FREE/BARGAIN — Science Fiction & Fantasy

[Kieran Seymour]

Isaac Asimov's I, Robot is currently 99p at amazon.co.uk.

Isaac Asimov’s ROBOT series – from the iconic collection I, ROBOT to four classic novels – contains some of the most influential works in the history of science fiction. Establishing and testing the THREE LAWS OF ROBOTICS, they continue to shape the understanding and design of artificial intelligence to this day.

What happens when a robot begins to question its creators? What would be the consequences of creating a robot with a sense of humour? Or the ability to lie? How do we truly tell the difference between man and machine?

In I, Robot, Asimov sets out the Three Laws of Robotics – designed to protect humans from their robotic creations – and pushes them to their limits and beyond.

Following genius robopsychologist Dr. Susan Calvin and engineers Powell and Donovan, these short stories helped to transform artificial intelligence from a dream into a science and changed perceptions of robots for ever.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

A reason is not necessarily an excuse.

Lazy is an excuse, not a reason.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Lazy is an excuse, not a reason.

So, if I don't file my tax return out of laziness, the IRS will excuse it?

[ottdmk]

The Once and Future King is not on sale in Canada, but cheap editions abound anyways. White became public domain in Canada on January 1, 2015.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

So, if I don't file my tax return out of laziness, the IRS will excuse it?

They will reject your excuse and decline to pardon you.

[DrLimu]

Originally Posted by Cactus Chef

The Once and Future King is on sale for $2 today at your vendor of choice:

Amazon
Google Play
Kobo

Probably on B&N and iTunes as well, but I'm too lazy to look.

Thank you, I had this on my wishlist. It's also £1.99 on amazon.co.uk and Kobo UK, but this edition also includes The book of Merlyn.

Since I wanted the full edition and Amazon won't let me use the UK store, I searched and found it on blackwells.co.uk for the same price as an "Instant Download - EPub ", which apparently means that you can download your book instantly after the orders been processed which takes no more than 45 minutes (I was lucky and only had to wait 17 minutes for my instant download).

[ZodWallop]

A Heritage of Stars by Clifford D. Simak is $1.99 at Amazon US.

A man hunts for lost knowledge in a future society that’s reverted to a primitive tribal state in this novel by the author of Way Station.

More than a thousand years have passed since humankind intentionally destroyed its treacherous technology, choosing to revert back to a primitive tribal state. In this society the rusting brain cases of long-inert robots are considered trophies, and the scant knowledge that has survived is doled out to an inquisitive few in monastery-like “universities.” It is at one such center of learning that young Tom Cushing first reads of the legendary “Place of Going to the Stars,” rumored to exist on a high butte somewhere in the western part of the land. Driven by enthusiasm and an insatiable need to track the myth to its source, Tom sets out on an amazing trek across what was once called “America,” teaming up with a witch, the world’s last remaining robot, and other odd companions. But all the astonishing discoveries and dangers they encounter along the way will pale before the revelations that await them at journey’s end.

[cc_in_oh]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

A Heritage of Stars by Clifford D. Simak is $1.99 at Amazon US.

I believe I also saw 2 other $1.99 Simak titles in the daily deals today...

[jselby]

Originally Posted by cc_in_oh

I believe I also saw 2 other $1.99 Simak titles in the daily deals today...

Yes, including this one which looks interesting

The Werewolf Principle
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00YTFT9ZE

synopsis

His body hosting a pair of strange alien presences, an amnesiac space traveler returns home to an unrecognizable Earth

Many centuries in the future, a two-hundred-year-old man is discovered hibernating in a space capsule orbiting a distant star. Transported back to his home planet, Andrew Blake awakens to an Earth he does not recognize—a world of flying cars and sentient floating houses—with no memory whatsoever of his history or purpose. But he has not returned alone. The last survivor of a radical experiment abandoned more than a century earlier, Blake was genetically altered to be able to adapt to extreme alien environments, and now he can sense other presences inhabiting his mind and body. One is a biological computer of astonishing power; the other is a powerful creature akin to a large wolf. And Blake is definitely not the one in control. With his sanity hanging in the balance, Blake’s only option is to set out in frantic pursuit of his past, the truth, his destiny—and quite possibly the fate of humankind.

A bravura demonstration of unparalleled imagination, intelligence, and heart, The Werewolf Principle addresses weighty issues of genetic manipulation that are as relevant today as when the novel first appeared in print. One of the all-time best and brightest in speculative fiction, Grand Master Clifford D. Simak offers a moving, stunning, witty, and thought-provoking exploration of what it means to be human.

[itisbomb]

Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, Book 1)
by Dan Simmons

is $1.99 at U.S. stores

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Hyperion-Cant...t%2C426&sr=1-1

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/hyperion-8

Below is the blurb:
A stunning tour de force filled with transcendent awe and wonder, Hyperion is a masterwork of science fiction that resonates with excitement and invention, the first volume in a remarkable epic by the multiple-award-winning author of The Hollow Man.

On the world called Hyperion, beyond the reach of galactic law, waits a creature called the Shrike. There are those who worship it. There are those who fear it. And there are those who have vowed to destroy it. In the Valley of the Time Tombs, where huge, brooding structures move backward through time, the Shrike waits for them all.

On the eve of Armageddon, with the entire galaxy at war, seven pilgrims set forth on a final voyage to Hyperion seeking the answers to the unsolved riddles of their lives. Each carries a desperate hope—and a terrible secret. And one may hold the fate of humanity in his hands.

[ZodWallop]

Another Simak sale, $1.99 at Amazon US

A Choice of Gods.

What if you woke up one morning on Earth . . . and no one else was there? That is the reality that greeted a handful of humans, including Jason Whitney, his wife Martha, and the remnants of a tribe of Native Americans in the year 2135. Their inexplicable abandonment had unexpected benefits: the eventual development of mental telepathy and other extrasensory powers, inner peace, and best of all, near-immortality. Now, five thousand years later, most of the remaining humans live a tranquil, pastoral life, leaving technological and religious exploration to the masses of robot servants who no longer have humans to serve. But the unexpected reappearance of Jason’s brother, who had teleported to the stars many years before, threatens to change everything yet again—for John Whitney is the bearer of startling information about where Earth’s population went and why—and the most disturbing news of all: They may finally be coming home again.

Nominated for the Hugo Award when it first appeared in print more than forty years ago, Clifford D. Simak’s brilliant and thought-provoking A Choice of Gods has lost nothing of its power to astonish and intrigue. A masterwork of speculative fiction, intelligent and ingenious, it is classic Simak, standing tall among the very best science fiction that has ever been written.

Time Is the Simplest Thing

Space travel has been abandoned in the twenty-second century. It is deemed too dangerous, expensive, and inconvenient—and now the all-powerful Fishhook company holds the monopoly on interstellar exploration for commercial gain. Their secret is the use of “parries,” human beings with the remarkable telepathic ability to expand their minds throughout the universe. On what should have been a routine assignment, however, loyal Fishhook employee Shepherd Blaine is inadvertently implanted with a copy of an alien consciousness, becoming something more than human. Now he’s a company pariah, forced to flee the safe confines of the Fishhook complex. But the world he escapes into is not a safe sanctuary; Its people have been taught to hate and fear his parapsychological gift—and there is nowhere on Earth, or elsewhere, for Shepherd Blaine to hide.

A Hugo Award nominee, Time Is the Simplest Thing showcases the enormous talents of one of the true greats of twentieth-century science fiction. This richly imagined tale of prejudice, corporate greed, oppression, and, ultimately, transcendence stands tall among Simak’s most enduring works.

There's also various short story collections up for $1.99

[Rev. Bob]

If “no one else was there,” how could there be “a handful of humans” (plural) to know about it?

[badgoodDeb]

Thanks - I picked up 2 of them (Werewolves and Choice) cuz they sound interesting. This link also shows 5 others for free, so I picked those up too.

https://smile.amazon.com/s?k=kindle+...price-asc-rank

[DrLimu]

Originally Posted by Rev. Bob

If “no one else was there,” how could there be “a handful of humans” (plural) to know about it?

If the first "you" refers to "a handful of humans", or maybe it's just no one else in reasonably close proximity

There are a couple of more Simak novels for $2.99 also.

[kg3]

FREE:

Fate - Mary Corran

-Currently published by Endeavour Venture 2015; Originally published by Orion (UK)/ Gollancz/ Hatchette in 1995
-Fantasy

Amazon US---Amazon UK---Amazon Canada---Amazon Australia