FREE/BARGAIN — Science Fiction & Fantasy

[ZodWallop]

Stardust by Neil Gaiman is $2 at Amazon, B&N and Kobo.

Young Tristran Thorn will do anything to win the cold heart of beautiful Victoria—even fetch her the star they watch fall from the night sky. But to do so, he must enter the unexplored lands on the other side of the ancient wall that gives their tiny village its name. Beyond that old stone wall, Tristran learns, lies Faerie—where nothing not even a fallen star, is what he imagined.

[maddz]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Homunculus by James P. Blaylock is $2 at Amazon, B&N and Kobo. This is an early steampunk novel, published in 1986.



Blaylock wrote further St. Ives stories over the years and all the novels are $2 each:
Lord Kelvin's Machine - Amazon, B&N, Kobo
The Aylesford Skull - Amazon, B&N, Kobo
Beneath London - Amazon, B&N, Kobo

They are £1.99 at Kobo UK as well.

Interestingly, Lord Kelvin's Machine is included in The Steampunk Adventures of Langdon St Ives along with a bunch of short stories. That's priced at £5.49 at Kobo UK: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/the...angdon-st-ives

The novellas are £3.99.

[salty-horse]

The Moon and the Other by John Kessel is $1 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)

A rich matriarchal utopia, set in the near future on the moon, a society that is flawed by love and sex, and on the brink of a destructive civil war.

In the middle of the twenty-second century, over three million people live in underground cities below the moon’s surface. One city-state, the Society of Cousins, is a matriarchy, where men are supported in any career choice, but no right to vote—and tensions are beginning to flare as outside political intrigues increase.

After participating in a rebellion that caused his mother’s death, Erno has been exiled from the Society of Cousins. Now, he is living in the Society’s rival colony, Persepolis, when he meets Amestris, the defiant daughter of the richest man on the moon.

Mira, a rebellious loner in the Society, creates graffiti videos that challenge the Society’s political domination. She is hopelessly in love with Carey, the exemplar of male privilege. An Olympic champion in low-gravity martial arts and known as the most popular bedmate in the Society, Carey’s more suited to being a boyfriend than a parent, even as he tries to gain custody of his teenage son.

When the Organization of Lunar States sends a team to investigate the condition of men in the Society, Erno sees an opportunity to get rich, Amestris senses an opportunity to escape from her family, Mira has a chance for social change, and Carey can finally become independent of the matriarchy that considers him a perpetual adolescent. But when Society secrets are revealed, the first moon war erupts, and everyone must decide what is truly worth fighting for.

[Fbone]

The Rage of Dragons (The Burning Book 1) by Evan Winter is $2.99

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07L2VKFP5...v_ov_lig_dp_it

[ZodWallop]

Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor is $2 at Amazon, B&N and Kobo US.

It’s up to a famous rapper, a marine biologist, and a rogue soldier to handle humanity’s first contact with an alien ambassador—and prevent mass extinction—in this novel that blends magical realism with high-stakes action.

After word gets out on the Internet that aliens have landed in the waters outside of the world’s fifth most populous city, Lagos, Nigeria, chaos ensues. Soon the military, religious leaders, thieves, and crackpots are trying to control the message on YouTube and on the streets. Meanwhile, the earth’s political superpowers are considering a preemptive nuclear launch to eradicate the intruders. All that stands between seventeen million anarchic residents and death is an alien ambassador, a biologist, a rapper, a soldier, and a myth that may be the size of a giant spider, or a god revealed.

[salty-horse]

Shadow Speaker by Nnedi Okorafor is $2 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)
Deluxe, expanded edition of a 2007 novel, republished last year together with a new sequel. (The original is notorious for having a white woman on its first cover, which shows you how much the publisher cared).

Niger, West Africa, 2074

It is an era of tainted technology and mysterious mysticism. A great change has happened all over the planet, and the laws of physics aren’t what they used to be.

Within all this, I introduce you to Ejii Ugabe, a child of the worst type of politician. Back when she was nine years old, she was there as her father met his end. Don’t waste your tears on him: this girl’s father would throw anyone under a bus to gain power. He was a cruel, cruel man, but even so, Ejii did not rejoice at his departure from the world. Children are still learning that some people don’t deserve their love.

Now 15 years old and manifesting the abilities given to her by the strange Earth, Ejii decides to go after the killer of her father. Is it for revenge or something else? You will have to find out by reading this book.

I am the Desert Magician, and this is a novel I have conjured for you, so I’m certainly not going to just tell you here.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by salty-horse

Shadow Speaker by Nnedi Okorafor is $2 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)

I mentioned a book by her yesterday (still on sale). Does she have a new book due out soon? Or is it just a coincidence two books by the same author went on sale?

[ZodWallop]

The Thousand Earths by Stephen Baxter is $1 at Amazon, B&N and Kobo US.

I thought I had this already, but both Kobo and Amazon say no.

In 2145AD John Hackett's adventure is just beginning.

In Year 30, Mela's story is coming to a close.

Hackett, in his trusty ship the Perseus, is not just a space traveller - beginning his travels with an expedition to Neptune and back - but, thanks to the time-dilation effect, a time traveller as well. His new mission will take him to Andromeda, to get a close-up look at the constellation which will eventually crash into the Milky Way, and give humanity a heads-up about the challenges which are coming.

A mission which will take him five million years to complete.

Not only is Hackett exploring unknown space, but he will return to a vastly different time.

Mela's world is coming to an end. Erosion is eating away at the edges of every landmass - first at a rate of ten metres a year, but fast accelerating, displacing people and animals as the rising Tide destroys everything in its path. Putting more and more pressure on the people - and resources - which remain.

She and her people have always known that this long-predicted end to their home, one of the Thousand Earths, is coming - but that makes their fight to survive, to protect each other, no less desperate . . . and no less doomed.

A beautiful, page-turning story which interweaves the tale of these two characters, separated by both space and time, in a hopeful exploration of humanities' future, this is Stephen Baxter at his best.

[salty-horse]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I mentioned a book by her yesterday (still on sale). Does she have a new book due out soon? Or is it just a coincidence two books by the same author went on sale?

Not that I'm aware, and I see nothing in her socials.

[salty-horse]

The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham is £1 in the UK (Kobo, Amazon)

It started with fireballs raining down from the sky and crashing into the oceans' deeps. Then ships began sinking mysteriously and later 'sea tanks' emerged from the deeps to claim people . . .

For journalists Mike and Phyllis Watson, what at first appears to be a curiosity becomes a global calamity. Helpless, they watch as humanity struggles to survive now that water - one of the compounds upon which life depends - is turned against them. Finally, sea levels begin their inexorable rise . . .

The Kraken Wakes is a brilliant novel of how humankind responds to the threat of its own extinction and, ultimately, asks what we are prepared to do in order to survive.

[salty-horse]

On the literary, magical realism side:
Terrace Story by Hilary Leichter is $4 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)
Review by Ian Mond
This is a mosaic novel, and an expansion of a short story, which is available for free.

an intimate exploration of time, a fable about love, an epic daydream for a broken-hearted world

Annie, Edward, and their young daughter, Rose, live in a cramped apartment. One night, without warning, they find a beautiful terrace hidden in their closet. It wasn’t there before, and it seems to only appear when their friend Stephanie visits. A city dweller’s dream come true! But every extra bit of space has a hidden cost, and the terrace sets off a seismic chain of events, forever changing the shape of their tiny home, and the shape of the world.

Terrace Story follows the characters who suffer these repercussions and reverberations: the little family of three, their future now deeply uncertain, and those who orbit their fragile universe. The distance and love between these characters expands limitlessly, across generations. How far can the mind travel when it’s looking for something that is gone? Where do we put our loneliness, longing, and desire? What do we do with the emotions that seem to stretch beyond the body, beyond the boundaries of life and death?

Based on the National Magazine Award–winning story, Hilary Leichter’s profound second novel asks how we nurture love when death looms over every moment. From one of our most innovative and daring writers, Terrace Story is an astounding meditation on loss, a reverie about extinction, and a map for where to go next.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I mentioned a book by her yesterday (still on sale). Does she have a new book due out soon? Or is it just a coincidence two books by the same author went on sale?

A new book was released in November 2023.

[salty-horse]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

A new book was released in November 2023.

Which I mentioned, as it's the sequel to Shadow Speaker.
According to the email from Amazon, yesterday was a "black authors" sale, along with A Master of Djinn, and others

[andyh2000]

Is it my imagination or are there no free books anymore? Did people stop looking for them or have they just disappeared as a thing?

Andrew

[Kieran Seymour]

I don't think there's as many deals as there used to be.

My eReaderIQ list just keeps on getting longer, but it's a rare day when I get a notification of a price drop. Partly that's down to the fact that they're now regularly taking days or weeks to spot price reductions, so they're probably missing stuff that only drops for a day or two.

Big Deals at Amazon are increasingly infrequent, and on the very rare occasion that they do have a batch of SF/F books from a single author it's usually stuff that's been reduced in the past, sometimes multiple times. Is there anyone who hasn't bought the Dune books for 99p each at this point, or 99p for the original three? And SF/F seems to be getting squeezed out of the Daily Deals as well.

It doesn't help that Amazon here in the UK have got ongoing issues with their bargain pages. The main part of the Daily Deals page has been showing the previous day's deals for months, and the Monthly Deals pages for February are currently stuck showing January's books at non-deal prices - that's a recurring problem that often takes them days to fix, and usually takes hours for everything to finish updating when they do get around to it.

And then there's the problem that they've hobbled their search results by making it impossible to order by lowest price for some publishers. Another example would be Stephen King books where the regular £2.99 reductions are hidden away on Page 2 or 3 below books which are more expensive.

It comes to something when I'm finding it easier to search for some books at Kobo instead of Amazon