A roundup of some interesting looking backlist and/or self-published titles that are free today (some are today only) in the Kindle store. Many of these are now Kindle exclusive titles, as that is a requirement fo an author to add a book to the Kindle Lending Library.
Leopard's Daughter, by Lee Killough, originally published by Questar / Popular Library and later reprinted by Yard Dog Press. She has
several titles at $2.99 on Kindle.
Book Description
In an ancient Africa of verdant Sahara plains, warrior woman Jeneba Karamoke has grown up scorned by her people because her father was a leopard man. When she rescues a party of fellow warriors from cannibalistic monster half-men, she hopes it will finally win acceptance for her. But no...in order to prove she isn't lying about the vanished hero Tomo Silla's part in their capture by the half men she must make Tomo face the tribe. Can she find him, and then survive more monsters, foreign tribes, and a curse laid on a fabled city to bring him back alive?
Ice Age, a short story collection by Iain Rowan, is currently free (so are several of the included short stories as individual titles, which I'd skip). He has an additional story in the free collection
infinities, published by
Infinity Plus and following the authors included there turns up these free books:
Ice Age
ICE AGE is a collection of eight short stories of the strange and the chilling by award-winning author Iain Rowan.
Stories of the dead and the living, and cities at war where it is hard to tell one from the other. Lonely roads and forest paths and wrong turnings. Very wrong turnings. The fiery martyrdom of The New Way, distant voices that call from the sea, and the ice creeping in, ever in.
Stories in this collection have been reprinted in year's best collections and featured in anthologies nominated for Stoker and Shirley Jackson awards.
ICE AGE features the stories Lilies, The Call, Through The Window, Driving In Circles, Sighted, The Circular Path, Here Comes The New Way and Ice Age.
infinities
An anthology of short stories, novel extracts and a complete novelette from infinity plus and friends: Eric Brown, John Grant, Anna Tambour, Keith Brooke, Garry Kilworth, Iain Rowan, Kaitlin Queen, Linda Nagata, Scott Nicholson, Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Steven Savile (edited by Keith Brooke)
From high-tech science fiction, through action-packed thriller to wacky satire, there's something for everyone in infinities, the first of a series of anthologies offering you the chance to sample authors' work at no cost.
Sweats (a near-future science-fiction technothriller)
All the forensics point to Joey Bannerman - the DNA profile, the fingerprints, the pheromone signature, the security cam records... But Joey wasn't there, he wasn't in his body at the time of the hit. Joey is a sweat, and he was safely warehoused away while someone else paid to ride his bones... Or at least, that's his defence.
After its initial publication in Postscripts, Sweats was adapted to become part of Brooke's critically-acclaimed novel The Accord, described by SF Site as "one of the finest novels of virtual reality yet written".
A high-tech, near-future cyber-thriller, Sweats showcases the short fiction talent of an author described by Locus as belonging in "the recognized front ranks of SF writers".
The Undead: Zombie Anthology
THE UNDEAD is a stunning collection of 23 tales of the living dead by zombie fan favorites and up-and-coming authors. The Undead includes classic tales of survival in a world populated by the living dead as well as an array of unique takes on the zombie genre: zombies as reality entertainment, glimpses from inside the "life" of the undead, intergalactic war with humanity's own dead turned against us, and everything in between. The Undead will leave zombie fans hungry for more!
Duncan the Punkin
A magical bedtime story for all ages.
Halloween is coming, and Duncan the Punkin's mom teaches him to hide in the pumpkin patch so he doesn't get turned into a jack-o-lantern. Being good is boring, and Duncan's not afraid of any old farmer. But someone else has been keeping an eye on the pumpkin patch. Skeerdy-Cat-Crow has been hanging on a pole all summer, and now he's hungry. He's heard nice little pumpkins are just right. But Mom knows a trick that will teach both Skeerdy-Cat-Crow and Duncan something new.
Features 30 color pages (will appear in black-and-white on Kindles) of rhyming fun, magic, and Halloween mystery. Scott Nicholson is author of the children's books IF I WERE YOUR MONSTER and TOO MANY WITCHES, as well as 20 books for adults. Sergio Castro has illustrated for the comic books LITTLE SHIVERS, DREAMBOAT, and GRAVE CONDITIONS.
The Zombie Anthology above is published by Permuted Press and checking
their catalog on Kindle turns up a number of other free titles:
Vampire Apocalypse: A World Torn Asunder
The war is over and the Vampires have won. The drying up of the world's oil resources leads to the fabled End of Days. Technology stagnates and communities grow ever more insular. With communication between cities lost and attention turned inward, the vampires rise from the shadows where they have survived for centuries and sweep across the globe. By the time word spreads it is far too late and Vampires enslave humanity and keep them in walled cities to breed. The Vampires are masters of the darkness but maintain control by day through the use of Thralls--humans who have been bitten but have not yet crossed over, and whose inhuman lusts make daylight as terrifying as night. In the midst of chaos, a small band of rebels lead a terrified existence, but their survival is threatened by the Vampire's new scanning procedures. John Harris is an ordinary man. Young and reckless, he is frustrated with the group's stagnation and pushes for one more daring mission. His recklessness has exposed the group--but it has also increased the size of their community. Now, as circumstances force them to take the offensive, and accompanied by a small group of professional Vampire assassins, John will make one last stand for humanity's survival in the Vampire Apocalypse.
Down the Road: The Fall of Austin
When the dead rise, the living must unite.
Officer Mike Runyard of the Austin Police Department and his partner, Derek Tucker, are stuck in the middle of a city overrun with the living dead. With resources and luck running out, Runyard is flung into a fight for survival among the living, the dead, and a wave of criminals released from jail into the streets of central and south Austin.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military fights to reclaim Texas, with failure meaning the complete loss of the capital, Austin. A military Humvee traveling down IH-35, headed into the zombie-ridden city, holds the key to a plan meant to turn the tide in the fight. It’s a simple plan, but it’s a plan that’s about to fail with devastating consequences...
Eleven Twenty-Three
Layne Prescott, a former high school teacher returning to America after months of living abroad, meets a strange man in a Shanghai airport and ends up carrying a mysterious briefcase with an attached wrist shackle home with him. Back in the small town of Lilly's End, Layne must cope with more than just the effects of his past indiscretions and his recently deceased father's funeral. Each day at precisely 11:23, the small town of Lilly's End sinks into violent chaos, and people are dying. Cut off from the rest of the world by a strict military quarantine and with the population in rapid decline, Layne and his friends wait with dread as the clock ticks downward.
Among the Living
The dead walk. Now the real battle for Seattle has begun.
When a gas leak causes the National Guard to forcibly evacuate the neighborhood, Lester isn't going anywhere. The former dope pusher has a new clientele… the kind that require him to deal lead instead of drugs.
Mike, a newspaper reporter, suspects a conspiracy lies behind the chaos. He’s driven to find the truth, even if it means dragging his beautiful co-worker into danger.
Kate has a dark secret: she’s a budding young serial killer. As society collapses, her skill in dealing death may be the one thing that can keep her alive.
These survivors, along with others, are drawn together in their quest to find not only the truth behind the spreading apocalypse, but also to escape the madness they face at every turn.
Winds of Change
A shooting star marks the beginning nightmares for the small town of Crowley’s Point. Those who venture outdoors instantly transform into piles of salt. Is it the result of biological experimentation gone awry? A terrorist’s plot? Or is it the fulfillment of a horrific Biblical prophecy?
Among those stranded in the local hardware store are a newlywed couple who may be hiding a secret, a hard-living family of four who are known primarily for their aversion to the law, and an elderly man that found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. As the carnage spreads and the mystery deepens, those trapped inside stumble across clues that hint at fallen angels, omens, and widespread bloodshed. And all signs indicate that one of the group who isn’t what they seem.
Will the survivors root out the impostor before it’s too late? Or will they all themselves transformed into piles of salt, blown asunder by Winds of Change?
Doranna Durgin has two free books on Kindle:
Emerging Legacy: A Story of the Wolverine's Daughter (a short story) and
Hidden Steel. You'll find
several titles at 99 cents, some of them previously published on Baen (and now yanked from there); be sure to check the length on those you are interested in, as some are full novels at that price, while others are short stories.
Emerging Legacy: A Story of the Wolverine's Daughter.
Kelyn of Ketura:
Daughter of a legendary warrior who left the mountains before she was born. Brave. Strong. Tempered by her struggle to survive in the hostile, craggy Keturan mountains. And plagued by moments of enormous and puzzling clumsiness.
"Find your father," the local wisewoman tells her. "To find your true self, find the Wolverine."
Angered by his abandonment, Kelyn doesn't care about her father--but the lure of adventure in the Out Lands calls to her, just as it called to the Wolverine before her, and she accepts the challenge.
New languages, new weapons. Magic. Witch hunts. The treacheries of civilization. She doesn't know just how much of a challenge it'll be.
Hidden Steel.
Steve Spaneas doesn't have a clue.
Who'd have thought that the woman who stumbles her way into his gym, looking and acting so very much like a street person off her meds, is really a CIA case officer whose memory has been obliterated by experimental drugs used by some very bad people?
And seriously, who'd have thought that her attempts to untangle the few clues she's got would lead him right into her world of spies and counterspies, death and deception--and holy cow, stockpiled nuclear weapons?
But Steve had better figure out who he trusts--his years of experience on the streets, or the heart of a gritty woman determined to reclaim herself--and he'd better figure it out fast. Because suddenly there's a body out behind the gym, surveillance teams lurking, and a series of unsavory goons following the trail of a woman temporarily named Mickey right through his life.
Heaven's Fire, is the second title in Patricia Ryan's
Fairfax Family series, originally published by Topaz/NAL. You'll also find
Silken Threads, the first title in her
Wexford Family series, and
Still Life With Murder, the first in her
Nell Sweeney Mysteries under the pen name P.B. Ryan, marked down to 99 cents.
Book Description
The sequel to Falcon's Fire. Celibate priest and Oxford scholar Rainulf Fairfax finds himself drawn to a humbly born young woman after he rescues from her vicious overlord.
The Serpent's Tail, by Sarah A. Hoyt, is a short story from an author whose more recent works are being published by Spectra (Random House).
Book Description
A bioengineered werewolf, his bioengineered truck, the blond time-traveling secret agent they rescue, and a plot to save the world despite itself.
What could possibly go wrong?
Shifter, P.I., by Bonnie Dee, was originally published by Liquid Silver Books; her recent works are published by Samhain Publishing and Carina Press.
Book Description
A private eye. His hardnosed secretary. A dastardly cult and a werewolf curse. If you like your mysteries noir, Shifter, P.I. is for you.
New Orleans detective, Rick Plazier is hired by a client to look into her possibly cheating husband. In an effort to prove her investigative skills, Rick’s receptionist, Amy Chang agrees to follow the same woman on behalf of her untrusting husband. Working from opposite sides, Amy and Rick uncover much more than a case of faithless spouses. A deadly paranormal society plans to hold an auction of human beings and one or the other of their clients may be a target.
Amy’s disappearance prompts Rick to finally come to terms with his shapeshifting curse and use his wolf aspect to track and rescue her. But will the pair acknowledge their constant arguing is due to mutual attraction and will they move from bickering into bed?
Banana Hammock - A Harry McGlade Mystery (A "Write Your Own Damn Story" Adventure) is today's free title from J.A. Konrath / Jack Kilborn (if he keeps this up, I might eventually collect them all!).
Book Description
Formatted expressly for Kindle!
Private Detective Harry McGlade is hired by an Amish woman who suspects her husband is cheating on her. Going undercover into their community, Harry must untangle a web of lies and deception to find the truth. This will be his biggest challenge yet. Because Harry McGlade is an idiot.
Lead Harry through a series of comic misadventures and bad puns as he traverses the J.A. Konrath universe, popping into many familiar books and stories. Prepare to be shocked and amazed by scenes that are just plain wrong.
It's over 60,000 words of Harry McGlade, which is probably way too much.
About "Write Your Own Damn Story" Adventures
Banana Hammock is not a single, linear book, and should not be read sequentially, page by page. Instead, it is an interactive text adventure.
This ebook is meant to be read out of order, depending on the path you, the reader, choose.
Harry McGlade is a continuing character in the Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels series. At the end of each section, you decide where Harry goes, and what he does. By following different paths, you can arrive at many different endings. There are literally hundreds of variations.
You control the character. You control the fun.
Join Harry and a cast pulled from JA Konrath and Jack Kilborn stories, and push ebook technology to the boundaries of reading enjoyment, or something like that.
From the Author
This ebook is filled with raunchy humor, and has something to offend everyone. If you believe there are taboo things that shouldn’t be laughed at or made fun of, don't buy it. Instead, pick up one of my other, less-offensive books. But if you like roasting sacred cows, read on. You’ll laugh.
The audiobook short story The Booktaker: A Nameless Detective Mystery, by Bill Pronzini, narrated by Nick Sullivan, is free over on Audible.
