Teaser Tuesday #47: The Dance of Time & Free Books!

The past few weeks I've realized just how good at military fiction Eric Flint is. Now, back to the teaser game - Here's a teaser from Eric Flint's The Dance of Time (Belisarius series):

"The Malwa commander took a deep breath; then, slowly, sighed it out. "We can't hold Multan," he said quietly, speaking more to himself than to the lieutenant."

You can read most of Eric's books for free here or buy them from Baen.
How does the publisher give so many books away for FREE you ask? See This post on Baen and their free library.

Really Mini Summary:
Warfare and strategy in a Roman culture - pretty good stuff! Multiple cultures, two strong female protagonists, the decisive and effective Belisarius, and a whole lot of military action. This isn't for the faint-hearted.
Engrossing enough that I'm reading the entire series in a row.

To begin reading, here is the first free book in the Belisarius series, An Oblique Approach.
Let me know if you follow this blog, I'll follow back! 

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To join into the TT fun, visit the link below!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

Teaser Tuesday #46: the first since my son's arrival!

Aaryan, Week 5

The last months of my pregnancy and My son's arrival derailed my memes on E-volving books. This is him in a rare snoozing session!

Now, back to the teaser game - Here's a teaser from Eric Flint's The Tide of Victory:

"But that order—and its consequences—remain mine to bear. No one else. Nor can I trade it against other consequences, as if ruthlessness was a commodity which can be exchanged in a village market"

You can read most of Eric's books for free here or buy them from Baen.
How does the publisher give so many books away for FREE you ask? See This post on Baen and their free library.

Free short stories - Sharon Lee and others

The wonderful Baen Publishing house has a really strong collection of short stories (about 6 so far) which is available in multiple formats. You can either read these online, or download a Kindle-friendly, html, palm, microsoft reader or other device's version.
They are all available FREE!
http://www.webscription.net/p-1387-free-short-stories-2011.aspx
The stories I'm planning to start off with is Tanya: Princess of the Elves by Larry Correia.

Oh, and Sharon Lee's new Liaden short story, currently available here, will also go into this collection by Monday next.
More about Baen and their philosophy of free here. 
Click here for a recent review of one of Sharon Lee's magical books, Carousel Tides.

Review: Carousel Tides by Sharon Lee

Carousel Tides by Sharon Lee

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Grade: A

Why I read it:

Carousel Tides piqued my interest when I read the first 10 chapters for free at www.Baen.com.

I have read nearly all the Sharon Lee and Miller books before, and enjoyed them immensely. Being eager for any more Liaden stories, I explored Webscriptions on Baen (this lets you buy the ebooks and packaged bundles of stories directly from Baen) - and signed up for an account.

Plus: I loved the heroine, Kate, and her changing attitude to her obligations at home. She is a magical powerhouse, but has elected to actively resign from her powers and position, instead attempting a normal life. We don't hear much about this, but her search for her missing grandma brings her back home.

The shield between the many worlds is wearing thin, and Kate is needed to stand Gaurdian for our world.

Characters: A very interesting, likeable character for Kate, I wanted more of this novel!

There were plenty of twists in the tale, adventures were had, and folks were rescued!

Minus: Not too many here - perhaps, a minor crib would be the story needed more depth to the secondary characters.

I would Recommend it to: Liaden fans (naturally), Urban Fantasy readers, Nora Roberts readers and my girlfriends who read romantic suspense. Also, folks who like strong female heroines.

View all my reviews

Teaser Tuesday #22 - FREE BOOK - March Upcountry by David Weber

The David Weber and John Ringo series about Prince Roger and his army numbers highly amongst my favorite space / military fiction books. 
From Chapter 12 of the March Upcountry ebook:

"If, on the other hand, we do a steep reentry—which, by the way, is what we're planning—and run out of fuel, we'll just pancake."

"Oh."

I'm still reading Foucault's Pendulum, but March Upcountry is a welcome break while I struggle through the former! You can read this for FREE here at Baen Free Library or buy it at Amazon. Practically the entire series is available here, thanks to the generosity of its authors.To find out about Baen and its Free Book Philosophy, read this post.

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Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should be Reading.

Baen Publishing - a home for ebooks and new authors

The Baen Free Library is the brainchild of Jim Baen, the publisher and editor of Baen Publishing. It was started about a decade ago, late 1999, and they were (to my mind) the pioneers of the ebook and online publishing worlds. Dedicated to sci-fiction and fantasy, these guys revolutionized the nascent, piracy-fearing ebook industry.

Not only did they create a convival atmosphere for authors to chat, meet online, share stories, they also brought a whole new audience to these great authors. Where else could you have gotten a free book from a new author? Now, of course, amazon offers this as an incentive  - giving the first book in a series away for free. Now you know where it began!

Baen also has an internet publishing venture at http://baens-universe.com/, which just recently called it quits. They still have a huge collection of short stories and articles.

Authors I discovered, and later bought books from, via this free-book strategy from www.baen.com are:

• Mercedes Lackey
• David Weber
• Lois McMaster Bujold

It is funny how even Sharon Lee is one of the authors in Jim's fold, but I only discovered her Liaden books recently, thanks to her giveaway. There are still authors in that list that I am sure I will read, eventually. Sadly, the site doesn't seem to be super active, since Jim Baen's passing. Eric Flint does a stand-up job of his role as First Librarian, as always.

Most authors have a number of books available for easy download here, in html, epub, .lit and many other formats. You can browse The Baen Free Library by author, books or even by Series.

This is your chance to discover new scifi/fantasy authors!

Some links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baen_Books

http://baens-universe.com/

Posted via email from readseverything's posterous

Contest & Giveaway Prizes: Free copies of novels by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller

Sharon Lee & Steve Miller are the author team behind the classic and ever-popular Liaden Universe®. This series of “adventurous romantic space opera” holds cross-over appeal for both romance and science fiction readers.

To celebrate the release of Mouse and Dragon, Lee and Miller’s thirteenth Liaden novel, the authors are hosting a contest. It’s open to anyone and everyone who has yet to sample a Liaden Universe® novel. They're giving away 36 digital copies of The Dragon Variation.

Not only that, but if you’re a blogger who wants to help spread the word about it, you’ll be entered for a chance to win a $36.00 gift card from Barnes and Noble! And if you’re a blogger new to the Liaden novels (like myself), you can enter both tiers of the contest.

Here is an excerpt from the official announcement at Sharon Lee’s blog:

In celebration of the publication of Mouse and Dragon, the thirteenth novel set in their Liaden Universe®, authors Sharon Lee and Steve Miller are holding an Expanding Universe Contest! Yes! No less than thirty-six electronic copies of The Dragon Variation will be given away.

The Dragon Variation is an omnibus edition of three Liaden Universe® novels — Conflict of Honors, one of the first modern SFRomances; Local Custom, second place winner of the Prism Award for best Futuristic of 2002; and Scout’s Progress, the first place winner of the Prism Award for best Futuristic of 2002, Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice for Best SF Novel of its year, and the prequel to Mouse and Dragon.

That's three complete novels under one cover. No prior knowledge of the Liaden Universe® required. Electronic! In Baen Books’ DRM-free, multiplatform style. This omnibus can be read on your Kindle, your phone, your iPad, your desktop, or other ereader.

To enter the contest, visit the Expanding Universe Post at Sharon Lee’s blog and follow the instructions you see there (it’s easy). The contest ends at "midnight Eastern Daylight Time (4:00 a.m. GMT) Friday, July 16". Winners will be announced on Saturday, July 17, 2010.

Final comment - The first several chapters of the books are available for all to read on the Baen Website - www.baen.com. Baen has to be the best publisher in the genre!