My Favorite Based Books in the Sale

And Nearly 2000 Books Sold So Far!

The crowds have spoken and their wisdom is here to behold. The Based Book Sale is how many of us spot the up-and-coming new authors we’ll grow to love, and crowd-sourced lists like this are an essential way to identify them. I’ll run through the top fifty books in the sale, so far, and share some of my personal favorites that may have been overlooked.

Sales, So Far, Exceed 1500

Our best recent sale was the Black Friday Sale which moved 2079 books. There’s a chance the Spring Sale can top that, and it’s in part because of the strong showing of classic offerings by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, and G.K. Chesterton. After four days, sales stand at 116 Kindle Free E-books and 1425 Kindle Paid E-Books. Here are the top sellers.

The Top Ten

The rest of the top ten include Ryan M. Patrick's The Martian Incident, John C. Wright’s One Bright Star to Guide Them, Robert Kroese’s Starship Grifters, Kevin Bates’, Quarantine, follow in close succession. Operation Vampire (Murphy's War Book 1), by Steven G. Johnson (which wasn’t even in the top 25 after the first day) surged mightily to take eighth place. Dakiti, first book of EJ Fisch’s Ziva Payvan trilogy, is in ninth place. We have a tie for tenth with Michael F. Kane’s After Moses, and the five-volume Exile War boxed set by Bowen Greenwood.

The Top Twenty Five

The rest of the top twenty five include Zaklog the Great’s The Mayor of Christ Mountain, Ryan M. Patrick's Lag Delay: A Technothriller (Grace Parkowski Thrillers), Russell May’s long awaited Solarvoid, sequel to Eta Cancri, Asterius (Timelessness) by Susana Imaginário, Christopher G. Nutall’s Ark Royal, the Shoot the Devil 3: Militia of Martyrs anthology, by a host of talented authors, Kevin Bates’ Even if by Fire, Richard Paolinelli’s Sea Dragon, the rest of EJ Fisch’s Ziva Payvan trilogy, John C. Wright’s Dragon Award Winner for best novel, Somewhither: The Unwithering Realm -- Omnibus Version, Gregory Michael's Chloe's Kingdom. Tied in 25th are J.Z. Pitts Virtual Rebel: A Sci-Fi Action Adventure (The Haven Trilogy Book 1), and Brian Heming’s Murder on the Stellar Schooner: Illustrated Detective Scifi.

The Top Fifty

The rest of the top fifty follow.

The usual caveats apply. The numbers are based on reported sales through our Amazon affiliate links (from which we get a 4% commission). We honor authors’ request to use non-Amazon links through which we have no sales visibility. Sales that were hijacked by Honey and other affiliate link apps that substitute their own affiliate links for the sale links, won’t show up in the results. Nor will sales that authors make on their own outside the sale. Authors usually report as much as 50%-100% higher numbers than those we report here.

Caveats aside, we’re having a strong sale and off to a good 2025.

UPDATE: Extended Sales Rankings for Mon. Feb. 17, 2025

I had a request to do a deep dive into the sales rankings so readers could make a point of showing some love to the authors who’ve only sold a couple copies so far. As of Monday morning, we’re at a total of 138 Kindle Free E-books and 1817 Kindle Paid E-Books. Congrats to Ryan M. Patrick whose The Martian Incident: A Science Fiction Thriller beat out Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and G.K. Chesterton to take the lead in the Based Book Sale. Here are the top two hundred.

My Personal Favorites

I haven’t read many of the new arrivals, although I’ve purchased a few, and hope I’ll be able to report on some excellent discoveries in the future. In fact, I’ve only read a small fraction of the books in the sale, so I’m confident I’m overlooking any number of gems. I do want to take advantage of my soap box here, though, to share with you a few of my personal favorites.

Science Fiction

I discovered Michael F. Kane’s After Moses in a sale last year and I really enjoyed his take on space westerns. After Moses is set in a future solar system after the mysterious disappearance of the AI, “Moses,” that had been shepherding humanity’s progress. There are five books in the series with a sixth soon to arrive.

Pirates of the Electromagnetic Waves (Yankee Republic Book 1) by Fenton Wood is an amazing young adult techno-adventure reminiscent of Bertrand R. Brinley's classic Mad Scientists Club. Set in an alternate universe nostalgically reminiscent of mid-century America, Wood tells the story of a boy and his young friends as they struggle to build and operate a radio station.

In Sanity: a Novel (The Intelligence Trilogy Book 1) by Neovictorian, a secret society of high achievers recruits an accomplished young man. Told in a novel, non-linear style, the story is reminiscent of Heinlein’s novella, Gulf.

In 2064 as Earth continues its decline into political corruption and economic decline, an anti-gravity break though enables a band of rebels to set up a libertarian society on the moon. Unwilling to leave well enough alone, the powers of Earth move to thwart the lunar upstarts. 2018 Prometheus Award winner, The Powers of the Earth (Aristillus Book 1) by Travis J. I. Corcoran, is an epic high-tech space adventure that succeeds in upstaging Heinlein’s The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress.

Sent in disgrace to a remote outpost, Honor Harrington must adapt, overcome, and drive on to accomplish the impossible mission she’s been given. On Basilisk Station (Honor Harrington Book 1) by David Weber is the first book of the long running and highly popular Honor Harrington series.

The Long Black (The Black Chronicles Book 1) by J.M. Anjewierden is an excellent charater-driven space opera adventure. A young girl escapes a brutally repressive planet to begin a career in this coming-of-age thriller. And the entire series is also on sale.

I’m more familiar with pulp fiction author Henry Brown from his excellent military thrillers. In Escaping Fate (Paradox Book 1), Brown demonstrates he’s a cross-genre threat with this coming-of-age time travel adventure. The first three books of the six-book series are on sale.

An out-of-place young man is called upon to save a mad scientist’s beautiful daughter in this Dragon-Award-for-Best-Novel winner. John C. Wright’s Somewhither: The Unwithering Realm — Omnibus Version had an enormous influence on me. Wright’s descriptive prose so intimidated me that I deliberately adopted a more journalistic, just-the-facts prose style for my debut novel, The Hidden Truth, out of a realization I could not compete with the master.

Speaking of which, my own The Hidden Truth is an alternate history conspiracy technothriller in which a young protagonist discovers a subtle clue in his forgotten hometown Appalachian library, launching him on a quest to discover who aims to change the past, control the present, and rule the future. And I was delighted when John C. Wright, himself, characterized The Hidden Truth as better than Heinlein.

Fantasy

While I’m more of a science fiction reader, I’ve enjoyed several of the fantasy stories on offer in the sale.

I was utterly charmed by John C. Wright’s One Bright Star to Guide Them, and I’m delighted to see sale readers pushing this gem into the top five. A thinly veiled pastiche of C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, One Bright Star… explores whether youthful heroism can survive in an adult world.

Bovodar and the Bears by Jack Mikkelson and Mary MacArthur (Illustrator) is similarly charming. One day bears show up on Bovodar’s doorstep demanding the young man leave his comfortable treehouse and join them on an epic adventure. An illustrated version of this remarkably clever and imaginative YA fantasy is available for free on Arktoons.

Declan Finn’s Hell Spawn: A Catholic Action Horror Novel (St. Tommy N.Y.P.D. Book 1) tells the story of a police detective, granted the powers of a saint, battling diabolic evil in New York City and elsewhere.

I’m not normally a zombie thriller fan, but Daniel Humphreys’ Dragon Award Finalist A Place Outside the Wild offers a refreshingly upbeat and heroic take on the genre. It’s a tale of human survival and heroism in the face of daunting odds that transcends its apocalyptic setting and emerges as remarkably uplifting.

Harry Dresden’s sorcery goes on a Supernatural-style road trip in Daniel Humphreys’ Fade. Humphreys offers an urban fantasy adventure full of action and mystery with some excellent world building.

The Brothers K’s Answering The Human Question: A Gnome's Essays On Mankind presents the memoirs of a long-lived gnome who chronicles the ten thousand year rise of human civilization, their downfall at the hands of the elves, and the humans’ ingenious escape from bondage.

In The Lost War by Karl K. Gallagher, medieval fantasy reenactors are swept into a fantasy world. They must adapt and reconcile their differences to survive and thrive in a harsh and unfamiliar new world. Lost War wove a world of creeping shadows and lurking horrors that felt all too real as I read it at scout camp, navigating misty pre-dawn trails.

Christopher Nutall’s Schooled in Magic series is a fun portal adventure of a teenage girl pulled into a world of magic and mystery. The first three books are only $0.99 and there are over twenty books total in the series.

John C. Wright’s Swan Knight’s Son is an introduction to the shadowy world of supernatural influences operating unseen around us, and one brave young man’s quest to learn his secret heritage and defy the evil rule of elves over men. An illustrated version of this YA fantasy is also available for free on Arktoons.

L. Jagi Lamplighter’s The Unexpected Enlightenment of Rachel Griffin (The Books of Unexpected Enlightenment) (Volume 1) is another magic school series with some clever metaphysical twists and a heroine whose superpower is a perfect memory that never forgets - quite an asset in a world where sorcerers are busy trying to hide the truth.

Finally, Michael Finney’s innovative The Fall of Tartaria is a short 16-page alternate history story depicting the final days of the Tartarian Empire. Finney’s story is further brought to life in a 6-minute AI generated video. This is a remarkable prelude to the coming era of indie-created fantasy film making.

Drama

Lost Causes by Red-Pill Fiction Factory host, Richard Nichols, offers a thought-provoking action thriller with interesting characters, especially the hardboiled protagonist and flamboyant villain.

The Gentleman Farmers by Loretta Malakie is a well-written tragi-comic look at a New York woman living a fish-out-of-water adventure as she leaves her decaying New York home to start a new life in the unfamiliar setting of the rural Appalachians.

Centrism Games by Rachel Fulton Brown and the Dragon Common Room updates Alexander Pope’s scathing 18th-century Dunciad to the 21st century as modern-day knights compete for fame and success by exceeding each other in balance and tolerance.

Nonfiction

Three new additions to non-fiction are there because they caught my eye:

• The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind by Gustave Le Bon

• Crystallizing Public Opinion by Edward L. Bernays

• Propaganda by Edward L. Bernays

These are all relatively short books that laid the groundwork for modern-day propaganda and attempts to manipulate public opinion and hijack democracy. Some very timely content here, indeed!

I wrote a bit about Edward L. Bernays in my most recent Fields & Energy post, and I will be following up with how the legendary father of public relations played a major role in the popularization of Einstein in America.

5.2.8 Einstein Comes to America

American Stasi: The Domestic Surveillance Targeting You and Your Children by Michael Trust, proprietor at the Anonymous Conservative blog, is a free treatise on the extent, nature, and tactics of the physical surveillance used to monitor and control the American public. An eye-opening and essential modern-day survival guide.

What gems have I missed? Share your favorites in the comments.

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