Fantasy and Historical Kindle Sales aka Cheap Reads!

I'm going to start off with some questions asking for any reader's opinions of these books that are on sale and then break out some recommendations. If you'd like to see a different format in future posts, please let me know!



The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson. I read the original trilogy and thought the end was a nice twist on the whole hero of prophecy. Has anyone read the new series by Brandon? For $2.99 is it a good delve?



Ben Bova has several books in his Grand Tour series. Anyone read them and have any comments, concerns or recommendations on which are good and which to skip? I've read Ben Bova's Orion series and loved it. That was some great stuff but while Orion was a little more Science Fantasy these look to be more on the science fiction side of the genre.




Last one asking questions is The Knight by Gene Wolf. I've read some of his stuff decades ago and I've heard positives and negatives about this series. So for anyone whose read it, how does it stack up? Is it manageable?

Now for recommendations:

Both of these are by Steven Burst. Both in the same setting. I found them a little dry to be honest but thought that they were entertaining and the time lapse between the two books is nothing as these aren't short lived people. The Phoenix Guards is the first in this series and on sale while Five Hundred Years After takes up the mantle well, Five Hundred Years later! I've seen them described as fantasy based versions of the Three Musketeers.

Note only the first book in the series is on sale!



Lord of the Isles by David Drake. I've only read the first three books in between numerous things that were happening in the personal live at the time but it's on the scale and scope of other series like Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time and A Game of Thrones. There were some great characters that I'm looking forward to getting back into when time and attention span allow.



Anyone know Glen Cook? Did the Black Company series. It was a fantasy series that focused on a group of mercenaries. That series was grim and gritty and had characters dying left and right including the leadership of the company itself!

I've still found some of those books my most enjoyed fantasy bits and yanked whole campaign elements into my game from them. His Instrumentalities of the Night wasn't as good to me, but still worth reading and for $2.99 you can check out the first book in the series.



If I've missed any on the list that are great, give a shout out and a link! If I've missed any that are on sale but aren't on the list, throw those in too! It's a great time to be a fantasy reader!

The Nonexistent Knight by Italo Calvino

For those looking for some light reading, The Nonexistent Knight by Italo Calvino may fit the bill.

I'd never read any of Italo Calvino's work until recently. Amazon had a sale on several of his books and while I'm still reading the Italian Folktales, I managed to finish this one setting. It flows very easily despite the fact that it has a few words I didn't know beforehand. One of the benefits of a kindle book is the ability to engage the dictionary right there in the text.

I had a feeling I'd enjoy this one. It's set during the era of Charlemagne, one of the sources of knights and paladins in the Dungeons and Dragons game and the era of one of the 'greats' of the time, the knight Roland.

I enjoyed the Song of Roland and the 2nd edition Green Historical book, HR2 Charlemagne's Paladins back in the day, available from DriveThruRPG.com for $9.99.

The 'hero' of the title, Agilulf, is a knight in shinning white armor that is kept meticulously clean. A knight of great deeds and ability, he is not an actual person. The armor is empty. He exists as a 'mere' suit of armor that goes about keeping order and maintaining his presence through willpower alone.

His story follows through with other characters, each with their own compelling tales that interlink into different adventurers that take place and resolve themselves until the author brings us to the end. One of my favorites is the squire, a buffoon whose main introduction involves a cauldron of soup and him getting trapped in it temporarily and insisting that "all is soup".

The tale told by a 'nun' is charming and entertaining and I'd almost be loathe to see it wind up in the hands of some of the darker corners that authors tend to travel these days.

While certainly not originally intended as anything for say, Dungeons and Dragons, but rather an an allegory for far different things, such a character makes for a great origin for fantasy settings, gonzo settings like Rifts, or super hero settings. A hero that comes out of nothing and is capable and better than the average hero or knight.

For those looking for a little whimsy in their fantasy, The Nonexistent Knight is a solid, quick read.

Amazon and Dark Horse Comic Sales

Those who've read my blog here know that I enjoy comic books. Due to physical limitations in terms of housing though, a lot of comics I buy these days are in digital format.

Today only I believe, Amazon has several graphic novels on sale to get you into the DC New 52 series for a low price. Good stuff if you enjoy comics or wanted to see what was 'new' at the time.

Green Lantern: Jokes on you sucker! Remember how I said 'New 52'? Turns out that DC has some intelligence and didn't reset everything. Green Lantern and Batman got to essentially keep going with what they were doing to begin with. Still, this collection of the first arc is by Geoff Johns whose well known and opinions of him are easy to find.

Wonder Woman vol 1: Blood: Everyone is taken by how awesome her new origin is. I think she's now the daughter of Zeus or something. For me that's more blah than her old origin. Her old origin was used a few times in interesting ways. Having super powers because you're the scion of some one? M'eh. It's worked for Thor for hundreds of issues so clearly there can be validity to the process.

Aquaman Vol 1: The Tench. Okay, I know, "He talks to fish!". It's still funny to me. Aquaman can be more than that and often is, but between him and Submariner, overall Subby wins. The later is a often a colossal bastard whose ego gets him into all sorts of trouble. Aquaman is the guy whose son died and is otherwise a nice guy. Except when they make him 90's vicious. There was a brief sword and sorcery run but I think they pretty much nuked that into oblivion. Aquaman as he's done would probably be a better fit in his own setting as opposed to the DC one. It's all like, "Yeah, but Superman!" Poor bastard.

Justice League vol 1: Origin. I already own this one. Fantastic art by Jim Lee but really feeling the crapitude of 'The New 52'. Other people love it so take my opinion here with a grain of salt.

Justice League Dark vol 1: In the Dark. Okay, I got nothing here. I bought it for $2.99 because hell, I'll try most things for an introductory price but really? Did DC see Marvel absolutely stomping them with dozens of Avengers and X-Men titles and was like, "Hey, Justice League rolls off the tongue right? Right?"

Shazam Vol 1. I feel bad for DC here. It's like they can never do this character justice. He's had some great stories like one of the retellings of his first meeting with Superman, or his time with the Justice Society of America, but when you have Superman, and your ownership of Shazam came about directly because you claimed he was a copy of Superman, what's left for Shazam do to? Still, for $2.99 I wanted to see what Geoff Johns did with him. Man, is that guy on everything these days?

Superman: Action Comics Vol 1. Superman and the Men of Steel. Grant Morrison tackles Superman and his 'new' origin or at least his new stylings. It was a nice change of pace even though, like Spider Man, it nullified his marriage to Lois Lane. Still, it, like Spider Man's annulment, has lead to some interesting stories and they start here.

Green Arrow Vol 1. The Midas Touch. Haven't read it yet, but for $2.99 I'm there. With the popularity of the television show Arrow, I'm surprised that DC hasn't been pushing this character more.

But not all comics hail from DC comics! In terms of Dark Horse, every now and again they put their Star Wars comics on 'blow out' prices. I'm a little worried about it but I believe there has been mention that while they will stop selling them, you will be able to access them.

Darth Vader XL Bundle: A ton of comics featuring Darth Vader aka Anakin Skywalker for $24.95.

Captain Midnight Bundle: 255 pages of pulp science brought into modern day times? For $2.99, I bought it and will check it out. That's a hard deal to pass up for a comic fan. Individual issues have previews of the material, so for example, if you go here: https://digital.darkhorse.com/profile/3479.captain-midnight-1-felipe-massafera-cover/ , you'll see the preview avialable for that issue and can use those previews to decide if it's worth the $2.99.

Keep those sales coming you magnificent bastards! Memory is cheap these days and I can always download more!

For those who've already read this comics, any particular favorites? Any that you'd look at this list and warn people away from?

As usual, if you know anyone that would benefit from the sale here, +1 and share it among the peeps. Save the comic fans a few $$$$.

Amazon Sales: Kindle, blu-Ray and other goods

For March, I'll didn't run through the kindle sales list of $3.99 or less because nothing there looked appealing to me.

Today though, for their Gold Box deal of the day, Amazon decided that they would like a little (or a lot) of my money. Some great deals on the various kindle format books. 

Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales [Kindle Edition]: $1.99. I've read a few of Ray's stories in my 42 years and this is almost a thousand pages of goodness. 

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: The Chronicles of Narnia [Kindle Edition] another classic. I'll be Honest, I haven't read this in about 20-25 years but it's the start of one of the oldest fantasy series out there and it's been made into Television and movies so if you want to get an inexpensive start to the series, here's the first one for $1.99.

American Gods: The Tenth Anniversary Edition: A Novel [Kindle Edition] Sometimes you want something a little more modern and Neil Gaiman doesn't disappoint. If you want to see what gods would be created like in the modern world and have something different to enjoy, Neil's book is on sale for $1.99.

Coraline 10th Anniversary Edition [Kindle Edition], another book by Neil Gaiman and well, 10th anniversary shows it has some staying power and also has a movie based on it. Also for $1.99.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance [Kindle Edition] by Robert Pirsig is one I'm throwing up here not because it's fantasy or science fiction but because it's one of those books I read in college and thought it a very intense story and one worth reading again. For $1.99 it's an inexpensive volume. 

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. Here's I'm asking for opinions. Anyone read this? It looks more up my mom's alley but I think she read it when it first came out. For $1.99 though I wouldn't mind rebuying it, especially as it doesn't take up much shelf space.

There are a few other books that look to be good based on what I've heard of them. Anyone have any particular recommendations on them?

In other items though, it's Joss Whedon week.  The funny thing is, most people probably interested in the stuff on sale here, yeah, they probably already have it because he tends to build up a large fanbase.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete Series on dvd, not bluray, for $63.99. Hate to say it but never really a big fan personally. In most situations, the genre itself isn't my thing although there are some gems in the series. 

Firefly: The Complete Series ah, now we're talking. The dvd is $12.99 and the bluray $18.49. 

Angel: The Complete Series another one I'm going to confess to never being a fan of. Heck, I haven't even seen any of these to tell you if there are any 'gems' within it's borders. Has a lot of fans though and it's been at a few comic book companies so there has to be some appeal eh? $56.99 for the whole thing. 

Sopranos: $139.99. I'm so out of touch, I don't know if that's a good price or not. A family based crime drama where, like many of the better series, it's all about the characters. Well worth checking out for those who never have. 

Well, I think that's enough spam for this morning. Anyone have any particular favorites? I saw that they had the Dollhouse on sale as well but to be honest, have no clue about the whole series. I've heard it referred to as a snore fest for example.

If you know anyone who might enjoy any of those sales, +1 and share it on.

Kindle Monthly Deals for Feb 2014 that Caught My Interest

So every month, in addition to their Kindle Daily Deals and their Gold Box Deals and their 'Big Deals', Amazon also does some odd 100 books for under $3.99

I review the list every month to see if there's anything on there that I'm going to wind up reading later on. Makes it easier to look them up since there isn't a physical book involved that requires me to store it somewhere in the meanwhile.

So for February 2014, here are some I'm looking over. Since these prices are good till the end of the month, I'm not too worried about picking them up RIGHT NOW but have it bookmarked and reminder to myself to review later.

The Norman Conquest: The Battle of Hastings and the Fall of Anglo-Saxon England: An upstart French duke who sets out to conquer the most powerful and unified kingdom in Christendom. An invasion force on a scale not seen since the days of the Romans. One of the bloodiest and most decisive battles ever fought. This new history explains why the Norman Conquest was the most significant cultural and military episode in English history. Assessing the original evidence at every turn, Marc Morris goes beyond the familiar outline to explain why England was at once so powerful and yet so vulnerable to William the Conqueror’s attack; why the Normans, in some respects less sophisticated, possessed the military cutting edge; how William’s hopes of a united Anglo-Norman realm unraveled, dashed by English rebellions, Viking invasions, and the insatiable demands of his fellow conquerors. This is a tale of powerful drama, repression, and seismic social change: the Battle of Hastings itself; the sudden introduction of castles and the massive rebuilding of every major church; the total destruction of an ancient ruling class. Language, law, architecture, and even attitudes toward life itself were altered forever by the coming of the Normans.

Uh... wow. That's it.

Now quite true. There are a few I actually already own and a few in the genre I'm just not interested in. Some non Herbert books in the Dune saga for example.

Looking over it further, these don't reach out to me like The Norman Conquest does but may bear further investigation.

The Last Secret of the Temple: In the year 70 AD, as the Romans sacked and destroyed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, a young Jewish boy was hidden away and chosen as the guardian of a great secret. For seventy generations this secret remained safeguarded. But in present day Israel, a Jewish radical threatens to reveal this hidden truth and use it to rend apart the fragile Middle East—and only an unlikely duo of hardened detectives of very different origins and a young, enterprising Palestinian journalist can unite to ward off disaster.

A relentless and fast-paced thriller that moves from Egypt to Jerusalem to the Sinai Desert, that spans the millennia and involves Cathar heretics, Nazi prisoners, and modern-day suicide bombers, Paul Sussman’s The Last Secret of the Temple is a thrilling, roller-coaster adventure that brilliantly examines the participants on both sides of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Timely, important, and completely absorbing, it marks Paul Sussman as one of today’s great thriller writers. 

The whole shift to Modern day kinda makes it blah for me and I have enough books that anything that doesn't jump out at me is put on the backlist. I guess we'll see as the month wears on.

Katharine of Aragon: For the first time in paperback—all three of Jean Plaidy’s Katharine of Aragon novels in one volume.

Legendary historical novelist Jean Plaidy begins her tales of Henry VIII’s queens with the story of his first wife, the Spanish princess Katharine of Aragon.

As a teenager, Katharine leaves her beloved Spain, land of olive groves and soaring cathedrals, for the drab, rainy island of England. There she is married to the king’s eldest son, Arthur, a sickly boy who dies six months after the wedding. Katharine is left a widow who was never truly a wife, lonely in a strange land, with a very bleak future. Her only hope of escape is to marry the king’s second son, Prince Henry, now heir to the throne. Tall, athletic, handsome, a lover of poetry and music, Henry is all that Katharine could want in a husband. But their first son dies and, after many more pregnancies, only one child survives, a daughter. Disappointed by his lack of an heir, Henry’s eye wanders, and he becomes enamored of another woman—a country nobleman’s daughter named Anne Boleyn. When Henry begins searching for ways to put aside his loyal first wife, Katharine must fight to remain Queen of England and to keep the husband she once loved so dearly.

I like historical bits but this seems a little more romance to me. Some of the reviews give it thumbs up for it being a good time piece though so again, I'll wait and think about it.

1492: The Year the World Began : 1492: The Year the World Began is a look at one of the most fascinating years in world history, the year when many believe the modern world was born. Historian Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, author of Millennium, covers such iconic figures as Christopher Columbus and Alexander Borgia and explores cultures as diverse as that of Spain, China, and Africa to tell the story of 1492, a momentous year whose lessons are still relevant today

And yeah, that's about it. 1492 sounds more promising than the rest except my first choice of Conquest.

What's everyone else looking at in terms of sales? I know Barnes and Noble has a good science fiction fantasy sale going on over here that was still active last time I looked. Anything else from the February kindle sale that is outstanding?

Kindle Sales redux or Amazon please stop putting stuff on sale

Sorry to spam my blog again with sales, but for some reason, Amazon.com has been putting a lot of kindle stuff on sale and while I'm not going too pop $8 or $10 bones down for most electronic books, when they go on sale, hey, it's go time. This time around though it's not a monthly thing or special sale, just the Gold Box Deal of the Day so act quick or they'll be gone.

The Stockholm Octavo by Karen Engelmann is one I'll pick up for the madre and take a look at it when she's done. She has a Kindle and I have a Toshiba Thrive so it's not a big deal. Historical with a touch of this and that in 18th century Sweden with a lot of high reviews for $1.99? Done.

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller is another one that gets a lot of praise. I've read the Odyssey and the Iliad several times so this looks like a variant on it for $1.99.

The Crusades: The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land I've read some material on the Crusades and have some Osprey books to work on in the subject so for $1.99 I'll take some more reference work.

There are something like 80 books there and the rest of them look like they cover a wide range of topics. Does anyone have any recommendations based on the Gold Box Deal of the Day or should those three cover it?

The Kindle Strikes Again

Not that long ago, Amazon.com had a nice sale on their kindle books. It includes some books on history and computer programming that I was quite to buy. If funds were permissible, I would have bought more.

Turns out Amazon.com must have enjoyed the sale as well because they're doing it again. I was disappointed thought that the pickings didn't seem quite so good this time, although I did find a few books that weren't in the sale that were also inexpensive so I'm throwing some links to them as well.

The Last Kingdom Bernard Cornwell : I enjoy a lot of Bernard Cornwell's historical materials. This is one of his 'Saxon' tales and it's running for $2.99 on the kindle format.

The Burning Land Bernard Cornwell: Another book in the Saxon tales, and this one for only $1.99. That's a good deal.

The Winter King Bernard Cornwell: This is Bernard covering King Arthur in a historical style and context. I blogged about it and enjoyed the trilogy.  $2.99 in kindle format.

The Books of Blood - Volume 1 Clive Barker wrote some great short stories here and I've owned a few versions in paperback. I skipped out on this one though because I have a Kindle and you can borrow it. Otherwise, in kindle format it's $2.99.

The Greek Myths Robin Waterfield looks to be another solid book on Greek mythology. I haven't read this one yet. Listed at $1.99.

After Tamerlane John Darwin a book focusing on empire building after 1405. I keep meaning to get back to it as I've had it 'forever' it seems. Currently going for $1.99

There are several other books that look interesting, but I'm afraid I haven't gotten halfway through the books from Amazon.com last sale.

Did anyone pick up anything from either sale particularly worth reading? Good stuff? Overpriced even at $2.99?

Kindle Daily Deals: Any takers for the big sale?

I try to keep tabs on the Kindle Daily deals for stuff that I might be interested in terms of role playing games and that feeble effort I take at actually doing some work at my job or keeping my personal interest up to date, or vaguely up to date.

Imagine my surprise today when I saw that there were a ton of things on the daily deal that I bought even though some of the prices did not say daily deal to me. I think there's something like 500+ books, not counting the regular four sections of the daily deal, one of which I also bought.

The Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity (Oxford Handbooks) while the e-book version is still like $25 bones or something along those lines, it covers a pretty generous scope of history and it is now mine.

Data Science for Business: What you need to know about data mining and data-analytic thinking over at work I work with a lot of charts, a lot of Excel, a lot of Access, some SQL and reams of data. I'm better at asking questions of processes and how decisions are made, in my opinion mind you, so everytime I see something about what goes into making hard data decisions I buy it. This one is just under $7.50 so it's still a good deal higher than I like to see for a 'daily deal' but...

Creative Workshop: 80 Challenges to Sharpen Your Design Skills something like $3.50 and I'm always interested in these types of books just for the 'creative' side of things. 

Windows PowerShell Cookbook: The Complete Guide to Scripting Microsoft's Command Shell again, while I'm not a programmer by any means, I'm not afraid to mess with the internals of a PC and well, I've learned a few skills here and there that have been helpful in say, boot time.

There were a couple of other programming books I bought, but those were more for reference. I find that if you have an actual programming problem that the internet is full of some very smart people willing to help you work through the problems and that the computer books themselves are more like, "here's a sandbox of what can be done but we're going to tell you how to do it in ways people actually working would never do." But that's just my personal experience with those types of books.

In terms of my game? Shot down today. I live in Chicago. My mom's doctor for her foot is way out in like the edges of Skokie near Mount Prospect. It's raining like hell. Her appointment was over an hour, which was very good in terms of time taken. Usually it's two to three. Barely gave me any time to work on COl Buchanan's second book ,Stands A Shadow.

But on the way back and since, it's been raining nonstop. Several almost accidents along the way so now that I'm home, the chances of me leaving the house again? Especially when I haven't eaten dinner? Especially when the GM called ahead to let us know that another player was bailing already? Yeah, not the first out and the GM already has a backup plan.

For me, I think I'm going to cook one of those over saturated with sodium Jewel pizza's and read some more of Stands A Shadow and wait for that Oxford book to download.

Hope everyone else has some happy gaming!

Let me know if you found anything worth while on the deal. I was surprised by how many things I wanted purely for reference and had to reign myself in before I spent a whole check on stuff I'm only going to use vaguely.

Raymond E. Feist Kindle Daily Deal and Holiday Rambling

First off, I hope everyone had a few days off to catch their breath from the whirlwind that was 2013. My X-mas sucked, but last year's was worse so it's slowly moving into the win column for me. Huzza on that front.

I just finished watching the Wire season one and that was good television. I'll post some thoughts on that one later. Lots of great character moments.

I was pretty on in terms of Christmas presents. I bought my mom a Kitchen Aid with a few attachments. Ironically I'm the one whose using it more. She's had more than her fair share of drama this year, especially this December so it's not a bad thing brought on by laziness or anything of that nature, just life's continuing screw you Kushner thing going on.

My g/f I bought a digital camera, case, and memory card. She has tested it out and it works so she's happy.

Now the most important person in this, myself, was also much more wildly spoiled although some of the things I bought can be used and enjoyed by the family. For example, Zatoichi the complete series on blu-ray along with the Samurai trilogy can be enjoyed by everyone. The miniatures I bought on sale from Fanization, the Warstore, and Miniature Market on the other hand? Pure Kushner greed on that front.

Anyway, even though 2013 is almost over, a few companies are throwing some sales and other stuff out there. The initial inspiration for the post was that Raymod E. Feist has several books on sale in Kindle format over here:

While his work lacks the grim and gritty outlook, most of the time I'll amend, of things like George R. R. Martin's Game of Thrones or Mark Lawrence's series on the Prince of Thorns or even Joe Abercrombie, I've found his work light enough to enjoy and with enough recurring themes and characters that it feels like watching an old television series that I enjoyed as a youth that still has enough interest in it for me to continue to enjoy it.

How did everyone else do? Anything really good? Any good sales?

Amazon Kindle Bits and Buys

One of the things I like to do, is mention when something is a good price or on sale.

Having said that, I've been pretty lax about this when it comes to Amazon. Some other forms of communication, notably Twitter, are better at sending out the shout outs to such quick, one day or lightning strike deals.

But since I'm already here....

Today's daily deal in the science fiction fantasy realm is The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. I've heard good thing about it but haven't picked it up yet. I'm actually trying to work through my backlog of physical books, as well as books I have in other mediums. Having said that though I've still been buying comics. Go figure right?

For the monthly deals... m'eh?

I did pick up the Ultimate Comics Wolverine versus the Hulk, but that's only because I was amused by the Hulk ripping Wolverine in half. And the other day the daily deal had some of the introduction titles to DC's 52. Wow, they were worse then I thought they would have been. It's got to be hard to rewrite introduction stories for characters over and over again like they did for the Justice League. "Batman's real?" Ugh.

Still, it's good to check on the various sites every now and again. I do with that the Google Market was easier to navigate. For example, they have a section where you can check out books. Then there's a section where you can check out what's on sale. Trying to sort that mess into something you can quickly flip through by say author or price or genre? Nope. At least not that I saw. I'm sure that someone has a better method of sorting through there or that I'm doing it wrong, because that's just plain bad design.

And I've never used the iBookstore so have no clue how that one works.

Where is everyone else picking up their e-books these days? Any good deals? Any sites worth watching daily?

Black Company Sale that's not really a sale

Tor does some great books.

Recently they put on "sale" the first volume of the Black Company for $2.99.

Okay...

Chronicles of the Black Company is $7.99 It contains the first three books.

There are no other volumes of the Black Company available in their individual format.

I believe the term "horseshit" can be applied to the term "sale" or "special" in regards to selling one volume of the Black Company at that price.

I get that on one hand if you're never heard of the Black Company spending the $2.99 isn't necessarily that bad a deal but then what? You can't buy the other volumes in individual format. You have to buy the big book and unless I'm mistaken, they aren't going to comp you that costs.

A real sale would be putting the Chronicles on sale itself and letting people get a better taste of it that way.

Forgotten Realms Kindle Books $2.99 Sale?

Elaine Cunningham, author of several Forgotten Realms novels, twitted that while organizing links to her material, that Evermet was $2.99 in Kindle Format. For those who know me, $2.99 is my 'sweet spot' as a purchaser. I have a few used book stores around me and while I can't always select what they have, there are enough books on the dollar spinner racks to keep me busy, well, forever. These are all 'luxury' purchases if you will.

So I went to check it out. While I've read several of Elaine's books, that one I had never gotten to. Sure enough, $2.99. I also picked up some others.

Prince of Ravens: I like Richard Baker's work. Not too crazy about taking a character from one era of the Forgotten Realms to another, but I'll give it a try. Odd how that happens eh? Drizzt, Elminster and Jack too? Wonder if maybe they shouldn't have split their reader base? Ah, what do I know.

The Masked Witches: Alright, I liked the book description. I figure for the price I'll give it a shot.

Charon's Claw: I think the last R A Salvatore book I read was The Orc King and I read it at Borders while waiting for my girlfriend. I suppose I could go to the library for some of this material but again for the price...

Shadowbane: Eye of Justice: Magic swords and vigilante killers? Okay, I'll try it out.

Mind you, they had more than these but I figured that was enough for me. Good hunting!   

Amazon Feb Kindle 100 Books

I've mentioned before that at the start of every month, Amazon has a bit of a sale on 100 books selected by their editors, staff and the great ghost of Gatsby.

Gotta say, when I reviewed the list, I didn't see anything for myself. My mother who is a big horror and thriller fan may have a few books to pick up, but nothing stood out for me.

Anyone see anything good or recommend anything from the old list?

Amazon's Kindle 100 Sales for December

Every month Amazon selects or has one hundred books, in addition to the daily deal, that go on sale for the month. It's a nice way to try out a different author or catch up on the back stock if you're a fan of the medium but have a low price threshold like myself.

For December, I'm thinking about the following;

Star Wars: Fate of th Jedi: Outcast. It's by Aaron Alliston, the guy who wrote Hero's Strike Force, a book that essentially was incorporated into the BBB (Big Blue Book). It's also Star Wars. I'm a sucker for the setting and am greatly enjoying the Clone Wars animated series from the net with new episodes popping up once a week.

Temple of the Winds: Sword of Truth Vol 4 by Terry Goodkind. I know, I have no taste but this was the last one I read and since I already have book 1 in Kindle format and it is on sale...

Warrior (The Blade of the Rose) by Zoe Archer. No idea but it's inexpensive and as I mentioned updthread, a good opportunity to check out new authors.

The Romance of Tristant and Iseult by Vincent Nicolosi: I'm a sucker for the old tales and even though I'm sure there's a version free, the cost ones are usually better formatted.

I'm sure my mother will want a few of the thrillers and some of the non-fiction stuff looks interesting but let's see how much overtime they're going to dump on me as I'm recovering from a seven day straight week and fighting off the plague as I type.

Kindle Daily Deal for Cyber Monday is Pretty Sweet

My favored price pint of $2.99 is on for a lot of books by authors whose work I've enjoyed but due to spacial constraints, have rid myself of. The e-formats, assuming Amazon doesn't freak out and die or some other weird bats from space attack, provides me a quick way of renewing my ownership of some Barbara Hambly and some Robert R. McCammon, including Swan Song, the book a lot of people recommend when someone says they enjoy Stephen King's The Stand.

There are dozens, if not hundreds of books on sale this Cyber Monday and hey, unlike a lot of sales on Black Friday, you don't have to wait in line, don't have to wait for a lightning deal that will probably sell out before you can click it, and don't have to get pepper sprayed in the face by a woman looking to score a cheap X-Box.

At the Queen's Command for Free At Amazon

While I will be purchasing books in physical format for some time to come, due to great deals at various markets or through Half-Priced books, or simply when the format is not available in another format, I'm always pleased when e-books provide readers with reasons to check them out. In this casse, At the Queen's Command: The First Book of the Crown Colonies, by Michael A. Stackpole is available in Kindle format for the princely sum of zero.

http://www.amazon.com/At-Queens-Command-Colonies-ebook/dp/B0046LVDKA/ref=ntt_at_ep_edition_2_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2

I find these types of bargains, where the first book in a series is reduced or even free, or the first book by a new author, to be an excellent way to provide new readers to that authors work with an introduction to the work without fear of investment. Well, outside of time.

I hope to see more authors doing this and seeing older works continue to go down and more variety in sales as Amazon and it's new Fire tablet continue to work the market.

Another e-book Pricing Rant

I've mentioned before that my sweet spot for e-publications is around the $2.99 point. Amazon has various daily deals that meet my standard in addition to hundreds, if not thousands of free books. Hell, I'm reading the invisible man now that was free. Tor has some steambooks on sale for the $2.99 and took some of their biggest fantasy franchises to the $2.99 price point for the first book in the series. I've seen a few others, like a recent steampunk fantasy anthology for $2.99 as well as others, that makes me ponder that my 'mythical' price point isn't that far out of line.

What does that have to do with anything?

On RPG.net, someone start a WIR, short for where I read, and the book in question was Black Company, by Glen Cook. Go over to Amazon and hey, no Kindle copies at all, regardless of the cost. But the new stuff? Yeah, it's there. This is another case of author not taking control of his e-rights and insuring that his existing material is creating another revenue stream for him.

But then on an art blog, I see this fantastic drawing of Death Dealer, a Frank Fazetta character. It inspires me to look up one of my favorite authors of sword and sorcery fiction or semi-modern times, David Gemell. All of his books cost around $7.99 in kindle format.

Uh... listen estate of Dave, if you didn't make the money necessary to earn profit on those books while he was alive, then it might be a little late now and because the author is dead, it might be easier to spread information about him and his works at a much lower price point since as I started off, there are thousands of e-books out there for free.

I dread looking up what something like the Amber series would cost.

And one reason for that, is at the end of the series, sometime well after it, there was a nice trade paperback collection of the whole series. And Glen Cook's Black Company is also in collection edition. So how would the e books go in that instance? $7.99 per each of the original Black Company or Amber books or one reasonable price for a collection? While many of Bernard Cornwell's e books are around paperback price, the trilogy covering Bernard's version of King Arthur, the Warlord Chronicles, covers all three books and runs $5.14 for The Winter King, Enemy of God, and Excalibur under one file.

Once again, this tells me that my preferred price point isn't out of whack with reality and that if living authors like Bernard can do it with collections of their work, that someone needs to step up to the black and first make sure we have e books that take the existing work already out there and two, make it affordable to the masses.

National Buy A Book Day? Okay, I'm In!

Philip Athans declared today National Buy A Book Day last year over here on one of the blogs he writes for. Reading that blog entry we see a pretty accurate prediction for Borders and the way things are going for Barnes and Noble... well, perhaps in the future they'll be more like Amazon, a place where you buy things through some type of interface and get your Star Bucks coffee at the actual coffee shop.

Anyway, I bugged him about downloading free books. In case you were unaware for example, if you look for Tarzan on Amazon in Kindle format, there are a ton of such books for free over here. While he seemed overjoyed to download such classics at no cost, I felt the stern eye and explanation that no, a purchase must be made.

Me? I've made no secret that I think most ebooks are priced way too high. I've seen some authors come out and say they have no control over that. Eh? This isn't the Exorcist. You can't sit back while someone goes, "The Power of Christ Compels You." and writhe on the ground. If you're not willing to stand up for your own digital rights then say nothing or say, "I gave up all ability to control pricing," not "I'm powerless."

But that's another story.

Instead, I'm here to talk about somethings I did buy. In a rare move for me because I've already read all these books in particular. But... I'm a big fan of voting with your wallet. If you vote that it's okay to pay $14.99 for an ebook, that's your vote. I vote that $2.99, and over here, on Tor, apparently someone thinks that perhaps as the first book, as an introduction thing, that The Eye Of The World, Gardens of the Moon, and Mistborn, are all priced at $2.99.

So with my e-wallet, $2.99 for each and I'm there. Will I ever read any of them again? Maybe. While I read the first trilogy of Mistborn, I decided to wait until both Wheel of Time and Malazan were finished so haven't finished reading them. Will I pay anything more than $2.99 for the other books in the e format? Nope. The dollar rack is spinning with tons of these series books and I don't think I'll have to suffer for 'em.

But if they come along at $2.99? Mother may I have another.