FREE/BARGAIN — Science Fiction & Fantasy

[GlennD]

There are already several threads that discuss MZB, her crimes, and her work. Perhaps those would be more appropriate places to continue this discussion?

[pdurrant]

Please continue any discussion of MZB and her works in my DON'T Read Recommendations thread here:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=241103

[JSWolf]

Can the recent post about MZB's work being on sale please be removed? Thanks.

[Cactus Chef]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Can the recent post about MZB's work being on sale please be removed? Thanks.

I'm sorry, but why? You wanna debate whether to patronize her work in light of her personal crimes, fine, but why should that prevent other people from being allowed to purchase it?

[sufue]

And The Tainted Cup is now £0.99 in the UK...

Kindle UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CDDMVJ64
Kobo UK: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/the-tainted-cup-2

I read this based on the mystery-in-a-fantasy thing, and loved it. Enough to actually do a review for my blog, which is really rare for me, since I have enough trouble keeping up with reviewing the review copies I receive, much less everything else I read...

One note - in spite of the first sentence of its blurb,

A Holmes and Watson–style detective duo take the stage in this fantasy with a mystery twist, from the Edgar-winning, multiple Hugo-nominated Robert Jackson Bennett

The Tainted Cup is really a Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin pastiche, confirmed by the author in his acknowledgements. (FWIW, he also compares Ana to Hannibal Lecter...) Maybe the blurb-writer thought no one would know who Wolfe and Goodwin were? Or maybe Holmes and Watson were the only detective duo the blurb-writer knew? In any case, well worth a read IMO.

Originally Posted by salty-horse

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett is $3 in the US (Kobo, Amazon)
First in a new series.

[issybird]

You had me at

Originally Posted by sufue

The Tainted Cup is really a Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin pastiche.

Fortunately, one of my OD libraries has it.

[salty-horse]

The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman is £2 in the UK (Kobo, Amazon)
New release. I'll spare you the blurb incorrectly claiming it's "the first major Arthurian epic of the new millennium".

When gifted young knight Collum arrives at Camelot to compete for a place on the Round Table, he quickly discovers that he’s too late:The king died two weeks ago at the Battle of Camlann, and only a handful of the knights of the Round Table are left.

And the survivors aren’t the heroes of legend either, like Lancelot or Gawain. They’re the oddballs of the Round Table, like Sir Palomides, the Saracen Knight, and Sir Dagonet, Arthur’s fool, who was knighted as a joke. They’re joined by Nimue, who was Merlin’s apprentice until she turned on him and buried him under a hill.

But it’s up to them to rebuild Camelot in a world that has lost its balance, even as God abandons Britain and the fairies and old gods are returning, led by Morgan le Fay. They must reclaim Excalibur and make this ruined world whole again.

But first they’ll have to solve the mystery of why the lonely, brilliant King Arthur fell.

[salty-horse]

StoryBundle is back with another trilogies bundle curated by Lavie Tidhar.
Many of these titles have been on sale before.

Note that there's currently an error in the bundle. The Elfin Ship (from the previous "trilogies" bundle) should be "All the Bells on Earth"). I contacted them.

https://storybundle.com/blog/2024trilogiesbundle/

• The Lost Level by Brian Keene
• The Outside by Ada Hoffman
• Infernal Devices by K. W. Jeter
• The Hanged God by Thilde Kold Holdt
• Beneath the Rising by Premee Mohamed
• The Knights of Breton Court by Maurice Broaddus
• The Christian Trilogy by James P. Blaylock
• Aetherial Tales by Freda Warrington
• The Apex Book of World SF volumes 1/2/3 edited by Lavie Tidhar

[ZodWallop]

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez is $2 - Amazon, B&N and Kobo US

Two warriors shepherd an ancient god across a broken land to end the tyrannical reign of a royal family in this epic fantasy from the author of The Vanished Birds.

The people suffer under the centuries-long rule of the Moon Throne. The royal family—the despotic emperor and his monstrous sons, the Three Terrors—hold the countryside in their choking grip. They bleed the land and oppress the citizens with the frightful powers they inherited from the god locked under their palace.

But that god cannot be contained forever.

With the aid of Jun, a guard broken by his guilt-stricken past, and Keema, an outcast fighting for his future, the god escapes from her royal captivity and flees from her own children, the triplet Terrors who would drag her back to her unholy prison. And so it is that she embarks with her young companions on a five-day pilgrimage in search of freedom—and a way to end the Moon Throne forever. The journey ahead will be more dangerous than any of them could have imagined.

Both a sweeping adventure story and an intimate exploration of identity, legacy, and belonging, The Spear Cuts Through Water is an ambitious and profound saga that will transport and transform you—and is like nothing you’ve ever read before.

[ZodWallop]

Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore is $2 - Amazon, B&N and Kobo US

I didn't care for it, but many people love it.

Jody never asked to become a vampire. But when she wakes up under an alley Dumpster with a badly burned arm, an aching back, superhuman strength, and a distinctly Nosferatuan thirst, she realizes the decision has been made for her.

Making the transition from the nine-to-five grind to an eternity of nocturnal prowlings is going to take some doing, however, and that's where C. Thomas Flood fits in. A would-be Kerouac from Incontinence, Indiana, Tommy (to his friends) is biding his time night-clerking and frozen-turkey bowling in a San Francisco Safeway. But all that changes when a beautiful undead redhead walks through the door...and proceeds to rock Tommy's life—and afterlife—in ways he never thought possible.