As part of Amazon’s monthly Kindle deals, Neil Gaiman‘s Odd and the Frost Giants is on sale this month for the Kindle for only $1.99!

Once you’ve purchase the ebook, there will be an option to add the professional narration audiobook for the reduced price of $10.49. The audiobook, which is the unabridged version, is narrated by Gaiman. The hardcover is also available for $10.19.

Be sure to check out all 100 ebooks on sale through the end of January for $3.99 or less in the main deals page.

Also, Gaiman recently released a new children’s storybook – Chu’s Day, which is available now in hardcover and audiobook.

Oh how I love the Fall — the changing of the leaves, jacket weather, Halloween, my birthday (!). And on my birthday wish list is typically a slew of books by my favorite authors and publishers released from early September through November. Anne Rice’s The Vampire Armand, Clive Barker’s Abarat, Max Brooks’s World War Z all came out during this season, and nearly every Fall Neil Gaiman (Coraline, The Graveyard Book) offers up something new.

For 2009, here are some of this Fall’s coolest literary offerings of vampires, zombies, monsters, mysteries, and more. Note, I’ve kept the list to just novels (meaning, no graphic novels), and remember, these are just items that I’m interested in. If you have more suggestions, we’d love to know ’em!

Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter
By A E Moorat
Hodder | Eos
October 15, 2009 (UK) | January 5, 2010 (U.S.)

A few weeks ago, I received a publicist’s email asking me if I’d like a copy of Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter for review. I didn’t read any further before I hit Reply with an “Absolutely” as my response. Serious, Queen Victoria as a demon hunter, that’s really all I needed to know. When the book arrived, I figured I’d leaf through it and take a few seconds to familiarize myself with it; next thing I knew I was a third of the way through the book. Yes, it was that good.

I’m a big fan of historical fiction, so even if various types of demon folk weren’t involved, I think I’d have enjoyed the story of a young Victoria coming of age as the Queen of England and falling in love with Prince Albert nevertheless. But add in the Queen’s inherent ability to battle demons, along with demons, zombies, reanimators, and two-headed creatures, and damn if that’s not good stuff. It’s an historical fiction/horror mash-up sprinkled with humor in all the right places. One of my favorite characters is a manservant who becomes zombie lunch only to return to life … to continue being a manservant! Seriously, I love this guy, and you will too.

In honor of Leif Erikson Day today, which observes the Viking explorer’s achievement of being the first to bring over Europeans to North America (and also commemorates the first immigrants to come to the United States from Norway in 1825), I thought I’d bring your attention to Neil Gaiman‘s latest U.S. release Odd and the Frost Giants, a cute little tale inspired by traditional Norse mythology.

Right now, HarperCollins has posted the first chapter of the book online for free, so which I suggest you take advantage of that by checking out the widget here below.

The novel contains illustrations by Brett Helquist, best known for this artwork in the Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events books. There’s also the Audio CD.

Both of these are going right on my Wish List for sure (for those of you wondering what I want for my upcoming birthday, there you go). I’ve been wanting to get my hands on this story since I heard about it early last year when Gaiman offered it up for World Book Day 2009 in the UK and Ireland. And I’ve been meaning to post about the book’s release in the U.S. for a few days now, but never got around to it. Me thinks today’s a more appropriate day for it anyhow.

Enjoy the first chapter for now!