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. Ship of Prophecy by Scott Bartlett
This is a complete box set of the ten-book Ixan Saga space opera series. This author has been on our Free Friday list before.
From Maria Korolov:
The book opens as First Lieutenant Husher leaves the freighter he’s been traveling on for the past few days and reports for duty on a Fleet supercarrier. He’s grown a beard over the course of the trip, and the first order he gets from his new captain is to shave it off. Husher was recently demoted and his assignment to this supercarrier is more punishment — the carrier is understaffed, underfunded and basically on its last legs.
Then the captain sends him on a mission to land on a planet, reach a city center, take out the radicals’ base of operations. There’s a marine platoon with four squads doing the heavy lifting, and Husher doesn’t have much combat experience — he’s a pilot — so he sticks close to the sergeant. There’s a battle, they drive away the radicals — and discover that the building the radicals had been using as a base is a hospital. Destroying will escalate the conflict further, but orders are orders.
Husher suspects that the orders are deliberate, because the conflict is good for business for somebody.
Then we switch point of view and meet some of the corporate fat cats profiting off the war. They’re working on an evil plan to squeeze even more profits out of the fighting.
Then we switch to the point of view of Senator Bernard, an honest politician who’s just been cheated out of a candidacy. Something happens to the ship she’s on and she flees on an escape shuttle. But the ship itself is still moving, out of control — and about to crash into a planet.
Then we’re back with Husher. He’s having trouble sleeping. He has nightmares about the battle he’s just been on. He wanders through the ship and discovers that an alien is on board. Aliens aren’t allowed on human ships, to protect the humans’ wormhole technology from being stolen. The alien says she has permission from the captain to be there. And, more than that, she’s Husher’s new boss. Which becomes relevant very quickly when their ship is attacked.
I love the pacing of the story so far. There’s a ton of action, the bad guys are really bad, there’s cool technology at stake, and lots of alien species at war with humans. This is exactly my kind of book. And I’m not alone. This box set has near 1,700 positive reviews, and the first book in the set has over 2,500.
I also just visited the author’s website, and there’s a prequel book, which is free, so I grabbed that one, as well. And all his other books are in Kindle Unlimited. Score!
I struck it lucky last week — I loved both of the books I reviewed, and finished them over the weekend. I think I hit it lucky today, as well.
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
4. The Fire of Winter by Talia Beckett
This is the first of two books in the Winter epic fantasy series. The other book is $5.99, but it is in Kindle Unlimited. This is the author’s first time on our Free Friday list.
From E.S. Foster:
The story begins in a demonic kingdom, where a young girl, Little Mutt, is forced to stand before her father, a demon. Little Mutt has absolutely no love for her father since he had abused her half-elven, angel mother and she was the product. That day, her father announces that he wants her to start learning how to use the powers she naturally has as a half-demon. But the process of learning her powers looks and sounds a lot more like torture.
Three years later, Little Mutt vows to try to escape the stronghold she’s been trapped in her entire life. Her father explains that she is close to being ready to put her powers to good use, but not yet. She must continue her training while he leaves on a mysterious journey. Seeing it as a way to escape, she decides to try to go with him.
Her attempts lead to serious injury, but Little Mutt refuses to give up. Her father leaves, and it turns out that he left to engage in war against the elves. One night, Little Mutt has a dream that her father is overwhelmed in battle once and for all.
The next morning, she wakes up and discovers that she’s the only one left in the stronghold. She finally escapes, extorting information about her father’s death from one of his remaining underlings. Finally free, but with nowhere to go, Little Mutt sets out toward the battle, hoping to find the elves and be reclaimed by her mother’s people.
From the beginning, I enjoyed the premise of this story. The idea of elves fighting against demons and the protagonist being on the other side of that sounded so cool! I also enjoyed Little Mutt as a character, since she remained strong and determined despite being broken, and she valued finding the good in herself above all else. I would definitely recommend this series for a weekend read.
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
3. The Devil’s Gap by Nick Calder
This is a standalone supernatural thriller. This is the author’s first time on our Free Friday list.
From Maria Korolov:
I don’t think I’m going to be as lucky with this book. I don’t like horror — and especially don’t like it when it’s inspired by true events. I like to sleep at night, thank you very much.
Seriously, what is wrong with you people? Why do you like these things? (Feel free to sound off in the comments!)
Anyway, Zach has dropped out of his MBA program to chase the perfect wave. And to dump his meager life savings into a cryptocurrency based on a cartoon hamster in a spacesuit.
So Zach buys a one-way ticket to Mexico, then keeps heading south. He stops posting on Instagram somewhere in Panama, and his father starts worrying about what happened to him. The whole family does. They contact the local embassy and the state department and the local police, and decide to hire an ex-CIA agent to investigate on the ground. It looks like Zach vanished somewhere in the Darien Gap — the super dangerous place that migrants from South America go through on foot.
Zach’s father also decides to go to Panama personally, as do Zach’s two brothers. Zach’s mom will stay home, to coordinate and keep pressure on the State Department.
Then we switch to the point of view of the ex-CIA agent. Her name is Regina and six years ago she lost her entire team in the jungle. The CIA buried the operation, but she’s still haunted by what happened. Investigating Zach’s disappearance might get her some clues — and the money won’t hurt, either.
I like the beginning here. It feels more like an action novel — like a spy thriller, with some ancient ghosts mixed in, maybe, judging by Regina’s creepy dreams. Or maybe memories. I like all the characters and I love the fast pace.
I think I’ll stick with this one, as well.
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
2. Savage Skies by Kat Ross
This is the first of four books in The Fourth Empire epic fantasy series. The other books are $3.99 to $4.99 each, and are not in Kindle Unlimited. This author has been previously mentioned on our Free Friday list.
From E.S. Foster:
I love epic fantasy, and I was really excited to read this one after looking at the description. This one did not disappoint.
It begins with Cas, a young boy who lives with his parents and two younger siblings. They live in a world close to a border that separates the living from the dead. However, as a fever sweeps through the land, tons of people have been staying in the living world instead of passing through that border. These dead are about halfway between zombies and ghosts. A group of people work to banish these spirits with magic and send them to the realm of the dead.
One day, one of these people meets with Cas’s father. He warns the father that several of the supposed-to-be-dead people have been spotted. Before he leaves, the group provides Cas with a vial filled with potion, which comes from the god the family worships.
But Cas doesn’t believe he needs it to keep from getting the fever. So far, only his mother has gotten it, and she’s close to pulling through. Cas tries to toss the vial to his younger brother but only succeeds in dropping and breaking it. He then hides the shards in the barn.
The next morning, Cas wakes up and guesses that something is wrong. He runs to the barn, where he tries to sneak away with his brother and sister. Suddenly, his mother appears, but it’s clear that she is one of the dead. Cas and his siblings say goodbye before Cas draws a symbol in the dirt and uses its magic to banish her. Hopefully, she makes it to the border and doesn’t stay in the realm of the living.
At the same time, a being kind of like a necromancer appears. Cas tries to banish it with the same magic he just used, but it doesn’t work on whoever this person is. The being tosses Cas aside and attacks the younger sister, seemingly trying to eat her. But Cas attacks him with farming equipment, and he and his siblings escape.
I was hooked from the first line on this one. I got the sense of deep worldbuilding right from the beginning, and I was constantly on my toes about what was going to happen next. I think I just found my next read.
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
1. Steel Guardian by Cameron Coral
This is the first of six books in the Rusted Wasteland science fiction dystopian adventure series. The other books are $4.99 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 delves deep into a future where the world has been taken over by artificial intelligence and all kinds of robots. It sounds a little timely with what’s going on right now.
It centers on one specific robot named Block, who used to work as a hotel worker serving human guests. But ever since the uprising, he’s been out of a job since most humans have been killed. He’s been traveling around with a little vacuum robot, looking for another hotel where he could find work.
He and the little robot arrive at an abandoned hotel, where Block encounters some soldier robots that have more or less died. Block tries to see if he can salvage a battery, but an alarm goes off, and he flees. Unfortunately, Block has to leave his little friend behind because he can’t take him through the forest.
Then Block finds an abandoned school. Hoping to find some kind of job if robots are still there, Block looks around, and finds a robot that looks like a filing cabinet — then Block runs out of power and dies. Months later, he wakes up again, but he has no idea how.
I thought that the idea of this story was interesting, but it was a little slow for me. A lot of the beginning had to do with explaining what happened in the past. But if you prefer the action to begin further into the story and love robots, check this book 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.
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