FREE/BARGAIN - Science Fiction, Fantasy - 2015

[itisbomb]

Under Heaven
by Guy Gavriel Kay

is $3.64 at Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Under-Heaven-G...s=under+heaven

Below is the blurb:
In his latest innovative novel, the award-winning author evokes the dazzling Tang Dynasty of 8th-century China in a story of honor and power.

Inspired by the glory and power of Tang dynasty China, Guy Gavriel Kay has created a masterpiece.

It begins simply. Shen Tai, son of an illustrious general serving the Emperor of Kitai, has spent two years honoring the memory of his late father by burying the bones of the dead from both armies at the site of one of his father's last great battles. In recognition of his labors and his filial piety, an unlikely source has sent him a dangerous gift: 250 Sardian horses.

You give a man one of the famed Sardian horses to reward him greatly. You give him four or five to exalt him above his fellows, propel him towards rank, and earn him jealousy, possibly mortal jealousy. Two hundred and fifty is an unthinkable gift, a gift to overwhelm an emperor.

Wisely, the gift comes with the stipulation that Tai must claim the horses in person. Otherwise he would probably be dead already...

[AwfulWaffle]

Marie Brennan's A Natural History of Dragons (First book of the Lady Trent series) is $2.99 at Google Play. Don't see it PM'ed yet elsewhere. It's also DRM-free as it's a Tor book.

[sqdancer]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

And also right here.......at Mobileread:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44294

But it's in the Offline forum.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by sqdancer

But it's in the Offline forum.

Ahh, I didn't see that.

Sorry.

[sqdancer]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Ahh, I didn't see that.

Sorry.

That's okay. I think we're all still getting used to the changes in the MR Library.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by sqdancer

That's okay. I think we're all still getting used to the changes in the MR Library.

Some of which don't appear to make sense to some of us. I'm sure it took months to go through all of the books and can't figure why they didn't note down why book x was pulled and who posted it so that emails could then be composed to the poster listing which of their books were pulled and why. Probably a topic for another thread in itself.

[ATDrake]

Free again from the author via KDP Select @ Amazon:

Armageddon: The Musical by UK sf/fantasy humourist Robert Rankin (ISFDB, Wikipedia), 1st in his Armageddon Trilogy of wacky sci-fi apocalyptic romps, originally out from Bloomsbury in 1990.

I read and liked parts of this trilogy way back when from the library, so I was pleased to see it originally pop up free years ago even though to this day I am not all that fond of the KDP Select exclusive-or-else program and thus am again pleased that Rankin is still repeating his freebies sporadically after all this time if he's going to keep his stuff only available on Amazon, but I don't think I ever completed the set (actually, I'm not sure I've even read this one).

That said, some of his other backlist is now available via other stores (not couponable @ Kobo, alas), and there's a money-saving Gollancz Orion-branded 8-book bundle which is considerably cheaper than paying $9-10 CAD asking price for the individuals.

THE YEAR IS 2050 AND THE WORLD IS ONCE MORE COMING TO AN END

When society collapsed in 1999 with the Nuclear Holocaust Event, things got rather dull on Planet Earth. Sickly green survivors huddled in their mouldy bomb-proof bunkers, watching reality TV and waiting for things to sort themselves out.

Rex Mundi has just got himself a new job, Religious Affairs Correspondent for Buddhavision, one of the big three television companies that now control the world. Rex’s employer is Dalai Dan, the 153rd incarnation of the Dalai Lama. Dan hosts Nemesis, the most popular TV game show in human history. A show that has taken sex and violence to new extremes and Dan is not an easy Lama to work for.

Rex’s first day on the job hasn’t gone altogether well. He has been blown up, narrowly avoided being eaten by cannibals and finally tortured to death. He remains optimistic however that his second day might go better.

On the Planet Phnaargos, there is little optimism. Since the dawn of Earth history the Phnaargs, a race addicted to television, have enjoyed a TV reality show called The Earthers. Broadcast live from Planet Earth. In fact Phnaargian “script advisors” have secretly influenced Mankind’s history literally from the Stone Age to provide entertainment for their people. The Nuclear Holocaust Event was a ratings topper, but now the viewing figures are falling. There is just not enough exciting things happening down on Planet Earth.

Happily a Phnaargian TV exec has come up with a plan: travel back in time and reinstate a popular Earth character from the past. One whom, had he made a different decision, would have changed the course of Earth history and so avoid the Nuclear Holocaust Event. That individual is Elvis Aron Presley and all the Phnarrgs have to do is travel back to 1958 and persuade Elvis to dodge the draft, thus influencing a generation of American youths to follow suit, in turn preventing the Nuclear Holocaust Event.

Enter Barry The Time-Travelling Brussels Sprout.

And so the stage is set for Armageddon: The Musical, Robert Rankin’s seminal novel (originally published in 1990). Characteristically abundant in off-the-wall concepts and situations, this book is a mind-bending rollercoaster ride through a post-apocalyptic dystopia gone mad, peopled with evil villains, dyscalculic nuclear missiles, corrupt and incompetent executives, mad lesbians and loquacious vegetables; it contains something to offend everyone and is certainly not for the faint-hearted!

Armageddon: The Musical is the first in the three-part Armageddon Quartet that would go on to inspire a generation of comedy fantasy authors; Rankin reveals himself to be a true visionary (who else foresaw the depths to which reality television would plumb - a mere 20 years on?). Rankin’s original ideas and unique literary style make him one of England’s finest comic writers. “A sort of drinking man’s H. G. Wells” as a Midweek critic put it. Armageddon earned Rankin death threats from Elvis fans but added to his already established reputation as a writer unlike any other. Love him or hate him, the choice is yours.

[koland]

Originally Posted by AwfulWaffle

Marie Brennan's A Natural History of Dragons (First book of the Lady Trent series) is $2.99 at Google Play. Don't see it PM'ed yet elsewhere. It's also DRM-free as it's a Tor book.

http://www.amazon.com/Natural-Histor...dp/B00AEC8P2Y/ $2.99

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by AwfulWaffle

Marie Brennan's A Natural History of Dragons (First book of the Lady Trent series) is $2.99 at Google Play. Don't see it PM'ed yet elsewhere. It's also DRM-free as it's a Tor book.

This is one of the current Macmillan publisher specials, it should be the same price everywhere:
http://macmillanedeals.com/

[bookmarked]

I've been keeping an eye out for deals on The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick because it's the basis for one of Amazon's new TV pilots.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Man-High-Castle/dp/B00RSI5EHQ [Amazon Instant Video]

Today, I noticed that Apple has a new edition available for free:

Free
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the...le/id961336857
Published: Jan 23, 2015
Publisher: New Age
Seller: New Age
Print Length: 354 Pages
Language: English

I'm not currently seeing any price matches elsewhere. Note that this is different than the Houghton Mifflin edition that Apple and everyone else has:

$7.69
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the...le/id427696948
Published: Jan 24, 2012
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Seller: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
Print Length: 272 Pages
Language: English

I'm not sure what's up with this new edition, but it's free so I grabbed it.

[tlc]

Neal Asher
The Line of Polity
$1.99
http://www.amazon.com/Line-Polity-Ag.../dp/B00HFYSPS8

[GeoffR]

Sheri S. Tepper's Fish Tails (HarperCollins US edition) is on publisher special, $1.99 at US retailers.

[crich70]

The Zanthodon Megapack
It's .99 from Wildside Press.
Wildside Press
The 1st novel of the 5 novel collection is this weeks freebee from Wildside. The book is in both epub and Kindle format. I gather they are lost world adventures.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by crich70

The Zanthodon Megapack
It's .99 from Wildside Press.
Wildside Press
The 1st novel of the 5 novel collection is this weeks freebee from Wildside. The book is in both epub and Kindle format. I gather they are lost world adventures.

You forgot to mention it's by Lin Carter.

You also forgot to mention that I paid 99 cents for this!

Below are covers for three of the five novels.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

You forgot to mention it's by Lin Carter.

You also forgot to mention that I paid 99 cents for this!

Below are covers for three of the five novels.

You got me on the Lin Carter. It was late which is how I came to forget it. A nice bargain though to get a complete 5 novel series for so little. I did do a little minor surgery on my copy of the TOC. It was all to one side and clumped together. I just centered the text of the TOC, put a space between the separate titles and adjusted the size of the titles themselves (for ease of reading).