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. Curses of Scale by S.D. Reeves
This is the first of three books in the Evercharm young adult fantasy series. The other books are $1.99 to $2.99 each, and are not in Kindle Unlimited. This is the author’s first time on our Free Friday list.
From Maria Korolov:
The book opens with Calem, a druid, trying to escape pursuit. He’s got magic powers, and a fairy living in his head, but there are a lot of people after him. It’s a pretty exciting chase, and we learn about his magic and his relationship with the fairy, and about the medieval-themed world in which he lives.
We also learn that Calem is on a mission. If he succeeds, he has a chance of saving his wife, and go back to her. But the outcome is not at all certain.
I liked the worldbuilding, and I liked the interactions between Calem and the fairy. The story is told in the present tense, which I don’t like, but I got used to it pretty quickly and stopped noticing.
The chase lasts for several chapters and, and the end of it, I’m still not sure whether Calem actually succeeded or not.
And, before we find out, the point of view switches to Squirrel, a teenage girl who wants to go away to the city to study to be bard. Her grandfather, the head of the town’s militia, won’t let her because she doesn’t know how to defend herself. He’s trying to teach her how to shoot an arrow, but she seems to be bad at it.
I can’t tell if he’s opposed to her being a bard at all, or opposed to her going on a dangerous trip. If the latter, can’t he just go with her, or find someone to go with her, or put her on a caravan going to the same destination? All of those seem to be viable options in this world. But, instead, he’s forbidden her to go, and has warned anyone who could help not to let her run away.
She’s trying hard to figure out how to escape, but meanwhile she’s having weird magical visions.
I’m bothered by the lack of clear communication here and her lack of respect for her grandfather — and his lack of respect for her. And if the real issue is, in fact, her lack of self-defense skills, she doesn’t seem to be putting much effort into improving. If that’s the only thing standing between her and her dream, maybe she should take practice a bit more seriously.
Maybe I’m old and cranky, but she comes off as an entitled, petulant teenager and I’m having trouble getting up any kind of sympathy for her.
Let’s see if the story gets back to Calem…
First, the grandfather sends Squirrel on an errand outside town, where she has a weird vision. Then we switch to the grandfather’s point of view, and the town is attacked by a giant dragon.
And before we find out what happens with the dragon, we go back to Calem. He’s alive, but doesn’t know where he is, or where the fairy is, or where his wife is, or what’s going on. But he finds a wagon, and an empty harp case. Is it Squirrel’s?
Then we switch to Squirrel’s point of view. She’s run away into the woods, gets scared by spiders, and finds the fairy. And there’s a twist.
I’m going to stop reading now, because the twist is a pretty good one, and makes me a lot more interested in Squirrel than I was before. I might stick with the book this weekend.
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
4. Pawsitive Beginnings by Leighann Dobbs
This is a prequel to the eight-book Mystic Notch Cozy Mystery Series, a cozy magical mystery series. The other books are $2.99 to $6.99 each, and are not in Kindle Unlimited. This is the author’s first time on our Free Friday list.
From Maria Korolov:
I love cats and I love cozy mysteries. This particular book is a prequel, and I haven’t read the series it’s part of yet. But I see that the first book in the series has more than 12,000 starred reviews, was a USA Today bestseller, and won awards. So that makes me feel very optimistic about this book. And, yes, the other books in the series do cost money and aren’t in Kindle Unlimited, but it looks like the books are in Overdrive, so you might be able to get them from your library. My library, unfortunately, don’t carry them.
According to the introduction, this book takes place before Willa, the protagonist, learned how to talk to her cat. Which makes me think that in the other books in the series she can, in fact, talk to her cat.
The book starts when Willa inherits a book shop from her grandmother, in a small town in New Hampshire. She’s in her late forties, and has spent her career as a crime journalist in Boston. She recently survived a near-fatal car accident, a nasty divorce, and was looking for a change and a slower pace of life, so she decides to move to this small town.
Oh, and the bookstore comes with a cat. Of course it does. Her grandmother has had the same gray cat for the past fifty years. Or, at least, a series of identical cats with the same name. This must be the cat who can talk that Willa doesn’t know about yet.
But she does know about the ghosts. Yup, this bookstore also has two ghosts. She’s been able to see ghosts ever since she had that car accident, and these two are friendly.
It’s now a month after she took over the shop when she find a dead body out back, near the dumpster. It’s the building inspector — the same one who recently gave her a violation.
Then we switch to the cat’s point of view. Oh, it’s that kind of cozy mystery!
The cat knows that the building inspector was a magical being, and that he was wearing a magical amulet, and that the amulet is now on the ground near his body. And if the amulet falls into the wrong hands, it would be dangerous for the town. So the cat hides the amulet away before the police come, so that she and the other magical cats in town can figure out what’s going on.
Then we switch back to Willa’s point of view. She’s called the police and the sheriff, Gus, was quickly on the scene. Gus, by the way, is Willa’s sister.
So far, I’m liking it. I’m a few chapters in and I don’t yet have a really good sense of her character, but I do have a sense of the town and some of the quirky and magical beings who inhabit it.
I’ll definitely stick with it this weekend.
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
3. Into the Dark by Ryan Casey
This is the first of ten books in the Into the Dark apocalyptic survival series. The other books are $3.99 to $5.99 each, but are all in Kindle Unlimited. This is the author’s first time on our Free Friday list.
From Alex Korolov:
The premise of EMP survival books is that an electromagnetic pulse wipes out all electronic devices, such as cell phones, power grids, and even automobiles and planes. Usually, havoc ensues and our main characters are left scrambling to survive in a world that’s suddenly turned upside down. Let’s see how this one goes.
Unlike any other EMP book I’ve reviewed, this one starts with an introduction that talks about the peril humanity faces from both natural solar activity and manmade EMP devices. It’s a bit spooky, especially as it mentions that an estimated 7 million Americans would die in the first six months after we lose electricity.
After that cheery introduction, we get to the first chapter and meet Mike Callaghan, who’s in the hospital with his wife Caitlin. She has a rare heart condition and recently had surgery. Unfortunately, she got sepsis and hasn’t woken up since her operation.
The story then moves to three months later. Mike, now an alcoholic, has lost his job as a bus driver. The story goes back and forth between Mike and his daughter Holly. She’s having a dance recital and Mike is supposed to show up but he’s running late and that really bums her out.
The news mentions that there are a bunch of power outages happening worldwide, and Holly sees some very bright green lights in the sky. I think that’s the beginning of the EMP action.
I’ll continue reading this one. It’s a slow-starting EMP story, but I like how the introduction freaks you out and makes you think the world is going to end. I think it really got me in the right mood for a post-apocalyptic story.
2. Daughter of Fate by Aaron Hodges
This the first book of three books in The Knights of Alana epic fantasy series. The other books are $5.99 each and are not in Kinde Unlimited. The author has been on our Free Friday list before.
From E.S. Foster:
Ikar is one of the knights of the goddess Alana, who recently slaughtered the False Gods and rid the world of their magic. But there are still plenty of people who worship those gods, and they also aren’t too happy that there’s no longer any magic.
Ikar and his band of knights are on their way to a village where there is supposedly worship of these false deities going on. Their job is to destroy anyone who doesn’t worship their goddess, kind of like the Knights Templar. Ready to slaughter, they head over the mountains to the village.
Pela is one of the village’s citizens. She lives with her mother, who demands they consistently worship the false gods, even though most of the villagers don’t anymore. She sends Pela all the way up the stairs to the temple. But just as she’s about to perform a worship ritual, the knights arrive and attack the congregation. Pela’s mother offers her an escape route and tells her to find her uncle. Soon she’s the only one left. The rest are either killed or taken to be tried for treason against the true goddess.
It turns out that this uncle was once a mighty warrior, so if Pela can get to him, he might be able to help rescue her mother and the other villagers. Pela just needs to survive getting to him.
As you might know, I’m a huge fan of epic and high fantasy, so I was really excited about this one. I loved the idea of a Knights Templar in a fantasy world, and I was really interested to find out what would happen to Pela. I just got the rest of the series, and I recommend you check it out.
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
1. Last Town Standing by Colton Lively
This is a standalone novel of apocalyptic survival, but the author has many — so many! — EMP novels up on Amazon, most of them in Kindle Unlimited, so if you like his style there’s plenty more to check out, several of which have made this Free Friday list. Not to mention that he’s also contributed to the 80-book series EMP Survival in a Powerless World, all of which is in Kindle Unlimited — and many of which have shown up on our Free Friday list.
From E.S. Foster:
Amber Fitch is a young streamer who lives with her brother. She opens up a gaming stream one day and soon finds several of her followers talking about a growing situation with China. With the next [residential election coming up, it’s all anyone can talk about.
To make this worse, one of the members of the chat threatens her.
Amber goes to her brother, who supports her and suggests that it might be the creepy guy living across the street. The problem is the brother, an IT guy, found the guy’s info without a warrant, so they can’t go to the police. Furious, Amber leaves in a huff.
She decides to run across the street and confront the guy in person, which doesn’t go well. Then he slams the door, but ends up apologizing online later. Amber isn’t completely satisfied with this, but she has to let it go.
The next day, she gets to work on her brother’s car. On the car radio, she hears an announcement that China has sent warships to Cuba.
I don’t usually read EMP stories, so I didn’t know what to expect with this one. There was a lot of exposition in the first chapters, and as of right now, none of the outages or anything has happened. I don’t think I’ll continue with this one.
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.
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.