More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can now download David Louis Edelman's Infoquake for only 6.99$ 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.

The entire trilogy was excellent and I'm not sure why so few people still talk about it and whatever happened to the author. Definitely something you should read if you haven't had the chance yet!

Here's the blurb:

Natch is a master of bio/logics, the programming of the human body. He's clawed and scraped his way to the top of the bio/logics market using little more than his wits. Now his sudden notoriety has brought him to the attention of Margaret Surina, the owner of a mysterious new technology called MultiReal. Only by enlisting Natch's devious mind can Margaret keep MultiReal out of the hands of High Executive Len Borda and his ruthless armies. To fend off the intricate net of enemies closing in around him, Natch and his apprentices must accomplish the impossible. They must understand this strange new technology, run through the product development cycle, and prepare MultiReal for release to the public—all in three days. Meanwhile, hanging over everything is the spectre of the infoquake, a lethal burst of energy that's disrupting the bio/logic networks and threatening to send the world crashing back into the Dark Ages.

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can now download William Gibson's Burning Chrome 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 a true master of science fiction comes a cyberpunk collection of short stories that show how, no matter the length, Gibson is one of the greatest writers working today.

Known for his seminal science fiction novel Neuromancer, and for the acclaimed books Pattern Recognition, The Peripheral, and Agency, William Gibson is actually best when writing short fiction. Tautly written and suspenseful, Burning Chrome collects 10 short stories, including some written with Bruce Sterling, John Shirley, and Michael Swanwick, and with a preface from Bruce Sterling, now available for the first time in trade paperback. These brilliant, high-resolution stories show Gibson’s characters and intensely realized worlds at their absolute best, from the chip-enhanced couriers of “Johnny Mnemonic” to the street-tech melancholy of “Burning Chrome.”

Nöthin' But a Good Time

I had high hopes for this one but, even though it's an entertaining read, it failed to deliver on several fronts. The biggest problem is the book's structure. The authors wrote nothing but a few interludes. The bulk of this work is a collage of snippets of interviews which at times can be a bit hard to follow.

I grew up in that era and hard rock was definitely part of my teenage years. Nöthin' But a Good Time does a good job chronicling the rise and fall of hair bands, especially the early years. The focus on the heydays of the genre centers around the popularity of Poison. Probably because the bands refused to participate, both Bon Jovi and Def Leppard, by far the bestselling groups of the 80s, get very little to no coverage. Weird that bands like Stryper and Winger get a lot of air time, while popular bands like Whitesnake and Europe are barely talked about.

Still, it's a fun trip back down memory lane, when hair and spandex ruled, and a panoply of bands sold millions of records during that decade of decadence. It brought me back to my younger self, when I owned a Mötely Crüe tshirt that said "The Motherfucking, Ass-Kicking, Ear-Splitting, Loudest Tour on Earth!"

Those were the days! =)

Here's the blurb:

Nothin' But a Good Time is the definitive, no-holds-barred oral history of 1980s hard rock and hair metal, told by the musicians and industry insiders who lived it.

Hard rock in the 1980s was a hedonistic and often intensely creative wellspring of escapism that perfectly encapsulated―and maybe even helped to define―a spectacularly over-the-top decade. Indeed, fist-pumping hits like Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” Mötley Crüe’s “Girls, Girls, Girls,” and Guns N’ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle” are as inextricably linked to the era as Reaganomics, PAC-MAN, and E.T.

From the do-or-die early days of self-financed recordings and D.I.Y. concert productions that were as flashy as they were foolhardy, to the multi-Platinum, MTV-powered glory years of stadium-shaking anthems and chart-topping power ballads, to the ultimate crash when grunge bands like Nirvana forever altered the entire climate of the business, Tom Beaujour and Richard Bienstock's Nothin' But a Good Time captures the energy and excess of the hair metal years in the words of the musicians, managers, producers, engineers, label executives, publicists, stylists, costume designers, photographers, journalists, magazine publishers, video directors, club bookers, roadies, groupies, and hangers-on who lived it.

Featuring an impassioned foreword by Slipknot and Stone Sour vocalist and avowed glam metal fanatic Corey Taylor, and drawn from over two hundred author interviews with members of Van Halen, Mötley Crüe, Poison, Guns N’ Roses, Skid Row, Bon Jovi, Ratt, Twisted Sister, Winger, Warrant, Cinderella, Quiet Riot and others, as well as Ozzy Osbourne, Lita Ford, and many more, this is the ultimate, uncensored, and often unhinged, chronicle of a time where excess and success walked hand in hand, told by the men and women who created a sound and style that came to define a musical era―one in which the bands and their fans went looking for nothin’ but a good time…and found it.

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

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can now get your hands on the digital edition of Brandon Sanderson's Tailored Realities for only 5.99$ 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 #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson―creator of the Stormlight Archive, the Mistborn saga, and numerous smash-hit works of science fiction and fantasy―comes Tailored Realities, a new short fiction collection including the never-before-published novella “Moment Zero.”

Spanning the genres of fantasy and science fiction, Tailored Realities includes ten works of short fiction from the ingenious mind of one of the genre’s most beloved bestselling authors.

From futuristic detective thrillers to inventive space opera, superhero action, high-tech fantasy, and beyond, these gripping standalone reads have never before been gathered into one volume, with many available here in print for the first time.

Along with the thrilling new science fiction novella "Moment Zero," this collection includes:
• “Snapshot”
• “Perfect State”
• “Defending Elysium” (from the world of Skyward)
• “Firstborn”
• “Mitosis” (from the world of the Reckoners)
• and four other stories

Also including author’s notes and stunning interior illustrations for each story, this visionary collection is a must-read whether you’re new to Sanderson or a longtime fan.

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 Brandon Sanderson's The Lost Metal 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.

Other Mistborn novels such as The Alloy of Law, The Hero of Ages, Shadows of Self, and The Bands of Mourning are also on sale for the same price.

Here's the blurb:

Return to #1 New York Times bestseller Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn world of Scadrial as its second era, which began with The Alloy of Law, comes to its earth-shattering conclusion in The Lost Metal.

For years, frontier lawman turned big-city senator Waxillium Ladrian has hunted the shadowy organization the Set—with his late uncle and his sister among their leaders—since they started kidnapping people with the power of Allomancy in their bloodlines. When Detective Marasi Colms and her partner Wayne find stockpiled weapons bound for the Outer City of Bilming, this opens a new lead. Conflict between Elendel and the Outer Cities only favors the Set, and their tendrils now reach to the Elendel Senate—whose corruption Wax and Steris have sought to expose—and Bilming is even more entangled.

After Wax discovers a new type of explosive that can unleash unprecedented destruction and realizes that the Set must already have it, an immortal kandra serving Scadrial’s god, Harmony, reveals that Bilming has fallen under the influence of another god: Trell, worshipped by the Set. And Trell isn’t the only factor at play from the larger Cosmere—Marasi is recruited by offworlders with strange abilities who claim their goal is to protect Scadrial...at any cost.

Wax must choose whether to set aside his rocky relationship with God and once again become the Sword that Harmony has groomed him to be. If no one steps forward to be the hero Scadrial needs, the planet and its millions of people will come to a sudden and calamitous ruin.

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can now get your hands on the digital edition of Joe Abercrombie's The Devils 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 brand-new epic fantasy from New York Times bestselling author Joe Abercrombie, featuring a notorious band of anti-heroes on a delightfully bloody and raucous journey.

Holy work sometimes requires unholy deeds.

Brother Diaz has been summoned to the Sacred City, where he is certain a commendation and grand holy assignment awaits him. But his new flock is made up of unrepentant murderers, practitioners of ghastly magic, and outright monsters. The mission he is tasked with will require bloody measures from them all in order to achieve its righteous ends.

Elves lurk at our borders and hunger for our flesh, while greedy princes care for nothing but their own ambitions and comfort. With a hellish journey before him, it's a good thing Brother Diaz has the devils on his side.

This week's New York Times Bestsellers (April 5th)

In hardcover:

Ava Reid's Innamorata debuts at number 5. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

Matt Dinniman's Carl's Doomsday Scenario is down one position, ending the week at number 6. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

Carissa Broadbent's Mother of Death and Dawn debuts at number 7. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

Christopher Buehlman's Between Two Fires is down two spots, finishing the week at number 9. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

Matt Dinniman's The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook is up two spots, finishing the week at number 10. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

SenLinYu's Alchemised is down one position, ending the week at number 12. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

Matt Dinniman's The Gate of the Feral Gods debuts at number 14. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

Matt Dinniman's Dungeon Crawler Carl returns at number 15. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

In paperback:

Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary is up one position, ending the week at number 1. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

Matt Dinniman's Dungeon Crawler Carl maintains its position at number 8. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

Sarah J. Maas' A Court of Thorns and Roses is down two spots, finishing the week at number 14. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can now download Tad Williams' The Witchwood Crown 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:

The Dragonbone Chair, the first volume of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, was published in hardcover in October, 1988, launching the series that was to become one of the seminal works of modern epic fantasy. Many of today’s top-selling fantasy authors, from Patrick Rothfuss to George R. R. Martin to Christopher Paolini credit Tad with being the inspiration for their own series.

Now, twenty-four years after the conclusion of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, Tad returns to his beloved universe and characters with The Witchwood Crown, the first novel in the long-awaited sequel trilogy, The Last King of Osten Ard.

Thirty years have passed since the events of the earlier novels, and the world has reached a critical turning point once again. The realm is threatened by divisive forces, even as old allies are lost, and others are lured down darker paths. Perhaps most terrifying of all, the Norns—the long-vanquished elvish foe—are stirring once again, preparing to reclaim the mortal-ruled lands that once were theirs…

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can now download Kristen Britain's Falling in a Sea of Stars 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:

Magic, danger, and adventure abound for messenger Karigan G’ladheon in the eighth book in Kristen Britain’s New York Times-bestselling Green Rider fantasy series

After Sacoridia’s victory over Second Empire, Karigan G’ladheon’s life as a Green Rider should have settled into an ordinary routine. But her father’s abrupt departure to rescue Laren Mapstone, leader of the Green Riders and the woman he loves, from the far distant land of Varos, has left Clan G’ladheon’s business in disarray and Karigan’s hands full.

Even as Karigan tries to sort out the clan’s mess, a darker, more perilous crisis casts its shadows over her: Mornhavon the Black has reawakened. Moreover, he has freed two undead wraiths from their imprisoning tombs to hunt Karigan down and bring her to him in Blackveil Forest.

In a deadly confrontation with one of the wraiths amid the frivolity of the Harvest Ball, Karigan is left vulnerable to the intrigues of another old adversary she thought destroyed long ago. Haunted by the unceasing rhythm of the dance, she falls endlessly through the frigid dark of the heavens, and even Westrion, god of death, cannot save her.

King Zachary, bereft and hopeless, keeps vigil for her safe return. If they are not reunited, her loss may destroy him—and any chance Sacoridia has of overcoming Mornhavon’s dark designs.

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can now get your hands on the digital edition of Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland's The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. 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 bestselling author Neal Stephenson and critically acclaimed historical and contemporary commercial novelist Nicole Galland comes a captivating and complex near-future thriller combining history, science, magic, mystery, intrigue, and adventure that questions the very foundations of the modern world.

When Melisande Stokes, an expert in linguistics and languages, accidently meets military intelligence operator Tristan Lyons in a hallway at Harvard University, it is the beginning of a chain of events that will alter their lives and human history itself. The young man from a shadowy government entity approaches Mel, a low-level faculty member, with an incredible offer. The only condition: she must sign a nondisclosure agreement in return for the rather large sum of money.

Tristan needs Mel to translate some very old documents, which, if authentic, are earth-shattering. They prove that magic actually existed and was practiced for centuries. But the arrival of the scientific revolution and the Age of Enlightenment weakened its power and endangered its practitioners. Magic stopped working altogether in 1851, at the time of the Great Exhibition at London’s Crystal Palace—the world’s fair celebrating the rise of industrial technology and commerce. Something about the modern world "jams" the "frequencies" used by magic, and it’s up to Tristan to find out why.

And so the Department of Diachronic Operations—D.O.D.O. —gets cracking on its real mission: to develop a device that can bring magic back, and send Diachronic Operatives back in time to keep it alive . . . and meddle with a little history at the same time. But while Tristan and his expanding operation master the science and build the technology, they overlook the mercurial—and treacherous—nature of the human heart.

Written with the genius, complexity, and innovation that characterize all of Neal Stephenson’s work and steeped with the down-to-earth warmth and humor of Nicole Galland’s storytelling style, this exciting and vividly realized work of science fiction will make you believe in the impossible, and take you to places—and times—beyond imagining.

Daughter of Crows

When it was announced that Mark Lawrence's newest trilogy would be a return to the grimdark subgenre, I was really happy. The Broken Empire series unleashed the author on an unsuspecting world, but each new sequence saw Lawrence edge further away from his grimdark roots. Daughter of Crows is indeed darker than his past few books, yet it's not grimdark the way Prince of Thorns and its sequels originally were. In style and tone, it's more akin to the Book of the Ancestor trilogy.

In many ways, I felt that it was a return to form for Lawrence, whose Library trilogy never quite managed to grab me the way all of his other works did. Daughter of Crows marks the auspicious beginning of what could be another memorable series.

Here's the blurb:

The survivor of a brutal academy must exhume her own past in the first book in a new series from the international bestselling author of the Library Trilogy and the Broken Empire series.

Set a thief to catch a thief. Set a monster to punish monsters.

The Academy of Kindness exists to create agents of retribution, cast in the image of the Furies—known as the kindly ones—against whom even the gods hesitate to stand. Each year a hundred girls are sold to the Academy. Ten years later only three will emerge.

The Academy’s halls run with blood. The few that survive its decade-long nightmare have been forged on the sands of the Wound Garden. They have learned ancient secrets amid the necrotic fumes of the Bone Garden. They leave its gates as avatars of vengeance, bound to uphold the oldest of laws.

Only the most desperate would sell their child to the Kindnesses. But Rue … she sold herself. And now, a lifetime later, a long and bloody lifetime later, just as she has discovered peace, war has been brought to an old woman’s doorstep.

That was a mistake.

Mark Lawrence finally spilled the beans in The Girl and the Mountain by revealing that all of his series were related. Then came The Girl and the Moon, which felt like the culmination of Lawrence's entire body of work. Though it didn't provide all the answers we were looking for and it did raise its fair share of new questions, that novel was the one work that tied the Broken Empire, The Red Queen's War, the Book of the Ancestor, the Impossible Times, and the Book of the Ice series together. Though supposedly unrelated, it's evident that the Library trilogy also takes place in the same universe. Trouble is, the way the author set up his universe, both in time and space, everything he'll write from now on could well be related to the rest of his past series. Or not. So is Daughter of Crows linked to the other series in any way? It appears that this new trilogy takes place on the world of Abeth, but eons following the Book of the Ice trilogy. Having said that, this could just be an Easter egg and I could be completely wrong.

As is usually his wont, especially in the first volume of a new series, Mark Lawrence keeps his cards close to his chest as far as the worldbuilding is concerned. Damn him, for the back story for this one seems to be quite fascinating! Or the middle story, to be exact. We do get a good chunk of the back story via the Academy of Kindness timeline. And though only a fraction of Rue's storyline taking place in the present is explored, it's what happened in between the old woman's girlhood and her retirement as a Kindness that is the missing link. And that's what I'm dying to find out! Some might think that the Academy of Kindness is somewhat similar to the Sweet Mercy convent, yet it's not the case. Though the storylines bear some resemblance, what with two sets of young girls growing up and being trained in what can only be called a hostile environment, Daughter of Crows has very little in common with Red Sister and its sequels. Greek mythology is at the heart of this tale and not just with the Kindly Ones' myth. Which is why I may be wrong with thinking that this one occurs on Abeth. Several of Earth's religions also exist on this world. It will be interesting to discover just how the man who'll become Emperor Sunder managed to bind the Cruelties to him and conquer most of the continent. It will also be interesting to see how the Kindnesses were ultimately hunted down and killed and the Academy of Kindness destroyed. All in all, Daughter of Crows raises plenty of questions while supplying very little in terms of answers. Man, that Thorn Guy sure knows how to keep you intrigued!

I'm more than a little fed up with the academia trope, so the Academy of Kindness' storyline didn't appeal to me as much as the rest of the novel. I really liked how the author came up with a number of perspectives that kept you guessing as to which one would turn out to be Rue. That was deftly done by Lawrence and it kept the POVs fresh. Especially Eldest's POV which, for the longest time, didn't seem to have anything to do with the rest of the tale. Still, as a crone filled with rage and regret, Rue just might be Lawrence's most compelling protagonist thus far. She's the perfect narrator for what promises to be a brutal tale of revenge. And yet, there is light amidst all that darkness and violence, and the bonds forged amongst death and suffering created friendships that last to this day.

Daughter of Crows suffers from a few pacing issues. While Rue's plotline moves fast and needs to be restrained while the rest of the storylines can catch up, everything that has to do with the Academy of Kindness' timeline moves rather slowly. And since that particular timeline covers a number of years while Rue's timeline only covers a few days, the rhythm between the two can be decidedly uneven at times. It's never boring, mind you. It's just that Lawrence needs to spend a lot of time laying the groundwork for the rest of the series. Hence, it takes a while for all the plotlines to start making sense and give you a general idea of what the story is all about.

The author makes up for it later in the book. He brings this one to a satisfying close, but with another damned cliffhanger ending that might not please everyone. Then again, if you've been a Mark Lawrence fan for some time, you're probably used to it by now. Thank God the rest of the trilogy is already written and we know we're getting the second volume next year! Still, probably due to the fact that a lot of groundwork needed to be laid out, Daughter of Crows doesn't stand as well on its own as previous first installments from Lawrence did.

Can't wait to find out what happens next!

The final verdict: 7.75/10

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

This week's New York Times Bestsellers (March 29th)

In hardcover:

Briar Boleyn's The Wings That Bind debuts at number 2. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

Matt Dinniman's Carl's Doomsday Scenario is up five positions, ending the week at number 5. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

Christopher Buehlman's Between Two Fires is down three spots, finishing the week at number 7. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

SenLinYu's Alchemised is up one position, ending the week at number 11. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

Matt Dinniman's The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook is up one spot, finishing the week at number 12. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

In paperback:

Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary is up one position, ending the week at number 2. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

Matt Dinniman's Dungeon Crawler Carl is up two spots, finishing the week at number 8. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

Sarah J. Maas' A Court of Thorns and Roses is up two spots, finishing the week at number 12. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can now download K. J. Parker's Sister Svangerd and the Not Quite Dead 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 World Fantasy Award-winning author K.J. Parker comes a devilishly clever tale of murder, intrigue, and existential crisis.

Not even the Church of the Invincible Sun is invincible – and somebody has to do its dirty work. Enter Sister Svangerd and her accompanying priest, both first-rate practitioners. Their mission is simple: to make a meddlesome princess disappear (permanently).

To get to her, they must attend the legendary Ecumenical Council, the once-in-a-century convening of the greatest spiritual minds the world has to offer. But when they arrive, they find instead a den of villainy that would make the most hardened criminal blush.

To complicate matters further, it appears that some people who were definitely grim reapered might be not quite dead after all. What began as a little assassination is about to escalate into a theological debate with terrifying consequences for everyone.

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can now download Adrian Tchaikovsky's The Tiger and the Wolf 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.

The two sequels, The Bear and the Serpent and The Hyena and the Hawk, are also on sale for the same price.

Here's the blurb:

The first novel in the Echoes of the Fall series, The Tiger and the Wolf is an accomplished high fantasy by Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of the Arthur C. Clarke award-winning Children of Time.

In the bleak northern crown of the world, war is coming.

Maniye's father is the Wolf clan's chieftain, but she's an outcast. Her mother was queen of the Tiger and these tribes have been enemies for generations. Maniye also hides a deadly secret. All can shift into their clan's animal form, but Maniye can take on tiger and wolf shapes. She refuses to disown half her soul so escapes, rescuing a prisoner of the Wolf clan in the process. The killer Broken Axe is set on their trail, to drag them back for retribution.

The Wolf chieftan plots to rule the north and controlling his daughter is crucial to his schemes. However, other tribes also prepare for strife. Strangers from the far south appear too, seeking allies in their own conflict. It's a season for omens as priests foresee danger and a darkness falling across the land. Some say a great war is coming, overshadowing even Wolf ambitions. A time of testing and broken laws is near, but what spark will set the world ablaze?

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can now download Kay Kenyon's Bright of the Sky, opening chapter of one of the most underrated blend of science fiction and fantasy series of all times, for only 6.99$ 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:

Kay Kenyon, noted for her science fiction world-building, has in this new series created her most vivid and compelling society, the Universe Entire. In a land-locked galaxy that tunnels through our own, the Entire is a bizarre and seductive mix of long-lived quasi-human and alien beings gathered under a sky of fire, called the bright. A land of wonders, the Entire is sustained by monumental storm walls and an exotic, never-ending river. Over all, the elegant and cruel Tarig rule supreme.

Into this rich milieu is thrust Titus Quinn, former star pilot, bereft of his beloved wife and daughter who are assumed dead by everyone on earth except Quinn. Believing them trapped in a parallel universe—one where he himself may have been imprisoned—he returns to the Entire without resources, language, or his memories of that former life. He is assisted by Anzi, a woman of the Chalin people, a Chinese culture copied from our own universe and transformed by the kingdom of the bright. Learning of his daughter’s dreadful slavery, Quinn swears to free her. To do so, he must cross the unimaginable distances of the Entire in disguise, for the Tarig are lying in wait for him. As Quinn’s memories return, he discovers why. Quinn’s goal is to penetrate the exotic culture of the Entire—to the heart of Tarig power, the fabulous city of the Ascendancy, to steal the key to his family’s redemption.

But will his daughter and wife welcome rescue? Ten years of brutality have forced compromises on everyone. What Quinn will learn to his dismay is what his own choices were, long ago, in the Universe Entire. He will also discover why a fearful multiverse destiny is converging on him and what he must sacrifice to oppose the coming storm.

This is high-concept SF written on the scale of Philip Jose Farmer’s Riverworld, Roger Zelazny’s Amber Chronicles, and Dan Simmons’s Hyperion.

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can now download Ian McDonald's excellent River of Gods for 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:

As Mother India approaches her centenary, nine people are going about their business--a gangster, a cop, his wife, a politician, a stand-up comic, a set designer, a journalist, a scientist, and a dropout. And so is Aj--the waif, the mind reader, the prophet--when she one day finds a man who wants to stay hidden.

In the next few weeks, they will all be swept together to decide the fate of the nation.

River of Gods teems with the life of a country choked with peoples and cultures--one and a half billion people, twelve semi-independent nations, nine million gods. Ian McDonald has written the great Indian novel of the new millennium, in which a war is fought, a love betrayed, a message from a different world decoded, as the great river Ganges flows on.

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can now download Joel Shepherd's excellent Crossover, opening volume in the Cassandra Kresnov sequence, for only 0.99$ 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. Follow this link to read my review from 2006.

The following volumes are all priced at 4.99$ each, which is a bargain for such a good series! These are definitely books that deserve more attention! Give them a shot and you won't be disappointed! =)

Here's the blurb:

Crossover is the first novel in a series which follows the adventures of Cassandra Kresnov, an artificial person, or android, created by the League, one side of an interstellar war against the more powerful, conservative Federation. Cassandra is an experimental design — more intelligent, more creative, and far more dangerous than any that have preceded her. But with her intellect come questions, and a moral awakening. She deserts the League and heads incognito into the space of her former enemy, the Federation, in search of a new life.

Her chosen world is Callay, and its enormous, decadent capital metropolis of Tanusha, where the concerns of the war are literally and figuratively so many light years away. But the war between the League and the Federation was ideological as much as political, with much of that ideological dispute regarding the very existence of artificial sentience and the rules that govern its creation. Cassandra discovers that even in Tanusha, the powerful entities of this bloody conflict have wound their tentacles. Many in the League and the Federation have cause to want her dead, and Cassandra’s history, inevitably, catches up with her.

Cassandra finds herself at the mercy of a society whose values preclude her own right even to exist. But her presence in Tanusha reveals other fault lines, and when Federal agents attempt to assassinate the Callayan president, she finds herself thrust into the service of her former enemies, using her lethal skills to attempt to protect her former enemies from forces beyond their ability to control. As she struggles for her place and survival in a new world, Cassandra must forge new friendships with old enemies, while attempting to confront the most disturbing and deadly realities of her own existence.

Here are reviews for the other installments:

- Breakaway
- Killswitch
- 23 Years on Fire
- Operation Shield
- Originator

More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can now get your hands on the digital edition of Steven Erikson's No Life Forsaken 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 goddess awakens to a new world, only to find that some things never change.

Amidst the ashes of a failed rebellion in Seven Cities, new embers are flaring to life.

There are furrowed brows at the beleaguered Malazan Legion headquarters in G’danisban for it would appear that yet another bloody clash with the revived cult of the Apocalyptic is coming to a head.

Seeking to crush the uprising before it ignites the entire subcontinent, Fist Arenfall has only a few dozen squads of marines at his disposal, and many of those are already dispersed - endeavouring to stamp out multiple brush-fires of dissent. But his soldiers are exhausted, worn down by the grind of a simmering insurrection and the last thing Arenfall needs is the arrival of the new Adjunct, fresh from the capital and the Emperor's side.

The man's mission may be to lend support to Arenfall’s efforts . . . or stick a knife in his back. 'Twas ever thus, of course. That a popular commander should inevitably be seen as a threat to the Emperor - such is the fatal nature of imperial Malazan politics.

And what of the gods? Well, as recent history has proved, their solution to any mortal mess is to make it even messier. In other words, it's just another tumultuous day in the chequered history of the Malazan Empire.

This week's New York Times Bestsellers (March 22nd)

In hardcover:

Christopher Buehlman's Between Two Fires debuts at number 4. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

Sable Sorensen's Dire Bound debuts at number 5. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

Matt Dinniman's Carl's Doomsday Scenario is down three positions, ending the week at number 10. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

SenLinYu's Alchemised is down six positions, ending the week at number 12. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

Matt Dinniman's The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook is down three spots, finishing the week at number 13. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

In paperback:

Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary is down one position, ending the week at number 3. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.

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

Sarah J. Maas' A Court of Thorns and Roses returns at number 14. For more info about this title, follow this Amazon Associate link.