3 Free Fantasy eBooks from Night Shade Books

To celebrate thanksgiving the folks at Night Shade Books are giving away 3 of their most popular ebooks.

 The titles included are:

Agatha H and the Airship City by Phil and Kaja Foglio
Of Blood and Honey by Stin Leicht
The Emperors Knife by Mazarkis williams

Here's how to get them:

Email happythanksgiving@nightshadebooks.com and you'll receive an auto response from us with a username, password and link to our download site where you'll be able to download the .epub or .mobi files

You are automatically added to their mailing list, but you can unsubscribe at any time should you wish to do so.

New Arrivals

It's been ages since I did one of these, but that's an unintended result of cutting back on book purchases. I must say I'm weirdly proud of myself for lasting this long. I think I've only bought about half the number of books I did last year. A small triumph in that eternal battle against the TBR-pile.

Books Bought

My pre-order of The Blinding Knife by Brent Weeks finally arrived. I loved The Black Prism, so I'm really looking forward to delving into the second installment in the series.

I also managed to set foot in an actual brick-and-mortar bookshop, which was quite an experience for a geographically disadvantaged lad like me. My closest bookshop is almost 260 kilometers away so I have to depend on online purchases for all my bookish needs. I couldn't leave without at least buying a couple of books so I got October Skies by Alex Scarrow and The Night Eternal by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan.

If the shop was better organised and I had a bit more time I would've left with loads more, but I guess I'll have to count it as blessing that I was pressed for time and that finding anything appealing was a bit of a chore.

For Review

The awesome folks at Jonathan Ball Publishers sent me The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King, Trinity Rising by Elspeth Cooper and City of Dragons by Robin Hobb to review.

I'll first have to get the earlier novels in the Rain Wild Chronicles and The Wild Hunt series before I can get to these, but I'm definitely putting The Wind Through the Keyhole next on my reading list. Thanks Andrea!

Cover Reveal: The Shoal Trilogy Reissued

TOR UK has revealed the revamped covers for the reissue editions of Gary Gibson's Shoal Trilogy and they are amazing. I like these far more than the old covers (which are still waiting patiently on my TBR-pile). Had I known these were in the pipeline I would've waited a bit longer to buy them.

STEALING LIGHT
Release date - May 2013
ISBN: 9781447224099
Pre-order from The Book Depository

The secrets of the past will fan the flames of war ...

For a hundred and fifty thousand years, the alien Shoal have been hiding a terrible secret behind a façade of power. In the twenty-fifth century, they dominate the galaxy and control all trade and exploration, possessing the secret of faster-than-light travel. Mankind has established just a handful of interstellar colonies; their freedom and knowledge of the galaxy limited by the Shoal’s punitive colonial charter.

Dakota Merrick is a machine-head pilot on the run from one of the Consortium’s most powerful criminals. Desperate for escape, she contracts to ferry an expert team to a remote star system. Her passengers hope to scavenge a functioning FTL-drive from a derelict starship – rumoured to pre-date the Shoal. But they’ll expose an ancient genocide the Shoal will do anything to hide. And Dakota will be forced to face demons from her own military past.

NOVA WAR
Release date - May 2013
ISBN: 9781447224105
Pre-order from The Book Depository

One woman and a terrifying secret stand between us and destruction ...

Found adrift far from Consortium space, pilot Dakota Merrick and Lucas Corso are taken prisoner by the alien Bandati. There, Dakota discovers that humanity’s knowledge of the galaxy is frighteningly inaccurate. The Shoal has apparently been fighting a frontier war with a rival species, the Emissaries, for thousands of years. As yet, the latter seem unaware of their FTL technology’s full destructive capabilities. But the Bandati now have this information, and they will use it for profit.


Dakota realises, to her shock, that the Shoal may therefore hold the Galaxy’s best chance for peace. Forging an alliance with Trader, a Shoal-member, she’s determined to prevent the Bandati’s deadly knowledge from reaching the Emissaries. Yet despite her efforts, a nova war now seems inevitable – a war that will destroy millions of inhabited worlds.

EMPIRE OF LIGHT
Release date - May 2013
ISBN: 9781447224112
Pre-order from The Book Depository

One man has the skills to rally their cause – if he can stay alive ...

The nova war spreads across the galaxy, as the Emissaries wage a fierce and reckless campaign. They’ve already reached human-occupied space and forced the alien Shoal into a desperate retreat. And when Dakota leaves to pursue a lead, Corso’s luck turns bad. Now commanding a fleet of human-piloted Magi ships, his authority crumbles before assassination attempts and politically motivated sabotage. Their best hope lies with Ty Whitecloud, currently light-years beyond Consortium borders. Only Ty can decipher messages left behind by ancient star travellers – which could be crucial to their cause.

But Whitecloud is imprisoned onboard a dying coreship, awaiting execution for war crimes against Corso’s own people. For humanity’s very survival, Corso must get to Whitecloud and keep him alive … if Dakota doesn’t kill him first.

24 Hours of Offers

I'm back! Hopefully.

You see, I've been on a forced hiatus due to technical issues. My internet connection decided it wanted to compete with a piece of string to see which one could provide the highest bandwidth - the piece of string won.

After weeks of teeth gnashing, banging my head against a wall and sacrificing to the technological gods, the ADSL line finally got fixed. Unfortunately my woes continue since my ISP decided to move to a new backhaul provider and saying they are having some teething problems would be a very, very kind way of putting it.

Now if your eyes haven't glazed over yet, here's some exciting news.

The Book Depository is holding another '24 hours of offers' sale on Thursday, 8th November from 12:00 GMT. Each hour will see a new book being put on offer. You might be able to get great deals on some early Christmas shopping, so be sure not to miss out.

You can find more details over here.