Alan’s father got a Kindle for his mother, and Alan handed it to me when she was done playing with it. We were at her parents’ – Alan’s grandparents’ – so there was no internet, which limited what you could do besides read the dictionary that comes loaded on there, and marvel at the non-backlit screen. After I’d looked at it covetously for a little while, Alan asked if I would maybe like one for my birthday or something, and then when I allowed as how that would be awesome, he handed me mine all gift-wrapped.
Christmas is awesome.
Anyway, we got into a small discussion about where to find good free books, and so I offer this list of free Kindle and/or any-device novels and short stories (only some of which I’ve already read, and many of which I found at Free Speculative Fiction Online or Project Gutenberg):
- Paolo Bacigalupi: Windup Stories (pdf).
- Agatha Christie: Secret Adversary and (Rachel! There’s a second one! —> ) The Mysterious Affair at Styles.
- StarShipSofa (anthology)
- Lewis Shiner: Frontera (pdf; 1984 Nebula nomination for Best Novel); Glimpses (pdf; 1994 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel).
- The Baen Free Library, which for some reason makes it hard to link to individual subpages, but if you click on The Authors you can find Catherine Asaro, Lois McMaster Bujold (a personal favourite), Mercedes Lackey, Andre Norton, etc.
- Lois McMaster Bujold: Cryoburn ; see also Baen Free Library.
- Marion Zimmer Bradley: The Colors of Space ; The Door Through Space ; The Planet Savers ; Year of the Big Thaw
- Ted Chiang: Exhalation (pdf).
- Cory Doctorow (of course): Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom ; Eastern Standard Tribe ; Little Brother ; Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town
- Tor.com has a bunch of stories, some of which you can download as Mobi Pocket format, including: “The Fermi Paradox Is Our Business Model” by Charlie Jane Anders ; “The Cage” by A. M. Dellamonica ; “The Cat Who Walked a Thousand Miles” by Kij Johnson ; “Clockwork Fairies” by Cat Rambo ; and “First Flight” by Mary Robinette Kowal.
- Kurt Vonnegut: 2 B R 0 2 B and The Big Trip Up Yonder.
- Lots and lots of books by P. G. Wodehouse.
- Yay! Romance novels! Love on a Dime by Cara Lynn James (Thomas Nelson) ; The Wicked House of Rohan by Anne Stuart (Mira); Slow Hands by Leslie Kelly (Harlequin Blaze) ; Once a Cowboy by Linda Warren (Harlequin American Romance) ; Crime Scene at Cardwell Ranch by B. J. Daniels (Harlequin Intrigue) ; The Bride’s Baby by Liz Fielding (Harlequin Romance) ; and Make Mine Midnight by Annmarie McKenna (Samhain Publishing), the Amazon copy for which says, hilariously, “Warning: Threesomes!” … and even better, paranormal romances: Kiss Me Deadly by Michele Hauf (Silhouette Nocturne; “Death cocktail is what the vampires call a witch’s blood.”) ; The Wild’s Call by Jeri Smith-Ready (Luna) ; The Bite of Silence by Mary Hughes (Samhain) ; and paranormal baking romance A Taste of Magic by Tracy Madison (Love Spell).
- Some random stuff I found on Amazon while looking at those romances, that looks good (or at least fun): YA fantasy Wish by Alexandra Bullen ; and fourteenth-century historical Traitor’s Wife by Susan Higginbotham.
