Free (Kindle DRM-free) The Arm of the Stone by Victoria Strauss [SFnal Xover Fantasy]

[ATDrake]

Phoenix Pick continues to KDP Select exclusivize the stuff they yanked from their catalogue, which they've said will return to other venues later.

This week's selection is actually a pretty good one that I read last year when it was a freebie via their regular monthly giveaway program and recommend, as well as the sequel which provides a good follow-up, which you can get at a low cost in an ePub/Mobi bundle via the tie-in promotion, for slightly less than what I paid when I bought and read it last year shortly after reading the original.

The Arm of the Stone by Victoria Strauss is a slightly unusual ultimately-fantasy which is based heavily in sfnal notions, a bit like how Darkover and Pern have scientifically-explained backgrounds to their overtly-fantasy trappings. This is a bit of a coming-of-age-will-I-overthrow-the-hated-establishment-or-become-part-of-it sort of ethical self-examination tale, with an adventure/quest sort of underpinning to parts, and originally appeared from HarperCollins' Avon/EOS imprint in 1998.

I rather liked it and would quite cheerfully pay the $1.99 asking price for the sequel, if I hadn't already bought it last year for about 25 cents more. This 1st book can be read standalone, even though the story is ultimately a 2-parter when the aftermath of what happens in the 1st is explored some time later.

Phoenix Pick also offers advance notice and availability of two further tie-ins related to future now-KDP Selected repeat-freebies also for $1.99 each:

• the 2nd book in Canadian Terence M. Green's Mitch Helwig Retro-Futuristic Toronto Cop series (I read the 1st last year which was an okay story if you find the premise/setting interesting, and bought the as-yet-unread sequel for somewhat more than the current asking price)
• Michael F. Flynn's short story collection which I also bought last year for more than double that price after reading the very good title novella, which is slated to be re-freebied via KDP

All three of these tie-in promos can be gotten as DRM-fre ePub/Mobi bundles via direct-purchase from the publisher, using the links to the right-hand side of their dedicated promo page. No "cloud", so you'll have to keep your own backups, but your download links will be good for a set number of re-tries.

Anyway, free without DRM for the next two days @ Amazon main UK DE ES FR IT

Description
Long ago, when the worlds were one...

So begins the Tale, the ancestral legend Bron's family has guarded for a thousand years. Once, they were the keepers of the Stone, the most sacred object on earth, from which all the powers of Mind are drawn. But when the conflict between Mind and Hand split the worlds apart, the Stone was seized by an ambitious sorcerer. To keep the new world from contamination, he created rigid Limits circumscribing which tools might be made and which knowledge might be pursued—laws brutally enforced by a group of Guardians known as the Arm of the Stone.

For centuries, Bron's family has concealed the secret of its heritage. But when Bron's brother invents a new kind of plow—an unpardonable heresy in the world of the Guardians—the Arm of the Stone reaches in once again to tear them apart. Fleeing for his life, Bron vows revenge. To strike the Guardians down, he will become a Guardian himself. But Bron cannot know how much that choice will change him. Nor does he anticipate the hatred of a powerful enemy, or the love of a beautiful Guardian named Liliane...whose mission is to destroy him.