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.
Each week’s list is 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. Legends of Dark Age Wales by Sarah Woodbury
This is a box set of six different books, a retelling of the King Author myths. First, you get the first three of the five-book Lion of Wales series, including Cold My Heart, The Oaken Door, and Of Men and Dragons. Then, you get the first three of the eight-book The Last Pendragon series, including The Last Pendragon, The Pendragon’s Blade and Song of the Pendragon. All the other books in each series are $2.99 to $3.99 each and are not in Kindle Unlimited. The author has been on our Free Friday list before, multiple times.
From Maria Korolov:
Set in Dark Age Wales, Cold My Heart is the retelling of the King Arthur legend from the point of view of two of his companions, Myrddin and Nell. It’s the autumn of 537 AD, and the people loyal to King Arthur have retreated to north Wales, where they are surrounded and facing defeat. Myrddin and Nell each have a vision that Mordred’s soldiers will ambush and kill King Arthur and they have to work together to save him.
All the familiar characters are here, including Sir Gawain. And the book starts out with a bang — with King Arthur’s death. Turns out, it’s just a dream, a dream that Nell has been having since she was a girl. And she doesn’t just see King Arthur’s death, but also that of Myrddin, who dies defending him. Now she’s got about a month left to do something about it, and she doesn’t know what. Oh, and Nell is living in a convent, sent there by her uncle after her father’s death because her uncle wanted her father’s estates for himself. Her husband and her two children had been killed ten years previously, so she’s seen a bit more of the world than the other nuns.
Mordred’s soldiers attack the convent, killing some of the nuns, and Nell leads the others to safety, but Mordred’s men catch up to them. She is the only one who escapes the massacre, because she’d gone back to check on the convent itself when the attack comes.
It’s a strong start, and Nell is a strong, capable character.
The story switches back and forth between Nell’s point of view and that of Myrddin. He saves her from attackers and at first she doesn’t recognize him and tries to run away, but he catches up to her and takes her with him. There’s a lot at stake in the book, and the characters are compelling. Would I read the whole series? If I liked historical romances, definitely.
Get the Kindle box set free from Amazon here.
4. The Spirit Girls by Dawn Merriman
This is the first of seven books in the A Rylan Flynn Mystery paranormal mystery series. The other books are $3.99 each, and are all in Kindle Unlimited. The seventh book isn’t out yet, but is due in August, and is available for preorder. This is the author’s first time on our Free Friday list.
From E.S. Foster:
Right out of the gate this book sounded like it would have a very familiar plot to the other cozy mysteries I’ve reviewed, but I have to admit that I was sucked in when I first started reading.
The story begins with Rylan, a woman who can see ghosts. She hosts a YouTube channel with her friend, scoping out supposedly haunted places and recording her encounters. While she can see the ghosts and interact with them, no one else can.
Rylan is in the middle of an investigation in an abandoned hospital, where she meets with a ghost who’s somewhat of a legend in her hometown. Rylan speaks with the ghost, promising to help her, but the ghost reveals that she cut her own throat. She doesn’t believe she’ll be able to go to “the good side” after what she did. The ghost then disappears.
Suddenly, a couple of police officers appear in the building and tell Rylan and her friend to leave. Rylan has had plenty of run-ins with these officers before. They’re all skeptical that Rylan can really see ghosts. This is especially true for Officer Pierce, who was Rylan’s childhood friend. It’s obvious from the beginning that Rylan also has a crush on him.
The two girls are forced to leave, and after Rylan drops her friend off, she returns to her home, where she lives with the ghost of her murdered mother.
The next day, Rylan visits her aunt’s house. She lives in a secluded cabin in the woods. While in the yard, she spots a figure beckoning to her. Rylan realizes that this person is a ghost. The ghost guides her to a body in the woods, revealing that she was murdered and now needs Rylan’s help.
I really liked the beginning of this story. The prose was very readable, and I especially liked the worldbuilding when it came to ghosts and what they can and can’t do. If you like cozy mystery and a little bit of murder mystery, then I recommend this one.
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
3. The Silver Series by Cheree Alsop
This box set is a complete set of all seven books in The Silver Series, a young adult urban fantasy series. This author has been included before on our Free Friday list.
From Maria Korolov:
The book opens with a kid getting ready for school the next day. Over dinner, the kid’s mom starts crying. The kid goes outside to punch the punching bag hanging from a tree and has a short conversation with a girl next door. We learn that the kid has just moved there, and will be starting school in the middle of the school year. A wolf howls — the kid didn’t expect to hear wolves in the city.
And it’s not even the full moon. The kid can feel what phase the moon is in. Also, the wolf that’s howling is a werewolf. The kid can tell. Also, the kid can tell just by her scent that the girl had pizza for dinner.
Based on the cover, I’m guessing the kid is a teenage boy, but, from the first chapter, you can’t really tell if the kid is a boy or a girl. Or what their name is.
The next day, the kid walks to school. They didn’t drive, because they only had the one car and their mom was out job hunting. So I guess the kid is old enough to drive.
The school has metal detectors, but the really surprising thing was the amount of silver all the kids wear and have to take off in order to walk through the detectors. Also, the kid can tell by the smell that there are at least a dozen other werewolves in this school, explaining all the silver hardware the other students wear.
Then one of those werewolves bumps into the kid and demands to know why the kid is there. The kid says it’s none of his business, and the werewolf swings at them, and the kid fights back, and winds up fighting two of the guy’s friends as well before a school administrator intervenes and sends all four of them to his office. The man turns out to be the principal.
And we learn that the kid’s name is Jaze Carso, and the principal calls him “Mr. Carso,” so the kid is a boy, and, frankly, I’m a little disappointed. It would have been more fun if Jaze had been a girl, punching that punching bag, and getting into a fight with the school bullies. Then Jaze goes to his classes, then to lunch, and makes friends with a fellow student. And we learn that Jaze is a junior.
During lunch, he also sees his neighbor from the night before, cozing up to one of the bullies.
Jaze’s new friend invites him to visit the shop where he works after school. At first, Jaze was going to just go home, but the thought of being all alone in an empty house full of moving boxes is too depressing, so he turns around and goes to meet up with his friend. Jaze finds the friend cornered by two of the bullies — and a werewolf. The wolf is the third bully, already in wolf form.
Jaze rushes in to defend him. When one of the other bullies starts to change into a wolf, so does Jaze. The other wolves are gray, so they’re not alphas. Jaze is a black wolf, meaning that he is.
Oh, I really hate the “alpha wolf” trope. Real wolves don’t have alphas and betas. They just have normal family dynamics. I really wish this trope would go away.
Jaze wins the fight and goes home in wolf form because, for some reason, he doesn’t want to go back for his clothes. The friend he saved gets the clothes and brings them to Jaze’s house. He’s apparently unphased by the fact that Jaze is a werewolf. He’s been trying to prove the existence of werewolves for years. Jaze says he can’t tell anyone that he saw werewolves.
Which is odd, because the other wolves changed shape right in front of the kid, and all the students at the high school wear silver. I think the secret is out.
Anyway, the other wolves will want to kill Jaze’s friend because he now knows their secret, so Jaze suggests that he start carrying silver around. That night, the friend stays for dinner. And both he and Jaze’s mom have to stop him from running outside when he hears the other wolves howling a challenge. The other wolves leave, and Jaze’s mom asks if maybe they should move again. Jaze says that there’s no point, there will just be other wolves for him to deal with. He might as well stand his ground here and make the best of it. Also, the other wolves aren’t just going to kill him because if they do, they’ll be breaking the law, and their back would be broken up by force.
Or maybe he could have checked out the territory when they were looking for a place to make sure there wasn’t already a wolf pack there. But I’m just spitballing here.
So, anyway, Jaze decides to stay and investigate, find out why there are so many wolves in the area, why they felt comfortable going after a human kid in the middle of the day, why all the students wear silves. And he decides to break into the school files to begin his research.
Instead of, say, going to whatever werewolf authorities there are that enforce werewolf laws and break up packs when they break them.
I can see why high school kids would enjoy this book, or anyone who likes young adult fiction or shows about teenage werewolves. But, as a parent, I’d have a hard time reading this without wondering what the adults were thinking, leaving the kids in so much danger.
Still, the book moves quickly, Jaze is an appealing character, and the hints of a tragic backstory — what happened to his dad? What caused them to have to move? — do make me want to read more.
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
2. Drinks and Sinkholes by S. Usher Evans
This is the first of ten books in The Weary Dragon Inn fantasy series. The other books are $3.99 to $4.99 each, and are not in Kindle Unlimited. This is the author’s first time on our Free Friday list.
From Lilivette Domínguez-Torres:
Bev is the owner of the Weary Dragon Inn in the village of Pigsend. She has no memory of her life before arriving at Pigsend and she doesn’t mind a single bit.
Along with her old mare, Sin, she spends her days taking care of the Weary Dragon Inn and cooking and baking for her people. And everyone knows about Bev’s infamous rosemary bread — to the point where people nag at her to know when she’ll make more.
Her life at Pigsend is cozy, quiet and busy, but everything changes the moment earthquakes start hitting the village and causing unprecedented sinkholes. No one knows why they’re happening, but things only seem to get worse when a group of soldiers from the queen’s guard arrive at Pigsend for only God knows what.
Bev, trying to be a respectful host, decides to let their ungrateful remarks slide and give them space, but it’s only a matter of time before her curiosity gets the best of her and she starts questioning their visit.
From the first couple of chapters, the book is fun, fast-paced, full of mysteries and secrets, and it will definitely leave you dying to know more not only about the world and its mysteries, but also about their characters and their mysterious pasts.
I’m not a big fan of cozy books, but I have to admit that this one was one of the few exceptions that I really enjoyed. I loved the cozy town mystery, I loved following Bev and getting to know every single character she must interact with in order to unravel the mystery of the sinkholes, and I definitely recommend this read for all fans of cozy things. Also, the writing is great and fast-paced so the story never gets boring.
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
1. The Survivors by Nathan Hystad
This is a box set of the first six books in the 26-book The Survivors alien invasion series. The other books are $4.99 to $5.99 each but they’re all in Kindle Unlimited. The last two books aren’t out yet. Book 25 is due out next week, and book 26 is due at the end of the year, but both are available for preorder. The author has been on our Free Friday list before, multiple times.
From Alex Korolov:
The story is set in the present day United States.
The Event starts out by telling us that the ships came at dawn. That’s an attention grabber!
The story is told in the first person by Dean, who thinks the announcement is a War of the Worlds-style hoax when he hears it on the radio, but he sees it’s the truth when he turns on the television to watch the news.
There are huge black box-shaped alien ships floating above all of the world’s metropolises, according to the news.
Dean can even see six smaller alien ships from his own house, and he can see the huge black box hovering over NYC even though he lives 100 miles northwest.
Dean suddenly remembers that he has to go get a pendant that his dead wife told him years ago he has to wear when the aliens arrive, but it’s not at the house.
Over the course of the next few chapters, Dean heads out into the streets, where things are starting to get chaotic, but he does make it to the storage unit where his dead wife’s pendant is kept.
We learn through a series of flashbacks that Dean’s wife died of something akin to tuberculosis, and warned him on her death bed that the aliens would come and he must wear the pendant when they do.
This is a great start to a series, and I can see myself continuing to read on. Who are these aliens, why are they here, and what’s their plan for humanity? I sure would like to find 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 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.
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.
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
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.