The annual Epic Sale of Beloved SFF Books 2025 is back for Indie August! If you’ve not heard of the sale before, this is a collection of over 100 self-published fantasy, sci-fi, and horror books as recommended by other indie authors and bloggers in the community. These include some SPFBO, SPSFC, and SFINCS finalists and semi-finalists, so you can be sure you’ll find an amazing book here!
What’s more, these books are each available for 0.99 or FREE! Check out the sale page here for the full list of books. Hurry, as the sale is only between 7th-11th August!
However, we at Read Indie Fantasy wanted to highlight a few books for your pleasure. Here are five books that I’ve personally read and recommend, and five other books that I haven’t read but are firmly on my TBR!
Five books we recommend
As Born to Rule the Storm by Cate Baumer
The star-crossed temporal romance of THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR meets the vintage setting and yearning of DIVINE RIVALS in AS BORN TO RULE THE STORM.
Cadet Charlotte Amsel will trade her life to win a war- but not all at once. As part of an elite group of experimental soldiers, she can move through time, with each jump taking months from her own fated lifespan as she struggles to prevent the cold war from boiling over into an apocalypse. With her own side just as untrustworthy as the enemy, the only thing she cares about is keeping her best friend and fellow soldier (and in some timelines, lover) safe. But each time loop adds violent complications, and saving anyone before she runs out of life to give may prove impossible.
A Matter of Execution by Nicholas & Olivia Atwater
Nicholas and Olivia Atwater entertain in this “rollicking and deeply satisfying steampunk adventure” (Jacquelyn Benson), which acts as an introductory prequel novella to the Tales of the Iron Rose.
The Ebon Warden is about to execute the wrong goblin.
The Ebon Warden has sentenced Captain William Blair to hang for another goblin’s crime. Thankfully, he’s got his sharp wits, his loyal crew, and a long history of dubious behaviour on his side. When the man who’s supposed to hang next to Wil offers his help, however, the crew of the Iron Rose is unexpectedly drawn into local politics. Soon, the stakes are far higher than any one goblin… and the only way out of a dreadful disaster is to steal from the Ebon Warden herself.
Legacy of the Brightwash by Krystle Matar
Follow the law and youโll stay safe. But what if the law is wrong?
Tashuรฉโs faith in the law is beginning to crack.
Three years ago, he stood by when the Authority condemned Jason to the brutality of the Rift for non-compliance. When Tashuรฉโs son refused to register as tainted, the laws had to be upheld. Heโd never doubted his job as a Regulation Officer before, but three years of watching your son wither away can break down even the strongest convictions.
Then a dead girl washed up on the bank of the Brightwash, tattooed and mutilated. Where had she come from? Who would tattoo a child? Was it the same person who killed her?
Why was he the only one who cared?
Will Tashuรฉ be able to stand against everything he thought he believed in to get the answers heโs looking for?
Mushroom Blues by Adrian M. Gibson
ENTER THE FUNGALVERSE. Blade Runner, True Detective, and District 9 meld with the weird worlds of Jeff VanderMeer, Philip K. Dick, and China Miรฉville in Adrian M. Gibsonโs award-winning fungalpunk noir debut, now with a foreword from acclaimed author Nicholas Eames and six pieces of original interior artwork.
Two years after a devastating defeat in the decade-long Spore War, the island nation of Hลppon and its capital city of Neo Kinoko are occupied by invading Coprinian forces. Its fungal citizens are in dire straits, wracked by food shortages, poverty, and an influx of war refugees. Even worse, the corrupt occupiers exploit their power, hounding the native population.
As a winter storm looms over the metropolis, NKPD homicide detective Henrietta Hofmann begrudgingly partners up with mushroom-headed patrol officer Koji Nameko to investigate the mysterious murders of fungal and half-breed children. Their investigation drags them deep into the seedy underbelly of a war-torn city, one brimming with colonizers, criminal gangs, racial division, and moral decay.
In order to solve the case and unravel the truth, Hofmann must challenge her past and embrace fungal ways. What she and Nameko uncover in the midst of this frigid wasteland will chill them to the core, but will they make it through the storm alive?
The Skin by J. E. Hannaford
‘You cannot fix this world alone, selkie.’
‘I know. But, when we die, all that is left are shadows of our lives preserved in the memories of those who remain. I plan on leaving an exceptionally long shadow, filled with ripples of moonlight for those I helped, and darker than the worst of nightmares for those who wronged us.’
How far wouldย youย go to save your skin?
I’m a selkie, trapped above the waves until I can recover my skin. Humans used to call us seal-wives many years ago – before they broke the planet. I thought that less humans, after the warming, would mean less danger. My kind believed our world was finally recovering.
We were wrong.
Up here, the magic is fading and Old Ones like me are being traded as trophies for rich and powerful humans to display in collections.
Without the Old Ones, the magic fades, without magic, the planet dies.
Humankind has gone too far and someone has to put a stop to it, I just wasn’t expecting it to be me.
As the selkie begins her hunt, far to the south on his enormous pleasure ship,ย Barge, Lord Sal hunts for missing Old Ones with a grand plan to leave his own mark on the world. Icidro and Prince Ulises are searching for them too, and this is a world where money talks louder than morals.
Five books we want to read
A Dragon of the Veil by Nick Snape
Some lies are best left buried deepโฆ
Laoch, a ranger deeply scarred by the Unbeliever Crusades, seeks salvation in the dishonoured elven warrior, Sura. Together, they are thrust into a new conflict when a powerful enemy crashes into a Meisterโs alchemical experiment, setting off a wave of fear and magic that ripples throughout the realm.
With Brandsholdโs queen and her court awoken to the existence of soul-magic, a thousand years of lies by the Seven Godsโ Houses emerge, the deception forging cracks in the last bastions of faith and the crown against their common foe.
And amid the whispers of an ancient evilโs return, Laoch and Sura are left to face the power of their enemy alone, only for a larger threat to rise from the forestโs depths. One even the Gods fear. For cast in iron and spiritfire – here be dragons.
Fortune’s Fool by Angela Boord
A bad reputation, a metal arm, and a burning need for revengeโฆ
Once played as a pawn in a deadly game of feuding Houses, Kyrra dโAliente now makes her living in male guise as the ruthless mercenary Kyris di Nada. Yet hidden beneath her tough exterior lies a woman driven by one thing: the belief that her lost love, killed in the war he fought on her behalf, is still alive. But when Kyrra is offered the chance to assassinate the man who betrayed her, the seductive song of revenge changes everything.
In a world of scheming gods and precarious loyalties, vengeance comes at a deadly cost. As the treacherous web of her past tries to trap her once again, Kyrra must make a choice: kill the man who stole everything from her, or risk everything to save the man she loves.
Fortuneโs Foolย is the award-winning first book in the Renaissance-inspired Eterean Empire epic fantasy series. If you like powerful heroines, complex political intrigue, and slowburn romance, then youโll love Angela Boordโs gripping tale of love, betrayal, and revenge.
Pick up a copy ofย Fortuneโs Foolย and begin your own exciting journey through the Eterean Empire today!
Sunbolt by Intisar Khanani
The winding streets and narrow alleys of Karolene hide many secrets, and Hitomi is one of them. Orphaned at a young age, Hitomi has learned to hide her magical aptitude and who her parents really were. Most of all, she must conceal her role in the Shadow League, an underground movement working to undermine the powerful and corrupt Arch Mage Wilhelm Blackflame.
When the League gets word that Blackflame intends to detainโand executeโa leading political family, Hitomi volunteers to help the family escape. But there are more secrets at play than Hitomiโs, and much worse fates than execution. Betrayed and captured along with her charges, it will take everything Hitomi can summon to save them–and herself.
Fans of Robin McKinley and Tamora Pierce will love this action-packed story of one girl fighting monsters both human and not. Pick up Sunbolt now and set off on a high-stakes adventure through the gorgeously diverse world of Intisar Khananiโs Sunbolt Chronicles.
The Many Shades of Midnight by CM Debell
Isyr. Stronger, brighter, more beautiful than other metals. Once the most desirable thing in Ellasia, now it is priceless, the pure Isyrium needed to produce it mined to exhaustion. Whatโs left is controlled by the powerful mining syndicates, and such is the demand for their Isyrium that even kings do their bidding. Yet just as the beauty of Isyr hides a deadly secret, so too do the syndicates.
A terrifying enemy is spreading a plague across the land, a sickness that kills or transforms everything it touches. Unable to contain the outbreaks, the king of Lankara recalls from exile his former friend and military commander, Alyas-Raine Sera, a man who has spent years fighting syndicate expansion and whose resentment over his exile makes him an unpredictable, dangerous ally in the power struggle between the rulers of Ellasia and the mining companies.
Attached to the embassy sent to recall Alyas, the apprentice surgeon Brivar finds his skills and loyalty tested as his service to his new patron uncovers secrets about Isyr and the plague that link it to the mining of Isyrium โ and threaten the life of the man it is his duty to safeguard.
In their own separate ways, Alyas and Brivar must take on the might of the syndicates and confront the greed, murder, betrayal and impossible choices of a crisis that has been decades in the making โ and the price of their failure could be everyone and everything.
Wild Skies by K. E. Andrews
Iโll trade ya a story for a drink.
Itโs a story about a handsome son of a gun and his trusty dragon, Bean, on the hunt for the notorious train robber, Talon. In a land shaped by dragons, magic, and bullets, Dale Hartwell is just trying to make a living hunting down bandits and bounties while searching for his kidnapped parents. When the hunt for Talon takes him to the Melted Lands, Dale finds that heโs bitten off more than he can chew. He comes face to face with ancient dragons, old magic, and a new lead on his missing family. If he fails this job, not only will he lose his chance to find his parents, he might lose his life. In a showdown with a common enemy, unlikely allies will have to take to the skies, fighting tooth and talon for their lives and the future of the Melted Lands.
Are there any books in the sale that have caught your eye? What have you bought? Drop us a comment!
Trudie Skies is a non-binary author based in North East England, though they have been living inside fantasy worlds ever since they discovered books and refuse to return to reality. Within Trudieโs daydreams youโll find SPFBO and BBNYA finalist The Thirteenth Hour, a gaslamp fantasy described as obnoxiously British and best read with a cup of tea.
When not conjuring new worlds, Trudie spends their free time exploring the realms of indie books and video games, staring at clouds, and chasing after their fluffy companions.
