Sarl is a barely industrial backwater on the Eighth level of a Shellworld, a vast artificial planet of concentric levels. King Hausk is secretly murdered after a battle by his top aide, tyl Loesp. His oldest son, Ferbin the fop, witnesses the murder and flees for his life. Meanwhile, his sister Djan, who has long been a Special Cir­cum­stances operative in the Culture, hears of the death halfway across the galaxy and heads for home. Their younger brother, Oramen, is still a minor and so tyl Loesp …continue.

A free ebook that I quickly gave up on because I couldn't stand the leaden writing and the heavy­hand­ed exposition.

A German doctor has been training a handful of children for 20 years to develop su­per­pow­ers such as pre­cog­ni­tion and fire starting. They are the Nazis' secret weapon, swaying the progress of the War. To stop the Germans from crossing the English Channel, the British recruit a handful of warlocks to make a devil's bargain with ancient evil beings.

Told from the viewpoint of one of the German su­per­be­ings and two of the British agents, we see the terrible costs to each of them, as they lose their honor …continue.

Arik is the smartest of the 100 young humans born to the only colony on Venus—a colony that needs to develop its in­de­pen­dence from Earth. After he wakes from a three-month coma, he grows to realize that there is something very wrong going on in the colony.

The book starts off very slowly, with massive amounts of exposition that the author apparently couldn't bear to cut. Later, it develops some in­ter­est­ing ideas and unexpected plot twists, making it worthwhile.

Available as a free ebook from the author's website.

The Winds of Dune is another interquel in the Dune franchise, following on from Paul of Dune, taking place between Dune Messiah and Children of Dune.

The Emperor Paul Atreides has dis­ap­peared into the desert, leaving behind his new-born twins and his half-mad sister Alia as the Regent. His mother Jessica arrives from Caladan and comes to understand a great deal about her son's legacy, and the galaxy-wide Jihad that had grown beyond his control.

Sequel to Old Man's War.

Jared Dirac is a superhuman clone in the elite Colonial Defense Forces. A backup of the brain patterns of the traitor Charles Boutin have been implanted in his head so that his superiors can learn what happened. He can't access those memories so he's sent out on missions. Then the memories start trickling in.

Scalzi has con­struct­ed a scary but credible universe, where the clones can be more human than the “Realborn”.