Cyber Monday #WhispersyncDeal roundup: Seveneves, The Hunger Games, 1984, The Forever War, Flowers for Algernon, The Muralist, Octavia Butler, and more

Cyber Monday #WhispersyncDeal roundup: Seveneves, The Hunger Games, 1984, The Forever War, Flowers for Algernon, The Muralist, Octavia Butler, and more

Posted on 2016-11-28 at 21:46 by Sam

Today’s “Cyber Monday” Kindle Daily Deals listings number in the hundreds — over 400, actually. It’s a lot to look through, especially with the wonky “paging” (with no apparent “see all” or category search links!) for the sale. But, have no fear! As I did just recently with the monthly November #WhispersyncDeal roundup, which is still ongoing through Wednesday so don’t miss that, either, I took a glance through and found the best deals on the best books. Here we go:

Seveneves: A Novel by Neal Stephenson, read by Mary Robinette Kowal and Will Damron for $2.99+$5.49 — “From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anathem, Reamde, and Cryptonomicon comes an exciting and thought-provoking science fiction epic—a grand story of annihilation and survival spanning five thousand years. What would happen if the world were ending? A catastrophic event renders the earth a ticking time bomb. In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere, in outer space. But the complexities and unpredictability of human nature coupled with unforeseen challenges and dangers threaten the intrepid pioneers, until only a handful of survivors remain … Five thousand years later, their progeny—seven distinct races now three billion strong—embark on yet another audacious journey into the unknown … to an alien world utterly transformed by cataclysm and time: Earth.”

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, read by Carolyn McCormick for $2.99+$3.95 — “In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love. “

The Uninvited by Liz Jensen, read by Colin Mace for Whole Story Audio for $1.99+$3.99 — An apocalyptic thriller: “A seven-year-old girl puts a nail gun to her grandmother’s neck and fires. An isolated incident, say the experts. The experts are wrong. Across the world, children are killing their families. Is violence contagious?”

More in the mood for classic science fiction? Here we go:

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman, read by George Wilson for $1.99+$3.49 — “Private William Mandella is a hero in spite of himself — a reluctant conscript drafted into an elite military unit, and propelled through space and time to fight in a distant thousand-year conflict. He never wanted to go to war, but the leaders on Earth have drawn a line in the interstellar sand — despite the fact that their fierce alien enemy is unknowable, unconquerable, and very far away. So Mandella will perform his duties without rancor and even rise up through the military’s ranks … if he survives. But the true test of his mettle will come when he returns to Earth. Because of the time dilation caused by space travel the loyal soldier is aging months, while his home planet is aging centuries — and the difference will prove the saying: you never can go home…“

1984 by George Orwell, read by Simon Prebble for $1.99+$3.99 — “‘Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’ Hidden away in the Record Department of the sprawling Ministry of Truth, Winston Smith skilfully rewrites the past to suit the needs of the Party. Yet he inwardly rebels against the totalitarian world he lives in, which demands absolute obedience and controls him through the all-seeing telescreens and the watchful eye of Big Brother, symbolic head of the Party. In his longing for truth and liberty, Smith begins a secret love affair with a fellow-worker Julia, but soon discovers the true price of freedom is betrayal. George Orwell’s dystopian masterpiece, Nineteen Eighty-Four is perhaps the most pervasively influential book of the twentieth century.”

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, read by Jeff Woodman for $1.99+$3.49 — “The beloved, classic story of a mentally disabled man whose experimental quest for intelligence mirrors that of Algernon, an extraordinary lab mouse.” Note: The Audible edition is currently $4.95 standalone, if you don’t want the Kindle edition at all.

Anthologies? Today’s sale has two really, really good ones:

The End of the World: Stories of the Apocalypse edited by Martin H. Greenberg, and Lovecraft’s Monsters edited by Ellen Datlow.

In the mood for non-speculative fiction? Here you go:

The Muralist: A Novel by R. A. Shapiro, read by Xe Sands for $1.99+$4.49 — “Alizée Benoit, an American painter working for the Works Progress Administration (WPA), vanishes in New York City in 1940 amid personal and political turmoil. No one knows what happened to her. Not her Jewish family living in German-occupied France. Not her artistic patron and political compatriot, Eleanor Roosevelt. Not her close-knit group of friends, including Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, and Lee Krasner. And, some 70 years later, not her great-niece, Danielle Abrams, who, while working at Christie’s auction house, uncovers enigmatic paintings hidden behind recently found works by those now famous abstract expressionist artists. Do they hold answers to the questions surrounding her missing aunt?”

The Good Girl by Mary Kubica, read by a full cast for $3.99+$3.99 — “Born to a prominent Chicago judge and his stifled socialite wife, Mia Dennett moves against the grain as a young inner-city art teacher. One night, Mia enters a bar to meet her on-again, off-again boyfriend. But when he doesn’t show, she unwisely leaves with an enigmatic stranger. With his smooth moves and modest wit, Colin Thatcher seems at first like a safe one-night stand. But following Colin home will turn out to be the worst mistake of Mia’s life. “

House of Thieves: A Novel by Charles Belfoure, read by Jeff Woodman for $1.99+$5.49 — “In 1886 New York, a respectable architect shouldn’t have any connection to the notorious gang of thieves and killers that rules the underbelly of the city. But when John Cross’ son racks up an unfathomable gambling debt to Kent’s Gents, Cross must pay it back himself. All he has to do is use his inside knowledge of high society mansions and museums to craft a robbery even the smartest detectives won’t solve. The take better include some cash, too - the bigger the payout, the faster this will be over. With a newfound talent for sniffing out vulnerable and lucrative targets, Cross becomes invaluable to the gang. But Cross’s entire life has become a balancing act, and it will only take one mistake for it all to come crashing down - and for his family to go down too.”

The Hurricane  by Hugh Howey, read by Tim Gerard Reynolds for $0.99+$1.99 is Wool author Howey’s take on coming-of-age fiction: “Daniel Stillman has 42 Facebook friends. His cell phone contains 18 contacts, two of them for pizza delivery. Six people follow him on Twitter. Four readers subscribe to his blog; he’s pretty sure one of them followed him on accident. And now a category 5 storm is about to wipe all this away. In its wake will be left a single girl, a neighbor he never knew, and a new reprieve from the digital maelstrom of his life, a great silence like the eye of some terrific storm.”

Penultimately, the “official” Kindle Daily Deals today aren’t the only great Whispersync titles to snap up. In particular, my highest recommendation goes out to this novel and audiobook by Octavia Butler:

Dawn (The Xenogenesis Trilogy, Book 1) read by Aldrich Barrett for $1.99+$3.49 — “In a world devastated by nuclear war with humanity on the edge of extinction, aliens finally make contact. They rescue those humans they can, keeping most survivors in suspended animation while the aliens begin the slow process of rehabilitating the planet. When Lilith Iyapo is “awakened”, she finds that she has been chosen to revive her fellow humans in small groups by first preparing them to meet the utterly terrifying aliens, then training them to survive on the wilderness that the planet has become. But the aliens cannot help humanity without altering it forever. “

Finally, today’s Audible.com “Daily Deal” (no Kindle edtion plus Whispersync add-on required) is…

The Sign of Four: A Sherlock Holmes Novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, read by Simon Prebble for $1.95 — “As a dense yellow fog swirls through the streets of London, a deep melancholy has descended on Sherlock Holmes, who sits in a cocaine-induced haze at 221B Baker Street. His mood is only lifted by a visit from a beautiful but distressed young woman---Mary Morstan, whose father vanished ten years before. Four years later she began to receive an exquisite gift every year: a large, lustrous pearl. Now she has had an intriguing invitation to meet her unknown benefactor and urges Holmes and Watson to accompany her. In the ensuing investigation---which involves a wronged woman, a stolen hoard of Indian treasure, a wooden-legged ruffian, a helpful dog, and a love affair---even the jaded Holmes is moved to exclaim, “Isn’t it gorgeous!""

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