Free/Bargain Science Fiction/Fantasy February 2013

[GeoffR]

Seems no one has started a February thread yet, so I'll have a go.


The February Phoenix Pick free book was mentioned in this thread.


I'm not sure if this one is new but I didn't find it mentioned yet:

A classic work from Walter Jon Williams, “Daddy’s World” earned the Nebula Award for Novelette in 2001. Little Jamie lives with his family in an eerily perfect environment, entertained by characters from literature, sung to sleep at night by the Woman in the Moon. But cracks begin to appear in Jamie’s world that reveal rifts within his family, and he begins to see the terrifying reality behind the walls of his life, and to understand that perfection has its price . . .

Free at Kobo and Smashwords, $0.99 elsewhere.

[pdops]

Thanks.

[NightBird]

Thanks for starting this thread.

Hellhole by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson is $2.99 from Macmillan. First book in Hellhole Trilogy. Reduced from $7.99.

Kobo B&N

Only the most desperate colonists dare to make a new home on Hellhole. Reeling from a recent asteroid impact, tortured with horrific storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and churning volcanic eruptions, the planet is a dumping ground for undesirables, misfits, and charlatans…but also a haven for dreamers and independent pioneers.

Against all odds, an exiled general named Adolphus has turned Hellhole into a place of real opportunity for the desperate colonists who call the planet their home. While the colonists are hard at work developing the planet, General Adolphus secretly builds alliances with the leaders of the other Deep Zone worlds, forming a clandestine coalition against the tyrannical, fossilized government responsible for their exile.

What no one knows is this: the planet Hellhole, though damaged and volatile, hides an amazing secret. Deep beneath its surface lies the remnants of an obliterated alien civilization and the buried memories of its unrecorded past that, when unearthed, could tear the galaxy apart.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by NightBird

Thanks for starting this thread.

Hellhole by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson is $2.99 from Macmillan. First book in Hellhole Trilogy. Reduced from $7.99.

Kobo B&N

Sounds interesting. But no-one wants to sell it to me. Looks like I need to emove.

[NightBird]

Kindle Daily Deal today is Blackcollar by Timothy Zahn for $1.99 from Open Road.

The blackcollars—an elite, genetically enhanced fighting force—may be humanity’s only hope

Decades after a successful invasion of Earth and the Terran Democratic Empire by the Ryqril—hostile, leathery-skinned aliens—resistance fighter Allen Caine is training for an undercover mission. He will assume the identity of an aide to the senate—part of the government that colludes with the invaders. But when the mission begins earlier than planned, Caine finds himself stuck on the off-planet outpost of Plinry with no idea of what awaits. He’s responsible for the most important mission undertaken by the resistance in twenty years, and when the operation goes awry, Caine’s only hope is to locate Plinry’s so-called blackcollars—the elusive, martial arts–trained guerilla force whose wartime resistance efforts are legendary. With his life and the freedom of everyone in the TDE on the line, Caine’s success will depend on whether or not he can find them. . . .

[Bookatarian]

**Thanks to author Robert J. Sawyer for originally posting this news over in his Facebook feed.

For a limited time, Stupefying Stories is offering a free eBook download, in various formats, of The 2013 Campbellian Pre-Reading Anthology containing short stories by some of the candidates for the John W. Campbell award.

You can read more about it here, as well as download the books.

[NightBird]

Today's SF Kindle Daily Deal is Ira Levin's This Perfect Day for $1.99.

By the author of Rosemary’s Baby, a horrifying journey into a future only Ira Levin could imagine

Considered one of the great dystopian novels—alongside Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange and Aldous Huxley’s A Brave New World—Ira Levin’s frightening glimpse into the future continues to fascinate readers even forty years after publication.

The story is set in a seemingly perfect global society. Uniformity is the defining feature; there is only one language and all ethnic groups have been eugenically merged into one race called “The Family.” The world is ruled by a central computer called UniComp that has been programmed to keep every single human on the surface of the earth in check. People are continually drugged by means of regular injections so that they will remain satisfied and cooperative. They are told where to live, when to eat, whom to marry, when to reproduce. Even the basic facts of nature are subject to the UniComp’s will—men do not grow facial hair, women do not develop breasts, and it only rains at night.

With a vision as frightening as any in the history of the science fiction genre, This Perfect Day is one of Ira Levin’s most haunting novels.

[pdops]

Originally Posted by Bookatarian

For a limited time, Stupefying Stories is offering a free eBook download, in various formats, of The 2013 Campbellian Pre-Reading Anthology containing short stories by some of the candidates for the John W. Campbell award.

You can read more about it here, as well as download the books.

Thanks.

[NightBird]

From John Jakes, who mostly writes historical fiction (The Kent Chronicles), but who has also written some SF, a 2-book set from Open Road, On Wheels * Six-Gun Planet: Two Novels of the Future , for $3.99, or $4.39 at Kobo, $2.86 with coupon code Comeback3102_3, which expires today.

Two visions of the world gone mad, from master storyteller John Jakes

In On Wheels, the United States has become so overpopulated that a tenth of its people have no home. Instead, they spend their lives on the highway. With all of the dangers of the road, dropping below forty miles per hour would mean certain death—even for men like Billy Spoiler. The clans of the open road spend their lives battling each other for control of the freeway, and the Spoilers are no exception. They never give up, never pull over, and never take their hand off the throttle.

On the colony world of Six-Gun Planet, cowboys ride robot horses. In an effort to escape the corrupting influence of technology, the people of this strange, isolated world they call Missouri have reset the clock to 1880, building a civilization of main streets, saloons, and bordellos, where it is always high noon. Reluctant gunslinger Zak Randolf thinks the whole set-up is ridiculous, but he goes along with it because there’s good money in playing the part of a western hero. When notorious gunslinger Buffalo Yung challenges him to a duel, though, Zak gets serious. Missouri’s horses may be fake, but its bullets are definitely real.

[carld]

Originally Posted by Bookatarian

**Thanks to author Robert J. Sawyer for originally posting this news over in his Facebook feed.

For a limited time, Stupefying Stories is offering a free eBook download, in various formats, of The 2013 Campbellian Pre-Reading Anthology containing short stories by some of the candidates for the John W. Campbell award.

Got it. Thanks!

[DrNefario]

I've just spotted that A A Attanasio's The Serpent and the Grail is free at amazon uk. I'd guess the same is true for the .com version.

This is part of the Perilous Order of Camelot series we've had several of before.

[hwlester]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

I've just spotted that A A Attanasio's The Serpent and the Grail is free at amazon uk. I'd guess the same is true for the .com version.

This is part of the Perilous Order of Camelot series we've had several of before.

You are correct. Amazon US

[treadlightly]

All of Vicki Pettersson's Sign of the Zodiac series are 0.99 each today, starting with The Scent of Shadows at amazon.com.

[koland]

Originally Posted by treadlightly

All of Vicki Pettersson's Sign of the Zodiac series are 0.99 each today, starting with The Scent of Shadows at amazon.com.

Long time bargain snaggers should have the bonus edition of the first in the series in their libraries, as it was free in May 2010.

[NightBird]

Here's a real genre buster: SF/fantasy/horror/thriller free from Evil Jester Tears of No Return by David Bernstein. It has aliens, vampires, and vampire hunters. I don't know how much longer this will be free as it is from yesterday. UK

When infected by the brain of an extraterrestrial, Karen discovers, among other bizarre powers, the ability to read minds. As she tries to grasp her situation, a secret branch of the military, devoted to paranormal and supernatural phenomenon, starts their dogged pursuit. They will stop at nothing to catch her, dead or alive, because Karen is contagious with a virus they hope to control. A virus that, if spread, would end the world as we know it.

On the run, Karen meets Morgan, an ex-agent of the team that's on her tail, a vampire-turned-vampire hunter. Together, they struggle to stop the government from seizing the virus, a fate worse than contagion. A future of chaos, from which there is no return.