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. Tamed by Douglas R. Brown
This is the first of two books in the Werepets Unleashed urban fantasy series. The other book is $4.99 and will be released next month. It is currently available for preorder.
From Terrence Smith:
What if werewolves were real? Then, what if they were domesticated and sold like real dogs?
The story opens with Bernard, an entrepreneur who goes on an expedition with a trained militia group to hunt down and capture these ferocious beasts.
The beasts are a force to be reckoned with but are otherwise civilized. They’re gathered around a bonfire in the morning enjoying themselves and celebrating a recent hunt. The brutal slaughter of these villagers at the hands of the militia, along with several species’ subsequent capture, makes the humans the savages.
The next chapter gives one insight into the underground world of werewolf fighting through the eyes of Howard, a man who is observing this bloodsport for the first time in a glammed-out warehouse where the wealthy bet large money on the festivities. The brutality of the fight might cause some discomfort for dog lovers.
The whole idea of werewolves being domesticated is an interesting analogy for human slavery and the treatment of animals rolled all into one. Will the werewolves have some kind of human rights? Will humans treat them more as pets, or as people as well? Maybe both?
I cannot say definitively that I will continue reading this story, and animal lovers might find it difficult to get through some of the depictions of violence present.
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
4. The Ghost’s Call by K.C. Adams
This is the first of five books in the Afterlife Calls paranormal romance series. The other books are $2.99 to $4.99 each and are not in Kindle Unlimited. This is the author’s first time on our Free Friday list.
From Lou Lyons:
The first thing I will say about this book is that the writer wastes no time in throwing us into the eerie ghost theme.
In the first part of the prologue, I thought it was going to be one of those paranormal books that shows hints of paranormal activity and mysterious events with no explanation that build up into the big reveal that it is a ghost. I was pleasantly surprised to see this wasn’t the case with this book.
By the end of the prologue, the characters, mother, and daughter witness a sea of ghosts that apparently only they can see. This immediately sparked my interest. Why can they see while others can’t? Do they have a connection to the ghosts?
Going into chapter one, we learn that the protagonist is in fact a ghost hunter, and as a ghost hunter — who, I assume, has seen many, many ghosts — she still is baffled by the number of floating figures she had seen. The writer makes it clear that this is not a normal event, raising the question as to why they are here, and if there is something they are looking for.
In terms of character, the two main characters seem like they have a typical mother-daughter relationship. The recently divorced mother refuses to let her daughter, Edie, go ghost hunting with her, telling the reader that she is trying to protect her and let her live a childhood that she herself had missed out on. Unsurprisingly, Edie reacts like a typical teen, stubborn and arguing back and forth to try to plead her case.
Th story is set in Hucknall, which I know to be a small town in the East Midlands, England. There isn’t yet much mention of this, but I am interested to see how the town is incorporated into the setting. Will the entire town be haunted by ghosts? Do they have the power to physically harm residents? Will it be a case of the main character and Edie needing to control them and product the town?
The mother also reveals that her close friends are also targets of ghosts.
The more I read this book, the more intrigued I become. There are already too many questions circling in my head. Although I’ve only read a few chapters, I’m already trying to predict the dramatic arc the story will take, and I suspect that the safety of the both the mother and the daughter, as well as that of their close friends, will be at risk. I always enjoy books like this, where I genuinely can’t predict the direction that it will take. I’d recommend this book to anyone who usually enjoys suspense and of course the world of paranormal.
I will definitely continue with this book.
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
3. Shadow of the Dragons by JMD Reid
This is a box set of the first three books in the twelve-book Shadow of the Dragons epic fantasy series. The other books are $4.99 each but are all in Kindle Unlimited. This is the author’s first time on our Free Friday list.
From Alex Mueller:
The story begins the way any good fantasy story does, with our protagonist on a quest to save the people he loves.
This quest involves running into the ominously and appropriately named Dark Woods. Think Mirkwood from The Hobbit, multiply it by Ebola, and you’ve pretty much got the picture.
And why is our hero running into a place like this? For magic mushrooms. At least they’re medicinal and not just narcotics.
All kidding aside, this story has everything a fantasy lover wants.
For starters we have a diverse cast of characters. We have a brave protagonist willing to do anything for his loved ones, a love interest with a mysterious and tortured past and an evil wizard for a father, and a hardened warrior rebelling against the gods themselves. All of whom have fancy names I have no idea how to pronounce.
We have familiar and original fantasy races including lizard people, subterranean-dwelling bug people, and horrifying mutants created when magic infects and corrupts the natural world.
This story also introduces a complex magic system, one based on the divine and connections to the natural world. Like a D&D setting.
All these elements come together to create a new and fantastic world of adventure.
The full picture hasn’t come into focus yet, but there’s something there. A quest into a blighted forest, a botched ritual by an evil wizard, and a rebellion against the gods. Random events, or are they laying the groundwork of a larger image?
I don’t know. But I’m looking forward to finding out.
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
2. Opening Gambit by Tilly Wallace
This is the first of five books in the Tournament of Shadows gaslamp romance series. The other books are $4.99 each and are not in Kindle Unlimited.
From Lilivette Domínguez-Torres:
In a magical version of England, women aren’t allowed to be mages. That is, until the day Seraphina Winyard was born and allowed to live. After all, it had been a hundred years since the last female mage was allowed to keep her powers and live as a mage, instead of being smothered in her sleep so they could pass her powers on to a male candidate.
If you think that sounds messed up, it’s because it is, but it’s also what makes the beginning of this story so interesting.
For thirteen years, Sera has lived her life under the tutelage of Lord Branvale, one of the twelve mages of the Mage Council of England, who sells beauty potions for a living. Through all of these years, Lord Branvale has made sure to treat Sera as a servant and to even question the efficiency of her powers whenever he gives her a magical task. What he doesn’t know is that Sera knows that she’s the better mage out of the two of them.
Now that she’s finally turning eighteen and can claim her freedom, she’ll make sure to show him and all the other men who have belittled her and tried to keep her on a leash.
But first she has to escape Lord Branvale’s mansion, which turns out to be a lot easier than she anticipated once she removed the weird, blood-sucking bracelet he’d given her the moment she arrived at his gates.
And I think that’s what made me realize that I just wasn’t enjoying this book. The stakes for the story seemed high from the start — Sera is oppressed by her master and the Mage Council wants to remove her rights before she’s fully eighteen and she can’t escape or defend herself because of a magical barrier around the house that prevents her from doing so.
But then she just randomly decides to remove — in a very painful way — the bracelet she was given as a child and then — huzzah! Her powers are restored to their full capacity and she can just remove the barrier and escape…to her friend’s house…who is Lord Branvale’s neighbor. In other words, the stakes sounded high but the execution just didn’t show it and that killed my interest in the rest of the story.
I don’t think I’ll be continuing this book but I would still recommend it if you’re looking for a historical fantasy book where all the odds are against the main character.
Get the Kindle ebook free from Amazon here.
1. Max and the Multiverse by Zachry Wheeler
This is the first of seven books in the award-winning Max and the Multiverse science fiction adventure series. The other books are $3.99 each, and the series is not in Kindle Unlimited — but books four through seven are also free today. The author has been on this list before. This past April, we reviewed Transient, the first of three books in the Immortal Wake tech noir saga that bills itself as Blade Runner meets Black Mirror.
From Tim McHugh:
This is a satirical science fiction story where a teenager tumbles through the multiverse.
I don’t normally read humor books but I do love them when I come across one, so I might be in the target demographic for this one.
We start with high-schooler Max, who has just started spring break and has the house to himself. So, naturally. he plans to spend seven days playing video games.
After his first marathon of the week leaves him passed out on his keyboard, he wakes up to find that his cat can talk. The first chapter mainly shows Max coming to terms with the fact that the cat can talk and they have some banter.
Max then goes on to ignore the cat and goes back to his video games. He passes out again but this time he wakes up in another universe, one ruled by flying pterodactyls. This is when he realizes that every time he falls asleep, he will wake up in a new universe.
Overall this is a good book, but my biggest problem is that I didn’t find it funny. The jokes aren’t bad or cringy, so it isn’t a deal breaker, but I expected to at least chuckle.
Without the humor, this is still a well-written young adult book that might have a pretty fun adventure. I’m not going to continue this one because the genre didn’t turn out to be to my tastes, but if you like a light read that leans towards YA, you will probably enjoy 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 talk about 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.
Alex Mueller is a recent graduate with an honors bachelor in creative writing and publishing, He has been writing since he was six years old. His favorite genres include fantasy, science fiction, and, more recently, romance. When not writing, he enjoys hiking, spending time with his dog -- or anyone else’s -- and baking brownies.
Tim McHugh writes sci-fi and fantasy. Though he currently works full time in the software industry, he has a love for stories with grey characters and moral ambiguity that tell us something about the world. His book A Voice for the Scavengers is now available on Amazon.
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.
Lou Lyons is a UK-based writer and editor. You can find her editing services on Fiverr at @loulyons and learn more about what she does on her website, at LouLyons.Wordpress.com. She is also currently working on a sci-fi thriller.
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.