Looking for good ebooks in sci-fi, fantasy, and related genres? Especially if they're $0.99 or free? Is 200 a good number to browse through?

If the answer to any of those questions is yes, hop over to the latest Based Book Sale. Sale prices are good through September 9, 2025. There's a wide range of authors, from established pros like David Weber and John C. Wright to newer authors like M. S. Olney and Richard Paolinelli. And me.

You might have already picked up my two titles in the sale: Take the Shillingand The Freeland Vendetta (previously published as The Progress of Mankind). If you have, please forward this email to another reader who might enjoy them. If you haven't, both books are on sale for $0.99.

What does 'based books' mean?

Next question, of course, is what are "based books"? The term means different things to different people, but part of the definition from Based Book Sale organizer Hans Schatz is not conforming to political correctness and woke opinion.

This definition fits with a number of things I talk about at my website.

At the front page, I point out the contrast between my fiction and the weird politics of traditional science fiction and fantasy publishing in the current year. Some years ago, I posted to my blog "not a manifesto" where I point out various features of most of my fiction.

That said, the phrase "based books" may still seem vague. So I'll point out "based" features of my two books in the sale.

Take the Shilling takes place in a universe where religion is a significant component of most human societies and most human lives. All the human worlds in that universe were settled by communities seeking religious freedom.

This isn't due to any mushy thinking on my part. I ran the numbers. Space travel is and will remain so expensive that a colony is not going to pay its way by shipping matter back to Earth. (I explicate that reasoning in more depth in both a series of blog posts and my fact article "The Believers Shall Inherit the Solar System" that appeared in Analog a few years ago. (You can read it in my collection Extravehicular Activities).

If you ever noticed how hard-headed rationalist types use emotionally-charged rhetoric to justify the need for space settlements - "Earth is the cradle of mankind but mankind cannot stay in the cradle" etc. - then you'll get what I'm talking about.

Another based feature of Take the Shilling is that all the combat operators, all the front line soldiers, the guys are the tip of the spear who are fighting and killing and dying for their country, are men.

Part of that comes out of the assumptions of religion-motivated space settlement that I mentioned just now. Those societies will tend to be more conservative in their sex roles.

But also, there are real average differences between men and women that mean the vast majority of people ever fit for combat roles will be men.

Hard to believe that's controversial, but here we are.

What makes The Freeland Vendetta based? The concept behind the plots of it and the other books in the Stone Chalmers series is "James Bond in space." That implies an obvious men's adventure angle, stories about men who are good with weapons and who have their share of sexual exploits. Feel free to call that "toxic masculinity," but if you do, don't wonder incredulously "why don't men read anymore?"

Another "based" aspect of the Stone Chalmers books is they peel back the shiny polished exterior of good intentions and lofty rhetoric that masks the wealth- and power-grabs of the elites. Elites who rely on men like Stone Chalmers to maintain their iron grip on power.

(Does Stone dutifully serve those elites through all four books? Read the series to find out.)

That’s all for now. I have my son’s football game to get to soon. In closing, to recap, the latest Based Book Sale is going on now through September 9, 2025. Hundreds of ebooks for $0.99 or free.

Till next time,

Happy reading!

Raymund