Self-published Science Fiction & Fantasy & Horror

[salty-horse]

The Way of Unity by Sarah K. Balstrup and its sequel Black Stream are $2 each on Amazon.com
Dark fantasy. The first novel was a semi-finalist in the self-publlishing-focused SPFBO contest.

The Seven Lands of Velspar put their faith in the Intercessors, a psychic priesthood responsible for the purification of the spirit. Where passion flares, they soothe its intent. Those who cannot be soothed, are cast out, their spirits destroyed by fire.

The Intercessors are mystics of the highest order, but Velspar’s ruling Skalens believe their power has grown too great.

Surviving the Intercessor’s murder plot against her family, Sybilla Ladain rises to power. The Skalens come together under the banner of her grief, bringing the practice of Intercession to its brutal, bloody end.

Yet victory brings Sybilla no peace. In time, she will have to face the people of Velspar, forced to live in a psychically alienated world, and a band of rebels led by an escaped Intercessor set on her annihilation.

[salty-horse]

Spirits Rising (Spirit Caller #1) by Krista D. Ball is FREE on Amazon.com and the author's Payhip store.
Novella. Recommended by Janny Wurts

Rachel has no trouble believing in spirits. It's the living she has a tough time believing in. The man she's in love with? Taken. The job she loved? Gone. Her neighbours? They're taping religious tracts to her door. Then a rebellious teenager Wiccan accidentally summons the area's ancestral Viking spirits -- who promptly bring their thousand-year war to the remote Newfoundland fishing village. If Rachel's going to have any hope of sending the spirits to their peace, she'll have to stop drooling over unattainable men and trust her 93-year-old neighbour to help her stand against the spirits before their supernatural war engulfs them all.

Isaac by Allee Mead is $2 on Amazon.com
A Cozy Ace Android Relationship. Positive review by Alex Kingsley on Strange Horizons

When Eleanor Lane, estranged from her family, makes the drive to her deceased father’s house to arrange his funeral, she discovers Isaac, a care-bot. Isaac had been caring for her father ever since the incident six years ago, when her father, confused, accidentally cut her with a kitchen knife.

Eleanor convinces her sister to let her take the care-bot home, beginning a new relationship with him despite herself. As she learns more about Isaac, she also discovers a caring, sensitive person in the android. He fills the void in her life created from her fear of connecting with others, and starts to reconnect Eleanor to how her fathers, John and Javi, met and fell in love.

But is Isaac a replacement for human contact? For that matter, what is Isaac? A simple programmed construct, or a person who can grow and learn? Explore love, community, and what it means to be human in Allee Mead’s debut book, Isaac.

[salty-horse]

Admins, can you add "FREE/BARGAIN — " to the thread title? I'm not sure if I can edit it myself.

[salty-horse]

Rivers Solomon has started serializing an epic fantasy novel on AO3: Once I Was Made of Earth
https://archiveofourown.org/works/91618061

One chapter is available. If you're new to the platform, you can create a user and subscribe to receive email notifications once new chapters are posted.

Quoting the author introducing it:

ONCE I WAS MADE OF EARTH is here, an epic fantasy that's been rattling in my brain for years now and that I'm putting out into the world serially outside of the capitalist publishing apparatus. Share, and read, and comment.

It's not really about anything other than surviving in unsurvivable circumstances. I suppose it's about stories, too, and how we are all one. I do believe that truly, some days, at least.

[ZodWallop]

Thank you for this thread!

[DrNefario]

15 Free Kindle books from Luke Chmilenko, books 1-3 of 5 different series. I think they're mostly in the LitRPG/Progression Fantasy vein:

Ascend Online - Early VRMMO LitRPG. I already had these, and have read and enjoyed book 1.
Book 1 UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ascend-Onli.../dp/B01M01ET8E
US: https://www.amazon.com/Ascend-Online.../dp/B01M01ET8E

Starbreaker - I paid actual money (sure, only 0.99) for book 1 a few weeks ago, but haven't read it yet.
Book 1 UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Starbreaker.../dp/B0DW7CGM5X
US: https://www.amazon.com/Starbreaker-1.../dp/B0DW7CGM5X

Paragon - Co-authored with Alex Knight
Book 1 UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09T3S5MGS
US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09T3S5MGS

Immortal's Ascent
Book 1 UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DJPRJ3ZK
US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DJPRJ3ZK

Savage Dominion - Co-authored with G D Penman. Complete trilogy. - LAST DAY
Omnibus UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CZV39FZ7
US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CZV39FZ7

Note that Savage Dominion is only free until the 3rd September, according to his website. The rest are free until the 7th.

Immortal's Ascent and Starbreaker seem to be "downloadable in other formats."

[salty-horse]

I forgot to post about Ghost of the Neon God by T. R. Napper earlier today, so here's another recent cyberpunk release:

Killswitch Protocol by M. J. Kuhn is $1 on Amazon.com

Logan's Run meets The Giver with a dash of Cyberpunk 2077.

In New Avarita, every person is born with a purpose. Once fulfilled, they are eligible for Ascent, a peaceful passing and assumed rebirth on the next plane of existence, celebrated for having left their perfect mark upon the world.

At least, that's what the powers that be want them to believe.

When Liv Spencer's husband reaches Ascent under more than suspicious circumstances, she doesn't feel like celebrating—she wants revenge. Her path takes her deep into the neon-drenched streets of New Avarita's seedy underbelly, a world filled with black-market cybernetics, synthetic drugs, and people who see Ascent for what it truly is: a killswitch.

Liv is soon embroiled in an anarchist plot to overthrow the ruling body of New Avarita, but the further she sinks into this world, the blurrier the line between "righteous rebellion" and "terrorism" begins to grow. With hundreds of thousands of innocent lives on the line, Liv must find a way to strike back against the fascist rule of the shadowy figures controlling New Avarita without getting flagged for Ascent herself.

[DrNefario]

This isn't exactly a self-published SF deal, but I didn't know where else to put it. (And I will mainly be using it for self-published SF&F.)

Amazon seem to be offering 3 months free Kindle Unlimited to Prime members at the moment, as part of the Big Deal Days. The offer runs until the 7th October in the UK.

Since 1 month of Prime costs less than 1 month of KU, this is a decent deal.

[ZodWallop]

Cross posting here. I didn't realize it was self-pubbed until after I posted in the other thread.

Krelløy by Michal Polgár is $1 at Amazon (exclusive)

I've had this one on my watchlist for a bit. At least since I took a trip to Norway earlier this year.

A remote Arctic island off northern Norway. A fog that moves against the wind, and one mountain peak it will not touch.

When the supply ship unloads at the isolated fishing community of Krelløy, its crew won’t say why this run is the last. Forty-seven souls are cut off from the mainland, and from the world they once knew.

What begins as an eerie weather anomaly stops looking like weather the day a sound comes from every direction at once.

Stefan, a Slovak expatriate working at the local fish processing plant, and his wife Linnet, a Kenyan nurse who crossed continents for love, try to hold on to each other as their community fractures and their Arctic home turns alien around them. Neighbors vanish into the fog. Those who stay begin to change. The only question left is what it means to remain yourself when the world itself is forgetting how to be.

A literary novel of cosmic and body horror, KRELLØY is a love story at the end of the world.

[salty-horse]

Legacy of the Brightwash by Krystle Matar and its sequel Legacy of Brick & Bone are $1 and $2 on Amazon.com (only)

Follow the law and you’ll stay safe. But what if the law is wrong?

Tashué’s faith in the law is beginning to crack. Three years ago, he stood by when the Authority condemned Jason to the brutality of the Rift for non-compliance. When Tashué’s son refused to register as tainted, the laws had to be upheld. He’d never doubted his job as a Regulation Officer before, but three years of watching your son wither away can break down even the strongest convictions.

Then a dead girl washed up on the bank of the Brightwash, tattooed and mutilated. Where had she come from? Who would tattoo a child? Was it the same person who killed her? Why was he the only one who cared?

Will Tashué be able to stand against everything he thought he believed in to get the answers he’s looking for?

[JSWolf]

Is it OK to post self-published books from author's who have also had published books?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Is it OK to post self-published books from author's who have also had published books?

Why not? After all, the books are self-published which seems to meet the requirements in the thread name.

If you look at the first post in the FREE/BARGAIN — Science Fiction & Fantasy thread, you are allowed to post about self-published books there as long as:

Please don't post any self-published book unless all the following are true:

• you have read the book (or the author is one of your favourites)
• you think the book is a good read
• you're not connected to the author in any way (other than liking their work)

This does eliminate the number of posts where the poster has not read the book, does not have previous experience with the author and is just reporting that they ran across the book and it seems a good deal.

[Dr. Drib]

However, just in case a self-published author comes across this thread: No self-published author can promote his/her own book in this forum. This is made clear in the name of this Forum: Deals and Resources (No Self-Promotion or Affiliate Links)

[salty-horse]

A Murder Most Fungal by Adrian M. Gibson is $1 on Amazon.com
A novella set in the same world as Mushroom Blues, which is also $1, but was free once.

Return to the mushroom metropolis of Neo Kinoko, immerse yourself in a sinister world of gangsters, blackmail, and fungal cuisine, and prepare for a Michelin-star tragedy in six courses.

The knives are out in this fast-paced, standalone Fungalverse novel. Set several months after the events of the award-winning Mushroom Blues, this side story combines the culinary wonder of Jiro Dreams of Sushi, the kitchen chaos of The Bear, and the explosive tension of Hong Kong crime thrillers.

In the aftermath of the “Fuyu Massacre,” riots and whispers of revolution continue to plague the Hōpponese capital of Neo Kinoko. As a result, the iron grip of a foreign military occupation tightens day by day. Amidst this, Pocho Jiro, a once-renowned makizushi chef, has chosen to cook for Duncan MacArthur—the Coprinian Military Governor in Hōppon—as his personal chef... and indentured servant.

A run-in with dangerous fungal gangsters sets off a chain of events that Pocho cannot escape from. He’s left with two choices: Assassinate MacArthur, or watch his beloved sister die in front of his eyes. Will Pocho take up his knife and prepare MacArthur’s final meal?