Free (and good) sci-fi novel for soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan

John Scalzi will send a free electronic copy of his novel The Ghost Brigades to any solider stationed in Iraq or Afghanistan who requests it. If you know anyone who's serving, let them know.

Tuesday Amazon sales: Books (Baen and a few others), DVDs (including Criterion!), and Kitchenaid.

(See yesterday's post for more deals and links to previous deal posts. Also, note that most of the videogame deals from the last couple of days are dead.)

Over in Books, Amazon's running a huge sale on Baen books that I somehow missed. Tons of 50% off books here, in various categories, by some top-notch writers:

Hardcovers

Paperbacks

David Weber

John Ringo

Battle of the Sexes (featuring six books, from the likes of Friesner, Pournelle, and Moon).

And Back to School (eight books, including Lackey, Bujold, Norton, and Heinlein).


Other books on sale:
The Memory Keeper's Daughter (Kim Edwards): $7.70 (45% off)

The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini): $7.84 (44% off).

The Glass Castle: A Memoir (Jeannette Walls): $7.84 (44% off).

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel (Lisa See): $7.67 (45% off)

The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (Barack Obama): $13.75 (45% off)

Over in DVDs:

The Criterion edition of Stage and Spectacle -- Three Films by Jean Renoir is going for $39.98 (50% off). There's also a bigger Criterion DVD sale, but most of the other DVDs are at the relatively-standard 25-28% discount (but see the Art House sale below).

The previously-mentioned Monty Python megaset is a part of the TV Megaset sale. Aside from the Python deal, there's also the entire run of Homicide: Life on the Streets for $151.47 (50% off) and The Kids in the Hall Megaset ($119.97, also 50% off). Other sets (ranging from 30-50% off) include Degrassi: TNG, Combat, Twilight Zone, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Mr. Show, Danger Mouse, and Saved by the Bell: The College Years (watch Screech with his clothes on!).

Other box set sales include:

Up to 50% off on Box Sets of Art House and Documentary DVDs. This one includes I, Claudius, the five-disc Fanny and Alexander set, The Criterion John Cassavetes Collection (50% off!), and arthouse fave Carmen Electra's Aerobic Striptease Collection. There are a lot of 50%-off Criterion Discs in this one.

Up to 50% off Sci-fi, Horror, and Anime Box Sets. This includes 50% off the Serial Experiments Lain set and the Godzilla DVD collection, and decent deals on Mermaid Forest, The Adventures of the Mini-Goddesses, the Harryhousen box sets, and the "Crystal Lake to Manhattan" Friday the 13th movie collection

Up to 50% off Film Favorites. This one has 50% or more off of Gone With the Wind, The Marx Brothers Collection, Ben Hur, the Wayne's World set, and damned fine collections of Cary Grant, Steve McQueen, Erroll Flynn, and Clint Eastwood.

And, in honor of Fast Food Nation, there's a sale on up to 50% off Indy movies. This one includes Garden State, Thirteen, 28 Days Later, The Dreamers, Kinsey, and In America (one of my favorite films of the last few years).

Over in the Kitchen/Cooking area, nothing as good as the ultra-cheap stuff I've already posted, but the Amazon Kitchenaid Store has some nice rebates on a lot of their items, and there are some damned steep discounts on the Kitchenaid bakeware (75%+ in some cases). Being Kitchenaid, it's still not under-$20 cheap, but there are some nice deals if you're after quality (and have more disposable income than I do).

Akiva, part II

From the comments in yesterday's post about Akive Goldman:

greatcalvero: Akiva Goldsman shouldn't be allowed near a typewriter. Now and forevermore.

stephen_dedman : Unless, of course, someone drops one on him from a great height.

Sometimes I think he must have had the shit scared out of him by an sf novel or a comic when he was a child, and is still trying to get even.

yendi: Although if he doesn't feel that Batman and Robin was revenge enough, I can't imagine the depths to which he'd sink.

One last post for the morning -- Monday TV

I'm about to head back upstairs and crawl into bed (yes, took my first sick day).

But first:

Last night's Heroes? Every bit as good as the "Save the Cheerleader, Save the World" one the week before should have been. Even the predictable parts were fun.

Last night's Studio 60 was ludicrously padded, to the tune of feeling like there was only half an hour of material. I still enjoyed it, particularly the parts that didn't feature Maureen Dowd (Sorkin does subtle like I do macrame) or extended "musical guest" moments instead of plot. And I'm happy as anything that Mark McKinney's on the show. And even on a weak episode, Sarah Paulson shines. I know it'll never happen (given the nature of the awards), but she's my Best Actress pick at this point in the season, hands down.

Off to bed now.

Color me impressed.

Just woke up (I had a nasty coughing fit, which in turn woke the cat, who walked onto my chest to chastise me), and headed downstairs to grab the mail.

Aside from a couple of good grocery coupons ($10 off $50 "welcome to the neighborhood a month later" coupons from both Shaw's and Whole Foods), there was also a package from Amazon containing the $8 two-skillet set I posted about this weekend.

I ordered it on Saturday and got the shipping notice on Monday (yesterday). That's about as fast as I could hope for, even with Prime.

And I even remembered to clip the UPC so I could get the rebate!

Grrr.

So now we're getting a pointless remake of the other good Tobe Hooper film.

*grumble*

(Okay, I also enjoyed Lifeforce, but it wasn't a good movie, any more than Resident Evil: Apocalypse was a good move. I'll watch either one when it's on TV, but that's half to pick it apart).

Quick Heroes question.

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Stupid, Stupid human creatures

The town of Pahrump, NV, previously known as the setting of two episodes of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip as well as much of Mars Attacks, is now proving itself to be a town of xenophobic morons (redundant). They've not only passed the usual slate of English-only laws (because when you think of places to emulate, you think of Quebec, right?), but they've passed a law banning the flying of any non-US flag unless it's flown in conjunction with the US flag.

Wonder if they know that they live in a state that takes its name from a Spanish word?

In the meantime, I'm consider passing a house law banning the flying of any flag in my house unless the Freedonian flag is also flown.