FREE/BARGAIN — Science Fiction & Fantasy

[salty-horse]

The Licanius Trilogy by James Islington is on sale on Amazon.com
The Shadow of What Was Lost - $3 (usual discount price)
An Echo of Things to Come - $2 (new discount)
The Light of All That Falls - $5 (new discount)
The first book:

It has been twenty years since the end of the war. The dictatorial Augurs—once thought of almost as gods—were overthrown and wiped out during the conflict, their much-feared powers mysteriously failing them. Those who had ruled under them, men and women with a lesser ability known as the Gift, avoided the Augurs' fate only by submitting themselves to the rebellion's Four Tenets. A representation of these laws is now written into the flesh of any who use the Gift, forcing those so marked into absolute obedience.

As a student of the Gifted, Davian suffers the consequences of a war fought—and lost—before he was born. Despised by most beyond the school walls, he and those around him are all but prisoners as they attempt to learn control of the Gift. Worse, as Davian struggles with his lessons, he knows that there is further to fall if he cannot pass his final tests.

But when Davian discovers he has the ability to wield the forbidden power of the Augurs, he sets into motion a chain of events that will change everything. To the north, an ancient enemy long thought defeated begins to stir. And to the west, a young man whose fate is intertwined with Davian’s wakes up in the forest, covered in blood and with no memory of who he is…

[Hollow Man]

Originally Posted by FourOhFour

My copy of 2001 purchased from Amazon.com in 2014 was published by RosettaBooks, for whatever that's worth.

Same. I got all four back in 2014, they still work fine, but for whatever reason the first three have been retired and no longer have a landing page when I click on them in my purchase history. 3001 they didn't change.

-HM

[Tarana]

Burning White - Brent Weeks $4.99 Amazon & Kobo
Final book in the Light Bringer series

[sufue]

I like the Robots books too, both for the interesting issues they tackle and because they cross-over (!) into my favorite mystery genre.

I'd be hard-pressed to choose, though, between the Foundation and Robots - they are pretty different, and both, IMO, great.

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

The Caves of Steel (The Robot Series Book 1) and The Robots of Dawn (The Robot Series Book 3) by Isaac Asimov are $3.99 each at Amazon US. The second book, The Naked Sun is not on sale.

I guess the Foundation stuff is what Asimov is most remembered for. But for my money, the robot books are his best works. If you've not yet read Caves of Steel, I'd recommend you do so.

[salty-horse]

Originally Posted by sufue

and because they cross-over (!) into my favorite mystery genre.

By this point in genre fiction, we have endless crossovers with detective fiction, and quite a few robot detectives.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by FourOhFour

My copy of 2001 purchased from Amazon.com in 2014 was published by RosettaBooks, for whatever that's worth.

Yeah, that's the cover I used, though my copy is published by Penguin.

Aren't Rosetta and open Road the same? I haven't researched, just assumed they are.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by sufue

I like the Robots books too, both for the interesting issues they tackle and because they cross-over (!) into my favorite mystery genre.

I'd be hard-pressed to choose, though, between the Foundation and Robots - they are pretty different, and both, IMO, great.

I feel Asimov was more interested in writing robots. At least I can say that his robots usually have more personality than most of his humans.

[Manabi]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I guess the Foundation stuff is what Asimov is most remembered for. But for my money, the robot books are his best works. If you've not yet read Caves of Steel, I'd recommend you do so.

He tied them together in the end, so they're in the same universe, just many millennia apart. I wish we'd gotten to find out where he planned to take things after the final Foundation novel chronologically. He'd created an interesting setup. Since there's some spoilers involved:

Spoiler:

The Solarians that had vanished in the final Robot novels turned out to have deliberately evolved themselves to the point they were an alien species compared to regular humanity. At the end Trevize chooses to allow Daneel to continue guiding the development of humanity into Galaxia, because of the possibility of advanced alien life from beyond the galaxy attacking humanity. It then hints that the Solarians may be/become that threat.

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I feel Asimov was more interested in writing robots. At least I can say that his robots usually have more personality than most of his humans.

Asimov was more interested in story over character development, which is why many of his characters don't have a lot of personality. I don't think the robots had more personality than the human characters (or at least not more than Elijah Bailey, the main character of the first three), but it felt that way because we didn't expect robots to have personalities at all. We remember their personalities better because of that.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Manabi

He tied them together in the end, so they're in the same universe, just many millennia apart.

I think that was a mistake. It wasn't the original intention. When Heinlein dropped his 'future history' chart, it rocked the sci-fi world and other authors tried doing something similar.

Of course, Heinlein had planned it even if it wasn't widely known. For Asimov, it required a bunch of tinkering and messing around. And really, what's wrong with an author having multiple worlds rather than tying them all together?

[salty-horse]

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler is $5 on Amazon.com

Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the slave quarters, and each time the stay grows longer, more arduous, and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana's life will end, long before it has a chance to begin.

[Manabi]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I think that was a mistake. It wasn't the original intention. When Heinlein dropped his 'future history' chart, it rocked the sci-fi world and other authors tried doing something similar.

Of course, Heinlein had planned it even if it wasn't widely known. For Asimov, it required a bunch of tinkering and messing around. And really, what's wrong with an author having multiple worlds rather than tying them all together?

It's divisive, certainly. Personally, I liked him tying it together and looked forward to seeing where he was going with it.

Asimov didn't tie them together until the late 80s (1988 with Prelude to Foundation), while Heinlein published the Future History chart in 1953, so it's unlikely it was because of that.

[salty-horse]

Thread unlocked!

The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera is $3 on Amazon.com
Winner of the Newbery medal, among others.

Había una vez . . .

There lived a girl named Petra Peña, who wanted nothing more than to be a storyteller, like her abuelita.

But Petra's world is ending. Earth has been destroyed by a comet, and only a few hundred scientists and their children – among them Petra and her family – have been chosen to journey to a new planet. They are the ones who must carry on the human race.

Hundreds of years later, Petra wakes to this new planet – and the discovery that she is the only person who remembers Earth. A sinister Collective has taken over the ship during its journey, bent on erasing the sins of humanity's past. They have systematically purged the memories of all aboard – or purged them altogether.

Petra alone now carries the stories of our past, and with them, any hope for our future. Can she make them live again?

[Tarana]

We are reopened!!

3001: The Final Odyssey - Arthur C Clarke $1.99 Amazon & Kobo

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by salty-horse

Thread unlocked!

Originally Posted by Tarana

We are reopened!!

That was my mistake and I apologize for accidentally closing it.

[salty-horse]

Cross-posted to Horror thread.
Rebellion Publishing have a sale on their website, $1 each:

• A Hole In The World by Weston Ochse
• Beneath the Rising by Premee Mohamed
• A Broken Darkness by Premee Mohamed
• The Void Ascendant by Premee Mohamed
• Brain-Eating Britain (Anthology)
• Tomes of the Dead (anthology)
• Circus of Sins by Natasha Rhodes
• Creatures (anthology of Frankenstein stories)
• Dante's Girl by Natasha Rhodes
• Dracula: Rise of the Beast by David Thomas Moore
• Dreams of Shreds and Tatters by Amanda Downum
• Grave Secrets by Alice James
• Heartbreak Incorporated by Alex De Campi
• Poe (anthology) edited by Ellen Datlow
• Saint Death's Daughter by C. S. E. Cooney
• The Death and Life of Schneider Wrack by Nate Crowley
• The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison
• The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison
• The Last Angel by Natasha Rhodes
• The Liar of Red Valley by Walter Goodwater
• Three Stories About Ghosts (anthology)