FREE/BARGAIN — Science Fiction & Fantasy

[cc_in_oh]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I've gotten a lot further than that. I had a friend that went nuts for the series and I've read at least half of the first book. Perhaps two thirds. I find the ideas funny. It's just the feeling that none of this is really going anywhere that turned me away.

I had more success with Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.

And they made a surprisingly decent TV series out of Dirk Gently...

[Manabi]

Originally Posted by cc_in_oh

And they made a surprisingly decent TV series out of Dirk Gently...

I still want to know how he explained the beheaded guy as a suicide. Did they even try to provide the explanation in the TV series, or just hand-waved it away in the background like the book did?

[TrevorViking]

Originally Posted by cc_in_oh

And they made a surprisingly decent TV series out of Dirk Gently...

Two of them actually, imho.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Manabi

I still want to know how he explained the beheaded guy as a suicide. Did they even try to provide the explanation in the TV series, or just hand-waved it away in the background like the book did?

Hmmm... Krystof Azninski? See Macho Men? 1996 Darwin Awards Winner. Though there is a claim that it was an axe and he claimed his friend was not brave enough to make the cut.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Hmmm... Krystof Azninski? See Macho Men? 1996 Darwin Awards Winner. Though there is a claim that it was an axe and he claimed his friend was not brave enough to make the cut.

So, is that the top Pyrrhic victory of all time?

[Manabi]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Hmmm... Krystof Azninski? See Macho Men? 1996 Darwin Awards Winner. Though there is a claim that it was an axe and he claimed his friend was not brave enough to make the cut.

It was more complex than just a beheading in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, since the head was sitting dead center on a record with the player running and the stylus bumping against it over and over again. It was basically a situation that was impossible to be a suicide that Dirk somehow explained to the police was a suicide.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Manabi

It was more complex than just a beheading in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, since the head was sitting dead center on a record with the player running and the stylus bumping against it over and over again.

I think that was The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul.

[Fbone]

Senlin Ascends (The Books of Babel Book 1) by Josiah Bancroft is $2.99. GR rating 4.13 (23,000)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074M62D7Y...v_ov_lig_dp_it

The Tower of Babel is the greatest marvel in the world. Immense as a mountain, the ancient Tower holds unnumbered ringdoms, warring and peaceful, stacked one on the other like the layers of a cake. It is a world of geniuses and tyrants, of airships and steam engines, of unusual animals and mysterious machines.

Soon after arriving for his honeymoon at the Tower, the mild-mannered headmaster of a small village school, Thomas Senlin, gets separated from his wife, Marya, in the overwhelming swarm of tourists, residents, and miscreants.

Senlin is determined to find Marya, but to do so he'll have to navigate madhouses, ballrooms, and burlesque theaters. He must survive betrayal, assassins, and the long guns of a flying fortress. But if he hopes to find his wife, he will have to do more than just endure.

This quiet man of letters must become a man of action.

[Manabi]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I think that was The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul.

Could be, it's been a looong time since I read them. I didn't like them enough to reread since.

[salty-horse]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Senlin Ascends (The Books of Babel Book 1) by Josiah Bancroft

Fun series, but the first book is weaker than the rest, as it focuses on one character.
Try to avoid clicking the series page on Goodreads, as the cover of the upcoming short story collection is a bit spoilery.

[nabsltd]

Nightfall and other Stories by Isaac Asimov, $1.99

Amazon
Kobo

[Fbone]

Gilded Cage (Dark Gifts Book 1) by Vic James is $1.99

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FPGY5PY...v_ov_lig_dp_it

In a darkly fantastical debut set in modern-day Britain, magic users control everything: wealth, politics, power—and you. If you’re not one of the ultimate one-percenters—the magical elite—you owe them ten years of service. Do those years when you’re old, and you’ll never get through them. Do them young, and you’ll never get over them.

This is the darkly decadent world of Gilded Cage. In its glittering milieu move the all-powerful Jardines and the everyday Hadleys. The families have only one thing in common: Each has three children. But their destinies entwine when one family enters the service of the other. They will all discover whether any magic is more powerful than the human spirit.

Have a quick ten years. . . .

[salty-horse]

Translation State by Ann Leckie is $3 on Amazon.com
This is a standalone set in the Imperial Radch setting - comments online suggest reading the trilogy starting with Ancillary Justice first to better appreciate recurring characters and so forth.

The mystery of a missing translator sets three lives on a collision course that will have a ripple effect across the stars.

Qven was created to be a Presger translator. The pride of their Clade, they always had a clear path before them: learn human ways, and eventually, make a match and serve as an intermediary between the dangerous alien Presger and the human worlds. The realization that they might want something else isn't "optimal behavior". I's the type of behavior that results in elimination.

But Qven rebels. And in doing so, their path collides with those of two others. Enae, a reluctant diplomat whose dead grandmaman has left hir an impossible task as an inheritance: hunting down a fugitive who has been missing for over 200 years. And Reet, an adopted mechanic who is increasingly desperate to learn about his genetic roots—or anything that might explain why he operates so differently from those around him.

As a Conclave of the various species approaches—and the long-standing treaty between the humans and the Presger is on the line—the decisions of all three will have ripple effects across the stars.

Masterfully merging space adventure and mystery, and a poignant exploration about relationships and belonging, Translation State is a triumphant new standalone story set in the celebrated Imperial Radch universe.

[Aleron Ives]

'Babel' by R. F. Kuang is $3:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09MD95S5V
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/babel-54

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

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?

I'm tempted, but many reviewers indicate the book is extremely preachy, to the point where it barely has any plot at all and is mostly just a lecture series with terrible pacing until the second half. Considering it's over 500 pages in print, you may want to think carefully before subjecting yourself to this.

[salty-horse]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

I'm tempted, but many reviewers indicate the book is extremely preachy, to the point where it barely has any plot at all and is mostly just a lecture series with terrible pacing until the second half. Considering it's over 500 pages in print, you may want to think carefully before subjecting yourself to this.

It is, but not that bad. I found it enjoyable.