free books are awesome

As mentioned, I’m on book buying hiatus for a bit, mostly because of wanting to try to put at least something of a dent in my monster To Read list, but also because solarbird and I gotta look at putting a new porch roof on MurkSouth. And that’ll be a big ol’ pile of moneys.

But that doesn’t stop me in the slightest from grabbing free books! Here are the ones I’ve grabbed lately.

• Soft Apocalypse, by Will McIntosh. This is an SF novel along the lines of “what happens if the world ends not with a bang, but with a whimper?” It promises to be exceptionally grim, and I’m not sure when I’ll be in the mood to read this, but I grabbed it anyway when B&N offered it as the weekly freebie. Just to encourage them to do this more with SF.
• Little Fuzzy, by H. Beam Piper. SF. Bought this one by way of interest in John Scalzi’s newly released reboot of same, which is called Fuzzy Nation. I’m not quite prepared to break my hiatus for Fuzzy Nation, but I AM interested, so I’m reading the original first by way of comparison. (Besides, I have a couple other Scalzi titles I need to get caught up on first.)
• The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, by Catherynne M. Valente. YA/Fantasy. This was available very briefly as a freebie, so I took advantage of that offer while it lasted. I expect I’ll eventually buy a hardcopy too.
• The Winds of Khalakovo, by Bradley P. Beaulieu. Fantasy. This was this past weekend’s B&N freebie, courtesy of Night Shade Books. Yoinked because, again, wishing to encourage B&N to cater to the SF/F audience!

110 for the year! Tomorrow, though, there will be breakage of hiatus for Deadline, to take me up to 111. Tasty, tasty Deadline. GIVE! TO! ZIM! *grabby hands*

I think this’ll be my last book roundup at least for a couple of months–solarbird and I are about to hit summer doldrums in our rental income, so I need to back off buying books for a while. Also, I need to get massively caught up on reading and reviewing! So as of this post I’ll be on hiatus for buying new books through the end of May, at least. Possibly the whole summer, but let’s say for now the end of May.

Therefore, in print:

• The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack, by Mark Hodder. Steampunk. Picked this up since I’d been hearing about it for a while, and because it just won the PK Dick award.
• Mark of the Lion, by Suzanne Arruda. Mystery. This is a re-buy, in print, on the grounds that I’d tried to shift over to ebook with these series, only to discover that book 1 is not actually available electronically to US readers. To wit, bah. Re-bought it so I could keep it in my library, but will buy the rest in ebook.
• Palimpsest, by Catherynne M. Valente. Fantasy. Re-buy in print as I gave my previous (unread and still in new condition) print copy to kathrynt as a birthday present!
• Nine Coaches Waiting, by Mary Stewart. Romantic suspense. Because, as I’ve observed before, you don’t get much more awesome than Mary Stewart for old-school Gothic romance.

In ebook:

• Mansfield Park and Mummies: Monster Mayhem, Matrimony, Ancient Curses, True Love, and Other Dire Delights, by Jane Austen and Vera Nazarian. Jane Austen mashup, bought partly because of norilana‘s recent financial troubles and partly because I’d already tried to buy a print edition of this via Third Place’s book-printing machine, only to have it come out large and kind of fragile in binding. So I’ve elected to buy the Kindle edition for my iPad instead.
• Northanger Abbey and Angels and Dragons, also by Jane Austen and Vera Nazarian. Another Jane Austen mashup, not actually previously purchased. Buying the Kindle edition since that’s the only ebook version available, though I wish it were available for the nook.
• The Native Star, by M.K. Hobson. Steampunk/romance. Because I’ve been eying this one for a while and it sounds like fun, and I have to admit that I’m a sucker for a hero with a goofily pretentious-sounding name like ‘Dreadnought Stanton’. I hope he’s as awesome as that name makes him sound. 😉
• Uncertain Allies, by Mark Del Franco. Urban fantasy. Book 5 of his Connor Grey series.
• Face Off, also by Mark Del Franco. Urban fantasy. Book 2 of his Laura Blackstone series.
• Play Dead, by John Levitt. Urban fantasy. Book 4 of his Dog Days series.
• Married With Zombies, by Jesse Petersen. ‘Cause, well, y’know, ZOMBIES, and also because the Smart Bitches reviewed it, and because the author started following me on Twitter. Hi, Jesse Petersen! Looking forward to this.
• Wild Ride, by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer. Romance. Bought because I have highly enjoyed the previous two collaborations by these authors, and I expect to enjoy this one, too; this time there appears to be a touch of paranormal involved, so it’ll be interesting to see what they do with that. Also, there appears to be an amusement park.
• Dead Waters, by Anton Strout. Book 4 of his Simon Canderous series.

Also, as a bonus, the following books were picked up in print while I was at Norwescon:

• Well of Sorrows, by Benjamin Tate, a.k.a. jpsorrow (Joshua Palmatier). I’ve already bought this in ebook, of course–and had also read an ARC of it and reviewed it for him. But I wanted to buy the print edition to support him, and also to get him to sign it! Woo!
• Diving into the Wreck, by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. SF. Acquired as a freebie for volunteering at the con, along with the following two titles, all of whom are trade editions of Pyr titles.
• Blood of Ambrose, by James Enge. Fantasy. Another freebie.
• Empire in Black and Gold, by Adrian Tchaikovsky. SF. Another freebie.

This puts me up to 106 for the year. Now let’s see how many of these I can actually READ.

This one clearing the slate before Norwescon, since I’m fairly sure I’m coming back with more books from that! And without further ado, from B&N:

• Lessons in French, by Laura Kinsale. Historical romance, heartily recommended by the fine ladies over at Smart Bitches.
• Last Night in Montreal and The Singer’s Gun, by Emily St. John Mandel. General fiction; saw this author spoken well of a while back and have been meaning to try her work.
• The Search, by Nora Roberts. Romance/romantic suspense. Because La Nora is awesome.
• Divine Misfortune, by A. Lee Martinez. Comedic fantasy. Heartily recommended by housemate spazzkat. Lots of fun here involving a couple trying to hire their own personal god.
• And last but most assuredly not least, because I CLEARLY need to get caught up: A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, and A Feast for Crows, by, of course, George R.R. Martin. The epicest of modern epic fantasy. Bought for reasons that should be obvious, and because as I mentioned, I need to bloody well get caught up. ;D

Meanwhile, over in Carina Press land:

• A Marriage of Inconvenience, by Susanna Fraser. Historical romance. Bought because Fraser and I follow one another on Twitter, because she’s a fellow Seattleite, AND a fellow Browncoat, and because I really liked her first book.
• Collision Course, by Zoe Archer. Romantic SF. Same author who did the Blades of the Rose series, which I tore through late last year and quite liked!
• Blood of the Maple, by Dana Marie Bell. Paranormal romance. Yet another vampire, but the concept of this one made me giggle and so I had to check it out: a vampire cursed into vegetarianism after pissing off a witch, finds the one female he can’t resist: a dryad. Muahaha.
• Photographs & Phantoms, by Cindy Spencer Pape. Another steampunk work from Pape, a freebie novella Carina offered today and which I can’t actually download yet until its official release date, but which I’m counting now anyway!

89 for the year, now. We’ll see how many print books I pick up at the con!