FREE/BARGAIN — Science Fiction & Fantasy

[DrNefario]

Well, it's the sixth Earthsea book, and kind of works as an epilogue to the other five.

I mean, it's good (although maybe the weakest of the six?), but not on its own.

[binaryhermit]

OK then, nevermind, I guess.

[lkmiller]

Originally Posted by binaryhermit

Other Wind by Ursula LeGuin is $2.99 on Amazon US, possibly elsewhere.
https://www.amazon.com/Other-Wind-Ea...dp/B004H1U22E/

I read The Left Hand of Darkness when it was in one of this site's book clubs and thought it was kinda a slog, how's this book? I'm vaguely considering it.

It's the sixth book in the Earthsea Cycle.

Whoops, already answered.

[Difflugia]

Terry Pratchett's Discworld #40, Raising Steam is $2.99.

eBooks.com
Kobo
B&N
Amazon

[binaryhermit]

This week's publisher's pick specials

ARC Doubles: As Big as the Ritz & The Mars Girl
Two hard science fiction novellas in a ARC Double issue.
​In The Mars Girl, Joe Haldeman gives us a very special adventure about a young woman who has just migrated to Mars.

​Gregory Benford's As Big as the Ritz follows a young Clayton Donnor who grew up in the rough, hard-working mining colonies spread out across the asteroids and who comes to Earth to study at UCLA.

Second Contact
"A spell-binding tale of intrigue and empathy." —SF Site

They're ancient, power, enigmatic, and here. Eight million alien Shian have come to Earth. Not as conquerors, or invaders, but as settlers. In exchange for their technology, they're given places to live.

One of those places in Northern Ireland, where eighty thousand Shian settlers disrupt the old, poisonous duality of Northern Irish life. The Shian remain aloof from the legacy of violence—until a Shian family is murdered down to the last child. Humans and aliens seem on a collision course, unless Andy Gillespie, ex-con, now Shian translator, can hunt down the killer before they strike again.

​Little Brother's World
In a world where pre-natal genetic engineering determines one's entire life structure, Little Brother is the only person without a GeneCode tattoo to dictate that future. When he teams up with Sally, the thrown-away offspring of the highest levels of society, they'll turn their world upside down…

Little Brother's World is no mere imitation of Andre Norton’s Star Man's Son or Robert Heinlein’s Citizen of the Galaxy. Rather, it takes the sensibility of those sorts of books and makes of it something fresh and new. T. Jackson King is doing his part to further the great conversation of science fiction; it'll be interesting to see where he goes next." —Analog Science Fiction and Fact

(excerpted from their weekly newsletter and lightly edited)

[Difflugia]

Today's Barnes & Noble Free Friday book, The Conjured Woman by Anne Gross is an interesting-sounding time travel mystery.

It appears to only be free at Barnes & Noble. It's $4.99 everywhere else.

I thought at first that it was self-published (as most of the Free Friday books are), but the publisher is Beaufort Books, a small, but respectable independent publisher.

In the early 19th Century, Adelaide Lenormand, a fortune teller popular with the Paris elite, conjures a golem for Napoleon Bonaparte during a dinner party. But something goes wrong. It looks nothing like the manservant she promised. Even worse, immediately after it arrives, the golem steals the Emperor’s Emerald Scarab from a chain around his neck and mysteriously disappears.

Minutes later in London, Elise Dubois, an ER nurse from Tucson, is found sprawled in front of The Quiet Woman Public House. She’s wearing nothing but tattered shorts, a sports bra, and one pink running shoe. Gripped in her fist is an Egyptian jewel, the scarab.

Now Bonaparte’s Minister of Police is breathing down Adelaide’s neck while her wealthy clients are abandoning her. The women of La Société d’Isis, so wickedly encouraging when she’d first launched her plot, remain silent to her pleas for help. Adelaide has no choice but to find the golem and restore her reputation.

Troubled by nightmares of a wild-eyed French woman and worried she might be losing her mind, Elise tries to blend in at the pub. But blending in is not her forte. She knows the moment the opportunity arises she’ll stop at nothing to return to 21st Century Arizona, even if that means breaking the heart of the one man who understands her.

The Conjured Woman is the first in the Emerald Scarab Adventure series aimed at lovers of hard-edged heroines. In a story of time travel, romance, and fortune, anything can happen.

[sufue]

Originally Posted by Difflugia

Today's Barnes & Noble Free Friday book, The Conjured Woman by Anne Gross is an interesting-sounding time travel mystery.

It appears to only be free at Barnes & Noble. It's $4.99 everywhere else.

{edit}

Often the BN Free Friday books get matched at Kobo and/or Kindle US sometime over the weekend, so it's worth keeping an eye out. Also, if you really don't want to hassle with BN (as I don't) you can price-match on Kobo. I've done this maybe 15 or 20 times, and only had problems with being refused one time - which was easily resolved with the screenshots I keep for every time I price match...

[maddz]

Not much in the Amazon.co.uk monthly deal this month:

Bayou Moon, by Ilona Andrews (The Edge 2) is 99p:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...api_tkin_p1_i0

Shadow of the Fox, by Julie Kagawa is 99p
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shadow-Fox-...-text&sr=1-102

The Field Guide, by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black (The Spiderwick Chronicles 1) is 99p:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Field-Guide...-text&sr=1-110

The Plastic Magician, by Charlie N Holmberg (Paper Magician is 99p:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Plastic-Mag...-text&sr=1-207

Shroud of Eternity, by Terry Goodkind (Sister of Darkness: The Nicci Chronicles 2) is £2.59:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shroud-Eter...-text&sr=1-154

Valiant, by Holly Black is 99p:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Valiant-Mod...-text&sr=1-126

Midnight Falcon, by David Gemmell (The Rigante 2 is 99p:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Midnight-Fa...l-text&sr=1-85

There's also a First of Series sale:

The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothkuss (The Kingkiller Chronicles 1) is 99p (REPEAT):
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Name-Wind-K...9358714&sr=1-2

The Way of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson (The Stormlight Archives 1) is 99p:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Way-Kings-S...9358714&sr=1-4

A Discovery of Witches, by Deborah Harkness (All Souls 1) is 99p:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Discovery-W...9358714&sr=1-5

Just One Damned Thing After Another, by Jodie Taylor (Chronicles of St Mary's 1 is 99p (REPEAT):
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Damned-Thin...9358714&sr=1-8

The Long Earth, by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter (Long Earth 1) is 99p (REPEAT):
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Long-Earth-...358714&sr=1-13

Blackwing, by Ed McDonald (Raven's Mark 1) is 99p (REPEAT):
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blackwing-R...l-text&sr=1-32

Empire in Black and Gold, by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Shadows of the Apt 1) is 99p:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Empire-Blac...l-text&sr=1-42

The Paper Magician, by Charlie N Holmberg (Paper Magician 1) is 99p (REPEAT):
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Paper-Magic...l-text&sr=1-52

Shadow of the Fox, by Julie Kagawa is 99p
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shadow-Fox-...-text&sr=1-102
(Yes, it's in the June Deal and the First in Series deal.)

The Field Guide, by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black (The Spiderwick Chronicles 1) is 99p:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Field-Guide...-text&sr=1-110
(Yes, it's also in the June Deal and the First in Series deal.)

[lumpynose]

If David Gemmell's Troy: Lord of the Silver Bow (The Troy Trilogy Book 1) ever goes on sale, grab it. That one and the 2nd one are very good. (The third one was finished by his wife after he passed away.)

[salty-horse]

Many new titles in Amazon.com's daily deal:
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine - $2.99 - Link
First in a series. Very highly regarded.

Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous ambassador from their small but fiercely independent mining Station, has died. But no one will admit that his death wasn't an accident—or that Mahit might be next to die, during a time of political instability in the highest echelons of the imperial court.

Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her Station from Teixcalaan's unceasing expansion—all while navigating an alien culture that is all too seductive, engaging in intrigues of her own, and hiding a deadly technological secret—one that might spell the end of her Station and her way of life—or rescue it from annihilation.

The Kingdom of Copper by S. A. Chakraborty (sequel to The City of Brass) - $2.99 - Link

The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons - $2.99 - Link
First in an epic fantasy series. There's a big publicity push behind it but I don't know if the hype is justified.

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling - $1.99 - Link
Horror in a giant alien cave.

When Gyre Price lied her way into this expedition, she thought she’d be mapping mineral deposits, and that her biggest problems would be cave collapses and gear malfunctions. She also thought that the fat paycheck—enough to get her off-planet and on the trail of her mother—meant she’d get a skilled surface team, monitoring her suit and environment, keeping her safe. Keeping her sane.

Instead, she got Em.

Em sees nothing wrong with controlling Gyre’s body with drugs or withholding critical information to “ensure the smooth operation” of her expedition. Em knows all about Gyre’s falsified credentials, and has no qualms using them as a leash—and a lash. And Em has secrets, too . . .

As Gyre descends, little inconsistencies—missing supplies, unexpected changes in the route, and, worst of all, shifts in Em’s motivations—drive her out of her depths. Lost and disoriented, Gyre finds her sense of control giving way to paranoia and anger. On her own in this mysterious, deadly place, surrounded by darkness and the unknown, Gyre must overcome more than just the dangerous terrain and the Tunneler which calls underground its home if she wants to make it out alive—she must confront the ghosts in her own head.

But how come she can't shake the feeling she’s being followed?

[DrLimu]

Thanks salty-horse, bought all of those.

Another one that looks interesting is Broken Stars: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation for $2.99 Link

Description:

Spoiler:

Broken Stars, edited by multi award-winning writer Ken Liu--translator of the bestselling and Hugo Award-winning novel The Three Body Problem by acclaimed Chinese author Cixin Liu-- is his second thought-provoking anthology of Chinese short speculative fiction.

Some of the included authors are already familiar to readers in the West (Liu Cixin and Hao Jingfang, both Hugo winners); some are publishing in English for the first time. Because of the growing interest in newer SFF from China, virtually every story here was first published in Chinese in the 2010s.

The stories span the range from short-shorts to novellas, and evoke every hue on the emotional spectrum. Besides stories firmly entrenched in subgenres familiar to Western SFF readers such as hard SF, cyberpunk, science fantasy, and space opera, the anthology also includes stories that showcase deeper ties to Chinese culture: alternate Chinese history, chuanyue time travel, satire with historical and contemporary allusions that are likely unknown to the average Western reader. While the anthology makes no claim or attempt to be "representative" or “comprehensive," it demonstrates the vibrancy and diversity of science fiction being written in China at this moment.

[salty-horse]

Missed Broken Stars. Thanks!

[ReadingManiac]

Originally Posted by Kieran Seymour

Just had an eReaderIQ price alert for George RR Martin's A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Currently down to £1.99 in the UK.

amazon.co.uk | Google Play | Kobo UK

I've hedged about getting this one every time it comes on sale... then just found a hardback on my shelf while looking for something else!

[binaryhermit]

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CWFVDHD/

A People's Future of the United States: Speculative Fiction from 25 Extraordinary Writers Kindle Edition

$2.99

May be on sale on other retailers/other Amazons. Can't be bothered to check to be honest.

Spoiler:

A glittering landscape of twenty-five speculative stories that challenge oppression and envision new futures for America—from N. K. Jemisin, Charles Yu, Jamie Ford, G. Willow Wilson, Charlie Jane Anders, Hugh Howey, and more.

Not sure if it's any good, but I bought it.

Also picked up that Chinese SciFi thing mentioned a couple posts before this one.

[Fluribus]

Guy Gavriel Kay - The Wandering Fire (Fionavar Tapestry Book 2) for $1.99 at Amazon.com.