FREE/BARGAIN — Science Fiction & Fantasy

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by DNSB

For those who might want the original version of Christopher Stasheff's King Kobold—the one that he thought so bad that he rewrote the entire story as King Kobold Revived, the link on http://christopher.stasheff.com/ from June, 2023 is still there and still works.

Got it.

Thank you!

[SomeSteve]

Originally Posted by ngrant

I listened to the audio versions of the Jack Finney books back when Audible was a "newborn" and remember being enthralled by both.... One of my favorite top three books of all time is Heinlein's "The Door Into Summer".

Thanks. I guess that about forces me to get the Finney books.

The Door into Summer is one I've reread a few times. I still have my old paperback edition.

[ottdmk]

Not terribly interested in the original King Kobold... the Stasheff ebook I want is "The Crusading Wizard." All the rest of that series (A Wizard in Rhyme) are available, including the follow-up "The Feline Wizard."

[Fbone]

Skulduggery Pleasant (Skulduggery Pleasant, Book 1) by Derek Landy is 99 cents.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0776PL51B...v_ov_lig_dp_it

[salty-horse]

Solaris is having a sale again, for books that start a series. As usual, regional restrictions apply.
https://rebellionpublishing.com/sale/

[salty-horse]

City of Bones by Martha Wells is $3 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)
This is the reissued and revised edition of the 1995 novel.

The city of Charisat, a tiered monolith of the Ancients’ design, sits on the edge of the vast desert known as the Waste. Khat, a member of a humanoid race created by the Ancients to survive in the Waste, and Sagai, his human partner, are relic dealers working in the bottom tiers of society, trying to stay one step ahead of the Trade Inspectors.

When Khat is hired by the all-powerful Warders to find relics believed to be part of one of the Ancients' arcane engines, he, and his party, begin unravelling the mysteries of an age-old technology.

This they expected.

They soon find themselves as the last line of defense between the suffering masses of Charisat and a fanatical cult, bent on unleashing an evil upon the city with an undying thirst for bone.

That, they did not expect.

[salty-horse]

The Pomegranate Gate (Mirror Realm Cycle #1) by Ariel Kaplan is $2 in the US. (Kobo US, Kobo WW, Amazon)
Spanish Inquisition-era fantasy trilogy inspired by Jewish folklore. New release. Was on my wishlist.

Toba Peres can speak, but not shout; sleep, but not dream. She can write with both hands at once, in different languages, but she keeps her talents hidden at her grandparents’ behest.

Naftaly Cresques sees things that aren’t real, and dreams things that are. Always the family disappointment, Naftaly would still risk his life to honor his father’s last wishes.

After the Queen demands every Jew convert or face banishment, Toba and Naftaly are among thousands of Jews who flee their homes. Defying royal orders to abandon all possessions, Toba keeps an amulet she must never take off; Naftaly smuggles a centuries-old book he’s forbidden to read. But the Inquisition is hunting these particular treasures–and they’re not hunting alone.

Toba stumbles through a pomegranate grove into the mirror realm of the Mazik: mythical, terrible immortals with an Inquisition of their own, equally cruel and even more powerful. With the Mazik kingdoms in political turmoil, this Inquisition readies its bid to control both realms.

In each world, Toba and Naftaly must evade both Inquisitions long enough to unravel the connection between their family heirlooms and the realm of the Mazik. Their fates are tied to this strange place, and it’s up to them to save it.

Brimming with folkloric wonder, The Pomegranate Gate weaves history and magic into a spellbindingly intricate tale suffused with humor and heart.

[Aleron Ives]

Originally Posted by salty-horse

This is the reissued and revised edition of the 1995 novel.

Does anybody know what got changed?

[salty-horse]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

Does anybody know what got changed?

In an interview she suggested that she was a younger writer then, and laughed at her inexperience. I think the Tor contract gave her the opportunity to revise it, because she self-published it previously without changes (AFAIK).

[Alastair_S]

Salty-horse, are you being incredibly subtle?

You finish one post with:

Originally Posted by salty-horse

did not expect

and after giving the book title and links begin the next post with:

Originally Posted by salty-horse

Spanish Inquisition

[salty-horse]

Originally Posted by Alastair_S

Salty-horse, are you being incredibly subtle?

Maybe... (no)

[salty-horse]

Three Tordotcom novellas on sale, $2 each.
I've only read January Fifteenth, which was OK.

Rosebud by Paul Cornell (Kobo, Amazon)

A multilayered, locked-room science fiction novella from Paul Cornell in which five digital beings unravel their existences to discover the truth of their humanity.

“The crew of the Rosebud are, currently, and by force of law, a balloon, a goth with a swagger stick, some sort of science aristocrat possibly, a ball of hands, and a swarm of insects.”

When five sentient digital beings—condemned for over three hundred years to crew the small survey ship by the all-powerful Company—encounter a mysterious black sphere, their course of action is clear: obtain the object, inform the Company, earn lots of praise.

But the ship malfunctions, and the crew has no choice but to approach the sphere and survey it themselves. They have no idea that this object—and the transcendent truth hidden within—will change the fate of all existence, the Company, and themselves.

The Two Doctors Górski by Isaac Fellman (Kobo, Amazon)

A dazzling contemporary fantasy and an exploration of reclaiming personal power in the aftermath of abuse by Lambda Award-winning author Isaac Fellman.

Annae, a brilliant graduate student in psychiatric magic and survivor of academic abuse, can’t stop reading people’s minds. This is how she protects herself, by using her abilities to know exactly how her colleagues view her. This is how she escapes the torturous experience of her own existence.

When Annae moves to England to rebuild her life and finish her studies under the seminal magician Marec Górski—infamous for bringing to life a homunculus made from his unwanted better self—she sees, inside his head, a man who is both a destructive force to everyone around him, and her mirror image. For Annae to survive, she’ll need to break free of a lifetime of conditioning to embody her own self and forge her own path.

January Fifteenth by Rachel Swirsky (Kobo, Amazon)

January Fifteenth—the day all Americans receive their annual Universal Basic Income payment.

For Hannah, a middle-aged mother, today is the anniversary of the day she took her two children and fled her abusive ex-wife.

For Janelle, a young, broke journalist, today is another mind-numbing day interviewing passersby about the very policy she once opposed.

For Olivia, a wealthy college freshman, today is “Waste Day”, when rich kids across the country compete to see who can most obscenely squander the government’s money.

For Sarah, a pregnant teen, today is the day she’ll journey alongside her sister-wives to pick up the payments that undergird their community—and perhaps embark on a new journey altogether.

In this near-future science fiction novella by Nebula Award-winning author Rachel Swirsky, the fifteenth of January is another day of the status quo, and another chance at making lasting change.

[Joykins]

Exadelic by Jon Evans is $2.99 at Amazon.

"When an unconventional offshoot of the US military trains an artificial intelligence in the dark arts that humanity calls "black magic," it learns how to hack the fabric of reality itself. It can teleport matter. It can confer immunity to bullets. And it decides that obscure Silicon Valley middle manager Adrian Ross is the primary threat to its existence.

Soon Adrian is on the run, wanted by every authority, with no idea how or why he could be a threat. His predicament seems hopeless; his future, nonexistent. But when he investigates the AI and its creators, he discovers his problems are even stranger than they seem...and unearths revelations that will propel him on a journey -- and a love story -- across worlds, eras, and everything, everywhere, all at once."

[Fbone]

Hunter (A Hunter Novel Book 1) by Mercedes Lackey is $1.99

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00V6YWGEM...v_ov_lig_dp_it

[Fbone]

Flight of the Nighthawks (Book One of the Darkwar Saga) by Raymond E. Feist is $1.99

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000GCFBVU...v_ov_lig_dp_it