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. A Drifting Sun by Ashley Capes
This is the first of three books in the Exiles Trilogy of epic fantasy. The other books are $0.99 and $3.99 each, and are not in Kindle Unlimited. This is the author’s first time on our Free Friday list.
From Luciana Alioto:
For the last 15 years Thorn has been using his magical powers to create an illusion, masterfully deceiving the kingdom by impersonating the rightful monarch.
Because of all the deception, Thorn is careful about who he gets close to, but it seems that his mistress earned a place within his trusted circle.
From the get-go, the author introduces us to the use of magic, with some interesting concepts such as travelling to worlds belonging to previous lifetimes – definitely something that has piqued my interest.
The prologue leaves us with many questions, though, and the following three chapters are from the point of view someone else, Mei. We encounter her as she’s chasing after her brother. They both come from a village where everyone has the power to harness sunlight to fuel magical abilities. Her brother, however, is too powerful for his own good.
The boy is faceless – born with “only a smooth covering of skin and slight indentations” to mark his features – and is unable to control his powers. Instead, he erupts into unpredictable psychotic bursts. These have resulted in casualties over the years, and when we meet him, he has already been living in a little hut in the forest, removed from the rest of village.
Earlier that day, the two siblings paid their mother a visit. However, their family dynamic seems to be a problem for Mei’s brother. Their mother can’t bring herself to forgive him for the death of her husband, their father, making Wei’s brother spiral into one of his episodes. This time the casualty is a fellow villager, buried under the rubble.
It is very clear that Mei cares deeply for her brother, who suffers greatly for all the grief he has brought to his family and friends. After having spent the night looking after her brother, she makes her way back to the village and notices that the streets are deserted. Everyone has in fact gathered to decide on her brother’s fate, as they debate whether he should be exiled, so to spare the lives of those he loves the most. Mei is alone in her desperate attempt to redeem her brother in the eyes of the others.
I thoroughly enjoyed the first three chapters of this novel. The characters are compelling and the themes captivating. From the very first paragraphs, the author’s take on magic is fascinating, and I’m very interested into finding out what he does with it throughout the series.
The only element I wasn’t too happy with was the world building. The first three chapters are very dense with new vocabulary. However, the author hasn’t provided enough description to allow the reader to fully immerse themselves in his fantasy world, which is a shame, because the potential is there. I hope this aspect gets explored more in depth as the story develops, as the first three characters have intrigued me enough to continue reading.
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
4. Winter Princess by Skye MacKinnon
This is the first of six books in the Daughter of Winter paranormal romance series by a USA Today bestselling author. The other books are $0.99 to $5.99 each, and are not in Kindle Unlimited. This is the author’s first time on our Free Friday list.
From E.S. Foster:
This story begins with Wyn introducing herself to the reader. She is a twenty-two-year-old PhD student who lives with her parents in Scotland. However, her parents aren’t her real parents, and she also possesses magic, including telekinesis.
Her real mother is the Winter Queen, an ancient goddess who used to rule over that part of the world. Now she lives in a separate realm. Wyn has always wanted to visit her, especially since she was given to her foster parents as a baby and never had a chance to see the realm. But no matter how many letters she sends, her mother never responds saying she can visit.
The day before her birthday, Wyn receives a letter from her mother saying it’s now time for her to visit. At first, she’s really excited. She goes downstairs to visit her foster parents, and they have a mini early birthday party, where Wyn breaks the news. She’s starting to have some mixed feelings.
The next morning when she wakes up, Wyn experiences convulsions like seizures. She makes it downstairs where all of a sudden, the knives and forks and plates come to life and fly through the air to attack her foster parents. She gets it under control but not before the fire starts to spread through the house and she blacks out.
Wyn wakes up to see that her house has burned down, but her parents are fine. She realizes that four men who clearly also practice magic have arrived and are trying to help control her powers. Next, she covers herself in snow. One of the men explains that this has all been part of her magic coming into power: first air, then fire, then ice.
The four men announce they are Wyn’s guardians as well, tasked with bringing her to Wyn’s mother.
I didn’t realize this was a reverse harem story when I started reading, but it was nice to see that we got some character development and action first. I don’t think I’ll continue with it because of the writing style, however. It was more expository in the beginning, but I recommend you check this out if you like fantasy romance!
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
3. A Very Alien Valentine Collection by Tana Stone
This is a box set of the first books in four different sci-fi romance series by a USA Today bestselling author. The other books in each series are $3.99 to $4.99 each, but they’re all in Kindle Unlimited. The author has been on this list before.
From Maria Korolov:
The box set includes Tamed, the first of eleven books in the Tribute Brides of the Drexian Warriors series. It also includes Ignite, the first of six books in the Inferno Force of the Drexian Warriors series. There’s also Legacy, the first of five books in the Warriors of the Drexian Academy series.
And, finally there’s Submit, the first of five books in The Sky Clan of the Taori series. That’s the one I read the beginning of.
So, first, I’m not the target audience for this book. Sexy aliens don’t do it for me. I’m especially not a fan of the trope where the aliens are from a medieval-style society — even though they have spaceships.
In this particular case, the alien warriors are the Taori, who have tails, horns, and wear animal skins and carry knives.
Our protagonist, Torst, is one of these aliens. He serves in the Immortal Army of the Taori and is journeying through the galaxy in pursuit of their enemy — and also, since they’re an all-male crew, in hopes of finding some loose women.
One of the crew members is suffering from an early onset of mating fever. He’s under sedation, but if he doesn’t find a mate soon, he’ll go mad. Everyone is worried that they might be next.
The sooner they can find some women, the sooner they can cure their crew mate, and return to hunting their enemies.
Then we switch to the point of view of Lia, who’s on a transport ship carrying a science lab. She’s part of the security team, taking a group of scientists and their research to a safer colony.
Then they’re boarded by pirates and Lia and the other women taken into slavery, while the men are killed.
Meanwhile, back on Torst’s ship, they’ve been sucked through a wormhole and thrown 500 years into the future.
The story moves quickly, and there’s plenty of action — and enough explicit language that makes me think that there’s going to be some steamy sex later on. The story is definitely readable, but I won’t be sticking with it. At least, not that I’d ever admit in public.
Get the Kindle ebook box set free from Amazon here.
2. Forgotten Stars by Odette C. Bell
This is the first of four books in the Forgotten Stars space opera series. The other books are $2.99 to $3.99 each, and the series is not in Kindle Unlimited. The author is a regular on our Free Friday lists, and this book has also been on our list before.
From Melody Friedenthal:
In the prologue, we learn that the protagonist is Commander Kim Starsmith, a man with some fancy “augmented armor.” There’s an explosion, and at first, I thought something had gone wrong with the space station’s mechanics, but no – a verbal alarm announces that the station has been infiltrated by enemies. This book has a very fast start, getting right into action with a life-and-death threat to our hero and his colleagues.
Apparently, Kim doesn’t ever take his armor off, not even in the shower, and we’re told about this habit twice in two pages. While Kim’s an officer, he prefers drinking with the hoi polloi – just one of the guys, right?
We begin to learn about some of the other station inhabitants, which includes aliens. The bartender has floppy ears and a scorpion-like tail. I like aliens, so I’m looking forward to seeing how the author handles alien cultures and thought processes. Or will these aliens be basically humans with a twist?
When all the lights fizzle, some of the officers scream. You mean these tough military types can’t handle the lights going out?
Kim’s friend tells him that only he, Kim, can save the ship. So we have an “only one” trope, which is not my favorite. This trope was the subject of a panel discussion not too long ago at the Albacon science fiction convention held in Clifton Park, NY. It wasn’t a crowd favorite there, either.
But Kim doesn’t want to be here. Although he’s strong and was best in his class, I felt he’s got an inflated opinion of his own worth. He resents his posting at this new-but-decrepit space station where his duties, training recruits who will protect the Coalition, he feels are beneath him. However, he seems to understand the nature of this attack from the Edge. We also learn that he respects the station’s top leader, a beautiful woman named Admiral Zen. Are we getting a whiff of romance? But then we learn about Ensign Amber Hart, who has better armament than even Kim. Does Zen have a rival for Kim’s affections? Maybe, but Amber is, to all appearances, not the over-achiever Kim or Zen are. Does she have hidden talents? Will this be a story of unrequited love or prince-and-female-pauper? Or maybe a three-way relationship. Amber did not make a good first — or second — impression on Kim, but we know that impression will change, because… trope.
Then a nightmarish creature erupts from a fountain, Kim attacks it with his handy-dandy telekinetic sword-that-isn’t-a-sword-but is like a Swiss army knife. But a score more of the creatures appear….
So far the book reads like a 1930s pulp space opera, complete with an invincible superhero. Not my thing, but I’ll read a bit more…
On an away mission led by Kim to a “pop-up” world, Amber, while separated from her team, falls into a suddenly-appearing hole. She falls for a long time but stops just above the surface of some rocky chamber.
Although the plot is getting more interesting to me now, I’m going to stop reading here, with mixed feelings. For me, there are too many contractions and contradictions in the text to be glossed over, and an editor should have corrected the way numerals under 100 are left as digits. There was a misspelled word in the prologue and the narrative in general, felt unprofessional. But this book might be of interest to swords-and-sorcery fans, space opera fans, and people who love superheroes and lots of action.
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
1. Hell For Hire by Rachel Aaron
This is the first of three books in the Tear Down Heaven urban fantasy series. The other books are $4.99 each, but are in Kindle Unlimited. The third book isn’t out yet, though. It’s scheduled to be released later on this month and is available for pre-order. The author has been on our Free Friday list before.
From Maria Korolov:
Rachel Aaron is one of my favorite authors. I’ve read all the books in her urban fantasy series — DFZ, Heartstrikers, and DFZ Changeling.
And, the last time she was on our Free Friday list, when I looked her up I discovered this book, and read it in a single gulp, as well as its sequel. I’m still waiting for the third book to come out, and will probably read it on the first day. I have an alert set up.
Anyway, the story starts with a witch, taking a plane trip from the east coast to the west coast, and trying to keep his talking cat familiar from being noticed by any of the other passengers. When he gets to Seattle, he collects his luggage — and his broom — and texts his contact that he’s arrived. He finds out that the security team is ready and waiting for him. It seems that our witch, Adrian, wants to grow a magical forest in Seattle, and the king of the gods, Gilgamesh, won’t be happy about it. The security team will have to protect Adrian from warlocks while he gets the forest going.
Then we meet the security team. It’s a rag-tag group of demons, also on the run from Gilgamesh. And they live in a magical Winnebago.
I love the premise, I love the talking cat, I love all the demons, and I loved the fast pacing of these books and their high action quotient. The magical world is fully realized, weird, but fully believable and the cosmic battle against Gilgamesh is just heartbreaking. The lead security demon also has a crazy secret that I won’t give away here. There’s a little bit of romance, but only a little — about as much as you’d get in a Fast and Furious movie. Both of the main characters have real stuff to do. There’s tons of magic, lots of battles, broomstick flights above Seattle, demon planes of existence — everything I want in an urban fantasy story.
I loved it and can’t wait for the third book to come out.
Get the Kindle ebook 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, Emma, and Luciana 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.
Luciana Alioto is a graduate student at the University of Essex, studying translation, interpreting and subtitling. She loves reading a variety of genres, including classical retellings, fantasy, romance, feminist essays and philosophy works. After completing her law degree, she is now pursuing a career in publishing as an aspiring editor and literary translator.
Melody Friedenthal is a librarian at a public library and a copyeditor for MetaStellar. In her spare time she's the chief bottle-washer for To Tell A Tale Writers' Group and is an affiliate member of the SFWA. Her work has been published in Tales From Shelf 804: an anthology, N3F, Bardsy, MetaStellar, and New Myths. She believes writing is a gateway drug, alpacas are cute, and dark chocolate is heaven.
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