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 Tempest of Discovery by Sarah M. Cradit
This is the first of four books in the Midnight Dynasty paranormal romance series. The other books are $4.99 each, and the series is not in Kindle Unlimited. The author has been on our Free Friday list before.
From Maria Korolov:
According to the preface, this particular series is related to another series by the same author, the 12-book The House of Crimson and Clover, the first book of which is also free today. But the author says that you don’t have to read those first because these books stand on their own.
The book starts with a list of characters and several family tree diagrams, which worries me because I’m not a fan of family epics. Those tend to be full of drama, and I don’t like drama.
It starts in New Orleans, in the present day — of 2007. So, a lifetime ago.
Nicolas is an heir to the Deschanel dynasty, a family of witches and wizards. He used to be a depraved rogue but wants to change and no longer be a man afraid of commitment or family. And he wants to show his family that he’s changed. The only one who believes him is his aunt Colleen. She’s the closest thing he’s got to a parent. His aunt wants him to investigate another powerful witch family.
Oh, and he’s paired up with a woman he’s in love with, Lauren, but she just knows him as the idiot he used to be.
There’s also a bunch of backstory about what’s happened with the family so far.
Then, in the next chapter, we switch to the point of view of Charlotte, who’s just resigned a legal internship for the Louisiana ACLU and asked for a leave from her law studies. Then she went to the firing range to practice her shooting. Aunt Colleen is Charlotte’s father’s cousin. And Colleen has an assignment for Charlotte as well, which includes a trip to Paris with someone named Julian, whom she loves, but who’s too young, sweet, and innocent to go on an assignment like this. They’re supposed to investigate an illusionist and her brother, who are able to change their appearances, and Colleen wants to know if they’re going to be allies — or enemies. And the illusionist’s brother’s picture captures Charlotte’s eye, and she’s immediately drawn to him.
And there’s more back story.
Then we switch to the point of view of Lauren. She and Nicolas are getting ready for their assignment, and they’re discussing family issues. Lauren has a sister that she doesn’t get along with but still sees regularly. Nicolas’ sister is pregnant, and he’s going to be an uncle to a kid whom he might someday make his heir. Then they go and investigate that other witch family.
It’s a slow beginning — too slow for me. There are too many potential romantic couples. There’s too much family backstory.
If you like family sagas with a magical twist, you should pick this up — and pick up the first book in that other related series as well and read that first.
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
4. Snow So White by C. Gockel
This is the first of five books in the Urban Magick & Folklore romantic fantasy series by a USA Today-bestselling author. The other books are $2.99 to $4.99 each and are not in Kindle Unlimited. The author has been on our Free Friday list before.
From E.S. Foster:
The story opens with Cherie, a young woman seemingly being held hostage by two men on a bus. She needs to convince them that she has Magick just like them, but suddenly a mysterious creature steps in front of the bus and the men begin shooting at it.
It then cuts back to Cherie attempting to get some food that morning. Her grandmother has just passed away, and she’s struggling to cope.
It’s revealed that a mysterious force swept over the world years ago, destroying almost all modern technology. Now mythical creatures roam the lands and people possess all kinds of magic. The Fae regularly travel through the sleepy town Cherie lives in. Jack Frost also exists, and he acts as a protector of sorts to the entire town.
One of the shopkeepers mentions that it’s likely that the Queen will now be able to see the town through her magick mirror. She’s been searching for more magickal people and animals to use during the war in the south. Cherie hopes that Jack can keep her and her friends safe as the Queen draws closer.
The story then shifts to Jack’s perspective. He’s trapped in a dream, forced to use mirrors to see and talk with people in the real world. He came across Cherie and her grandmother years ago, after he had woken from a curse the Queen had placed on him.
While wandering through the dream world and checking the mirrors, he realized that the spell he placed on the Queen in return to keep the town safe is now weakening. Soon the Queen will know where the town is, and she’ll be ready to harvest all its magical people.
As the Queen comes closer, Cherie must strike a bargain to keep the town safe, and Jack must figure out how to stop the Queen.
I really enjoyed the premise of this story. All the magical creatures, the idea of a dream world, and details about things like a Vampire War sounded amazing! There were a few places where I wasn’t sure what was happening, but the pace was steady, and the prose was really good. I also haven’t read much urban magical fantasy before so this might be my new favorite genre. I’m definitely going to keep reading this series!
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
3. World of Blood by Kate L. Mary
This is the first of three books in the Cursed World post-apocalyptic survival series. The other books are $3.99 each but are both in Kindle Unlimited. The author has been on our Free Friday list before.
From Maria Korolov:
I’m not normally a fan of post-apocalyptic novels. They hit a little too close for my taste — I want my escapist reading to be a bit less realistic. So please read this review with a big grain of salt!
Anyway, the book opens on a fishing boat in the Bay of Bengal, in the year 2026. The old fisherman is taking an American missionary to a secluded island, one that was off-limits to visitors. There was an isolated, and very violent tribe living on the island, and local authorities were trying to preserve their isolation and protect them from modernity.
And there’s a local legend that this tribe is so determined to keep people out not because they want to be protected from the outside world, but because they’re proctecting the outside world.
But the missionary offered a lot of money. So the fisherman takes him close to the island, and drops him and his kayak and his supplies.
The missionary rowed to the island and is met by the locals — and the fisherman watches helplessly as he’s killed. There’s nothing he can do. He turns the boat and heads for home.
After this incident, the Indian and US governments start arguing about wht to do. The US president wants to send in a team to retrieve the body and make the killers pay.
I can see where this is going. And I’m already feeling apprehensive.
In the next chapter, we switch to the point of view of one of the special ops soldiers who’s tasked to go to the island, dig up the body from where a fisherman saw the tribe burying it, and bring it home. There’s a short fight with the locals, but the team succeeds — more or less — in their mission.
These two chapters were both in the third person. Kind of like a prologue.
In chapter three we meet the main protagonist, and the story shifts to the first person.
Andra, a novelist and a single mom, is checking Facebook at home in Ohio when her 14-year-old daughter comes in and complains about the soldiers who went in to retrieve the missionary’s body. I’m guessing the story is going to be about the two of them. Andra drives her daughter to school, drops her off, and, on the way back, the missionary story is on the radio. She Googles it to find out more when she gets home and winds up watching a late night talk show where the soldier who killed the first islander is being interview. And the soldier is coughing, and his eyes were bloodshot, and he was sweating.
Then there’s more back story about Andra and her daughter’s father and how they met, and their relationship, and who’s going to be picking the daughter up at school.
I don’t think I’ll be sticking with this book. The writing is easy to read and draws you in, but I don’t like the post-apocalyptic aspect — and the book takes too long to get going. Not that I want the disaster to happen, but you know what I mean!
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
2. The Dragon of New Orleans by Genevieve Jack
This is the first book in a ten-book series, The Treasure of Paragon, by a New York Times-bestselling author. The other books are $4.99 each and are not in Kindle Unlimited. The author has been on our Free Friday list before.
From Maria Korolov:
Gabriel Blakemore is an immortal dragon. Or, at least, he used to be immortal. A voodoo curse is making him sick.
Ravenna Tanglewood is in a hospice, dying of brain cancer. The only thing she’s happy about is that she can donate her organs. She’s half-paralyzed, on a morphine drip. She’s had the chemo, she’s had the surgeries. This is the end. And death himself shows up. Or, at least, a guy who isn’t wearing medical scrubs. And time stops — literally — the IV stops dripping, and the clock stops. This is the end. One thing that surprises her — death is a hunk. Dark, brooding, scruffy. Judging by the book cover and Ravenna’s description, I’m picturing him to look like Tom Ellis in the TV show Lucifer. And the visitor turns out to be Gabriel.
Yup, Gabriel saw an old newspaper article where she’d had a premonition of a fire, causing her parents to buy a new fire extinguisher, thus saving their business and their lives. Now he thinks she’s psychic.
Now we switch back to his point of view, and he’s a little shocked by how awful she looks. Nothing at all like her newspaper picture. But she did used to be an honors anthropology student with a minor in history. So he offers her a job. If she consents, he can use what little magic he’s got left to bind her. Unless the cancer has taken so much of her mind that she can no longer consent, then it wouldn’t work. And she says yes. So he pulls out a tooth — a giant dragon tooth — out of his mouth. He turns the tooth into a pill and tosses it down the back of her throat like I do with my cat. Then he leaves and time starts moving again.
Okay, I’m caught up in the story. I want to know why he needs her specifically. Also, the writing is really good.
Update: I went back last weekend and continued reading the book.
Get the Kindle e-book free from Amazon here.
1. The Quantum Curators and the Fabergé Egg by Eva St. John
This is the first of five books in the The Quantum Curators romantic science fiction adventure series. The other books are $4.99 to $5.99 each but are all in Kindle Unlimited. This is the author’s first time on our Free Friday list.
From E.S. Foster:
The story starts with Neith and her team of quantum curators. They’re in charge of going back in time to find important artifacts that will be valuable in the present. Sometimes they even need to perform quantum leaps to a parallel Earth to find these pieces. Their next artifact is Excalibur, but Neith has to jump into a freezing lake to get it.
She’s forced to swim to the bottom and hold out her hand for the sword just like the Lady of the Lake. So it seems that another part of the curators’ job is to make sure that they fulfill everything that happens in each timeline.
Luckily, retrieving Excalibur goes off without a hitch. She and her teammate quantum leap back to the Earth they belong to.
On this same Earth, Julius is a Cambridge professor working as an artifact caretaker at a museum. He meets up with a friend, who tells him about one of the artifacts he found: a Russian nesting doll with a note in it describing an egg. The friend guesses that it’s a Fabergé egg that was lost during the Russian Revolution.
Julius is immediately interested, so he agrees to conduct some research on it for this friend.
Meanwhile, Neith and her teammate, Clio, report their Excalibur finding. But when Neith is given her next mission, she practically has nothing to go on. She needs to find a priceless Fabergé egg, but none of the quantum curators know which Earth it happens to be on. Neith also has to figure out what time period it might be in.
Eventually, Neith and Julius’s paths will cross, and they’ll look for the egg together. Just so long as they don’t die first.
I really enjoyed the premise of this story, especially the idea of parallel Earths and finding artifacts in all these different time periods. The story kind of slowed down in some areas where there was a lot of exposition, but it was all interesting, so I didn’t mind. I also loved Neith’s voice and how she complained about the annoying parts of her job like paperwork and swimming in a cold lake. I think I might continue with this series!
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 at her blog, E. S. Foster.