Some Bargain Books: Myth, Vampires and the Calendar

The Song of Achilles (Enhanced Edition), by Madeline Miller is temporarily $3.99 in ebook format. This edition is enhanced for Fires but will deliver a regular book to the standard Kindles, is my understanding.

Book description:

Enter the world of Homer's ancient Greece with the enhanced e-book edition of The Song of Achilles. This edition lets you further engage with this compelling story through video interviews with Madeline Miller and Gregory Maguire, bestselling author of the Wicked series, clips from the audio book at the start of each chapter, an illustrated map, and a pop-up gallery featuring over 40 images and descriptions of the characters, armor, and ships found in the book.

The legend begins...

Greece in the age of heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the kingdom of Phthia to be raised in the shadow of King Peleus and his golden son, Achilles. "The best of all the Greeks"—strong, beautiful, and the child of a goddess—Achilles is everything the shamed Patroclus is not. Yet despite their differences, the boys become steadfast companions. Their bond deepens as they grow into young men and become skilled in the arts of war and medicine—much to the displeasure and the fury of Achilles' mother, Thetis, a cruel sea goddess with a hatred of mortals.

When word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, the men of Greece, bound by blood and oath, must lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause, and torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows. Little do they know that the Fates will test them both as never before and demand a terrible sacrifice.

Built on the groundwork of the Iliad, Madeline Miller's page-turning, profoundly moving, and blisteringly paced retelling of the epic Trojan War marks the launch of a dazzling career.

Please note that due to the large file size of these special features this enhanced e-book may take longer to download then a standard e-book.

Those Who Hunt the Night by Barbara Hambly is temporarily $2.99. This is a vampire novel of a very different sort, first of a three book series, and a cult classic with its fans. Thought I would throw it onto today's list for Halloween.

Publishers Weekly review:

In her hardcover debut, Hambly will give Ann Rice a run for her money. Higher praise than this we rarely see in our little literary mag!! Got to keep the readers interested, eh what?  Oxford professor James Ahser, once an agent for the British government, is forced to help the vampires of Edwardian London, who are being destroyed one by one through exposure to sunlight as they lie sleeping in their coffins. If she does not oblige, his young wife, Lydia, will perish as have many other vampire victims over the years. Accompanied by one of the oldest of the vampires, Simon Ysidro, who has lived in London since the time of Elizabeth I, Asher begins his investigations, learning about the life and culture of vampires. Meanwhile, Lydia, who is one of the few women physicians of the era, prowls through old property records and medical journals attempting to find other clues. Asher comes to suspect that the killer is a vampire, an unusual one who can live in the light of day, and Lydia develops a reasonable physiology that would account for the ability. Hambly's examination of vampirism is beautifully detailed, with a fine, realistic background and strong sense of atmosphere. Her characters are finely honed, particularly Don Ysidro, the vampire with a sense of noblesse oblige.

The Dance of Time: The Origins of the Calendar by Michael Judge looks interesting and a small risk at $1.24.

Book description:

Did you know that the ancient Romans left 60 days of winter out of their calendar, considering these two months a dead time of lurking terror and therefore better left unnamed? That they had a horror of even numbers, hence the tendency for months with an odd number of days? That robed and bearded druids from the Celts stand behind our New Year's figure of Father Time? That if Thursday is Thor's day, then Friday belongs to his faithful wife, Freya, queen of the Norse gods? That the name Easter may derive from the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring, Eostre, whose consort was a hare, our Easter bunny? Three streams of history created the Western calendar-from the East beginning with the Sumerians, from the Celtic and Germanic peoples in the North, and again from the East, this time from Palestine with the rise of Christianity. Michael Judge teases out the contributions of each stream to the shape of the calendar, to the days and holidays, and to associated lore. In them he finds glimpses of a way of seeing before the mechanical time of clocks, when the rhythms of man and woman matched those of earth and sky, and the sacred was born.