FREE/BARGAIN — Science Fiction & Fantasy

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The sound good, but they’re £4 each on Amazon UK, which is over the top for me for an unknown self-published author. I’ll keep an eye out for a sale, though.

47 North is Amazon Publishing, not self-pub (although I think the first and maybe second might have originally been self-pub before he got a publishing deal).

[GeoffR]

The Fireman by Joe Hill is $0.99 at Australian and New Zealand retailers.

[DNSB]

John Brunner, The Shockwave Rider

The Shockwave Rider is on sale at Kobo.ca for $1.99. Also at Amazon.ca. Likely at Kobo and Amazon US.

[ATDrake]

Bargain @ £0.99 from Simon & Schuster UK (should be the same price at all UK retailers):

The Lives She Left Behind by British author James Long (ISFDB), a sequel to his Ferney (currently £5.99), a time-slip speculative literary fiction novel with strong f/m romantic elements, which is apparently some sort of beloved cult classic, likened to The Time Traveller's Wife, but preceding it. Here's a nice review of Ferney @ The SF Site, and an interview with the author about both Ferney and this sequel.

One of the most brilliant timeslip novels ever written,The Lives She Left Behind will appeal to fans of The Time Traveller's Wife and Life After Life - and, of course, Ferney.

In a Somerset village, a teenage boy confronts a teacher with a story he should know nothing about. The boy's impossible knowledge uncovers memories Michael Martin has done his utmost to forget - and soon propels him into danger.

As Martin confronts his past once more, three girls arrive in the village of Pen Selwood, one of them drawn by an ancient instinct to find a man called Ferney. Her actions reignite a love story, an instinct that cannot be broken, irrespective of the hurt and danger it brings to those around them...

A passionate love story that spans the centuries, fall under the spell of Ferney and Gally's enduring romance.

[Manabi]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Eon by Greg Bear is $1.99 on Amazon - A novel that “may be the best constructed hard SF epic yet” (The Washington Post).

In a supernova flash, the asteroid arrived and entered Earth’s orbit. Three hundred kilometers in length, it is not solid rock but a series of hollowed-out chambers housing ancient, abandoned cities of human origin, a civilization named Thistledown. The people who lived there survived a nuclear holocaust that nearly rendered humanity extinct—more than a thousand years from now.

To prevent this future from coming to pass, theoretical mathematician Patricia Vasquez must explore Thistledown and decipher its secret history. But what she discovers is an even greater mystery, a tunnel that exists beyond the physical dimensions of the asteroid. Called the Way, it leads to the home of humanity’s descendants, and to a conflict greater than the impending war between Earth’s superpowers over the fate of the asteroid, in “the grandest work yet” by Nebula Award–winning author Greg Bear (Locus).

This is an excellent novel, highly recommended. The sequel and prequel to it are also really good.

[gbm]

Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein is $1.99 at Amzaon Kobo Google.

In Robert A. Heinlein’s controversial bestseller, a recruit of the future goes through the toughest boot camp in the Universe—and into battle against mankind’s most alarming enemy.

JOIN THE ARMY AND SEE THE UNIVERSE

The historians can’t seem to settle whether to call this one “The Third Space War” (or the fourth), or whether “The First Interstellar War” fits it better. The soldiers just call it “The Bug War.” Everything up to then and still later were “incidents,” “patrols,” or “police actions.”

In the Mobile Infantry, everybody fights. But you're just as dead if you buy the farm in an “incident” as you are if you buy it in a declared war...

“A classic…If you want a great military adventure, this one is for you.”—All SciFi

bernie

[gbm]

Cold Days (The Dresden Files, Book 14) by Jim Butcher is $1.99 at Amazon Kobo Google.

After a brief interlude in the afterlife, Harry Dresden’s new job makes him wonder if death was really all that bad in this novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling series.

Harry Dresden is no longer Chicago’s only professional wizard. Now, he’s Winter Knight to Mab, the Queen of Air and Darkness. Her word is his command. And her first command is the seemingly impossible: kill an immortal. Worse still, there is a growing threat to an unfathomable source of magic that could mean the deaths of millions.

Beset by enemies new and old, Harry must gather his friends and allies, prevent an apocalypse, and find a way out of his eternal subservience before his newfound infinite powers claim the only thing he has left to call his own...

His soul.

bernie

[GlenBarrington]

Originally Posted by gbm

Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein is $1.99 at Amzaon Kobo Google.


bernie

One of the great science fiction novels of all time, in my opinion. If you haven't read it, don't judge the book by that awful movie.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by GlenBarrington

One of the great science fiction novels of all time, in my opinion. If you haven't read it, don't judge the book by that awful movie.

I thought it was a great movie, but nothing like the book, I'll grant you that! One of the great SF classics, although some may find the political ideology disagreeable.

[GlennD]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I thought it was a great movie, but nothing like the book, I'll grant you that! One of the great SF classics, although some may find the political ideology disagreeable.

*grin* Starship Troopers practically defined my political ideology. As far as the movie....it might have been fine with a different title. The tone and theme were polar opposites to the book.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by GlennD

*grin* Starship Troopers practically defined my political ideology. As far as the movie....it might have been fine with a different title. The tone and theme were polar opposites to the book.

I agree - it's a good movie, but not a movie of the book .

As far as the politics goes, I was just noting that it's the reason that that the book was controversial when it was published, and remains so today. Some readers will strongly agree with its views, and others will strongly disagree, but few will be neutral. And great books should provoke discussion!

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I agree - it's a good movie, but not a movie of the book .

I'd disagree on the movie being good. Formulaic at best.

Originally Posted by HarryT

As far as the politics goes, I was just noting that it's the reason that that the book was controversial when it was published, and remains so today. Some readers will strongly agree with its views, and others will strongly disagree, but few will be neutral. And great books should provoke discussion!

Starship Troopers got me shipped off to see the principal after a disagreement with a high school Social Studies teacher after I quoted the city fathers of Carthage line and the suggestion for a jury trial on whether violence ever settled anything along with a quote from H. Beam Piper's Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen about not being in effect until ratified on the battlefield.

Evidently free speech did not apply to those who disagreed with her. Or perhaps it was the comparison to Neville Chamberlain?

[GlennD]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Evidently free speech did not apply to those who disagreed with her. Or perhaps it was the comparison to Neville Chamberlain?

Free speech doesn't apply in a high school class room, typically. I'm sorry you had a social studies teacher like that. I was fortunate, my SS teacher my senior year encouraged intelligent questions and reasoned disagreement. He saw his job as teaching students to think, not just memorize.

[Fbone]

Nation by Terry Pratchett is $1.99 at most retailers. GR 4.05. HarperCollins 2008.
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/nation

Alone on a desert island — everything and everyone he knows and loves has been washed away in a storm — Mau is the last surviving member of his nation. He’s completely alone — or so he thinks until he finds the ghost girl. She has no toes, wears strange lacy trousers like the grandfather bird, and gives him a stick that can make fire.
Daphne, sole survivor of the wreck of the Sweet Judy, almost immediately regrets trying to shoot the native boy. Thank goodness the powder was wet and the gun only produced a spark. She’s certain her father, distant cousin of the Royal family, will come and rescue her but it seems, for now, that all she has for company is the boy and the foul-mouthed ship’s parrot, until other survivors arrive to take refuge on the island. Together, Mau and Daphne discover some remarkable things (including how to milk a pig, and why spitting in beer is a good thing), and start to forge a new nation.

Encompassing themes of death and nationhood, Terry Pratchett’s new novel is, as can be expected, extremely funny, witty and wise. Mau’s ancestors have something to teach us all. Mau just wishes they would shut up about it and let him get on with saving everyone’s lives.

[badgoodDeb]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Nation by Terry Pratchett is $1.99 at most retailers. GR 4.05. HarperCollins 2008.
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/nation

Amazon is here, also $1.99.
https://smile.amazon.com/Nation-Terr.../dp/B0017SWPSE