FREE/BARGAIN — Science Fiction & Fantasy

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke is $2.99 at Australian and New Zealand retailers.

2001 - A Space Odyssey is the first hard sci-fi novel I remember reading. And aside from the timeline, I think it holds up as a very enjoyable book.

The sequels are also pretty good, though each one is less good than the previous.

[bookmarked]

Originally Posted by varlog

Well... I gave up after 100 pages or so. On the bright side: the title is good .

Ditto.

[salty-horse]

Several interesting titles in the Amazon.com daily deal.

Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames is $2.99 - Link

This is a sequel to Kings of the Wyld. Humorous fantasy set in a world where bands of warriors are equivalent to modern rock bands.

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino is $2.99 - Link
A classic. Maybe it leans towards the "literary".

In a garden sit the aged Kublai Khan and the young Marco Polo — Mongol emperor and Venetian traveler. Kublai Khan has sensed the end of his empire coming soon. Marco Polo diverts his host with stories of the cities he has seen in his travels around the empire: cities and memory, cities and desire, cities and designs, cities and the dead, cities and the sky, trading cities, hidden cities. As Marco Polo unspools his tales, the emperor detects these fantastic places are more than they appear.

Prime Meridian by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is $0.99 - Link

This is a near-future, mundane SF novella about a young woman struggling in Mexico City and dreaming of going to Mars.

It was originally crowdfunded and self-published, but this one is published by JABberwocky Literary Agency.

Bannerless by Carrie Vaughn is $2.99 - Link

Warning: There's a sequel.

A mysterious murder in a dystopian future leads a novice investigator to question what she’s learned about the foundation of her population-controlled society.

Decades after economic and environmental collapse destroys much of civilization in the United States, the Coast Road region isn’t just surviving but thriving by some accounts, building something new on the ruins of what came before. A culture of population control has developed in which people, organized into households, must earn the children they bear by proving they can take care of them and are awarded symbolic banners to demonstrate this privilege. In the meantime, birth control is mandatory.

Enid of Haven is an Investigator, called on to mediate disputes and examine transgressions against the community. She’s young for the job and hasn't yet handled a serious case. Now, though, a suspicious death requires her attention. The victim was an outcast, but might someone have taken dislike a step further and murdered him?

In a world defined by the disasters that happened a century before, the past is always present. But this investigation may reveal the cracks in Enid’s world and make her question what she really stands for.

[salty-horse]

Cards of Grief by Jane Yolen is $2.51 on Amazon.com

The year is 2132 when members of the Anthropologist’s Guild set down on the planet Henderson’s IV, or L’Lal’lor as it is known to the native population. Charged with the nonintrusive study of alien cultures, the crew discovers a society containing no love or laughter. It is, instead, centered around death—a world of aristocratic and common folk in which grieving is an art and the cornerstone of life. But the alien civilization stands on the brink of astonishing change, heralded by the discovery of Linni, the Gray Wanderer, a young woman from the countryside whose arrival has been foretold for centuries. And for Anthropologist First Class Aaron Spenser, L’Lal’lor is a place of destructive temptations, seducing him with its mysterious, sad beauty, and leading him into an unthinkable criminal act.

Told from the shifting viewpoints of characters both alien and human, and through records of local lore and transcripts of court martial proceedings, Cards of Grief is a thoughtful, lyrical, and spellbinding tale of first contact. It is a true masterwork of world building from Jane Yolen, a premier crafter of speculative fiction and fantasy.

[ZodWallop]

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman is $1.99 at Amazon.

In this #1 New York Times bestseller, Neil Gaiman returns to the territory of his masterpiece, American Gods to once again probe the dark recesses of the soul.

God is dead. Meet the kids.

Fat Charlie Nancy’s normal life ended the moment his father dropped dead on a Florida karaoke stage. Charlie didn’t know his dad was a god. And he never knew he had a brother. Now brother Spider is on his doorstep—about to make Fat Charlie’s life more interesting . . . and a lot more dangerous.

[lumpynose]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

When someone says a book in a series can be read in any order, that's when we know it has to be read in order.

Could be more likely when it's the author that says that. Definitely happened to me once; from the library I check out book one of the second series not knowing it was the second series and in the preface/introduction he said you could read the second series first but he gave lots of information away that will spoil it when reading the first series. Or maybe he said that you could read the second series without having read the first series.

[salty-horse]

Originally Posted by lumpynose

Could be more likely when it's the author that says that. Definitely happened to me once; from the library I check out book one of the second series not knowing it was the second series and in the preface/introduction he said you could read the second series first but he gave lots of information away that will spoil it when reading the first series. Or maybe he said that you could read the second series without having read the first series.

I'm saying that, and I know people who have read and enjoyed The Scar as a standalone.

When the author does that subtly, it doesn't have to be in an preface/introduction. It can be baked into the text. The Discworld books are like that. And I remember reading many Nancy Drew books that kept reintroducing the characters' relationships to each other.

[salty-horse]

Tau Zero by Poul Anderson is $1.99 in the Amazon.com daily deal.

The Adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser Volume One by Fritz Leiber is $1.99 in the Amazon.com daily deal.
This collects Swords and Deviltry, Swords Against Death, and Swords in the Mist.

[church mouse]

Originally Posted by salty-horse

I'm saying that, and I know people who have read and enjoyed The Scar as a standalone.

I read The Scar before realising that it was part of a series. I really liked it. I then went and read the other books in the series and really did not like them. In fact, I would not have read The Scar had I first read Perdido Street Station.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

When someone says a book in a series can be read in any order, that's when we know it has to be read in order.

This is how to read a stand-alone book:


TABLE OF INSTRUCTIONS

In its own way, this book consists of many books, but two books above all.
The first can be read in a normal fashion and it ends with Chapter 56, at the close of which there are three garish little stars which stand for the words The End. Consequently, the reader may ignore what follows with a clean conscience.

The second should be read by beginning with Chapter 73 and then following the sequence indicated at the end of each chapter. In case of confusion or forgetfulness, one need only consult the following list:

73 - 1 - 2 - 116 - 3 - 84 - 4 - 71 - 5 - 81 - 74 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 93 - 68 - 9 - 104 - 10 - 65 - 11 - 136 - 12 - 106 - 13 - 115 - 14 - 114 - 117 - 15 - 120 - 16 - 137 - 17 - 97 - 18 - 153 - 19 - 90 - 20 - 126 - 21 - 79 - 22 - 62 - 23 - 124 - 128 - 24 - 134 - 25 - 141 - 60 - 26 - 109 - 27 - 28 - 130 - 151 - 152 - 143 - 100 - 76 - 101 - 144 - 92 - 103 - 108 - 64 - 155 - 123 - 145 - 122 - 112 - 154 - 85 - 150 - 95 -146 - 29 - 107 - 113 - 30 - 57 - 70 - 147 - 31 - 32 - 132 - 61 - 33 - 67 - 83 - 142 - 34 - 87 - 105 - 96 - 94 - 91 - 82 - 99 - 35 - 121 - 36 - 37 - 98 - 38 - 39 - 86 - 78 - 40 - 59 - 41 - 148 - 42 - 75 - 43 - 125 - 44 - 102 - 45 - 80 - 46 - 47 - 110 - 48 - 111 - 49 - 118 - 50 - 119 - 51 - 69 - 52 - 89 - 53 - 66 - 149 - 54 - 129 - 139 - 133 - 140 - 138 - 127 - 56 - 135 - 63 - 88 - 72 - 77 - 131 - 58 - 131 -

[quoted - Julio Cortazar]

And then, of course, there are a number of Expendable Chapters.

[ZodWallop]

Children of Dune by Frank Herbert is $1.99 at Amazon US.

"I believe in making the world safe for our children, but not our children's children, because I don't think children should be having sex."-- Jack Handey

I think that's an accurate summary of the book...

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by salty-horse

Tau Zero by Poul Anderson is $1.99 in the Amazon.com daily deal.

Thank you!

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by salty-horse

The Adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser Volume One by Fritz Leiber is $1.99 in the Amazon.com daily deal.
This collects Swords and Deviltry, Swords Against Death, and Swords in the Mist.

The Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories are highly recommended. I do wish the publisher would license some of Mike Mignola's excellent Fafhrd and Gray Mouser artwork. I think he really captured the feel of the stories.

[lumpynose]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

The Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories are highly recommended.

Thanks. I read some of those way back when I was a young sprat, knee high to a leap frog, but I don't remember a thing about them.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

The Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories are highly recommended. I do wish the publisher would license some of Mike Mignola's excellent Fafhrd and Gray Mouser artwork. I think he really captured the feel of the stories.

I'll second that.

The Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories are sophisticated sword & sorcery stories and are extremely witty and entertaining.