Free (Kindle KDP) House Between the Worlds by Marion Zimmer Bradley [ESP SF/Fantasy]

[ATDrake]

The Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Works Trust is participating in Read an E-Book Week this year, and offering freebies both via their related websites (linked from the official RAEBW site) and Amazon.

Their new Amazon freebie is via KDP Select, and a book I actually bought last year @ Fictionwise when it was newly re-released, but still haven't gotten around to reading it, which is probably just as well.

Since Elisabeth Waters from the MZBLWT has stated they've been pulling stuff to fix typos and such and don't intend to stay exclusive with Amazon, hopefully it'll come back in better shape in 90 days and they'll be willing to manually send updated copies to any prior B&N purchasers who lost access to re-download their existing books and would have to re-buy the new version under a different product ID, which is apparently what happens when something gets removed from the store for Amazon's exclusive-or-else thing, according to posters discussing the KDP Select program in the News forum.

The House Between the Worlds by Marion Zimmer Bradley is apparently a parapsychology-based early urban fantasy/psionic sf novel, originally printed in 1984 by Del Rey.

Free for probably a few days with DRM as part of Read an E-Book Week, courtesy of the Marion Zimmer Bradley Literary Works Trust @ Amazon main DE ES FR IT (not available in the UK due to a different publisher arrangement, additional charges may apply in certain regions)

Description
Cameron Fenton participates in a parapsychology study, using an experimental drug. Instead of increasing his ESP, it causes him to leave his his body and enter other worlds. But are they real, or do they exist only in his mind? And if they are real, will he ever be able to get anyone in his world to believe him?

Selected slushpile stuff follows. I only really bothered looking at new-ish things from authors who've been included before or whose names I recognized with the help of the ISFDB.

Darkover-authorized-fanfic-anthology-contributor Joan Marie Verba (ISFDB entry) offers a fantasy short: Revenge, Denied

Alex Irvine who seems to match up with this ISFDB entry and has written a whole bunch of media tie-in novels and some short fiction, offers a good deal of the latter: Linkage for the lot, some of which appears to be geo-restricted.

Minor ISFDBed Canadian Cheryl Kaye Tardif offers another Imajin/n-published suspense/horror-ish thriller: Children of the Fog

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Reader's Choice award-winner Dave Zeltserman returns with the 1st in a new novella series that is supposed to combine hard-boiled crime with government conspiracy: The Hunted (The Hunted Series)

Sourcebooks-published Lisa Renee Jones returns with what she calls a "light erotica" contemporary romance novella (and advises you to check out a different title of hers if you want the seriously erotic stuff instead): Pleasure with Purpose Incidentally, the other story is free to all via Smashwords

I-think-it-was-Jove-who-paperbacked Paul Bishop, who returns with the 3rd in his Detective Fey Croaker LAPD series: Croaker: Tequila Mockingbird

Samhain-published Jody Wallace returns with a fantasy novella which appears to be non-romantic, or at least not primarily so: A Mage By Any Other Name

Happy reading, especially if you manage to pick up some nice stuff from elsewhere during Read an E-book Week.

ETA: Minor ISFDBed Phoebe Matthews returns with some sort of historical vignette: Rudy, Looking for Love (Chicago 1890s)

Some romances via Books We Love of authors previously included who were also published elsewhere:

The Deal (The Dealing Trilogy) f/m paranormal romantic suspense by Canadian Jude Mason

Reckless erotic suspense shorts by Jenna Byrnes (maybe a repeat)

[Dr. Drib]

Picked up a few more.

Thank you.



Don

[RDaneel54]

Got another one.

Thank you so much for finding these!

Dean

[piperclassique]

Thanks, Atdrake, that's next week's reading sorted. No luck with the House between the worlds though, I'm with amazon UK. I don't see it on the MZB website either. Never mind.
Thanks again for doing the trawl!

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by piperclassique

No luck with the House between the worlds though, I'm with amazon UK. I don't see it on the MZB website either.

They're only offering short stories via the website. The Amazon exclusive-or-else thing means they can't have THBTW in any other store or even give away copies directly.

But it'll probably show back up at Fictionwise in another few months and you can use the discount coupons to get it then, if it happens to be an old favourite you wanted to re-read. Actually, it'll probably be geo-restricted there as well for UK people, although I don't ever recall seeing any country limitations on MZBLWT stuff.

(Alternatively, you can set up an auxiliary Amazon France account using K4PC/Mac and strip and sideload.)

[carpetmojo]

2 books with exactly this title on UK site, £6 & £3+, neither by this author, so check !

Is there no regulation about titles, incidentally, or is it not considered a problem ? I've found quite a few instances of multiple titles.....

[Blue Tyson]

Georestricted to USA the Bradley title, by the looks. So you'd have to change your country to the USA and get from Amazon.com.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

I don't ever recall seeing any country limitations on MZBLWT stuff.

IIRC Elizabeth Waters popped in here and mentioned that the rights for the UK (& possibly elsewhere) are held by someone so the Trust can't 'sell' to those places.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

IIRC Elizabeth Waters popped in here and mentioned that the rights for the UK (& possibly elsewhere) are held by someone so the Trust can't 'sell' to those places.

Yes, that's mentioned in the OP and the bit right before the part of my post which you quoted.

I just don't particularly recall seeing geo-restriction notations on their FW-available catalogue previously, which may be due to the fact that I've been picking up the mostly the older works which have less reprint interest in them.

[Blue Tyson]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

IIRC Elizabeth Waters popped in here and mentioned that the rights for the UK (& possibly elsewhere) are held by someone so the Trust can't 'sell' to those places.

Yeah, the charge Australians 50% more than everyone else ripoff merchants at Hachette definitely have some Bradley, anyway. Never looked for the others.

[Blue Tyson]

Alex Irvine can be Alex C. Irvine, Alexander Irvine, Alexander C. Irvine etc. Prose and comics.

His short stories are generally quite good.

Anyway, now 474!

[ATDrake]

Since people who are interested are looking in this thread anyway, I might as well mention that we're now up to 4 freebie MZB-related short stories for Read an E-Book Week, available to all worldwide in PDF format over at the MZB Literary Works Trust official site and Elisabeth Waters' personal site.

This includes one of MZB's own Lythande stories, which IIRC she originally wrote for the popular Thieves' World setting before spinning them off into their own thing.

[Blue Tyson]

Couple I noticed :-

Loss Leader by Simon Haynes

A SF novelette about a colony ship.

And Sky Pirates by William King

"Ulrik: a sky pirate sentenced to death in the arena, he has become the greatest gladiator of his age.

Valerius: this sinister sorcerer’s cutting wit and his wicked schemes have ensured that even his wealthy kin want him dead.

Rhea: part human, part predatory cat, this former thief gets what she wants by any means necessary.

All three are about to be trapped in a web of death and intrigue spun by the demon-worshipping Molok and his plan to bind all of the Sky Pirates into an invincible mutant army and rule the dying, demon-haunted world of Urath.

Sky Pirates is an action packed fantasy tale of flying ships and flashing swords in the tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter stories and Jack Vance’s Dying Earth by the bestselling creator of Gotrek and Felix. "

Which sounds pretty good, really.

[koland]

That is one messed up link. It works, but looks like it ate the rest of your post

Looks like you tried to include http://www.amazon.com/Loss-Leader-Sh.../dp/B003NSBPJQ

[cromag]

Originally Posted by carpetmojo

2 books with exactly this title on UK site, £6 & £3+, neither by this author, so check !

Is there no regulation about titles, incidentally, or is it not considered a problem ? I've found quite a few instances of multiple titles.....

Titles can't be copyrighted (at least, here in the US) so there are plenty of cases of duplication.