Free (DRM-free) Daughter of Elysium by Joan Slonczewski [Far Future Alien Colony SF]

[ATDrake]

For their Free eBook of the Month for July, Phoenix Pick Press has a double treat for us, even though one of them is technically a double repeat.

Daughter of Elysium by Joan Slonczewski (ISFDB entry, Wikipedia) is the 2nd title in her loosely linked far future-set Elysium Cycle, originally published in 1993 by William Morrow/AvoNova (now acquired by HarperCollins, IIRC).

This was the very first Phoenix Pick Free eBook of the Month when they started the program two years ago, and then the first KDP Select freebie title when they tried that out, and hopefully the current edition smooths out the weird formatting issues that those two earlier ones had. In any case, this time you get your choice of formats to work with.

The tie-in deal to go with the freebie are for the 3rd and 4th Elysium Cycle books together (the 1st is only e-booked through Orbit, IIRC, for $$$, and set sufficiently far in the "past" that you don't need to read it to understand the storyline) for just $4.99 for the 2-book DRM-free ePub/Mobi bundle (no cloud, you'll have to make your own backups) directly from the publisher via the special buy-link on the freebie page. Each book alone normally costs $6.99, so you're saving $9 off the combined $13.98 regular price (if you didn't pick them up during the previous tie-in promo when they were $1.98).

Free without DRM in multiple formats to suit any e-reader around the world for the rest of July @ Phoenix Pick (scroll down to Slonczewski's author section and enter the code 9991545 when prompted).

Description
The pristine city of Elysium floats on the water world of Shora, inhabited by 'immortals' who have succeeded in unlocking the secrets of life.

Outsider Blackbear Windclan wants to share the secret of immortality with his own people, but can he, and the City of Elysium, survive the corruption and decadence that immortality has bred into the ageless society?

And what of the consciousness of self-aware nano-sentient servitors and their quest for vengeance?

In addition to the tie-in buy-link on the download page, you'll also see an extra freebie in the form of Carolyn Ives Gilman's (ISFDB entry) Hugo Award-nominated novella, The Ice Owl.

Speaking of the Hugos, you can still pick up the Hugo Voter Packet for a mere $50 as a Supporting Member, which will get you at least the novels, novellas, and short stories and let you vote on them as well, at least until July 31st.

Also, Phoenix Pick are continuing the pre-release discount of Michael F. Flynn's (ISFDB entry, Wikipedia) new story collection, Captive Hearts, which is slated for release in August. You can still get it early and for half-price for just $4.99 (slated to be $9.99 and "sale"-priced at $7.99) by entering the coupon code MailingList in the cart (thanks ozron for spotting that last month).

I bought this just a few days ago, and it's a fairly lengthy collection consisting of a half-dozen longer stories with outroductions by the author.