FREE/BARGAIN — Science Fiction & Fantasy

[Cactus Chef]

Kafka on the Shore (Vintage International) by Haruki Murakami is $3 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)

**NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the acclaimed author of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and one of the world’s greatest storytellers comes “an insistently metaphysical mind-bender” (The New Yorker) about a teenager on the run and a deceptively simple old man.

Now with a new introduction by the author.**

Here we meet fifteen-year-old runaway Kafka Tamura and the elderly Nakata, who is drawn to Kafka for reasons that he cannot fathom. As their paths converge, acclaimed author Haruki Murakami enfolds readers in a world where cats talk, fish fall from the sky, and spirits slip out of their bodies to make love or commit murder, in what is a truly remarkable journey.

“As powerful as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.... Reading Murakami ... is a strikingexperience in consciousness expansion.”—Chicago Tribune

Probably my favorite Murakami book, maybe tied with Norweigan Wood.

[salty-horse]

Howling Dark (Sun Eater #2) by Christopher Ruocchio is $2 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)

[Cactus Chef]

The Novels of Samuel R. Delany Volume One by Samuel R. Delany is $4 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)

Three groundbreaking novels from the multiple Hugo and Nebula Award–winning Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Famer and SFWA Grand Master.
Babel-17: Rydra Wong is the most popular poet in the five settled galaxies, capturing the mood of mankind after two decades of war. Now, a new weapon has been unleashed against humanity. Random attacks strike without warning, tied together by broadcast strings of sound. In that gibberish, Rydra recognizes a coherent language. To save her people, she must master this strange tongue, but the more she learns, the more she is tempted to join the other side, in this Nebula Award–winning novel.

Nova: The year is 3172. Two political families—the Earth-based galactic conglomerate Draco and the Pleiades Federation of the Von Ray Clan—vie for ultimate power. Both want to control the market for Illyrion, the element that makes interstellar travel possible. When a star implodes, tons of the priceless fuel is discovered floating in the wreckage. Now, in a race to claim it, Lorq Von Ray leads a crew of ragtag misfits into the heart of a dangerous nova . . .

Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand: Subjected to the Radical Anxiety Termination procedure, Korga is transformed into a dim-witted slave. Now known as Rat, Korga serves many masters—until the Cultural Fugue, a critical mass of shared knowledge, destroys his homeworld. Marq Dyeth is an "industrial diplomat," who travels between worlds solving problems that come with the spread of "General Information." Brought together by the organization known as the Web, Rat and Marq find themselves manipulated by an entity determined to control the flow of information.

[salty-horse]

Books 2 and 3 in Jo Clayton's Duel of Sorcery trilogy are $2 each in the US (Kobo, Amazon)
Book 1 is also on sale on Amazon only ("digital list price" discount).

[salty-horse]

Every Drop Is a Man's Nightmare by Megan Kamalei Kakimoto is $3 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)
Literary fiction, magical realism

Megan Kamalei Kakimoto's wrenching and sensational debut story collection presents a Hawai'i where unruly sexuality and generational memory overflow the postcard image of paradise and the boundaries of the real, where the superstitions born of the islands take on the weight of truth.
A childhood encounter with a wild pua'a (pig) on the haunted Pali highway portends one young woman's fraught relationship with her pregnant body. An elderly widow begins seeing her deceased lover in a giant flower. A kanaka writer, mid-manuscript, feels her raw pages quaking and knocking in the briefcase.
Every Drop Is a Man's Nightmare is both a fierce love letter to Hawaiian identity and mythology, and a searing dispatch from an occupied territory threatening to erupt with violent secrets.

[salty-horse]

Ashes of Man (Sun Eater #5) by Christopher Ruocchio is $2 in the US (and other regions) (Kobo, Amazon)

[salty-horse]

Children of Strife (The Children of Time Novels #4) by Adrian Tchaikovsky is £2 in the UK (Kobo, Amazon)
New release.

They thought they’d found refuge. But this paradise became their prison.Centuries ago, a maverick terraforming team played God with a distant planet. Out of their vanity and spite, something terrible and unexpected arose.

Generations later, tormented scientist Alis is among the crew of the research vessel that rediscovers this lost outpost. But Alis wakes from nightmares of her own making to an all-too-real catastrophe on board. The rest of the crew has vanished – leaving only Cato, the belligerent mantis-shrimp captain, and Kern, the ship’s AI.

Searching for their lost fellows, Alis and Cato must venture into the darkness of the planet below. What did those ancient terraformers unleash? And will their last surviving crewmate become a greater threat than the world itself?

The journey that began with Children of Time reaches a new, terrifying frontier in Children of Strife, from the award-winning master of sci-fi Adrian Tchaikovsky, featuring epic adventure, first contact and the nature of intelligence among the stars.

The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei is £1 in the UK (Kobo, Amazon)
Young adult-ish.

SAVE ONE WORLD. DOOM HER OWN.

Maya Hoshimoto was once the best art thief in the galaxy, returning stolen artifacts to alien civilizations. Until a disastrous job forced her into hiding. Now she just wants to enjoy a quiet life as a graduate student of anthropology, but she's haunted by persistent and disturbing visions of the future.

Then an old friend comes to her with a job she can't refuse: find a powerful object that could save an alien species from extinction. Except no one has seen it in living memory, and they aren't the only ones hunting for it.

Maya sets out on a breakneck quest through a universe teeming with strange life and ancient ruins. But the farther she goes, the more her visions cast a dark shadow over her team of friends new and old. Someone will betray her along the way. Worse yet, in choosing to save one species, she may condemn humanity and Earth itself.

[salty-horse]

Fathomfolk by Eliza Chan (The Drowned World Duology #1) is £1 in the UK (Kobo, Amazon)

Revolution is brewing in the semi-submerged city of Tiankawi, between humans and the fathomfolk - sirens, sea witches, kelpies, and kappas - who live in its waters. This debut fantasy inspired by East Asian mythology and watery folk tales is perfect for fans of Jade City, The Bone Shard Daughter and House of Earth and Blood.

Welcome to Tiankawi - shining pearl of human civilization and a safe haven for those fleeing civil unrest. Or at least, that's how it first appears. But in the semi-flooded city, humans are, quite literally, on top: peering down from shining towers and aerial walkways on the fathomfolk - sirens, seawitches, kelpies and kappas - who live in the polluted waters below.

For half-siren Mira, promotion to captain of the border guard means an opportunity to help her downtrodden people. But if earning the trust and respect of her human colleagues wasn't hard enough, everything Mira has worked towards is put in jeopardy when Nami, a know-it-all water dragon - fathomfolk royalty - is exiled to the city. When extremists sabotage the annual boat race, violence erupts, as does the clampdown on fathomfolk rights. Both Nami and Mira must decide if the cost of change is worth paying, or if Tiankawi should be left to drown.

[pdurrant]

Two books of essays about the works of Lois McMaster Bujold are currently free on the editor's web site:

https://unamccormack.co.uk/?books=sh...t-concentrated
https://unamccormack.co.uk/?books=sh...concentrated-2

There's an academic book on her works that's definitely not in the free/bargain category, indeed it's prohibitively expensive (~£95.00) unless you're a member of an institution with access, but just in case, here it is:
https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.../9781789621730

[salty-horse]

The Narrow Road Between Desires (Kingkiller Chronicle) by Patrick Rothfuss is $3 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)
Novella, expansion of previously published novella.

Patrick Rothfuss returns to the wildly popular Kingkiller Chronicle universe with a stunning reimagining of "The Lightning Tree." Expanded to twice its previous length and lavishly illustrated by Nate Taylor, this touching stand-alone story is sure to please new readers and veteran Rothfuss fans alike.**

Bast knows how to bargain. The give-and-take of a negotiation is as familiar to him as the in-and-out of breathing; to watch him trade is to watch an artist at work. But even a master's brush can slip. When he accepts a gift, taking something for nothing, Bast's whole world is knocked askew, for he knows how to bargain—but not how to owe.

From dawn to midnight over the course of a single day, follow the Kingkiller Chronicle's most charming fae as he schemes and sneaks, dancing into trouble and back out again with uncanny grace.

The Narrow Road Between Desires is Bast's story. In it he traces the old ways of making and breaking, following his heart even when doing so goes against his better judgement.

After all, what good is caution if it keeps him from danger and delight?

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Two books of essays about the works of Lois McMaster Bujold are currently free on the editor's web site:

https://unamccormack.co.uk/?books=sh...t-concentrated
https://unamccormack.co.uk/?books=sh...concentrated-2

There's an academic book on her works that's definitely not in the free/bargain category, indeed it's prohibitively expensive (~£95.00) unless you're a member of an institution with access, but just in case, here it is:
https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.../9781789621730

More info: The paperback, however, is more 'reasonably' priced at £31.99

[salty-horse]

When We Were Real by Daryl Gregory is $2 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)
I read this when it was released. Recommended.

Finalist for the Nebula Award for Best Novel

From multiple award-winning author Daryl Gregory comes a madcap adventure following two friends on a cross-country bus tour through the mind-boggling glitches in their simulated world as they grapple with love, family, secrets, and the very nature of reality in a simulation.

JP and Dulin have been the best of friends for decades. When JP finds out his cancer has aggressively returned, Dulin decides it’s the perfect time for one last adventure: a week-long bus tour of North America’s Impossibles, the physics-defying glitches and geographic miracles that started cropping up seven years earlier—right after the Announcement that revealed our world to be merely a digital simulacrum. The outing, courtesy of Canterbury Trails Tours, promises the trip of a (not completely real) lifetime in a (not completely deluxe) coach.

Their fellow passengers are 21st-century pilgrims, each of them on the tour for their own reasons. There’s a nun hunting for an absent God, a pregnant influencer determined to make her child too famous to be deleted, a crew of horny octogenarians living each day like it’s their last, and a professor on the run from leather-clad sociopaths who take The Matrix as scripture. Each stop on this trip is stranger than the last—a Tunnel outside of time, a zero gravity Geyser, the compound of motivational-speaking avatar—with everyone barreling toward the tour’s iconic final stop Ghost City, where unbeknownst to our travelers the answer to who is running the simulation may await.

[salty-horse]

Sunward by William Alexander is $2 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)
"Cozy SF"

A 2026 Philip K. Dick Award Finalist

A debut science fiction novel by National Book Award–winning writer William Alexander, this story of found family follows a planetary courier training adolescent androids in a solar system grappling with interplanetary conflict after a devastating explosion on Earth’s moon.

Captain Tova Lir chose a life as a courier rather than get involved in her family’s illustrious business in politics. Set in humanity’s far future, hiring a planetary courier is essential for delivering private messages across the stars.

Encouraged by friends, Tova begins mentoring baby bots, juvenile AI who are developmentally in their teens, and trains them how to interact within society essentially becoming their foster mom. Her latest charge, Agatha Panza von Sparkles, named herself on their first run from Luna to Phoebe station. But on their return, they encounter a derelict spaceship and a lurking assassin, igniting a thrilling chase across the solar system.

Tova and Agatha’s daring actions leave Agatha’s mind vulnerable, relying on Tova’s former AI pupils for help. As Tova starts gathering her scattered family around her, she is chased through the solar system by forces who want her captured and her family erased. This debut science fiction novel by National Book Award–winning author William Alexander is a must-read for fans of Becky Chambers and Ursula K. Le Guin. Lovers of poignant science fiction, where the bonds of found family, the evolution of AI, and the building distrust of centuries of bias, come together in this visionary look at humanity’s future.

[salty-horse]

The Summer Tree (The Fionavar Tapestry #1) by Guy Gavriel Kay is £1 in the UK (Kobo, Amazon)

Five ordinary people. One shattered destiny. A world on the brink of darkness.

When a mysterious mage named Loren Silvercloak appears at the University of Toronto, he pulls five ordinary young men and women into Fionavar—the First of All Worlds, where every other world's fate begins.

What they find is a land trembling under the shadow of Rakoth Maugrim, the fallen god whose chains are breaking at last. And each of them—Kim, Paul, Kevin, Jennifer, and Dave—has a role to play in the rising storm, whether they understand it yet or not.

As ancient prophecies awaken and long‑buried powers stir, the five are swept into a sweeping tapestry of magic, love, sacrifice, and war. Their choices will shape not only Fionavar's future, but the fate of every world connected to it—including our own.

Mythic, moving, and utterly immersive, The Summer Tree launches Guy Gavriel Kay's legendary epic fantasy trilogy-beloved by readers for over two decades. Perfect for fans of George R. R. Martin, Scott Lynch and Tolkien.

[Martinoptic]

Thank you. It's 40 years since I last read it. Strangely, I was thinking about buying it yesterday.