FREE/BARGAIN - Historical Fiction - 2014

[Little.Egret]

Originally Posted by Little.Egret

Sword of Fortune by Christopher Nicole

Richard Bryant arrives in India as a humble clerk with the John Company.

Endeavour Press reprint

http://www.ereaderiq.com/dp/B00OROA9...rd-of-fortune/ gives you a track of price

Strange the FREE lasted such a short time, Endeavour Press is usually at least 3 days.

[Dr. Drib]

Ok. Thank you, everyone.

Don
(Moderator)

[scottken]

As part of Open Road's Cyber Monday Sale today, there's a whole bunch of Mary Renault on sale at Amazon. I would expect to see these on sale at other vendors as well.

Title include:
Alexander Omnibus ($5.99, includes Fire from Heaven, The Persian Boy, and Funeral Games)
And at $2.99 each: The Bull from the Sea, The Last of the Wine, The Mask of Apollo

[ATDrake]

Bargain @ $1.99 for today only (Dec 2nd) according to the newsletter from Open Road Media (couponable @ Kobo, should be the same price at all the usual Canada & US stores, may or may not be matched in other regions, etc.):

Sappho's Leap: A Novel by pioneering feminist author Erica Jong (Wikipedia), her historical literary fiction novel exploring the life of the titular ancient greek poet (Wikipedia), originally published in 2003.

I think I'll pick this one up. I'm a sucker for things set in the classical eras and this will give me a chance to try Jong's writing and see if I like it enough to pick up her Shakespearean time-travel adventure with romantic elements also still on sale.

Erica Jong, the acclaimed author of Fear of Flying, transports the reader more than twenty-six hundred years back to a time of myths, gods, and monsters, bringing glorious life to the renowned, seductive poet Sappho

As she stands poised at the edge of a precipice in the shadow of the sanctuary of Apollo, the greatest love poet who ever was or ever will be recalls the eventful fifty years that have led her to this moment. It was love that seduced her, at age sixteen, into an ill-fated plot with the poet Alcaeus to depose the despot of the island of Lesbos. It was love that made her trade the unwanted marriage bed of an old, despised, and drunken husband for a seemingly endless series of lovers, both male and female.

For Sappho, life has always been a banquet to be savored to the fullest, a strange and sensual odyssey that has carried her to the far corners of the ancient world. Devoted to the goddess Aphrodite and granted the gift of immortal song, she has followed her magnificent destiny from Delphi to Egypt, to the land of the Amazons, the realm of the centaurs, and into the stygian depths of Hades itself, often in the company of her companion and friend, the fabulist slave Aesop.

Through every grand affair and every wild adventure, she has remained forever true to her heart, her passion, and herself, right up to this, the end of everything.

Combining evocative and realistic detail with unabashedly outrageous invention, Erica Jong’s Sappho’s Leap is a flawless gem of historical fiction boldly imagined by one of America’s most enthralling storytellers.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Erica Jong including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.

[itisbomb]

The Greatest Knight: The Unsung Story of the Queen's Champion (William Marshal)
by Elizabeth Chadwick

is $2.99 at Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Knigh...abeth+chadwick

Below is the blurb:
New York Times and USA Today Bestseller!

Royal protector. Loyal servant. Forgotten hero.

A penniless young knight with few prospects, William Marshal is plucked from obscurity when he saves the life of Henry II's formidable queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine. In gratitude, she appoints him tutor to the heir to the throne, the volatile and fickle Prince Henry. But being a royal favorite brings its share of danger and jealousy as well as fame and reward.

A writer of uncommon historical integrity and accuracy, Elizabeth Chadwick resurrects the true story of one of England's greatest forgotten heroes in a captivating blend of fact and fiction. The Greatest Knight restores William Marshal to his rightful place at the pinnacle of the Middle Ages, reflecting through him the triumphs, scandals, and power struggles that haven't changed in eight hundred years.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT ELIZABETH CHADWICK AND THE GREATEST KNIGHT:
The Greatness of William Marshal: The descendants of the Greatest Knight himself include George Washington and Winston Churchill, as well as the Stuart kings of England and Scotland. He was partly responsible for the Magna Carta. He vowed his body to the Templars and is buried in Temple Church in London.

The Appeal of the Time Period: There are very few novels about Marshal, and no one has covered him as in depth as Elizabeth Chadwick has. In addition, unlike the Tudor era, there are not extensive amounts of historical fiction set in the 13th century.

[itisbomb]

The Stolen Crown: The Secret Marriage that Forever Changed the Fate of England
by Susan Higginbotham

is $1.99 at Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Stolen-Crown-M...s=Stolen+crown

Below is the blurb:
On May Day, 1464, six-year-old Katherine Woodville, daughter of a duchess who has married a knight of modest means, awakes to find her gorgeous older sister, Elizabeth, in the midst of a secret marriage to King Edward IV. It changes everything-for Kate and for England.

Then King Edward dies unexpectedly. Richard III, Duke of Gloucester, is named protector of Edward and Elizabeth's two young princes, but Richard's own ambitions for the crown interfere with his duties...

Lancastrians against Yorkists: greed, power, murder, and war. As the story unfolds through the unique perspective of Kate Woodville, it soon becomes apparent that not everyone is wholly evil-or wholly good.

Award-winning author Susan Higginbotham's The Stolen Crown is a compelling tale of one marriage that changed the fate of England forever.

[ATDrake]

Free from the author via KDP Select @ Amazon:

Fortune's Fool by David Blixt (Wikipedia), 3rd in his Star-Cross'd series of Shakespeare-inspired novels set in Verona, exploring the origins of Montague/Capulet feud, according to Wikipedia. This is recently-written continuation of a series that was originally out from St. Martin's Press, from which we've previously received some of the earlier novels free.

Italy, 1326. While the brilliant and wily Cesco is schooled in his new duties at the hand of a hard master, Pietro Alaghieri travels to Avignon, current seat of the Papacy, to fight his excommunication and plead for Cesco's legitimacy. He doesn't know an old foe has been waiting to ruin Pietro’s life and seize control of Verona for himself.

Back in Verona, separated from everyone he trusts, Cesco must confront his ambitious cousin, a mysterious young killer, and the Holy Roman Emperor himself. A harrowing series of adventures reveal a secret long hidden, one that threatens Cesco's only chance for true happiness.

Inspired by Shakespeare, Dante, and Petrarch, this Renaissance novel of intrigue and passion reflects the heights of drama, exploring the capricious whims of lady Fortune, who has her favorites – and her fools.

[peachiekene]

Sale

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Alice Walker’s masterpiece, a powerful novel of courage in the face of oppression

Celie has grown up in rural Georgia, navigating a childhood of ceaseless abuse. Not only is she poor and despised by the society around her, she’s badly treated by her family. As a teenager she begins writing letters directly to God in an attempt to transcend a life that often seems too much to bear. Her letters span twenty years and record a journey of self-discovery and empowerment through the guiding light of a few strong women and her own implacable will to find harmony with herself and her home.

The Color Purple’s deeply inspirational narrative, coupled with Walker’s prodigious talent as a stylist and storyteller, have made the novel a contemporary classic of American letters.

This ebook features a new introduction written by the author on the twenty-fifth anniversary of publication, and an illustrated biography of Alice Walker including rare photos from the author’s personal collection.

This is an Open Road publication so it should be couponable at Kobo.

Kobo

AmazonUS
AmazonCA
GooglePlay
B&N

[crich70]

The Lost Tales of Mercia free at Smashwords.

Read all ten Lost Tales compiled in one edition. Ten short stories explore Anglo-Saxon England through the eyes of ten intertwined lives: from a blushing maid to a bold mother, from a daring soldier to an unready king, and many others. The tales introduce the people who will fight, love, and betray each other until the rightful king claims the throne in the novel, "Eadric the Grasper."

Smashwords

[ATDrake]

Free from the author via KDP Select @ Amazon:

Daughters of the Storm by Elizabeth Buchan, an historical literary drama novel about three women whose lives are swept up in the French Revolution, originally out from Macmillan in 1988. According to her bio-blurb, Buchan used to work as a fiction editor over at Random House, and her short stories have been adapted for broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

Revolution, love and death… in the Paris of 1789.

A new world is being born and the old regime is going to its death…

A time when the shadow of the guillotine falls over a nation at war with itself.

In France under the last Bourbon king, the extravagance grows more outrageous and the unrest of the poor more dangerous. Into this ferment, are swept the innocent English Sophie Luttrell, visiting France for the first time, the French aristocrat Héloise de Guinot who hates the man her parents have arranged for her to marry and Marie-Victoire , the loyal maid, who finds herself immersed in revolutionary politics.

They are the daughters of the storm which is sweeping France – and over the world. Three women whose lives will be forever marked by this turning point in history and whose passionate struggle for love, liberty… and for life… have such unexpected consequences.

[ATDrake]

Bargain @ $9.99 for Canada only from HarperCollins' uncollinated Harper imprint (non-couponable, linkage goes to Kobo, should be matched in the standard Canadian stores, £17.99 in UK, does not exist in the US store):

The Warrior Chronicles Books 1-6 by Bernard Cornwell (Wikipedia), the first 6 books in what's currently an 8-book-plus series about King Alfred during Anglo-Saxon England pushing back the Viking invasions. This is pretty much a dirt-cheap price for them considering that the omnibuses of #1-3 & #4-6 are each still $23-25 and the individuals appear to be $10 and up. Maybe one day HC will come up with an even more money-saving complete edition, but the series is still in progress and that's somewhere off in the far future, most likely.

The Empty Throne, #8 can also be had for $4.99 (#7 is $17.99 CAD).

A couple of weirdly inconsistent bargains, also out from HarperCollins, on Maurice Druon's (Wikipedia) The Accursed Kings series, which is the translated version of his Les Rois Maudits series based on 13th-14th C medieval France, which in turn George R. R. Martin used as inspiration for A Song of Ice and Fire.

The Iron King, #1, is $2.99 in Canada ($8.99 in US).
The Strangled Queen, #2, is $4.99 in Canada, but $1.99 in US (ETA: slightly different US version which is actually on sale).

So if you're willing to shop in more than one region, you can get the first two books at a reasonably steeply discounted price (most of the rest are $12 or so), and even at full price for #3, it's cheaper than the upcoming 3-book bundle of #1-3 which is pre-order priced at $21.99 CAD. (ETA: this might not be true for US persons, who can apparently pre-order the #1-3 bundle for $15.99, which works out to be roughly the same money, since #3 is $9.99 US, although there's a chance it might drop later.)

Myself, I'm going to hold out for the complete omnibus which I'm sure will come one day and go on discount sale as well, since the library seems to have these in paper.

Incidentally, for those looking for the original French version:

Les Rois Maudits — L'intégrale of all 7 @ $45.99 CAD from Plon, which is about $2 cheaper per volume than for the individuals. I could have sworn that the UK store had an even cheaper edition from a different publisher, but it seems to be gone now. ETA: apparently this is even lower-priced from the US, at $34.99 USD. Of course, there's currency conversion to take into account.

[peachiekene]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

Bargain @ $9.99 for Canada <...>

Those prices are all over the place. O_O
Thanks for bringing them to attention though.

[ATDrake]

^

I'm still seeing the Cornwell at $9.99 in Canada, and when I add it to the cart and take it to checkout, it's $10.49 CAD with tax.

Are you getting something different from whichever country you're set to? (Or am I just misunderstanding what you said by "gone now"?)

[peachiekene]

^ Sorry, I just left the last two words* of your post in to show that I cut the middle part out because I was replying to the whole thing. I've edited it to make it less confusing.

I have no idea if the deal is still available or not.

*I thought it was the last two, but apparently not. Ignore me, I'm tired.

[ATDrake]

Free from the author via KDP Select @ Amazon:

Armor of Light by Ellen Ekstrom, a post-Crusades medieval tale originally out from Central Avenue Publishing in 2010, who used to be a regular Read an Ebook Week participant and in fact gave us this very book as one of their freebies a couple of years back. It was actually one of the more interesting-looking ones I was meaning to try, but forgot about, oops.

A SPIRITUAL JOURNEY OF THE MOST FRIGHTENING KIND.

NORTHERN ENGLAND, 1204.

GEORGE ASCALON, earl of Grasmere, returns home from the disastrous Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople an angry, broken and humbled man. His dream of living quietly ever after is interrupted when charged with one last quest, and it is nothing like what he experienced in the East and twice as frightening.

Reluctantly, George takes up the sword of Ascalon one last time.