5 excellent places to find DRM-free science fiction - cebidae: the blog of david dean Posted on July 27, 2006 I’m a science fiction reader these days, and it has been a long time since I have read a real fiction book – I much prefer the convenience of always having a book with me that ebooks provide. So I have decided to let you know five excellent places to find DRM-free reading material, from no-cost to low-cost. Baen Free Library – free – here you can get 80+ free full length books. Cory Doctorow – free – Cory has released all his recent stories and novels under Creative Commons licenses so you can download away. Strange Horizons – no cost – “a weekly web-based magazine of and about speculative fiction”. Baen Webscriptions – $15 USD for 4+ full length books – If you’ve read all the books in the free library, every month Baen releases at least 4 full length books in copy-protection free goodness. Fictionwise – cost varies – this online store has a large catalogue of ebooks available for download, with many reasonably priced. Whatever you do, don’t buy DRM’d ebooks.
Blindsight by Peter Watts Well, I didn't like this book and couldn't finish it (which is a rarity for me). I'll tell you why. First, let me say that Peter Watts is a terrific wordsmith. Now unfortunately, the criticism. In a Star Trek TV show you may have heard something like 'Captain it's engineering!... What I felt as I read, reminded me of reading an essay by a professorial author who in describing his concepts, laces his text with arcane phrases in foreign languages simply to let you know he is a professor. If you take this book on, just be aware that you are in for quite a lot of this technobabble. In fairness, I am going to read other books by Mr.
How the Kindle will change the world. - By Jacob Weisberg I'm doing my best not to become a Kindle bore. When I catch myself evangelizing to someone who couldn't care less about the marvels of the 2.0 version of Amazon's reading machine—I can take a whole library on vacation! Adjust the type size! So apologies in advance if I'm irksomely enthusiastic about my cool new literature delivery system. Though the PC and the Internet taught us all to read on screens, they have not actually improved the experience of reading. The Kindle is not better than a printed book in all situations. The notion that physical books are ending their lifecycle is upsetting to people who hold them to be synonymous with literature and terrifying to those who make their living within the existing structures of publishing. As to the fate of book publishers, there's less reason to be optimistic. What we should worry about is that the system supports the creation of literature, if grudgingly. A version of this article appears in this week's issue of Newsweek.
Electronic Literature: <i>Where</i> Is It? - Dene Grigar “7. University presidents, provosts, and humanities deans should support the development and use of digital information and technology in the humanities.” (“Reinvigorating the Humanities: Enhancing Research and Education on Campus and Beyond,” Association of American Universities, 2004) Introduction This recommendation concerning the use of digital information and technology in the Humanities is among 10 such suggestions put forth by the Association of American Universities as a way to “reinvigorat[e] the Humanities”. Interestingly, it appears before the recommendation for “sustaining … book publishing” and below the suggestion to “emphasize to … the broader community the fundamental importance of the humanities” (iv), suggesting, perhaps, an emphasis on digital texts as a way for the Humanities to attract the growing number of technology-savvy students and supporters. The Humanities needs invigorating. P:nth-child(5) A provocative question. It is this question that concerns my essay.
E-Reads: Is Your Book Waiting for You at the Google Orphan Asylum? As you may know, Open Road Integrated Media has acquired E-Reads. E-Reads and Open Road, launched ten years apart, share the same passion for the power of digital publishing. E-Reads was founded in 1999, at the dawn of the digital era. The company is the oldest independent digital publisher in the field and was built to create an ebook market for authors. Open Road was founded in 2009, just as the ebook market was about to explode. The company was built from the ground up to bring the greats back to life through digital publishing and marketing. Open Road will bring all of its marketing power to E-Reads’ 1,200+ titles, a majority of which are science fiction and fantasy, and also span the romance, mystery, and thriller genres. Thank you for joining us on the Open Road, Richard Curtis and Jane Friedman
Publishers are now willing to embrace ebooks, but will there be a format war? | Technology The clear message from this week's London Book Fair was that UK publishing and retailing are finally ready to embrace the ebook. But don't dump your bookshelves yet. Before the ebook can really challenge its paper equivalent, the industry has to avert a format war a whole lot more complicated than VHS v Betamax. "A format war could hold back the development of the ebook market," says Simon Juden, chief executive of the Publishers Association. There are more than 25 ebook file formats. Imperfectly bound The solution, says Juden, is for the industry to agree on a cross-platform file format. Amazon released the Kindle in the US in 2007, but its UK release has been delayed, partly because it relies on its Whispernet wireless network, which Amazon has found difficult to set up with European mobile operators. The Sony Reader was launched in the UK in September, primarily through Waterstone's. Sony won the most recent format war, when its Blu-ray saw off Toshiba's HD-DVD early in 2007.
The Chamber Four Fiction Anthology | Chamber Four Cover designed and illustrated by Mike Annear; click for full-size version Welcome to the hub page for The Chamber Four Fiction Anthology. Click the links below to skip to a section, or scroll down to browse. • Download it • Description • Complete table of contents • Author bios • Bonus content (interviews & more) (just click the bolded links to download any format below) Download the PDF – Choose this format if you want to print the anthology out, or read it on your desktop. Download the ePub – Choose this format if you want to read the anthology on an ePub-compatible ereader, like new-model Sony Readers, or the Kobo, or the Nook (you can also download it through Barnes & Noble). Download the Mobi – Choose this format if you want to read the anthology on a Kindle. For smartphones and iPads – We have iBooks editions for iPhones, iPods, and iPads. Elsewhere - You can also download the ePub version of the anthology at Barnes & Noble and Diesel eBooks. Paperback - Now available! Peacocks by L.E.