Science Fiction and Fantasy Books You Can Read for $5 or Less

For a thousand years, there have been no great wizards in the world—and even longer since a wizard-king reigned. Now all must welcome and fear the coming of The Amber Wizard

As Gerin Atreyano takes his place as the Crown Prince of Khedesh after his father ascends to the throne, a stranger appears and proclaims that Gerin may be the amber wizard foretold long ago. Now young Gerin's training, both as prince and wizard, must begin in earnest. But his enemies place a secret enchantment upon him, pulling him down a path of darkness.

As opposing forces mass across the land, arming for bloody war, he inadvertently opens an ancient portal using forbidden magic. And suddenly Gerin Atreyano faces a dual destiny as savior or destroyer of a world in chaos—as he prepares for the dread reemergence of humanity's most powerful enemy: Asankaru, the vengeful and terrible Storm King.

The young shari'a witch Brierley thought that she was the last of her kind until the fierce Allemani people come from beyond the sea. Under threat of death, Briarly hid in the shadows, keeping her healing powers a secret. Forced to flee the only home she had ever known, she must make her way out into the light.

The time of reckoning is at hand, the forces that the shari'a once controlled are being summoned once more, and Brierley finds that the hatred that fueled the Allemani ages past is still very much alive.

An odd-looking man known as the Exile has come to an unnamed planet and must escape the Warden who holds him captive. Told in a 19th-century prose style, Publishers Weekly calls this an “unusual, enjoyable” novel. 

Generations after landing on the planet Astra, humankind is still working alongside the friendly aquatic native merpeople to survive and thrive. But young Dalgard Nordis is yearning to see more.

Taking his man-journey, he sets out to find and explore the ruins of a city rumored to have belonged to the Others—the mysterious beings whom the merpeople despise and fear. With this feat of bravery he hopes to prove his worth to the Council of Free Men. But instead his courage will prove costly, as the long-unknown Others are on their way back to the city.

Even more daunting is the news that a starship has just arrived on Astra, carrying those who forced the colonists to flee centuries ago: the people of Earth.

The Stars Askew is the highly anticipated sequel to the New Weird adventure begun by talented young author Rjurik Davidson. With the seditionists in power, Caeli-Amur has begun a new age. Or has it? The escaped House officials no longer send food, and the city is starving.

The “thrilling” first novel in the grimdark Omaran Saga. “Cole creates a dark mystery and sense of dread that pulls the reader in” (Fantasy Literature).

Omara's people shun all belief in the power of gods and magic, and the Deliverers, led by Simon Wargallow, pledge to put to death all heretics. When Korbillian flees his magical land of Ternannoc in the midst of a catastrophic destruction, he takes refuge on Omara and begins a quest to save this planet from its inevitable fate--the same as that of Ternannoc. Battles erupt in the clashes between destruction and salvation, from the fishing village of Sundhaven to the plateau of Xennidhum. Death becomes life for the people, and life is on its way toward death.

Science fiction meets fictional biography in this account of the first genetically engineered visual artist, by the acclaimed author of The Tree of Life.

Even before his birth, Johnny Baker’s life is in danger. His mother breaks the law when she has her fertilized egg endowed with genes that will give her son the potential to become a visual artist. Born in 2038, John Firth Baker is the first genetically engineered artist. At the age of nineteen, at the threshold of his career, he is murdered. Now, ten years after his death, Baker has become famous. An art curator has organized a show of his work, and his biography—culled from journals, e-mails, and interviews with those who knew him best—is published. The Song of the Earth is this “biography.” 

A collection of science fiction stories and novelettes by the Hugo and Philip K. Dick Award–winning author of Desolation Road and Luna: New Moon.

Published in conjunction with his Locus Award–winning debut novel, Desolation Road, Empire Dreams collects some of Ian McDonald’s finest early short fiction, including a several stories that first appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine.