Apocalyptic Fiction, Part Two

See this post for Part One.

This one isn't a book at all, but a new television series from Discovery. This is a reality series, of sorts, but without the competive gaming features. It's on the Discovery Channel, if you can remember to watch or record it, or you can just get a free season pass using Amazon Video on Demand. The first episode, Arrival and Survival, is already available to download, but be sure to get a Season Pass while it is still free.

Synopsis
Ten volunteers enter an experimental post-apocalyptic world to see if they can survive and rebuild after a global disaster. Cordoned off in a downtown Los Angeles warehouse, they must secure shelter, filter water, and defend their new home from thieves.

One I am looking forward to reading isn't a "bargain" in the sense of being under $5, but at $9.99 is a great deal compared to the hardback (it just came out; wait a year and the price will drop more). It's Winter Duty, by E.E. Knight, the latest in his Vampire Earth series (all but number 4, Valentine's Rising, are available for the Kindle). In this series, a vampiric species has conquered Earth, but not all of humanity has been subjugated. Technology still works, but resources are limited due to availability and difficulty of travel in a hostile environment.

Major David Valentine and his fugitive battalion are the remnants of an expeditionary force shattered in its long retreat from disaster in the Appalachians. Between a raging blizzard, bands of headhunters, and the need to recover wounded soldiers lost during the retreat, Valentine is in for the toughest winter of his life.

And Valentine is losing allies fast. Some of the clans in the region have declared themselves in favor of the Kurians, throwing Kentucky into civil war. But the Kurian overlords have determined that the region isn-t worth the effort of another conquest. Their order: extermination.

I've mentioned Keith Knapp's Moonlight ($0.99) before and it's still a bargain at 99 cents. The one dips into the horror genre as well, so you might not want to read it late at night (or at least keep all the lights on when you do).

Book Description
It began with a power outage. A power outage that went beyond lights and televisions. Clocks stopped telling time. Cell phones no longer received signals. Cars became dead relics that wouldn't start.

As the world around them becomes darker, so do the inhabitants of the small town of Westmont, Illinois. A mysterious and evil presence has taken a hold over the village, making the once peaceful town a place of violence and despair.

A small group of individuals, untouched by this presence, must uncover the mystery of why they remain normal and discover what (or who) is taking control of their town, one soul at a time.

Because the Man in the Dark Coat is out there. Hunting them.

And not everyone can remain untouched forever.

Also in the Horror end of the spectrum is Gone, the Day ($0.80) by Erik Williams, a short novella that can be easily read in one sitting.

Book Description
Mike wakes up to discover that darkness has consumed the world. No sun. No sky. No stars. Only blackness. Before he can question what has happened, or even his own sanity, great beasts swarm out of the void and begin a lethal assault on mankind.

No review of the genre would be complete without at least one Zombie Apocaplyse story (would that be the Zombocalyse?). The problem is, finding just one to include here. There is Braaaaaains ($0.99; novella), by Keith Blenman, The Fence Mender ($1.99), by Anghus Houvouras, The Zombie Chronicles, by Mark Clodi, Z Day Is Here ($5.99), by Rob Fox, theAs The World Dies Trilogy, by Rhiannon Frater, and World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War ($9.99) by Max Brooks. You can even subscribe to The Inevitable Zombie Apocalypse ($0.99/month) for more zombies on a regular basis.

These are but a sampling of what is out there ... if you find any other bargain titles, be sure to leave a comment, so I can check them out. One I recommend you skip, however, is Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse ($9.99), by James Wesley Rawles. That is, unless you think a book is improved by endless, detailed lists of exact weapons to stockpile for the coming collapse of society, along with what seems every military weapon that might be used by a UN force when taking over what is left. Somewhere in this book, which I have nearly finished (I picked it up on a whim when it was $6.39 one weekend), there really is a good novella; unfortunately, it is buried under the novel length minutia (and in need of an editor to polish up what would be left after this was all removed). If you do want a checklist of survivalist gear, there are many such on the web, for free. If you want to read a great tale of the aftermath of a catastrophic collapse of civilization, check out the Vampire Earth series above, or the Change Saga by S.M. Stirling, instead.

Music to Read By - Summer Music from Stanford U

Get a free album of music from iTunes U (which includes courses from Stanford University and Carnegie Mellon), that you can download to your Kindle (or iphone) for listening while reading or just while sitting on the beach). You don't have to be a student (at Stanford or otherwise) to get the download. But, you might want to check out the numerous free courses available at Stanford U or Carnegie Mellon U on iTunes.

Get the album, Summer Mix 2009, HERE.

B1G1F on Kindle: Chris Anderson

Assuming you weren't paying attention last week and missed the deal to get FREE: The Future of a Radical Price, by Chris Anderson, for free, there is a new deal for you, valid through August 21. According to the Kindle blog, if you buy FREE: The Future of a Radical Price (not $9.99), then you will get Anderson's earlier book, The Long Tail, (Revised and Updated)
, for free. The only problem with the offer is that it doesn't seem to be live, yet. Normally, when an offer like this is active, you'll see a note near the top of the listing for the first book, that tells you about the deal on getting the second book free. That is currently missing from the list for FREE: The Future of a Radical Price. My advice: If you want in on this deal, wait a day or so, then check to make sure that you see an indication of the free book being offered, before buying. Otherwise, plan on spending some time on the phone with Customer Service in order to get the second book. Of course, if you are a regular reader, you already have the first title (and in multiple formats), in which case, it's cheaper to just buy the second title if you really want it (or read it from the library, where it's free!).

Book Description
The New York Times bestseller that introduced the business world to a future that-s already here-now in a new edition with a new chapter about Long Tail Marketing and a new epilogue.

Winner of the Gerald Loeb Award for Best Business Book of the Year

In the most important business book since The Tipping Point, Chris Anderson shows how the future of commerce and culture isn-t in hits, the high-volume head of a traditional demand curve, but in what used to be regarded as misses-the endlessly long tail of that same curve.

Free Ebook from Oprah - Heroic Measures

Download Jill Ciment's new novel, Heroic Measures for free until 10:59 a.m. ET Wednesday July 22, 2009, at Oprah.com. You do have to become a member of the website (which is free). If you want to read it on your Kindle (non-DX), you'll need to convert it (via Amazon or one of the free converting programs) -- it isn't the cleanest looking conversion (due to headers and page numbers getting left in the text), but it is readable (although barely).

Book Description

A gasoline tanker truck is “stuck” in the Midtown Tunnel. New Yorkers are panicked . . . . Is this the next big attack?

Alex, an artist, and Ruth, a former schoolteacher with an FBI file as thick as a dictionary, must get their beloved dachshund, whose back legs have suddenly become paralyzed, to the animal hospital sixty blocks north. But the streets of Manhattan are welded with traffic. Their dog, Dorothy, twelve-years-old and gray-faced, is the emotional center of Alex and Ruth's forty-five-year-long childless marriage. Using a cutting board as a stretcher, they ferry the dog uptown.

This is also the weekend that Alex and Ruth must sell their apartment. While house hunters traipse through it during their open house, husband and wife wait by the phone to hear from the animal hospital. During the course of forty-eight hours, as the missing truck driver terrorizes the city, the price of their apartment becomes a barometer for collective hope and despair, as the real estate market spikes and troughs with every breaking news story.

In shifting points of view—Alex’s, Ruth’s, and the little dog’s—man, woman, and one small tenacious beast try to make sense of the cacophony of rumors, opinions, and innuendos coming from news anchors, cable TV pundits, pollsters, bomb experts, hostages, witnesses, real estate agents, house hunters, bargain seekers, howling dogs, veterinarians, nurses, and cab drivers.

A moving, deftly told novel of ultrahigh-urban anxiety.

Download your free copy (PDF), HERE.

Author Spotlight: Frank Tuttle

Dead Man's Rain, (reviewed HERE), was previously free, but is now $2.80. This one earned the number one spot on my TBR stack on the strength of the "warning" alone. It's a short novel (and I suspect that Mister Trophy is, as well) and perhaps not quite up the level of a Jim Butcher novel, but was still a quite interesting read. Now there are three novels in the series available, as well as an unrelated short story compilation.

Can a haunted man help the dead find peace?

Markhat is a Finder, charged with the post-war task of tracking down sons and fathers gone suddenly missing when an outbreak of peace left the army abandoned where they stood. But now it's ten years on after the war, and about all he's finding is trouble.

This time, trouble comes in the form of a rich widow with a problem. Her dearly departed husband, Ebed Merlat, keeps ambling back from the grave for nocturnal visits. Markhat saw a lot of during the war, but he's never seen anyone, rich or poor, rise from the grave and go tromping around the landscape. But for the right price, he's willing to look into it.

As a storm gathers and night falls, Markhat finds darker things than even murder lurk amid the shadows of House Merlat.

Warning, this title is rife with the walking dead, sarcastic butlers, barking dogs and ghostly dances.

The Mister Trophy ($2.00)

A troll's missing head could cause Markhat to lose his own.

All the finder Markhat wanted was a beer at Eddie's. Instead he gets a case that will bring him face to fang with crazed, blood-craving halfdead, a trio of vengeful Troll warriors, and Mama Hog's backstreet magic. Plus, the possible resurgence of the Troll War.

All right in his own none-too-quiet neighborhood.

Through the town of Rannit's narrow alleys and mean streets, Markhat tries to stay one step ahead of disaster. And ignore Mama Hog's dire warnings that this time, the head that rolls could be his own.

Warning: This book contains well-dressed vampires, extremely polite Trolls, and occasional bursts of humor. Avoid reading it when landing aircraft, welding in the nude, or taunting grumpy jackals while wearing pork chop earmuffs.

Hold The Dark ($3.60) is the third in the Markhat series and is a longer novel, it appears, at 257K in size, versus the 128K and 175K of the first two.

Demons in a feeding frenzy drive the world-weary Markhat to the brink.

Quiet, hard-working seamstresses aren't the kind that normally go missing, even in a tough town like Rannit. Martha Hoobin's disappearance, though, quickly draws Markhat into a deadly struggle between a halfdead blood cult and the infamous sorcerer known only as the Corpsemaster.

A powerful magical artifact may be both his only hope of survival-and the source of his own inescapable damnation.

Markat's search leads him to the one thing that's been missing in his life. But even love's awesome power may not save him from the darkness that's been unleashed inside his own soul.

Warning: This gritty, hard-boiled fantasy detective novel contains mild romance and interludes of suggestive hand-holding.

Wistril Compleat ($0.99)

All three of Wistril's magical misadventures are included in this complete compilation of cantrips and catastrophes!

Wistril Besieged

Wizard Wistril's wants are simple -- four meals a day, a steady supply of honey-gold Upland beer, and above all else, peace and quiet.

All but the latter are in plentiful supply at Castle Kauph. Despite secreting himself in the Wild, Wistril finds himself battling an army of relentless mercenaries while the entire population of the nearest village takes refuge in his home. Even Kern, Wistril's long-suffering, sharp-tongued apprentice, isn't sure whether the army or the houseguests will prove to be Wistril's undoing!

Wistril Afloat

Wistril doesn't believe in lake monsters -- until they invade the lake that just happens to provide Wistril's favorite fish dinners. Faced with the choice of adjusting his menus or daring the wilderness around Lake Ovinshoon, Wistril and Kern soon have bigger problems than mere lake monsters on their hands.

Because while Wistril wishes only to study the beasts, others wish to hunt them and skin them. Will Wistril's peaceful White Chair magics prevail against a ruthless band of wyvern-hunters who have only profit on their minds?

Wistril Betrothed

If ever there was a determined bachelor, thought Kern, his name was surely Wistril.

So when Wistril's wife-to-be shows up with a pursuing army on her heels, life at Castle Kauph is turned upside down. And when another suitor for Lady Emmerbee's hand arrives, with a dark and menacing wizard of his own in tow, it's up to Kern and the rest of Castle Kauph to get Wistril wed without losing his head!