In the last few months I’ve read:

  • Project Hail Mary, Weir
  • Fall, Stephenson
  • The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Gaiman
  • The Ultimate Earth, Williamson
  • The first four Discworld books, Pratchett
  • Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge, Resnick
  • A Memory Called Empire, Martine
  • A Desolation Called Peace, Martine
  • The first five Murderbot Diaries books, Wells
  • The Imperial Radch trilogy, Leckie
  • Annihilation, Vandermeer
  • The Kingston Cycle trilogy, Polk

For comparison, I think I read two or three books last year. It’s starting to be a non-trivial amount of money, even though they’ve all been the ebook versions, which are generally a little cheaper. Has anyone who reads a lot of SF found Kindle Unlimited to be worth the price?

  • paddythegeek@lemmy.caEnglish
    14·
    1 year ago

    Not sure if your device supports connection to your public library, but I have been reading literally hundreds of books since Covid on my iPhone using Libby at first, and now the Palace Project. I still purchase the odd book if it’s one I know I will read repeatedly but I haven’t bought an ebook in some time due to using the library.

    Good list, btw. I loved the Arkady Martine books. You might want to try Gideon the Ninth and the sequels.

      • JasSmith@sh.itjust.works
        3·
        1 year ago

        It’s a little tongue in cheek. Kobo has good support for uploading your own ebooks. Z-Library is a user sharing and exchange site with excellent breadth and depth of content, but technically is copyright infringement. The onion site works great.

  • RBWells@lemmy.world
    7·
    1 year ago

    As everyone here is suggesting, the public library is the best way to get sci fi for the Kindle. Whatever app yours uses, it just connects you to Amazon to download the book for free, for 1-3 weeks, whichever you choose. Sometimes there is a wait, place a hold and it shows up eventually.

  • BlendedRacer@aussie.zoneEnglish
    4·
    1 year ago

    If you like Space Opera, try the Kris Longknife series (starting with Kris Longknife: Mutineer) and the Aeon 14 books by M D Cooper (starting with The Complete Intrepid Saga) - all of which are on Kindle. Also on Kindle: Columbus Day (Expeditionary Force Book 1) All books in the series John Ringo’s Empire of Man series starting with March Upcountry

  • sil@aussie.zone
    3·
    1 year ago

    I tried KU for a month or two but I couldn’t find enough good books to read to justify the cost. Instead I just got a digital library subscription and read on my phone/tablet.

  • Tenthrow@lemmy.worldMEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    Check out the Omega Force books. They are a really fun read. Sort of like Guardians of the Galaxy but less magicky.

  • Kiwibrick@lemmy.world
    2·
    1 year ago

    I use smashwords personally, they don’t have all the big authors but I have read dozens of multiple book series, and lots of them are free

  • conciselyverbose@kbin.social
    2·
    1 year ago

    IDK about sci-fi specifically, but I have scribd and use it extremely heavily, mostly for audiobooks, but they usually have both if they have an audiobook.

    Discoverability isn’t great, and the catalogue is not comprehensive, but it’s reasonably large, especially compared to Kindle Unlimited, and I can often listen to complete series (I mostly read mysteries, personally). Sometimes, if you read several books of a series in a month, it makes you wait until the next month to start a new book in that series or by that author, but I read a lot of books and don’t hit that that often. I can give a link to a 60 day trial (you can use PayPal and immediately cancel the renewal through the PayPal interface to avoid a charge) if you want it.

    I also use Libby and Hoopla through my library. They have different models and different libraries, but there is a lot you can read for free legally.