FREE/BARGAIN — Science Fiction & Fantasy

[Apache]

Originally Posted by andyh2000

Every time I see a ridiculous £2.99 price or (even worse) £499 I just take a second to change it in my head to £3 or £500 and work on that basis. I don't know if the original sneaky price still has some subconscious effect - probably...

Andrew

Ask people the price and, in my experience, most will round down to the nearest dollar (i.e., $2.00 instead of $3.00).
Apache

[andyh2000]

Originally Posted by Apache

Ask people the price and, in my experience, most will round down to the nearest dollar (i.e., $2.00 instead of $3.00).
Apache

Yikes.

[Dr. Drib]

OUTRAGEOUSLY OFF TOPIC! (Active Moderators: Take Note)

Lemme* me see, here: It takes 5 keystrokes to type $3.00

And it takes.....Lemme* see....um...um....it takes 5 key strokes to type $2.99

Bu WAIT! If I put a period at the end of each sentence.......Lemme* see......well, that would be 6 keystrokes!

What's my point? The hell if I know!

*Lemme = Let me
Doesn't lemme sound a bit like lemon? (Especially if it's said real fast over and over.)

[Manabi]

Originally Posted by Apache

As long as I can remember gasoline prices, in the US have always used 9/10s. Here gas is an average of $3.089 for regular. I never understood why people think $3.08 for that rather than $3.09.
Apache

It's because the signs use big digits for $3.08, so people tend to ignore, or not even notice the much smaller 9/10 next to it.

[ZodWallop]

Bradbury Stories by Ray Bradbury is $1.99 at Amazon, B&N and Kobo US.

Now, I also have this large Bradbury collection: The Stories of Ray Bradbury. Both are very large (900+ pages) collections. Anyone know how much overlap there is between the two? I tried comparing the two tables of contents, but there are SO many stories in each, it was tough.

For more than sixty years, the imagination of Ray Bradbury has opened doors into remarkable places, ushering us across unexplored territories of the heart and mind while leading us inexorably toward a profound understanding of ourselves and the universe we inhabit. In this landmark volume, America's preeminent storyteller offers us one hundred treasures from alifetime of words and ideas -- tales that amaze, enthrall, and horrify; breathtaking journeys backward and forward in time; classic stories with the undiminished power to tantalize, mystify, elate, and move the reader to tears. Each small gem in the master's collection remains as dazzling as when it first appeared in print.

There is magic in these pages: the wonders of interstellar flight, a conspiracy of insects, the early bloom of love in the warmth of August. Both the world of Ray Bradbury and its people are vivid and alive, as colorfully unique as a poker chip hand-painted by a brilliant artist or as warmly familiar as the well-used settings on a family's dining room table. In a poor man's desire for the stars, in the twisted night games of a hateful embalmer, in a magnificent fraud perpetrated to banish despair and repair a future, in a writer's wonderful death is the glowing proof of the timeless artistry of one of America's greatest living bards.

The one hundred stories in this volume were chosen by Bradbury himself, and span a career that blossomed in the pulp magazines of the early 1940s and continues to flourish in the new millennium. Here are representatives of the legendary author's finest works of short fiction, including many that have not been republished for decades, all forever fresh and vital, evocative and immensely entertaining. This is Bradbury at his very best -- golden visions of tomorrow, poetic memories of yesterday, dark nightmares and glorious dreams -- a grand celebration of humankind, God's intricate yet poignantly fallible machineries of joy.

[ZodWallop]

Babel by R.F. Kuang is $3.99 at Amazon, B&N and Kobo US. $3.99 isn't usually a deal, but it is the cheapest this book has been offered. I've been waiting for it to go on sale again.

From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a thematic response to The Secret History and a tonal retort to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell that grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British empire.

Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel.

Babel is the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as its knowledge serves the Empire’s quest for colonization.

For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide…

Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?

[elaysee]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Bradbury Stories by Ray Bradbury is $1.99 at Amazon, B&N and Kobo US.

Now, I also have this large Bradbury collection: The Stories of Ray Bradbury. Both are very large (900+ pages) collections. Anyone know how much overlap there is between the two? I tried comparing the two tables of contents, but there are SO many stories in each, it was tough.

I have both collections, and at a quick glance there may not be any overlap. I alphabetized the TOCs and didn't spot any points of correspondence. Some of the classic stories I recognize were only in one list or the other.

[Desertway]

Originally Posted by Now, I also have this large Bradbury collection: [URL="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08KH4TR4Q"

The Stories of Ray Bradbury[/URL]. Both are very large (900+ pages) collections. Anyone know how much overlap there is between the two? I tried comparing the two tables of contents, but there are SO many stories in each, it was tough.

I love that the second collection you mention is also available on cassette tape for $69.95.

[isarl]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Bradbury Stories by Ray Bradbury is $1.99 at Amazon, B&N and Kobo US.

Now, I also have this large Bradbury collection: The Stories of Ray Bradbury. Both are very large (900+ pages) collections. Anyone know how much overlap there is between the two? I tried comparing the two tables of contents, but there are SO many stories in each, it was tough.

According to the Internet Speculative Fiction Database: #1, #2
The Stories of Ray Bradbury has been published as “Ray Bradbury Stories Volume 1”,
and Bradbury Stories has been published as “Ray Bradbury Stories Volume 2”,
by HarperVoyager.

At a quick glance I see no overlap between the two, not even accounting for variant titles.

[ZodWallop]

Thanks guys. I had a gift card, so I bought Stories.

[svenlind]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Thanks guys. I had a gift card, so I bought Stories.

I have several Bradbury stories but a $1.99 ($2.49 with Danish VAT) it is a steal so I too bought it.

[maddz]

Originally Posted by isarl

According to the Internet Speculative Fiction Database: #1, #2
The Stories of Ray Bradbury has been published as “Ray Bradbury Stories Volume 1”,
and Bradbury Stories has been published as “Ray Bradbury Stories Volume 2”,
by HarperVoyager.

At a quick glance I see no overlap between the two, not even accounting for variant titles.

You'll also want to pick up The Martian Chronicles as well if you haven't already got it. 14 of the 26 stories aren't in either volume. There's 6 stories collected in Volume 1, and the remaining 6 are in Volume 2 (Harper Voyager editions).

Unfortunately, I only see the expensive Harper Voyager collections in the UK.

[sufue]

Charlie N Holmberg's The Hanging City is one of the Kindle First Reads selections for July, and if you are a Prime Member, you can get it free right now, for a few more days. (And also a second pick, since you get two picks this month.) I read and liked her Paper Magician series.

Kindle US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BKR5CNTW

Spoiler:

For a young woman who wields the power of fear, humanity’s greatest enemy is her only hope in a new romantic, adventure-filled fantasy by Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Charlie N. Holmberg.

Seven years on the run from her abusive father, and with no hope of sanctuary among the dwindling pockets of human civilization, Lark is out of options. Her only leverage is a cursed power: she can thrust fear onto others, leaving all threats fleeing in terror. It’s a means of survival as she searches for a place to call home. If the campfire myths of her childhood are true, Lark’s sole chance for refuge could lie in Cagmar, the city of trolls—a brutal species and the sworn enemies of humanity.

Valuing combat prowess, the troll high council is intrigued. Lark could be much more useful than the low-caste humans who merely labor in Cagmar. Her gift makes her invaluable as a monster slayer to fight off the unspeakable creatures that torment the trolls’ hanging city, suspended from a bridge over an endless dark canyon.

Lark will do anything to make Cagmar her home, but her new role comes with a caveat: use her power against a troll, and she’ll be killed. Her loyalty is quickly put to the test when she draws the hatred of a powerful troll who loathes humankind. Still, she finds unexpected friendship in the city and, even more surprisingly, love. But if everything else doesn’t undo her, being caught in the arms of a troll surely will. Now in the fight of her life, Lark has a lot to learn—about her past, about trust and hope when all seems lost, and above all, about the extraordinary power of fear itself.

[ZodWallop]

The Reality Dysfunction (The Night's Dawn Book 1) by Peter F. Hamilton is $2.99 at Amazon, B&N and Kobo US.

The Reality Dysfunction is a modern classic of science fiction from Peter F. Hamilton, an extraordinary feat of storytelling on a truly epic scale.

Space is not the only void. . .

In AD 2600 the human race is finally beginning to realize its full potential. Hundreds of colonized planets scattered across the galaxy host a multitude of prosperous and wildly diverse cultures. Genetic engineering has pushed evolution far beyond nature's boundaries, defeating disease and producing extraordinary spaceborn creatures. Huge fleets of sentient trader starships thrive on the wealth created by the industrialization of entire star systems. And throughout inhabited space the Confederation Navy keeps the peace. A true golden age is within our grasp.

But on a primitive colony planet, a renegade criminal's chance encounter with an utterly alien entity unleashes the most primal of humanity’s fears. An extinct race which inhabited the galaxy aeons ago called it "The Reality Dysfunction." It is the nightmare which has prowled beside us since the beginning of history.

[ZodWallop]

The Waking Fire by Anthony Ryan is $1.99 at Amazon, B&N and Kobo US.

Throughout the vast lands controlled by the Ironship Trading Syndicate, nothing is more prized than the blood of drakes. Harvested from captive or hunted Reds, Greens, Blues and Blacks, it can be distilled into elixirs that bestow fearsome powers on the rare men and women known as the Blood-blessed.

But not many know the truth: that the lines of drakes are weakening. If they fail, war with the neighboring Corvantine Empire will follow swiftly. The Syndicate’s last hope resides in whispers of the existence of another breed of drake, far more powerful than the rest, and the few who have been chosen by fate to seek it.

Claydon Torcreek is a petty thief and an unregistered Blood-blessed who finds himself pressed into service by the Protectorate and sent to wild, uncharted lands in search of a creature he believes is little more than legend. Lizanne Lethridge is a formidable spy and assassin facing gravest danger on an espionage mission deep into the heart of enemy territory. And Corrick Hilemore is the second lieutenant of an Ironship cruiser whose pursuit of ruthless brigands leads him to a far greater threat at the edge of the world.

As lives and empires clash and intertwine, as the unknown and the known collide, all three must fight to turn the tide of a coming war, or drown in its wake.