere in Time for $2.99.

[ReadingManiac]

Originally Posted by Kieran Seymour

The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub is a Monthly Deal at amazon.co.uk - 99p

Yay! I'm in time for a change!

[ReadingManiac]

For those who like indie SFF, there's a .99 event happening at
https://pattyjansen.com/promo/2-3-fe...-99c-promo/#UF

Books have links to various retailers. I recognise some of the authors including one I follow so it's not all drek, but I suggest tasting samplers as it's probably a mixed bag.

[salty-horse]

The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson is on sale for $2.99 throughout February.

Amazon.com - B&N - eBooks.com - Google - Apple - Kobo

This is an expansion of a short story, which you may or may not want to read as it's basically the end of the book.

A sequel is out now.

A young woman from a conquered people tries to transform an empire in this richly imagined geopolitical fantasy.

Baru Cormorant believes any price is worth paying to liberate her people-even her soul.

When the Empire of Masks conquers her island home, overwrites her culture, criminalizes her customs, and murders one of her fathers, Baru vows to swallow her hate, join the Empire's civil service, and claw her way high enough to set her people free.

Sent as an Imperial agent to distant Aurdwynn, another conquered country, Baru discovers it's on the brink of rebellion. Drawn by the intriguing duchess Tain Hu into a circle of seditious dukes, Baru may be able to use her position to help. As she pursues a precarious balance between the rebels and a shadowy cabal within the Empire, she orchestrates a do-or-die gambit with freedom as the prize.

But the cost of winning the long game of saving her people may be far greater than Baru imagines.

[salty-horse]

King's Dragon by Kate Elliott is $2.99 on Amazon.com.

This is the first book of seven in the Crown of Stars series about an alternate medieval Europe.

Goodreads

Set in an alternate Europe where bloody conflicts rage, the first book of the Crown of Stars epic fantasy series chronicles a world-shaking conflict for the survival of humanity

It begins with civil war....

For though King Henry still holds the crown of Wendar, his reign has long been contested by his sister Sabella. There are many eager to flock to her banner, and there are ways to make even the most unwilling lord into a weapon pointed at the heart of Henry’s realm.

Torn by internal strife, Wendar also faces deadly raids from the north by an inhuman race, the Eika. And now terrifying portents are being seen; old ruins restored to life under the light of the full moon and peopled by the long-vanished Lost Ones; dark spirits walking the land in broad daylight.
And suddenly two innocents are about to be thrust into the middle of the conflict.

Liath, who has spent her early years fleeing from unknown enemies, is a young woman with the power to change the course of history if she can only learn to master her fear and seize what is rightfully hers.

While Alain, a young man who may find his future in a vision granted by the Lady of Battles, must first unravel the mystery of who he is—whether the bastard son of a noble father, the half-breed child of an elfin lord, the unwanted get of a whore, or the heir to a proud and ancient lineage. For only when he discovers the truth can he accept the destiny for which he was born.

Liath and Alain, each trapped in a personal struggle for survival, both helplessly being drawn into a far greater battle, a war in which sorcery not swords will determine the final outcome, and the land itself may be irrevocably reshaped by the forces unleashed....