FREE/BARGAIN — Science Fiction & Fantasy

[isarl]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

I think isarl is referring to this:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=351285

I haven't been following closely but basically it was that anything published after 1/1/2023 may not be able to be downloaded to Kindle for PC except in KFX format (which excludes old versions) and therefore makes using the Tools more difficult.

Yes, that was exactly it. Thank you very much. According to the linked post, it's after 2023-01-03, which means books published on the 1st or 2nd of January might have snuck in, but this is kind of splitting hairs.

[salty-horse]

Vanishing Acts (posted earlier) is a new release, and affected by the KFX change.

[Tarana]

Tales of Old Earth By Michael Swanwick $1.99 Amazon, Kobo and B&N
Scifi. 19 short stories, many are Hugo winners or nominees

[ZodWallop]

Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton is $2.99 at Amazon US.

From science fiction master Peter F. Hamilton comes a standalone novel that is “a fascinating, compulsively readable clash of hardware and ideals”, political intrigue, and space opera at its best (Kirkus Reviews (starred review)).

In the distant future, corporations have become sustainable communities with their own militaries, and corporate goals have essentially replaced political ideology. On a youthful, rebellious impulse, Lawrence joined the military of a corporation that he now recognizes to be ruthless and exploitative. His only hope for escape is to earn enough money to buy his place in a better corporation.

When his platoon is sent to a distant colony to quell a local resistance effort, it seems like a stroke of amazing fortune, and Lawrence plans to rob the colony of their fabled gemstone, the Fallen Dragon, to get the money he needs. However, he soon discovers that the Fallen Dragon is not a gemstone at all, but an alien life form that the local colonists have been protecting since it crashed in their area.

Now, Lawrence must decide if he will steal the alien to exploit the use of its inherent biotechnical processes — which far exceed anything humans are capable of — or if he will help the Resistance get the alien home.

[Manabi]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton is $2.99 at Amazon US.

I've read this one, it's really good. Not as thick as some of Hamilton's works, so it's a good way to try out his writing if you're not familiar with him yet.

[SomeSteve]

Originally Posted by Tarana

Tales of Old Earth By Michael Swanwick $1.99 Amazon, Kobo and B&N
Scifi. 19 short stories, many are Hugo winners or nominees

Oh, good. I've been wanting to explore his work, and this looks like an excellent place to start. I didn't even know this ebook existed. --But hold on! "Edition unavailable in your country. This edition of this title can’t be bought in your region. Click to see if another is available for you to purchase. [*Click*] Sorry! Your search did not return any results."

Okay, let's try somewhere else. "Not available for sale." Well, third time's the charm, right? "Sorry, this product is not available in your region." Fourth time? "This item is only available to U.S. billing addresses."

*Grumble*.

Other retailers, including my usual haunts, don't even tell you that much; they just can't find anything that matches the ISBN or other identifying number. No wonder I didn't know the ebook existed. A search for title and author on this region's site of a globally well-known webshop yields only one result, a used paperback available from third-party sellers for about $45 (+ $5 shipping) or $115, though the one offering it for $115 wouldn't deliver it to my address even if I were fool enough to want him to.

This is one thing about ebooks that I find aggravating. You can buy a printed copy of a book (as far as such a thing exists) and they'll ship it practically anywhere on earth (some third-party sellers excepted), but when it comes to ebooks, the World Wide Web shrivels to the Provincial Wide Web. Now, a plain Schmo who's not in the trade might assume that the publisher, the retailer, and especially the author would like to sell as many copies of the ebook as possible, no matter where or to whom, but that probably just demonstrates the poor benighted Schmo's lack of industry savvy.

I don't expect that special deals in one region will necessarily be offered in others, but I do expect that the ebook will at least be available for purchase (which it almost always is), even if at a different price.

I gather that there are ways to circumvent these geographical restrictions, but I'm not very adventurous, and I don't want to have to jump through hoops to do business with somebody. So I suppose I'll just do what I've done in the past when encountering this issue: I'll do without.

[salty-horse]

Originally Posted by SomeSteve

I've been wanting to explore his work, and this looks like an excellent place to start.

Arguably, the best place to start is stuff that's free online. For example:

Tor.com:

• Annie Without Crow - very weird story. Sequel to The Raggle Taggle Gypsy-O from this collection, but it's not required reading.
• The Mongolian Wizard - historical fantasy - a series of stories.
• Zeppelin City - steampunk, co-written with Eileen Gunn.

And 7 more stories in Clarkesworld Magazine.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Tarana

Tales of Old Earth By Michael Swanwick $1.99 Amazon, Kobo and B&N
Scifi. 19 short stories, many are Hugo winners or nominees

And/Or for $1.00 more you can get a 527-page book of stories: The Best of Michael Swanwick.

https://www.amazon.com/Best-Michael-...s%2C162&sr=8-1

[SomeSteve]

Originally Posted by salty-horse

Arguably, the best place to start is stuff that's free online. For example ...

Thanks, I'll look into them.

[SomeSteve]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

And/Or for $1.00 more you can get a 527-page book of stories: The Best of Michael Swanwick.

https://www.amazon.com/Best-Michael-...s%2C162&sr=8-1

Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately, it's déjà vu all over again. Amazon here can't find it either with the ASIN or the ISBN. Title and author search results in a used hardcover for about $37 (plus $15 shipping). It's unknown to other regional retailers as well. The publisher's website doesn't say whether they'll sell ebooks to customers outside the US.

Amazon here has three of his novels and a bunch of Tor.com Originals, mainly The Mongolian Wizard series, which appear to be individual short stories, in Kindle versions. One retailer I've never bought from has a collection called Not So Much, Said the Cat, which my Amazon doesn't offer for Kindle.

[salty-horse]

Subterranean Press ebooks are always region-restricted to the US. You can get past that by changing your address on Amazon.com, but it has some consequences regarding access to your old purchases that you might not like.

You can also try buying it directly from the publisher, but you will probably need to change your IP to somewhere in the US.
https://subterraneanpress.com/best-o...wanwick-ebook/

[SomeSteve]

Originally Posted by salty-horse

Subterranean Press ebooks are always region-restricted to the US. You can get past that by changing your address on Amazon.com, but it has some consequences regarding access to your old purchases that you might not like.

You can also try buying it directly from the publisher, but you will probably need to change your IP to somewhere in the US.
https://subterraneanpress.com/best-o...wanwick-ebook/

Thanks for that information. Changing the IP might not suffice if the source of the payment method, such as a credit card, is outside the US. But that's territory I'm reluctant to explore.

It appears that Open Road Media, the publisher of the ebook mentioned in the first post of this thread I responded to, Swanwick's Tales of Old Earth, doesn't have a regional restriction on everything. I picked another book at random on their website, Shards of Space by Robert Sheckley, and that is available here. I suppose it's a matter of the rights they hold, or whatever.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by SomeSteve

Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately, it's déjà vu all over again. Amazon here can't find it either with the ASIN or the ISBN. Title and author search results in a used hardcover for about $37 (plus $15 shipping). It's unknown to other regional retailers as well. The publisher's website doesn't say whether they'll sell ebooks to customers outside the US.

You could purchase through Kobo. It's very easy there to switch countries. No need for VPN or phony addresses or anything. Just change the country you are shopping via the flag at the top.

I am the opposite of you. I live in the US and occasionally purchase from Kobo UK because a book is not available here.

In your Kobo account, just blank out your payment info and when checking out it will offer to let you pay via PayPal. (For all I know, Kobo may not even care if you buy US books with a UK credit card. I've just always left my payment info blank for the PayPal option at the end of checkout.

[ZodWallop]

The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers is $1.99 at Amazon US.

Now celebrating 40 years in print—take a dazzling journey through time with Tim Power’s classic, Philip K. Dick Award-winning tale...

“There have been other novels in the genre about time travel, but none with The Anubis Gates’ unique slant on the material, nor its bottomless well of inventiveness. It’s literally in a class by itself, a model for others to follow, and it's easy to see how it put Powers on the map.”—SF Reviews

Brendan Doyle, a specialist in the work of the early-nineteenth century poet William Ashbless, reluctantly accepts an invitation from a millionaire to act as a guide to time-travelling tourists. But while attending a lecture given by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1810, he becomes marooned in Regency London, where dark and dangerous forces know about the gates in time.

Caught up in the intrigue between rival bands of beggars, pursued by Egyptian sorcerers, and befriended by Coleridge, Doyle somehow survives and learns more about the mysterious Ashbless than he could ever have imagined possible...

[SomeSteve]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

You could purchase through Kobo. It's very easy there to switch countries. No need for VPN or phony addresses or anything. Just change the country you are shopping via the flag at the top....

Thanks. Maybe (if I'm feeling particularly adventurous) I'll try it.