Free (Kindle DRM-free) Memesis by Keith Brooke [SF/Fantasy Collection]

[ATDrake]

Well, eReaderIQ seems to be behaving again, and I'm back at a computer where I have leisure time to trawl through it. Although frankly, I wound up skipping a bunch of stuff because there were some 13 pages of things today and I suspect the feature title is going to expire in a few more hours as well.

But we do have a couple of nice backlist offerings and the usual established author self-pubs, as well as a surprisingly high proportion of non-repeat sf/fantasy.

As for today's feature, it's from an author I've never read, but know through other means. I'm taking a chance that this is indeed DRM-free, as I seem to recall his making a point of making them so, and apologize in advance if this turns out not to be the case.

Memesis: modifiction and other strange changes by fellow MR member author Keith Brooke (ISFDB, Wikipedia) is a themed collection of his short stories in what looks like sf and fantasy genres (may end up being just one or the other). The title story originally appeared in Interzone, and several others from the TOC have listings in the ISFDB spanning over a few decades, from the looks of it.

Frankly, I've never read anything by Brooke, but for several years he ran the nifty Infinity Plus UK SF webmagazine, which still houses in its archives some very good sf/fantasy shorts by a number of distinguished authors, including Connie Willis, Brian Stableford, and Charles Stross, if you'd like to go take a look.

It's now morphed into the Infinity Plus ebook brand of reprint and new sf/fantasy/horror stuff, from which I bought a number of things during the Read an E-Book Week sale when they had 25% off selected titles at Smashwords.

Anyway, he offers via KDP not only his own collection, but also a few other works by other authors, which hopefully you can pick up in the 3 remaining hours before the Amazon servers rollover to the next scheduled batch of KDP freebies, assuming this is a 1-day only offer like many of the Infinity Plus titles have been thus far.

Free for who knows how long, probably without DRM @ Amazon main UK DE ES FR IT

Description
A world where islands of rock float on a molten sea, a man whose son flies high while he can only watch, a seaside town held together by the belief of its inhabitants. Eight stories about strange changes and the strangely changed, each with a new afterword by the author of Publishers Weekly starred novels Genetopia and The Accord.

The other Infinity Plus title on offer is Kaitlin Queen's crime novel (blurb says she is a prominent children's writer using a pseudonym): One More Unfortunate

There's also a repeat of Iain Rowan's short story available in one of their collections, if you missed it earlier: Lilies. And as always, you can pick up a permafreebie short story and a sampler of stories from assorted IP authors via Smashwords.

The rest of the slushpile, not sorted and repeats mostly skipped, though I'll mention that if you're missing series stuff, there's another repeat Jake Lassiter legal thriller by fellow MR member author Paul Levine and minor ISFDBed Chris Howard has a repeat of some fantasy series thing.

Ballantine-published Laura Benedict offers a Southern Gothic supernatural horror-ish suspense thriller: Devil's Oven

Dell-published Tara Janzen offers a contemporary romantic suspense which she says was originally published by Bantam in 1993 as part of their Loveswept line: Avenging Angel

Macmillan and Robert Hale-published Michael Parker returns with a treasure hunt/conspiracy thriller: Roselli's Gold

Michael Hogan, who writes academic small-press non-fiction about Latin America, among other things, returns with a poetry and prose-piece collection originally out from small press Gallimaufry in 1978: A Lion at a Cocktail Party His bio has had stuff added which says that one of his novels was the basic of a particular MGM movie.

Samhain-published Ellen Fisher returns with a paranormal romance novella which she says has been previously published: The Shadows of Night (Kindred) I read and liked her earlier KDP sci-fi romance spoof Farthest Space: Wrath of Jan which had lots of fun references to Star Trek, Star Wars, and 2001, among other classic stuff and is the only one out of all these KDP books that I've actually read thus far, so her writing may be worth a try if you like paranormal romance.

Minor ISFDBed Glen R. Krisch returns with a supernatural/horror thriller: Where Darkness Dwells

Neil Davies has one poem listed in the ISFDB. He offers a collection of "dark imagination" shorts: Interludes

Minor ISFDBed Robert E. Keller returns with a fantasy novella: The Battering Ram at Doom's Gates

Small publisher Post Mortem Press offers newbie writer Kenneth W. Cain's sci-fi/horror crossover thriller: These Trespasses (The Saga of I)

UK writer Ken McClure returns with another 1996 Simon & Schuster-published medical thriller: Pandora's Helix

Baen-published Dave Freer & Eric Flint offer a short story: Red Fiddler

Minor ISFDBed Canadian Cheryl Kaye Tardif returns with the "school edition", whatever that means, of her YA novel which has been picked up by Imajin/n from its original 2003 Canadian small press release: Whale Song: School Edition

Award-winning South African expat playwright Ian Fraser returns with a novella (may be a repeat): The Nog Sisters

Scott Nicholson has another batch of looks-new and repeats: Linkage for the lot

Robert W. Walker also has another batch of looks-new and repeats: Linkage for the lot

TV show tie-in writer and fellow MR member author Lee Goldberg and the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers offer a bunch of advice and behind the scenes TV books, which include contributions Greg Cox, whose ISFDB entry lists tie-in novels across many sfnal franchises, and Jeff Mariotte and Max Collins who are apparently recognizable names in horror and/or thriller writing: Linkage for the lot

Australian sf/fantasy writer and fellow MR member author Patty Jansen re-offers some old stuff and what looks like a new thing: Linkage for the lot ETA: Turns out the non-repeat one is actually free to all via Smashwords: Charlotte's Army

Apparently once upon a time when Thatcherites ruled the UK, Toyah was some sort of very prominent British pop star who ran an eponymously named band and Chris Limb who ran her official fan club has a memoir about: I Was A Teenage Toyah Fan in case you have some ancient Anglophilic nostalgia about the 80s lurking in your heart.

Happy reading, if indeed you manage to spot something you think you might like and can grab it in time before it expires, or if you, too were a teenage Toyah fan.

[Blue Tyson]

Brooke is one of those that I'd say 'ok' about pretty much.

Thanks. Going to have read a lot of Robert W. Walker by the end of the year, methinks. With this and recent Koboing and Fictionwise magazining :-

569!

[ATDrake]

I'm surprised this is still free, but since it is, updates go here. Quite a lot of actual backlist stuff, amidst the usual established author self-pubs. Lots of romance and suspense/crime thrillers for those who enjoy such and some promising-looking historicals.

Not sorted, I skipped most repeats. Enjoy.

Ellis Vidler re-offers his/her 2002 Overmountain small-pressed psychic vs serial killer suspense thriller which has a favourable Publisher's Weekly review. I think this is a repeat, but it's old enough that I don't have it in the auxiliary account, and we've gotten a bunch of new members since the New Year, so: Haunting Refrain

Anthony Neil Smith returns with the 2009 Bleak House small-pressed sequel to his earlier freebied crime thriller Yellow Medicine. The Publisher's Weekly review warns that it is "violence-laden" but says that "fans of the darkest noir will be satisfied": Hogdoggin' Incidentally, it turns out that Yellow Medicine is being repeated if you missed it earlier.

Cynthia Thomason offers a 2006 Medallion Press historical romance: Gabriel's Angel

Virginia Henley returns with a 1985 Avon looks-like-historical-romance (it says "rogue" and "orphanage" and while those presumably still exist in modern times, I don't think we get much contemporary fiction with them in it): Wild Hearts

Ellora's Cave-published Valerie Douglas/V.J. Devereaux returns with a contemporary romantic suspense which looks like it should have more leprechauns on its very green cover: Lucky Charm

Bell Bridge Books-published Deborah Grace Staley returns with another short tie-in romance to some series of hers: The Trip (A Fast Break Romance)

Martha Powers' mother vs serial killer thriller was originally out from Oceanview in 2006, or so it implies in the Product Info where their name is entered (no linked paperback and I'm too lazy to dig): Death Angel AS it turns out she offers another uncovering-the-mysterious-past-while-thwarting-a-killer thriller which was also Oceanviewed in 2008: Conspiracy of Silence

Minor ISFDBed Chris Howard's sf thriller quotes praise in the blurb from Cory Doctorow whose name you all should know from DRM/eBook issues if not for his actual writing, so you may want to give a try if you trust his judgment to: Nanowhere

Dorchester/Leisure-published mystery/crime writer Steven Torres returns with a short: The Devil's Snare: A Comedy

Ann Macela offers a 2008 Medallion Press historically based digging-into-the-past mystery with strong romantic elements (the romance-outlet reviews quoted in the blurb emphasize that there's a dominant mystery/suspense portion, it looks like) for which she lists a stack of specific award nominations: Windswept

Frank Tuttle who has a minor ISFDB entry offers a supernatural short involving a riverboat which originally appeared in Weird Tales magazine in 2000 and was voted best story by the readers: Passing the Narrows

Paul S. Kemp who writes Forgotten Realms and Star Wars tie-in novels (ISFDB entry) reoffers his collection of shorts if you missed it earlier: Ephemera: Dark Stories from the mind of Paul S. Kemp

UK writer Peter Michael Rosenberg returns with his 1994 Pocket-published literary suspense thriller with strong romantic elements which he says won a Betty Trask Award and quotes much praise from UK newspapers in the blurb: Kissing Through a Pane of Glass

Andrew E. Kaufman says that he has written stories for the Chicken Soup for the Soul series and is an Emmy-nominated writer/producer. There are a number of people with his name listed in IMDB and I'm not going to bother to dig further. He offers a self-pub "forensic paranormal mystery": While the Savage Sleeps

Fellow MR member author Keta Diablo, who's had something out from Decadent Publishing, returns with another one of her paranormal historical romances: Sojourn With A Stranger

Stephen L. Boehner seems to be another ex-Oceanview author offering his 2009 legal/psychological thriller centred around the child abuse cover-ups in the Roman Catholic Church: The Purple Culture

Midnight Ink-published Deb Baker returns with another one of her cozy mysteries, which seems to have been 2006 Berkley-published (I had to dig through her paperback listings while looking at who'd published her earlier, which I had forgotten, since they're not linked up): Dolled Up For Murder: A Gretchen Birch Murder Mystery

Berkley-published Michele Scott writing under her self-pub pen name A.K. Alexander offer a mother vs. serial killler thriller (2nd of the day!): Mommy, May I?

Berkley-published fellow MR member author Paul Clayton returns with his historical drama: White Seed: The Untold Story of the Lost Colony of Roanoke

Moroccan-born Israeli author Mois Benarroch offers a Jewish science fiction novella which he says was published in Hebrew and now translated, and that he has some local litfic prizes. A google search does bring up his name in conjunction with a number of litfic/poetry-looking sites/blogs: Home

Fellow MR member author and Australian sf writer Simon Haynes seems to have made a slew of short stories free to all via Smashwords (may be price-matched in certain regions/outlets).

Kelby Ouchley has some non-fiction nature/preservation books published by Louisiana State University and says he has a Louisiana Governor's Award for Conservationist of the Year. He offers an historical novel for which the blurb quotes praise from a local newspaper: Iron Branch: A Civil War Tale of a Woman In-Between

This Mira-published M.J. Rose thing is a repeat, but a fun-looking one where her character psychoanalyzes the characters of other popular thriller writers (with their permission): In Session: Dr. Morgan Snow with Steve Berry's Cotton Malone, Lee Child's Jack Reacher & Barry Eisler's John Rain

ETA: Minor ISFDBed Jordan Krall returns with another collection of his assorted weird psychological horror-ish shorts: Unfruitful Works and Other Personal Horrors

ETA 2: Turns out that Peter Michael Rosenberg is offering a 2nd 1994 Simon & Schustered literary suspense thriller with strong romantic elements: Touched by a God or Something

And there's another ex-Oceanview thing which is a repeat freebie; Alan Evans' western culture-clash coming of age literary fiction drama out in 2009 which I picked up at the beginning of this month but think forgot to include before it expired: Spirit Horses

[Synamon]

This Mira-published M.J. Rose thing is a repeat, but a fun-looking one where her character psychoanalyzes the characters of other popular thriller writers (with their permission): In Session: Dr. Morgan Snow with Steve Berry's Cotton Malone, Lee Child's Jack Reacher & Barry Eisler's John Rain

Sounds like a hoot! Thanks.

[Dr. Drib]

Picked up a couple of more.

Thank you.



Don

[GeckoFriend]

Found several today. Thank you.

[ozron]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

Fellow MR member author and Australian sf writer Simon Haynes seems to have made a slew of short stories free to all via Smashwords (may be price-matched in certain regions/outlets).

These seem to be free in the US Amazon store as well now.

[emellaich]

ATDrake,

I don't remember exactly what the issue was, and maybe you've already addressed this in some other recent thread. However, I remember you mentioning that you can no longer tell if a Kindle book is DRM-free?

I just bought a Kindle that is listed as "Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited". Does this mean the DRM-free indicator is now back, or were you referring to something else?

Thanks

[ATDrake]

It's back now, and seems to have been since sometime around yesterday (definitely did not have the indicator when I posted the feature title for this thread).

Several weeks ago Amazon removed the "Simultaneous Device Usage" part of the Product Info, which when set to "Unlimited" was the secret code for DRM-free (and told you how many devices the publisher would let you put it on if it was less than 6, which some of the business and religious presses did).

Without it, you could no longer tell if a Kindle title was DRM or not, short of actually "purchasing" it and downloading and trying to strip (or at least trying to open it in a non-Kindle Mobipocket-capable reader app, of which I know of only 4) since non-Topaz samples are always DRM-free.

Thanks to everyone who wrote and complained to Amazon CS; hopefully that helped contribute to their changing it back. Now if only we could get B&N and the iBookstore to start noting the DRM-free stuff as well...