If there isn’t a thread about recommending kindle books and other ebooks, I’ll gladly start one. After all, my wishlist is already infinite, what’s a few more entries?
A book I had fun with is “Alien Hunters” by Daniel Arneson. You can pick it up for free and it’s worth every penny. It is pure space opera-schlock of the airport novel variety and there isn’t a single character who isn’t some sort of broad archetype. But there’s always a place in my heart for Skiffy stuff.
I have gotten a lot of use of “The Planet Construction Kit” by Mark Rosenfelder. It is a good general summary of worldbuilding and I like that it’s not fantasy-specific.
Lastly, I’d recommend “Playing at the World” by Jon Peterson because is is so large, the free sample alone is an evenings worth of interesting reading. It is a very VERY exhaustive book about the origin of simulated worlds in a tabletop context and its worth reading even if you can recite the history of Dungeons and Dragons from memory.
There’s a thread running on similar lines at the choiceofgames.com forum, so I’ll be uncharacteristically brief (I adore YA fantasy, in case this list doesn’t make that obvious enough):
Garth Nix (Sabriel trilogy mostly - a lot of his stuff is meh)
Tania Huff
Gail Carriger
Scott Westerfeld (especially the “Leviathan” trilogy…GET THE ILLUSTRATED VERSION OR GET OUT)
Phillip Reeve (“Mortal Engines” is too dark for me, but I adore the hilarious supposedly-for-kids “Larklight” series. GET THE ILLUSTRATED VERSION OR GET OUT).
Insincere apologies for those last two; I very rarely read physical books due to arthritis etc (kindle, I love you) but I make exceptions there.
And of course I’m partial to my own book, “Heart of Brass”, but it’s not out… yet.
Aaron Reed’s book is available on Kindle, however at the moment the Kindle version is more expensive than the paperback: amazon.com/Creating-Interac … 1_1&sr=8-1
This reminds me I want to pick up And Gazza Misses the Final, which pretends that the Guardian’s minute by minute (which is wonderful for following the World Cup, English Premier League games, UEFA Cup, African Nations Cup, etc.) soccer/football report was there for historic world cup matches, etc.
But it’s cheaper in paperback at the moment. How often are there Kindle sales? I want the book, but I can wait.
I’m disappointed Henry Neff’s Red Winter didn’t make it to paperback or hardcover. I really enjoyed that series. One day I’ll break down and buy the eBook, though usually I’m a big library person.
My own book should be out around October 2017 in both ebook and paperback formats unless it receives a LOT of pre-orders this year…
It’s a murder mystery because I like murder mysteries. They are the most game-like of traditional static fiction. I started another thread for it yonks back, but the link is inkshares.com/books/murder- … erans-club if anyone’s interested.
I just started reading Melissa Ford’s “A Measure of Love” (since “Life from Scratch” isn’t available here in Australia) and I can vouch for the first twenty pages or so CressidaHubris, unsurprisingly, sure can string a story together. (Not my genre, but I’ll allow it.)
I wasn’t intending this thread to be for author self-promotion, but I don’t have a problem with it either. I’d prefer if authors mentioned at least one book they’ve read and would like to recommend in addition to their own, however.
Ah! In that case, let me tell you (street preacher style) about Inkshares. They’re this publisher that decides what to publish and what not to publish based on popular feedback: a whole lot of possible books are presented, readers browse and pre-order the ones they like, and if a book gets enough pre-orders, it gets published. (If it doesn’t, everyone gets their money back.) While there are a bunch of books that are already available and ready for download, mostly I’ve been looking at projects with publication dates somewhere off in the future–some of them more certain than others. So I haven’t actually read these yet in their entirety yet … but I want to!
“Monkey Business”, by Landon Crutcher, is supposed to be released today, but it looks like it’s running a bit late. It’s a comedic adventure story beginning with two guys on a deserted island … and to hear the folks on IFmud tell it, monkeys are funny by nature.
Sync City, by Peter Ryan. This one just qualified for publication, and I expect it should be released around February next year. The hero is, essentially, a time cop: someone tasked with cleaning up the timelines now that time has gone all pear-shaped and wonky. I’m not much into science-fiction, but I found the voice and style of the excerpt pretty engaging.
Upload, by Mark Meredith. This one has only just started to pick up pre-orders, so there’s really no telling if it’ll make it to publication, but it looks great and I’m really hoping it does … which means I want everybody to pre-order a copy. Go do it now. The hero is a cloned police officer whose first case after returning to work turns out to be his own murder. It’s got a nice, noir-ish feel, and I want it.
And of course, my own book is still in the pre-order stage. But I’ve already done the self-promotion thing, so you all know about that.
CressidaHubris, unsurprisingly, sure can string a story together. (Not my genre, but I’ll allow it.)