Octopus Overlords

On the off chance you want to read up on that Expanse show everyone is talking about, the first book is on sale again today for $3.99 - Leviathan Wakes. I believe this book is Season 1 and part of Season 2 of the TV show (currently in Season 3).

You want that book. I'm halfway through book 3 and haven't been let down yet.

Also, there's a prequel novella, Drive, on SyFy's site for free. Covers the story of the Epstein drive.

Tor.com’s eBook of the Month Club



Anyone know if this book is good?

It's a 4.4 on Amazon with 800+ reviews. It's also the first of a trilogy.

NPR review

Schwab's backdrop involves four parallel worlds with four parallel Londons, each with a different history, ruler, and society. Only the Antari — the increasingly rare people born with magic in their blood — can naturally traverse these worlds, so they serve as liaisons between the rulers of the three surviving Londons. The book's opening protagonist, an Antari named Kell, thinks of them by color: Grey London, a mundane place where magic is scarce; Red London, his home, a warm place of copious magic; White London, a brutal world starving for resources, magic included; and Black London, an obliterated world consumed by greed for magic.

$1.99

Amazon First Reads are posted. None of them stand out as worth trying.

Yeah, not a strong selection. I'm going with the children's book as that's the one I'll most likely read of this group and I can't say no to free.

I dutifully pick up my free eBook each month, but I don't think that I've read any of them. Mostly light on the history non-fiction books that I tend to prefer.

I did pick up the historical fiction book this month, which will go right into the "never read" list.

I stopped bothering with them when I got suckered into a romance masquerading as a historically WW2 novel. Unfortunately I'm just not wired to abandon a book I start, so I plowed through the whole thing. Never again!

I'll often grab a thriller or crime fiction book if there's one that doesn't sound too annoying. They're usually light, quick reads, and the price is right. They're typically not great, but every once in a while I grab a surprisingly good one.

El Guapo wrote: ↑Mon Jul 02, 2018 3:39 pm ...on the history non-fiction books that I tend to prefer.

I don't know if you get Amazon deal newsletters, but I got one today that notified me of a bunch of deals on non-fiction history. Here's the link. Hopefully the link works for you.

Tor.com’s eBook of the Month Club

Sold.

Totally missed that -thanks for the share!

I bought it, because I can't remember if I ever read them or not. It's worth $3 not to have to keep renewing my local library's digital copy.

One I haven't seen as part of a daily deal before (that I can remember), Marion Zimmer Bradley's Mists of Avalon. For those unaware, it'a re-telling of the Arthurian legend through the eyes of all the women in the story. I know many other stories (Wicked, The Vampire Lestat) have used the same basic idea, but this was the first I can remember learning about. For anyone with even a passing interest in King Arthur, it's a great read.

I just finished the Shannara trilogy. I had read the first book in high school and remembered dismissing it as Tolkien rip-off garbage.

While I still very much saw the influence on the re-read, I was able to enjoy it more as just traditional high fantasy. The good news is that the second and third books are much different as Brooks finds his own fantasy voice.

It's a very simple series when compared to more current fantasy novels, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes a fantasy novel where you don't have to remember 100 characters is a refreshing change of pace. I really enjoyed them and plan on plowing through the other 30 or so books.

ColdSteel wrote: ↑Fri Jun 01, 2018 7:04 pm Will Wight's Traveler's Gate trilogy is free today on Kindle. He's a fantastic author and this is a steal. Great series. Get it here!

Thanks! Finished the trilogy last night. It turned out better than I expected for a free e-book.

Altered Carbon (Book 1 of 3) is $2.99, right now. No idea for how long. Doesn't appear to be tied to Prime Day pricing.

Sold.

Prime Day Promo: Prime members get 30% of the purchase price as credit toward their next Kindle eBook. Only valid on the first eligible purchase. A confirmation email will be sent once the credit has been applied. See details

They're also offering a 75% credit towards your next Kindle eBook if you buy a book on their Top Sellers list:

Step 1
Buy one Kindle eBook on this week's Most Read or Most Sold lists below
Step 2
Your credit will be automatically applied to your account
Step 3
Use your credit towards any Kindle eBook by July 31

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Mon Jul 16, 2018 3:09 pm Altered Carbon (Book 1 of 3) is $2.99, right now. No idea for how long. Doesn't appear to be tied to Prime Day pricing.

The other two books average $12.50 each!?!? Are they like 1500 pages long?

Nah, it's part of their "crack dealer" strategy. Sell the first one at a loss and hope people like it enough to buy the rest. Here's another - book one of the Death Gate Cycle - Dragon Wing is currently $2.99, normally $8. I own the actual series, but how can I resist this pricing? It's really good!

stessier wrote: ↑Mon Jul 16, 2018 4:36 pm

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Mon Jul 16, 2018 3:09 pm Altered Carbon (Book 1 of 3) is $2.99, right now. No idea for how long. Doesn't appear to be tied to Prime Day pricing.

The other two books average $12.50 each!?!? Are they like 1500 pages long?

$12.50 doesn't seem crazy for a book, ebook or normal. Though I know that we're all acclimated to eBook deals.

Ben Bova's Grand Tour SciFi Series: Mars, Moonrise, Moonwar, Return to Mars is $2.99.

I remember reading moonrise and moonwar and enjoying it.

El Guapo wrote: ↑Mon Jul 16, 2018 5:22 pm

stessier wrote: ↑Mon Jul 16, 2018 4:36 pm

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Mon Jul 16, 2018 3:09 pm Altered Carbon (Book 1 of 3) is $2.99, right now. No idea for how long. Doesn't appear to be tied to Prime Day pricing.

The other two books average $12.50 each!?!? Are they like 1500 pages long?

$12.50 doesn't seem crazy for a book, ebook or normal. Though I know that we're all acclimated to eBook deals.

ebooks should never cost more than a paperback (imo). And certainly not 15 year old books. Craziness.

Moliere wrote: ↑Sun Jul 01, 2018 10:39 am Amazon First Reads are posted. None of them stand out as worth trying.

Good news! You're not limited to just picking one book you don't want, you can have them all for Prime Day.

stessier wrote: ↑Tue Jul 17, 2018 8:46 am ebooks should never cost more than a paperback (imo). And certainly not 15 year old books. Craziness.

I'm with you - which is why I always share the deals.

Archinerd wrote: ↑Tue Jul 17, 2018 2:56 pm

Moliere wrote: ↑Sun Jul 01, 2018 10:39 am Amazon First Reads are posted. None of them stand out as worth trying.

Good news! You're not limited to just picking one book you don't want, you can have them all for Prime Day.

It's funny, I just dutifully went and picked up all of the other free First Reads eBooks, even though I have essentially no interest in any of them. But they're free! Who knows, maybe I'll wind up stuck on a desert island with a kindle, ample food supplies, and an outlet.

For those who might have been in a cave somewhere, it's still Amazon Prime Day for a few more hours and Kindles are on sale. I picked up another Paperwhite, this time for my wife, so she doesn't have to keep borrowing mine

I didn't care for it (or the author's writing style), but I know that Perdido Street Station was highly regarded when it was released. Today you can own it for $1.99 on your Kindle.

Comixology has a lot of notable sales going on. One of them, from Dark Horse comics, has collections (including some 400+ page omnibuses) for $4.

Of note, for me, is that they have all the EC Archives collections that they have available (not all of them are available in electronic form) for $4 each - well worth it if you like 50's horror comics (as well as sci-fi, war, crime, etc).

Defiant wrote: ↑Thu Jul 19, 2018 2:48 pm Comixology has a lot of notable sales going on. One of them, from Dark Horse comics, has collections (including some 400+ page omnibuses) for $4.

Of note, for me, is that they have all the EC Archives collections that they have available (not all of them are available in electronic form) for $4 each - well worth it if you like 50's horror comics (as well as sci-fi, war, crime, etc).

I never really got into superhero comics as a kid for some weird reason, but I did read quite a few horror ones at a probably too young age. I would LOVE to reminisce and read some of those, but have NO idea how to even go about looking for them. Any hints? The only thing I can tell you is that I would have been reading them in the late 70's, but of course that doesn't necessarily mean they were published then. Also....QUITE gory, if that helps.

Defiant wrote: ↑Thu Jul 19, 2018 2:48 pm Comixology has a lot of notable sales going on. One of them, from Dark Horse comics, has collections (including some 400+ page omnibuses) for $4.

Of note, for me, is that they have all the EC Archives collections that they have available (not all of them are available in electronic form) for $4 each - well worth it if you like 50's horror comics (as well as sci-fi, war, crime, etc).

Are these all eBooks (eComics)?

Carpet_pissr wrote: ↑Fri Jul 20, 2018 2:24 pm

I never really got into superhero comics as a kid for some weird reason, but I did read quite a few horror ones at a probably too young age. I would LOVE to reminisce and read some of those, but have NO idea how to even go about looking for them. Any hints? The only thing I can tell you is that I would have been reading them in the late 70's, but of course that doesn't necessarily mean they were published then. Also....QUITE gory, if that helps.

I'm no expert, but here's my thoughts... If it was gory, than presumably it was reprints (or possibly originals) of early 50s comics, prior to the comics code, and if they were reprints, there's a good chance they were EC comics, since there were apparently a number of reprints of some of the issues in the 70s, although in some cases, those reprints collected stories from different issues, rather than just a copy of an issue. And EC is generally regarded as the best of the horror comics.

The Horror comics that EC published were:

Tales from the Crypt
The Vault of Horror
The Haunt of Fear

If you wanted to find the individual issues/stories you read, that might require more work - do you remember any of the cover art?
Maybe you could take a look through here, here and here and see if you recognize anything.


(Other stories, like their crime comics and their war comics could occasionally be gory too. And all that led to congressional hearings on the issue and the comics code to try to put a stop to such comics)

For a brief guide to the rest of the series that are available:

Sci-Fi comics: Weird Science, Weird Fantasy, Incredible Science-Fiction
War/Adventure Comics: Two-Fisted Tales
Crime Comics: Crime Suspenstories
Shock Suspenstories: A mix of different genres
Parody: Panic

El Guapo wrote: ↑Fri Jul 20, 2018 2:51 pm

Defiant wrote: ↑Thu Jul 19, 2018 2:48 pm Comixology has a lot of notable sales going on. One of them, from Dark Horse comics, has collections (including some 400+ page omnibuses) for $4.

Of note, for me, is that they have all the EC Archives collections that they have available (not all of them are available in electronic form) for $4 each - well worth it if you like 50's horror comics (as well as sci-fi, war, crime, etc).

Are these all eBooks (eComics)?

Yep, comixology has electronic versions of comics (if paired with your amazon account, for many comics/graphic novels, you can buy the kindle version and get a comixology version as well (it will say Kindle & Comixology on the Amazon page) Amazon doesn't appear to have these sales going on at the moment, though, only comixology.

One benefit of the Comixology app is that, IMO, it handles comics better, like being able to easily/automatically zoom into panels if your display is small.

I didn't pick up any of the EC comics (although I love them), but the sale did persuade me to get a Comixology Unlimited free trial. I had Marvel Unlimited for a time which was great, but I just wasn't a big enough Marvel fan to justify the monthly cost. So far I'm enjoying the indie/horror stuff on Comixology a bit more, and it's cheaper to boot.

Just browsing it probably doesn't have as much pure volume as Marvel, but I think the variety and the number of big multi-volume sets will keep me entertained for awhile.

Books 1-5 of the Sword of Truth series have been on sale at various times on Amazon before, but now the rest of the series is on sale as well. I know people seem to have a love/hate relationship with Goodkind, but for anyone looking to complete their digital bookshelf, this seems like a good deal

Book 6: Faith of the Fallen for $2.99

Book 7: The Pillars of Creation for $2.99

Book 8: Naked Empire for $2.99

Book 9: Chainfire for $2.99

Book 10: Phantom for $2.99

Book 11: Confessor for $2.99

Book 12: The Omen Machine for $2.99

Book 13: The Third Kingdom for $2.99

Book 14: Severed Souls for $2.99

Book 15: Warheart for $2.99

I think that's all of them...

20 free titles for Prime members, including the awesome latest from Neil Tyson.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/s?tag=android ... =bookshelf