More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can now download Leigh Bardugo's Ninth House for only 2.99$ by following this Amazon Associate link. There is a price match in Canada.

Here's the blurb:

The mesmerizing adult debut from Leigh Bardugo, a tale of power, privilege, dark magic, and murder set among the Ivy League elite.

Galaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug-dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. In fact, by age twenty, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she’s thrown her life away. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world’s most prestigious universities on a full ride. What’s the catch, and why her?

Still searching for answers, Alex arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. Their eight windowless “tombs” are the well-known haunts of the rich and powerful, from high-ranking politicos to Wall Street’s biggest players. But their occult activities are more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive. They tamper with forbidden magic. They raise the dead. And, sometimes, they prey on the living.

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can now get your hands on the digital edition of Neal Stephenson's excellent Quicksilver for only 4.49$ by following this Amazon Associate link.

Here's the blurb:

Quicksilver is the story of Daniel Waterhouse, fearless thinker and conflicted Puritan, pursuing knowledge in the company of the greatest minds of Baroque-era Europe, in a chaotic world where reason wars with the bloody ambitions of the mighty, and where catastrophe, natural or otherwise, can alter the political landscape overnight.

It is a chronicle of the breathtaking exploits of "Half-Cocked Jack" Shaftoe -- London street urchin turned swashbuckling adventurer and legendary King of the Vagabonds -- risking life and limb for fortune and love while slowly maddening from the pox.

And it is the tale of Eliza, rescued by Jack from a Turkish harem to become spy, confidante, and pawn of royals in order to reinvent Europe through the newborn power of finance.

A gloriously rich, entertaining, and endlessly inventive novel that brings a remarkable age and its momentous events to vivid life, Quicksilver is an extraordinary achievement from one of the most original and important literary talents of our time.

And it's just the beginning ...

This week's New York Times Bestsellers (May 25th)

In hardcover:

Stephen King's If It Bleeds maintains its position at number 3. For more info about this title, follow these Amazon Associate links: Canada, USA, Europe.

In paperback:

Stephen King's The Outsider maintains its position at number 15 (trade paperback).

UK cover art and blurb for Joe Abercrombie's THE TROUBLE WITH PEACE

Joe Abercrombie just unveiled the UK cover art and blurb for his upcoming The Trouble With Peace on his website.

Here's the blurb:

Savine dan Glokta, once Adua’s most powerful investor, finds her judgement, fortune and reputation in tatters. But she still has all her ambitions, and no scruple will be permitted to stand in her way.

For heroes like Leo dan Brock and Stour Nightfall, only happy with swords drawn, peace is an ordeal to end as soon as possible. But grievances must be nursed, power seized and allies gathered first, while Rikke must master the power of the Long Eye . . . before it kills her.

The Breakers still lurk in the shadows, plotting to free the common man from his shackles, while noblemen bicker for their own advantage. Orso struggles to find a safe path through the maze of knives that is politics, only for his enemies, and his debts, to multiply.

The old ways are swept aside, and the old leaders with them, but those who would seize the reins of power will find no alliance, no friendship, and no peace, lasts forever.

For more info about this title, follow these Amazon Associate links: Canada, USA.

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can now download Guy Gavriel Kay's A Brightness Long Ago for only 2.99$ by following this Amazon Associate link. There is a price match in Canada.

Here's the blurb:

International bestselling author Guy Gavriel Kay’s latest work is set in a world evoking early Renaissance Italy and offers an extraordinary cast of characters whose lives come together through destiny, love, and ambition.

In a chamber overlooking the nighttime waterways of a maritime city, a man looks back on his youth and the people who shaped his life. Danio Cerra’s intelligence won him entry to a renowned school even though he was only the son of a tailor. He took service at the court of a ruling count–and soon learned why that man was known as the Beast.

Danio’s fate changed the moment he saw and recognized Adria Ripoli as she entered the count’s chambers one autumn night–intending to kill. Born to power, Adria had chosen, instead of a life of comfort, one of danger–and freedom. Which is how she encounters Danio in a perilous time and place.

Vivid figures share the unfolding story. Among them: a healer determined to defy her expected lot; a charming, frivolous son of immense wealth; a powerful religious leader more decadent than devout; and, affecting all these lives and many more, two larger-than-life mercenary commanders, lifelong adversaries, whose rivalry puts a world in the balance.

A Brightness Long Ago offers both compelling drama and deeply moving reflections on the nature of memory, the choices we make in life, and the role played by the turning of Fortune’s wheel.

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can now download Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness for only 2.99$ by following this Amazon Associate link. There is a price match in Canada.

Here's the blurb:

Ursula K. Le Guin's groundbreaking work of science fiction—winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards.

A lone human ambassador is sent to Winter, an alien world without sexual prejudice, where the inhabitants can change their gender whenever they choose. His goal is to facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the strange, intriguing culture he encounters...

Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction.

This week's New York Times Bestsellers (May 18th)

In hardcover:

Stephen King's If It Bleeds is down one position, ending the week at number 3. For more info about this title, follow these Amazon Associate links: Canada, USA, Europe.

In paperback:

Stephen King's The Outsider returns at number 15 (trade paperback).

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

Today only, you can download Carlos Ruiz Zafon's excellent The Shadow of the Wind, for only 2.99$ by following this Amazon Associate link. There is a price match in Canada.

This could well be the best book I've ever read!

Here's the blurb:

Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer’s son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julián Carax. But when he sets out to find the author’s other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax’s books in existence. Soon Daniel’s seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona’s darkest secrets--an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love.

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can now download Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Dragons of Autumn Twilight for only 1.99$ by following this Amazon Associate link.

Here's the blurb:

Once merely creatures of legend, the dragons have returned to Krynn. But with their arrival comes the departure of the old gods—and all healing magic. As war threatens to engulf the land, a group of lifelong friends reunite for an adventure that will change their lives and shape their world forever . . .

When Tanis, Sturm, Caramon, Raistlin, Flint, and Tasslehoff see a woman use a blue crystal staff to heal a villager, they wonder if it's a sign the gods have not abandoned them after all. Fueled by this glimmer of hope, the Companions ban together to uncover the truth behind the gods' absence—though they aren't the only ones with an interest in the staff. The Seekers, a new religious order, wants the artifact for their own ends, believing it will help them replace the gods and overtake the continent of Ansalon. Now, the Companions must assume the unlikely roles of heroes if they hope to prevent the staff from falling into the hands of darkness.

The Light Brigade

Given how much I enjoyed Kameron Hurley's Apocalypse Nyx in 2018 and her collection of short stories, Meet Me in the Future, in 2019, I was eager to sink my teeth into the author's latest novel-length project. Both of these works demonstrated yet again just how gifted and unique an author Hurley truly is, so I was looking forward to reading The Light Brigade.

And I'm pleased to report that the novel is another gritty and quality science fiction yarn with its own take on time-travel.

Here's the blurb:

From the Hugo Award­­–winning author of The Stars Are Legion comes a brand-new science fiction thriller about a futuristic war during which soldiers are broken down into light in order to get them to the front lines on Mars.

They said the war would turn us into light.
I wanted to be counted among the heroes who gave us this better world.

The Light Brigade: it’s what soldiers fighting the war against Mars call the ones who come back…different. Grunts in the corporate corps get busted down into light to travel to and from interplanetary battlefronts. Everyone is changed by what the corps must do in order to break them down into light. Those who survive learn to stick to the mission brief—no matter what actually happens during combat.

Dietz, a fresh recruit in the infantry, begins to experience combat drops that don’t sync up with the platoon’s. And Dietz’s bad drops tell a story of the war that’s not at all what the corporate brass want the soldiers to think is going on.

Is Dietz really experiencing the war differently, or is it combat madness? Trying to untangle memory from mission brief and survive with sanity intact, Dietz is ready to become a hero—or maybe a villain; in war it’s hard to tell the difference.

A worthy successor to classic stories like Downbelow Station, Starship Troopers, and The Forever War, The Light Brigade is award-winning author Kameron Hurley’s gritty time-bending take on the future of war.

Mega-corporations now rule the Earth. Known as the Big Six, they are at war with colonists from Mars. These Martians, human beings whose separatist movement saw them go their own way years before, have rebelled and returned home to our planet, only to unleash a shocking attack that vaporized Sao Paulo. Countless young men and women are being recruited into the corporate armies to be turned into light and transported to Mars and various locations on Earth to engage the enemy. Such is the premise of Hurley's military science fiction tale.

The Light Brigade features the first person narrative of Dietz, a typical idealistic female recruit. She's a girl from Sao Paulo with a troubled background who wants to go to war to make a difference and make the Martians pay for destroying her home. Every soldiers experiences the light jumps in his or her own way, but things are radically different for Dietz. Her first drop with earn her the nickname Bad Luck Dietz and subsequent jumps only get weirder. As impossible as it sounds, it appears that she is getting beamed to different futures and at disparate spots across the war's timeline. As she begins to question her sanity, it also dawns upon her that there is more here than meets the eye.

The first portion of the novel focuses on the recruitment and then the basic training of Dietz. To a certain extent, that part reads like a more modern version of Heinlein's Starship Troopers. The second portion focuses more on Dietz's many jumps and their repercussions on her and her fellow soldiers. Little by little, we start to get a better understanding of what could be the bigger picture. That there is more to the war than the corporations let on and that everything is more complex than first believed. And with each new light jump, Dietz gets a bit closer to the truth.

Hurley explores a number of themes and issues that are relevent in the real world today such as the futility of war, the evils of corporate culture, propaganda in the media and fake news, social standing based on race and culture and education, the atrocities soldiers are forced to go through in the name of a false greater good, etc.

The pace may lack fluidity in certain portions of the book, yet the rhythm remains good throughout. Hurley brings all the different timelines together in a clever and satisfying finale, closing the show with aplomb. The Light Brigade is another solid effort and a terrific read.

The final verdict: 8/10

For more info about this title, follow these Amazon Associate links: Canada, USA, Europe

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

For a limited time, you can download Joe Abercrombie's A Little Hatred for only 3.99$ by following this Amazon Associate link. There is a price match in Canada.

Here's the blurb:

The chimneys of industry rise over Adua and the world seethes with new opportunities. But old scores run deep as ever.

On the blood-soaked borders of Angland, Leo dan Brock struggles to win fame on the battlefield, and defeat the marauding armies of Stour Nightfall. He hopes for help from the crown. But King Jezal’s son, the feckless Prince Orso, is a man who specializes in disappointments.

Savine dan Glokta – socialite, investor, and daughter of the most feared man in the Union – plans to claw her way to the top of the slag-heap of society by any means necessary. But the slums boil over with a rage that all the money in the world cannot control.

The age of the machine dawns, but the age of magic refuses to die. With the help of the mad hillwoman Isern-i-Phail, Rikke struggles to control the blessing, or the curse, of the Long Eye. Glimpsing the future is one thing, but with the guiding hand of the First of the Magi still pulling the strings, changing it will be quite another…

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can get your hands on the digital edition of Scott Hawkins' The Library at Mount Char for only 1.99$ by following this Amazon Associate link. There is a price match in Canada.

Here's the blurb:

A missing God.
A library with the secrets to the universe.
A woman too busy to notice her heart slipping away.

Carolyn's not so different from the other people around her. She likes guacamole and cigarettes and steak. She knows how to use a phone. Clothes are a bit tricky, but everyone says nice things about her outfit with the Christmas sweater over the gold bicycle shorts.

After all, she was a normal American herself once.

That was a long time ago, of course. Before her parents died. Before she and the others were taken in by the man they called Father.

In the years since then, Carolyn hasn't had a chance to get out much. Instead, she and her adopted siblings have been raised according to Father's ancient customs. They've studied the books in his Library and learned some of the secrets of his power. And sometimes, they've wondered if their cruel tutor might secretly be God.

Now, Father is missing—perhaps even dead—and the Library that holds his secrets stands unguarded. And with it, control over all of creation.

As Carolyn gathers the tools she needs for the battle to come, fierce competitors for this prize align against her, all of them with powers that far exceed her own.

But Carolyn has accounted for this.

And Carolyn has a plan.

The only trouble is that in the war to make a new God, she's forgotten to protect the things that make her human.

Populated by an unforgettable cast of characters and propelled by a plot that will shock you again and again, The Library at Mount Char is at once horrifying and hilarious, mind-blowingly alien and heartbreakingly human, sweepingly visionary and nail-bitingly thrilling—and signals the arrival of a major new voice in fantasy.

This week's New York Times Bestsellers (May 11th)

In hardcover:

Stephen King's If It Bleeds is down one position, ending the week at number 2. For more info about this title, follow these Amazon Associate links: Canada, USA, Europe.

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can now get your hands on the digital edition of Seth Dickinson's The Monster Baru Cormorant for only 2.99$ by following this Amazon Associate link. There is a price match in Canada.

Here's the blurb:

Her world was shattered by the Empire of Masks.
For the power to shatter the Masquerade,
She betrayed everyone she loved.

The traitor Baru Cormorant is now the cryptarch Agonist—a secret lord of the empire she's vowed to destroy.

Hunted by a mutinous admiral, haunted by the wound which has split her mind in two, Baru leads her dearest foes on an expedition for the secret of immortality. It's her chance to trigger a war that will consume the Masquerade.

But Baru's heart is broken, and she fears she can no longer tell justice from revenge...or her own desires from the will of the man who remade her.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can now download Peter McLean's Priest of Bones for only 1.99$ by following this Amazon Associate link.

Here's the blurb:

It's a dangerous thing, to choose the lesser of two evils.

The war is over, and army priest Tomas Piety finally heads home with Lieutenant Bloody Anne at his side. When he arrives in the Stink, Tomas finds that his empire of crime has been stolen from him while at war. With his gang of Pious Men, Tomas will do whatever it takes to reclaim his businesses. But when he finds himself dragged into a web of political intrigue once again, and is forced to work in secret for the sinister Queen's Men, everything gets more complicated.

When loyalties stretch to the breaking point and violence only leads to violence, when people have run out of food, and hope, and places to hide, do not be surprised if they have also run out of mercy. As the Pious Men fight shadowy foreign infiltrators in the backstreet taverns and gambling dens of Tomas's old life it becomes clear; the war is not over.

It is only just beginning.

You can also download David Mack's The Midnight Front for only 2.99$ here. There is a price match in Canada.

Here's the blurb:

On the eve of World War Two, Nazi sorcerers come gunning for Cade but kill his family instead. His one path of vengeance is to become an apprentice of The Midnight Front—the Allies’ top-secret magickal warfare program—and become a sorcerer himself.

Unsure who will kill him first—his allies, his enemies, or the demons he has to use to wield magick—Cade fights his way through occupied Europe and enemy lines. But he learns too late the true price of revenge will be more terrible than just the loss of his soul—and there’s no task harder than doing good with a power born of ultimate evil.

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can get your hands on the digital edition of Anthony Ryan's Blood Song for only 2.99$ by following this Amazon Associate link.

Here's the blurb:

“The Sixth Order wields the sword of justice and smites the enemies of the Faith and the Realm."

Vaelin Al Sorna was only a child of ten when his father left him at the iron gate of the Sixth Order—a caste devoted to battle. Vaelin will be trained and hardened to the austere, celibate and dangerous life of a warrior of the Faith. He has no family now save the Order.

Vaelin’s father was Battle Lord to King Janus, ruler of the Unified Realm—and Vaelin’s rage at being deprived of his birthright knows no bounds. Even his cherished memories of his mother are soon challenged by what he learns within the Order.

But one truth overpowers all the rest: Vaelin Al Sorna is destined for a future he has yet to comprehend. A future that will alter not only the Realm, but the world.

You can also get your hands on the digital edition of Kristen Britain's Green Rider, first volume in the NYT bestselling Green Rider series, for only 2.99$ here.

Here's the blurb:

On her long journey home from school after a fight which will surely lead to her expulsion, Karigan G'ladheon ponders her future as she trudges through the immense forest called Green Cloak. But her thoughts are interrupted by a galloping horse bursting from the woods, its rider impaled by two black-shafted arrows.

As the young man lies dying on the road, he tells Karigan he is a Green Rider, one of the legendary messengers of King Zachary. Before he dies, he makes Karigan swear to deliver the "life and death" message he’s carrying and to complete his mission "for love of her country." The man gives her his green coat, with the symbolic brooch of his office, bestowing upon Karigan the title of Green Rider and changing her life forever. Caught up in a world of deadly danger and complex magic, compelled by forces she cannot understand, Karigan is hounded by dark beings bent on seeing that the message, and its reluctant carrier, never reach their destination.

Green Rider is the first installment of the acclaimed Green Rider series.

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can download Mark Lawrence's Red Sister for only 2.99$ by following this Amazon Associate link. There is a price match in Canada.

Here's the blurb:

I was born for killing – the gods made me to ruin.

At the Convent of Sweet Mercy young girls are raised to be killers. In a few the old bloods show, gifting talents rarely seen since the tribes beached their ships on Abeth. Sweet Mercy hones its novices’ skills to deadly effect: it takes ten years to educate a Red Sister in the ways of blade and fist.

But even the mistresses of sword and shadow don’t truly understand what they have purchased when Nona Grey is brought to their halls as a bloodstained child of eight, falsely accused of murder: guilty of worse.

Stolen from the shadow of the noose, Nona is sought by powerful enemies, and for good reason. Despite the security and isolation of the convent her secret and violent past will find her out. Beneath a dying sun that shines upon a crumbling empire, Nona Grey must come to terms with her demons and learn to become a deadly assassin if she is to survive…

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

Today only, you can download Cormac McCarthy's The Road for only 2.99$ by following this Amazon Associate link. There is a price match in Canada.

Here's the blurb:

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE

The searing, post-apocalyptic novel about a father and son's fight to survive.

A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other.

The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, "each the other's world entire," are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation.

You can also get your hands on the digital edition of Stephen King's The Shining for only 2.99$ here. There is a price match in Canada.

Here's the blurb:

Jack Torrance’s new job at the Overlook Hotel is the perfect chance for a fresh start. As the off-season caretaker at the atmospheric old hotel, he’ll have plenty of time to spend reconnecting with his family and working on his writing. But as the harsh winter weather sets in, the idyllic location feels ever more remote . . . and more sinister. And the only one to notice the strange and terrible forces gathering around the Overlook is Danny Torrance, a uniquely gifted five-year-old.

This week's New York Times Bestsellers (May 4th)

In hardcover:

Stephen King's If It Bleeds debuts at number 1. For more info about this title, follow these Amazon Associate links: Canada, USA, Europe.

Drake

When I interviewed Peter McLean last year to help promote the release of the second volume in the War of the Rose Throne series, we talked about his other works and I was intrigued by the premise of his first trilogy. Thanks to the folks at Angry Robot, I was able to get my hands on Drake, first installment in the Burned Man series.

And I'm sure glad I gave the book a shot, because it was a fun and entertaining read!

Here's the blurb:

Hitman Don Drake owes a gambling debt to a demon. Forced to carry out one more assassination to clear his debt, Don unwittingly kills an innocent child and brings the Furies of Greek myth down upon himself.

Rescued by an almost-fallen angel called Trixie, Don and his magical accomplice The Burned Man, an imprisoned archdemon, are forced to deal with Lucifer himself whilst battling a powerful evil magician.

Now Don must foil Lucifer’s plan to complete Trixie’s fall and save her soul whilst preventing the Burned Man from breaking free from captivity and wreaking havoc on the entire world.

A dark and lugubrious London is the backdrop for this novel. The veil between the British capital and the underworld is relatively thin in certain areas and creatures of the night can often be found lurking around. Calling Drake a hitman is a bit of a stretch, however. He's more of an alcoholic deadbeat magician whose powers come from a small animated idol which is in truth a bound archdemon called the Burned Man. Drake must feed the idol with his own blood and with its help he summons demonic entities from hell to dispatch his victims. Hence the label hitman, even though he kills his targets without dirtying his own hands with their blood. But when a job goes awry and results in the shocking death of an innocent child, Drake finds himself consumed with grief and guilt. This finally convinces him that it is high time to leave his bloody line of work forever. Alas, the demon he's indebted to is not a compassionate and understanding soul.

Drake is a fast-paced and witty urban fantasy novel. Noirish in style and tone, it makes for a compelling read. The only thing that some readers might find a bit offputting is that the book is filled with lots of British slang. Nothing to worry about, as you always get the gist of it and the story takes place in London, after all. But given that Angry Robot publishes works on both sides of the Atlantic, I would have thought that they might have downplayed this aspect a little.

The story is told from the perspective of Don Drake. First person narratives can be tricky things, but witnessing events unfold through the eyes of such a flawed protagonist makes for an enjoyable reading experience. Like Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden, Don Drake is not always the sharpest tool in the shed. However, Drake has a veritable knack for always making the wrong decisions and seldom learning from his mistakes. In that regard, he makes Harry Dresden look like the soul of wisdom. Drake has his heart in the right place, but he is a coward and can't seem to find the strength to ever do the right thing. Until everything is on the line and he has no choice. The supporting cast is comprised of violent femmes fatales, over-the-top villains, and everything else in between.

Drake is an urban fantasy work that reads like a classic noir mystery. The pace is fluid throughout and there is not a dull moment between its covers. The novel works as a stand-alone, but it sets the stage for what should be equally entertaining and hilarious sequels.

If you are looking for a fun page-turner featuring a lovable dumbass protagonist to help you cope with confinement during this pandemic, Peter McLean's Drake might just be what the doctor ordered!

The final verdict: 7.5/10

For more info about this title, check out these Amazon Associate links: Canada, USA, Europe

This week's New York Times Bestsellers (April 27th)

In paperback:

Stephen King's The Outsider is up three positions, ending the week at number 12 (trade paperback).