Today’s Kindle Daily Deal offers a treasure trove of Southern Gothic literary fiction from Flannery O’Connor and the bestselling Song of Albion Trilogy for Sci-Fi/Fantasy fans. First up: Song of Albion.
The Paradise War: Book One in The Song of Albion Trilogy (4.5/5 stars, priced at $1.99 TODAY ONLY)
Immersion Reading fans: note that as of this writing, the accompanying Audible audiobook can be purchased for $1.99 when purchasing the Kindle book. Look for the ‘add Audible narration’ checkbox on the Kindle book page in the ‘buy’ box.
“When I opened my eyes, I was no longer in the world I knew.”
Lewis Gillies is an American graduate student in Oxford who should be getting on with his life. Yet for some reason, he finds himself speeding north with his roommate Simon on a lark–half-heartedly searching for a long-extinct creature allegedly spotted in a misty glen in Scotland. Expecting little more than a weekend diversion, Lewis accidently crosses through a mystical gateway where two worlds meet: into the time-between-times, as the ancient Celts called it. And into the heart of a collision between good and evil that’s been raging since long before Lewis was born.
First published almost twenty years ago, The Song of Albion Trilogy has become a modern classic that continues to attract passionate new readers. Enter into The Paradise War and experience the dazzling brilliance of a world like ours–yet infinitely bolder and brighter: a place of kings and warriors, bards and battles, feats of glory and honour. It is a place you will forever wish to be. It is Albion.
The Silver Hand: Book Two in The Song of Albion Trilogy (5/5 stars, priced at $1.99 TODAY ONLY)
Immersion Reading fans: note that as of this writing, the accompanying Audible audiobook can be purchased for $1.99 when purchasing the Kindle book. Look for the ‘add Audible narration’ checkbox on the Kindle book page in the ‘buy’ box.
“Before Albion is one, the hero feat must be performed and Silver Hand must reign.”
The great king, Meldryn Mawr, is dead, and his kingdom lies in ruins. Treachery and brutality rule the land, and Albion is the scene of an epic struggle for the throne.
Lewis is now known as Llew in this Otherworld, and he has become a threat to the usurper Meldron. Exiled and driven from the clan, he must seek the meaning behind a mysterious prophecy–the making of a true king and the revealing of a long-awaited champion: Silver Hand.
The Endless Knot: Book Three in The Song of Albion Trilogy (4.5/5 stars, priced at $1.99 TODAY ONLY)
Immersion Reading fans: note that as of this writing, the accompanying Audible audiobook can be purchased for $1.99 when purchasing the Kindle book. Look for the ‘add Audible narration’ checkbox on the Kindle book page in the ‘buy’ box.
“The balance is not restored. The knot–the endless knot–is still unraveling.”
Fires rage in Albion: strange, hidden fire, dark-flamed, invisible to the eye. In the midst of it, Llew must journey to the Foul Land to redeem his greatest treasure. As the last battle begins, the myths, passions, and heroism of an ancient people come to life . . . and Llew Silverhand will face a challenge that will test his very soul.
The ancient Celts admitted no separation between this world and the Otherworld: the two were delicately interwoven, each dependent on the other. The Endless Knot crosses the thin places between this world and that, as Llew begins his ultimate quest, striking the final resounding chord in the Song of Albion.
Now, on to four books from master literary fiction author Flannery O’Connor:
The Complete Stories (4.5/5 stars, priced at $2.99 TODAY ONLY)
Winner of the National Book Award
The publication of this extraordinary volume firmly established Flannery O’Connor’s monumental contribution to American fiction. There are thirty-one stories here in all, including twelve that do not appear in the only two story collections O’Connor put together in her short lifetime–Everything That Rises Must Converge and A Good Man Is Hard to Find.
O’Connor published her first story, “The Geranium,” in 1946, while she was working on her master’s degree at the University of Iowa. Arranged chronologically, this collection shows that her last story, “Judgement Day”–sent to her publisher shortly before her death–is a brilliantly rewritten and transfigured version of “The Geranium.” Taken together, these stories reveal a lively, penetrating talent that has given us some of the most powerful and disturbing fiction of the twentieth century. Also included is an introduction by O’Connor’s longtime editor and friend, Robert Giroux.
The Violent Bear It Away (4/5 stars, priced at $2.99 TODAY ONLY)
Immersion Reading fans: note that as of this writing, the accompanying Audible audiobook can be purchased for $2.99 when purchasing the Kindle book. Look for the ‘add Audible narration’ checkbox on the Kindle book page in the ‘buy’ box.
First published in 1955, The Violent Bear It Away is now a landmark in American literature. It is a dark and absorbing example of the Gothic sensibility and bracing satirical voice that are united in Flannery O’Conner’s work.
In it, the orphaned Francis Marion Tarwater and his cousins, the schoolteacher Rayber, defy the prophecy of their dead uncle–that Tarwater will become a prophet and will baptize Rayber’s young son, Bishop. A series of struggles ensues: Tarwater fights an internal battle against his innate faith and the voices calling him to be a prophet while Rayber tries to draw Tarwater into a more “reasonable” modern world. Both wrestle with the legacy of their dead relatives and lay claim to Bishop’s soul.
O’Connor observes all this with an astonishing combination of irony and compassion, humor and pathos. The result is a novel whose range and depth reveal a brilliant and innovative writers acutely alert to where the sacred lives and to where it does not.
Everything That Rises Must Converge (4.5/5 stars, priced at $2.99 TODAY ONLY)
Immersion Reading fans: note that as of this writing, the accompanying Audible audiobook can be purchased for $2.99 when purchasing the Kindle book. Look for the ‘add Audible narration’ checkbox on the Kindle book page in the ‘buy’ box.
Note that all of the stories in this volume are also included in The Complete Stories, shown above.
Flannery O’Connor was working on Everything That Rises Must Converge at the time of her death.
This collection is an exquisite legacy from a genius of the American short story, in which she scrutinizes territory familiar to her readers: race, faith, and morality.
The stories encompass the comic and the tragic, the beautiful and the grotesque; each carries her highly individual stamp and could have been written by no one else.
Wise Blood (4.5/5 stars, priced at $2.99 TODAY ONLY)
Immersion Reading fans: note that as of this writing, the accompanying Audible audiobook can be purchased for $2.99 when purchasing the Kindle book. Look for the ‘add Audible narration’ checkbox on the Kindle book page in the ‘buy’ box.
Wise Blood, Flannery O’Connor’s astonishing and haunting first novel, is a classic of twentieth-century literature.
Focused on the story of Hazel Motes, a twenty-two-year-old caught in an unending struggle against his innate, desperate fate, this tale of redemption, retribution, false prophets, blindness, blindings, and wisdoms gives us one of the most riveting characters in twentieth-century American fiction.
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Tech Tip of the Week: Can I Burn Purchased Digital Videos To Disc?
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