Read an E-Book Week Roundup

Well, Read an E-Book Week has ended and I did manage to finish up the book I was reading at the start and nearly finish the next one I started (Made to Be Broken by Kelley Armstrong). The E-Book Week only giveaways have ended, but I now have enough free books to keep me busy for weeks. There were literally hundreds of giveaways (too many to even attempt to get them all, even if every one appealed to you) and I think I downloaded a couple of hundred to try (on some I grabbed every format, in case there were problems in conversion or as a hedge against future hardware changes, so it's a bit hard to tell). I may not read them all and I'll definitely be more likely to drop one that doesn't grab my interest in the first few pages, but there are bound to be a number of gems in there -- several books I'd had on my wish list turned up free this past week, so I know there are good ones in the pile. But, if you didn't get your fill, I have rounded up a few last freebies and bargains to round out the week.

The first-ever completely online world science fiction convention Flycon 2009 has been going on this week and Vera Nazarian is offering her novella "The Duke in His Castle" as a free PDF download this weekend only. From the comments, it appears you'll still be able to grab this one on Monday, as she'll leave it up for those who don't check their computers on the weekend and those in other time zones.

There are a number of other freebies from FlyCon are available: Chris Dolley has posted Resonance in several formats (including Kindle-compatible mobi), The Admonishments of Kherishdar and The Aphorisms of Kherishdar are online reads (the latter is also available in paperback). Two audiobooks are also available: Spherical Tomi: A Novel of Despair, by Jack Mangan, and Temple of Cod (the first third of Brine, registration required), by Adrienne Jones.

Chris Howard, who released SeaBorn as a free PDF earlier this week, has another ebook, nanowhere, as a free ebook, available in several formats.

Jeffrey Carver, author of The Chaos Chronicles, has previously made Sunborn available as a free PDF, but now, for a limited time, has posted several other formats as free downloads. The PDF should remain free, but the additional formats are coming down when this one is released as a Tor ebook (which could be anytime now). And if you haven't picked up the Chaos Chronicles, they are on the same download page, also in several formats.

Jeffrey Thomas's Deadstock, a science fiction thriller, can be downloaded in PDF and mobipocket reader format. His latest, Blue War: A Punktown novel and Punktown (coming in April), aren't yet available in ebook format, but you can always click on the "Kindlize me" link for the paperback version.

If you're ready for a break from fiction or want to polish up a few work skills, be sure to check out the How to Think Like a Programmer series at Green Tea Press.

Leaving the purely free realm, there are a few bargains in the Kindle store. Pacific Avenue, by Anne L. Watson, is on sale for a penny.

Darksome Thirst by Morven Westfield is $3.98. This is a witches and vampire book, but promises to be a different kind of vampire, for those tired of good vampires or bad ones that run in packs.

BARRACUDA by Mike Monahan is marked down to $0.99 (be sure to check the price - the older listing for $7.96 is still there). Detectives, an island paradise, mafia, yakuza and a barracuda eating the tourists - what more could a story need?

Last, an online comic, Digger, is now online with free archives going back to the beginning (2007). Until recently it was a subscription only comic; now it's all free and updated every Tues and Thurs.