Free EBooks Roundup

The Triumph of the Sun ($7.99 Kindle), by by Wilbur Smith, is being given away as a PDF from the publisher, Macmillan. This title is also free in the Sony Store, which often means the Kindle version may be free soon, as well.

It is 1884, and in the Sudan, decades of brutal misgovernment by the ruling Egyptian Khedive in Cairo precipitates a bloody rebellion and Holy War. The charismatic new religious leader, the Mahdi or "Expected One," has gathered his forces of Arab warlords in preparation for a siege on the city of Khartoum. The British are forced to intervene to protect their national interests and to attempt to rescue the hundreds of British subjects stranded in the city.

Along with hundreds of others, British trader and businessman Ryder Courtney is trapped in the capital city of Khartoum under the orders of the infamously iron-willed General Charles George Gordon. It is here that he meets skilled soldier and swordsman Captain Penrod Ballantyne of the 10th Hussars and the British Consul, David Benbrook, as well as Benbrook’s three beautiful daughters. Against the vivid and bloody backdrop of the Arabs’ fierce and merciless siege these three powerful men must fight to survive.

Rich with vibrant historical detail and infused with his inimitable powers of storytelling, The Triumph of the Sun is Wilbur Smith at his masterful best.

Macmillan is also giving away a PDF download of Panic Attack ($16.49 Hardcover; not available on Kindle) by Jason Starr.

Dr. Adam Bloom has the perfect life. He’s financially secure and lives in a luxurious house with his wife, Dana, and their twenty-two-year-old daughter, Marissa, a recent college graduate. Late one night, his daughter wakes him up and says, “Somebody’s downstairs.” Adam uses his gun to kill one of the unarmed intruders, but the other escapes. From that moment on, everyone’s life in the Bloom household will never be the same.

Adam doesn’t feel safe, not with the other intruder out there somewhere, knowing where he lives. Dana suggests moving, but Adam has lived in the house all his life and he doesn’t want to run away. As the family recovers from the break-in and the Blooms’ already rocky relationship rapidly falls apart, Marissa meets a young, talented artist named Xan. Adam feels that something’s not quite right with Xan, but his daughter ignores his warnings and falls deeply in love with him. When suspicious things start happening to the Blooms all over again, Adam realizes that his first instinct about Xan was probably dead on.

Orbit has a novella as a free download this month (in addition to their dollar book of the month), Deeds of Men by Marie Brennan, in your choice of formats (PDF, ePub, or HTML). Join the mailing list for a chance to get a paper copy or simply download the e-version (make an optional donation via paypal, if you want to support the author).

Get a PDF or EPUB copy of Serial by Jack Kilborn (he's still working on getting this into the Kindle store as a free book, but apparently there are some politics involved and there is no telling when it will happen) and Blake Crouch. This is a short story, described as a terrifying tale of hitchhiking gone terribly wrong. Look under Book Extras in the lower, right side of the page for the download links.

For now, you can convert the PDF using the (free) Amazon service or any of these formats using a program such as Calibre. But when the DX appears, you should be able to read these PDF files directly, no conversion required, as Amazon has licensed the Adobe Reader SDK for the DX. You have to wonder, though, if the free PDF's will stop being offered as often (or will come with DRM) once you can read them on the e-ink screen without the formatting issues common with most conversions.

Kindle Bargain Ebook Roundup

The Night Gardener by George Pelecanos ($1.99 Kindle or Sony) is marked down for the rest of the month. Once you finish it, you might want to check out his latest, The Way Home, just released this week.

"Gus Ramone is "good police," a former Internal Affairs investigator now working homicide for the city's Violent Crime branch. His new case involves the death of a local teenager named Asa whose body has been found in a local community garden. The murder unearths intense memories of a case Ramone worked as a patrol cop twenty years earlier, when he and his partner, Dan "Doc" Holiday, assisted a legendary detective named T. C. Cook. The series of murders, all involving local teenage victims, was never solved. In the years since, Holiday has left the force under a cloud of morals charges, and now finds work as a bodyguard and driver. Cook has retired, but he has never stopped agonizing about the "Night Gardener" killings. The new case draws the three men together on a grim mission to finish the work that has haunted them for years. All the love, regret, and anger that once burned between them comes rushing back, and old ghosts walk once more as the men try to lay to rest the monster who has stalked their dreams. Bigger and even more unstoppable than his previous thrillers, George Pelecanos achieves in THE NIGHT GARDENER what his brilliant career has been building toward: a novel that is a perfect union of suspense, character, and unstoppable fate."

Coming Undone by Stephanie Tyler ($3.40)

Oh no! Surfer--make that ex-surfer--Carly Winters can't believe she accidentally faxed an erotic letter to...a secure military line? Now navy SEAL Jonathon "Hunt" Huntington is at her door, fax in hand, asking her how the fantasy ends.

Talk about fate...Because Carly's parents think Hunt is her new boyfriend, and Carly does need a wedding date ASAP. Hunt's ready to play--only on one condition: Carly's got to teach him to hang ten. Problem is it's been a while since Carly's career-ending accident and she's terrified of anything aqua. But with Hunt, letting go just may make her fantasy a reality!

Kindle 2 For Dummies by Greg Holden ($3.99)

Kindle 2 For Dummies is a brief, to-the-point reference on the new e-book reader from Amazon. Clocking in at about 100 pages if it were a regular For Dummies print book, the guide shows how to use all the interesting features of Kindle. Chapters cover: * Unpacking & setting up * Downloading and reading books * Subscribing to newspapers, magazines, and blogs * Getting on the Web * Audio features * Creating your own Kindle-ready content From the cover How 21st Century - a whole book on a little gizmo you hold in your hand! And this e-book covers all the Kindle basics, plus how to get magazines, newspapers, and blogs on your Kindle 2 as well as books. Now the fun really begins, when you learn to browse the Web, add cool accessories, create your own content, and even sell it on Amazon.com. * Fire -er up - learn your way around the Kindle 2 screen while charging up the battery * Daily delivery - find out how to have your favorite newspapers waiting on your Kindle each morning * Leave a trail - see how to use bookmarks to find your way Home * Score some information - use your Kindle to check sports scores, shop, compare prices, or find the best deal on gas * Broaden your horizons - transfer content from your computer to your Kindle, and convert files using Mobipocket * Create your own - discover how to publish your own work for free and sell it in the Kindle Store, legally * Keep Kindle happy - learn to deal with minor problems, how to get a warranty, and where to swap tips with other Kindle users.

The Lords of the Underworld Bundle ($9.99) by Gena Showalter includes The Darkest Fire ($2.39), The Darkest Night ($5.04), The Darkest Kiss ($5.04) and The Darkest Pleasure ($5.04).

They dared to open Pandora's Box, and now must carry an eternal curse. New York Times bestselling author Gena Showalter's incredible new paranormal series begins in a remote fortress in Budapest, where six immortal warriors, each more dangerously seductive than the last, are bound by an ancient curse none has been able to break. Journey through this dark and sensual world, where the line between good and evil blurs and true love is put to the ultimate test.

Living With Your Kids Is Murder ($3.99) by Mike Befeler, author of Retirement Homes Are Murder, features the same octogenarian detective and nursing home as the earlier novel. It should also be a great read (the last one was hard to put down).

Cantankerous octogenarian Paul Jacobson must solve two murders while struggling with the problems of his short-term memory loss. As Paul ends up suspiciously close to a bank robbery, kidnapping and drug bust, his granddaughter Jennifer helps him track down the real perpetrators. Paul juggles two girlfriends, experiences the quirks of old age romance and must find a way to stay alive when he confronts the murderer.

Amazon also has marked down Secrets of My Hollywood Life #1, a couple of titles for Latino Month, Dream in Color: How the Sanchez Sisters Are Making History in Congress and The Gifted Gabaldan Sisters, as well as a few IT style books: The It Girl #1, Gossip Girl #1 and Poseur #1. All are $2.99 (at least for now. some thru June 30).

Free EBooks for Mother's Day

A few of these are limited time downloads that have gone up this week, while others are ongoing offers. Still, free reading on Mother's Day means you can pamper yourself without breaking the budget or even leaving the house.

Jeffrey A. Carver has just posted Eternity's End (Star Rigger) (no longer in print), a novel of the Star Rigger universe, as a free ebook. It looks like DRM free versions in multiple formats (including Kindle compatible) will eventually be available at Fictionwise, but right now you can get this and several other books at no charge, already formatted for the Kindle, no PDF conversion required. Eternity's End was a finalist for the 2000 Nebula, and concerns the search by a star rigger named Legroeder for the lost ship Impris, the Flying Dutchman of the stars.

The newest novel set in the Star Rigger Universe, ETERNITY'S END features the search for the legendary ghost rigger ship Impris and her crew, whose fate is entwined with interstellar piracy, quantum defects in spacetime, galactic coverup conspiracies, and deep-cyber romance.

You can also get, for a limited time, a free download of Sunborn (Chaos Chronicles) ($21.24 Hardcover) on his downloads page. The first three books in the Chaos Chronicles (Neptune Crossing, Strange Attractors and The Infinite Sea) are available there and in the Baen Free Library. All of his downloads are in multiple formats and DRM free.

The Pendragon (The Merchant of Death, Book 1) ($7.99 Kindle) by D.J. MacHale, earlier reported as a free PDF download from Barnes and Noble is now available as a free audiobook from Audible.com.

Apex Book Company is giving away the PDF version of Open Your Eyes ($10.94 Paperback) by Paul Jessup until the end of May. This is book #4 in a novella series, but can be read as a standalone story, which they describe as a surreal space opera.

Her lover was a supernova who took worlds with him when he died, and as a new world grows within Ekhi, savage lives rage and love on a small ship in the outer reaches of space. A ship with an agenda of its own. Critically acclaimed author of weird fiction Paul Jessup sends puppets to speak and fight for their masters while a linguistic virus eats through the minds of a group of scavengers in Open Your Eyes, a surrealist space opera of haunting beauty and infinite darkness.

Several short novels/short stories by J.A. Konrath, aka Jack Kilborn of Afraid ($1.99 Kindle) are available for free, with a little searching, or at bargain prices in the Kindle store. You can get Disturb, The List and Origin (all $1.19 Kindle) for free on Konrath's download page, but it looks like Shot of Tequila is only available in the Kindle store ($1.19) or as a 99 cent PDF.

Suckers ($1.59 Kindle) byJ.A. Konrath and Jeff Strand is free from the co-author: "For a free PDF, just send an e-mail to gleefullymacabre@gmail.com with "Suckers" in the subject line and I'll send it on over. I promise that you won't be subscribed to any mailing lists or anything sinister like that."

Planter's Punch ($1.59 Kindle) by JA Konrath and Tom Schreck is free via a link on Tom Schreck's website (although you have to cut and paste the link there and can just click it here). Serial by Jack Kilborn and and Blake Crouch is free in the Sony bookstore, as is Infinite Exposure (Promotional Version), by Roland Hughes (also here as a PDF), but the promotional version is missing the last chapter (you get 18 chapters, 314 pages for free) and you'll have to chase down a full version to find out how it ends.

Catherine Wilson is offering Book I of her trilogy, When Women Were Warriors ($0.99 Kindle) as a free download on her website. Previously a PDF, multiple formats are now available.

One Dollar Game Downloads

It's the weekend and I'll probably try to catch up on some reading, since it's been a busy week. But I'll also want to take a break now and then, not to rest my eyes, but to give them a bit of exercise (besides, just as we can now eat an ounce of dark chocolate a day in the name of anti-oxidants, we can spend a few minutes a day on a game in order to increase our eye's low-light and contrast function) and Amazon is tempting me with today's Video Game Deal of the Day: Five game downloads at 98 cents each. You can still do a trial run, but you have to buy before the end of the day (PST). Most of their game deals are limited in number, but I don't know if that applies to downloads (like Kindle books, they can't run out). At under a dollar apiece, you should be able to determine if a game is appealing in under ten minutes, well within the half hour you are allowed. I've picked up several games in their previous sales and have been having a blast landing planes, shooting down evil ants and defending the earth from mutant chickens. The games are more limited that the ones for some game consoles or the larger titles that you don't download, but are just as professionally done. The regular prices are the same or less as a game rental in this area and there is no pressure to finish the game and get it back. Another nice thing about their downloads is that you can use these on more than one computer (I think four), so long as you log in on the machine and register it (you may have to log in periodically or each time you get a new game), so one game can be shared by you and your kids pc's or added to a laptop or netbook to take to the office or on vacation or off to college.

Here's the list of the games included in the sale:

Virtual Villagers
Ricochet Lost Worlds: Recharged
Alice Greenfingers
Slingo Quest
Atlantis Quest

Monthly Kindle Book Budget: April

It's been a slow month for buying books here, what with the large to-be-read stack already on my Kindle. I did get all the free books for the month and a very few others, but overall stayed well under the Kindle budget for the month.

April

Holy Bible, GOD'S WORD Translation (GW) by Baker Publishing Group	$0.00
Holy Bible, Today's New International Version, TNIV by Zondervan	$0.00
Because He Loves Me: How Christ Transforms Our Daily Life by Elyse M. Fitzpatrick	$0.00
The Quran - A Pure and Literal Translation by The Monotheist Group	$0.95
Afraid by Jack Kilborn	$1.99
Miss Fix-It by L. C. Monroe and Nicolette Derens	$0.00
Put Your Dream to the Test: 10 Questions that Will Help You See It and Seize It by John C. Maxwell	$0.00
The Second Ship (The Rho Agenda : Book One) by Richard Phillips	$0.99
Kindle Shortcuts and Kindle-friendly Websites by MobileReference	$0.01
ReThink: Introduction by Ric Merrifield	$0.00
Rethink: Key Concepts by Ric Merrifield	$0.00
Rethink (Chapter 1): How the -How- Trap Is Trapping You by Ric Merrifield	$0.00
Rethink: Index by Ric Merrifield	$0.00
Outsmart (Intro & Chapter 1): It's a Smart, Smart, Smart, Smart World by Jim Champy	$0.00
Outsmart (Epilogue) by Jim Champy	$0.00
Inspire (Intro & Chapter 1): From Tired to Inspired by Jim Champy	$0.00
Stories I Never Told the Speaker: The Chaotic Adventures of a Capitol Hill Aide by Marshall L. Lynam	$0.80
Retirement Homes Are Murder by Mike Befeler	3.99
Matthew Henry's Concise Bible Commentary for Kindle (KJV) (cross linked with built in Bible) (1) by matthew henry	$2.39
Matthew Henry's Concise Bible Commentary for Kindle (ASV) (cross linked with built in Bible) (1) by matthew henry	$1.99
The Bounty: The Malloy Family Book 1 by Beth Williamson	$0.00
The Alchemyst by Michael Scott	$0.00

For the month, that's 22 books, $13.11 in total, for $0.60 per book. Sure, it includes several business chapters that are not real books, but I've left off several titles I got for free from other sources. Here's the break-down by month, for the year-to-date:

Month	No. Books	Total Cost	Per Book
January	59	$83.47	$1.41
February	43	$29.97	$0.70
March	32	$33.44	$1.05
April	22	$13.11	$0.60
Totals	156	$159.99	$1.03

If you add in the cost of the Kindle itself, that's about $3.33 per book. Of course, we have more than one Kindle, where with paperbacks we'd be able to pass them around, but at double or more the cost per book. We also have roughly 80 pounds less paper taking up room on the shelves (estimating 8 oz per book - a bit high for paperback, low for hardbacks). We might not have purchased the exact same books, of course, but these calculations also leave out all the classics and other free books we have to read on the Kindle (such as the two recent John Hart novels).