FREE/BARGAIN — Science Fiction & Fantasy

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Hollow Man

When I posted this yesterday the sale had not yet hit the other ebook sites.

The maps are fine on my iPhone Kindle app. I haven't yet checked via my physical Kindle, but trying to look at any image on that device is always an exercise in patience.

Your iPhone has a small screen (physical size). Plus, the Kindle app has such wide margins that you really don't have much space left for the images.

[Manabi]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Your iPhone has a small screen (physical size). Plus, the Kindle app has such wide margins that you really don't have much space left for the images.

You can long press on images and it'll pull up the full-sized image sans margins. Then you can do normal pinch/spread zooming on them.

[salty-horse]

Beyond the Burn Line by Paul McAuley is $1/£1/€1 in the US, UK, EU. (Amazon US, Amazon UK, Kobo US, Kobo UK).

WHAT WILL BECOME OF US?

In the deep future beyond the burn line of the Anthropocene and the extinction of humanity, the city states of an intelligent species of bear have fallen to a mind-wrecking plague. The bears' former slaves, a peaceable, industrious and endlessly curious people, believe that they have inherited the bounty and beauty of their beloved Mother Earth. But are they alone?

After the death of his master, a famous scholar, Pilgrim Saltmire vows to complete their research into sightings of so-called visitors and their sky craft. To discover if they are a mass delusion created by the stresses of an industrial revolution, or if they are real - a remnant population of bears which survived the plague, or another, unknown intelligent species.

Risking his reputation and his life, Pilgrim's search for the truth takes him from his comfortable home in the shadow of a great library to his tribe's former home on the chilly coast of the far south, and the gathering of a dangerous cult in the high desert. Whether or not the visitors are real, one thing is certain. Pilgrim's world and everything he thought he knew about his people's history will be utterly changed.

McAuley's fabulous far future, impacted by the consequences of global warming, colonisation and historical injustices, explores and reflects our own challenges while telling a fast paced story of discovery and adventure.

[sufue]

Cool. I didn't remember the first one, and I pity you for the second . Our company, for some reason lost in the mists of my husband's grandfather's time, has April 1 as its tax year start day, and that's bad enough. I can't even imagine April 6.

Originally Posted by pdurrant

The 25th of March is the first day of the year in the fourth age, marking the day that the ring went into the fire and Sauron fell.

Apparently the Tolkien Society suggested it as "Tolkien Reading Day" in 2003.

25th March is also, and this is no coincidence, the first day of the year in England between 1155 and 1751.

This year beginning is still observed in the UK in the form of the tax year, which starts on 6th April (25th March + 12 days adjustment from Julian to Gregorian calendar)

[salty-horse]

The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories edited by Yu Chen and Regina Kanyu Wang is $3 in the US
(Kobo, Amazon)

From an award-winning team of authors, editors, and translators comes a groundbreaking short story collection that explores the expanse of Chinese science fiction and fantasy.

In The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories, you can dine at a restaurant at the end of the universe, cultivate to immortality in the high mountains, watch roses perform Shakespeare, or arrive at the island of the gods on the backs of giant fish to ensure that the world can bloom.

Written, edited, and translated by a female and nonbinary team, these stories have never before been published in English and represent both the richly complicated past and the vivid future of Chinese science fiction and fantasy.

Time travel to a winter's day on the West Lake, explore the very boundaries of death itself, and meet old gods and new heroes in this stunning new collection.

[GlennD]

Vallista, currently the latest book in the Vlad Taltos series by Steven Brust, is on sale at Amazon for $2.99. Presumably this is to promote the upcoming release of book 16 in the series.

[Tarana]

A Symphony of Echoes (Chronicles of St. Mary's Book 2) by Jodi Taylor $.99 Amazon, Kobo and B&N
Science fiction. One of my favorite series!

[salty-horse]

Many books that were finalists of SPFBO (Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off) between 2015 and the present are on sale for $1 each.
Details here: https://mlwangbooks.com/spfbo-finalist-sale-2023/

[pdurrant]

Master of Furies by Raymond E. Feist is just £0.99 at Amazon UK at the moment. This is the third volume in his new trilogy.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09LGYC9CF

[salty-horse]

A Restless Truth by Freya Marske (The Last Binding #2) is $3 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)
Queer historical fantasy romance.

[isarl]

The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks is $3 in the US (Kobo, Amazon.com).

Second book in the Culture series by publication order, but (speaking as somebody who's not yet read any Culture books at all) I understand that the “series” is more of a “setting”, i.e. the books can be read in any order – no need to read Consider Phlebas (first published Culture novel) before The Player of Games. If you ask the web, some people apparently rate The Player of Games as the most accessible entrance to the setting. (Others, of course, have other choices.)

The Culture — a human/machine symbiotic society — has thrown up many great Game Players, and one of the greatest is Gurgeh Jernau Morat Gurgeh. The Player of Games. Master of every board, computer and strategy.

Bored with success, Gurgeh travels to the Empire of Azad, cruel and incredibly wealthy, to try their fabulous game. . . a game so complex, so like life itself, that the winner becomes emperor. Mocked, blackmailed, almost murdered, Gurgeh accepts the game, and with it the challenge of his life — and very possibly his death.

[ratinox]

Originally Posted by isarl

Second book in the Culture series by publication order, but (speaking as somebody who's not yet read any Culture books at all) I understand that the “series” is more of a “setting”, i.e. the books can be read in any order – no need to read Consider Phlebas (first published Culture novel) before The Player of Games. If you ask the web, some people apparently rate The Player of Games as the most accessible entrance to the setting. (Others, of course, have other choices.)

I do suggest reading Consider Phlebas first because it looks at the Culture from the outside, from the perspective of an opposed civilization. But otherwise yes, each book in the set stands on its own and you don't have to read them in any particular order.

[isarl]

Originally Posted by ratinox

I do suggest reading Consider Phlebas first because it looks at the Culture from the outside, from the perspective of an opposed civilization. But otherwise yes, each book in the set stands on its own and you don't have to read them in any particular order.

As I said, I haven't read any yet, so I really appreciate you sharing your perspective. I picked up The Player of Games today but I'm currently reading the first Uplift book so I won't be getting around to the Culture ones quite yet – maybe Consider Phlebas will go on sale before I do. Thanks!

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by isarl

...no need to read Consider Phlebas (first published Culture novel) before The Player of Games.

Originally Posted by ratinox

I do suggest reading Consider Phlebas first...

Guys, that was two mentions of Consider Phlebas. We are dangerously close to triggering a lecture on how terrible Consider Phlebas is...

[ratinox]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Guys, that was two mentions of Consider Phlebas. We are dangerously close to triggering a lecture on how terrible Consider Phlebas is...

I never suggested that it is anywhere near the best (it's not, by a lot), only that it has a place in a set of books that otherwise have no order to them.