FREE/BARGAIN — Science Fiction & Fantasy

[DNSB]

When I look at the 2 books on Kobo Canada, the first one is priced at $9.52 Cdn or free with Kobo Plus, is an ePub2 and has what looks like a self generated ISBN while the second is $13.99 Cdn, has a valid looking ISBN-13 and is an ePub3 which has a decent level of accessibility features.

[salty-horse]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

The process for travelling can be kind of finnicky, though. I've done it before, but the last time I tried, my purchases wouldn't go through.

I'm familiar with these errors. Traveling invalidates the credit card and you have to re-enter it, even if it's Apple/Google Pay. And if still doesn't work, I switch to Paypal (with the same card behind it). I've never had a persistent problem, and could quickly go back to using Apple/Google Pay with no errors.

[Geese1]

The Sword of Shannara Trilogy is on sale at both Kobo and Amazon for $4.99 (regularly priced at $19.99).

For the first time in one elegant collector’s edition hardcover, and featuring an introduction by New York Times bestselling author Terry Brooks, here are the first three novels of that classic series: The Sword of Shannara, The Elfstones of Shannara, and The Wishsong of Shannara—the beginning of a phenomenal epic of good and evil.

The Sword of Shannara
Long ago, the wars of the ancient Evil ruined the world. In peaceful Shady Vale, half-elfin Shea Ohmsford knows little of such troubles. But the supposedly dead Warlock Lord is plotting to destroy everything in his wake. The sole weapon against this Power of Darkness is the Sword of Shannara, which can be used only by a true heir of Shannara. On Shea, last of the bloodline, rests the hope of all the races.

The Elfstones of Shannara
The magical Ellcrys tree is dying, loosening the spell that bars the Demons from enacting vengeance upon the land. Now Wil Ohmsford must guard the Elven girl Amberle on a perilous quest as she carries one of the Ellcrys’ seeds to a mysterious place where it can be quickened into a powerful new force. But dark on their trail comes the Reaper, most fearsome of all Demons, aiming to crush their mission at any cost.

The Wishsong of Shannara
An ancient Evil is stirring to new life, sending its ghastly Mord Wraiths to destroy Mankind. To win through the vile growth that protects this dark force, the Druid Allanon needs Brin Ohmsford—for she alone holds the magic power of the wishsong. Reluctantly Brin joins the Druid on his dangerous journey. But a prophecy foretells doom, as Evil nurses its plans to trap the unsuspecting Brin into a fate far more horrible than death.

Thus begins Terry Brooks’s thrilling Shannara epic, an unforgettable tale of adventure, magic, and myth.

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Terry Brooks's The Measure of the Magic.

Funnily enough, I had just thrown this book on my Kobo wishlist this past weekend after seeing a video on forgotten fantasy series. I remember seeing the covers for these all the time in bookstores when growing up but never got around to reading any of them.

[Aleron Ives]

Originally Posted by salty-horse

Traveling invalidates the credit card and you have to re-enter it, even if it's Apple/Google Pay.

I've never used a credit card, though. I've always used PayPal, and after travelling back home, payments returned to working correctly again without changing the payment settings.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by salty-horse

Which is why I linked to it...

I don't understand all of this griping about US or UK. Kobo lets you "travel" without restrictions. This is why I post deals from "all over the world".

My apologies, I only saw Kobo U.S.

[Cactus Chef]

Originally Posted by Geese1

The Sword of Shannara Trilogy is on sale at both Kobo and Amazon for $4.99 (regularly priced at $19.99).



Funnily enough, I had just thrown this book on my Kobo wishlist this past weekend after seeing a video on forgotten fantasy series. I remember seeing the covers for these all the time in bookstores when growing up but never got around to reading any of them.

It's historically gone down as low as $2.99. I think I picked it up a year or two ago when it dropped to that:

https://www.ereaderiq.com/dp/B000FBF...annara-trilogy

It was also in a Humble Bundle with most of the Shannara extended universe books. But by all means, if it's on your wishlist, pick it up.

2/3 of the books are good. First one is a laughable LOTR clone, to the point where it follows the same plot beats even when the plot deviates (like the Gandalf stand-in suddenly splits off from the main party at roughly the same point in the story even though he's not killed by a Balrog), but I guess at the time it came out people were hungry for more high fantasy. The sequels at least come into their own.

[Geese1]

Originally Posted by Cactus Chef

It's historically gone down as low as $2.99. I think I picked it up a year or two ago when it dropped to that:

https://www.ereaderiq.com/dp/B000FBF...annara-trilogy

It was also in a Humble Bundle with most of the Shannara extended universe books. But by all means, if it's on your wishlist, pick it up.

2/3 of the books are good. First one is a laughable LOTR clone, to the point where it follows the same plot beats even when the plot deviates (like the Gandalf stand-in suddenly splits off from the main party at roughly the same point in the story even though he's not killed by a Balrog), but I guess at the time it came out people were hungry for more high fantasy. The sequels at least come into their own.

Yeah, I went ahead and grabbed it from Kobo at that price. Already have it downloaded into Calibre and also in my e-reader. Figured I'd give it a shot seeing as how it's consider a pretty classic fantasy series, even if it did start off as a LotR clone. Reminds me of the books by Dennis L. McKiernan, which were also blatant LotR clones to start but then began branching off into their own things in later entries. And since I really loved his books, I figure the Shannara stuff won't bother me if their also similar to Tolkien as well.

[salty-horse]

Blood of an Exile (Dragons of Terra #1) by Brian Naslund is $3 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)
Don't remember why this was on my wishlist. Someone must have recommended it for being unique.
The whole trilogy is on sale for $3 each.

2019 Amazon.com Best Books of the Year
2019 Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year
First in the Dragons of Terra series, Brian Naslund's Blood of an Exile is a fast-paced adventure perfect for comic readers and fans of heroic fantasy
Bershad stands apart from the world, the most legendary dragonslayer in history, both revered and reviled.
Once, he was Lord Silas Bershad, but after a disastrous failure on the battlefield he was stripped of his titles and sentenced to one violent, perilous hunt after another. Now he lives only to stalk dragons, slaughter them, collect their precious oil, and head back into the treacherous wilds once more. For years, death was his only chance to escape. But that is about to change.
The king who sentenced Bershad to his fate has just given him an unprecedented chance at redemption. Kill a foreign emperor and walk free forever.
The journey will take him across dragon-infested mountains, through a seedy criminal underworld, and into a forbidden city guarded by deadly technology.
But the links of fate bind us all.

Bride of the Rat God by Barbara Hambly is $2 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)
Frequently on sale, but I never posted it.
Mentioned by Hambly in a recent panel. Features her actual dogs as central characters, the only ones who can see the malevolent entity haunting the main character. They each have distinct personalities.

A Hollywood diva. A Chinese curse. A suspense-filled fantasy from the New York Times–bestselling author "who can write well in any genre" (Charlaine Harris).

It is 1923, and silent film reigns in Hollywood. Of all the starlets, none is more beloved than Chrysanda Flamande, a diva as brilliant as she is difficult to manage. Handling her falls to Norah, widow of Chrysanda's dead brother. She has always done her job well, but she was never equipped to deal with murder.

When a violent killing shocks Chrysanda's entourage, and other weird happenings swiftly follow, Norah begins to suspect that some strange power is stalking the star. In Chinatown she receives warning that a curse has been placed on the actress as vengeance for wearing a sacred amulet in one of her films—and this curse could mean death for all who surround her.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Barbara Hambly, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author's personal collection.

[salty-horse]

When the Sparrow Falls by Neil Sharpson is $3 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)

Life in the Caspian Republic has taught Agent Nikolai South two rules. Trust No One. And work just hard enough not to make enemies.
Here, in the last sanctuary for the dying embers of the human race in a world run by artificial intelligence, if you stray from the path—your life is forfeit. But when a Party propagandist is killed—and is discovered as a "machine"—he's given a new mission: chaperone the widow, Lily, who has arrived to claim her husband's remains.
But when South sees that she, the first "machine" ever allowed into the country, bears an uncanny resemblance to his late wife, he's thrown into a maelstrom of betrayal, murder, and conspiracy that may bring down the Republic for good.
WHEN THE SPARROW FALLS illuminates authoritarianism, complicity, and identity in the digital age, in a page turning, darkly-funny, frightening and touching story that recalls Philip K. Dick, John le Carré and Kurt Vonnegut in equal measure.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Geese1

The Sword of Shannara Trilogy is on sale at both Kobo and Amazon for $4.99 (regularly priced at $19.99).



Funnily enough, I had just thrown this book on my Kobo wishlist this past weekend after seeing a video on forgotten fantasy series. I remember seeing the covers for these all the time in bookstores when growing up but never got around to reading any of them.

That so-called bonus is not a bonus. It's just a preview of another of the author's books.

[salty-horse]

Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente is $3 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)

Radiance is a decopunk pulp SF alt-history space opera mystery set in a Hollywood-and solar system-very different from our own, from Catherynne M. Valente, the phenomenal talent behind the New York Timesbestselling The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making.
Severin Unck's father is a famous director of Gothic romances in an alternate 1986 in which talking movies are still a daring innovation due to the patent-hoarding Edison family. Rebelling against her father's films of passion, intrigue, and spirits from beyond, Severin starts making documentaries, traveling through space and investigating the levitator cults of Neptune and the lawless saloons of Mars. For this is not our solar system, but one drawn from classic science fiction in which all the planets are inhabited and we travel through space on beautiful rockets. Severin is a realist in a fantastic universe.
But her latest film, which investigates the disappearance of a diving colony on a watery Venus populated by island-sized alien creatures, will be her last. Though her crew limps home to earth and her story is preserved by the colony's last survivor, Severin will never return.
Told using techniques from reality TV, classic film, gossip magazines, and meta-fictional narrative, Radiance is a solar system-spanning story of love, exploration, family, loss, quantum physics, and silent film.

[Fbone]

Trap Line: A Short Story by Timothy Zahn is available in Amazon Prime.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DPJ9MVQ2..._ov_kndl_dp_rw

[salty-horse]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Trap Line: A Short Story by Timothy Zahn is available in Amazon Prime.

So is a new anthology of time travel stories, released today, featuring John Scalzi, R. F. Kuang, Peng Shepherd, Kaliane Bradley, Olvie Blake, and P. Djèlí Clark.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FN8CHTQD

[salty-horse]

The Scar by Marina & Sergey Dyachenko is $3 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)
Translated by Elinor Huntington

Reaching far beyond sword and sorcery, The Scar is a story of two people torn by disaster, their descent into despair, and their reemergence through love and courage.
Sergey and Marina Dyachenko mix dramatic scenes with romance, action and wit, in a style both direct and lyrical. Written with a sure artistic hand, The Scar is the story of a man driven by his own feverish demons to find redemption and the woman who just might save him.
Egert is a brash, confident member of the elite guards and an egotistical philanderer. But after he kills an innocent student in a duel, a mysterious man known as "The Wanderer" challenges Egert and slashes his face with his sword, leaving Egert with a scar that comes to symbolize his cowardice. Unable to end his suffering by his own hand, Egert embarks on an odyssey to undo the curse and the horrible damage he has caused, which can only be repaired by a painful journey down a long and harrowing path.
Plotted with the sureness of Robin Hobb and colored with the haunting and ominous imagination of Michael Moorcock, The Scar tells a story that cannot be forgotten.

[salty-horse]

Cross-posted to Horror.
The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw is $2 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)

A deeply dark academia novel from USA Today bestselling author Cassandra Khaw, perfect for fans of A Deadly Education and An Education in Malice who are hungry for something more diabolical.

The Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted is the premier academy for the dangerously powerful: the Anti-Christs and Ragnaroks, the world-eaters and apocalypse-makers.

Hellebore promises redemption, acceptance, and a normal life after graduation. At least, that’s what Alessa Li is told after she’s kidnapped and forcibly enrolled.

But the Institute is more than just a haven for monsters. On graduation day, the faculty embark on a ravenous rampage, feasting on their students. Trapped in the school’s cavernous library, Alessa and her surviving classmates must do something they were never taught: work together.

If they don't, this school will eat them alive...