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Featured Sci-fi: The Humans by Matt Haig

October 6, 2024 by Carolynn

Featured Sci-fi: The Humans by Matt Haig


Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

Apple, Nook, Kobo, GooglePlay (FREE at your public library!)

I loved this whimsical look at humanity from an alien perspective. It’s hilarious and deep at the same time.

The bestselling, award-winning author of The Midnight Library offers his funniest, most devastating dark comedy yet, a “silly, sad, suspenseful, and soulful” (Philadelphia Inquirer) novel that’s “full of heart” (Entertainment Weekly).

When an extra-terrestrial visitor arrives on Earth, his first impressions of the human species are less than positive. Taking the form of Professor Andrew Martin, a prominent mathematician at Cambridge University, the visitor is eager to complete the gruesome task assigned him and hurry home to his own utopian planet, where everyone is omniscient and immortal.

He is disgusted by the way humans look, what they eat, their capacity for murder and war, and is equally baffled by the concepts of love and family. But as time goes on, he starts to realize there may be more to this strange species than he had thought. Disguised as Martin, he drinks wine, reads poetry, develops an ear for rock music, and a taste for peanut butter. Slowly, unexpectedly, he forges bonds with Martin’s family. He begins to see hope and beauty in the humans’ imperfection, and begins to question the very mission that brought him there.

Praised by The New York Times as a “novelist of great seriousness and talent,” author Matt Haig delivers an unlikely story about human nature and the joy found in the messiness of life on Earth. The Humans is a funny, compulsively readable tale that playfully and movingly explores the ultimate subject—ourselves.

Filed Under: Book Reviews, Box Set List Featured Sci-Fi, The Box Set List Features Tagged With: Matt Haig, The Humans

Featured Sci-fi: Galactic Terror by Michael Robertson

October 5, 2024 by Carolynn

Featured Sci-fi: Galactic Terror by Michael Robertson

Start the Series FREE as of October 5, 2024 (Book 2 only $2.99!)
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia

Apple, Nook, Kobo, GooglePlay

They say you can’t run from your past, and now she’s reached the other side of the galaxy, Sparks wonders if they’re right …

Living on a distant planet with a transient population for the past year, ducking in and out of spaceport dive bars, mixing with pirates, bounty hunters, and criminals, she’s become just another being in the crowd.

But she wasn’t born to eke out a living at the very fringes of society. Not with her powers.

So when a stranger makes her a tempting offer …

An adventure she’s been desperate to have …

She wonders if now’s the right time for her to step from the shadows?

To return to the planet-hopping, high-risk thrill-ride that used to be her life.

To take back control.

And if the next few months end up looking like the past twelve, then it’s not like she has anything to lose.

Galactic Terror is the first book in a series of space opera thrillers, where every page crackles with high-stakes action and interstellar intrigue.

Filed Under: Box Set List Featured Sci-Fi, The Box Set List Features Tagged With: Galactic Terror, Michael Ro

Featured Fantasy: A Matter of Magic Duology by Patricia C. Wrede

October 5, 2024 by Carolynn

Featured Fantasy: A Matter of Magic Duology by Patricia C. Wrede

$1.99 as of October 5, 2024
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia

Apple, Nook, Kobo, GooglePlay

An orphan in Regency London discovers a world of magic, intrigue, and romance in this YA historical fantasy duology—now available in one volume!

When a stranger offers Kim a small fortune to break into a traveling magician’s wagon, she doesn’t hesitate. Having grown up a waif in the dirty streets of London, Kim isn’t above a bit of breaking-and-entering. But when the magician catches her in the act, Kim thinks she’s done for.

Instead, Mairelon the Magician asks Kim to become his apprentice. And that’s when the real trouble begins. Kim soon finds herself entangled with murderers, thieves, and cloak-and-dagger politics, all while trying to learn how to become both a proper lady and a magician in her own right.

A Matter of Magic includes the books Mairelon the Magician and The Magician’s Ward.

Filed Under: Box Set Featured Fantasy, The Box Set List Features Tagged With: A Matter of Magic, Mairelon, Patricia C. Wrede, The Magician's Ward

Featured Fantasy: Vegas Arcana by James Anderson Foster

October 3, 2024 by Carolynn

Featured Fantasy: Vegas Arcana by James Anderson Foster

FREE as of October 3, 2024
Click for current price at: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany

Behind the neon glow lies a darker truth—welcome to VEGAS ARCANA.

“Vegas Arcana: Deck Runner’s Gambit” is the first book in the Vegas Arcana series, a cornerstone of the expansive ARCANAVERSE. While Vegas Arcana stands on its own, it also opens the door to an interconnected urban fantasy world. Readers can choose to stay in Vegas or explore other Arcanaverse series, each offering unique adventures that ultimately weave together in epic crossover events. Whichever path you choose, the Arcanaverse promises an unforgettable journey into the hidden corners of our world.

In the city where the dazzling lights cast the darkest shadows, an ordinary life is about to be upended.

Las Vegas is known for its glamour, but beneath the surface, Malcolm Byrne discovers a hidden world of magic and danger. Thrust into a centuries-old battle to maintain the balance of power, Mal must navigate treacherous waters filled with arcane threats.

As Mal delves deeper into this mystical underworld, he forms fragile alliances with those who straddle the line between the magical and the mundane. Tested in ways he never imagined, he confronts not only external enemies but also the shadows lurking within himself.

Will Mal survive the dangers of this hidden world and discover who he truly is? Find out in “Vegas Arcana: Deck Runner’s Gambit,” a fast-paced Urban Fantasy perfect for fans of Jim Butcher and Benedict Jacka. Dive into a world of hidden magic, thrilling action, and complex in-fighting that will keep you turning pages late into the night.

Filed Under: Box Set Featured Fantasy, The Box Set List Features Tagged With: James Anderson Foster, Vegas Arcana

Featured Sci-fi: Freedom’s Choice by Anne McCaffrey

October 3, 2024 by Carolynn

Featured Sci-fi: Freedom's Choice by Anne McCaffrey

FREE as of October 3, 2024
Click for current price at: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany

Apple, B&N, Kobo, GooglePlay

Abducted by the alien Catteni, Kristin Bjornsen was one of many humans brought to the planet Botany as part of an experiment to see if it could support life. Enslaved and forced to colonize a world not their own, the settlers have accepted Botany as their home—a home worth fighting for…
 
Kristin’s people have learned that the aliens responsible for their imprisonment are merely mercenaries, subjugated by the parasitic Eosi Race, and that Botany is being farmed remotely by some unknown species—a species that may be sympathetic to the colonists’ struggle for freedom.
 
The “Farmers” refuse to join the humans in their rebellion against the Catteni, but they agree to use their technological skills to shield Botany and hide it from its enemies—buying Kristin and the settlers time to build up their forces and liberate their world…

Filed Under: Box Set List Featured Sci-Fi, The Box Set List Features Tagged With: A Freedom Novel, Anne McCaffrey, Freedom's Choice

Featured Sci-fi: Culture Shock (The Gunn Files Book 1) by M.G. Herron

October 2, 2024 by Carolynn

Featured Sci-fi: Culture Shock (The Gunn Files Book 1) by M.G. Herron

FREE as of October 2, 2024
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany

Apple, Nook, Kobo, GooglePlay

Aliens are among us. Austin, Texas just got a whole lot weirder.

When down-on-his-luck bounty hunter Anderson Gunn snags his next job, he’s just happy to get the gig.

The target he’s chasing may be wanted for murder, but his debts won’t pay themselves.

He should’ve been more selective. When Gunn finds his mark, the wanted man turns out to be no man at all. Gunn faces off against a tentacled creature out of Ridley Scott’s worst nightmare—a mind-reading offworlder wearing his skip’s skin like a onesie.

And that’s just the first day.

Gunn’s world turns upside down as he gets swept up in the hunt for an escaped alien convict.

Amidst the chaos, an otherworldly puppeteer pulls hidden strings, implicating a shadowy organization with designs on Earth that are as cryptic as they are deadly.

The Gunn Files is a gripping and fast-paced sci-fi mystery with a dash of humor and the gritty allure of noir detective fiction.

Filed Under: Box Set List Featured Sci-Fi, The Box Set List Features Tagged With: Culture Shock, M. g. Herron, The Gunn Files

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