Free (Kindle KDP) The Macrocosmic Conflict by David Bischoff [Space Opera Adventure]

[ATDrake]

A pleasantly slow day for the KDP Select exclusive-or-else slushpile, which actually didn't have too much Sturgeon's Law-mandated 90% crap to wade through before I started hitting the decent stuff, repeats or otherwise.

For our sfnal backlist treat today, we have the 3rd in a series of space opera adventures by a guy who must know what he's doing regarding space opera adventures, as he writes tie-ins for various spacefaring sf franchises as well as having previously collaborated with Harry Harrison, who is kind of known for them.

The Macrocosmic Conflict by David Bischoff (ISFDB, Wikipedia which says he has a Nebula nomination and a Star Trek episode based the story that got it) is 3rd in his Star Hounds space opera adventure series, for which we've previously received at least the 2nd book free.

This was originally out in paperback from Ace Books in 1986.

Free with DRM for who knows how long @ Amazon main UK DE ES FR IT

Description
A dystopian future.

A beautiful, wild female pilot on the run from an odious Federation.

A handsome, troubled pirate with a secret.

Aliens who enjoy bizarre apocaclyptic games...

Mix them together -- space adventure with thrusters on full!

Also in the slushpile, some series continuations both new and old and fresh horror & romance shorts for people to try out.

I.J. Parker returns with yet another installment in her historical Japan-set detective mysteries, this one out from St. Martin's Minotaur in 2002: Rashomon Gate (Akitada Mysteries)

ISFDBed David Bain & ISFDBed Wayne Allen Sallee return to team up for a joint feature of crime and supernatural horror tales, from the looks of it: Double Dare

New American Library-published Jessica Barksdale Inclán returns with a contemporary foodie general fiction about a woman with baking company business ambitions, including recipes: Becca's Best

Harlequin-published Kate Hewitt offers a collection of short romance tales: Love, Laughter & Lucky Marbles

Previously title-featured ISFDBed horror writer Kealan Patrick Burke and a number of other ISFDBed authors contribute to this horror/dark fantasy/bizarre suspense anthology: Detritus

Also out from the same small press as above, Australian contributor Mary Borsellino (minor ISFDB credits) offers a horror-ish mystery/adventure novel: The Devil's Mixtape

Five Star-published Aris Whittier returns with a supernatural romantic suspense: Secrets

William Morrow-published fellow MR member author Richard Herley offers a a "black comedy" with a bit of a love story in it which seems to be about a confidence scheme gone hilariously wrong: Darling Brenda He also offers his Holby Memorial Prize-winning Morrow-published Stone Age England historical saga free to all via Smashwords (may be price-matched in other outlets, other works $0.99-$3.99).

Avon-published Katy Munger writing as Gallegher Gray offers the 1991-Dutton Adult-published 1st in her comedic business workplace mystery series: Partners In Crime (Hubbert & Lil) This, like her longstanding pricematched-to-Smashwords other freebie included earlier has been yanked for KDP exclusivity, but the sequels are still available via Smashwords and couponable at price-matching outlets, if you find you like them.

Victoria Lynne offers her 1999 Dell-published Victorian historical romantic suspense: With This Kiss

Much published romance author Susan Sizemore who includes at least Ellora's Cave among her visible book cover credits (I'm not going to dig further, but IIRC she's also got Harlequin and Berkley/Avon/whatever) returns to offer a collection of paranormal romance shorts: A Little Death

Well, it's not often that we get grand sweeping historical sagas set in non-European/US/colonial countries being occupied by plucky settlers and these people have made a nice effort at formatting and putting in attractive chapter headers. so here's M. Salahuddin Khan's probably self-pub multigenerational Pakistani-written Afghanistan-set grand sweeping historical saga, which looks kind of interesting and seems to have reasonably decent prose, going by a quickie sample skim: Sikander

Reasonably significant sfnal repeats from A.A. Attanasio & Keith Brooke. Minor credential sfnal repeats from Marilyn Peake, Steel Magnolia Press, Cheryl Kaye Tardif, Edward W. Robertson. Small press repeats (some new stuff maybe mixed in) from Camel Press, Coffeetown Press, Books We Love/BWLPP, Adventure Books of Seattle. Mystery/thriller backlist series repeats from Deb Baker, Sean Black, M. Ruth Myers, Libby Fischer Hellman. Romance author repeats from Mona Ingram, Nancy Bush, Valerie Douglas, Anh Leod.

Happy reading, if you manage to spot something you think you might like and ever actually get around to reading it.

[Blue Tyson]

The first Bischoff Star Hounds was available quite a while back - read that one.

[ATDrake]

Feature still free, updates go here.

Previously title-featured Gretta Curran Browne returns with an Irish literary fiction novel about a complacent wife discovering and digging into her deceased husband's shocking secret life, which seems to have originally come out from small press New Island Books in 2000 and is now the basis of a TV miniseries: Relative Strangers

Ken Shakin's LGBT experience literary fiction novel seems to have originally come out from Heretic Books in 1997 and has been hardcover-reprinted by specialty LGBT Lethe Press in 2009: LOVE SUCKS -New York Stories of Love, Hate, and Anonymous Sex

Five Star-published Maria Hudgins (author of those Dotsy Lamb cozy mysteries you may have been picking up) returns with an promising-looking archaeological travel murder mystery with a blurb that makes it sound like a kind of cross between Christie's Murder on the Orient Express and Murder in Mesopotamia: The Man on the Istanbul Train

Byrne Fone, editor of the Columbia University Press' Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature and writer of several academic books, returns to offer a few more volumes in his Trojan War literary historical novel series reimagined from the viewpoint of the female characters (a couple repeat, but at least one looks new, or at least recent enough I don't have it in the new KDP-only auxiliary account) and his LGBT-themed contemporary political thriller: Linkage for the lot

Minotaur-published Ben Rehder, author of those Blanco County comedic western mysteries you may have been collecting, offers YA fugitive thriller which he says is also suitable for an adult audience: The Driving Lesson

Susanna Lo, who as it turns out, really is an award-winning director/producer (IMDB entry) who has worked on the Vancouver-based Cold Squad TV series (for which I own the hard-to-find DVD release) offers her debut literary fiction novel about two women from very disparate backgrounds finding love (perhaps with each other), which she is intending to turn into a feature film: Alma of My Heart

Michael New says he worked as an editor for a few specified magazines (and has had short stories printed in more specified magazines) and has had a short book published by Addison-Wesley back in 1980. He offers his collection of literary fiction shorts, which may include some of the published ones: The Meaning of Love and Other Stories

ISFDBed David Bain returns with a self-explanatory short: The Trunk: A Killer Ghost Story

Pamela Beason, who has won/been finalist for that Romance Writers of America award that they give out to the newbies with the promising manuscripts, and whose other novel one of our fellow MR members said s/he enjoyed reading, returns with the following novel involving a murder and a gorilla (may be a repeat): THE ONLY WITNESS: A Mystery/Suspense Novel

JoAnn Hague claims that her heavily-researched historical novel set amongst Christian missionaries to the Native Americans in the Ohio wilderness during the American Revolution is "a recipient of the OHIO ARTS COUNCIL FELLOWSHIP GRANT FOR CREATIVE WRITING" (may be "inspirational"): Dancing Through Fire

Canadian small-pressed author Kim Kinrade offers an Alberta & Nova Scotia-set mystery involving a decades-old disappearance that comes back to haunt a 70s rock band when they try to find out what really happened that night: Road Food

Pratchett aside, I don't often see novels with footnotes in them in any format. And this probably-self-pub litfic novel which links medieval history to the modern day looks kind of interesting and quotes blurb praise from local European mayors, so I hereby include Lina Ellina's: The Venetian

Apparently at some point, the author changed the blurb for her collection of stories based on fairy tales & nursery rhymes adapted to a WWII setting, which is a shame, since the original still visible in the eReaderIQ hover-over pop-up made it sound considerably more interesting, with taglines like "What if Cinderella was really an arsonist of great use to the French Resistance?" and "Or an old woman from a bombed-out neighbourhood in Holland finds shelter in a shoe shop and takes in some orphans?". In any case, based on that since I'm a sucker for retold fractured fairy tales, I include: Once Upon a Time of War (Historical Suspense Series)

The blurb for this reads as cracktastically as the title implies, and a quickie skim of the sample shows at least serviceable, grammatical and decently constructed punctuated prose (not something one can take for granted in the KDP Select exclusive-or-else slushpile, alas), so I hereby include: William Shakespeare's Wild West Show

This one's got people in ancient Roman military garb sword-fighting T. rexes on the cover. And it's got more pictures of armoured attack dinos on the inside. And the blurb reads like the author's been indulging in serious recreational pharmaceuticals of the kind that produce highly entertaining results from the perspective of a distant observer. Prose seems a bit flat and could probably use a little work, but is reasonably coherent and grammatical, and this otherwise looks awesome enough in concept to compensate for that, so I hereby include: Megazaur: the 13th omada

Some non-fiction for those inclined to producing culinary horrors: The Werewolf Cookbook (The Vampire Zombie Werewolf Cookoff Cookbook)

And if you ever wanted to build yourself a double decker bus out of LEGO but were insufficiently construction-inclined to be able to figure it out, this guy offers a DIY free building guide: Lego - London Red RouteMaster Bus - TDS Models

Backlist/published-work tie-in repeats from Tee Morris, John McKenzie (plus what looks like the lot of his self-pub stuff as well), at least one author still implying his 2007 book is officially out from Oceanview Publishing. Established author repeats from Paul Henke, fellow MR member Scott Nicholson, Marilyn Peake, Amber D. Sistla. Small press new and repeats from Decadent Publishing, Stay Thirsty Media, Books We Love/BWLPP (including a backlist thriller by fellow MR member author Joan Hall Hovey if you missed it earlier), Steel Magnolia Press.

Happy reading, if indeed you manage to spot something you think you might like, or can now construct the LEGO double-decker bus of your childhood dreams.