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Tuesday, February 1, 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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


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

Book Description
Play Sudoku on Kindle - anytime, anywhere.

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

Free Book Updates and a Book under a Buck

Numerous books have popped up with additional formats since they were first posted, so I'm going to link in the original posts and you can check to see if you missed one. If a post fits into more than one category, I'm only listing it once, but you should be able to tell from the title if your format was added.

These are now free in the US for Kindle (previously UK only):
Nook format added:
One more more EPUB formats added:

Baltimore Blues ($0.99 Kindle), by Laura Lippman, the first in her Tess Monaghan series, is currently on sale for 99 cents at B&N. Speculation is that it is the February spotlight title there, so may remain at that price all month (or might change later today); if it does, Amazon may or may not match it.

Update: Price matched at Amazon, so one-click away!

Book Description
Until her paper, the Baltimore Star, crashed and burned, Tess Monaghan was a damn good reporter who knew her hometown intimately -- from historic Fort McHenry to the crumbling projects of Cherry Hill. Now gainfully unemployed at twenty-nine, she's willing to take any freelance job to pay the rent -- including a bit of unorthodox snooping for her rowing buddy, Darryl "Rock" Paxton.

In a city where someone is murdered almost everyday, attorney Michael Abramowitz's death should be just another statistic. But the slain lawyer's notoriety -- and his noontime trysts with Rock's fiancee -- make the case front page news...and points to Rock as the likely murderer. But trying to prove her friend's innocence couls prove costly to Tess -- and add her name to that infamous ever-growing list.

New Kindle App - Flip It!

Flip It! ($0.99) is a new Kindle App from 7 Dragons. I played thru the first three levels without even having to think about the moves, but by level four, you have to start working on a strategy, as the tiles in the 4x4 grid are a lot trickier. You can set up multiple users for the game; by default, it has a space for you, your spouse, a couple of kids, your robot, dog, cat and mouse.

Book Description
Flip It! is a game that starts out simple and gets more challenging as you play. Exercise your mind and enjoy solving various patterns and puzzles.

In Flip It! you are shown a grid of tiles that are either black or white. Clicking on a black tile will 'flip' the tile to white; clicking on a white square will 'flip' the title to black. Change all of the tiles white and you've passed that level. It may seem simple, but there's a twist: when clicking on a tile to 'flip' its color, all tiles touching the selected tile's four sides will also flip their colors. Add to that a growing number of squares and patterns per level, and you've got yourself a sophisticated brainteaser.

Monday, January 31, 2011

Free Book Update (EPUB) & Coupon Codes

Kobo has a new coupon code, feb1ww1, that will give you a dollar off non-Agency titles until February 3rd, 11:59 PM (EST). There are a number of books on their Cheap Reads page that are already under $5 and a few that are 99 cents that will be free with this coupon code, but it won't work with all of them. St. Martins, Penguin, Little and Brown, amongst others, don't allow coupon codes. Amongst the free with coupon titles:
Fictionwise has another 50% off code and although it expires today, it will probably continue working for a day or so: PROBOWL2011. Remember, their multi-format titles work with all readers, but the ones that have a format such as MOBIPOCKET, EPUB or EREADER are DRM'd and won't work with Kindle. EREADER works with NOOK, but not NOOKColor, while EPUB works with most readers, other than a few older ones that use DRM'd MOBI.

The following books are now also free from Sony, in EPUB format:

Two Free Books on Smashwords

I normally try not to have free deals on Smashwords on the same day that Amazon dumps a load of them on my Kindle, but one of these deals ends today and the other could end anytime.

All Torc'd Up ($2.99 Kindle), by Nell Gavin, free on Smashwords using coupon code JS33K.

Book Description
In Chicago, 1958, a gunshot alters four-year old Holly’s life: her mentally ill mother has just committed suicide. Holly is subsequently raised by her grandmother whose abusive parenting laid the groundwork for her mother’s death.

Surviving her childhood, but still damaged and angry, 19-year-old Holly unexpectedly falls in love. Dreams of marriage and children, and a "normal" life, are suddenly within her grasp when she meets Trevor, who works as a roadie for a famous English rock band. However, as the relationship progresses she suspects that she may be more damaged than she previously thought.

Within the world of 1970s Rock and Roll, and with the bus, and the band and its entourage as a backdrop, the story takes Holly on tour across country as her relationship with Trevor gets progressively more serious, and her illness gets increasingly more difficult to hide.


Paper Ghosts ($4.99 Kindle), by AJ Davidson, free on Smashwords using coupon code SP83R.

Book Description
When counterfeiter Steve Stricker leaves prison he discovers that his former partner-in-crime was murdered on the same day he was arrested by the Secret Service. His attempts to bring the killer to justice exposes a family torn apart by incest and political corruption. Steve shares what he knows with the Secret Service agent who arrested him, but can he be trusted?

About the Author
AJ Davidson - An Ulster Writer Freelance writer AJ Davidson was born in Northern Ireland, and currently lives in the bucolic splendour of the Fermanagh Monaghan border. Educated at the Royal School Armagh and Queen's University, Belfast, he has a degree in Social Anthropology. Married for 27 years, he has two children, a Harrier hound and a cat called Dusty. Not one for staying long in the same place, AJ has lived in many countries across several continents. He has worked as a pea washer, crane-driver, restaurateur and scriptwriter.