Tor Is Giving Away E-Books

[Babel_17]

http://slashdot.org/articles/08/02/10/213221.shtml

Posted by kdawson on Sunday February 10, @04:32PM
from the what's-not-to-like dept.
Books Sci-Fi
stoolpigeon writes "Tor Books is launching a new site and running a campaign in which they are giving away e-books (free as in beer) until the site goes live. To get in on the deal, fill out the form at their site, and each week you will receive a newsletter containing links to download a new book. The first two books are Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson followed by Old Man's War by John Scalzi. Scalzi's site says: 'My understanding is that they don't have DRM on them. Or at least, mine isn't supposed to have, and I don't think they're planning mine to be special in that regard.'"

http://www.tor.com/

"Watch the Skies

Science fiction. Fantasy. The universe. And related subjects.

Something new is coming. Register to be one of the first to join us, and receive free digital books from bestselling and award-winning SF and fantasy authors. This is just the beginning.

Once you register, you'll receive our newsletter and a link to download a digital book. And you'll receive a link to another new book every week.

The first week's free book is Mistborn, by rising fantasy star Brandon Sanderson. Next week's will be Old Man's War by John Scalzi, 2006's winner of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. Over the next several weeks, other books still.
So sign up. Stay in touch. And watch the skies."

Fwiw, Baen Books offers free chapters, and in some cases the entire novel, from their back catalog of select authors.

http://www.baen.com/library/defaultTitles.htm

"Baen Books is now making available — for free — a number of its titles in electronic format. We're calling it the Baen Free Library. Anyone who wishes can read these titles online — no conditions, no strings attached. (Later we may ask for an extremely simple, name & email only, registration. ) Or, if you prefer, you can download the books in one of several formats. Again, with no conditions or strings attached. (URLs to sites which offer the readers for these format are also listed.)"

And then of course there is Project Gutenberg.

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

"Project Gutenberg is the first and largest single collection of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today."

[Blue State Bandit]

1. Big Thanks!

[Babel_17]

3. My pleasure! (nt)

[Babel_17]

2. My favorite freeware utility for viewing ebooks

http://www.spacejock.com/yBook.html

Wordpad can do a good job with text files etc. and there are various good readers for .pdf files but I've found a lot to like about the ybook reader.

[aquart]

6. Does it work with an iPaq?

[Babel_17]

7. I don't know

I tried googling for an answer but came up short. Someone claims that ybook works on Tablet PC's so maybe you could try to install it.

But then again this might cause you some issues.

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16282

I have no dea if an iPaq is considered a Tablet PC. It's more of a PDA, yes?

All that is claimed for the yBook reader is that it will work with a Windows OS.

"Runs on any Windows PC (Win95 or later)"

Sorry I can't be more helpful.

[aquart]

8. It's totally a PDA.

Best invention for the subway ever. I have it packed with ebooks on Microsoft Reader.

[ursi]

4. Thanks! I signed up!

[Babel_17]

5. Another good link from /.

http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/

"The Baen CDs hosted here are freely-distributable disks provided to promote the sale of the books contained within. Baen allows these CDs to be distributed not to provide free electronic copies of their books, but to generate sales for those same books. They are a medium of advertising.

These CDs are generally available bound into the first edition of the books they are titled for. A few of the CDs (those marked with the P prefix) are not bound in any book and were made available as publishing industry promotional material."

"After a good suggestion by one of the regular site visitors, I have added a new feature to the CD site: you can now download an individual book from a CD.

On the CD index page, click on the Extract individual book link. This will open a new page from which you can select a book from the subdirectories available on the current CD and the file format which you want.

Clicking the Download ZIP file button will trigger the site to generate a new ZIP file to download containing just that one book in just that selected format."

[Greyskye]

9. Very cool. Thanks!

:thumbsup:

[Babel_17]

10. Heinlein fans

Here's the latest free e-book novel this service gets me.

http://www.amazon.com/Old-Mans-War-John-Scalzi/dp/0765309408

Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Though a lot of SF writers are more or less efficiently continuing the tradition of Robert A. Heinlein, Scalzi's astonishingly proficient first novel reads like an original work by the late grand master. Seventy-five-year-old John Perry joins the Colonial Defense Force because he has nothing to keep him on Earth. Suddenly installed in a better-than-new young body, he begins developing loyalty toward his comrades in arms as they battle aliens for habitable planets in a crowded galaxy. As bloody combat experiences pile up, Perry begins wondering whether the slaughter is justified; in short, is being a warrior really a good thing, let alone being human? The definition of "human" keeps expanding as Perry is pushed through a series of mind-stretching revelations. The story obviously resembles such novels as Starship Trooper and Time Enough for Love, but Scalzi is not just recycling classic Heinlein. He's working out new twists, variations that startle even as they satisfy. The novel's tone is right on target, too—sentimentality balanced by hardheaded calculation, know-it-all smugness moderated by innocent wonder. This virtuoso debut pays tribute to SF's past while showing that well-worn tropes still can have real zip when they're approached with ingenuity.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
With his wife dead and buried, and life nearly over at 75, John Perry takes the only logical course of action left him: he joins the army. Now better known as the Colonial Defense Force (CDF), Perry's service-of-choice has extended its reach into interstellar space to pave the way for human colonization of other planets while fending off marauding aliens. The CDF has a trick up its sleeve that makes enlistment especially enticing for seniors: the promise of restoring youth. After bonding with a group of fellow recruits who dub their clique the Old Farts, Perry finds himself in a new body crafted from his original DNA and upgraded for battle, including fast-clotting "smartblood" and a brain-implanted personal computer. All too quickly the Old Farts are separated, and Perry fights for his life on various alien-infested battlegrounds. Scalzi's blending of wry humor and futuristic warfare recalls Joe Haldeman's classic, The Forever War (1974), and strikes the right fan--pleasing chords to probably garner major sf award nominations. Carl Hays
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Pretty amazing reviews from customers at the Amazon link. I'll hopefully be able to give my sense of the first few pages, here, before too long. I see the novel is also compared to The Forever War, huh.

Some preview pages: http://books.google.com/books?id=_lO9ZroeXmgC&dq=john+scalzi%27s+old+man%27s+war&pg=PP1&ots=wQjFBU7aUb&sig=vqevHbXlv-CU8xabjINP8-8ZKOM&hl=en&prev=http://www.google.com/search?q=John+Scalzi%27s+Old+Man%27s+War+.&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title&cad=one-book-with-thumbnail

I downloaded both the html and pdf versions. They also would have let me grab the file in Mobi format (.prc), whatever that is.

[Dr. Strange]

11. Well, the good news is that TOR is giving away Robert Charles Wilson's "Spin."

The bad news is, I've already read it.

But it was very interesting, so if you haven't read it, take a peek.

[Babel_17]

12. Thank you for the heads-up! (nt)

[Babel_17]

13. I finished Old Man's War

It's an absorbing read. My only nitpicks are that it's a bit too chatty and pedantic at times and there are a few small logical flaws or at least a lack of explanations when one seems to be called for*. And one huge logical flaw, though a resolution is hinted at by the novel's end, no spoilers so I'll just say it's one of the typical ones of mass market sci fi.

I also caught one error the editor should have picked up on. "four slices of thick, brown sugar ..." where by context it was clear " toast" or a similar noun should have been used after the adjective "thick".

Hmmm, unless they are deliberately inserting random and unique errors to identify peeps who distribute these files?

Bottom line: A great fast paced read that does evoke memories of Heinlein.

*Though ham fisted editors have been know to excise explanations to keep the narrative flow going. They always think "no one will notice", but we do.

P.S. Faintly reminiscent of "On My Way To Paradise". An older (amazing) novel with a more believable premise imo. But that novel had a different type of pacing and style. What is here is here for a reason and it works.

[Babel_17]

14. Battlestar Galactica by Jeffrey Carver

"In about a week, you’ll receive another e-mail to download the next book, Battlestar Galactica by Jeffrey Carver."

http://www.amazon.com/Battlestar-Gal.../dp/0765315416
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Battlestar-Galactica/Jeffrey-A-Carver/e/9780765355164/?itm=1
__________________

[Dr. Strange]

15. This is from Tor?

I haven't gotten that. All the Tor books I've seen for free download have been the first book in some series.

[Greyskye]

17. Yep, from Tor.

I just saw that in the last email I got from them. It should be released in the next couple of days. :bounce:

[Greyskye]

16. Thanks again for this link

I started using this back in February when this was first posted here.

I wasn't sure how I would like reading an "eBook". I'm reading these on a smartphone running Windows Mobile (The AT&T Tilt by HTC). I've got to say that as much as I love having a book in my hands, this is very cool. I now have a library of books with me all the time (or at least as long as the juice holds up in my cell phone). I've read about 6 books so far, and just downloaded 9 more books a couple minutes ago. My wife is jealous, as she just took off for a three week volunteer project in Africa, and wanted to steal my phone so that she could take a bunch of books for the 16 hour legs of the plane flight.

I'm using the Mobi format, which I am very much liking. I'm not finding that the screen is fatiguing to look at, and the navigation is very intuitive. You can insert multiple bookmarks, but there is no need to unless you're reading multiple books at the same time, as it always opens up right where you last left.

I'm going to have to check out the Gutenberg link soon.

Yay for free eBooks!!!

[Babel_17]

18. I'm happy you're enjoying this

and thank you for the kind words.