FREE/BARGAIN — Science Fiction & Fantasy

[salty-horse]

The Jewel and Her Lapidary by Fran Wilde is $2 on Amazon.com.
First in a series of 3 novellas.

The kingdom in the Valley has long sheltered under the protection of its Jewels and Lapidaries, the people bound to singing gemstones with the power to reshape hills, move rivers, and warp minds. That power has kept the peace and tranquility, and the kingdom has flourished.

Jewel Lin and her Lapidary Sima may be the last to enjoy that peace.

The Jeweled Court has been betrayed. As screaming raiders sweep down from the mountains, and Lapidary servants shatter under the pressure, the last princess of the Valley will have to summon up a strength she’s never known. If she can assume her royal dignity, and if Sima can master the most dangerous gemstone in the land, they may be able to survive.

[salty-horse]

The Whispering Swarm (The Sanctuary of the White Friars #1) by Michael Moorcock is $3 on Amazon.com

Set in a marvelous multiverse, this fantasy adventure-plus-memoir grapples with questions of identity, creativity, heroism, and the very structure of storytelling.

Postwar London, Swinging Sixties London--a time and place of creativity and social change. Young Michael Moorcock embarks upon adulthood as both editor and writer of science fiction and fantasy, helping shape the genre into its modern form through his work and his friendships with other writers. His marriage is new and fresh; his children are young and raising them, an adventure.

But no adventure lasts forever, and Moorcock begins to chafe under the grind of work and family. What seems a chance encounter with a monk--one of the White Friars--leads to a secret at the heart of London. Massive yet phantasmal doors lead to the Alsacia, a hidden world inhabited by great heroes of both history and fiction. Captivated, Moorcock rides as a highwayman and finds himself drinking in the company of all four Musketeers, though he misses his children and his increasingly-estranged wife.

The Alsacia's dangerous politics come to a head just as Moorcock's wife divorces him, each catastrophe feeding on the other as two realities pull on the emotionally struggling writer.

Part memoir, part adventure novel, The Whispering Swarm--the first book in The Sanctuary of the White Friars series--is both an evocation of a now-vanished London and the beginning of a new journey through the multiverse, created by a master of science fiction and fantasy.

[salty-horse]

The Wizard Knight by Gene Wolfe is $3 on Amazon.com
New Tor Essentials omnibus of The Knight and The Wizard.

A young man in his teens is transported from our world to a magical realm consisting of seven levels of reality. Transformed by magic into a grown man of heroic proportions, he takes the name Sir Able of the High Heart and sets out on a quest to find the sword that has been promised to him, the blade that will help him fulfill his ambition to become a true hero—a true knight.

Inside, however, Sir Able remains a boy, and he must grow in every sense to survive what lies ahead...

[salty-horse]

Meru by S. B. Divya is $2.5 (50% off) on Amazon.com
First in a series.

One woman and her pilot are about to change the future of the species in an epic space opera about aspiration, compassion, and redemption.

For five centuries, human life has been restricted to Earth, while posthuman descendants called alloys freely explore the galaxy. But when the Earthlike planet of Meru is discovered, two unlikely companions venture forth to test the habitability of this unoccupied new world and the future of human-alloy relations.

For Jayanthi, the adopted human child of alloy parents, it’s an opportunity to rectify the ancient reputation of her species as avaricious and destructive, and to give humanity a new place in the universe. For Vaha, Jayanthi’s alloy pilot, it’s a daunting yet irresistible adventure to find success as an individual.

As the journey challenges their resolve in unexpected ways, the two form a bond that only deepens with their time alone on Meru. But how can Jayanthi succeed at freeing humanity from its past when she and Vaha have been set up to fail?

Against all odds, hope is human, too.

[salty-horse]

Subterranean Press will begin "offering a series of free ebooks, at the interval of once every month or so, for the foreseeable future. From reprints of chapbooks to brand-new fiction from SubPress favorites and other authors, treat yourself to some fine reading, all available gratis."

The first free book is The Scarlet Ziggurat by Anthony Ryan. (Link)
This is a prequel set the world of The Seven Swords series.

For centuries, the Scarlet Ziggurat, once the palace of a fabled Sorcerer Queen, has lain undisturbed beneath the dunes of the southern desert. Now Guyime, dispossessed king and wielder of the demon cursed Nameless Blade, has come to claim the ziggurat’s secrets. Guided by a mighty sorcerer, Guyime must defeat ancient and malign forces to claim his promised reward: release from the cursed sword on his back and the endless taunts of its demon inhabitant. But, in a world where magic equates to power, can any bargain be trusted?

[ZodWallop]

Hey man! Those are two great finds! When I saw the Moorcock book, I thought it was going to be another Elric story.

I added B&N and Kobo links for each, if interested.

Originally Posted by salty-horse

The Whispering Swarm (The Sanctuary of the White Friars #1) by Michael Moorcock is $3 on Amazon.com

B&N, Kobo

Originally Posted by salty-horse

The Wizard Knight by Gene Wolfe is $3 on Amazon.com
New Tor Essentials omnibus of The Knight and The Wizard.

B&N, Kobo

[Cactus Chef]

Originally Posted by salty-horse

The Wizard Knight by Gene Wolfe is $3 on Amazon.com
New Tor Essentials omnibus of The Knight and The Wizard.

Damn! I had a gift card from family over Christmas and bought The Wizard Knight at full price in February. Oh well.

[ottdmk]

The Witchwood Crown is also on @ Amazon Canada for $2 (which I find odd, not often you find a book that isn't $x.99) and Kobo Canada for $2.99. However, the odd thing is that the VIP price is $1.80... which is the price I'd expect for VIP if the book was normally priced at $1.99 or $2.

Anyways, I happily picked it up for $1.80 + tax CDN.

[salty-horse]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I added B&N and Kobo links for each, if interested.

Kobo's prices weren't discounted yet when I posted. Unfortunately, I didn't wait before getting the Wizard Knight.

[salty-horse]

The Path of Thorns by A. G. Slatter (aka Angela Slatter) is $2 in the US (Amazon.com, Kobo).

A lush and twisted dark fairy tale suffused with witchcraft, dark secrets and bitter revenge.

Asher Todd comes to live with the mysterious Morwood family as a governess to their children. Asher knows little about being a governess but she is skilled in botany and herbcraft, and perhaps more than that. And she has secrets of her own, dark and terrible – and Morwood is a house that eats secrets. With a monstrous revenge in mind, Asher plans to make it choke. However, she becomes fond of her charges, of the people of the Tarn, and she begins to wonder if she will be able to execute her plan – and who will suffer most if she does. But as the ghosts of her past become harder to control, Asher realises she has no choice.

[salty-horse]

The sales continue!
The Unraveling by Benjamin Rosenbaum is $3 on Amazon.com
Was on my wishlist. Spoilery review by Abigail Nussbaum.

In the distant future, somewhere in the galaxy, a world has evolved where each person has multiple bodies, cybernetics has abolished privacy, and individual and family success are reliant upon instantaneous evaluations of how well each member conforms to the rigid social system.

Young Fift is an only child of the Staid gender, struggling to maintain zir position in the system while developing a friendship with the acclaimed bioengineer Shria -- a controversial and intriguing friendship, since Shria is Vail-gendered.

Soon Fift and Shria unintentionally wind up at the center of a scandalous art spectacle which turns into a multilayered Unraveling of society. Fift is torn between zir attraction to Shria and the safety of zir family, between staying true to zir feelings and social compliance... when zir personal crises suddenly take on global significance. What's a young Staid to do when the whole world is watching?

[isarl]

Originally Posted by salty-horse

Kobo's prices weren't discounted yet when I posted. Unfortunately, I didn't wait before getting the Wizard Knight.

I've never had Kobo turn down a price match against Amazon yet. Worst case, the reply came back that it wasn't showing on sale on Amazon anymore, I shared the screenshot which I had proactively taken exactly for this situation, and then they matched that price too.

In summary, if you prefer to buy from Kobo, an Amazon-only sale is still good thanks to Kobo's price match guarantee. But do screenshot the Amazon price beforehand and keep it on hand until they issue your refund.

[Aleron Ives]

When you price match, do you need a screenshot of the entire browser window, or just the Amazon page?

[salty-horse]

Originally Posted by isarl

I've never had Kobo turn down a price match against Amazon yet. Worst case, the reply came back that it wasn't showing on sale on Amazon anymore, I shared the screenshot which I had proactively taken exactly for this situation, and then they matched that price too.

In summary, if you prefer to buy from Kobo, an Amazon-only sale is still good thanks to Kobo's price match guarantee. But do screenshot the Amazon price beforehand and keep it on hand until they issue your refund.

That's sounds like too much work for avoiding Amazon, at least at the moment. Should I have just waited a bit longer for the price to update, or does it require human customers submitting requests?

[isarl]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

When you price match, do you need a screenshot of the entire browser window, or just the Amazon page?

I try to get the page URL and enough of the top of the page to show the price, title, author, cover, so they can tell it's the same book. But I don't bother trying to save a full cached copy of the entire page, or even a screenshot of the entire page. I suspect even screenshotting the URL is overkill as they already have the URL from my price match request.

Originally Posted by salty-horse

That's sounds like too much work for avoiding Amazon, at least at the moment. Should I have just waited a bit longer for the price to update, or does it require human customers submitting requests?

Each price match request must be submitted through their form. (On their main store page, scroll all the way down; there is a description of their price match guarantee with a link to “Learn more”; from that page there's another link to the form itself.) The form is brief and easy, I'm not sure what the comment field is even for as there are other fields asking for the competitor's URL and price. But I usually write a brief message like, “This book is currently on sale for $X at Amazon.”

I have no vested interest in where you buy your books so if going through the form submission is too involved, then by all means, don't. However, I'll point out that it is their policy to beat the price, not simply match it, so if the cheaper book is, say, $5, you'll get it for 10% less than that ($4.50 in this hypothetical example). And if you are a VIP, it seems that you keep all your Kobo points from the full purchase price…!

Whether or not you choose to use Kobo's price match in future – happy reading.