Did you know that Amazon has a list of the top-selling and free sci-fi and fantasy books? The list changes constantly — authors and publishers set their books to free temporarily to promote their work, and, of course, books move up and down in the rankings. Read on to find your fun free read for this weekend! And grab the books quickly because they don’t always stay free for long.
This week’s list is completely different from those of the previous weeks. So if you’re a fan of free books, there are going to be new things to read all the time. If you want to get this list in your inbox every Friday afternoon, subscribe to the MetaStellar weekly newsletter.
There are a lot of books to go through, so this week I’m being helped out by a couple of other members of our MetaStellar community. If you’d like to join me in doing these reviews — and taping our regular Free Friday videos — email me at maria@metastellar.com.
5. Winter Tales From Cozy Vales by L.A. Scott, Selina J. Eckert, Miranda Herald, Phillip Sanderson, Bonnie Axton, G Clatworthy, and Rebecca Buchanan
This is the third of three books in the Cozy Vales cozy fantasy story anthology series. The other books are normally $0.99 each, but are both free today as well. We reviewed the second book in the series, Summer Tales from Cozy Vales, in June of 2024.
From Maria Korolov:
I’m the one who reviewed book two in this series back in June, and I loved it, so jumped on the chance to review this one. I love anything cozy, and, with the weather suddenly turning cold where I live, here in Massachusetts, it’s certainly a good time for it.
The first story is set in the small, remote village of Appleton in the Cozy Vales queendom. The whole village is getting ready for the two-week Winter’s Tide celebration, and so is our protagonist, Genever, hearth witch and baker.
Helping her out in her bakery is a magical, sentient cast-iron stove, a sprite accountant, and Dascha, Genever’s baking partner.
The bakery is on track to end the year on a profit, so Genever, the sprite and Dascha close up for the day and head off to a local tavern. The streets are snowy, the village is beautifully decorated, and everything is perfect — except for the fact that Genever’s friend is still not back from a trip. She’ll be very grumpy if he misses the holidays.
The three order food and cider, and Genever agrees to bake a special bread for the tavern owner. It’s going to take extra work, but Genever and her friends think they can do it.
The next day, Genever starts right out with the new bread order for the tavern owner, but when she looks closely at the recipe card, she notices a special ingredient that she doesn’t have, a very rare salt. And substitutions aren’t allowed.
So Genever runs all around the village trying to get this special salt and then she and her friends have to work through the night to make up for the lost time. It’s very cozy. The people who live in the village are all adorable and all the stakes are ridiculously low. It’s the perfect read for a chilly winter evening — and I plan to keep reading.
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
4. Damnation by V.E. Huntley
This is the first of three books in The BloodStone Legacy, a postapocalyptic paranormal romance series. The other books are $3.99 each, and are both in Kindle Unlimited — but haven’t been released yet. They’re scheduled for next April and next June and are both available for preoder. This is the author’s first time on our Free Friday list.
From E.S. Foster:
The second I started reading this book I knew I was going to be in for a wild ride. It starts off with a prologue with Aden and a girl on their wedding night. They have been in love for years, and they’re finally about to consummate their marriage. Aden, however, is a vampire, and it’s a type of custom to bite and drain the blood from his mate. He’s only supposed to take some of her blood, but his lust is so powerful he ends up killing her. He’s regretted his actions ever since.
The story then fast-forwards a few years. Aden drains the blood from another girl purely out of ritual. In this world, vampires keep up their strength by draining some of the blood from their victims and then coming back to them later, that way they have an endless supply. However, this has to be done during sex so that vampires have an emotional hold over their victims as they assault them repeatedly. So the victims, or thralls, just take it willingly. That already puts a sour taste in my mouth.
So Aden does this to another girl. He still can’t stop thinking about the girl he actually loved and accidentally destroyed. He meets with his sister Keeley, who explains that their parents, the reigning vampire rulers, are conducting a very important meeting soon that he should be a part of. She also scolds him for how he treats his victims, but Aden says that the infirmary could just use the Bloodstone to tend to them. It looks like this stone is going to be important later.
The perspective shifts to Ellie, a slave girl. It looks like she’s destined to be one of the thralls at some point. She and a few other servants head to the market to retrieve food for their master. At one point, Ellie tries to defend a friend from being taken away by guards, but she fails. When Ellie returns home, she’s berated by one of the mistresses before heading to the meeting. The master chastises her for being late. Ellie, however, knows that, for some reason, she’s being given special treatment. So she’s usually spared from terrible punishment. The master also reveals that the vampire rulers, Aden included, are about to arrive at his estate.
I stopped reading at this point, mostly because some elements of the story just weren’t my cup of tea. I liked the worldbuilding and the prose was very readable, but I didn’t like Aden and what he does to his victims. If this doesn’t bother you, and you enjoy reading about vampires, I recommend you check this series out!
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
3. The Nocere by Heather Carson
This is the first of three books in the A Haunting Dystopian Tale, a dystopian dark fantasy series. The other books are $3.99 each, and are not in Kindle Unlimited. The author has been on our Free Friday list before.
From E.S. Foster:
Fawn is a young girl brought up in an orphanage, but she was recently leased out to the mafia to work as an indentured servant for six years. At first, she doesn’t seem to mind because she gets to work at a carnival.
The carnival exists in an alternate realm, which is really the afterlife. In the past, humanity discovered there was such an afterlife, and they were able to build portals into it, but since then things have gotten messy. Corrupt organizations have largely taken over as people travel back and forth between realms.
Her new boss despises her, so Fawn goes to the orphanage director to see if she can switch jobs. The director couldn’t care less, however. That night, Fawn tries to run away, but a mysterious shadowy monster appears and nearly snatches her away. As punishment, the mafia she’s indentured to places a tracker in her arm, and another year is added to her sentence.
Several years later, Fawn is now running drugs. Her time at her job is close to ending, but she still has another year because of the incident. A few of the people she provides drugs to tell her about a new nightclub in the afterlife where she might be able to find work. Seeing this as a way out, Fawn decides to look into it.
I enjoyed the idea of being able to access the afterlife and it not being what it seems. For this story, though, there was a lot of telling for me. While it was easy to read a good chunk of the story, it moved too fast for me to really and enjoy and get to know the characters, so I don’t think I’ll be sticking with this one.
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
2. EMP Ohio by Colton Lively
This is a standalone book of small town post-apocalypse EMP survival, but the author has many — more than thirty! — other books in this genre, so there’s plenty of reading here if you like his style. And nearly all of the books are in Kindle Unlimited. The author is also a regular on our Free Friday list.
From Alex Korolov:
This is an EMP book, which means an electromagnetic pulse wipes out all electronic devices, including cellphones, computers, and most modern vehicles like cars and planes. Havoc usually ensues. Let’s see how this one goes.
Avery is a 24-year-old woman working at a law firm in Columbus, Ohio. She loves her job but is thinking of moving somewhere else. She doesn’t have a law degree, but she still does the important job of editing all the paperwork at the law firm.
Avery’s talking with a work colleague when their building’s power suddenly goes off. They’re on the second story of a large building with other law firms and businesses. Everyone is getting escorted out into the street when they see a car plow through the windows of the building lobby. Other cars are running into each other in the streets. Avery’s cellphone is dead so she can’t call for help. Her friend gets run over and squished by an out of control bus. And that’s the end of the first chapter.
As far as EMP books go, this one starts with a lot of action, which I like. I think EMP books shine when they lean in heavy on the chaos and confusion aspect of an EMP strike, and this one does that. I’d keep reading this one.
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
1. Guild of the Eternal Flame Box Set by Talia Beckett
This is a box set of all six books in the Guild of the Eternal Flame epic fantasy series. Normally, the books are $3.99 each, but are all in Kindle Unlimited. The author has been on our Free Friday list before.
From Lilivette Domínguez-Torres:
This is a fast paced, high-fantasy story where an elf, a dwarf, a dragon-born, an ex-sailor and a rogue find themselves stranded in the same inn during a heavy snowstorm.
With the inn overcrowded by guests, the elf and the dragon-born sorceress end up having to share rooms, as do the dwarf and the ex-sailor.
The four of them learn that a farmer’s wagon hasn’t been able to make it to the inn because of the snowstorm, and decide to help out the owner of the inn and the farmer.
They learn that the wagon had been left stranded not that far from the inn. On their way to find the wagon, the elf realizes that maybe the other three are not bad company. Maybe she could actually enjoy their company for a bit longer, who knows? But it’s not until they run into the blood stains in the snow that she realizes that the little quest she’d joined for fun might actually be far more dangerous than she anticipated.
The discover what appears to be an organized group of ruffians leading away the wagon and horses. After getting rid of them, the protagonists quickly realize that someone must’ve been behind the attack but after all the killing they decide to retire back to the inn and leave the exploring and inquiring for later.
If you’re a fan of fantasy books and are looking for a fast-paced story full of magic, mysteries and a group of fun characters, then I definitely recommend you give this series a chance. Like I mentioned before, this is a fast-paced fantasy story and it reads easily and it kind of has a cozy and low-stakes vibe to it so far so I’ll definitely continue reading this. And who knows? Maybe I’ll check out the rest of this boxed set too.
Get the Kindle ebook box set free from Amazon here.
See all the Free Friday posts here. Do you have other free books for us to check out? Comment below or email me at maria@metastellar.com.
Have you read any of these books? Are you planning to? Let us know in the comments!
Or watch Maria and Emma discuss all five books in the video below:
MetaStellar editor and publisher Maria Korolov is a science fiction novelist, writing stories set in a future virtual world. And, during the day, she is an award-winning freelance technology journalist who covers artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and enterprise virtual reality. See her Amazon author page here and follow her on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn, and check out her latest videos on the Maria Korolov YouTube channel. Email her at maria@metastellar.com. She is also the editor and publisher of Hypergrid Business, one of the top global sites covering virtual reality.
Lilivette Domínguez-Torres is MetaStellar's marketing assistant and an aspiring book editor based in Puerto Rico. You can find her talking about fantasy books or K-dramas on Twitter at @lilivettedt.
E. S. Foster is a writer and graduate student at the University of Cambridge. Her work has been featured in a variety of literary journals and small presses. You can find out more about her and what she does on her blog, E. S. Foster and her personal website E. S. Foster - Author
MetaStellar news editor Alex Korolov is also a freelance technology writer who covers AI, cybersecurity, and enterprise virtual reality. His stories have also been published at CIO magazine, Network World, Data Center Knowledge, and Hypergrid Business. Find him on Twitter at @KorolovAlex and on LinkedIn at Alex Korolov.