Free (Kindle DRM-free) The Serpent and the Grail by A.A. Attanasio [Epic Fantasy]

[ATDrake]

Today's KDP Select exclusive-or-else slushpile yield brings us the 4th book in A.A. Attanasio's epic fantasy quartet, for those who weren't fortunate enough to be able to pick up the set while it was still free @ Kobo when we were kindly alerted to it by a fellow MR member.

There's basically nothing else besides a few minor short stories and novellas.

The Serpent and the Grail is the 4th book in A.A. Attanasio's The Perilous Order of Camelot series, originally published by HarperCollins in the late 90s. Thus far we've gotten 2-4 free courtesy of the author, and perhaps in another 2 days he'll put up the 1st for free, or maybe I just missed seeing it earlier.

In any case, you can still pick up his award-winning sf DRM-free direct from the publisher, who is holding a 37% off sale on all their e-book titles when using their January sale coupon.

I couldn't get into the Radix Tetrad books when one of the volumes was offered free, but I did think that Centuries read well enough in its sample to buy during a previous coupon sale, and I'm pretty picky about the sf/fantasy books I spend actual money upon unless they're dirt cheap on sale, which that one wasn't. Still haven't gotten around to finishing it yet, mind you.

Anyway, this is free without DRM probably just through today only @ Amazon main UK DE ES FR IT.

Description
The boy-king Arthor has beaten back the berserker wolf warriors of the Saxon god, uniting his island kingdom -- but at a terrible cost. For the Grail, the chalice of the Last Supper and the magical shield of Britain, has been stolen.

Without the Grail's protection, Britain lies parched and barren, a demon-haunted landscape where sulfurous vapors taint ther air. To find the Grail, Arthor's mother, Ygrane, must strike a dark bargain with Bright Night, elf-prince of the "pale people,"in the hollow hills. Merlin must use his magic to show the way. But it is Arthor himself who must confront the Serpent, Sword in hand.

A.A.. Atanasio's epic retelling of humankind's most powerful legend weaves together, for the first time, the hallowed yarn of ancient Arthurian lore and the shimmering strands of modern quantum science.

For those of you who missed it earlier, J.A. Konrath + Blake Crouch et al.'s Draculas (A Novel of Terror) is a repeat KDP-freebie. Since it had been previously available during a 3-day promo, this will probably be the last time they can freebie it for the next 3 months.

Robert Swartwood has had a few stories appear in ChiZine (a semi-pro fantasy/horror outlet, IIRC, which has been mentioned in Year's Best collections) and The Los Angeles Review. He offers a 1st-in-trilogy horror/thriller novel which the blurb recommends for fans of Harlen Coben and Dean Koontz: Man of Wax.

Nebula award-winning sf writer Eric James Stone offers a short story originally published in Analog magazine: The Ashes of His Fathers.

Sylvia Haute has a fantasy short story offered from Goldport Press, an imprint which IIRC was set up in part by Baen/Random House-published sf/fantasy author Sarah A. Hoyt to release her own and her friends' (and many but not all of her friends are published pro writers) stuff: Tom at Eventide.

Another Hoyt-associated somewhat-pro-writer-affiliated project is Naked Reader Press (carries Baen-published Dave Freer short stories) and there's a free mystery novel by apparently unknown C.S. Laurel if you want to try it: B. Quick.

Previously-featured mystery/thriller and romantic suspense author Theresa Weir offers a short story which looks like it might be literary fiction: Max Under the Stars.

Previously-featured romance author Ellen Fisher offers a free paranormal romance novella available to all on Smashwords: Seeing Spots. She has a number of her other backlist and self-pub novels and combo-story-omnibuses for a very reasonable 99 cents, and I believe at that price point she gets a higher royalty percentage if you buy any you might like via Smashwords.

Harlequin-published Jeannie Lin offers a free semi-autobiographical short story available to all via Smashwords: Pieces of Paper: a short story set in Tokyo. You can pick up her Tang Dynasty China-set historical romance novels very cheaply using the $4 off coupon (minimum purchase $4) in this thread when buying directly from Harlequin's website, and her books have been recommended by some of the knowledgeable readers in that thread.

That's pretty much it. Happy reading if you spot anything you might like.

[ATDrake]

New batch just rolled in, with two reasonably significant backlist novels:

Berkley-published Michele Scott offers the 1st in the "Michaela Bancroft Suspense" Penguin Putnam-published mystery/thriller series, now repubbed under her self-pub pen name A.K. Alexander: Saddled with Trouble.

Jamieson Wolf, a mostly erotic romance writer with books available via Fictionwise-carried imprints offers the 2nd in an apparently non-erotic comedic-looking mystery series set around a soap opera: Hope Falls Season 2: Eagle Valley, for which the 1st in series was previously KDP-freebied.

Frankly, I was pleased to see the first go free and this is a nice bonus. I've not read them yet, but it looks interesting, and I admit to being mildly curious about this author from having seen some of their book blurbs on FW.

ETA: For the erotic romance readers, Jenna Byrnes offers a probbaly-but-not-guaranteed-erotic m/m romantic suspense story which ties into the Slippery When Wet series published by specialty mostly-erotic romance small press Phaze Books (who've previously participated in those All Romance eBooks holiday giveaway countdowns): Never Say Goodbye.

Formerly Five Star-published fellow MR member author and Read an E-book Week giveaway participant Maryann Miller offers a literary-looking maybe-YA short story: Making It Home.