FREE/BARGAIN — Science Fiction & Fantasy

[Geese1]

Thanks for the head's up. Had the first book on my Wishlist at Kobo for a while but never got around to buying it. This seems like a great deal for the entire trilogy though so I just went ahead and grabbed it.

Originally Posted by Cactus Chef

The Winnowing Flame Trilogy (The Winnowing Flame Trilogy) by Jen Williams is $2 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)

[salty-horse]

The Sleepless (first in a duology) by Jen Williams is £1 in the UK (Kobo, Amazon)
Unlike Williams' usual fare, this is YA romantasy that's marketed with AO3 tags. (I removed those from the description)

Elver is the guardian of the wild and dangerous monster forest. Saved from the brink of death by a god, her skin will poison anyone she touches.

Artair is on a mission - one that takes him face-to-face with Elver at her most ruthless. But her defences are useless when she discovers he's the only human impervious to her deadly gift. For Artair isn't human: he's one of the Sleepless, cursed to share his body with an evil spirit.

Lucian inhabits their body while Artair sleeps, and he is hell-bent on manipulating Elver for his dark purposes. But Elver is harbouring secrets too, and she has her own reasons for feigning an alliance with these two souls.

Caught in the crossfire of gods, monsters, and a dangerous magic they can barely understand, it is only a matter of time before the paths the three of them choose to take will set alight the very foundations of their world.

[Dr. Drib]

Oh, Hello! I didn't see you come in.

Today - FREE - you will find Oddity O'Clock (The Knick Knack Trilogy), by Rhys Hughes, from Amazon.

Here's the link:

https://www.amazon.com/Oddity-OClock...7-6aba3116f395

[Hollow Man]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Today - FREE - you will find Oddity O'Clock (The Knick Knack Trilogy), by Rhys Hughes, from Amazon.

So once again, this is an independent publisher, so I assume the rules regarding posting these have been followed.

I am going to take this opportunity to suggest that a separate thread (or threads) be made for independent books. While I realize some people enjoy them, I've found that most, especially the ones that are cheap or free, are not up to the quality of a work published by a major house (yes, I realize those can be bad too). And ever since the guidelines about posting independent in these threads has become looser, I am receiving more and more email notifications, which is eating my time.

I don't have any issue with people who want to support independent authors, but I do feel these discounted works would be better off in a separate thread.

I'm open to differing opinions. Since this is a discussion that is likely better served being elsewhere, no worries if it gets moved.

Thanks for listening!

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Hollow Man

So once again, this is an independent publisher, so I assume the rules regarding posting these have been followed.

I am going to take this opportunity to suggest that a separate thread (or threads) be made for independent books. While I realize some people enjoy them, I've found that most, especially the ones that are cheap or free, are not up to the quality of a work published by a major house (yes, I realize those can be bad too). And ever since the guidelines about posting independent in these threads has become looser, I am receiving more and more email notifications, which is eating my time.

I don't have any issue with people who want to support independent authors, but I do feel these discounted works would be better off in a separate thread.

I'm open to differing opinions. Since this is a discussion that is likely better served being elsewhere, no worries if it gets moved.

Thanks for listening!

A suggestion, a quick comment, and an opinion:

1.) You may wish to have this post moved to the Feedback Forum (along with my response and any following responses).

2.) Having created many threads over the (nearly) 20 years of being a Moderator at Mobileread, I think one 'danger' to be wary about is the possibility of indie authors using such a thread to promote their own work, even though I've created a number of self-promtion threads that attempted to solve that issue.

3.) Rhys Hughes is a major writer of importance in the weird, fantasy, and Sci-fi world.

Thank you.

[Hollow Man]

Google told me that Gibbon Moon Books is an independent publisher. So that, coupled with no reviews for the book on Amazon, perhaps led me astray.

As I said, these posts can be moved if moderators feel that's the correct thing.

[DNSB]

Perhaps we should consider the difference between a book published by an independent publisher (i.e. not owned by one of the Big Four) which publishes books by multiple authors and a self-published book published by the author whether or not using a corporate name for the legal protection offered by an LLC. As I see it, since the only author Gibbon Moon Books seems to have published is Rhys Hughes, those books should be considered as self-published

[Hollow Man]

The more I look into this, the more I consider him an independent author and publisher. One of his books he was self promoting on Reddit is published by Gloomy Seahorse Press, which appears to be another one of his independent companies.

So although this is definitely a topic for elsewhere, it seems to me (albeit via my limited research) that he's a cult favorite author who for reasons, isn't being published by bigger houses (either one of the majors, or even a smaller, yet established, one). And again, I don't have an issue if people want to support authors like this, but I strongly feel they should not be included here.

[salty-horse]

Self-published or not, this has an introduction by Paul Di Filippo, who is a respected author and critic.

[kg3]

Thanks for this!

Also, the other two in the trilogy are free as well & all three are downloadable as drm-free epubs:

**Trumpet Face (The Knick Knack Trilogy)
by Rhys Hughes (Author), Michael Moorcock (Introduction)---Amazon US---Amazon UK---Amazon Canada---Amazon Australia

**The Unfair Dinkum (The Knick Knack Trilogy)
by Rhys Hughes (Author), Brian Evenson (Introduction)---Amazon US---Amazon UK---Amazon Canada---Amazon Australia

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Oh, Hello! I didn't see you come in.

Today - FREE - you will find Oddity O'Clock (The Knick Knack Trilogy), by Rhys Hughes, from Amazon.

Here's the link:

https://www.amazon.com/Oddity-OClock...7-6aba3116f395

[Desertway]

So now I have just read 6 posts on the matter instead of just Drib’s first post. And that is what has eaten into MY time.

Also, I ate my own time by choosing to comment. I have no self respect.

[issybird]

Oh, the irony! A meta post to complain about having your time eaten up!

Originally Posted by Hollow Man

And ever since the guidelines about posting independent in these threads has become looser, I am receiving more and more email notifications, which is eating my time.

No, they haven't. The guidelines in regard to posting indie works are the same as they ever were, to wit:

Please don't post any self-published book unless all the following are true:

• you have read the book (or the author is one of your favourites)
• you think the book is a good read
• you're not connected to the author in any way (other than liking their work)

From the first post in this thread. Dr. Drib's post clearly meets the requirements. Also, people are always free to start new threads about indie books.

Going forward, please take all meta discussions to the Feedback Forum. Further discussion in this thread will be deleted without comment. And if you think a post violates the guidelines, report it rather than comment on it. Thanks.

Moderator Notice
Back on topic, folks.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by kg3

Thanks for this!

Also, the other two in the trilogy are free as well & all three are downloadable as drm-free epubs:

**Trumpet Face (The Knick Knack Trilogy)
by Rhys Hughes (Author), Michael Moorcock (Introduction)---Amazon US---Amazon UK---Amazon Canada---Amazon Australia

**The Unfair Dinkum (The Knick Knack Trilogy)
by Rhys Hughes (Author), Brian Evenson (Introduction)---Amazon US---Amazon UK---Amazon Canada---Amazon Australia

Thank you!

I didn't have two of those. Now acquired for free!

[salty-horse]

Hell's Heart by Alexis Hall is £1 in the UK (Kobo, Amazon)
Queer SF retelling of Moby Dick (I'm not putting a hyphen in that title).
I just read this, having not read Moby Dick before. I liked it, but it can be slow at times, as I think Moby Dick is too, so it's on purpose.
I recommend reading the first paragraphs to find out if its approach is for you.
While the author is primarily a romance writer, I think they handled the SF well, and made clever and fitting choices in the adaptation.

Earth is dead. Which leaves humanity stuck living under domes on planets that will kill them if they run out of fuel – fuel harvested at great risk from gargantuan space monsters.

Following a charismatic captain, a nameless voyager joins this monster hunt. She’s hoping to get paid, and maybe laid. And in the
ship’s close quarters, she finds an unlikely ally in Q, a fierce woman from old earth, whose touch ignites something within her.

Ordered to pursue the greatest leviathan of all, the crew will fight beasts, other ships and one another.
All in search of their nemesis, above the roiling red heart of that world.

A few quotes:

Call me … call me whatever the fuck you like. Isha. Or Isobel. Io. Imogen. Iris. Ivy. If there’s a point to all this—to any of this cacophonous bullshit in my head—it’s that I don’t think I’ve ever been sure what the I in I Am stands for. But it’s the only word or name or pronoun that’s always been mine. That nobody’s tried to take from me. That’s always felt right.

I suppose you might say instead that it isn’t the drama of the battle that makes the difference, but rather the importance of the cause. The campus wars, for example, were vital to the safety of the entire system. And on one level I can’t disagree. Even now my heart skips a beat when I reread Duty of Shadows and come to the scene where Lieutenant Ward, armed only with an anti-personnel flechette cannon, must hold his position against a baying mob of students chanting dangerous slogans.

But what of the belt wars? What of the scene in Duty of Fire where Corporal Raven assaults the Trojan asteroid mines? Not only is that scene drawn from real history (the attack on mine 617 Patroclus is well known amongst military historians as the first use of the Mk III Vivisection Warsuit, optimized for use against lightly armed or unarmed adversaries), it also has at its heart the need to secure ore transports to the core worlds. Of course, the records from that time make it clear that the Union of Asteroid Workers were also ideologically opposed to the very concept of freedom, but we cannot forget that the method they chose to use in their vicious if blessedly short-lived rebellion was the severing of supply chains.

[salty-horse]

Stormdancer (The Lotus War #1) by Jay Kristoff is $2 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)

The first in an epic new (2012) fantasy series, introducing an unforgettable new heroine and a stunningly original dystopian steampunk world with a flavor of feudal Japan.

A DYING LAND
The Shima Imperium verges on the brink of environmental collapse; an island nation once rich in tradition and myth, now decimated by clockwork industrialization and the machine-worshipers of the Lotus Guild. The skies are red as blood, the land is choked with toxic pollution, and the great spirit animals that once roamed its wilds have departed forever.

AN IMPOSSIBLE QUEST
The hunters of Shima's imperial court are charged by their Shogun to capture a thunder tiger – a legendary creature, half-eagle, half-tiger. But any fool knows the beasts have been extinct for more than a century, and the price of failing the Shogun is death.

A HIDDEN GIFT
Yukiko is a child of the Fox clan, possessed of a talent that if discovered, would see her executed by the Lotus Guild. Accompanying her father on the Shogun's hunt, she finds herself stranded: a young woman alone in Shima's last wilderness, with only a furious, crippled thunder tiger for company. Even though she can hear his thoughts, even though she saved his life, all she knows for certain is he'd rather see her dead than help her.

But together, the pair will form an indomitable friendship, and rise to challenge the might of an empire.