The introduction of Steampunk elements has breathed new life into the Western genre, ushering in a renaissance of sorts for tales of gunslingers, ghosts and myths of the old west. Right now, you can even get a bestselling, two-volume box set in this burgeoning genre for FREE!
The Whirlwind in the Thorn Tree: Vol 1 & 2 Box Set – The Outlaw King Series (4.5/5 stars, currently FREE)
After coming home from a stint in Afghanistan, veteran Ross Brigham learns that his father has passed away. Dearly departed Dad was a famous fantasy novelist, and the 300 fans that show up for the funeral demand that Ross finish E. R. Brigham’s long-running magnum opus.
Ross and two of the author’s devotees investigate his untimely death and discover that he might have been murdered…and the time-bending gunslingers of Dad’s steampunk novels might be real.
As they try to acclimate to the arid deserts of the author’s fantasy world, the three damaged heroes become pawns in a war for humanity’s survival. The Muses have grown tired of immortality and now incite atrocities on Earth, trying to lure down a leviathan from the stars.
Can Ross and his new friends stop the scheming satyrs before both worlds are eaten?
Inspired by such old-school fantasy classics as Stephen King’s The Dark Tower, C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, and Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time.
Bonus! Now contains book two, Law of the Wolf!
The Shotgun Arcana (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $11.04)
R. S. Belcher’s debut novel, The Six-Gun Tarot, was enthusiastically greeted by critics and readers, who praised its wildly inventive mixture of dark fantasy, steampunk, and the Wild West. Now Belcher returns to Golgotha, Nevada, a bustling frontier town that hides more than its fair share of unnatural secrets.
1870. A haven for the blessed and the damned, including a fallen angel, a mad scientist, a pirate queen, and a deputy who is kin to coyotes, Golgotha has come through many nightmarish trials, but now an army of thirty-two outlaws, lunatics, serial killers, and cannibals are converging on the town, drawn by a grisly relic that dates back to the Donner Party…and the dawn of humanity.
Sheriff Jon Highfather and his deputies already have their hands full dealing with train robbers, a mysterious series of brutal murders, and the usual outbreaks of weirdness. But with thirty-two of the most vicious killers on Earth riding into Golgotha in just a few day’s time, the town and its people will be tested as never before—and some of them will never be the same.
The Shotgun Arcana is even more spectacularly ambitious and imaginative than The Six-Gun Tarot, and confirms R. S. Belcher’s status as a rising star.
At the publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.
The Rifters (4.5/5 stars, currently FREE)
A junction erupts between the worlds.
The Gold Rush trickles to a fool’s quest and a string of stagecoach heists. In 1888, Earl Blacke decides to make a new start and become a better man. He escapes into the mountains, heading north. In the wilds of Oregon, a rift inside an ancient volcano opens and sends him into the future, into the present day. It also shaves forty years off his age, forty years to live over again and atone for what he’s done.
Starting over is hard to do. In current day New York, Daelin Long’s dream job at a publishing house goes the way of the dinosaurs her sister chases. With no money and nowhere else to go, Daelin accepts the librarian position in her sister’s dinky town in the middle of Oregon. Nestled inside ancient volcanic peaks, the town of Settler holds onto many secrets. Residents roam the streets with weirdly fashioned devices, and odd lights pulse in the night skies. People whisper of a phantom outlaw and start dying, murdered and missing their heads. On top of it all, Daelin’s sister is missing, and Daelin doesn’t know who to trust.
Earl knows more than he’s saying. He shares a notorious history with the phantom, one he’ll see remains buried. Keeping Daelin’s sister’s secrets is his only chance at redemption, and the only way to keep this world safe.
Cultwick: The Sweeper Bot Plague (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $2.99)
Cultwick: The Sweeper Bot Plague tells the story of a group of rebels known by the moniker of the Chromework Confederacy, as they uncover the truth behind the malady that has been ravaging the empire for more than two decades. Told from the perspective of six distinct characters, Cultwick: The Sweeper Bot Plague serves as an introduction to this world of strange science, technological marvels, and a government striving for utter domination over its empire.
Erynn Clover, a young chromesmith working in Cultwick City with an appalling streak of bad luck, is chosen by the government run lottery to participate in genetic experiments. Though the intention of these experiments is purported to be for the eradication of the Sweeper Bot Plague, Erynn has her doubts. Rather than submit to the government’s edict, Erynn flees to the western frontier, branding herself as a heretic and inadvertently dragging her family into the empire’s crosshairs.
For their part, the Cultwick government refuses to let any citizen selected by the lottery escape from their responsibilities as a part of the ongoing experiments, so the empress sends Operative Alice Page after the heretic. Alice, a highly religious woman following the tenets of the Church of Biosynthesis, follows Erynn westward on orders to find her, force her to return to Cultwick City, and ultimately face the deathly consequences of her actions.
Jessie’s War – Civil War Steampunk (4.5/5 stars, currently priced at $2.99)
She’s about to become a pawn in a brutal game between nations…
The American Civil War has raged for more than ten years. The outcast daughter of a famous inventor, Jessica White has struggled to salvage what little remains of her life. Then, one cold winter night, the lover she’d given up for dead returns, claiming the Union Army bought the plans for her father’s last invention. But he’s not the only one who lays claim to the device, for the Confederacy wants the invention as well. Both sides will kill to have it.
…And only he can save her.
As an agent for the Union Army, Luke Bradshaw is a man who will use whomever and whatever is at his disposal in order to complete his mission. An attack by Confederate soldiers ensures that Jessie will turn to him for help, but Luke can’t help but wonder about the secrets she keeps—and if those secrets will ultimately prove fatal.
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Tech Tip of the Week: Managing Your Amazon Instant Video Library
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