I’ve been reading Cory Doctorow’s Radicalized and it’s fantastic. I’ve had it on my wishlist for a long time, but it has been stuck at 10.99 forever. I did get it as an Xmas present, but went to lookup a story title and noticed it’s only $5.99:
True, but I got onto him way early when he was still doing historical fantasy, Anubis Gates stands alone and is just such pleasure. The Stress of Her Regard, if you like vampires and poets and obscurity is also great, but Anubis will always be my Powers gateway drug. That, and On Stranger Tides, which is equally readable and excellent, but pirates instead of Egyptians. Anubis will make you enjoy Egyptian mythology, Stranger Tides will make you roughly a quotable source for pirate lore.
And there’s The Drawing of the Dark, which is about the history of beer. So it has a special place in my heart.
BTW speaking of vampires (The Stress of Her Regard), did any of you all read this one by Brian Stableford (a British author)? Originally published in the late 1980s or early 90s. Pretty cool stuff --kind of alt-history/horror, originally The Empire of Fear:
The first book of Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach trilogy, Annihilation, is on sale today for $1.99. I really enjoyed the entire trilogy, but it may not work for everybody. Probably worth checking out the first book to find out, though.
Thank you! I’ve seen strong recommendations and I’ve been wanting to read it. I’ve not read his fiction, but have his Wonderbook, which is wonderful.
Michael Cox’s splendid The Meaning of Night is on sale for $3.
It’s a dark Victorian thriller with one of the great book openings of our time:
After killing the red-haired man, I took myself off to Quinn’s for an oyster supper.
Highly recommended. It’s billed now as book 1 of a 2-book series, but it is a fully stand-alone story; the second book is a sequel, and it’s pretty good, but you’ll love The Meaning of Night without ever having heard of the follow up.
I know nothing of Cox and I don’t like oysters, but that opening line sold me.
Robert McCammon’s fun Vampires in LA “They Thirst” on sale for $3.99: (classic bloodsucking monsters, not sparkly romcom vamps):
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
Eric Barnes’ The City Where We Once Lived is just $2 today. I’m a big fan of this book, a thoughtful, quiet novel about people trying to survive on the edge of society in a near-future, climate-change-ravaged city.
I grabbed it. Thanks for the tip!
Same here. Added to the book log.
Hope you both enjoy it! I liked both of Barnes’ books enough to be constantly on the lookout for another.
I can’t say no to a $2 recommendation.
The Latest John Dies at the End novel for $3.99- If This Book Exists, You’re in the Wrong Universe: A John, Dave, and Amy Novel (John Dies at the End 4). I’ve read the others and enjoyed them but this one is new to me.
Cross posting for visibility. I don’t know anything about this except it’s getting an Apple TV show and it’s only 1.99 for 3 books
I liked Wool a lot. I wasn’t interested in reading the sequels, the first felt just right. Still, at two bucks its a no brainer.
John le Carré’s The Honourable Schoolboy is $2 on Amazon.
It’s the second of the 3 main George Smiley books. Smiley is asked to step in and run the Circus after the events of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. With the Circus in ruins, George knows he has to produce something, some bit of intelligence product that will begin to rebuild confidence, especially from the Americans. But he has no assets; every network has been rolled up, every agent blown. His best bet: find some hint of a piece of gold in the old files, something likely spiked at the time by orders from Moscow, then draft an outsider to run it down.
It’s a fine book, easily on a par with the two other Smiley books, but somehow never got the attention they got.