Update: Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar

An update to yesterday's post.

Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar: How Self-Education and the Pursuit of Passion Can Lead to a Lifetime of Success, by James Marcus Bach, is also free in PDF format and in the Sony Store.

For the EPUB (time-limited) version, click HERE.

For the Sony version, click HERE.

Three Free Ebooks from Harlequin (PDF)

Harlequin has three more free books available, all in PDF format only, as part of advertising campaigns in magazines. The first is with Woman's Day magazine, The Horseman's Son ($3.60 Kindle) by Delores Fossen.

From the moment he first saw his son, ranchman Dylan Greer knew the baby he'd adopted was his in every way that mattered. And no one--not even the beautiful, strong-willed cop who claimed she was the child's mother--was going to change that. Collena Drake swore a criminal ring had stolen her baby and that someone was crossing every line to keep the illegal adoption secret. Now, in order to protect one innocent child, Collena made him a tempting offer: get married and share custody. As a businessman, Dylan thought the plan brilliant. But as a man...resisting his "bride," especially as the danger mounted, would be damn near impossible.

A Family of Her Own ($3.80 Kindle), by Brenda Novak, and The Last Cowboy ($4.99 paperback, no book description found), by Crystal Green, are part of a promotion with Shoppers Drug Mart (in Canada).

When Katie Rogers returns to Dundee, Idaho, it's not because she wants to. It's because she's disillusioned, broke--and pregnant. She was going to make something of her life in the big city. Instead, she's paying a high price for trusting the wrong man.

Booker Robinson is the man she didn't trust, the man she'd left behind in Dundee...and the first person she sees when she comes back. But despite Booker's notorious past, he now has a successful business and a home of his own.

He's also spent two years getting over Katie. She's the last person he wants to see. But when her parents refuse to take her in, she doesn't have anywhere else to go, and Booker soon finds himself with a roommate--one who needs a father for her baby....

Katie's vowed she'll never trust the wrong man again. But sometimes a man isn't everything he seems. And sometimes he's more....

Get your free copies here:

The Horseman's Son
A Family of Her Own
The Last Cowboy

Weekend Special: Fire-Heart by C.S. Marks

C.S. Marks has published the second book of her Alterra series on the Kindle and has set a special 99 cent price for the weekend (it should be good thru Monday at midnight, but I wouldn't wait, in case it changes Sunday night, instead); after that it will increase to $2.99. You do need to read the series in order, but the first volume is also still priced at 99 cents and the author has said she intends to keep it there, at least until the entire series is out (of course, that could change, if she gets a publising deal, as Boyd Morrison did; all his books were pulled from the Kindle store and won't return at the same price, I'm sure). These are well-written, hefty volumes (516 and 732 pages) that are well-worth a dollar, even if you normally don't read fantasy. I've included links to the paperback versions of both books (yes, there is a third, but it isn't out for Kindle, yet ... it is coming) so that you can find the reader reviews easily (and yes, some people truly hated these books, but I wonder if there is a personal grudge involved, after looking at the other reviews posted by these readers, or they were colored by the very high prices of the paperbacks).

Fire-Heart (A Tale of Alterra, The World That Is) ($0.99; $23.39 Paperback)

In the second of the Tales of Alterra, the World that Is......the Elfhunter has been laid low, but he is not yet vanquished. Now there is a new challenge to be faced; Orogond has sworn on the grave of his father that he will find his wayward brother, Hallagond, and return him to the way of the Light. But Hallagond has been driven forth by shame, and believes that he is unworthy of redemption. The Company is now set upon a path that will take them into unfamiliar, distant lands filled with strange and intriguing people. Not only will they encounter wonders unknown to any in the northern lands, but they must now face a new, incredibly savage enemy. And all the while, Gaelen of the Greatwood is summoning Gorgon Elfhunter to follow after her, for she would lead him into lands where Elves do not venture. Should he find her, even the strength and will of the Fire-heart might not be enough.

Elfhunter (A Tale of Alterra, The World That Is) ($0.99; $18.44 Paperback) won the 2008 Reviewer's Choice Award: 'Best Fantasy.'

The first of the tales of Alterra, The World That Is. It concerns the quest of an unlikely pair of heroines, Gaelen and Nelwyn, who are Wood-elves of the Greatwood Forest. They are hunter-scouts in the realm of King Ri-Aruin, and they have sworn to protect their woodland home, but they are drawn into a quest to defend all the Elves of Alterra as they seek to destroy the 'Elfhunter', a monstrous entity intent on exterminating the Elves until none remain. Along the way, Gaelen and Nelwyn are joined by other interesting characters as they make their way through the realms of Alterra in pursuit of the Elfhunter, whose true name is 'Gorgon'. What headstrong Gaelen and her gentle cousin do not know is that Gorgon is in league with the Dark Power, and that the forces of Evil have forged an entanglement between Gorgon and Gaelen herself. Now she and all she loves are in jeopardy, and only an inspired plan put forth by Orogond, a mortal man, can save her.

SciFi Saturday

I've been slogging thru Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse (it was on sale for $6.96 last weekend, but now back to $9.99; more on it another time) and needed a break. So, I started looking for new (to me) writers in the sci-fi and fantasy genres and found a few bargain books. Two are by Steven Harper (no, not the Canadian Prime Minister), aka Steven Pisiks (here's his first ever published article, when he was a bit younger), Dreamer ($1.79) and Nightmare ($1.79), the first two books in the Silent Empire series (two more are on the way). I'm reading them out of published order, however, as the events in Nightmare take place before those in Dreamer.

Nightmare (The Silent Empire)

In the future, dreams keep the universe running. Dreamers, known as "Silent," are able to look into other people's dreams, communicate with other Silent across the galaxy, and speak to aliens. Silent construct dreams for themselves more vivid than reality.

But some dreams have become nightmares...

Kendi Weaver doesn't know he's Silent. Hijacked into slavery, he has resigned himself to a life of servitude. Then the discovery of his innate gift for dream communication changes everything. Suddenly Kendi is a very valuable commodity. He is rescued by the Children of Irfan--a society dedicated to freeing enslaved Silent--and taken to their planet, Bellerophon.

But Bellerophon is hardly a safe refuge. A brutal serial killer is murdering Silent in their telepathic dreams, and Kendi is soon embroiled in a world of madness and murder. To catch the killer, he must enter the victims' dreams...

Dreamer: A Novel Of the Silent Empire

It is through first contact with an alien species that humanity learns of the Dream. It is a plane of mental existence where people are able to communicate by their thoughts alone--over distances of thousands of light-years. To ensure that future generations will have this ability, human genetic engineering produces newborns capable of finding and navigating the Dream.

They become known as the Silent.

Rust is just one planet among many in the Empire of Human Unity. It's nothing special, nothing unusual...except for the fact that it is home to an unknown boy who may be the most powerful Silent telepath ever born--a Silent with the ability to possess the bodies of others against their will. This mysterious child may be causing tremors within the Dream itself.

For now, only the Children of Irfan know about him. A monastic-like order of the Silent, the Children protect their members even as they barter their services with the governments and corporations that control known space. But power like that cannot be hidden, and soon every Silent in the universe will know about the boy--and every government will be willing to go to war to control him.

And if the Children of Irfan cannot find him first, the Dream itself may be shattered...

The Cloud ($1.59), by Elmore Hammes

A story of hope, love and redemption set against the stars.

An unstoppable cloud hurtles through the cosmos, annihilating all life in its path, absorbing the energy of living creatures as it passes from system to system.

A lone survivor of an advanced civilization is rocketed from his doomed planet in an attempt to preserve a race, heading toward the solar system and the green-blue orb called Earth. A simple farm girl holds the key to stopping the approaching menace, but she must find her way to love to do so.

With a beginning inspired by Superman and pulp fiction such as Flash Gordon, the story then transitions into modern space opera.

The Cloud is a science fiction romance with action and adventure, appropriate for teenage readers and above.

Desire of Many ($4.79), by Joseph Lincoln Komen, is at the top end of the bargain scale here and is the author's debut novel.

Ships are sent from Earth to the seven nearest stars. Those ships sent to the nearest five stars disappear. Everyone who saw the departure dies. Over 200 years later, a great scientist, Tomoyuki Sasaki, receives an image from the ship sent to the Lalande star; one of them had made it. The greatest nation on Earth is in decline and the president feels the impending doom of his civilization. While in despair, the president hears of an enticing scientific breakthrough regarding a new discovery called Quantum Expansion from the world’s preeminent physicist, Dr. Long. He believes that their singular hope is to exploit the capabilities of their new technology and prevent his country's demise. Dr. Tomoyuki Sasaki who gave up his dream of traveling into the void to please his wife is called upon to go. He is to prepare a new world away from Earth where the president can maintain his nation’s political vitality. It is the confluence of these two immense projects that the president attempts to recover lost supremacy. However, something goes wrong and Tomoyuki attempts to save the world and to see his broken wife whom he had abandoned.

Regenerated ($0.80), by Carolyn Kephart, is a short story by the author of the Ryel Saga (reviewed HERE) and is free at Quantum Muse.

Cela had always hoped she'd meet Jorgen again someday--but was this really Jorgen? A tenderly bitter tale of love and giant lizards, from the author of WYSARD and LORD BROTHER.

N.D. Hansen-Hill has a number of books available on Amazon, but one of his earlier works, Vision is available for free at Fictionwise. Since this is a multi-format book and has no DRM, you can read it on your Kindle (just download the "Kindle Compatible (MOBI)" version, although the "Mobipocket (PRC)" format will work, PRC lacks some formatting features of MOBI).

Dustin Mallory is a man trapped by the past. He is no more a victim than his friends, whose reach at times extends beyond the grave, or whose thoughts take unwanted strolls through other people's minds. If the past can come forward enough to taunt Mallory's present, is there a chance he can influence it? Alter a fate that's too harsh to accept? Or will he spend the rest of his life hovering between reality and revelation? Dependent on strangers for his personal salvation? It is what he now fears most--that he has no future. That he'll become a victim of his own aberrant genes, to spend his day.

Thru some quirk of pricing at Fictionwise, you can also get Light Play [Book 1 of The Light Play Trilogy] ($5.59 Kindle) for free at Fictionwise, provided you get the Microsoft Reader format. The listing says it is horror/thriller, rather than SciFi, but I think the bio-engineered virus is enough to get it mentioned with the others in the list (although the science involved is no longer fiction). This format can't be read or converted for the Kindle, but the reader is free from Microsoft. The only quirk I've found, was trying to get the reader registered, which must be done online and completed before downloading any books. The Microsoft site for this is often down (sometimes for days at a time), but a call to their support line got surprisingly good results (not only free, but they called back a couple of times to make sure I was able to register, once the site came back up). Once registered, use Internet Explorer to download the book from your bookshelf at Fictionwise (Firefox and/or other browsers won't work - MS Reader needs IE to kick it off, at least at Fictionwise).

Rick Lockmann had never met Caroline Denaro in the flesh. It was meeting her out of it that nearly killed him. Her touch was as potent as her plea for help. Now, it's not only Denaro who needs help. She's infected Rick with more than a feeling of horror--she's given him a potentially-lethal dose of virus. A virus that's unknown to medical science, but that Rick soon begins to recognise. After all, he's seen it often enough in his lab--where he identifies plant diseases. Rick learns that survival isn't enough when a virus is bio-engineered--when it's the accidental by-product of experiments blending plant and animal genes. Survival is only the beginning. He has yet to salvage a life from the terrifying side-effects of the infection. Then he must decide how far he's willing to go to stop the spread of the disease, and whether he's still human enough to make sacrifices for his race.

Get it free, HERE.

Amazon Kindle Price Drops - $299!!

Amazon has dropped the price of the Kindle (the 6" reader also known as the Kindle 2) to $299.00. This is a pretty nice drop and further differentiates the Kindle DX from the smaller reader.

Perhaps more interesting, though, is that a Refurbished original Kindle is selling for $259.99, leaving the spread between these two devices at less than $40. At least the refurbished units come with a 30 day money back guarantee - there are used original Kindles selling for anywhere from $220 to $299, that are sold as-is from individuals.