FREE/BARGAIN — Science Fiction & Fantasy

[isarl]

My eReaderIQ notifications are going nuts right now, so many sales happening, several of which have already been mentioned in comments above. I came to share the Uplift Storm Trilogy omnibus, on sale in the US but not Canada, currently $3 at Amazon, $4 at Kobo (though they've price-matched Amazon's $3 for me already), down from $25. Kobo, Amazon

This is the second trilogy in Brin's Uplift setting; I have greatly enjoyed Sundiver and especially Startide Rising, and plan to read The Uplift War still, so I'm glad to get the chance to pick up the next trilogy for such a steal. I'm not sure, but I get the impression that having read Startide Rising and The Uplift War will be important context for the Uplift Storm trilogy (but I welcome opinions from anybody more familiar with the series than I am).

The award-winning author’s complete second trilogy of the Uplift Saga, featuring a planet of refugees, a fugitive Earthling ship, and her dolphin/human crew.

Brightness Reef

Six outcast races hunker down on the off-limits planet Jijo when a mysterious starship lands. However, it doesn’t bring the “law” they feared, but something worse—a dark secret the invaders will do anything to keep . . .

Infinity’s Shore

Earthship Streaker, with its dolphin and human crew, has been on the run for three years after discovering a derelict armada whose mere existence seems to drive the Five Galaxies mad. With Earth under siege and nowhere to turn, Streaker has come to far-off, isolated Jijo in search of sanctuary amid its population of secret refugees. Unfortunately, they’ve been followed . . .

Heaven’s Reach

With the arrival of deadly enemies, the peaceful isolation of Jijo’s six exile races has ended. While the races join forces to fight invaders, the Earthship Streaker must lure other foes into weird layers of the unknown. Meanwhile, a dire prophecy may put the entire universe at risk . . .

[Ashartus]

Originally Posted by isarl

I'm not sure, but I get the impression that having read Startide Rising and The Uplift War will be important context for the Uplift Storm trilogy (but I welcome opinions from anybody more familiar with the series than I am).

I would say only Startide Rising is important for background/context/characters, I don't recall any real connections to the Uplift War though maybe one of the alien races was introduced there.

[ZodWallop]

The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin is $2.99 at Amazon, B&N and Kobo US

Three-time Hugo Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author N.K. Jemisin crafts her most incredible novel yet, a "glorious" story of culture, identity, magic, and myths in contemporary New York City.

In Manhattan, a young grad student gets off the train and realizes he doesn't remember who he is, where he's from, or even his own name. But he can sense the beating heart of the city, see its history, and feel its power.

In the Bronx, a Lenape gallery director discovers strange graffiti scattered throughout the city, so beautiful and powerful it's as if the paint is literally calling to her.

In Brooklyn, a politician and mother finds she can hear the songs of her city, pulsing to the beat of her Louboutin heels.

And they're not the only ones.

Every great city has a soul. Some are ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York? She's got six.

[ZodWallop]

Isolate: A Novel in the Grand Illusion by L. E. Modesitt Jr. is $2.99 at Amazon, B&N and Kobo US.

L. E. Modesitt, Jr., bestselling author of The Mongrel Mage, has a brand new gaslamp political fantasy Isolate.

Book Bub—The 24 Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of Fall 2021

Industrialization. Social unrest. Underground movements. Government corruption and surveillance.

Something is about to give.

Steffan Dekkard is an isolate, one of the small percentage of people who are immune to the projections of empaths. As an isolate, he has been trained as a security specialist and he and his security partner Avraal Ysella, a highly trained empath are employed by Axel Obreduur, a senior Craft Minister and the de facto political strategist of his party.

When a respected Landor Councilor dies of “heart failure” at a social event, because of his political friendship with Obreduur, Dekkard and Ysella find that not only is their employer a target, but so are they, in a covert and deadly struggle for control of the government and economy.

Steffan is about to understand that everything he believed is an illusion.

[ZodWallop]

The Iron Princess by Barbara Hambly is $1.99 at Amazon, B&N and Kobo US.

A young woman rises from the streets to battle a sinister evil in this magical fantasy adventure by the bestselling author of the Darwath series.

Something is amiss with the world’s magic. Spells don’t work the way they used to—when they work at all. Only the powers of the Crystal Mages remain as they were, powers founded on the use of the mystical element adamis, the harvesting of which has enslaved the peoples of the Twilight Lands.

They need a hero.

At the same time, ravenous beasts have begun to appear, legendary creatures that seem to be proof against any magic. And Clea Stylachos, granddaughter of a great sage of the Twilight people, has reason to fear that the Crystal Mages, instead of seeking to defeat these insanely destructive monsters, are attempting to weaponize them in their quest for power.

Clea’s only hope to save her people is a wizard who retains his power, one who will not betray her, either to the great merchant houses or to the all-entangling web of the Crystal Mages. But that wizard—Ithrazel the Cursed, destroyer of a city and magically imprisoned to suffer undying, unremitting torment—wants nothing to do with saving the world, helping a hero, or unraveling the terrible secret at the heart of the Crystal Mages’ plans.

From the slums and tunnels of the slave-city of Morne, to the watery wilderness of the Twilight lands, to the halls of her father’s palace and the spell-soaked mysteries of the Crystal Mages’ House of Glass, Clea works to untwist the deadly riddles of magic and monsters—to free her mother’s disenfranchised people from slavery under her father’s conquering forces. To save her mageborn brother from the Crystal Mages’ power; to control a sorcerer legendary for his deed of evil; to keep her own small band of friends one step ahead of her father’s troops and the Crystal Order’s spells.

She is the Iron Princess, and she knows she must prevail or die.

But at what cost to herself?

[Apache]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Isolate: A Novel in the Grand Illusion by L. E. Modesitt Jr. is $2.99 at Amazon, B&N and Kobo US.

The series is the Grand Illusion
1. Isolate (2021)
2. Councilor (2022)
3. Contrarian (2023)
Contrarian is due out August 15, 2023. I have read and enjoyed the first two and plan to get the third when released.
Apache

[Aleron Ives]

I have good timing today. I added some of these sale books to my shopping cart, and then when I went to check out, the price went back up on the confirmation screen. I was checking out just as one of the sales ended. Oh well.

[SomeSteve]

I don't know much about this, but perhaps it will interest some of you.

Return to Nevèrÿon: The Complete Series by Samuel R. Delany is $3.99 at Kobo US, $2.99 at Amazon.com.

It contains the books Tales of Nevèrÿon, Neveryóna, Flight from Nevèrÿon, and Return to Nevèrÿon.

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/ret...omplete-series

https://www.amazon.com/Return-Nev%C3...dp/B075L6ML6L/

[salty-horse]

Bluebird by Ciel Pierlot is $2 worldwide (Kobo US, Kobo WW, Amazon.com)

Lesbian gunslinger fights spies in space!

Three factions vie for control of the galaxy. Rig, a gunslinging, thieving, rebel with a cause, doesn’t give a damn about them and she hasn’t looked back since abandoning her faction three years ago.

That is, until her former faction sends her a message: return what she stole from them, or they’ll kill her twin sister.

Rig embarks on a journey across the galaxy to save her sister – but for once she’s not alone. She has help from her network of resistance contacts, her taser-wielding librarian girlfriend, and a mysterious bounty hunter.

If Rig fails and her former faction finds what she stole from them, trillions of lives will be lost--including her sister's. But if she succeeds, she might just pull the whole damn faction system down around their ears. Either way, she’s going to do it with panache and pizzazz.

White Cat, Black Dog: Stories by Kelly Link is ~$3 worldwide (Kobo US, Kobo WW, Amazon.com)
Link's latest story collection. IIRC all but one story has been published before. My signed copy is awaiting me across the ocean so I'll pass on the digital copy.

I don't remember if I posted this before, but Solaris has a pride month sale going on at their official web store: https://rebellionpublishing.com/sale/
Featuring:
Bang Bang Bodhisattva by Aubrey Wood
Fevered Star by Rebecca Roanhorse
If Found, Return to Hell by Em X. Liu
Kid Wolf and Kraken Boy by Sam J. Miller
Saint Death's Daughter by C. S. E. Cooney
Silk Fire by Zabé Ellor
The Witness for the Dead and The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison
The House of Styx by Derek Künsken
Under Fortunate Stars by Ren Hutchings

[SomeSteve]

Bradbury Stories - 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales - by Ray Bradbury is $1.99 at Kobo US.

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/bradbury-stories


A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick is $1.99 at Kobo US.

https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/a-scanner-darkly-8

[salty-horse]

The Cleaving by Juliet E. McKenna is $2/£2 in the everywhere except the publisher's website (Kobo, Amazon.com)
Was on my wishlist.

Four women, four destinies – the future of King Arthur's court…

A fresh, feminist retelling of the Arthurian legends

The Cleaving is an Arthurian retelling that follows the tangled stories of four women: Nimue, Ygraine, Morgana, and Guinevere, as they fight to control their own destinies amid the wars and rivalries that will determine the destiny of Britain.

The legendary epics of King Arthur and Camelot don’t tell the whole story. Chroniclers say Arthur’s mother Ygraine married the man that killed her husband. They say that Arthur's half-sister Morgana turned to dark magic to defy him and Merlin. They say that the enchantress Nimue challenged Merlin and used her magic to outwit him. And that Arthur’s marriage to Guinevere ended in adultery, rebellion and bloodshed. So why did these women chose such dangerous paths?

As warfare and rivalries constantly challenge the king, Arthur and Merlin believe these women are destined to serve Camelot by doing as they are told. But men forget that women talk. Ygraine, Nimue, Morgana and Guinevere become friends and allies while the decisions that shape their lives are taken out of their hands. This is their untold story. Now these women have a voice.

[salty-horse]

Feed Them Silence by Lee Mandelo is $3 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)

Lee Mandelo dives into the minds of wolves in Feed Them Silence, a novella of the near future.
What does it mean to "be-in-kind" with a nonhuman animal? Or in Dr. Sean Kell-Luddon’s case, to be in-kind with one of the last remaining wild wolves? Using a neurological interface to translate her animal subject’s perception through her own mind, Sean intends to chase both her scientific curiosity and her secret, lifelong desire to experience the intimacy and freedom of wolfishness. To see the world through animal eyes; smell the forest, thick with olfactory messages; even taste the blood and viscera of a fresh kill. And, above all, to feel the belonging of the pack.

Sean’s tireless research gives her a chance to fulfill that dream, but pursuing it has a terrible cost. Her obsession with work endangers her fraying relationship with her wife. Her research methods threaten her mind and body. And the attention of her VC funders could destroy her subject, the beautiful wild wolf whose mental world she’s invading.

[salty-horse]

The Infinite (The Outside #3) by Ada Hoffmann is $2/£2 in the everywhere except the publisher's website (Kobo, Amazon.com)

[salty-horse]

The Lies of the Ajungo by Moses Ose Utomi is $3 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)
First novella in a series.

One boy’s epic quest to bring water back to his city and save his mother’s life. Prepare to enter the Forever Desert.

They say there is no water in the City of Lies. They say there are no heroes in the City of Lies. They say there are no friends beyond the City of Lies. But would you believe what they say in the City of Lies?

In the City of Lies, they cut out your tongue when you turn thirteen, to appease the terrifying Ajungo Empire and make sure it continues sending water. Tutu will be thirteen in three days, but his parched mother won’t last that long. So Tutu goes to his oba and makes a deal: she provides water for his mother, and in exchange he will travel out into the desert and bring back water for the city. Thus begins Tutu’s quest for the salvation of his mother, his city, and himself.

The Lies of the Ajungo opens the curtains on a tremendous world, and begins the epic fable of the Forever Desert. With every word, Moses Ose Utomi weaves magic.

[Manabi]

Phoenix Pick has sent out a free ebook offer, even though they've killed their long running Publisher's Pick monthly free ebook program. In this case it's Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Charles Sheffield:

A man from Earth's distant past is humanity's only hope for a future...

Drake Merlin's wife, the love of his life, is dying of a rare, fatal disease for which there is no cure. Not now, in the 21st century. But surely in the future...

For Drake there is only one solution: have Ana's body frozen until she can be cured. And he will go with her into the cryowomb. It is a desperate gamble born of folly, obsession...and love.

Thus begins an epic journey across eons, as Drake is revived again and again, only to find that Ana is beyond help. Millions of years past his first sleep, he learns there is hope for her restoration--at the Omega Point, where the universe collapses, merging past and present. But first he will be awakened to become humanity's unwilling savior. For an alien menace is laying the solar system to waste, and only an anachronism from the days of human barbarism can save an enlightened race....

The cover they have in it's pretty lousy, so I've attached a scan of an older one I like better.

I read this book last year and it is awesome. Even though depression makes it nearly impossible for me to read new books, I plowed through this one without any issues. It's an incredible love story, but also a really fun science fiction story. If you haven't read it or already own it, grab it ASAP. It's well worth your time!