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Thursday, December 2, 2010

Bargain Book Roundup

The Griffin Mage: Books 1 & 2 ($7.99), by Rachel Neumeier, is Orbit's discounted book of the month. This contains the full contents of Lord of the Changing Winds ($7.99) and Land of the Burning Sands ($7.99) in a single volume. If you recognize the author's name, it might be because the third book in the series, Law of the Broken Earth ($7.99), was on of this week's pricing error bargains, free for a few hours in the morning. If you managed to snag it, that means you can get the entire trilogy for under $8. I'm reading the sample now and will probably end up getting it.

Book Description
Book 1: LORD OF THE CHANGING WINDS
Little ever happens in the quiet villages of peaceful Feierabiand. For Kes, the course of her life seems set: she'll grow up to be an herb-woman and healer, never quite fitting in but always more or less accepted. And she's content with that path - or she thinks she is. Until the day the griffins come down from the mountains, bringing with them the fiery wind of their desert and a desperate need for a healer. But what the griffins need is a healer who is not quite human...or a healer who can be made into something not quite human.

Book 2: LAND OF THE BURNING SANDS
Gereint Enseichen of Casmantium knows little and cares less about the recent war in which his king tried to use griffins and fire to wrest territory from the neighboring country of Feierabiand. Now, his kingdom's unexpected defeat offers him a chance to escape from his own servitude.

But now that the griffins find themselves in a position of strength, they are not inclined to forgive and the entire kingdom finds itself in a deadly peril. Willing or not, Gereint is caught up in a desperate struggle between the griffins and the last remaining mage...


The Good, the Bad, and the Undead with Bonus Material ($1.99), by Kim Harrison, is the second book in her Hollows series. This edition is a pre-order, so if you want to sampler first, you can get it from this edition: The Good, the Bad, and the Undead ($7.99. If you've been a reader here for a while, there's a good chance you already have the first in the series, Dead Witch Walking ($7.99), as it was free in February. The bonus material is an excerpt from her upcoming title, Pale Demon ($12.99) and the only reason I don't have it on pre-order myself is that I lucked into a review copy.

Book Description
For a limited time, discover Kim Harrison's The Good, the Bad, and the Undead including an early excerpt from her new novel, Pale Demon, on sale February 22, 2011.

It's a tough life for witch Rachel Morgan, sexy, independent bounty hunter, prowling the darkest shadows of downtown Cincinnati for criminal creatures of the night.

She can handle the leather-clad vamps and even tangle with a cunning demon or two. But a serial killer who feeds on the experts in the most dangerous kind of black magic is definitely pressing the limits.

Confronting an ancient, implacable evil is more than just child's play -- and this time, Rachel will be lucky to escape with her very soul.


The Breach with Bonus Material ($1.99), by Patrick Lee, is another pre-order, re-release. Get a sample of this one from The Breach ($7.99. If you do pick up this one, you'll have a week to read it before Ghost Country ($9.99) is released.

Book Description
For a limited time, discover New York Times bestselling author Patrick Lee's The Breach, including a special note from the author and an exclusive excerpt from the hotly anticipated sequel, Ghost Country, available December 28th.

Thirty years ago, in a facility buried beneath a vast Wyoming emptiness, an experiment gone awry accidentally opened a door.

It is the world's best-kept secret—and its most terrifying.

Trying to regain his life in the Alaskan wilds, ex-con/ex-cop Travis Chase stumbles upon an impossible scene: a crashed 747 passenger jet filled with the murdered dead, including the wife of the President of the United States. Though a nightmare of monumental proportions, it pales before the terror to come, as Chase is dragged into a battle for the future that revolves around an amazing artifact.

Allied with a beautiful covert operative whose life he saved, Chase must now play the role he's been destined for—a pawn of incomprehensible forces or humankind's final hope—as the race toward Apocalypse begins in earnest.Because something is loose in the world.

And doomsday is not only possible . . . it is inevitable.


My Goat Ate Its Own Legs ($1.99), by Alex Burrett, is a short story collection. This appears to be the full collection; there are eight volumes with the same title, all of which appear to be a single story from the collection. The paperback is 256 pages and contains 31 short stories.

Book Description
In a voice so unfailingly chipper it's suspicious, Alex Burrett poses in fiction some disturbing yet certainly possible futures for the human race (and other ambitious, earthbound mammals). Always ready with an impeccable phrase or a sly wink, he shares stories of the most darkly ironic sort, including a field report from a human abattoir, a chronicle of dating Death, and, of course, the tale of the goat that ate its own legs. These thirty brilliant, bizarre, and morbidly hilarious "tales for adults" will delight anyone who doesn't take life (or death) too seriously.

Flyboys: A True Story of Courage ($1.99), by James Bradley, author of Flags of Our Fathers ($6.29), is the story of eight individuals in WWII whose story, including their deaths, classified until recently.

Book Description
FLYBOYS is the true story of young American airmen who were shot down over Chichi Jima. Eight of these young men were captured by Japanese troops and taken prisoner. Another was rescued by an American submarine and went on to become president. The reality of what happened to the eight prisoners has remained a secret for almost 60 years. After the war, the American and Japanese governments conspired to cover up the shocking truth. Not even the families of the airmen were informed what had happened to their sons. It has remained a mystery--until now. Critics called James Bradley's last book "the best book on battle ever written." FLYBOYS is even better: more ambitious, more powerful, and more moving. On the island of Chichi Jima those young men would face the ultimate test. Their story--a tale of courage and daring, of war and of death, of men and of hope--will make you proud, and it will break your heart.

Queen of Babble Bundle with Bonus Material ($9.99), by Meg Cabot, contains the entire Queen of Babble, three volumes that are currently selling for $9.99 each in the Kindle store. It's a pre-order, but you can sample the first in the series, Queen of Babble Bundle ($9.99), to get an idea of the writing.

Book Description
Available for a limited only, this special Meg Cabot Bundle with Bonus Material features all three of the novels in her funny and heartwarming Queen of Babble series (Queen of Babble, Queen of Babble in the Big City, and Queen of Babble Gets Hitched) as well as an extended excerpt from the New York Times bestselling Insatiable, the first book in Meg's newest series.

Queen of Babble
Lizzie Nichols has a problem, and it isn't that she doesn't have the slightest idea what she's going to do with her life or that she's blowing what should be her down payment on a cute little Manhattan apartment on a trip to London to visit her long-distance boyfriend, Andrew. But what's the point of planning for the future when she's done it again? See, Lizzie can't keep her mouth shut. And it's not just that she can't keep her own secrets, she can't keep anything to herself.

This time when she opens her big mouth, her good intentions get Andrew in major hot water. So now Lizzie's stuck in London with no boyfriend and no place to stay until the departure date on her nonrefundable airline ticket.

Fortunately, there's Shari, Lizzie's best friend and college roommate, who's spending her summer in southern France, catering weddings with her boyfriend, Chaz, in a sixteenth-century château. One call and Lizzie's on a train to Souillae. Who cares if she's never traveled alone in her life and only speaks rudimentary French? One glimpse of gorgeous Château Mirac -- not to mention the gorgeous Luke, the son of Château Mirac's owner -- and she's smitten.

But while most caterers can be trusted to keep a secret, Lizzie's the exception. And no sooner has the first cork been popped than Luke hates her, the bride is in tears, and it looks like Château Mirac is in danger of becoming a lipo-recovery spa. As if things aren't bad enough, her ex-boyfriend Andrew shows up looking for "closure" (or at least a loan), threatening to ruin everything, including Lizzie's chance at finding real love. . . .

Unless she can figure out a way to use that big mouth of hers to save the day.


Burned Alive: A Victim of the Law of Men ($1.99), by Souad

Book Description
The first true account ever published by a victim of an "honor crime," this shocking, moving, and harrowing tale has already become an international sensation.

Souad was a 17-year-old girl living in a small village in Jordan when she had the misfortune of falling in love--an emotion that would lead to an unspeakable act of violence and a lifetime of exile from her homeland. With a childhood marked by hard labor and physical abuse at the hands of her father, who is humiliated by the birth of many daughters and only one son, Souad is desperate to leave home. Enticed into a relationship with a handsome neighbor, her short-lived romance leaves her pregnant. Forbidden to marry until her older sisters find husbands and having brought shame to her family, Souad faces the only acceptable punishment: death. How her family plots to kill her, her harrowing struggle to survive burns over 90% of her body after her brother-in-law douses her with gasoline and sets her on fire, her dramatic escape from Jordan, and her resolve to build a new life for herself is a tale of heartbreaking drama and remarkable courage.


The Ritual Bath ($0.99), by Faye Kellerman

Book Description
Detective Peter Decker of the LAPD is stunned when he gets the report. Someone has shattered the sanctuary of a remote yeshiva community in the California hills with an unimaginable crime. One of the women was brutally raped as she returned from the mikvah, the bathhouse where the cleansing ritual is performed.

The crime was called in by Rina Lazarus, and Decker is relieved to discover that she is a calm and intelligent witness. She is also the only one in the sheltered community willing to speak of this unspeakable violation. As Rina tries to steer Decker through the maze of religious laws the two grow closer. But before they get to the bottom of this horrendous crime, revelations come to light that are so shocking that they threaten to come between the hard-nosed cop and the deeply religious woman with whom he has become irrevocably linked.