Free (Kindle KDP) A Gathering Conspiracy by Michael A. Stackpole [Fantasy]

[ATDrake]

A few nice things in today's KDP Select exclusive-or-else slushpile.

There's some good backlist mystery and romance and we even get a celebrity biography for people who like celebrity biographies.

Anyway, our sf/fantasy backlist feature of the day is:

A Gathering Evil, 1st in the Dark Conspiracy trilogy by Michael A. Stackpole, is a near-future tech+magic adventure novel originally small-press-published in 1991.

Stackpole is perhaps most recognizable for his Star Wars tie-in novels, but he does have a lengthy list of non-glorified-fanfic credits (here's his Wikipedia entry) and I believe he's been previously discussed on MR because he was an early author selling e-books directly off his website a few years ago.

Now he's apparently switched to trying out the KDP Select exclusivity, so this is free (with DRM) for who knows how long @ Amazon main UK DE ES FR IT

Description
Tycho Caine is a man with a mission. He's sure of that. But, waking up in a body bag with amnesia, he not sure of much else. Except that someone wants him dead.

The New York Times Bestselling author of I, Jedi and Rogue Squadron, Michael A. Stackpole brings you an exciting adventure novel of a near-future world where technology and occult mysticism merge. Dark forces and hidden masters conspire to control humanity, and Tycho Caine needs to figure out which side he's on.

James L. Dickerson offers an updated and expanded version of his 2001 St. Martin's Griffin-published celebrity biography: Faith Hill: The Long Road Back

Former newspaper writer Mike McIntyre had a travelogue published by Berkley in the 90s. He offers another travelogue based on his articles for the Los Angeles Times and a mystery/thriller where the killer uses medieval torture devices: Linkage to pull both up

L.T. Fawkes offers the 1st in the Terry Saltz/"Working Man Mystery" series with a carpenter as the amateur sleuth, originally paperbacked by Signet in 2003: Lights Out

Previously-featured Barbara Taylor Sissel offers her 2000-small-press-published mystery suspense debut, which includes favourable comments from local newspapers in the blurb: The Last Innocent Hour

Sarah Shaber offers her 1998 St. Martin's-published mystery, 1st in the Simon Shaw series with a history professor as amateur sleuth: Simon Said I'd been thinking of trying this out during the Backlist E-books holiday sale, but it was only available via either B&N, which don't officially take Canadian customers, and Amazon, whose annoying-to-fix Mobi format I have developed a pathological aversion towards paying for books which come in if I can get them elsewhere at a similar price (actually, I've developed a pathological aversion to purchasing Mobi-only books at all and I usually don't bother unless either the author or the pricing are incredibly compelling enough to overcome that) so I left the decision in limbo. Anyway, I'm pleased enough to be able to try this for free, and if they're available in ePub format once more during the next round of sales I'll probably get the rest of the series if I like this one.

Speaking of archaeological mysteries, Sarah Wisseman has written related books for academic publisher Routledge and the University of Illinois Press. She offers a short story in her novel series which is self-pub, but otherwise promising-looking: Then Fall, Caesar... (Lisa Donahue Archaeological Mysteries)

And also archaeological-mystery related, Poisoned Pen Press-published author Mary Anna Evans offers a short story litfic omnibus: Offerings--Three Stories by Mary Anna Evans I've recently read and enjoyed her PPP mystery novel "Artifacts" in her Faye Longchamp mystery series, which is currently part of PPP's Build Your Library introductory sale with start-of-series mystery volumes at just 99 cents, DRM-free in an ePub/Mobi bundle bought directly from the publisher (you can also get some of them via the usual stores, but at this price they get the most money and the authors get the maximum royalties bought direct). While "Artifacts" had a couple of flaws, it was a good, solid enjoyable read which I have no hesitation in recommending if you think the blurb looks interesting. And the price is currently dirt-cheap so it's not like you're out much if you try and find it doesn't work for you.

MIRA-published mystery/thriller writer Rick Mofina offers a short story which I think is a repeat: Three Bullets To Queensland (Dangerous Women & Desperate Men)

Previously-featured James Bond tie-in novel writer RJ McDonnell returns with : Rock & Roll Homicide I think his previous omnibus collection included this, but I'm not sure and it may be another uncollected volume in the series whose blurb included praise from a Jethro Tull band member. ETA: Oops, got him confused with Raymond Benson's Rock n' Roll Detective series. But McDonell is a fellow MR member author and it wouldn't hurt to look at his book if you like this premise.

I previously included two of Jude Pittman's Vancouver-set mysteries with First Nations people in them. If you were interested in those, you may want to try her: Deadly Secrets (An Indian Creek Texas Mystery)

I'm not sure I believe this long and rambling run-on blurb, but it claims that deceased author Elizabeth Berry won the 2002 Malice Domestic Award (a moderately prestigious prize from one of those official genre writing guilds) for best unpublished traditional mystery for this particular novel which is now being taken to publication by her husband. So if you want to give it a try: Inn Sight The publisher MurderProse.com also has a few other freebies if you want to give some other glorified indie mystery a chance: Linkage to pull all 4 up. So does Deadly Niche Press, who were previously featured for having at least one author in their stable whose book had been favourably reviewed by Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine: Linkage to pull up their two.

UK writer Ian St. James, who had a number of Tor and HarperCollins published works back in the 80s, offers a financial thriller which made it to a large print edition in 1983 (Amazon doesn't seem to have the original version in its catalogue): The Money Stones

Robert W. Walker returns with the 11th in his Jessica Coran Forensic Pathologist series, 2004-hardcovered by Berkley: Absolute Instinct

Previously-featured Aaron Polson, whose ISFDB entry you can look up yourself if you want to see it yet again, offers: Dead Lands: Pass the Ammunition

Assuming this is the same Todd Thorne ( ISFDB entry), he's had one shorts story picked up for publication in a recognized outlet, and offers a collection of others which he says were featured elsewhere: Dark Doses

Lisa Greer, who has had some work out by specialty romance/erotica publisher BookStrand, offers a short suspense/gothic romance story set among the religious Hutterite community: Blood on Snowflakes

Gabriella West offers an erotic f/f romance originally included in an anthology of tales by specialty LGBT publisher Cleis: Night Train to Florence

Madelynne Ellis has had a story reprinted in The Mammoth Anthology of Hot Romance. She offers an historical erotic Regency romance novella which ties into her 2003 erotic romance specialty-press paperbacked novel Gentleman's Wager: Indiscretions (Georgian Rakehells)

Miriam Minger offers her 1990-Avon-paperbacked historical Jacobean romance: A Hint of Rapture This has been free before via Smashwords, but is now KDP-exclusive.

Julie Ortolon offers her 2005-Signet published contemporary romance. IIRC this has been previously offered free via Smashwords, but she has now made it KDP-exclusive: Almost Perfect

Keta Diablo who has been published by small specialty imprint Ravenous Romance offers an epic historical family drama set in the wild west, which may also be a romance: Holding on to Heaven

Bantam-published Ellen Fisher offers a spoofy sci-fi comedy romance novella: Farthest Space: The Wrath of Jan I'll note that Fisher was one of the more sensible and better behaved authors who actually participated over at the Amazon discussion boards while I was still reading them. She never spammed her books all over the place or kept mentioning how she was an ~author~ over and over again in her posts and genuinely conversed with the other posters instead of pushing her wares or her ~creativity~ at them like so many of the other indie authors did before they were all sent to the cornfield quarantined to Amazon's special self-pub author section. So I'm going to give her book a try at some point because good, sensible behaviour from authors who have a direct financial stake in bringing their book to the potential audience at the source of the sales is rare and should be rewarded.

Formerly Baen-published Doranna Durgin re-offers her sf short story: Fountane Of

John Walters (ISFDB entry) offers a 70s-set sf with telepaths raised by aliens: Love Child: A Novel

There are 3 IMDB entries which have the name of Erik Rodgers, who claims to be a filmwriter, director, and producer who has worked on several (named) independent films. None of them quite match up, but in case you want to try his self-pub sf novel: Wetwire: Visionaries Part Two- The Space Between (Wetwire visionaries)

PS Publishing who recently gave us two freebies that were nominated for British SF/Fantasy Award now offer Peter Crowther's: Cliff Rhodes & The Most Important Journey (The Land at the End of The Working Day) which is ambiguously blurbed in a way which makes it look like it might be a literary fiction.

Canadian mystery writer Mobashar Qureshi offers a literary fiction short: Empire of Flies

James Reasoner has been writing westerns for nearly two decades and has been published by Berkley, among others. He offers an adventure short which he says is inspired by old-school pulp magazines: The Red Reef

Previously-featured Lyons-published romance writer Judy Powell offers what looks like a collection of general fiction short stories set in Jamaica: Coffee, Cream, and Curry

I've previously included works by Canadians Alex and Donna Carrick, who claim some minor short story award nominations and really do have printed articles about construction and economics. So if you've been picking up their stuff, you might as well also get: Knowing Penelope (Toboggan Mystery Series) and: Three Scoops is a Blast! (short story collection)

Similarly, if you liked that insider look at Amazon from a guy who used to work for them, you may enjoy his sfnal faux-autobiographical novel: Artificial Imagination: A Glimpse Into the Hi-Tech Worlds of California and Seattle

For those of you who like Pride & Prejudice & Zombies style mashups, here's: Gruesomely Grimm Zombie Tales

I'm including this because it looks cool and informative and the sample showed good step-by-step how-to pictures: Balloon Twisting A-Z : How to Make Letters or Alphabet with Balloons!

That looks like it's everything where either I could easily recognize the author/publisher or they had visible claimed credentials which checked out (mostly) or otherwise looked interesting enough regardless.

Happy reading, if you think there's something you might like and you actually ever get around to reading it.

[Dr. Drib]

Picked up another dozen or more.

Now over 900 archived items.

Thank you!




Don

[phloxy]

Got some! Thanks!

[Timoleon]

Got 'em. Now how the hell am I going to read 'em?

Love my new Kindle Fire. In danger of becoming stuck in my easy chair --- will have to have the fire department come and extract the upholstery threads out of my butt...

[ATDrake]

SF/fantasy readers ought to go check out koland's thread for the other PS Publishing freebies today.

There's a short story collection and a crossover mystery by sf/f authors (ISFDB entries for one of the 3 John Grants who is likeliest to be the right match and James Lovegrove, and hey, it turns out that Peter Crowther above also has lengthy credits) and the Grant book has an introduction by David Langford, whose Ansible fanzine has been a regular source of sf/f industry news and reviews for decades and keeps getting Hugo noms for best fan stuff.

Originally Posted by Timoleon

Love my new Kindle Fire. In danger of becoming stuck in my easy chair --- will have to have the fire department come and extract the upholstery threads out of my butt...

Maybe you could invest in one of those treadmill/stationary bike things so you can get a workout while you read? IIRC, you can get the Kindle to auto-flip pages if you use the text-to-speech function (can turn the volume down down if you don't want to listen and run from power outlet so as not to drain the battery).

Or just do as I do and read while walking (not on crowded streets near traffic, mind you).

[Blue Tyson]

Hector the Safety Cat says always stop reading before crossing the road!



Makes standing in line go faster too, this sort of thing.

[Britomart]

I picked up quite a number of the freebies you recommended today. Thank you!

[koland]

I managed to miss the Stackpole - if anyone would be willing to lend it to me, I'd appreciate it (just send me a PM).

ETA - found a lender (via the Kindle Lending ability), thanks!