Books for a Buck (continued)

A few more ideas from the HarperCollins 99 cent sale. I'll be back later on with some other bargains I've turned up...

Science Fiction:

• Artifact, by Gregory Benford
• Metaplanetary, by Tony Daniel
• Superluminal: Metaplanetary #2, by Tony Daniel
• The X-Files: Antibodies, by Kevin J. Anderson
• The X-Files: Ground Zero, by Kevin J. Anderson
• Year's Best SF, edited by David G. Hartwell
• Year's Best SF 2, edited by David G. Hartwell
• Year's Best SF 3, edited by David G. Hartwell
• Year's Best SF 4, edited by David G. Hartwell
• Year's Best SF 5, edited by David G. Hartwell
• Year's Best SF 6, edited by David G. Hartwell
• Year's Best SF 7, edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
• Year's Best SF 8, edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
• Year's Best SF 9, edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
• Year's Best SF 11, edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer

Fantasy:

• Legacy: The Sharing Knife #2, by Lois McMaster Bujold
• Acorna, by Anne McCaffrey and Margaret Ball
• The One Kingdom: The Swan's War Trilogy #1, by Sean Russell
• The Isle of Battle: The Swan's War Trilogy #2, by Sean Russell
• The Shadow Roads: The Swan's War Trilogy #3, by Sean Russell
• The Family Tree, by Sheri S. Tepper
• The Visitor, by Sheri S. Tepper
• The Fresco, by Sheri S. Tepper
• Singer from the Sea, by Sheri S. Tepper
• Spiral Hunt: Evie Scelan #1, by Margaret Ronald
• The Amber Wizard: The Osserian Saga #1, by David Forbes
• Year's Best Fantasy, edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
• Year's Best Fantasy 2, edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
• Year's Best Fantasy 3, edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
• Year's Best Fantasy 4, edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
• Year's Best Fantasy 5, edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer

Mystery/Suspense/Thrillers:

• Bitter Sugar (Lupe Solano Mysteries), by Carolina Garcia-Aguilera
• SOAR: A Black Ops Mission, by John Weisman
• The Death of an Irish Politician: A Peter Mcgarr Mystery #1, by Bartholomew Gill
• The Death of an Irish Consul: A Peter Mcgarr Mystery #2, by Bartholomew Gill
• The Death of an Irish Lass: A Peter Mcgarr Mystery #3, by Bartholomew Gill
• The Death of a Joyce Scholar: A Peter Mcgarr Mystery #8, by Bartholomew Gill
• The Death of Love: A Peter Mcgarr Mystery #9, by Bartholomew Gill
• The Death of an Irish Sea Wolf: A Peter Mcgarr Mystery #12, by Bartholomew Gill
• Death of an Irish Tinker: A Peter Mcgarr Mystery #13, by Bartholomew Gill
• Death of an Irish Lover: An Peter Mcgarr Mystery #14, by Bartholomew Gill
• The Death of an Irish Sinner: A Peter Mcgarr Mystery #15, by Bartholomew Gill
• Whirlwind, by oseph Garber

Non-Fiction:

• The Code of Man, by Waller R. Newell
• The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 1, by C.S. Lewis
• The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 3, by C.S. Lewis
• Learning To Love: Exploring Solitude and Freedom, by Thomas Merton
• Entering the Silence: Becoming a Monk and a Writer, by Thomas Merton
• Bistros of Paris, by Robert Hamburger and Barbara Hamburger
• Spirit of Service, by HarperCollins Publishers (daily reading format)
• Duty First: A Year in the Life of West Point, by Ed Ruggero
• Bingsop's Fables: Little Morals for Big Business, by Stanley Bing and Steve Brodner
• Business Is Combat: A Fighter Pilot's guide to Winning in Modern Warfare, by James D. Murphy
• Financial Security in Troubled Times, by Ric Edelman
• SAFE: Science and Technology in the Age of Terrorism, by Martha Baer, Katrina Heron, Oliver Morton and Evan Ratliff
• Inside Gitmo, by Gordon Cucullu

Kindle Daily Deals 6/19

Today on Amazon's Gold Box deal, save an extra $31 on a Goal Zero 19010 Guide 10 Plus Solar Charging Kit.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Blood Red Horse ($1.99), by K. M. Grant [Walker Childrens].

Book Description
You need three things to become a brave and noble knight: A warhorse. A fair maiden. A just cause. Will has a horse-a small chestnut stallion with a white blaze in his brow. Ellie is a fair maiden, but she's supposed to marry Will's older brother, Gavin. And as for the cause, King Richard is calling for a Crusade. The Knights of England must go to the Holy Land to fight. Will and Gavin will go. Blood will be shed. Lives will be taken. But through it all, two things will be constant-Ellie, and a blood-red horse called Hosanna. . . .

Age Level: 10 and up

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is 4:50 from Paddington ($1.99), a Miss Marple Mystery by Agatha Christie [HarperCollins].

Book Description
For an instant the two trains ran side by side. In that frozen moment, Elspeth McGillicuddy stared helplessly out of her carriage window as a man tightened his grip around a woman's throat. The body crumpled. Then the other train drew away. But who, apart from Mrs. McGillicuddy's friend Jane Marple, would take her story seriously? After all, there are no other witnesses, no suspects, and no case -- for there is no corpse, and no one is missing. Miss Marple asks her highly efficient and intelligent young friend Lucy Eyelesbarrow to infiltrate the Crackenthorpe family, who seem to be at the heart of the mystery, and help unmask a murderer.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is The Abolitionist's Secret ($0.99), by Becky Lower [Crimson Romance].

Book Description
In 1856 New York, Heather Fitzpatrick, a bashful abolitionist, falls for young Army lieutenant David Whitman, who is tracking a runaway slave - the very slave she and her parents rescued from the hands of the slavemongers a few nights earlier.

Despite their divergent views on slavery, romance ensues when David dances with Heather at the Cotillion Ball and later that night, walks her home. An engagement quickly follows. When he receives word that his father is ailing, David wants her to accompany him home to Savannah to meet his family.

Heather wants to make the trip with him, especially since his father’s death seems imminent. With her maid as chaperone, they board the train heading South. After his father passes, his mother insists any marriage will have to wait the requisite year, which is proper for mourning. She hopes to send Heather home for the year, and to use the time to dissuade David from his foolish choice, especially since his mother has already handpicked his potential bride from a neighboring plantation.

Heather longs to stay to wait out the year, and to begin teaching the slaves how to read and write, since she knows those accomplishments will be needed when slavery comes to an end.

But she knows the South is no place for an abolitionist.

Sensuality Level: Sensual

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is 2082: The Chronicles of Hope ($0.99), by Robert Breeze [indie/"Palace Park Press" publicist].

Book Description
Frank Noon divides opinion. Whilst some say he’s a philosophical genius, some say he’s a fanciful dreamer who deliberately courts controversy with his anti-establishment views about the failings of modern society.

Seemingly nearing the end of his life in politics, he reluctantly fronts an experimental inter-galactic government project late in the 21st century aimed at making life on an overpopulated Earth more sustainable. As he battles to gain control of a relative asylum, consisting of a cross section of the populous as much at odds with themselves as the situation, he unwittingly embarks on a life-changing journey of self-discovery.

As they learn more about the project and its intentions how far-reaching might the consequences be for the future of humanity?

Kindle Daily Deals 6/18

The HarperCollins 99 cent sale is still going on. I did see some of the titles on sale at B&N, but didn't find any easy way to create a link to isolate the sale items from the regularly 99 cent short stories, there.

Kobo is having another trivia contest for coupons: Summer Blockbuster Trivia (get up to a 75% off coupon).

Today is the last day to take advantage of this AmazonLocal deal:

• 30 Kindle Books for $1 Each

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Splashing by the Shore: Beach Activities for Kids ($0.99), by Lisa Mullarkey [Gibbs Smith].

Book Description
Why does the ocean have salt in it?
Do you know what a tide pool is?
Where does sand come from?
In Splashing by the Shore, you'll discover how to have fun in and out of the water, and, with tips on good beach etiquette and how to be sun savvy, you'll be ready to play games all day at the lake or on the coastal shore.
Land-lovers will also learn how to throw a beach party at home any time of the year and will find tips on low-cost decorations, invitation ideas, games, and party foods and favors.
So grab your shades, slather on the sunscreen, and let's hit the beach!

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Stalin's Ghost ($1.99), the sixth Arkady Renko novel by Martin Cruz Smith [Simon and Schuster].

Book Description
Investigator Arkady Renko, the pariah of the Moscow prosecutor's office, has been assigned the thankless job of investigating a new phenomenon: late-night subway riders report seeing the ghost of Joseph Stalin on the platform of the Chistye Prudy Metro station. The illusion seems part political hocus-pocus and also part wishful thinking, for among many Russians Stalin is again popular; the bloody dictator can boast a two-to-one approval rating. Decidedly better than that of Renko, whose lover, Eva, has left him for Detective Nikolai Isakov, a charismatic veteran of the civil war in Chechnya, a hero of the far right and, Renko suspects, a killer for hire. The cases entwine, and Renko's quests become a personal inquiry fueled by jealousy.

The investigation leads to the fields of Tver outside of Moscow, where once a million soldiers fought. There, amidst the detritus, Renko must confront the ghost of his own father, a favorite general of Stalin's. In these barren fields, patriots and shady entrepreneurs -- the Red Diggers and Black Diggers -- collect the bones, weapons and personal effects of slain World War II soldiers, and find that even among the dead there are surprises.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Once Upon a Prince ($1.99), by Rachel Hauck [Zondervan/HarperCollins].

Book Description
Once Upon a Prince, the first novel in the Royal Wedding series by best-selling author Rachel Hauck, treats you to a modern-day fairy tale.

Susanna Truitt never dreamed of a great romance or being treated like a princess---just to marry the man she has loved for twelve years. But life isn't going according to plan. When her high-school-sweetheart-turned-Marine-officer breaks up instead of proposing, Susanna scrambles to rebuild her life.

The last thing Prince Nathaniel expects to find on his American holiday to St. Simons Island is the queen of his heart. A prince has duties, and his family's tense political situation has chosen his bride for him. When Prince Nathaniel comes to Susanna's aid under the fabled Lover's Oak, he is blindsided by love.

Their lives are worlds apart. He's a royal prince. She's an ordinary girl. But everything changes when Susanna receives an invitation to Nathaniel's coronation.

It's the ultimate choice: His kingdom or her heart? God's will or their own?

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is A Fall of Moondust ($1.99), by Arthur C. Clarke [RosettaBooks]. It doesn't appear that this one has been discounted previously, as it wasn't (yet) in my library.

Book Description
A lunar cruise ends in disaster after a moonquake sinks the cruiser Selene beneath a sea of liquid-fine lunar dust on the Moon’s Sea of Thirst. Facing enormous environmental barriers, the rescue team finds their courage, ingenuity, and resources tested to the breaking point—as trapped passengers and crew slowly run out of time.

Originally published in 1961, A Fall of Moondust was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Novel, and was the first science fiction tale chosen as a Reader’s Digest Condensed Book. Informed by the most current scientific knowledge of the time, A Fall of Moondust is a realistically conceived and gripping story of human resourcefulness and triumph in the face of nearly insurmountable challenges.

Kindle Daily Deals 6/17

Amazon's Android Free App of the Day is Fighting Fantasy: Blood of the Zombies, which is usually $6!

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is California Wine ($0.99), by Casey Dawes [Crimson Romance].

Book Description
Single mother Elizabeth Ladina is done with men. From her father on down, all they want to do is control her life.

Deciding to take her life into her own hands, she ends her five-year relationship and goes to Italy to visit Liguria, her family’s original home and rediscover the thrill of being on her own. A visit to an upscale skin care boutique in Italy inspires her. Dreaming she could create an upscale lotion line that is splashed across the pages of the best glossy fashion magazines, she’s eager to get home to California and make her vision into reality.

Italian Marcos Gamari has one goal in life - to create the world’s finest wine from the best vineyards in the world. His vineyards in Italy and France are producing prime wines that are already garnering awards and he has no time or desire for romance in his life. Emotional entanglements only lead to pain. His ex-wife had proved that.

Still, when he sees the pretty American eating alone in a hotel dining room in Liguria, he’s compelled to strike up a conversation, which leads to dinner and Elizabeth’s invitation to see the vineyards of the Santa Cruz Mountains near her home in California. She claims they are equal, and cheaper, than anything he’ll find in Napa, his original destination.

Sparks fly when they meet again in Costanoa. Elizabeth and Marcos are determined to maintain their single-track focus on their businesses. But can they keep romance out of their lives forever?

Sensuality Level: Sensual

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is The Yiddish Policemen's Union ($1.99), by Michael Chabon [HarperCollins].

Book Description
For sixty years Jewish refugees and their descendants have prospered in the Federal District of Sitka, a "temporary" safe haven created in the wake of the Holocaust and the shocking 1948 collapse of the fledgling state of Israel. The Jews of the Sitka District have created their own little world in the Alaskan panhandle, a vibrant and complex frontier city that moves to the music of Yiddish. But now the District is set to revert to Alaskan control, and their dream is coming to an end.

Homicide detective Meyer Landsman of the District Police has enough problems without worrying about the upcoming Reversion. His life is a shambles, his marriage a wreck, his career a disaster. And in the cheap hotel where Landsman has washed up, someone has just committed a murder—right under his nose. When he begins to investigate the killing of his neighbor, a former chess prodigy, word comes down from on high that the case is to be dropped immediately, and Landsman finds himself contending with all the powerful forces of faith, obsession, evil, and salvation that are his heritage.

At once a gripping whodunit, a love story, and an exploration of the mysteries of exile and redemption, The Yiddish Policemen's Union is a novel only Michael Chabon could have written.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is "three children's books that transport the reader to a magical time in art history" by Joan MacPhail Knight and Melissa Sweet Chronicle Books], for $0.99 apiece. Age Range: 8 and up

Charlotte in Paris

It's 1892. Charlotte and her family have lived abroad in the famous artist colony in Giverny, France, for a year, when an exciting invitation arrives. The celebrated impressionist Mary Cassatt is having an exhibition in Paris. While in Paris, Charlotte dines at a cafe on the Champs-Elysees, watches a marionette show in the Tuileries gardens and celebrates her birthday at the Eiffel Tower. Illustrated with stunning museum reproductions of works by artists such as Monet, Degas, Cassatt, Renoir and Rodin as well as lovely watercolor collages, this sequel to Charlotte in Giverny also includes biographical sketches of the featured painters. Charlotte's charming scrapbook will leave fans of the first book, art lovers, Francophiles and readers of all ages shouting, "Vive Charlotte!"

Charlotte in London

It's 1894. Charlotte and her American family have been living in France for two years where her father has learned the new way of painting called Impressionism. Now her father's paintings are going to be featured in a show in New York and the whole family is going along. New York is a hustling, bustling city like no other in the world, and Charlotte records it all in her colorful journal.

Illustrated with striking museum reproductions, beautiful watercolor paintings, and collages, the book also includes biographical sketches of the featured painters. Charlotte's exciting journey to the city that never sleeps will make any reader shout, "I love New York!"

Charlotte in New York

It's 1895. Charlotte and her family came to France three years ago so that her father could learn to paint in the French style of Impressionism. Now they are traveling to London to see if the famous artist John Singer Sargent will paint Charlotte's mother's portrait. In London, Charlotte and her best friend, Lizzy, stay in their own room at the Savoy Hotel, attend a fancy dinner party with famous writers, watch boat races on the River Thames, learn about legendary London ghosts, and even visit a gypsy camp.

Illustrated with beautiful museum reproductions and exquisite watercolor paintings, the book also includes biographical sketches of the featured painters. This vibrant journal of Charlotte's exciting journey will make any reader long for lovely London.

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Child of the Northern Spring ($1.99), by Persia Woolley [Sourcebooks Landmark]. This has a starred review from Publisher's Weekly and multiple 4&5 star reviews from readers at Amazon; I'd buy it in a heartbeat ... if I hadn't picked it up three years ago!

Book Description
The story of a queen who deserves to become a legend - a startlingly original tale of Arthur & Guinevere

Often portrayed as spoiled, in Persia Woolley's hands Guinevere comes alive as a high-spirited, passionate woman. When she is chosen by Arthur to be his wife, Guinevere's independence wars with her family loyalty. As the wedding approaches and hints of rebellion abound, she learns that the old gods are in revolt against the new Christian church, and that scattered kingdoms are stirring from their uneasy peace. This is Arthurian epic at its best, filled with romance, adventure, authentic historical detail, and a landscape alive with the mystery of Britain in the Dark Ages.

Kindle Daily Deals 6/16

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Michael Connelly's "Lincoln Lawyer" (Mickey Haller) legal thrillers for $2.99 apiece [Hachette]. Besides making a great (and not quite late) Father's Day gift, if you start reading now, you'll be ready when The Gods of Guilt is released at the start of December.

Today Only, you can add the audiobook of each of these for $4.99 after purchasing the Kindle edition. Prime members can also stream The Lincoln Lawyer movie for free.

The Lincoln Lawyer (companion audiobook)

This #1 bestselling legal thriller from Michael Connelly is a stunning display of novelistic mastery - as human, as gripping, and as whiplash-surprising as any novel yet from the writer Publishers Weekly has called "today's Dostoevsky of crime literature."

Mickey Haller is a Lincoln Lawyer, a criminal defense attorney who operates out of the backseat of his Lincoln Town Car, traveling between the far-flung courthouses of Los Angeles to defend clients of every kind. Bikers, con artists, drunk drivers, drug dealers - they're all on Mickey Haller's client list. For him, the law is rarely about guilt or innocence, it's about negotiation and manipulation. Sometimes it's even about justice.

A Beverly Hills playboy arrested for attacking a woman he picked up in a bar chooses Haller to defend him, and Mickey has his first high-paying client in years. It is a defense attorney's dream, what they call a franchise case. And as the evidence stacks up, Haller comes to believe this may be the easiest case of his career. Then someone close to him is murdered and Haller discovers that his search for innocence has brought him face-to-face with evil as pure as a flame. To escape without being burned, he must deploy every tactic, feint, and instinct in his arsenal - this time to save his own life.

The Brass Verdict (companion audiobook)

Things are finally looking up for defense attorney Mickey Haller. After two years of wrong turns, Haller is back in the courtroom. When Hollywood lawyer Jerry Vincent is murdered, Haller inherits his biggest case yet: the defense of Walter Elliott, a prominent studio executive accused of murdering his wife and her lover. But as Haller prepares for the case that could launch him into the big time, he learns that Vincent's killer may be coming for him next.

Enter Harry Bosch. Determined to find Vincent's killer, he is not opposed to using Haller as bait. But as danger mounts and the stakes rise, these two loners realize their only choice is to work together.

Bringing together Michael Connelly's two most popular characters, The Brass Verdict is sure to be his biggest book yet.

The Reversal (companion audiobook)

Longtime defense attorney Mickey Haller is recruited to change stripes and prosecute the high-profile retrial of a brutal child murder. After 24 years in prison, convicted killer Jason Jessup has been exonerated by new DNA evidence. Haller is convinced Jessup is guilty, and he takes the case on the condition that he gets to choose his investigator, LAPD Detective Harry Bosch.

Together, Bosch and Haller set off on a case fraught with political and personal danger. Opposing them is Jessup, now out on bail, a defense attorney who excels at manipulating the media, and a runaway eyewitness reluctant to testify after so many years.

With the odds and the evidence against them, Bosch and Haller must nail a sadistic killer once and for all. If Bosch is sure of anything, it is that Jason Jessup plans to kill again.

The Fifth Witness (companion audiobook)

Mickey Haller has fallen on tough times. He expands his business into foreclosure defense, only to see one of his clients accused of killing the banker she blames for trying to take away her home.

Mickey puts his team into high gear to exonerate Lisa Trammel, even though the evidence and his own suspicions tell him his client is guilty. Soon after he learns that the victim had black market dealings of his own, Haller is assaulted, too--and he's certain he's on the right trail.

Despite the danger and uncertainty, Haller mounts the best defense of his career in a trial where the last surprise comes after the verdict is in. Connelly proves again why he "may very well be the best novelist working in the United States today" (San Francisco Chronicle).

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is The Confession ($0.99), by Erin McCauley [Crimson Romance].

Book Description
A confession turns successful handbag designer Aimee Morrison’s world upside down and lands her on the doorstep of Emily Sinclair, the woman who could possibly be her birth mother. In a case of mistaken identity, Aimee impulsively accepts a job as Emily’s personal assistant. To complicate matters, Aimee falls in love with Marcus Lee, a sexy, moody, damaged man who is highly suspicious of her.

Marcus Lee has spent most of his life on the Sinclair estate, having lived there with his mother as a child, and returning after college to pursue his dream of becoming a writer and assume the role of estate caretaker. Growing up with the memory of his father’s betrayal, and his mother’s emotional isolation, he’s learned to trust no one. Watching woman after woman claim to be Emily’s long-lost daughter in an effort to be her sole heir, he also believes everyone has a hidden agenda. Upon meeting Aimee, he is surprised by his strong physical attraction to her, and even as he begins to fall in love, he knows she’s keeping secrets.

Tangled in her own deceptions, will Aimee lose everything she loves once the truth is revealed?

Sensuality Level: Sensual

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Into the Black: Odyssey One ($1.99), a thriller by Evan Currie [47North].

Book Description
Beyond the confines of our small world, far from the glow of our star, lies a galaxy and universe much larger and more varied than anyone on Earth can possibly imagine. For the new NAC spacecraft Odyssey and her crew, the unimaginable facets of this untouched world are about to become reality.

The Odyssey’s maiden voyage is an epic adventure destined to make history. Captain Eric Weston and his crew, pushing past the boundaries of security, encounter horrors, wonders, monsters, and people, all of which will test their resolve, challenge their abilities, and put in sharp relief what is necessary to be a hero.

A first-rate military science fiction epic that combines old-school space opera and modern storytelling, Into the Black: Odyssey One is a riveting, exhilarating adventure with vivid details, rich mythology, and relentless pacing that will leave you breathlessly awaiting book two.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is Cool Dog, School Dog ($0.99), Deborah Heiligman [Two Lions].

Book Description

Tinka is a cool dog, a school dog, a breaking all the rules dog.A hall dog, a ball dog, a crash-into-the-wall dog.

Join Tinka, a dandy, sandy Golden Retriever, as she unexpectedly visits her owner at school and helps his class learn to read. Bright illustrations rendered in acrylic paint add to the excitement in this playful back-to-school story about a boy and his "loves-to-hear-a-book" dog.

The author and illustrator of Cool Dog, School Dog have donated this book to the Worldreader program

Age Level: 3 and up

UK Kindle Daily Deal 6/16

Pharmakon (£0.99 UK), by Dirk Wittenborn [Bloomsbury], is the Kindle Deal of the Day for those in the UK (no US edition).

Book Description
It is 1950s America and madness is in the air. In a world where the ‘cures' for craziness include coma therapy, cyanide treatment and full-frontal lobotomies, Dr. William T. Friedrich, a young and ambitious psychology professor at Yale, stumbles upon a tropical plant that seems to possess the secret ingredient of happiness. In Casper Gedsic, a fiercely intelligent, socially inept, near-suicidal maths student, he seems to have found the perfect guinea pig. But when his experiments goes awry, Casper's thirst for revenge turns murderous and his actions have consequences that will haunt Friedrich and his family forever...

Dark Eden (£0.99 UK), the Arthur C. Clarke Award 2013 winning novel by Chris Beckett [Atlantic Books], is the Kindle Deal of the Day for for Science Fiction & Fantasy Fans in the UK (no US edition).

Book Description
A marooned outpost of humanity struggles to survive on a startlingly alien world: science fiction as it ought to be from British science fiction's great white hope.

You live in Eden. You are a member of the Family, one of 532 descendants of Angela and Tommy. You shelter beneath the light and warmth of the Forest's lantern trees, hunting woollybuck and harvesting tree candy. Beyond the forest lie the treeless mountains of the Snowy Dark and a cold so bitter and a night so profound that no man has ever crossed it. The Oldest among you recount legends of a world where light came from the sky, where men and women made boats that could cross between worlds. One day, the Oldest say, they will come back for you.

You live in Eden. You are a member of the Family, one of 532 descendants of two marooned explorers. You huddle, slowly starving, beneath the light and warmth of geothermal trees, confined to one barely habitable valley of a startlingly alien, sunless world. After 163 years and six generations of incestuous inbreeding, the Family is riddled with deformity and feeblemindedness. Your culture is a infantile stew of half-remembered fact and devolved ritual that stifles innovation and punishes independent thought.

You are John Redlantern. You will break the laws of Eden, shatter the Family and change history. You will be the first to abandon hope, the first to abandon the old ways, the first to kill another, the first to venture in to the Dark, and the first to discover the truth about Eden.

Kindle Daily Deals 6/15

This weekend, save up to 60% on select books at Kobo using promo code 48Hours (valid in the US, UK/EU, Canada and AU). They are also having a sale of $20 on the Glo (Code: EJB29) & up to $70 off the Arc (Code: RFN47), for those in Canada and the US.

If you are an Audible member and had four credits on June 11, check your email for a message about the $10 for Using 4 Credits in 4 Days promotion.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is White Cargo ($1.99), by Stuart Woods [Simon and Schuster], which is rumored to be under development as a feature film.

Book Description
From the glittering beaches of the Caribbean to a final harrowing showdown in the Amazonian rain forest comes a breakneck tale of danger, intrigue, and depravity.

Cat Catledge is a happy man. A self made multi millionaire at fifty, he has a loving wife and a beautiful teenaged daughter. And after years of hard work, he is taking his family on the ultimate dream sabbatical: a two year cruise to the South Pacific via the Panama Canal, aboard his custom built forty-three-foot yacht. He gets as far as Colombia.

Off that country's cocaine dusted shores, Cat's bliss—and his dearly loved family—are permanently shattered by an event so unexpected, so savage, and so tragically final that it leaves Cat completely devastated. Consumed by terrible guilt, he returns home alone, a broken man. Investigations by both the Colombian authorities and the U.S. State Department prove fruitless.

Then, late one night, Cat is awakened by the telephone and, from far away, over a static filled line, an achingly familiar voice utters a single, electrifying word.

Driven by a mixture of hope and anguish, Cat slips back into South America on a desperate search for the daughter he cannot bring himself to believe is dead. Aided by an Australian ex-convict, a beautiful television journalist, and a man known to him only as "Jim", Cat follows a trail of blood and graft, white powder and white slavery, and discovers in himself an unsuspected capacity for ruthlessness and cunning, and—even more surprising—a rekindled capacity for love.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Small Town Sinners ($2.99), by Melissa Walker [Bloomsbury USA Childrens]. This is also the Nook Daily Find today and it's a dollar cheaper at B&N than it is for Kindle.

Book Description
Lacey Anne Byer is a perennial good girl and lifelong member of the House of Enlightenment, the Evangelical church in her small town. With her driver's license in hand and the chance to try out for a lead role in Hell House, her church's annual haunted house of sin, Lacey's junior year is looking promising. But when a cute new stranger comes to town, something begins to stir inside her. Ty Davis doesn't know the sweet, shy Lacey Anne Byer everyone else does. With Ty, Lacey could reinvent herself. As her feelings for Ty make Lacey test her boundaries, events surrounding Hell House make her question her religion.

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Breakfast of Champions ($1.99), by Kurt Vonnegut [RosettaBooks]. If you missed the sale two years ago, you'll want to get it now.

Book Description
Breakfast of Champions (1973) provides frantic, scattershot satire and a collage of Vonnegut's obsessions. His recurring cast of characters and American landscape was perhaps the most controversial of his canon; it was felt by many at the time to be a disappointing successor to Slaughterhouse-Five, which had made Vonnegut's literary reputation.

The core of the novel is Kilgore Trout, a familiar character very deliberately modeled on the science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon (1918-1985), a fact which Vonnegut conceded frequently in interviews and which was based upon his own occasional relationship with Sturgeon. Here Kilgore Trout is an itinerant wandering from one science fiction convention to another; he intersects with the protagonist, Dwayne Hoover (one of Vonnegut's typically boosterish, lost and stupid mid-American characters) and their intersection is the excuse for the evocation of many others, familiar and unfamiliar, dredged from Vonnegut's gallery.

The central issue is concerned with intersecting and apposite views of reality, and much of the narrative is filtered through Trout who is neither certifiably insane nor a visionary writer but can pass for either depending upon Dwayne Hoover's (and Vonnegut's) view of the situation. America, when this novel was published, was in the throes of Nixon, Watergate and the unraveling of our intervention in Vietnam; the nation was beginning to fragment ideologically and geographically, and Vonnegut sought to cram all of this dysfunction (and a goofy, desperate kind of hope, the irrational comfort given through the genre of science fiction) into a sprawling narrative whose sense, if any, is situational, not conceptual.

Reviews were polarized; the novel was celebrated for its bizarre aspects, became the basis of a Bruce Willis movie adaptation whose reviews were not nearly so polarized. (Most critics hated it.) This novel in its freewheeling and deliberately fragmented sequentiality may be the quintessential Vonnegut novel, not necessarily his best, but the work which most truly embodies the range of his talent, cartooned alienation and despair.

Today's Kindle Kids Daily Deal is My Pup ($1.99), by Tammie Lyon [Two Lions]. note: This book requires Kindle Fire/HD or select Kindle Reading Apps (Kindle Cloud Reader, Kindle for iPad or Kindle for Android).

Book Description
It’s puppy love! Follow a new pup and his owner as they frolic throughout the neighborhood, playing ball, taking walks, doing tricks, and snuggling. Tammie Lyon’s illustrations rendered in gouache and colored pencil add lively appeal to this endearing story of a little girl and her new dog.

Age Level: 3 and up

UK Kindle Daily Deal 6/15

Multiple Wounds (£0.99 UK), by Alan Russell [Thomas & Mercer], is the Kindle Deal of the Day for those in the UK (the US edition is $4.99).

Book Description
Holly Troy's mind is a complex maze of myth and reality, multiple personalities vying for time in the spotlight. As an artist, she is creative and compelling. As a witness, she is painfully unreliable, unsure of even which person she was the night of the murder. Even Holly can’t be sure of her own innocence. Homicide detective Orson Cheever never thought he would find himself playing psychologist to a Greek goddess in a modern-day murder investigation, but many of Holly's personalities come straight from classical mythology, from Cronos and Pandora to the Fates. As Cheever attempts to unravel truth from myth, he learns that there is even more to Holly than meets the eye. One personality in particular—that of a five-year-old girl—hits a little too close to home, and Cheever is forced to finally pull back the dark curtains of his own past in order to uncover the truth in this psychological thriller.

The Mammoth Book of SF Wars (£0.99 UK), edited by Ian Watson and Ian Whates [Robinson], is the Kindle Deal of the Day for for Science Fiction & Fantasy Fans in the UK (the US edition is $8.39).

Book Description
War is becoming increasingly 'SF-ized' with remotely controlled attack drones and robot warriors already in development and being tested. Over the past 100 years the technology of war has advanced enormously in destructive power, yet also in sophistication so that we no longer seem to live under the constant threat of all-out global thermonuclear cataclysm. So what will future wars be like? And what will start them: religion, politics, resources, refugees, or advanced weaponry itself? Watson and Whates present a gripping anthology of SF stories which explores the gamut of possible future conflicts, including such themes as nuclear war, psychological and cyberwars, enhanced soldiery, mercenaries, terrorism, intelligent robotic war machines, and war with aliens.All the stories in this collection of remarkable quality and diversity reveals humankind pressed to the limits in every conceivable way.It includes 24 stories with highlights such as:The Pyre of the New Day' - Catherine Asaro.The Rhine's World Incident' - Neal Asher. Caught in the Crossfire' - David Drake. Politics' - Elizabeth Moon.The Traitor' - David Weber.And others from:Dan Abnett, Tony Ballantyne, Fredric Brown, Algis Budrys, Simon R. Green, Joe Haldeman, John Kessel, John Lambshead, Paul McAuley, Andy Remic, Laura Resnick, Mike Resnick & Brad R. Torgersen, Fred Saberhagen, Cordwainer Smith, Allen Steele, William Tenn, Walter Jon Williams, Michael Z. Williamson, Gene Wolfe.

Kindle Daily Deals 6/14

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Invitation to Die ($1.99), by Helen Smith [Thomas & Mercer].

Book Description
Twenty-six-year-old Emily Castles is out of work… again. So when famous romance author Morgana Blakely offers her a job helping out at a conference in London, Emily accepts. Just as eagerly, American blogger Winnie Kraster accepts an invitation from Morgana to attend as a guest, not realizing she has, in effect, accepted an invitation to die.

As a cast of oddball characters assembles at the conference hotel, grievances, differences, and secrets begin to emerge. When Winnie goes missing, and then is found murdered nearby, Emily begins to suspect that someone involved with the conference is responsible. Could it be one of the organizers, one of the authors, a member of the hotel staff, or even the supplier of the chocolates for the conference gift bags? Emily teams up with guest speaker and eccentric philosophy professor Dr. Muriel to find out.

Offbeat and engaging, this entertaining comic mystery is the first full-length novel featuring amateur British sleuth Emily Castles.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is The Invasion of Falgannon Isle ($0.99), by Deborah MacGillivray [Montlake Romance].

Book Description
213 SINGLE SCOTSMEN

There was something about the Brigadoon-like Falgannon, something that kept most of its male inhabitants unwed. From Michael the Story to Callum the Bicycle--and we mustn't forget The Cat Dudley, the slyest poker-playing moggie in the Outer Hebrides--every male of the Isle had happiness dependent upon that of its Lady. So things had been since Pictish times, and so they would be long after the present day.

Despite her machinations, to this point B.A. Montgomerie had been unable to make her men happy. Her first marriage had been against their advice; her husband had been an Irishman, true, but he had failed to meet other necessary requirements...and things had ended badly. Now, another Irishman had come--and was making the natives restless. Yes, the men of Falgannon could sense Desmond Mershan's conquering Viking spirit and his desire for B.A.--which B.A. could sense herself. And while her men would never let anything happen that she didn't want, this Irishman had come to pillage and loot, and nothing was going to stop him. Staring into his vibrant green eyes, B.A. anticipated the battles to come.

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is The Galactic Mage ($1.99), the first book in The Galactic Mage series by John Daulton [indie/Daulton Books]. In the bookstore, I'd buy this one on the strength of the cover alone (come on, admit it - you've done the same), as it has a dragon, a spaceship and a girl with a gun! How can it fail?

The series continues with Rift in the Races and Hostiles, both now available, with a fourth title underway and expected in 2014.

Book Description
Altin Meade is a sorcerer with a curse. Seeking to avoid a looming doom, he sets his magical sights on the stars--a quest that will likely bring about the very consequence he's seeking to escape.

Far across the galaxy, Ensign Orli Pewter of planet Earth has a looming doom of her own--one of loneliness, depression and, worse, a race of genocidal aliens known as "Hostiles" seeking to destroy humanity. Trapped aboard a spaceship she never asked to be upon, Orli is in a fight for both her life and her sanity.

Worlds apart, Altin and Orli share a destiny, but neither knows the other is alive. The Hostiles know. And they have other plans.

Today's Kindle Teen Daily Deal is Revenge of the Cheerleaders ($1.99), by Janette Rallison [Walker Childrens].

Book Description
Chelsea's school year has taken a turn for the worse. After being dumped by her boyfriend and humiliated at the pep assembly by her younger sister's boyfriend, Rick, she's just concentrating on avoiding any other major embarrassments.That's when Rick and his band debut their new album, complete with a whole set of songs bashing cheerleaders. Chelsea's humiliation has reached a whole new level now that everyone is walking down the halls singing the words to "Dangerously Blonde." It's time to make Rick pay. All he wants is to win the High School Idol audition, so he can be on his way to rock star fame and fortune. But with the help of her best friends, Aubrie and Samantha, Chelsea is going to steal his victory right out from under him. The characters from All's Fair in Love, War and High School are back, only this time it's payback.

UK Kindle Daily Deal 6/14

The Kindle Deal of the day for those in the UK is six titles in the Agatha Raisin series by MC Beaton for £0.99 each (~80% off) [Robinson].

Agatha Raisin and the Murderous Marriage (Main/UK; US edition $6.83) - Agatha Raisin #5

The morning of Agatha's marriage to James Lacey dawns bright and clear. But her luck runs out in the church when Jimmy, the husband she had believed long dead, turns up large as life and twice as ugly. Agatha has a go at strangling him. James breaks off the engagement. So when Jimmy is found murdered next day, Agatha and James are both the prime suspects. And they'll have to work together in order to clear their names . . .

Agatha Raisin and the Terrible Tourist (Main/UK; US edition $6.83) - Agatha Raisin #6

In this sixth entertaining outing Agatha leaves the sleepy Cotswold village of Carsely to pursue love - and finds a murderer. Spurned at the altar, she follows her fleeing fiancé James Lacey to north Cyprus, where, instead of enjoying the honeymoon they'd planned, they witness the killing of an obnoxious tourist in a disco. Intrigue and a string of murders surround the unlikely couple, in a plot as scorching as the Greek sun!

Agatha Raisin and the Wellspring of Death (Main/UK; US edition $6.83) - Agatha Raisin #7

Agatha Raisin's neighbouring village of Ancombe is usually the epitome of quiet rural charm, but the arrival of a new mineral-water company - which intends to tap into the village spring - sends tempers flaring and divides the parish council into two stubborn camps. When Agatha, who just happens to be handling the PR for the water company, finds the council chairman murdered at the basin of the spring, tongues start wagging. Could one of the council members have polished off the chairman before he could cast the deciding vote? Poor Agatha, still nursing a bruised heart from one of her unsuccessful romantic encounters, must get cracking, investigate the councillors and solve the crime.

Agatha Raisin and the Wizard of Evesham (Main/UK; US edition $8.89) - Agatha Raisin #8

The local ladies all deem Mr John a wizard, so when Agatha finds a few grey hairs on her head - and the rinse she tries at home turns her hair purple - she makes a beeline for the handsome Evesham hairdresser. And as well as sorting out her hair it soon becomes clear the charming man also has designs on her heart - but their future together is cut short when Mr John is fatally poisoned in his salon. Once again Agatha finds herself embroiled in a murder case. Was it one of Mr John's many customers, all of whom divulged to him their darkest secrets?

Agatha Raisin and the Fairies of Fryfam (Main/UK; US edition $7.59) - Agatha Raisin #10

Feeling jilted and cross, Agatha follows a fortune-teller's advice and rents a cottage in the pretty village of Fryfam, where she hopes good fortune and true love will come chasing after her for a change. Unfortunately, her romantic notions are soon dispelled by the strange goings-on in the village. What exactly are those strange lights in Agatha's back garden? Who is stealing paintings and pottery? Where are her beloved cats? And who murdered the local squire…Agatha's nose for trouble leads her into a maelstrom of jealousy, blackmail and dangerous liaisons - and a murderer who plans to keep irrepressible Agatha permanently in Fryfam - as a resident corpse.

Agatha Raisin and the Love from Hell (Main/UK; US edition $8.89) - Agatha Raisin #11

Recently married to James Lacey, Agatha quickly finds out that love is not all its cracked up to be - the newly weds are living in separate cottages and accusing each other of infidelity. After a fight down the local pub James vanishes - a bloodstain the only clue to his fate - and Agatha is the prime suspect. Determined to clear her name and find her husband, Agatha begins her investigation - and promptly finds a murdered mistress...

Fireblood (£0.99 UK), by Jeff Wheeler [47North], is the Kindle Deal of the Day for for Science Fiction & Fantasy Fans in the UK (the US edition is $4.99; companion audiobook $1.99).

Book Description
Tyrus of Kenatos has made it his life’s work to banish the plagues that ravage the kingdoms. He believes the answer to ending the devastation lies in the Scourgelands. Yet, Tyrus’s first expedition into the cursed woods failed after being defeated by mysterious minions who stalked and killed most of his band.

Now a prisoner in his own tower, Tyrus has summoned his nephew Annon—a Druidecht possessing innate magic called the fireblood—on the guise of finding a hidden treasure with which to purchase his twin sister Hettie’s freedom. But in reality, Tyrus is using his niece and nephew, and their magic, as an opportunity to escape and resume his desperate mission. And to aid them, he has enlisted the warrior-monk Paedrin—who is almost as green as the siblings when it comes to traveling these troubled lands. The trio is determined, and along the way they grow to trust each other—and new additions to the group—in order to accomplish their missions…whether or not those missions are one and the same.

But the Arch-Rike—ruthless ruler of Kenatos—has learned of these plans, and has sent the fearsome Kishion to destroy all those that oppose him. Now Tyrus and his unwitting allies must face down not only the plague, but this new enemy—and fulfill their quest before a fresh horror is unleashed on the world…

Daily Deal - Beyond the Doors of Death

Beyond the Doors of Death, by Robert Silverberg and Damien Broderick [Phoenix Pick], is on sale, today only, for $0.99 on Kindle (regularly $7.99). I've been waiting several days for the price to drop (and, needless today, pounced on it when it did). For those without a Kindle, this is DRM-Free, so download and convert to the format of your choice.

Book Description
Born With the Dead (the novella) was nominated for every major science fiction award when it was originally published in 1974, winning the Nebula and Locus awards.

The author now revisits the classic story with Australian author Damien Broderick. Broderick uses Robert Silverberg s original novella as a starting point for a brilliant leap into the far future, widening the scope and tenor of the original story by revisiting some of the subtler implications of the original story.

Kindle Daily Deals 6/13

Today on Amazon's Gold Box save up to 62% on "Star Trek: The Complete Original Series" on Blu-ray and Seasons 1, 2 and 3 of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" on Blu-ray; while supplies last. In the Lightning Deals today are more gifts for Dads, including a solar recharging kit from Goal Zero later this afternoon.

Today's Free MP3 album is Ain't No Trip to Cleveland: Vol. 1 (Live) by Dispatch, which I thought was quite good. It's that blend of folk, rock, bluegrass and country that you often find categorized as Americana.

Today's Kindle Teen Daily Deal is Between the Lines ($1.99), by New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult and her teenage daughter Samantha van Leer [Simon and Schuster], with the companion audiobook for $3.49.

Book Description
What happens when happily ever after…isn’t?

Delilah is a bit of a loner who prefers spending her time in the school library with her head in a book—one book in particular. Between the Lines may be a fairy tale, but it feels real. Prince Oliver is brave, adventurous, and loving. He really speaks to Delilah.

And then one day Oliver actually speaks to her. Turns out, Oliver is more than a one-dimensional storybook prince. He’s a restless teen who feels trapped by his literary existence and hates that his entire life is predetermined. He’s sure there’s more for him out there in the real world, and Delilah might just be his key to freedom.

Delilah and Oliver work together to attempt to get Oliver out of his book, a challenging task that forces them to examine their perceptions of fate, the world, and their places in it. And as their attraction to each other grows along the way, a romance blossoms that is anything but a fairy tale.

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is Up the Down Staircase ($1.99), by Bel Kaufman [Open Road].

Book Description
Bel Kaufman’s bestselling classic, about a young teacher’s efforts to reach her students and the odd, amusing, and poignant ways that the students respond

When Miss Barrett arrives at Calvin Coolidge High, fresh from earning literature degrees at Hunter College, she can hardly wait to shape young minds. Instead, she encounters broken windows, no supplies, students who would rather be anyplace else, and a stifling bureaucracy that makes her job more difficult at every turn.

Narrated through hilarious inter-office memos, students’ notes, and other scraps drawn from the waste basket, Up the Down Staircase stands as the seminal novel of the American public school system, a beleaguered institution perpetually redeemed by teachers who love to teach and students who long to be recognized.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Bel Kaufman including photos from the author’s personal collection.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is The Wheel of Fortune ($1.99), by Susan Howatch [Open Road].

Book Description
Welsh heir Robert Godwin knows everything about his powerful family’s interests, but what does he know of his own heart?

Tucked in the hills of South Wales is Oxmoon, the ancestral estate of the Godwin family. In the summers before 1914, music streams through the family home as the Godwins, at the height of their prosperity, dance in the ballroom with their guests. But despite the remarkable talents of heir-apparent Robert Godwin, the fates have a rough, tough ride planned for him and those he loves. Fortunes shift during two world wars, disastrous love affairs leave the family battered, and finally jealousy threatens to destroy Oxmoon and all it symbolizes. Based on a true story that has been updated to modern times, The Wheel of Fortune is a timeless tale of love, hatred, revenge, redemption, and forgiveness.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Susan Howatch including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is The Skin Map ($1.99), the first novel in acclaimed author Stephen R. Lawhead's Bright Empires series [Thomas Nelson], with the companion audiobook for $3.49. The fourth in the series, The Shadow Lamp, can now be pre-ordered.

Book Description
It is the ultimate quest for the ultimate treasure. Chasing a map tattooed on human skin. Across an omniverse of intersecting realities. To unravel the future of the future.

Kit Livingstone’s great-grandfather appears to him in a deserted alley during a tumultuous storm. He reveals an unbelievable story: that the ley lines throughout Britain are not merely the stuff of legend or the weekend hobby of deluded cranks, but pathways to other worlds. To those who know how to use them, they grant the ability to travel the multi-layered universe of which we ordinarily inhabit only a tiny part.

One explorer knew more than most. Braving every danger, he toured both time and space on voyages of heroic discovery. Ever on his guard and fearful of becoming lost in the cosmos, he developed an intricate code—a roadmap of symbols—that he tattooed onto his own body. This Skin Map has since been lost in time. Now the race is on to recover all the pieces and discover its secrets.

But the Skin Map itself is not the ultimate goal. It is merely the beginning of a vast and marvelous quest for a prize beyond imagining.

The Bright Empires series is a unique blend of epic treasure hunt, ancient history, alternate realities, cutting-edge physics, philosophy, and mystery. The result is a page-turning, adventure like no other.

UK Kindle Daily Deal 6/13

The End of Your Life Book Club (£0.99 UK), by Will Schwalbe [Two Roads], is the Kindle Deal of the Day for those in the UK (the US edition is $11.99), an Amazon Best Books of the Month, October 2012.

Book Description
“What are you reading?”

That’s the question Will Schwalbe asks his mother, Mary Anne, as they sit in the waiting room of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. In 2007, Mary Anne returned from a humanitarian trip to Pakistan and Afghanistan suffering from what her doctors believed was a rare type of hepatitis. Months later she was diagnosed with a form of advanced pancreatic cancer, which is almost always fatal, often in six months or less.

This is the inspiring true story of a son and his mother, who start a “book club” that brings them together as her life comes to a close. Over the next two years, Will and Mary Anne carry on conversations that are both wide-ranging and deeply personal, prompted by an eclectic array of books and a shared passion for reading. Their list jumps from classic to popular, from poetry to mysteries, from fantastic to spiritual. The issues they discuss include questions of faith and courage as well as everyday topics such as expressing gratitude and learning to listen. Throughout, they are constantly reminded of the power of books to comfort us, astonish us, teach us, and tell us what we need to do with our lives and in the world. Reading isn’t the opposite of doing; it’s the opposite of dying.

Will and Mary Anne share their hopes and concerns with each other—and rediscover their lives—through their favorite books. When they read, they aren’t a sick person and a well person, but a mother and a son taking a journey together. The result is a profoundly moving tale of loss that is also a joyful, and often humorous, celebration of life: Will’s love letter to his mother, and theirs to the printed page.

The Kindle Deal of the Day for for Science Fiction & Fantasy Fans in the UK is five Ben Bova novels for £0.99 each [RosettaBooks].

Mars (£0.99 UK; US edition $6.83, companion audiobook $3.49), the first title in Ben Bova's Grand Tour of the Universe series

Jamie Waterman is a young Navaho geologist who is picked for the ground team of the first manned expedition to Mars. He will be joining an international team of astronauts and scientists. But once the crew land on Mars, they soon discover they must battle not only the alien land on which they have invaded but earthbound bureaucrats as well. When they come face to face with a chasm ten times as deep and large as the Grand Canyon, all twenty-five astronauts must face the most shocking discovery of all...

Return to Mars (£0.99 UK; US edition $6.83, companion audiobook $3.49), the third title in Ben Bova's Grand Tour of the Universe series

Jamie Waterman is returning to the Red Planet, this time in charge of an expedition in which he hopes to demonstrate that one can study Martian life not only for the sake of the pursuit but more, that it can be profitable. Waterman also hopes to revisit a part of the canyon where he thought he spied a primitive cliff dwelling during the first Martian mission.

But this second voyage to Mars brings trouble right away as Waterman clashes with Dex Trumball, the son of a billionaire who is backing the expedition. Dex wants to turn the planet into a tourist attraction, while Waterman wants to preserve the planet solely for scientific research.

To further complicate matters, both men are attracted to the expedition's beautiful psychologist, Vijay Shektar, who can't seem to decide which of the two men she prefers. On top of all of this confusion, it seems that another member of the team may be trying to sabotage the mission while the elder Trumball is pulling strings in order to force Waterman to step down as the expedition's leader.

Star Brothers (£0.99 UK; US edition $6.83, companion audiobook $3.49), the third title in Voyagers series

Jo Camerata, the ambitious young student who fell in love with Keith Stoner, is now head of Vanguard Industries which has recovered an alien ship. As a result, Jo's company now controls the incredible wealth of technology aboard the ship as well as the fortune it reaps in - not to mention control of Keith Stoner.

What Camerata does not know, however, is that someone else has been awake, someone who dwells deep within the recesses of Stoner's mind. The alienate presence that has kept Stoner alive for so long is now free and fully intends to explore our world and will let nothing stand in its way.

Moonrise (£0.99 UK; US edition $6.15), the first title in Moonrise series

In the 21st century, the world is on the brink of a scientific renaissance, about to birth a future where space has become privatized and the moon transforms into a fertile commercial ground. As former astronaut Paul Stavenger works to turn a handful of abandoned government moon shelters into a full-fledged moonbase, powerful corporate lobbies align against him. Against the neo-Luddites is Masterson Aerospace, a company funding and creating major scientific breakthroughs.

But Masterson is nearly crippled when its CEO commits suicide and his wife, Joanna, backs her lover Paul Stavenger, the former astronaut, over her mentally unbalanced son Greg in the board election that follows her husband's death. So begins a power struggle that leads to murder and the ultimate conflict over Moonbase.

Moonwar (£0.99 UK; US edition $6.99, companion audiobook $3.49), the second title in Moonrise series

Moonwar, the sequel to Moonrise, is a fast-paced high-tech adventure that tells the story of the fledgling lunar colony--Moonbase--and how it is now in jeopardy as political forces seek to control or destroy it. This book is the continuation of the story of Douglas Stavenger, the Kennedy-esque scion of Moonbase's founding dynasty.

While Moonbase has been flourishing under Stavenger's management, it's existence, and even Stavenger's life, both depend on nanotechnology which have been outlawed on Earth in response to a wave of luddite fear and violence. Soon, United Nations peacekeepers arrive on the moon to enforce the anti-nanotech laws, bringing with them intrepid news reporter Edith Elgin, who soon falls for Doug. Meanwhile, Doug's mother Joanna has chosen to return to Earth, but upon arrival she is held hostage by the secretary general of the UN who wants Doug to surrender his forces and more, to be killed.

Slick politicians, beautiful television anchors, and calculating corporate barons provide complex and engaging scenery: imagine Washington in the space age, with nonstop action and cool technology.

Kindle Daily Deals 6/12

Today's Kindle Daily Deal is In Broad Daylight ($1.99), by Seth Harwood [Thomas & Mercer].

Book Description
From the author of the acclaimed thriller novels Jack Wakes Up and Young Junius comes In Broad Daylight, a taut psychological whodunnit with Stieg Larsson's intrigue and Karin Slaughter's raw insights on strange communities.

FBI agent Jess Harding treks back to Anchorage to hunt down a sadistic killer who's reemerged from a five-year hiatus--a killer who has already slipped her grasp once before. The endless days of an Alaskan summer can't thwart the fiend's plans as he slashes his way through the rural community, where everyone knows your name and always distrusts the outside. With the help of Oscar Linstrom, an old colleague who wants to be more than friends, Jess attempts to immerse herself in the area's culture, leading her to a strange rural village inhabited by Russian Old Believers hell-bent on protecting their way of life. Even the locals are outsiders to the Old Believers, and Jess needs a safehaven in the glare of daylight because a blood-stained message left at the scene of the most recent murder says Jess is no longer the hunter--but the hunted.

Seth Harwood, named a Best of 2010 author by George Pelecanos, returns with this terrifying daydream of an expansive Great North that offers no place to hide.

Today's Kindle Romance Daily Deal is Misfortune Cookie ($1.99), the first in the series by Michele Gorman [indie].

Book Description
Would you move 6,000 miles to be with the love of your life?

Hannah did. Unfortunately her plan isn't going terribly well. What was supposed to be a move to Hong Kong to start a wonderful new life with Sam is turning into a move to Hong Kong to spend occasional weekends with Sam, when he can get away from an unanticipated work assignment on the opposite side of the South China Sea. Still, she's optimistic, if woefully unprepared for the intricacies of Hong Kong. Stumbling through the alien city, which she loves, she starts to build a life for herself. Things definitely look up when she finds a great boss to work for, and her best friend Stacy moves to the city too. But alarm bells ring as Sam seems to be getting a bit too cozy with his boss. And when things start going wrong at work, Hannah can't help but wonder if she's made the biggest mistake of her life.

Today's Kindle SciFi/Fantasy Daily Deal is Crater ($1.99), a Helium-3 novel by Homer Hickam [Thomas Nelson], with the companion audiobook for $3.49.

Book Description
A MINING COLONY ON THE MOON. A DEADLY MISSION. AND A SECRET BIGGER THAN TWO WORLDS.

It’s the 22nd Century. A tough, pioneering people mine the moon for Helium-3 to produce energy for a desperate, war-torn Earth.

Sixteen-year-old Crater Trueblood loves his job as a Helium-3 miner. But when he saves a fellow miner, his life changes forever. Impressed by his heroism, the owner of the mine orders Crater to undertake a dangerous mission. Crater doubts himself, but has no choice. He must go.

With the help of Maria, the mine owner’s frustrating but gorgeous granddaughter, and his gillie—a sentient and sometimes insubordinate clump of slime mold cells—Crater must fight both human and subhuman enemies. He’ll battle his way across a thousand miles of deadly lunar terrain and face genetically altered super warriors in his quest to recover an astonishing object that will alter the lives of everyone on the moon.

Today's Kindle Teen Daily Deal is Two Girls of Gettysburg ($1.99), by Lisa M. Klein [Bloomsbury USA Childrens].

Book Description
Lizzie and Rosanna are cousins. But when the Civil War breaks out, Lizzie finds herself committed to the cause of the Union, while Rosie is swept up in the passions of the old south. Torn in their alliances, each girl finds herself grappling with the brutality of war, and the elusive promise of love, until the battle at Gettysburg brings them together once again.

Grade 6–9

UK Kindle Daily Deal 6/12

The Dog Stars (£0.99 UK), by Peter Heller [Review], an Amazon Best Books of the Month, August 2012, is the Kindle Deal of the Day for for Science Fiction & Fantasy Fans in the UK (the US edition is $11.99). Shorlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award 2013.

Book Description
THE ROAD - but with hope.

Hig, bereaved and traumatised after global disaster, has three things to live for - his dog Jasper, his aggressive but helpful neighbour, and his Cessna aeroplane. He's just about surviving, so long as he only takes his beloved plane for short journeys, and saves his remaining fuel.

But, just once, he picks up a message from another pilot, and eventually the temptation to find out who else is still alive becomes irresistible. So he takes his plane over the horizon, knowing that he won't have enough fuel to get back. What follows is scarier and more life-affirming than he could have imagined. And his story, THE DOG STARS, is a book unlike any you have ever read.

A Spy by Nature (£0.99 UK), by Charles Cumming [Harper], is the Kindle Deal of the Day for those in the UK (the US edition is $8.89).

Book Description
For all fans of TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY comes this masterclass in suspense about a spy caught up in his own web of deception…

Alec Milius is young, smart and ambitious – with a talent for deception. When a chance encounter opens the door to a career with MI6, he is desperate to make his mark.

But life as a spy begins to take a terrible toll on himself and those around him, and soon Alec is chasing not just success but survival. Forced to work alone, he spins a web of deceit that traps him centre stage in a game of global espionage.

In this new job, the difference between truth and a lie can be a matter of life and death. And for Alec, it’s getting harder to tell them apart…

A Spy By Nature is the bestselling novel with which Charles Cumming announced his arrival as heir apparent to masters like John le Carré and Len Deighton; compellingly told, utterly authentic and heart-racingly intense, it will grip you till the very last page.