FREE/BARGAIN — Science Fiction & Fantasy

[JSWolf]

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (Stormlight Archive 01) is £0.99 at Amazon & Kobo.

Speak again the ancient oaths:

Life before death.
Strength before weakness.
Journey before Destination.
Return to men the Shards they once bore.

The Knights Radiant must stand again.**

Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter.

It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were fought for them, and won by them.

One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable.

Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Like his brother, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called The Way of Kings. Troubled by over-powering visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant, he has begun to doubt his own sanity.

Across the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar's niece, Jasnah. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan's motives are less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war.

Kobo UK (ePub with no DRM): https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/the-way-of-kings
Amazon UK (KF8 with no DRM or KFX with DRM): https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004H4XAXO

[salty-horse]

The People's Library by Veronica G. Henry is $2 on Amazon.com
It's not officially out yet, so this is a First Reads Amazon exclusive.

From critically acclaimed author Veronica G. Henry comes a thought-provoking science fiction fantasy set in near-future Cleveland that follows a reluctant curator of digital human consciousness who must uncover twisted secrets and navigate ethical quandaries and dangers when anti-technology rebels attack the futuristic library.

Echo London never wanted to be the curator of the People’s Library, a digital collection of human consciousness. But when she’s assigned as its head librarian, Echo is entrusted with humanity’s greatest minds and historical figures, all of whom have been recreated through controversial consciousness-capturing technology that lets visitors interact with the dead.

But an anti-tech rebellion is stirring. When a rebel attack results in tragedy, a mysterious woman wearing an ancient death mask leaves behind cryptic final words for Echo: It all begins with nothing. Caught between the resistance and a potentially virtual evolution, Echo begins to fear that there’s more to her job than meets the eye and the mind. There are secrets here. And the People’s Library may be less of a promise of things to come than a warning of the danger that lurks beneath the surface. Now the fate of humanity lies in uncovering the truth.

[salty-horse]

Cross-posted to Audiobooks
And What Can We Offer You Tonight by Premee Mohamed is $3.41 (86% off) on Libro.fm

In a far future city, where you can fall to a government cull for a single mistake, And What Can We Offer You Tonight tells the story of Jewel, established courtesan in a luxurious House. Jewel's world is shaken when her friend is murdered by a client, but somehow comes back to life. To get revenge, they will both have to confront the limits of loyalty, guilt, and justice.

[salty-horse]

Dead Set by Richard Kadrey is $2 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)

a wonderful stand-alone dark fantasy in which a young girl is caught between the worlds of the living and the dead.

After her father's funeral, Zoe moved to the big city with her mother to start over. But change always brings trials, and life in the city is not so easy. Money is tight, and Zoe's only escape, as has always been the case, is in her dreams—a world apart from her troubled real life where she can spend time with her closest companion: her lost brother, Valentine.

But something or someone has entered their dreamworld uninvited. And a chance encounter at a used record store, where the vinyl holds not music but lost souls, has opened up a portal to the world of the restless dead. It's here that the shop's strange proprietor offers Zoe the chance to commune with her dead father. The price? A lock of hair. Then a tooth. Then . . .

[salty-horse]

Everything Belongs to the Future by Laurie Penny is $0.5 on Amazon (only)

Time is a weapon wielded by the rich, who have excess of it, against the rest, who must trade every breath of it against the promise of another day's food and shelter. What kind of world have we made, where human beings can live centuries if only they can afford the fix? What kind of creatures have we become? The same as we always were, but keener.
In the ancient heart of Oxford University, the ultra-rich celebrate their vastly extended lifespans. But a few surprises are in store for them. From Nina and Alex, Margo and Fidget, scruffy anarchists sharing living space with an ever-shifting cast of crusty punks and lost kids. And also from the scientist who invented the longevity treatment in the first place.

[salty-horse]

Saint Elspeth by Wick Welker is $1 on Amazon.com (only)
EDIT: I missed that this was self-published.

Why did they come?

When they appeared across the sky, speculation wheeled around the world—the aliens were from heaven, the invaders were from hell… or they were proof that neither existed. But when they landed, curiosity gave way to suspicion and the nations reacted with nuclear force, setting off a chain reaction that left the world in ruins.

Twenty years later, instead of nearing her retirement, Dr. Elspeth Darrow struggles to forget the loss of her child and husband by plunging herself into the work of operating the last remaining hospital in San Francisco. With medical supplies running out and working herself to exhaustion, Elspeth must embark on a risky salvage mission into the heart of the Neo California danger zone. Here, she discovers the disturbing truth: the aliens have returned.

As the mystery of the aliens' purpose on Earth unravels before her, Elspeth must hide what she discovers from reactionary despots, all vying to bring Neo California under their control. Aided by a band of pre-war scientists and new-world medical students, Elspeth races against astronomical odds to reveal the terrifying truth that might save the world—or finally destroy it for good.

[Dr. Drib]

^^^^

NOTE: This is a self-published book.

"Wick Welker is the winner of the Self Published Science Fiction..."

I have not read it. I don't know anyone who has read it.

[salty-horse]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I have not read it. I don't know anyone who has read it.

I was tracking it. Maybe because it won a contest.
Checking the contents I can confirm it's self-published, which I missed before.
An admin is welcome to delete it.

[salty-horse]

Slow Gods by Claire North is $5 in the US (Amazon only but price-matchable on Kobo)
New release. The author's first foray into space.

Slow Gods is the galaxy-spanning tale of one man's impossible life charted against the fate of humanity amongst the stars—a powerfully imaginative space opera from multi-award-winning author Claire North, perfect for fans of A Memory Called Empire and The Vanished Birds.

My name is Mawukana na-Vdnaze, and I am a very poor copy of myself.

In telling my story, there are certain things I should perhaps lie about. I should make myself a hero. Pretend I was not used by strangers and gods, did not leave people behind.

Here is one truth: out there in deep space, in the pilot's chair, I died. And then, I was reborn. I became something not quite human, something that could speak to the infinite dark. And I vowed to become the scourge of the world that wronged me.

This is the story of the supernova event that burned planets and felled civilizations. This is also the story of the many lives I've lived since I died for the first time.

Are you listening?

[salty-horse]

Imaro (Imaro #1) by Charles R. Saunders is £4 in the UK (Kobo, Amazon)

Forsaken, outcast, warrior . . .
Recent podcast about the book with a friend of Saunders
Abandoned as a child, Imaro has struggled for acceptance all his life among the warrior-herdsmen tribe, the Ilyassai. Seeking answers and identity, his quest leads him across the vast continent of Nyumbani as he discovers he has powerful enemies, both human and inhuman. Hunted by relentless foes, Imaro becomes the hunter and events preordained before his birth begin to unfold.

Powers are stirring in Nyumbani. As Imaro struggles to hold on to his hard-won acceptance, the warrior in him seeks the answer to the question that has haunted him all his life: Who am I?

The Quest for Cush (Imaro #2) by Charles R. Saunders is £4 in the UK (Kobo, Amazon)

A Letter from the Lonesome Shore (The Sunken Archive #2) by Sylvie Cathrall is £4 in the UK (Kobo, Amazon)

[salty-horse]

Light Chaser by Peter F. Hamilton & Gareth L. Powell is £3 in the UK (Kobo, Amazon)
Novella.

In Peter F. Hamilton and Gareth L. Powell's action-packed sci-fi adventure LIGHT CHASER, a love powerful enough to transcend death can bring down an entire empire.
Amahle is a Light Chaser – one of a number of explorers, who travel the universe alone (except for their onboard AI), trading trinkets for life stories.
But when she listens to the stories sent down through the ages she hears the same voice talking directly to her from different times and on different worlds. She comes to understand that something terrible is happening, and only she is in a position to do anything about it.
And it will cost everything to put it right.

[sufue]

I read Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves, which is the first in a two-book series by Meg Long, and liked it a lot. (If you can call two books a series...) It is a bit person-on-a-quest trope-ish, but the writing is sharp and the quest has enough heft to keep things interesting. It's on sale right now in the US and UK. And I had a review copy of the second book a bit later, and liked it as well - a teeny bit less than the first one, but that often happens, and it was still quite good.

Kindle US.$1.99: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B092T9D96L
Kobo US, discountable, $1.99: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/col...t-the-wolves-2
Kindle UK, £1.59: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B092T9D96L
Kobo UK, £1.99, discountable: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/col...t-the-wolves-2

Spoiler:

A lone girl determined to survive. The feral wolf she must learn to trust.

Only one chance to escape their icy planet: a race across the deadly tundra.
Seventeen-year-old Sena Korhosen hates the sled race, especially after it claimed both her mothers' lives five years ago. Alone on her frozen planet, she makes money any other way she can--until she double-crosses a local gangster.

Desperate to escape, Sena flees with his prized fighting wolf, Iska, and takes an offer from a team of scientists. They'll pay her way off-world, on one condition--that she uses the survival skills her mothers taught her to get them to the end of the race. But the tundra is a treacherous place. When the race threatens their lives at every turn, Sena must discover whether her abilities are enough to help them survive the wild, and whether she and Iska together are strong enough to get them all out alive.

As the girl and the wolf forge a tenuous bond and fight to escape ice goblins, giant bears, and the ruthless gang leader intent on trapping them both, one question drives them relentlessly forward: Where do you turn when there is nowhere to hide?

Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves is a captivating, breathless debut about survival and found family that delivers a fresh twist on classic survival stories.

Oh, and great title IMO...

[salty-horse]

Fate's Bane by C. L. Clark is $3 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)

Ignyte Award-winning author C. L. Clark brings fantasy to the fens with Fate's Bane, a tragic sapphic adventure.

Warring clans. Burning hearts. Deadly fate.

The clans of the fens enjoy a tenuous peace, and it is all thanks to Agnir, ward and hostage. For as long as she can remember she has lived among the enemy, learning their ways, growing strong alongside their children. When a burgeoning love for the chieftain’s daughter lures them both to a hidden spring, a magic awakens in them that could bind the clans under one banner at last—or destroy any hope of peace. By working their intentions into leather, they can weave misfortune for their enemies… just like the Fate’s Bane that haunts the legends of the clans.

Ambitions grow in their fathers’ hearts, grudges threaten a return to violence, and greedy enemies wait outside the borders, seeking a foothold to claim the fens for themselves. And though their Makings may save their families, the legend that gave them this power always exacts its price.

[salty-horse]

The Tooth Fairy by Graham Joyce is $1 on Amazon.com (only listed there)

This classic novel the winner of the British Fantasy Award, tells the story of young Sam who wakes one night to find the Tooth Fairy in his room. She is not the gentle figure of childhood legend, but a frightening and malevolent presence. As Sam grows from a boy to a teenager he and his friends seem like any normal group of boys. They roam wild around the outskirts of their car factory city having fun, daring adults to challenge their freedom. But Sam continues to be visited by the fairy. Is the fairy real or is she just some part of his tortured imagination and if she is, how far is she to blame for the terrible events that are to follow? Contains a 3,000-word Afterword by the author.

[salty-horse]

The Stranger Times (The Stranger Times) by C. K. McDonnell is $1 in the US (Amazon only, ATM, but price-matchable on Kobo)
Humoristic urban fantasy.

There are dark forces at work in our world (and in Manchester in particular), so thank God The Stranger Times is on hand to report them . . .

A weekly newspaper dedicated to the weird and the wonderful (but mostly the weird), it is the go-to publication for the unexplained and inexplicable.

At least that's their pitch. The reality is rather less auspicious. Their editor is a drunken, foul-tempered and foul-mouthed husk of a man who thinks little of the publication he edits. His staff are a ragtag group of misfits. And as for the assistant editor . . . well, that job is a revolving door - and it has just revolved to reveal Hannah Willis, who's got problems of her own.

When tragedy strikes in her first week on the job The Stranger Times is forced to do some serious investigating. What they discover leads to a shocking realisation: some of the stories they'd previously dismissed as nonsense are in fact terrifyingly real. Soon they come face-to-face with darker forces than they could ever have imagined.