FREE/BARGAIN — Science Fiction & Fantasy

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

The 11 original Sandman graphic novels by Neil Gaiman and many talented artists are on sale for $3 a piece.

It looks to be Amazon exclusive and Amazon lumps them together with larger omnibus editions (not on sale), so you have to sorta look.

Be aware, if you've not read Sandman, the first book, Preludes and Noctures is weak. Neil was still figuring it all out.

The Sandman

Looks very interesting, but is it possible to download them and remove the DRM?

[salty-horse]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Looks very interesting, but is it possible to download them and remove the DRM?

They're Kindle books, so it's the same method.
I have a script that extracts the images and creates a compressed file that can be read in comics-reading software.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by salty-horse

They're Kindle books, so it's the same method.
I have a script that extracts the images and creates a compressed file that can be read in comics-reading software.

Thanks.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by salty-horse

They're Kindle books, so it's the same method.
I have a script that extracts the images and creates a compressed file that can be read in comics-reading software.

But if you use the download and transfer method for a Kindle, don't you get smaller resolution images? That's been my concern.

[ZodWallop]

World Without Stars by Poul Anderson is $2 at Amazon, B&N and Kobo

A far-future tale of marooned space travelers, a near-immortal hero, and a universe-spanning love from a multiple Nebula Award–winning author.

In a far-future era, death is virtually no more, banished except in the case of severe, violent trauma, enabling mankind to spend what were once entire lifetimes exploring the farthest reaches of the vast universe. When the interstellar vessel Meteor is dispatched to investigate a distant orb circling a giant red sun, an error in calculations sends the ship crashing into a different world altogether, casting its surviving crew into the heart of a savage, planetwide war of primitive alien tribes. With no means of escape and hostiles on every side, the situation appears hopeless for Captain Felip Argens. But for the mission’s true leader—crewman, adventurer, and ship’s bard Hugh Valland—impossible is not an option. If necessary, he will alter destiny to end the terrible conflict and bring his men safely back home, even if it takes decades, or centuries, or longer—for a remarkable love patiently awaits Valland’s return to Earth. It is she who sustains him, who inspires his actions, his courage, his song, with a love that is a miracle, a memory, a tragedy, and a dream.

One of the most thoughtful and lyrical works by the incomparable Poul Anderson—winner of seven Hugo Awards and three Nebula Awards over the course of his acclaimed career—World without Stars is a thrilling deep-space adventure and a magnificent feat of world building by a luminary of science fiction’s golden age.

[ZodWallop]

Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin is $2 at Amazon, B&N and Kobo

Mark Helprin’s masterpiece transports you to New York of the Belle Époque, to a city clarified by a siege of unprecedented snows, and to a love story that is one of the most beautiful and unforgettable in American literature.

One winter night, Peter Lake—master mechanic and second-story man—attempts to rob a fortresslike mansion on the Upper West Side. Though he thinks it is empty, the daughter of the house is home. Thus begins the affair between a middle-aged Irish burglar and Beverly Penn, a young girl dying of consumption. It is a love so powerful that Peter, a simple and uneducated man, will be driven to stop time and bring back the dead.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

But if you use the download and transfer method for a Kindle, don't you get smaller resolution images? That's been my concern.

I've bought the first one, downloaded for transfer via USB to a Kindle 4, and the images in that are 24 bit colour jpegs, 1249x1920, around 700KB, total size of the file around 150MB. I'm happy.

[salty-horse]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin is $2 at Amazon, B&N and Kobo

I first learned of this from Gaiman's blog about the film adaptation, who's a fan.

Interesting review by Sarah Pinsker that should let you know if you're up to the challenge:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/13414324

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I've bought the first one, downloaded for transfer via USB to a Kindle 4, and the images in that are 24 bit colour jpegs, 1249x1920, around 700KB, total size of the file around 150MB. I'm happy.

Thanks for that. Not great, but not bad.

[Cactus Chef]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I've bought the first one, downloaded for transfer via USB to a Kindle 4, and the images in that are 24 bit colour jpegs, 1249x1920, around 700KB, total size of the file around 150MB. I'm happy.

A Kindle 4? Like, this one?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon...rth_generation

I have a similarly old model, and I can't download and transfer via USB any ebook that is considered a comic book/graphic novel. Amazon tells me it's not compatible with my device.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I've bought the first one, downloaded for transfer via USB to a Kindle 4, and the images in that are 24 bit colour jpegs, 1249x1920, around 700KB, total size of the file around 150MB. I'm happy.

Amazon can deliver comics in varying resolutions and compression levels depending on the target device. I took at look at the Volume 10 from that series (The Wake). Here is a summary of what I saw.

Download and Transfer via USB targeting a Kindle: AZW3, 1248x1920, largest image 250KB

Download using Kindle for PC 2.0.1: AZW3 (.azw) + AZW6 (.azw.res), 1248x1920, largest image 1.8MB

Download using Kindle for Android 8.88: KFX, 1988x3056, largest image 1.5MB

[Fbone]

The Shadow of What Was Lost (The Licanius Trilogy Book 1) by James Islington is $2.99. GR 4.14 (47000)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01HMRF5FI...v_ov_lig_dp_it

As destiny calls, a journey begins.

It has been twenty years since the godlike Augurs were overthrown and killed. Now, those who once served them -- the Gifted -- are spared only because they have accepted the rebellion's Four Tenets, vastly limiting their powers.

As a Gifted, Davian suffers the consequences of a war lost before he was even born. He and others like him are despised. But when Davian discovers he wields the forbidden power of the Augurs, he and his friends Wirr and Asha set into motion a chain of events that will change everything.

To the west, a young man whose fate is intertwined with Davian's wakes up in the forest, covered in blood and with no memory of who he is. . .

And in the far north, an ancient enemy long thought defeated begins to stir.

The Licanius Trilogy is a series readers will have a hard time putting down -- a relentless coming-of-age epic from the very first page.

[Fbone]

The Red Knight (The Traitor Son Cycle Book 1) by Miles Cameron is $2.99

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007ZFPUL2...v_ov_lig_dp_it

Twenty eight florins a month is a huge price to pay, for a man to stand between you and the Wild.

Twenty eight florins a month is nowhere near enough when a wyvern's jaws snap shut on your helmet in the hot stink of battle, and the beast starts to rip the head from your shoulders. But if standing and fighting is hard, leading a company of men -- or worse, a company of mercenaries -- against the smart, deadly creatures of the Wild is even harder.

It takes all the advantages of birth, training, and the luck of the devil to do it.

The Red Knight has all three, he has youth on his side, and he's determined to turn a profit. So when he hires his company out to protect an Abbess and her nunnery, it's just another job. The abby is rich, the nuns are pretty and the monster preying on them is nothing he can't deal with.

Only it's not just a job. It's going to be a war. . .

[salty-horse]

When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb is $2 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)
Jewish YA historical fiction. Recommended in another forum.

A queer immigrant fairytale about individual purpose, the fluid nature of identity, and the power of love to change and endure.

Uriel the angel and Little Ash (short for Ashmedai) are the only two supernatural creatures in their shtetl (which is so tiny, it doesn't have a name other than Shtetl). The angel and the demon have been studying together for centuries, but pogroms and the search for a new life have drawn all the young people from their village to America. When one of those young emigrants goes missing, Uriel and Little Ash set off to find her.

Along the way the angel and demon encounter humans in need of their help, including Rose Cohen, whose best friend (and the love of her life) has abandoned her to marry a man, and Malke Shulman, whose father died mysteriously on his way to America. But there are obstacles ahead of them as difficult as what they’ve left behind. Medical exams (and demons) at Ellis Island. Corrupt officials, cruel mob bosses, murderers, poverty. The streets are far from paved with gold.

[salty-horse]

The omnibus Tales of the Dying Earth (4 novels) by Jack Vance is $3 in the US (Kobo, Kindle)

Very weird that this exists, as Jack Vance's estate (Spatterlight Press) is selling its own ebook edition (for $20), which isn't available elsewhere. Maybe support them instead, if you can. (I already have that edition.)