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. The Unmarked Witch by Miranda Lyn
This is the first of three books in the Unmarked romantic fantasy series. The other books are $3.99 to $4.99 each, but are both in Kindle Unlimited. This is the author’s first time on our Free Friday list.
From Terrence Smith:
While not my particular brew of potion, so to speak, this looks like a story that understands the assignment, and is doing it well.
The protagonist is Raven, a teenage witch who lost her grandmother as a baby, when agents of the Dark King ransacked her potions shop. The Dark King frequently attacks the coven of witches in this story, who each have one or more tattoos on their bodies, representing their power. Raven is the only witch in the coven without any tattoos, making her an outcast.
When the coven leader and the one who helped raise her is hung by the Dark King’s forces, the coven holds a series of trials to determine who the next coven leader will be.
The coven doesn’t seem to be doing anything to harm anyone and are largely just minding their own business. The witches here can be a stand-in for women in general or other marginalized groups of people who have existed throughout time.
It looks like, along the journey, Raven will have her best female friend, and her boyfriend, with her. The two women immediately have sister energy, with her friend throwing out dumb jokes and Raven tolerating them. Raven also has to keep her friend in check when she attempts to deal with a troublesome child that enters their potions shop.
The boyfriend seems to follow the basic tropes of any guy in a romance, being a beautiful bombshell with golden locks. While he does seem caring enough, Raven notes he sounds disingenous when telling her to look away from the coven leader’s body.
While I do not plan to continue with this book, it seems like a story worth a look for any fantasy romance fan.
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
4. Proud Pada by S.G. Blaise
This is the third of four books in the award-winning The Last Lumenian science fiction coming-of-age series. The other books are $3.99 each, and the first three books are in Kindle Unlimited but the fourth book isn’t. The author has been on our Free Friday list before.
From Maria Korolov:
The first book in the series, The Last Lumerian, is $.99. I’ve read it before, because it was on our Free Friday list in November of 2023., so I didn’t have to buy it to review it — but it’s in Kindle Unlimited, so it wouldn’t have cost me money, anyway.
The book starts with Lilla, 19, panicking. She’s on a space ship and the pilot has to talk her down from a full-on panic attack. They’re on a mission for the rebellion — to get coordinates and meet with a caravan to load supplies. But they missed the window to respond to the message with the coordinates. Maybe because Lilla was having a panic attack. And she failed in her first mission. Then they run into a bunch of asteroids and have to evacuate. But there’s no time. And they die.
Wait, what?
Then we jump back in time. Six months earlier, Lilla is visiting her mother’s grave. Then she, and her best friend, are marched under armed guard to a wedding. Lilla almost has a panic attack there, as well, because of all the people. Her father is getting married again, to a woman barely older than Lilla. Both Lilla and her father are royalty in this world.
This is when we find out that not only is this a setting where we have regular space travel, but there are also mages. There are mages here at the wedding, seemingly forgiven, at last, for the magical cleansing war 25 years before that killed millions of people.
Then, during the wedding, even as her brother tries to stop her, Lilla loudly objects to the marriage, risking execution for treason. Instead, she just humiliated herself in front of the entire royal court.
Afterwards, we learn that not only is fighting for democracy punishable by execution, but there’s also a caste system in place now. And refugees from seven different galaxies are being settled in nasty refugee camps. One of Lilla’s friends is arrested and sent to one of these camps for having a counterfeit identity crystal, and Lilla tries to save her.
I guess that’s how she winds up a member of the rebellion.
I like the plot and the setting so far, being a little reminiscent of the Star Wars saga in its combination of tech and magic, but the writing style seems to be aimed at a younger audience. It’s told in the first person, present tense, and focuses on Lilla’s feelings and experiences in a way that strikes me — an old, jaded person — as overly dramatic. Which means that anyone younger–or, at least, younger at heart!–might find the book fun to read and engrossing.
I’m not going to be sticking with it, but I expect that many readers will love it — as evidenced by the book’s hundreds of five-star ratings, and the fact that it won the Cygnus award for science fiction last year.
From E.S. Foster:
I started reading the third book in the series, which means there is a lot to take in.
And spoiler warnings! Skip ahead to the next review if you don’t want to know what happens later in the series!
Skip ahead now! This is your last chance!
Okay, then. We’re back with Lilla, sent, along with an entire armada, to a strange planet, and it looks like she and her fiancé or going to quickly marry before Lilla carries on her next mission.
We learn that she is a kind of a general to one of the gods and her father is one of the most powerful leaders in the seven galaxies. So Lilla has a lot of people to please.
However, she’s not sure why she was sent to the planet she is currently on. It looks completely peaceful.
It also turns out that the wedding ceremony can’t be held because the officiant never arrived. He’s still in one of the warships overhead. Lilla and her fiancé, Callum, head there to see what the problem is.
When they arrive on the ship, we learn that Callum’s brother has just died, so the officiant, his father, never arrived. They suspect a killer and have prevented people from leaving the planet until they can be found.
Lilla and Callum go search for the killer, eventually finding him aboard Callum’s ship. Before Lilla can attack him with her magic, the killer states that the brother failed, meaning he deserved to die. Lilla has no idea what he means, and she has to kill him before he can try anything else.
This prepares to set off a chain of events that Lilla was unprepared for. And as unrest threatens this new world she’s been placed in, she’s going to need all the help she can get.
I really enjoy reading science fantasy, so I was excited to give this series a try. There was a lot of information, which I expected given it’s the third book, but there was a ton of infodumping, something I didn’t expect so far into the series. I don’t think I’ll continue with this series, but if you want to read a series with aliens, magic, and mystery, check it out.
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
3. Bloodstone by M.J. Mallon
This is the first of two books in The Curse Of Time urban fantasy series. The other book is $3.99 and is not in Kindle Unlimited. This is the author’s first time on our Free Friday list.
From E.S. Foster:
Amelina is a young girl living with her parents. Previously, her family had made international news because of her father’s disappearance and eventual return as an old man.
One day, Amelina finds a mysterious envelope in the mail. As she stares at it, her name appears in magical handwriting. The card explains that she has been invited to Crystal Cottage. And by that I mean the card actually explains it to her, as in it stands up on its own, announces the invite, and starts chasing Amelina around the room when she tries to run.
At this point, Amelina has seen enough strange things to not be too freaked out by the card, which also tells her that she’ll find magic at the cottage. She decides to pack up a few things and head for the address.
However, once she starts out, she can’t find the cottage anywhere. It seems that it will have to come to her when she’s ready.
On her way back home, Amelina is followed by two older boys who start harassing her. Another person appears to help, a mysterious older boy named Ryder. Amelina notices that the boys have a strange misty look in their eyes, which fades after Ryder talks with them. The boys apologize for harassing her, explaining that they don’t know what happened to them. Amelina is instantly curious to know more about who Ryder is and just what is going on.
I really liked the premise of this story when I started reading. It had a type of cozy fantasy feel to it with a hint of magical realism. There’s a lot of infodumping in the first couple of chapters, however, so I don’t know if I want to continue with it. But if you enjoy cozy fantasy, check out this series.
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
2. Sentinel by Anthony J. Melchiorri
This is the first of six books in the Deadmen’s War military sci-fi series. The other books are $.99 to $5.99 each, but are all in Kindle Unlimited. This is the author’s first time on our Free Friday list.
From Tim Fairman:
A small town boy yearns for the opportunity to escape the mundanity of his futureless hometown.
It’s a familiar tale, one in which angsty teens on the cusp of adulthood create high stakes drama to survive the tedium. In this book, though, the protagonist’s plight has legitimate consequences because he’s unfortunate enough to live on a desert planet called Xenia. Death is a real possibility on Xenia, not from boredom, but from excessive heat, starvation, or being trapped in the ruins of a collapsed mine. One gets the impression those deaths may be the more humane options for checking out on Xenia.
When the New World Republic Farspace Legion comes calling, our hero answers. We don’t learn his name at first, but, according to the Amazon listing, he’s Cole Shaw.
The military must love irony because they send our protagonist to a frozen planet called Ferrous. He leads a team of military muscle tasked with babysitting a group of scientists on an exploratory mission. The head scientist, Dr. Lena Bussert, is Shaw’s clear foil, leading to human tension that accompanies the very real tension associated with exploring a volatile planet. Namely, spiderlike, relentless, sentinel creatures who want to ruin everyone’s day.
The gang sets out to explore an area that was supposed to be clear but, you guessed it, it’s not. The team must square off with those pesky sentinels while simultaneously getting the scientists to safety. Shaw and company have faced off against the sentinels before, but that doesn’t make the fight any easier. Just when they think they know their enemy, a new threat arrives, one that may prove far more dangerous.
…and that’s just chapter one!
The book gets off to an action-packed start that teases much more to come, and shines in its ability to hook the reader right off the bat through an engaging, first-person narrative voice, vivid descriptions that never alienate the reader by being too esoteric, and a cast of characters that tease the potential for human drama and, fingers crossed, witty banter.
Is it reinventing the wheel? No, and I’m perfectly fine with that. A good story, even if it’s familiar, is a joy to read. Will there be brains versus brawn conflict? Probably. Is there an overarching sense of our ground-level heroes being mere pawns to the powers that be? Yep, check that box. Done well, I’ll listen to that song all day long.
A major selling point here is the confidence in the prose. The author believes in what he’s creating and I’m along for the ride. He doesn’t mix his metaphors or muddy his descriptions. He’s playing with an ensemble cast, but he manages to give the reader enough to want more. For those players who are destined to become major supporting characters, he’s teed up intriguing narrative threads.
Verdict: I’ve packed my bags and I’m putting down roots in Ferrous.
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
1. Reflect by Demelza Carlton
This is a standalone book in the 27-book Romance a Medieval Fairytale romantic fantasy series. The other books are $4.99 each, and are not in Kindle Unlimited but if you keep an eye out, there are frequent free promotions for other books in the series. The author is a regular on our Free Friday list, not only for this series, but for her other romantic fantasy books.
From Maria Korolov:
I’m not normally a fan of romantic fantasy or fairytale retellings, but I do have to admit that Demelza Carlton’s writing style is eminently readable. It just sucks you right in.
This particular book is a retelling of the Snow White story, and opens with Guinevere learning that her father has gone mad. He plans to marry off both her and her brother. Oh — and if the dowry agreement falls through, with a king in a neighboring kingdom, her father will cut off her head and hands and send it to the king whom she’s supposed to marry. Guinevere isn’t opposed to the marriage — she’s opposed to losing her head.
Her brother tells her to grab what she can and run. He’ll go with her. She decides that she’s rather take her chances with bandits on the road than wait for the axe to fall on her head. She’ll dress as a boy so that she won’t be spotted as she goes through the gates. But she’s going to wear a cloak over her hair. She doesn’t want to cut it, because when she finally arrives at her destination, she wants people to recognize her as a queen.
They’re able to escape and make it to their destination, the neighboring kingdom with the king whom she was supposed to marry. But the king there, while single, is very old. The two siblings are worried that he’s not going to want to marry Guinevere and make her his queen. And her worries prove correct. the king says that he’s not interested, and offers to send her home with an honor guard. She begs him not to send her back, so as to save her from her father’s wrath.
Meanwhile, one of this king’s knights is very handsome — and young — and seems interested in her.
I do have to admit that I’m kind of caught up in the story despite myself. It moves at a swift pace, and both Guinevere and her brother are compelling characters. I probably won’t be sticking with it this weekend, though, because I have a cold, cold heart. But you want a little free romance this weekend, pick up the book, and keep and eye out for other free books by the same author.
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 and Terrence 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.
Tim Fairman lives in Iowa with his wife and three sons. He's been neglecting his love of fiction writing for too long, so he's back pursuing his passion.
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.
Terrence J. Smith is MetaStellar's assistant fiction editor. He has contributed his writing to nonprofits and both print and digital publications. He enjoys all things technology, but remembers to meditate and appreciate the outside world.