FREE/BARGAIN — Science Fiction & Fantasy

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ratinox

Having an informed opinion about a book typically does require reading it.

Not always because you can know enough to know it's not good from reading what others have said and reviews.

You do your research enough, you'll have a good enough idea.

[ratinox]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Not always because you can know enough to know it's not good from reading what others have said and reviews.

You do your research enough, you'll have a good enough idea.

An opinion based on others' opinions is not an informed opinion based on facts. It is a second-hand opinion based on others' opinions. Perhaps those opinions are based on facts, or perhaps they are part of a campaign to tank a book's review ratings. If you do not read the book for yourself then you cannot be certain which is true. This modulo the opinions of people who you have reason to trust. I for one would not trust "reviews" with such obvious click-bait titles. YMMV.

I've stated my piece. Peace out.

[Manabi]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Not always because you can know enough to know it's not good from reading what others have said and reviews.

You do your research enough, you'll have a good enough idea.

Your "research" consisted of one Amazon review, a site that has serious issues with review quality. Said review has had no one find it helpful, and even other negative reviews don't back up its conclusion.¹ That reviewer also has a history of calling books sexist in their reviews. Including two other novels by Iain M. Banks. Based on their review history I'd personally dismiss them all as untrustworthy, as they seem to have an ax to grind.

On the other hand you have hundreds of positive reviews, and the book being nominated for a prestigious reward. I'll even break those down further in the spoiler along with the above footnote:

Spoiler:

5★ (192 on Amazon, 2,594 on GoodReads)
4★ (99 on Amazon, 3,929 on Goodreads)

3★ (42 on Amazon, 2,293 on GoodReads)

2★ (24 on Amazon, 572 on GoodReads)
1★ (11 on Amazon, 165 on GoodReads)

¹ While there's too many for me to do it on GoodReads, I skimmed through all thirty-five 1&2★ reviews on Amazon. One of the 2★ reviews mentioned the rape, saying they disliked it being described in detail. That was the only other mention of rape or sexism besides the 1★ that JSWolf linked.

You didn't "research" your opinion, you decided you didn't like the book and hunted for a single piece of evidence to support your preconceived notion.

[Tarana]

United States of Japan By Peter Tieryas $1.99 Amazon only
Book 1 of 3 book series; Alternate history. Looked interesting.

An “utterly brilliant” read (Hugo Award–winning author Ken Liu) for fans of The Man in the High Castle: In an alternate version of the 1980s, the Japanese Empire tightens its grip on the United States when a subversive video game suggests the Axis may not have won World War II…

[jiminrussell]

Originally Posted by Tarana

United States of Japan By Peter Tieryas $1.99 Amazon only
Book 1 of 3 book series; Alternate history. Looked interesting.

Also available at kobo for same price or $1.79 for Kobo VIP members.
Canada:https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/uni...ates-of-japan?
USA: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/uni...ates-of-japan?

Also available at Google for $1.99
https://play.google.com/store/books/...d=NGdHCgAAQBAJ

[salty-horse]

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within (Wayfarers #4) by Becky Chambers is $1.99 on Amazon.com

[JSWolf]

Another Time, Another Place by Jodi Taylor (Chronicles of St. Mary's #12) is 99p at Kobo UK, eBooks.com UK, Google Play Books UK, and Amazon UK.

It's long been known that if a thing can go wrong, it will. With knobs on, usually. Disasters start to pile up. A new colleague with no respect for the past and a great deal to prove. Historians lost in time. And - worst of all - Rosie Lee on her very first jump. Then there's the small matter of Max's dishonourable discharge.

From Tudor England to the Tower of Babel - it's all going horribly wrong.

Jobless and homeless, Max receives an offer she can't refuse. Another time, another place. A refuge, perhaps.

She's got that wrong, too.

[Tarana]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Another Time, Another Place by Jodi Taylor (Chronicles of St. Mary's #12) is 99p at Kobo UK, eBooks.com UK, Google Play Books UK, and Amazon UK.

LOVE LOVE LOVE this series! I binge listened to the series during lockdown last March and really enjoyed the interplay of history, scifi and action/adventure.

Stranger in a Strange Land By Robert A. Heinlein $2.99 Amazon, Kobo and B&N
Classic scifi

[elaysee]

For KJ Parker completists, volumes two and three of The Two of Swords are $1.99 right now at Amazon US. The first volume is full price - it was on sale back in January.

Volume Two
Volume Three

Also a novella pair from Alastair Reynolds:
Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days

Some other bargains are showing up when I look through the also-boughts on Parker.

[tch65721]

Originally Posted by Tarana

LOVE LOVE LOVE this series! I binge listened to the series during lockdown last March and really enjoyed the interplay of history, scifi and action/adventure.

Agree.
A Trail Through Time(vol 4) is currently $.99 at Amazon US.

[badgoodDeb]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Another Time, Another Place by Jodi Taylor (Chronicles of St. Mary's #12) is 99p at Kobo UK, eBooks.com UK, Google Play Books UK, and Amazon UK.

Originally Posted by Tarana

LOVE LOVE LOVE this series! I binge listened to the series during lockdown last March and really enjoyed the interplay of history, scifi and action/adventure.

Stranger in a Strange Land By Robert A. Heinlein $2.99 Amazon, Kobo and B&N
Classic scifi

Originally Posted by tch65721

Agree.
A Trail Through Time(vol 4) is currently $.99 at Amazon US.

I'll third the motion! Great series. Humor, time travel, and a bit of history learned en route.

[itisbomb]

The Labyrinth Index (Laundry Files #9)
by Charles Stross

is $2.99 at Kobo U.S.

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-labyrinth-index

Below is the blurb:
“A bizarre yet effective yoking of the spy and horror genres.” —The Washington Post Book World

The Lovecraftian Singularity has descended upon the world in The Labyrinth Index, beginning an exciting new story arc in Charles Stross' Hugo Award-winning Laundry Files series!

Since she was promoted to the head of the Lords Select Committee on Sanguinary Affairs, every workday for Mhari Murphy has been a nightmare. It doesn’t help that her boss, the new Prime Minister of Britain, is a manipulative and deceptive pain in the butt. But what else can she expect when working under the thumb of none other than the elder god N’yar Lat-Hotep a.k.a the Creeping Chaos?

Mhari's most recent assignment takes her and a ragtag team of former Laundry agents across the pond into the depths of North America. The United States president has gone missing. Not that Americans are alarmed. For some mysterious reason, most of the country has forgotten the executive branch even exists. Perhaps it has to do with the Nazgûl currently occupying the government and attempting to summon Cthulhu.

It's now up to Mhari and her team to race against the Nazgûl's vampire-manned dragnet to find and, for his own protection, kidnap the president.

Who knew an egomaniacal, malevolent deity would have a soft spot for international relations?

[salty-horse]

Ink & Sigil by Kevin Haerne is $1.99 on Amazon.com
First in a series. Sequel is out in August.

Al MacBharrais is both blessed and cursed. He is blessed with an extraordinary white moustache, an appreciation for craft cocktails—and a most unique magical talent. He can cast spells with magically enchanted ink and he uses his gifts to protect our world from rogue minions of various pantheons, especially the Fae.

But he is also cursed. Anyone who hears his voice will begin to feel an inexplicable hatred for Al, so he can only communicate through the written word or speech apps. And his apprentices keep dying in peculiar freak accidents. As his personal life crumbles around him, he devotes his life to his work, all the while trying to crack the secret of his curse.

But when his latest apprentice, Gordie, turns up dead in his Glasgow flat, Al discovers evidence that Gordie was living a secret life of crime. Now Al is forced to play detective—while avoiding actual detectives who are wondering why death seems to always follow Al. Investigating his apprentice’s death will take him through Scotland’s magical underworld, and he’ll need the help of a mischievous hobgoblin if he’s to survive.

[Tarana]

Dhalgren By Samuel R. Delany $1.99 Amazon, Kobo and B&N
Haven't read this author but he's won both a Hugo and Nebula before.

[salty-horse]

Originally Posted by Tarana

Haven't read this author but he's won both a Hugo and Nebula before.

That's burying the lede.
Dhalgren is notoriously difficult to read.
Wikipedia:

Literary significance and criticism

With over a million sales, Dhalgren is by far Delany's most popular book—and also his most controversial. Critical reaction to Dhalgren has ranged from high praise (both inside and outside the science fiction community) to extreme dislike (mostly within the community). However, Dhalgren was a commercial success, selling a half million copies in the first two years, and over a million copies worldwide since then, with "its appeal reaching beyond the usual SF readership."

William Gibson has referred to Dhalgren as "a riddle that was never meant to be solved."

Darrell Schweitzer stated, "Dhalgren is, I think, the most disappointing thing to happen to science fiction since Robert Heinlein made a complete fool of himself with I Will Fear No Evil."

In 2015, Elizabeth Hand characterized the novel as "a dense, transgressive, hallucinatory, Joycean tour-de-force". By contrast, fellow writers Philip K. Dick and Harlan Ellison hated the novel. When the book appeared, Ellison wrote: "I must be honest. I gave up after 361 pages. I could not permit myself to be gulled or bored any further."