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Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Free and Half Price Kindle Games and Another Book for a Buck

The games are generally limited to those in the US, no doubt for technology export reasons.

The text-based adventure game Choice of Broadsides, by Choice of Games, is free in the Kindle store. now $1.99. I don't know how long this was free all total, but it was no longer free less than 10 minutes after I posted. Still a discount (as is the $1.99 for Choice of Dragon), as it started out as $4.99 when it first hit the Kindle store.

Book Description
Choice of Broadsides is a text-based adventure where your choices control the story. On most pages, you'll choose between a set of options, determining which action you will take next as a young and promising naval officer.

If you like gamebooks, you'll love Choice of Broadsides. Its unique approach to interactive fiction allows larger, deeper, and richer stories than traditional gamebooks. Will you discover all of the hidden endings? Will you become an admiral, or will you be court-martialed? When on shore, will you marry for love or for career advantage, or will you leave aside romance and spend your time gambling and dueling? The choice is up to you.

The sails have been hoisted and the guns run out as the enemy ship approaches. Your country is counting on you!


Panda Poet, by Spry Fox, has been discounted to $1.49 until February 13. I find this game addictive (and no fair using one of those scrabble cheat web sites to find all the words you can put together with four U's and only two consonants).

Book Description
Discounted 50% off for a limited time (offer ends February 13th). Do you like word games? And pandas?

With Panda Poet you use the letters on the game board to form words. Words formed from letters in open spaces create pandas. Words formed from letters near pandas make existing pandas grow.

The goal is grow the biggest panda possible. You get the highest scores from either creating the biggest possible panda or from forming the longest possible words.

To add to the challenge, each letter is only available for a fixed number of turns. Each time you enter a word, all the letters on the screen come one step closer to expiring. When a letter expires, it is replaced by a skull, which prevents you from growing your pandas in that direction. This makes playing Panda Poet a delicate balancing act: you must consider where a letter is located on the grid and how soon it will expire, not simply spell the longest word you can.


EA Sudoku, by Electronic Arts Inc., has been discounted to $1.49. I've played this several times and love the way it lets you keep notes in the various boxes, yet quickly enter a value without having to remove the notes.

Book Description
Play Sudoku on Kindle - anytime, anywhere.

EA Sudoku contains thousands of built-in puzzles, as well as the ability to enter and play a puzzle from your favorite newspaper or magazine in "Newspaper" mode.

With five difficulty levels from "Easy" to "Insane," Sudoku offers plenty of fun for Sudoku players of all skill levels. Built-in game features let you make "Notes," "Undo" moves, and apply "Error Checking." If you get stuck, you can use the "Hints" feature to fill out a cell for you, or use "AutoFill" to display the notes on all open cells on the game board. You can even track your game stats to see how you progress over time.


Triple Town, by Spry Fox, has been discounted to $1.99 until February 13.

Book Description
Discounted 50% off for a limited time (offer ends February 13th). Triple Town is an original puzzle strategy game in which you try to grow the greatest possible city. The larger the city you build, the more points you score. You build your city by matching three or more game-pieces: combine three grasses to make a flower, three flowers to make a bush, three bushes to make a tree... until you've filled the board with houses, cathedrals and castles. Along the way, you'll have to outwit evil barbarians and wizards who will try to block your progress.

This is a game that can be played for minutes or hours at a time. You'll have to think several turns ahead if you want to avoid inevitable gridlock as unfinished buildings, barbarians and wizards start to pile up. And sometimes, if you're lucky, you'll be helped along by a magical crystal (which combines with anything) or a powerful bomb (which wipes nuisances off the board). But luck won't save you forever!

How large can you grow your dream city before the board fills and the game ends?


Hardly Knew Her ($0.99), is a collection of short stories by Laura Lippman, the same author whose Baltimore Blues is also on sale for $0.99.

Book Description
New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman has been hailed as one of the best crime fiction writers in America today, winning virtually every major award in the genre. The author of the enormously popular series featuring Baltimore P.I. Tess Monaghan as well as three critically lauded stand-alone novels, Lippman now turns her attention to short stories—and reveals another level of mastery.

Lippman sets many of the stories in this sterling anthology, Hardly Knew Her, in familiar territory: her beloved Baltimore, from downtown to its affluent suburbs, where successful businessmen go to shocking lengths to protect what they have or ruthlessly expand their holdings, while dissatisfied wives find murderous ways to escape their lives. But Lippman is also unafraid to travel—to New Orleans, to an unnamed southwestern city, and even to Dublin, the backdrop for the lethal clash of two not-so-innocents abroad. Tess Monaghan is here, in two stories and a profile, aligning herself with various underdogs. And in her extraordinary, never-before-published novella, Scratch a Woman, Lippman takes us deep into the private world of a high-priced call girl/madam and devoted soccer mom, exploring the mystery of what may, in fact, be written in the blood.

Each of these ingenious tales is a gem—sometimes poignant, sometimes humorous, always filled with delightfully unanticipated twists and reversals. For people who have yet to read Lippman, get ready to experience the spellbinding power of "one of today's most pleasing storytellers, hailed for her keen psychological insights and her compelling characterizations," (San Diego Union-Tribune), who has "invigorated the crime fiction arena with smart, innovative, and exciting work" (George Pelecanos). As for longtime devotees of her multiple award-winning novels, you'll discover that you hardly know her.