The Triumph of the Sun
($7.99 Kindle), by by Wilbur Smith, is being given away as a PDF from the publisher, Macmillan. This title is also free in the Sony Store, which often means the Kindle version may be free soon, as well.It is 1884, and in the Sudan, decades of brutal misgovernment by the ruling Egyptian Khedive in Cairo precipitates a bloody rebellion and Holy War. The charismatic new religious leader, the Mahdi or "Expected One," has gathered his forces of Arab warlords in preparation for a siege on the city of Khartoum. The British are forced to intervene to protect their national interests and to attempt to rescue the hundreds of British subjects stranded in the city.
Along with hundreds of others, British trader and businessman Ryder Courtney is trapped in the capital city of Khartoum under the orders of the infamously iron-willed General Charles George Gordon. It is here that he meets skilled soldier and swordsman Captain Penrod Ballantyne of the 10th Hussars and the British Consul, David Benbrook, as well as Benbrook’s three beautiful daughters. Against the vivid and bloody backdrop of the Arabs’ fierce and merciless siege these three powerful men must fight to survive.
Rich with vibrant historical detail and infused with his inimitable powers of storytelling, The Triumph of the Sun is Wilbur Smith at his masterful best.
Macmillan is also giving away a PDF download of Panic Attack
($16.49 Hardcover; not available on Kindle) by Jason Starr.Dr. Adam Bloom has the perfect life. He’s financially secure and lives in a luxurious house with his wife, Dana, and their twenty-two-year-old daughter, Marissa, a recent college graduate. Late one night, his daughter wakes him up and says, “Somebody’s downstairs.” Adam uses his gun to kill one of the unarmed intruders, but the other escapes. From that moment on, everyone’s life in the Bloom household will never be the same.
Adam doesn’t feel safe, not with the other intruder out there somewhere, knowing where he lives. Dana suggests moving, but Adam has lived in the house all his life and he doesn’t want to run away. As the family recovers from the break-in and the Blooms’ already rocky relationship rapidly falls apart, Marissa meets a young, talented artist named Xan. Adam feels that something’s not quite right with Xan, but his daughter ignores his warnings and falls deeply in love with him. When suspicious things start happening to the Blooms all over again, Adam realizes that his first instinct about Xan was probably dead on.
Orbit has a novella as a free download this month (in addition to their dollar book of the month), Deeds of Men by Marie Brennan, in your choice of formats (PDF, ePub, or HTML). Join the mailing list for a chance to get a paper copy or simply download the e-version (make an optional donation via paypal, if you want to support the author).Get a PDF or EPUB copy of Serial by Jack Kilborn (he's still working on getting this into the Kindle store as a free book, but apparently there are some politics involved and there is no telling when it will happen) and Blake Crouch. This is a short story, described as a terrifying tale of hitchhiking gone terribly wrong. Look under Book Extras in the lower, right side of the page for the download links.
For now, you can convert the PDF using the (free) Amazon service or any of these formats using a program such as Calibre. But when the DX appears, you should be able to read these PDF files directly, no conversion required, as Amazon has licensed the Adobe Reader SDK for the DX. You have to wonder, though, if the free PDF's will stop being offered as often (or will come with DRM) once you can read them on the e-ink screen without the formatting issues common with most conversions.
