Quote of the Day

In the immediate aftermath of the Iranian Revolution, many of Jimmy Carter’s domestic critics took to describing the overthrow of the shah as the worst American foreign policy fiasco of a generation. In this view they were quite mistaken, for just nine months later the United States and Iran would tumble into a confrontation of such disastrous magnitude that both nations, as well as the rest of the world, are still dealing with its repercussions nearly half a century later.

In lurching its way into this second Iranian fiasco, the Carter administration was to replicate many of the errors that had typified its behavior in the first: ignorance, inattentiveness, wishful thinking.

- SCOTT ANDERSON, King of Kings

For anyone interested in understanding the conflict between the USA and Iran, this book is a fascinating read! And you can grab it right now for only 2.99$ via the link at the end of this post.

Here's the blurb:

PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR NONFICTION • KIRKUS PRIZE WINNER • From the author of the landmark bestseller Lawrence in Arabia comes a stunningly revelatory narrative history of the Iranian Revolution, one of the most momentous events in modern times. This groundbreaking work exposes the jaw-dropping stupidity of the American government and traces the rise of religious nationalism, offering essential insights into today's global unrest.

On New Year’s Eve, 1977, on a state visit to Iran, President Jimmy Carter toasted Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, King of Kings, Light of the Aryans, Shadow of God on Earth, praising Iran as “an island of stability “ due to “your leadership and the respect and admiration and love which your people give to you.” Iran had the world’s fifth largest army and was awash in billions of dollars in oil revenues. Construction cranes dotted the skyline of its booming capital, Tehran. The regime’s feared secret police force SAVAK had crushed communist opposition, and the Shah had bought off the conservative Muslim clergy inside the country. He seemed invulnerable, and invaluable to the United States as an ally in the Cold War. Fourteen months later the Shah fled Iran into exile, forced from the throne by a volcanic religious revolution led by a fiery cleric named Ayatollah Khomeini. The ensuing hostage crisis forever damaged America’s standing in the world. How could the United States, which had one of the largest CIA stations in the world and thousands of military personnel in Iran, have been so blind?

The spellbinding story Scott Anderson weaves is one of a dictator blind to the disdain of his subjects and a superpower blundering into disaster. Scott Anderson tells this astonishing tale with the narrative brio, mordant wit, and keen analysis that made his bestselling Lawrence of Arabia one of the key texts in understanding the modern Middle East. The Iranian Revolution, Anderson convincingly argues, was as world-shattering an event as the French and Russian revolutions. In the Middle East, in India, in Southeast Asia, in Europe, and now in the United States, the hatred of economically-marginalized, religiously-fervent masses for a wealthy secular elite has led to violence and upheaval – and Iran was the template. King of Kings is a bravura work of history, and a warning.

For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can download David Mack's The Midnight Front for only 1.99$ by following this Amazon Associate link. This OneLink will take you to the nearest Amazon site serving your country and you'll see if you can take advantage of this sale.

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.

Hidden

Like many readers, I ended up giving Benedict Jacka's Fated a shot because I was told that it was perfect for fans of Jim Butcher's popular series. The next couple of books shared many of the qualities and about the same shortcomings as the early Dresden Files installments.

The aspect in which the two series differ the most is that while Butcher took the macro approach for the Dresden Files, with the storylines expanding and a slew of characters being introduced in each new title, Jacka took the micro approach for the Alex Verus sequence. The plotlines are more circumscribed, the cast much smaller even though there are new additions in every novel. And though the greater story arc continues to grow, it's evident that Jacka's series will never be the sprawling behemoth that the Dresden Files have become over the years.

And to be honest, I'm okay with that. These two series, even if they share a number of similarities, are totally different beasts and must be treated as such. The last volume, Chosen, was a bit odd at first, more of an origin story for the main protagonist than a work that pushes the plot forward. But in retrospect, it's obvious that we needed to discover the truth about Alex and what happened when he was the apprentice of a Dark mage for everything else to make sense moving forward.

To all ends and purposes, it appears that Hidden is another such interlude in the series. After his recent falling out with Anne, Alex learns that she was kicked out of the apprentice program and is now isolated. When she gets kidnapped and taken into the shadow realm of her former master, with the Keepers unwilling to face a Dark mage on his own turf and matters bogged down in Council politics, Alex is the only person who may have a chance to save her before it's too late.

Here's the blurb:

With his talent for divining the future, Alex Verus should have foreseen his friends’ reactions to the revelations about his previous life. Anne Walker no longer trusts him—and has also cut all ties with the mage community after getting kicked out of the apprentice program. As a favor to Luna, Alex’s own apprentice and Anne’s best friend, he checks in on her only to be told to leave her alone.

Then Anne gets kidnapped. The Council Keepers of the Order of the Star believe Dark mages from her past may be involved. Working with the Keepers, Alex and Luna discover that Anne has been taken into the shadow realm of Sagash, her former Dark mage mentor, and they must find a way to rescue her.

But another shadow from the past has resurfaced—Alex’s former master may be back in London, and Alex has no idea what his agenda is...

Like its predecessors, Hidden takes place a few months following the events chronicled in the last book. Alex Verus, a little known diviner until he was thrust into a Council matter of great import, has now gained quite a reputation. Although supposedly a weak diviner, powerful Mages who have crossed him have somehow gone missing and a lot of his peers now believe that there is a lot more to him than meets the eye. Trying to keep everything low key hasn't been working all that well for him and, as a do-gooder at heart, the poor guy just can't help getting involved in matters that will put him into the line of fire. So when Anne, who hates Alex for getting that group of Adepts killed in the last book, never mind that these people would have killed him and everyone he holds dear, is overpowered and taken to a shadow realm, Alex knows that he must act quickly before she gets killed or worse.

I've said before that Alex Verus continues to grow on me with each new book. He was a more quiet and inconspicuous protagonist early on, but he is also growing as a character and coming into his own with each new novel. Being virtually powerless in terms of brute strength against other mages, Alex must rely on his wits to come out on top. That more than anything is what keeps this series fresh and interesting. As mentioned in my previous reviews, his first-person narrative isn't as witty and entertaining as that of his counterpart from the Dresden Files. Alex doesn't have the charisma and the repartee that make Harry such a likeable character. And yet, Verus is a more thoughtful and humane person, one that makes an impression on you the more the story progresses. In Chosen we saw that there is a decidedly ruthless side to Alex, one that we haven't seen before. Being magically weak, it is his intelligence as well as this ruthlessness that allows him to overcome the challenge that would put the lives of those he loves in danger. Still, that ruthlessness may not sit well with those whose lives it helped save. Anne and Sonder, especially, have yet to come to terms with what Alex was forced to do to protect them all and they want nothing to do with him. In many ways, Hidden is also Anne's origin story. How well that will play into the rest of the series, time will tell.

As a matter of course, Hidden is another very short work. Still, somehow Benedict Jacka is able to cram a lot more in terms of plot than most writers would manage with such a limited pagecount. As mentioned, this one is about Alex's attempt to rescue Anne and doesn't move the story forward as much as the first few installments in the series. It doesn't mean that there is no progress whatsoever. It's just that we'll have to wait and see how the events from this novel will impact the rest of the story.

Hidden features another thrilling and unexpected endgame, one that leaves the door open for a lot more to come. Over the course of five volumes, Benedict Jacka's Alex Verus series continues to grow in both quality and scope. Which bodes well for the upcoming sequels.

The final verdict: 7.75/10

For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can now download Robert McCammon's I Travel by Night and Last Train from Perdition for only 3.99$ by following this Amazon Associate link. This OneLink will take you to the nearest Amazon site serving your country and you'll see if you can take advantage of this sale.

Here's the blurb:

Two short novels featuring the vampiric gunslinger who seeks vengeance and justice across the Old West, from the New York Times–bestselling master of horror. World Fantasy and Bram Stoker award-winning author

He was once a husband, father, lawyer, and Civil War soldier. Now he is a vampire struggling to hold onto his last thread of humanity—and to destroy the one who made him.

In I Travel by Night, Trevor Lawson handles matters from his lair at the Hotel Sanctuaire in New Orleans. When a prominent lumber man comes to him for help—to find and free his kidnapped daughter—Trevor senses a trap, for the man who signed the ransom note is one he knows too well. Traveling towards a ghost town in the dark of the swamps, Trevor soon finds himself preparing for a final showdown against the purest form of evil in existence: the Dark Society and its bloodthirsty queen.

With his new sidekick, Ann Kingsley, Trevor travels to Montana in Last Train from Perdition. When they try to free a young man from an outlaw gang, an innocent woman is caught in the crossfire. To save her life—and bring their captured fugitives to justice—Trevor and Ann take the train to Helena, never expecting the ambush that awaits them. For an army of the undead has gathered in the snowy darkness with a very special surprise for Ann: a reunion with her father and sister, who no longer resemble the humans she once loved.

The Helium Sea

When the blurb for Peter F. Hamilton's Exodus: The Archimedes Engine was first released, I was instantly hooked. But when it was announced that the book was set in the universe of an upcoming science fiction action-adventure RPG, I was a bit concerned that it might not be everything I wanted it to be. Ye of little faith, I know, and thankfully my fears were unfounded. Indeed, the book isn't a novelization of the videogame and it takes place thousands of years before. Hence, other than sharing that far-reaching universe, one can fully enjoy the book without playing the game and vice versa.

Not only that, but The Archimedes Engine was Hamilton's best novel in years and my favorite SFF work of 2024! So could its sequel, The Helium Sea, deliver on all fronts and live up the lofty expections generated by its predecessor? The answer is a resounding yes!

Here's the blurb:

The epic conclusion of the Archimedes Engine duology by legendary author Peter F. Hamilton. Set in the universe of EXODUS, a new sci-fi action-adventure RPG coming soon from Archetype Entertainment.

For millennia, the Crown Dominion has been at relative peace, with the Celestials in control and the human population little better than serfs. But now the Crown Dominion is facing a crisis of epic proportions—one that could change the balance of power in the Centauri Cluster forever—as an exiled faction that has been waiting for seven thousand years beyond the Helium Sea has returned to claim their vengeance.

For Finn and his human allies, who have ended up at the center of this conflict either through circumstance or manipulation, this is an unprecedented opportunity. If they can band together, they may be able to outwit the Celestials and finally earn their fellow humans a place of independence and power in the Crown Dominion. But first they must locate and master ancient artifacts of immense power that could give them a needed edge in the conflict ahead. And all while ducking the forces that are determined to knock them off the board for good.

As mentioned in my review of The Archimedes Engine, like all previous series/novels by Peter F. Hamilton, the Exodus duology is vast in scope and vision. Covering more than 40,000 years, from the time the first arkships left Earth to the present day political intrigue within and without the Centauri Cluster, the worldbuilding is extensive to say the least. To say that these novels feature a multilayered plot would be the understatement of the year. Thankfully, there is a timeline and a Dramatis Personae at the start of the book. I rarely say this, but this is a series that would have benefited from having a substantial glossary at the end of each installment. The scale of this story is enormous and somehow the sprawling worldbuilding just gets bigger in The Helium Sea.

The heart of the tale revolves around the Crown Dominion, comprised of six adjacent star systems ruled by a different House. Centuries before, one of the Queens launched a subversive campaign to evolve the Imperial Celestials in a fashion that was anathema to the others, forcing her counterparts to unite their forces and destroy her and her entire House. Since then, the five remaining Queens signed the Imperial Accord and each of them in turn will rule as Empress for sixty years. But cracks have appeared in this alliance and external factors have come into play to destabilize the entire Crown Dominion. Since the Remnant Era, which saw the violent rise and fall of interstellar civilizations through atrocious wars that saw countless worlds laid waste, armed conflicts have become extremely rare. Every Dominion has its Archons and their agents and this Cold War is waged through their proxies. This unwritten rule has defined intra- and extra-Dominion antagonism for ages, yet someone appears to be fomenting chaos that could start a new war and various Archons are now trying to discover which Dominion could be the culprit. Could this be a tale of revenge millennia in the making? In The Helium Sea, Hamilton finally provides the answers to all the questions raised in the first volume and it makes for an exciting read.

Once again, given the number of plotlines, there are a multitude of perspectives that witness events throughout the novel. Some POVs are better and more interesting than others, yet I would say that all are probably important for the author to convey everything that needs to be shared. There is a lot going on all across the Centauri Cluster, so various eyes and ears are necessary to follow the action and make sure that it all makes sense in the end. I found everything that has to do with the Queens of the Crown Dominion to be a lot more interesting in this second installment, what with them taking center stage in the growing conflict that could see their rule reduced to nothing. Once more in this sequel, it's the Archons and their espionage that I found the most captivating. And even if the Crown Dominion might not survive this war, Josias Aponi, the only man alive who has walked on Old Earth, will not settle for a life of servitude under the yoke of an oppressive regime and will continue to fight for the rights of humans and transhuman species, regardless of who will ultimately emerge victorious among the Celestials.

In The Archimedes Engine, it did take quite some time for the overall plot to take shape, and Hamilton needed more than 200 pages to lay the groundwork for everything that came after. There is no such pacing issue in The Helium Sea. The novel kicks off right where the first volume ended. The plot does meander a bit in the middle as various protagonists are sent on side quests, but I wouldn't say that the rhythm is ever a problem. This is another Hamilton doorstopper that turns into a page-turner once it really gets going!

Despite the frustrating cliffhanger ending, I felt that Peter F. Hamilton came up with a thrilling endgame and a rousing finale that closed the show with panache in the first volume. The same can be said of this sequel, though it suffers from the Wheel of Time syndrome. Basically all the good guys survive what could have been an end-of-days scenario, which defies credulity. In addition, the oft-mentioned Elohim, godlike creators of the Gates of Heaven, never make an appearance, which was a bit disappointing.

The Exodus duology is space opera at its very best! The Helium Sea is my favorite SFF read of 2026 so far!

The final verdict: 9/10

For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

This week's New York Times Bestsellers (August 2nd)

In hardcover:

Matt Dinniman's Carl's Doomsday Scenario is down one position, ending the week at number 8. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

Matt Dinniman's The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook maintains its position at number 9. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

Matt Dinniman's Dungeon Crawler Carl is down four spots, finishing the week at number 14. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

Matt Dinniman's The Gate of the Feral Gods is down one spot, finishing the week at number 15. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

In paperback:

Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary maintains its position at number 2. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

Matt Dinniman's Dungeon Crawler Carl maintains its position at number 3. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

Pierce Brown's Red Rising maintains its position at number 13. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can now download Kevin Hearne's A Plague of Giants for only 1.99$ by following this Amazon Associate link. This OneLink will take you to the nearest Amazon site serving your country and you'll see if you can take advantage of this sale.

Here's the blurb:

From the author of The Iron Druid Chronicles, a thrilling novel that kicks off a fantasy series with an entirely new mythology—complete with shape-shifting bards, fire-wielding giants, and children who can speak to astonishing beasts.

MOTHER AND WARRIOR
Tallynd is a soldier who has already survived her toughest battle: losing her husband. But now she finds herself on the front lines of an invasion of giants, intent on wiping out the entire kingdom, including Tallynd’s two sons—all that she has left. The stakes have never been higher. If Tallynd fails, her boys may never become men.

SCHOLAR AND SPY
Dervan is an historian who longs for a simple, quiet life. But he’s drawn into intrigue when he’s hired to record the tales of a mysterious bard who may be a spy or even an assassin for a rival kingdom. As the bard shares his fantastical stories, Dervan makes a shocking discovery: He may have a connection to the tales, one that will bring his own secrets to light.

REBEL AND HERO
Abhi’s family have always been hunters, but Abhi wants to choose a different life for himself. Embarking on a journey of self-discovery, Abhi soon learns that his destiny is far greater than he imagined: a powerful new magic thrust upon him may hold the key to defeating the giants once and for all—if it doesn’t destroy him first.

Set in a magical world of terror and wonder, this novel is a deeply felt epic of courage and war, in which the fates of these characters intertwine—and where ordinary people become heroes, and their lives become legend.

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can now download Scott Lynch's The Smoke of Gold is Glory for only 1.99$ by following this Amazon Associate link. This OneLink will take you to the nearest Amazon site serving your country and you'll see if you can take advantage of this sale.

Here's the blurb:

In an age of high adventure, at the edge of the known world, bad luck has chased the famous thief Tarkaster Crale into a truly desperate venture. The ancient dragon Glimraug sits atop a trap-filled mountain, guarding the wealth of generations, daring poor fools like Crale to make a try for it. Crale's luck seems to be turning when he falls in with even mightier adventurers than himself-- if anyone can pull off the deadliest treasure raid of the age, it's this crew! But as the infiltration unfolds, Crale must face the uneasy realization that not everyone here might be on this mission for the same reason he is...

Originally published in the 2017 anthology The Book of Swords, "The Smoke of Gold is Glory" is a darkly amusing tale of freewheeling fantasy adventure and a rumination on how wecarry the weight of our fate, from the witty and confounding pen of one of the modern masters of sword and sorcery fiction. So finish what's left of your drink, get ready to climb the mountain with Crale and his friends, and try not to think about the song the drunken crowd sings for you as you walk out the tavern door:

Die rich, dragon’s dinner!
Play well the game that has no winner!
Climb the mountain, greedy sinner!
Die rich, dragon’s dinner!

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can now download Christopher Buehlman's The Daughter's War for only 2.99$ by following this Amazon Associet link. This OneLink will take you to the nearest Amazon site serving your country and you'll see if you can take advantage of this sale.

Here's the blurb:

Enter the fray in this luminous new adventure from Christopher Buehlman, set during the war-torn, goblin-infested years just before The Blacktongue Thief.

The goblins have killed all of our horses and most of our men.

They have enslaved our cities, burned our fields, and still they wage war.

Now, our daughters take up arms.

Galva — Galvicha to her three brothers, two of whom the goblins will kill — has defied her family’s wishes and joined the army’s untested new unit, the Raven Knights. They march toward a once-beautiful city overrun by the goblin horde, accompanied by scores of giant war corvids. Made with the darkest magics, these fearsome black birds may hold the key to stopping the goblins in their war to make cattle of mankind.

The road to victory is bloody, and goblins are clever and merciless. The Raven Knights can take nothing for granted — not the bonds of family, nor the wisdom of their leaders, nor their own safety against the dangerous war birds at their side. But some hopes are worth any risk.

All the Shah's Men

Stephen Kinzer does an amazing job documenting the history of Iran, the discovery of oil fields and how it affected the country, all the way to what led to the coup that overthrew Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh and put Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi back on the throne in 1953. Little did anyone know that this would be the CIA's first step in what would become their infamous legacy of ashes and would lead to the Islamic revolution of 1979 and everything that came after.

However, his conclusions are a bit far-fetched and show that he looks at this through rose-tinted glasses. While there's no denying that the Dulles brothers, Dwight Eisenhower, and Winston Churchill are directly responsible for the CIA coup and its far-reaching repercussions, to believe that the nascent Iranian democracy would somehow have resisted the Islamist radicalisation and violent extremism that swept through the Middle East in the 70s and afterwards feels more than a little preposterous.

Other than that, Kinzer's All the Shah's Men is an incredible read that will appeal to anyone interested in learning more about the genesis of the USA-Iran conflict.

Here's the blurb:

With a thrilling narrative that sheds much light on recent events, this national bestseller brings to life the 1953 CIA coup in Iran that ousted the country’s elected prime minister, ushered in a quarter-century of brutal rule under the Shah, and stimulated the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and anti-Americanism in the Middle East. Selected as one of the best books of the year by the Washington Post and The Economist, it now features a new preface by the author on the folly of attacking Iran.

For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can now download The Unreal and the Real: The Selected Short Stories of Ursula K. Le Guin for only 1.99$ by following this Amazon Associate link. This OneLink will take you to the nearest Amazon site serving your country and you'll see if you can take advantage of this sale.

Here's the blurb:

A collection of literary, science fiction, and fantasy short stories by the legendary and iconic Ursula K. Le Guin—selected with an introduction by the author and combined in one volume for the first time.

The Unreal and the Real is a collection of some of Ursula K. Le Guin’s best short stories. Spanning realistic fiction, speculative fiction, fantasy, and science fiction, the collection showcases her extraordinary range and her enduring explorations of human nature, society, gender, freedom, and alternative worlds.

Le Guin received numerous prizes and accolades, including the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, a Newbery Honor, and the Nebula, Hugo, World Fantasy, and PEN/Malamud Awards. Her stories have appeared in collections throughout her career, but this is the first single volume to combine such a broad range of her work.

This week's New York Times Bestsellers (July 26th)

In hardcover:

Brigitte Knightley's The Exquisite Torment of Loving Your Enemy debuts at number 4. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

Matt Dinniman's Carl's Doomsday Scenario maintains its position at number 7. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

Matt Dinniman's The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook is down one position, ending the week at number 9. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

Matt Dinniman's Dungeon Crawler Carl is down five spots, finishing the week at number 10. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

Travis Deverell's He Who Fights With Monsters: Outworlder debuts at number 12. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

Matt Dinniman's The Butcher's Masquerade returns at number 13. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

Matt Dinniman's The Gate of the Feral Gods is down two spots, finishing the week at number 14. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

In paperback:

Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary maintains its position at number 2. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

Matt Dinniman's Dungeon Crawler Carl is up one position, ending the week at number 3. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

Kalie Cassidy's In the Wake of the Ruined debuts at number 12. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

Pierce Brown's Red Rising is up one spot, finishing the week at number 13. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can now download Stephen Graham Jones' The Only Good Indians for only 2.99$ by following this Amazon Associate link. This OneLink will take you to the nearest Amazon site serving your country and you'll see if you can take advantage of this sale.

Here's the blurb:

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

From Stephen Graham Jones, the master of modern horror and New York Times bestselling author of The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, a novel of revenge and identity hailed by Stephen King as “thrilling, literate, scary, immersive” that is equal parts psychological horror and cutting sociopolitical commentary about the American Indian experience.

From New York Times bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones comes a novel that is equal parts psychological horror and cutting social commentary on identity politics and the American Indian experience. Fans of Sylvia Moreno Garcia and Tommy Orange will love this story as it follows the lives of four American Indian men and their families, all haunted by a disturbing, deadly event that took place in their youth. Years later, they find themselves tracked by an entity bent on revenge, totally helpless as the culture and traditions they left behind catch up to them in a violent, vengeful way.

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can now get your hands on the digital edition of James S. A. Corey's Memory's Legion: The Complete Expanse Story Collection for only 1.99$ by following this Amazon Associate link. This OneLink will take you to the nearest Amazon site serving your country and you'll see if you can take advantage of this sale.

Here's the blurb:

From Leviathan Wakes to Leviathan Falls, James S. A. Corey's Hugo Award-winning Expanse series has redefined modern space opera. Now, available in print for the first time comes the complete collection of short fiction set in the Expanse universe, including both a brand-new novella set after the events of Leviathan Falls and author’s notes on each story.

On Mars, a scientist experiments with a new engine that will one day become the drive that fuels humanity's journey into the stars.

On an asteroid station, a group of prisoners are oblivious to the catastrophe that awaits them.

On a future Earth beset by overpopulation, pollution, and poverty, a crime boss desperately seeks to find a way off planet.

On an alien world, a human family struggles to establish a colony and make a new home.

All these stories and more are featured in this unmissable collection of short fiction set in the hardscrabble world of The Expanse.

Contents:
The Expanse Short Fiction
Drive
The Butcher of Anderson Station
The Churn
Gods of Risk
The Vital Abyss
Strange Dogs
Auberon
The Sins of our Fathers

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can now get your hands on the digital edition of Alastair Reynolds' House of Suns for only 1.99$ by following this Amazon Associate link. This OneLink will take you to the nearest Amazon site serving your country and you'll see if you can take advantage of this sale.

Here's the blurb:

Six million years ago, at the dawn of the star-faring era, Abigail Gentian fractured herself into a thousand male and female clones, which she called shatterlings. She sent them out into the galaxy to observe and document the rise and fall of countless human empires. Since then, every two hundred thousand years, they gather to exchange news and memories of their travels. Only there is no Gathering. Someone is eliminating the Gentian line. And now Campion and Purslane -- two shatterlings who have fallen in love and shared forbidden experiences -- must determine exactly who, or what, their enemy is, before they are wiped out of existence . . .

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can now download Ann Leckie's Radiant Star for only 2.99$ by following this Amazon Associet link. This OneLink will take you to the nearest Amazon site serving your country and you'll see if you can take advantage of this sale.

Here's the blurb:

Space opera's sharpest mind returns to the world of the Imperial Radch in this brilliant standalone from award-winning author Ann Leckie.

The Temporal Location of the Radiant Star has always been a source of both conflict and hope for the people of Ooioiaa. However, the imperial Radch see it only as an inconvenience, an antiquated religious site soon to be absorbed into their own, superior culture. But local politics is complicated, and the Radch have made a final concession: One last man will be allowed to join the mummified bodies in the temporal location to become a “living saint”.

But this decision will ripple out to affect every part of the city. Amidst a slowly worsening food shortage, riots, and a communication blackout from the rest of the Radch Empire, a religious savant will entertain visions of his own sainthood, a socialite will discover hir comfortable life upended, and a young man sold into servitude will find unlikely escape.

You can now download Joe Abercrombie's Sharp Ends for only 1.99$ by following this Amazon Associate link. This OneLink will take you to the nearest Amazon site serving your country and you'll see if you can take advantage of this sale.

Here's the blurb:

The Union may be full of bastards, but there’s only one who thinks he can save the day single-handed when the Gurkish come calling: the incomparable Colonel Sand dan Glokta.

Curnden Craw and his dozen are out to recover a mysterious item from beyond the Crinna. Only one small problem: no one seems to know what the item is.

Shevedieh, the self-styled best thief in Styria, lurches from disaster to catastrophe alongside her best friend and greatest enemy, Javre, Lioness of Hoskopp.

And after years of bloodshed, the idealistic chieftain Bethod is desperate to bring peace to the North. There’s only one obstacle left – his own lunatic champion, the most feared man in the North: the Bloody-Nine . . .

Sharp Ends combines previously published, award-winning short tales with exclusive new short stories. Violence explodes, treachery abounds, and the words are as deadly as the weapons in this rogue’s gallery of side-shows, back-stories, and sharp endings from the world of the First Law.

You can also get your hands on the digital edition of Stephen King's Dolores Claiborne for only 2.99$ here.

Here's the blurb:

When Vera Donovan, one of the wealthiest and most ill-natured residents of Maine’s Little Tall Island, dies suddenly in her home, suspicion is immediately cast on her housekeeper and caretaker, Dolores Claiborne. Dolores herself is no stranger to such mistrust, thanks to the local chatter and mysterious circumstances surrounding her abusive husband’s death twenty-nine years earlier.

But if this is truly to be the day of Dolores Claiborne’s reckoning, she has a few things of her own that she’d like to get off her chest...and begins to confess a spirited, intimate, and harrowing tale of the darkest secrets hidden within her hardscrabble existence, revealing above all one woman’s unwavering determination to weather the storm of her life with grace and protect the one she loves, no matter what the cost...

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can now get your hands on the digital edition of Mira Grant's Into the Drowning Deep for only 1.99$ by following this Amazon Associate link. This OneLink will take you to the nearest Amazon site serving your country and you'll see if you can take advantage of this sale.

Here's the blurb:

New York Times bestselling author Mira Grant, author of the renowned Newsflesh series, returns with a novel that takes us to a new world of ancient mysteries and mythological dangers come to life.

The ocean is home to many myths,

But some are deadly...

Seven years ago the Atargatis set off on a voyage to the Mariana Trench to film a mockumentary bringing to life ancient sea creatures of legend. It was lost at sea with all hands. Some have called it a hoax; others have called it a tragedy.

Now a new crew has been assembled. But this time they're not out to entertain. Some seek to validate their life's work. Some seek the greatest hunt of all. Some seek the truth. But for the ambitious young scientist Victoria Stewart this is a voyage to uncover the fate of the sister she lost.

Whatever the truth may be, it will only be found below the waves.

But the secrets of the deep come with a price.

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can now get your hands on the digital edition of Richard Morgan's excellent Altered Carbon for only 2.99$ by following this Amazon Associate link. This OneLink will take you to the nearest Amazon site serving your country and you'll see if you can take advantage of this sale.

Here's the blurb:

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NOW AN EXCITING NEW SERIES FROM NETFLIX • The shell that blew a hole in his chest was only the beginning in this “tour de force of genre-bending, a brilliantly realized exercise in science fiction.”—The New York Times Book Review.

In the twenty-fifth century, humankind has spread throughout the galaxy, monitored by the watchful eye of the U.N. While divisions in race, religion, and class still exist, advances in technology have redefined life itself. Now, assuming one can afford the expensive procedure, a person’s consciousness can be stored in a cortical stack at the base of the brain and easily downloaded into a new body (or “sleeve”) making death nothing more than a minor blip on a screen.

Ex-U.N. envoy Takeshi Kovacs has been killed before, but his last death was particularly painful. Dispatched one hundred eighty light-years from home, re-sleeved into a body in Bay City (formerly San Francisco, now with a rusted, dilapidated Golden Gate Bridge), Kovacs is thrown into the dark heart of a shady, far-reaching conspiracy that is vicious even by the standards of a society that treats “existence” as something that can be bought and sold.

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can now download Mercedes Lackey and Andre Norton's Elvenbane for only 2.99$ by following this Amazon Associate link. This OneLink will take you to the nearest Amazon site serving your country and you'll see if you can take advantage of this sale.

Here's the blurb:

From Grand Masters Mercedes Lackey and Andre Norton — the landmark dragon-and-rebellion saga, revised, illustrated, and complete at last.

The elves rule a world where humans are property. The one thing they fear is a child who is not fully human.

For a thousand years the immortal elven lords have bred, collared, drugged, and discarded their human slaves at a whim. They fear revolt — but they fear something else far more: a halfblood child born with gifts no slave should possess. The elves have a name for such children. Wizards.

They hunt them, execute them, erase them, because prophecy whispers that one of them will rise as the Elvenbane.

When Serina Daeth is cast into the desert for carrying her master's child, she dies giving birth beneath a merciless sun. Her daughter should have died with her. Instead the infant is found by Alara, a dragon shaman who saves the strange little creature on impulse and carries her home to the hidden lairs of the Kin.

Raised among dragons, named Shana, taught to believe she is one of them, the child grows into a girl with impossible gifts, dangerous questions, and a destiny no one fully understands. To the elves she is an abomination. To the dragons she may be a tool, a threat, or the key to remaking the world. And as Shana uncovers the truth of her birth, she is drawn toward a legacy of magic, vengeance, and freedom that could shatter elven rule forever.

Before a world can be freed, one girl must learn what she truly is — and why so many would kill to keep her from becoming it.

An epic of dragon-raised wizards, immortal tyrants, and a long-prophesied rebellion, in the tradition of Anne McCaffrey's Pern. Elvenbane opens the complete four-book Halfblood Chronicles: newly revised and illustrated, and finished at last with the long-awaited finale.