FREE/BARGAIN - Science Fiction, Fantasy - 2015

[koland]

A thread for 2015.

We point out free and bargain SF/Fantasy titles to each other. Please don't post any self-published books*, and please do a search before posting to avoid duplicates.

Be aware that many freebies are only free for a day, so grab them fast!

*Unless you have read them yourself, think they are excellent, and you're not connected to the author in any way.

[Froide]

Happy 2015 everyone!

Cross-posted from the Kindle for Samsung Free Selections thread:

They're here!

These are the January 2015 Samsung Book Deals selections from the Kindle store (in the order in which Amazon presented them). Click on Samsung Book Deals to learn how this works.

• The Garden of Stones (Echoes of Empire Book 1)
  by Mark T. Barnes
  
  Regular Kindle Price: $4.99
  Genres (from BN.com): Science Fiction & Fantasy
  
  

  Overview (from BN.com)
  
  Shortlisted for the 2014 Gemmell Morningstar Award—Best Debut Novel
  
  An uneasy peace has existed since the fall of the Awakened Empire centuries ago. Now the hybrid Avān share the land with the people they once conquered: the star-born humans; the spectral, undead Nomads; and what remains of the Elemental Masters.
  
  With the Empress-in-Shadows an estranged ghost, it is the ancient dynasties of the Great Houses and the Hundred Families that rule. But now civil war threatens to draw all of Shrīan into a vicious struggle sparked by one man’s lust for power, and his drive to cheat death.
  
  Visions have foretold that Corajidin, dying ruler of House Erebus, will not only survive, but rise to rule his people. The wily nobleman seeks to make his destiny certain—by plundering the ruins of his civilization’s past for the arcane science needed to ensure his survival, and by mercilessly eliminating his rivals. But mercenary warrior-mage Indris, scion of the rival House Näsarat, stands most powerfully in the usurper’s bloody path. For it is Indris who reluctantly accepts the task of finding a missing man, the only one able to steer the teetering nation towards peace.

• My First Murder (The Maria Kallio Series Book 1)
  by Leena Lehtolainen (Author), Owen Witesman (Translator)
  
  Regular Kindle Price: $4.99
  Genres (from BN.com): Mystery & Crime, Peoples & Cultures - Fiction
  
  

  Book Description
  Publication Date: December 11, 2012
  
  Twenty-three-year-old law student Maria Kallio is recruited for a temporary position at the Helsinki police department. Sweet-faced but tough and hot-tempered, Maria faces pushback from her new squad – so when a young playboy is murdered at his family’s summer villa, the new detective is out to prove herself.
  
  Found floating facedown at the water’s edge after a night of partying, Tommi Pelatonen appears to have been murdered by one of his closest friends – but why? As Maria discovers, bitter passion and jealousy seethe under the placid surface of the group’s privileged, carefree lifestyle. As Maria uncovers the victim’s unsavory secrets, motives for all seven suspects come to light. Now it’s up to her to untangle the clues before the killer strikes again.
  
  The first book in Leena Lehtolainen’s international bestselling Nordic crime series starring Detective Maria Kallio, My First Murder serves up murder with a slice of life in the Finnish upper crust.

• Shattered Souls (A Caitlyn O'Connell Novel Book 1)
  by Delilah Devlin
  
  Regular Kindle Price $3.99
  Genres (from BN.com): Mystery & Crime, Romance, Science Fiction & Fantasy
  
  

  Book Description
  Publication Date: January 29, 2013
  
  From popular author Delilah Devlin comes the unforgettable heroine, Caitlyn O’Connell—a psychic ex-cop who’s hell-bent on redemption.
  
  Caitlyn O’Connell had it all: a career with the Memphis PD, a passionate marriage, and the satisfaction that her work made a difference in the world. But she also had a secret, a supernatural “gift” that cost her everything. Now she scrapes by as a private investigator, taking cases the cops won’t touch and counting down the minutes until happy hour.
  
  But when Sam Pierce, her former partner and estranged ex-husband, comes to her for help with a bizarre murder case, Cait can’t say no. And not just because Sam is still as irresistibly sexy as he was on the day they met. Something sinister—and demonic—is terrorizing Memphis, leaving a bloody trail of bodies and clues only Cait can read. Together she and Sam will venture into a dark world of magic and unholy terror, hunting a killer who will lead them to the brink of reality as they know it—and back into the thrall of their stormy past. Steamy and suspenseful, Shattered Souls is the pulse-quickening new offering from fan favorite romance author Delilah Devlin.

• Downard-Facing Death (A Matt Bolster Yoga Mystery Book 1)
  by Neal Pollack
  
  Regular Kindle Price: $3.99
  Genres: Mystery & Crime, Fiction
  
  

  Book Description
  Publication Date: September 6, 2012
  
  Blessed with uncanny deductive skills and a blasé disregard for authority, Matt Bolster was a rising LAPD homicide detective by the age of thirty-five. He was also overworked, divorced, near-alcoholic, and miserable. Then, to impress a girl, he agreed to try yoga. And with a single savasana, everything changed.
  
  Now Bolster has traded his badge and gun for a scraggly beard and the life of an itinerant yoga teacher, dabbling in P.I. work to make rent. He mostly handles missing-persons cases, credit-card fraud – nothing too messy. But that’s before Ajoy Chaterjee, the billionaire founder of one of the world’s leading yoga-business empires, is found murdered inside his West L.A. flagship studio. Bolster knows the LAPD doesn’t have a prayer of cracking the secrets of the yoga world. But he does, and he really needs the dough.
  
  Of course, sticking to the principles of the yamas and niyamas during a murder investigation isn’t easy, especially with so many hot women among the suspects. But personal ethics will be the least of Bolster’s problems if the killer finds him first.
  
  Episode List
  This book was initially released in episodes as a Kindle Serial. All episodes are now available for immediate download as a complete book. Learn more about Kindle Serials.

[ATDrake]

Free from the author via KDP Select @ Amazon:

Dragonslayer: Two Short Stories by Resa Nelson (ISFDB), a mini-collection of her high fantasy shorts originally published in the now-defunct Science Fiction Age magazine in 1992 and 1996, which formed the basis of her Dragonslayer series currently out from Mundania Press.

In "The Dragonslayer’s Sword", Astrid the blacksmith struggles to choose between protecting herself from a new dragonslayer’s unwelcome advances and the necessity of keeping his weapons in good shape so he can protect her village from dragons. Her fellow villagers believe the previous dragonslayer has been killed by a dragon, but Astrid knows the real reason he’s gone missing and this knowledge haunts her.

In "The Silver Shoes", Astrid is surprised by a visit from Lenore, a newcomer who acts as if the village’s customs and laws don’t apply to her, leaving her friendless. But when asking Astrid to make a pair of silver shoes for her, Lenore reveals her disturbing past and the true meaning of her request for these shoes.

Free again from the small-press re-publisher Books We Love via KDP Select @ Amazon:

The Leopard's Daughter by Lee Killough (ISFDB, Wikipedia), her African-mythology-based adventure fantasy novel originally out from Warner's Questar imprint in 1987.

In an ancient Africa of verdant Sahara plains, warrior woman Jeneba Karamoke has grown up scorned by her people because her father was a leopard man. When she rescues a party of fellow warriors from cannibalistic monster half-men, she hopes it will finally win acceptance for her. But no...in order to prove she isn't lying about the vanished hero Tomo Silla's part in their capture by the half men she must make Tomo face the tribe. Can she find him, and then survive more monsters, foreign tribes, and a curse laid on a fabled city to bring him back alive?

[itisbomb]

Book 1 & 2 of "Lives of Tao" by Wesley Chu are on sale at Amazon. They can be downloaded for $1.99 each.

The Lives of Tao (Book 1) http://www.amazon.com/Lives-Tao-Wesl...e+lives+of+tao

The Deaths of Tao (Lives of Tao Book 2) http://www.amazon.com/Deaths-Tao-Liv...e+lives+of+tao

[Manabi]

Phoenix Pick's free book of the month for January is An Elephant for Aristotle by L. Sprague de Camp.

"An amazing narrative vehicle for the display of ... a fairly complete composite of the life and times of which the author writes." —The Chicago Daily Tribune

"By hybridizing a Middle-Eastern travelogue with an Alexandrine comedy of manners, the author has produced a specimen only slightly less rare then [sic] elephants in Westchester—to wit, a historical novel with a sense of humor."—The New York Times

What finer way for Alexander the Great to honor his old tutor Aristotle than to send him an actual Indian elephant?

After capturing a magnificent specimen from an Indian ruler, Alexander tasks Leon of Atrax, a cavalry commander, to deliver the animal to Aristotle in Athens. Leon leads a motley crew of companions (and the elephant) from India to Greece, encountering all sorts of dangers and adventures while attempting the long and arduous journey.

Additionally there are two combo deals. The first one is $10+ and includes the above book along with the other four of de Camp's historicals.

The Bronze God of Rhodes

Spoiler:

The Bronze God of Rhodes is written as the memoirs of Chares of Lindos, a Greek sculptor born on the island of Rhodes. A pupil of Lysippos, Chares eventually built the Colossus of Rhodes, now considered to be one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

These memoirs present the trials and tribulations (some of them hilarious) of the sculptor as he undertakes various projects and is forced into a number of adventures, particularly in Ptolemaic Egypt.

This is the second historical novel that L. Sprague de Camp wrote, drawing upon his extensive and detailed historical knowledge of the period.

The Dragon of the Ishtar Gate

Spoiler:

Bessas of Zariaspa is a young officer in the Immortals regiment, sworn to protect and obey his King at all costs. The King wishes immortality and to that end tasks Bessas to find items that make an immortality potion, including the blood of a dragon and the ear of a king.

The Dragon of the Ishtar Gate is a swashbuckling historical novel with larger-than-life characters, set in a detailed historical background that only a scholar such as de Camp can create.

This is the third historical novel L. Sprague de Camp wrote, drawing upon his extensive and detailed historical knowledge of the period.

The Arrows of Hercules

Spoiler:

Set in the time of Dionysios I of Syracuse, at the beginning of the 4th century BC, The Arrows of Hercules tells the tale of Zopyros of Tarentum, an engineer who invents an improved type of catapult.

He is quickly drafted by Dionysios into Syracuse's war efforts against Carthage, which sets him on a series of adventures including a battle against Etruscan pirates and a kidnapping in Carthage.

L. Sprague's meticulous attention to historical accuracy makes this a remarkable read which entertains as much as it teaches us about fascinating events that shaped the course of history.

"Exciting and quite believable adventures." —Classical World

"Rousing piece of fiction ... pace is rapid and unrelenting." —The Arizona Republic

"Highly Recommended ... intriguing novel." —Library Journal

The Golden Wind

Spoiler:

The Golden Wind is the last of the five classic historicals de Camp wrote (both historically and chronologically). The novel tells of the early adventures of Eudoxus of Cyzicus and Hippalus in their original voyages from Egypt to India by sea.

Eudoxus was a Greek navigator who is credited with exploring and mapping the Arabian sea for Egyptian ruler Ptolemy VIII, and Hippalus is, according to legend, the captain of Eudoxus’ ship during these explorations.

Following the successful exploration of the route to India, Eudoxus decides to break the Egyptian monopoly on trade with India by sailing around Africa, and encounters a myriad of different adventures and misfortunes as their ship attempts to circumnavigate the great continent.

"A tale of high adventure, rich in historical lore and erudite in the telling. Of Mr. de Camp's ... novels, this may well be the most ambitious and quite possibly the best." —Publishers Weekly

The second deal is $15+ and includes all of the above novels, plus three more de Camp novels.

The Glory That Was

Spoiler:

A true tour de force for de Camp, The Glory That Was brings together many of the themes the author excelled in writing about, including time travel and alternate history.

Earth in the twenty-seventh century is ruled by a constitutional monarchy, though both the World Emperor and his Prime Minister have plans to assume greater power by neutralizing the other. In the power struggle that follows, the Emperor is ceded total control of Greece for a secret experiment that has Greece cut off from the rest of the world by a force-field and people of Greek descent being kidnapped around the whole world.

When the wife of a prominent classical scholar disappears, he vows to get her back and he and his friend plan a way inside the barrier surrounding Greece. But they are hardly prepared for what they find inside ... a Greece reverted back to ancient times.

Rogue Queen

Spoiler:

Rogue Queen is a ground-breaking novel by L. Sprague de Camp that was one of the first science fiction books to deal with sexual themes, paving the way for more daring works by future authors.

Part of the Viagens Interplanetarias series, the story takes place on a planet circling the star Lalande 21185, also known as Ormazd. When humans arrive on the planet they find a hive-like society with a hyper-fertile queen being serviced by male drones.

All the other females of the species are infertile, or so it is believed. However, when one of the worker females rebels she discovers that the workers' infertility is largely a result of the diet they follow.

Lest Darkness Fall & Related Stories
(Related Stories by Frederik Pohl, David Drake and S.M. Stirling.)

Spoiler:

Rarely do books have such a great influence on a genre as Lest Darkness Fall has had on science fiction. Frequently quoted as one of the “favorite” books of many of the masters of the field, this book by L. Sprague de Camp helped establish time-travel as a solid sub-genre of science fiction.

An indication of the influence and longevity of the book is the number of best-selling writers who have written stories in direct response to, or been influenced by, Lest Darkness Fall. This new volume includes three such stories by Frederik Pohl, David Drake and S. M. Stirling written over a period of forty-three years—a testament to the timelessness of the book.

Similar, thematically, to Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, the book tells the tale of Martin Padway who, as he is walking around in modern Rome, is suddenly transported though time to 6th Century Rome.

Once in ancient Rome, Padway (now Martinus Paduei, Quaestor), embarks on an ambitious project of single-handedly changing history.

L. Sprague de Camp was a student of history (and the author of a number of popular works on the subject). In Lest Darkness Fall he combines his extensive knowledge of the workings of ancient Rome with his extraordinary imagination to create one of the best books of time travel ever written.

“Endlessly fascinating. The author knows a lot about Gothic Italy and almost as much about human nature, and he has a real gift for making the people of those days come alive.” —The New York Times

“Lest Darkness Fall [is] one of the best time travel stories ever written …” —A Reader’s Guide to Science Fiction

“Good fun.” —The New Yorker

“A work of real and stimulating imagination.” —Saturday Review of Literature

All the bundles are listed on the same page as the freebie

[specficwriter]

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. LeGuin for $0.99 US. Also at B&N, KOBO, and Google.


http://www.amazon.com/The-Lathe-Of-H.../dp/1416556966

[crich70]

The Lion, The witch, and the Wardrobe is currently $1.99 at Kobo. I don't know how long it will stay that low.

Kobo US

[gweeks]

Originally Posted by crich70

The Lion, The witch, and the Wardrobe is currently $1.99 at Kobo. I don't know how long it will stay that low.

Kobo US

It's free in Canada and any other life+50 countries.

http://fadedpage.com/csearch.php?aut...e%20Staples%29

Greg

[pdurrant]

And only another 19 years (2034) until it's out of copyright in the UK and other life+70 countries.

But not in the public domain in the US until 2046!

[bgalbrecht]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

And only another 19 years (2034) until it's out of copyright in the UK and other life+70 countries.

But not in the public domain in the US until 2046!

We all thank Disney and the late Sonny Bono daily.

[sinoue]

The Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence is $1.99 at Amazon US. Nominated for the David Gemmel Morningstar Award in 2012. This is book 1 of the Broken Empire trilogy.

Amazon US

Synopsis:
When he was nine, he watched his mother and brother killed before him. By the time he was thirteen, he was the leader of a band of bloodthirsty thugs. By fifteen, he intends to be king...

It's time for Prince Honorous Jorg Ancrath to return to the castle he turned his back on, to take what's rightfully his. Since the day he was hung on the thorns of a briar patch and forced to watch Count Renar's men slaughter his mother and young brother, Jorg has been driven to vent his rage. Life and death are no more than a game to him-and he has nothing left to lose.

But treachery awaits him in his father's castle. Treachery and dark magic. No matter how fierce, can the will of one young man conquer enemies with power beyond his imagining?

[ATDrake]

Free from the author via KDP Select @ Amazon:

Bernardo's House by Hugo & Nebula Award-winner James Patrick Kelly (ISFDB, Wikipedia), one of my favourite writers for what I've read of his short stories, of which you may know best his "Think Like A Dinosaur", which was also adapted into a The Outer Limits episode. This is a short piece about the ramifications of domestic AI, originally out as a chapterbook from the now-defunct Fictionwise in 2004.

A domotic story, a conscious living house who speaks and shows, through the objects that fill her, the need to be inhabited, to be eternally possessed by a tenant.

Get ready for an unusual visit to "Bernardo's House", where the topic of home automation is inseparably interwoven with Artificial Intelligence: what would happen if such a House would lose her "beloved tenant", and if in his place - with a totally unexpected visit - came a strange figure? Unknown to the House, which will question each and every certainty of her life.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

Bernardo's House by Hugo & Nebula Award-winner James Patrick Kelly (ISFDB, Wikipedia),

Also free at Amazon UK.


Thanks!

[ATDrake]

Free from the author via KDP Select @ Amazon:

A Winter of Rolling Thunder by Resa Nelson (ISFDB), a short story about a friendship in a suddenly-altered world, originally published in Tomorrow SF magazine in 1997.

Every time Elaine has a new boyfriend, she goes out of her way to make time for her best friend Meg. But when the tables are turned and Meg begins a new relationship, Elaine feels left out in the cold.

During a normal workday, sudden changes startle everyone. A white light flashes in the sky. A shock wave shudders through the earth. Traffic freezes because car engines fail, and elevators won’t work. Everyone panics, many believing a bomb has been dropped and that nuclear winter has begun. People race to find the fastest way home to their loved ones.

Elaine finds herself lapsing in and out of consciousness. Every time she awakes, the world has shifted in a new, surrealistic way. Strangely colored storm clouds race across the sky. Some people float up and down in the air. Nothing makes sense. And yet, every time the world changes, she gains a better understanding of what kind of friend Meg really is.

[Little.Egret]

And since it's past midnight my preorder freebie from November has arrived

Some of the Best from Tor.com: 2014: A Tor.Com Original

A collection of some of the best original short fiction published on Tor.com in 2014. Includes stories by Charlie Jane Anders, Dale Bailey, Kelly Barnhill, Richard Bowes, Marie Brennan, Adam Christopher, John Chu, A. M. Dellamonica, Ruthanna Emrys, Max Gladstone, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Nicola Griffith, Maria Dahvana Headley, Pasi Ilmari Jaskääläinen, Yoon Ha Lee, Ken Liu, Seanan Mcguire, Daniel José Older, Mary Rickert, John Scalzi, Veronica Schanoes, Genevieve Valentine, Jo Walton, Kai Ashante Wilson, Ray Wood, and Isabel Yap.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00P5JNNBE/

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00P5JNNBE/
http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B00P5JNNBE/