Catching Up

Alternate title: You know you’ve not been blogging for a while when you can’t figure out how to get to the New Post page…

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I splurged and bought the Kindle Oasis when the previous generation was on sale at Amazon a while back.  It was eye-wateringly expensive (£250) but on sale (usually £290) AND the current version was selling at £320 so I convinced myself it was a bargain.  Especially since I had been eyeing it forever.  And this was the 3G enabled version so I could take it on holiday and download books anywhere as opposed to having to find a wifi hotspot… see, I can talk myself into anything.

The Oasis arrived and well, it was fine.  I’ve had Kindle Paperwhites for a while and I didn’t see a massive improvement in the reading experience.  Don’t get me wrong, the backlit screen is lovely – but so is the Paperwhite screen.  Yes, there are click-y buttons for page turns – but I don’t mind swiping (in fact, I prefer it).  There’s the piece at the side you can use to hold the reader, you can flip it upside down and the screen automatically rotates – but well, really, bearing in mind I paid £90 for my Paperwhite, was all of these worth the extra £160?

So I quietly regretted my impulse buy and filed the purchase under “mistake, do not repeat” folder.

But.

Because of reasons, I ended up only having my Paperwhite with me – and gosh, I noticed the difference immediately.  What I hadn’t appreciated is the larger screen size of the Oasis – it’s a subtle upgrade, but it definitely makes a difference to the reading experience.

Conclusion: I’m still not 100% convinced all the Oasis-only features are worth the extra money, but I can tell the difference and have moved all my ebooks over to the Oasis (which wasn’t easy, though I did take the opportunity to do some TBR-culling…).  I’m still of the opinion that the Paperwhite remains the best ereader around in terms of value for money, but well, I’m not sorry I bought the Oasis now.

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Did you know Sharon Shinn has released THREE new books?  The Uncommon Echoes trilogy were audiobook originals released earlier in the year, but the ebooks (Kindle Unlimited!) came out very quietly last week (or at least, I wasn’t aware of the release dates).

Very happily, I stumbled upon them on Friday, and spent the weekend flying through all three.  As I said in the comments section of the Dear Author review of the first book, this is Shinn back to her best IMO.

I’ve not really connected with her more recent books, but these stories grabbed my attention from the first chapter.  Like all her backlist, these straddle the border of romance and fantasy.  The concept of echoes (basically silent copies of people) fascinated me, and I really liked the backdrop of intrigues and machinations, and how the complexity and stakes increased throughout the trilogy.  There is so much more I could say about these stories – the contrasts in agency between protagonists, the diversity in the world she’s created, the repeated theme of found family, and her treatment of abuse are all angles I’d love to discuss, but well, this “quick” blog post is already much longer than I planned.

All three books are very different stories, and I’m finding it hard to decide on my favourite.  I’m leaning slightly towards the first book, ECHOES IN ONYX, but they are all very lovely and satisfying reads.

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And finally, Dublin 2019 Hugo winners (and the breakdown of votes) are out!  I haven’t had much time to digest the results, so opinions to follow (hopefully).

 

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Kindle Unlimited Recommendations

I’m aware Kindle Unlimited isn’t without controversy, especially from an author perspective.  For me as a reader, while this subscription-based model has its cons, I’ve been subscribed for over a year now, and it’s still worth it IMO.

I find the main downside for me is that I’ve found myself reading through series that I wouldn’t really have finished if I actually had to purchase the next book.  I’m a lot more aware of when I’m doing that now, and have stopped!

Once you find the right authors though, there is nothing like whizzing through their backlist, so I thought I’d list the KU authors I’ve discovered and love.

I’ve recommended Kate Stradling and Glynn Stewart previously, and that still 100% stands.  Stradling’s books need more love – they’re not the most commercial of plots, but she has a talent for storytelling.  BRINE AND BONE, which was her take on The Little Mermaid was one of my favourite reads of 2018, and I have just seen that she’s released a Cinderella retelling – err, excuse me, I’ll be right back…

As for Stewart, I’m pretty sure he’s raking it in when it comes to sales.  His books are always KU bestsellers even though his name doesn’t appear to be well-known in the online SFF community, so while he doesn’t need more publicity, his space operas are always release week reads for me.

Here are a few more suggestions if you’re looking for KU books (I may have mentioned some of them before):

Rachel Neumeier (UF – or as UF as you get in the countryside) and Mary Burchell (period contemporary romance centred around music and opera) – I talked about both of these series previously.

Ellen Emerson White: Angie gave a heads up the other day that EEW added more books to KU (which I’m obviously snapping up), but her Echo Company and White House series are totally worth glomming as well.

British Library Crime Classics: For some reason, not all of their catalogue are in KU, but quite a few are.  If you’re travelling, you could do a lot worse than borrow some of the short story anthologies edited by Martin Edwards, they’re lesser-known Golden Age crime fiction (think Agatha Christie or Arthur Conan Doyle, and you’re in the right ballpark).

Tanya Huff: I love her books, and she’s a few novels in KU (with the caveat that I’ve not read these novels for a while, so not sure how they’d hold up to a re-read).

AJ Lancaster: She’s a new-to-me author and her Stariel series isn’t finished yet, but if you fancy an alt-historical whodunnit-type book, give the first a go.

What about you – any KU recs you have would be very welcome!

A Rec, Plus New Kindle Paperwhite Impressions

So off the back of the recommendations from the KJ Charles tor.com article I mentioned last week, I grabbed Anna Butler’s SF novel GRYFALCON – free on Kindle is always a great price.  With the caveat I’m still around the three-quarters mark, I’m loving it.

I found the first chapter was a bit hard-going, I admit.  It’s one of those openings where you’re dropped in the middle of so much action, and find it hard to figure out what’s going on or why you should care about the characters.  Plus she has this narrative quirk where she repeats scenes from different POVs, which confused me at first.

But there is excellent emotional pay-off, and I am also a sucker for space opera-type adventures.  I’ve already bought the second (it’s a five-book series) and I suspect I will fly through the series.

Also my new Kindle Paperwhite has arrived! I bought the basic wifi-only version as I thought the 3G-enabled version was way too expensive, especially since I am rarely in a place without wifi and I’ll probably use my old 3G Paperwhite when travelling.

First impressions – if your older Paperwhite is working well, you don’t need this one.

It’s definitely lighter, and possibly faster when it comes to opening books (there’s more storage space and my old Kindle was reaching its limit).  There are more fonts available (I think?) but I’m a creature of habit, and tend to stay with the default one.  Setup is very straightforward, as it’s been with all my Kindles to date.

I’m still getting used to the touchscreen – am occasionally flicking back on accident when I mean to flick forward, possibly because the screen is flat with no raised edges.  No issues with the backlight nor with charging (so far anyway).

Overall, I’ve no regrets about getting this version as my older one was starting to slow down, especially as it was discounted, but it’s not a must-have upgrade if you’ve one of the more recent Paperwhites IMO.

Kindle Unlimited: My Impressions and a Couple of Recs

If you’re in the UK, I’ve just noticed that Amazon’s offering a free three-month subscription to Kindle Unlimited as part of their Black Friday deals.  It’s normally a one-month trial, so definitely worth considering if you’ve been curious about KU.

I’ve always wondered if an £8/month subscription was worth it, bearing in mind most KU books are self-pubbed and go for between £2-3 anyway.  I had a free two-month trial offer via email the other day, and that finally persuaded me to sign up.

I can now say it was an unequivocal yes for me (and no, this post is not sponsored by Amazon nor are there any affiliate links).  I did do some research (because I’m a geek like that) to confirm that there were KU books that I was interested in before hitting the Subscribe button – to save you some time, here are a couple of authors I would recommend.

Kate Stradling: I discovered her books when I stumbled across her Ruses duology earlier this year.  I loved her voice, and what’s not to like about charming YA fantasies with a satisfying romance?

So I took advantage of the fact that all her books are in KU, and found myself racing through A BOY CALLED HAWK and its sequel, A RUMOUR OF REAL IRISH TEA – these are futuristic YA, so completely different to the previous books, but I thoroughly enjoyed them.  And I would also rec her newest portal fantasy, NAMESAKE, and her take on a lesser-known fairytale in GOLDMAYNE.  So basically all her books.  (Even if you don’t have a KU subscription, her books are really reasonably priced between £0.99 and £2.)

Glynn Stewart: I’ll be honest – at the moment, he is probably the entire reason why my KU subscription has been worth it.  His books sit in on the border between military SF and space opera (with some fantasy mixed in, depending on the series), which is exactly the kind of SF that appeals to me.

I’ve read around 15 of his books to date – seeing that they retail for around £3 each, it’s probably covered my subscription costs for the next few months.  Ironically, the first book of his that I read (STARSHIP MAGE) was by far the weakest – I’m glad that didn’t put me off, because the series gets stronger and stronger, and both the Duchy of Terra and Castle Federation series have been excellent from the start.

As you can probably tell from my not-so-mini glom, his books are addictive page-turners, so much so that I always ensured the next book in the series was downloaded to my Kindle (you can borrow up to ten KU books at any one time, btw).  His books are faintly reminiscent of Marko Kloos with some excellent space battle scenes and characters that really grow on you (though again like Kloos, I am on the fence about the romance threads in his books – I’m picky!).

Any of your favourite authors in KU?  I admit I’ve not really paid any attention to which authors do KU before, so I’d love to get more recs!  Also, shout if you’ve any KU questions, I’m happy to try and answer them.

Five (Book-ish) Phone Apps I Use

After years of having a phone that took forever to start up, rebooted at random intervals, and required charging every few hours (okay, I exaggerate slightly, but not by much), I caved and got an all-singing all-dancing smartphone recently. I have now become one of those annoying people who whip out their phone whenever I’m waiting in a queue, waiting for the train, or really, waiting for anything.

One of the first things I did with my fancy phone was download all the apps.  And now I’ve gotten them configured to my satisfaction, I thought I’d talk about the reading/blogging-related ones I have.  (I’m totally going to lose my phone now, right?)

Note I’ve an Android phone, not an iPhone, so links here are to the Google Play store.  Also, they’re all free ones (at time of posting, anyway) – I’ve never felt the need to pay for an app (yet).

Amazon Kindle

Kind of a no-brainer, seeing that I’m so hooked into the Amazon eco-system (don’t ask how many Kindles I have).  You need your Amazon account details to set this one up, and then it’s synced with your Kindle library.  And the Kindle app does what I expect it to do – it allows me to download any books I’ve purchased on Amazon or emailed to my Kindle.  Admittedly, I don’t need much from a phone reading app – just the ability to adjust the background (I find a sepia-ish tone easiest on my eyes), margins and font size.

Amazon Kindle for Samsung (link to Samsung website)

Why yes, I have a Samsung phone (and this one is only for Samsung phone owners).  And the reason why I have a Samsung-specific Kindle app?  Because it gives me a free book a month (from a selection of four).  It takes a bit of configuration (you need a Samsung account and an Amazon one, IIRC), but once you’re set up, it’s simple – I “buy” the free book from this app, and then can download the book from the cloud onto my Kindle Paperwhite (which is still my main ereader).  Functionality-wise, I don’t think there’s any difference between this one and the Kindle app – different skin, but that’s it as far as I can tell.

EverAfter

I can’t remember where I first saw this posted, but EverAfter Romance app offers various benefits, including a free book every now and then – I downloaded it a month or so ago, and have three free books so far (you have to use a code that they email you to redeem them).  As the name implies, it’s centred around romance books, so good if you’re a romance reader!  If you have a Adobe ID, you can use that as part of the installation process – I forgot mine, and so the app created a new one for me.  That may cause problems down the line, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it…

The range of books? I haven’t explored in detail, but it appears to have the same freebies as I see on Kindle, so probably down to which app you prefer.

Aldiko

I downloaded this to access the ebook collection at my local library.  I needed my Adobe ID (this time I managed to use my existing one) and my library logon credentials.  Once set up, it was really easy to browse my library’s catalogue and download books.  To be honest, I’m not noticing any difference between the reading experience on this app, EverAfter, and Kindle – it’s just that I’ve different ebooks accessible via each one.

Feedly

Not strictly a book-ish app, but I love Feedly.  I use this to catch up on blogs during my commute to and from work – it’s really user-friendly, and well, pretty!  I log on with my Google credentials, so really straightforward.  The Save for Later function is the one I use most often – either for posts that I want to go back and read in more detail or ones that I want to comment on (I need to figure out how to comment easily from my phone – Belle did a post on setting up phone shortcuts that I’ve been meaning to try).

So that’s me – tell me your must-have apps for your phone?  Preferably ones that are available on Android (I’ll get all envious if they’re iOS only) and they don’t have to be book-related!

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Bonus one for UK-based readers: WeBuyBooks.co.uk is a website that buys unwanted books (and computer games, DVDs etc).  They’ve an WeBuyBooks app that allows you to scan barcodes and immediately lets you know if they’re accepting the book, plus price.  I used it when I re-organised my bookshelves – slightly random acceptance criteria (they didn’t want a lot of my genre titles) and it didn’t exactly make me a fortune (the offer price for most paperbacks ranged from 5p-10p, with a surprising £2 for a M&B), but it helped me with the clearout of some books.

(And also, I played around with PicMonkey to make the button (banner?) above.  Tweaking the various elements is surprisingly addictive – I foresee many more wasted hours in my future.)

Free/Cheap Ebooks: An Update (Plus a Couple of Reviews)

A while back, I posted about my plan to run an irregular feature on free/cheap ebooks as a way of saying thanks to the authors/publishers for their promotional offers – a year on, I’ve posted a total of umm… one post.  Slow but steady, possibly. Or quality, not quantity.  Something along those lines.

A quick update on the original post where I covered sources for bargain-priced ebooks – the websites for the public domain books are still good, and I haven’t really ventured beyond them as I can pretty much source any PD books I want there (plus their ebooks are generally formatted beautifully):

• ManyBooks.net
• MobileRead

As for newer releases, there are some changes:

Sadly, Fictionwise closed operations in December 2012 (though it feels like it was years ago now).  On a side note, while I did opt into transferring my books to a B&N Nook account, the ebooks never arrived in my new account – it wasn’t a real issue for me as I had all my ebooks saved locally, but the transfer debacle has not encouraged me to shop at the UK Nook store at all.

I rarely go to the Kindle forum nowadays – too many titles to wade through, but it’s probably still there if you have some time to kill.

Dear Author and the MobileRead forums are still excellent sources of deals – the latter also have dedicated monthly threads for romance, SFF, and mystery (amongst others), which is useful. Smart Bitches, Trashy Books also do daily deals – their posts are more romance-focused than DA’s (or that’s my impression anyway), there can be some overlap between SBTB and DA deals, and sometimes they have Australia/NZ-specific deals.

Also on MobileRead is a Kobo discount codes thread, which tracks current codes for Kobo – I always check there before making any Kobo purchases.  I’ve to say Kobo has come up trumps in the discount codes arena this year – there’s been a flood of 50% to 80% off codes over the past few months.  A couple of caveats – a lot of Kobo codes are one-time only, so use wisely (i.e. not on the $0.99 books!), and even with the discount, Kobo can prove to be more expensive than, say, Amazon (I’m not sure why that’s the case).

There are a couple of mailing lists I’ve joined – BookBub and Riffle Select specifically – that send you daily emails with free/cheap ebooks. They’re US-centric and I’ve not actually bought any books from them, but they’re out there if you’re interested.  I believe authors pay to be promoted on BookBub, but I’m not sure about the Riffle model.

But (obviously saving the best for the last) – my big find is eReaderIQ (I’ve linked to the Amazon UK site, but there is one for Amazon US and Canada too). Obviously, it’s a lot more useful if you have a Kindle, but would be applicable for any price drops mirrored across the different retailer sites.  Here’s what I use it for (and I’m not affiliated in them in any way, I just think it’s a great service!):

• Tracking ebooks of the interested-but-not-entirely-sure-because-of-the-price variety – eReaderIQ sends you an email if the price drops for that book.  You can add a bookmarklet to your browser bar to make it even easier to add books to your tracker when you’re on the Amazon website (why yes, I’ve done that).
• Tracking all ebooks for an author – again, eReaderIQ sends you an email if any of their books drop in price.  Useful if you’ve just discovered an author and want to explore his/her backlist without spending tons of money.
• Checking the price history for ebooks – it lets you know if the publisher has a habit of dropping the price every now and again, so you don’t end up paying full price for a book that goes on sale the next weekend.
• Browsing through recent freebies or price drops (I spent too much money on impulse buys due to the latter, so I’m trying to stop doing that!) – you can choose the genres you’re interested in and maximum price to limit the number of books shown.

Have I missed any free/cheap ebook sources that you use?

Note: Most of the sites I’ve linked to above use affiliate links (i.e. they get a % of your purchase (the price you pay stays the same) for any purchases you make at the relevant retailer while the link is active) except for MobileRead, who are pretty vigilant about no affiliate links unless explicitly stated.  I don’t mind using the affiliate links as I appreciate the time/effort in curating the deals, but YMMV.  You can remove the affiliate tags before clicking through if you prefer (or clear your browser cache).

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And a couple of quick reviews for recent freebies (cross-posted from Goodreads, additional comments in italics):

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The Girl With the Cat Tattoo by Theresa Weir (contemporary romance)

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was a freebie with good reviews – I obviously had to give it a go. For a story narrated from a cat’s POV, this avoided the cute-sy trap and turned out to have more emotional punch (and plot) than I expected. And I loved the ending.

I kept on seeing this reviewed on various sites, and while it isn’t a re-read for me, I’m certainly interested in checking out more of Weir’s backlist.

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Shadow Unit 1 by Emma Bull (UF)

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Kindle freebie on Amazon, IIRC. Each contribution is written like a TV episode (which I believe is the intention – more at www.shadowunit.org), and I found it easy to dip in and out. I connected the most with Will Shetterly’s and Sarah Monette’s contributions – would be open to reading more in this universe.

I believe all stories are free at the Shadow Unit website (there’s also a Paypal Donate button there).  I already knew I loved Sarah Monette’s writing (new book out next year under a pseudonym – I’m excited!), but I’ve to check out Will Shetterly’s writing now.  Emma Bull and Elizabeth Bear were the other two contributors in this one.

Quick Links

I’ve never quite got the hang of reading manga (or any kind of graphic novel, come to that), but this Harlequin post about how they translate their HQNs into manga form fascinated me, especially the comments from the artists themselves.  The article features novels by Gena Showalter and Lynne Graham – the latter’s OTT romances used to be my guilty pleasure and I’m quite tempted to order the manga version of THE DESERT SHEIKH’S CAPTIVE WIFE now.

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Library Journal published their Best Ebook Romances list for 2013. I normally feel a bit out of step with the various “Best of” lists (and can’t believe it’s that time of the year already!), but I quite liked this list, possibly because of the ebook focus. I’m not sure what the differences in criteria were for this v. the LJ Best Romances list – possibly digital-only releases?

I’ve read the first Lindsay Buroker, and certainly plan on continuing the series at some point, and I’ve always wanted to read Zoë Archer.  Plus the Jeanette Grey NA book sounds interesting, as does the Jane Kindred fantasy romance (primarily due to the Jacqueline Carey Kushiel comparison).  I know that there are many Ruthie Knox fans out there (I’ve only read her BIG BOY novella, which I did like and plan on checking out her other books), and I’ve the Mary Ann Rivers novella in my e-TBR after the entire romance blogosphere (or what felt like it) went crazy for THE STORY GUY earlier this year.

So basically – I want to read all the books on the Best Ebook Romances list (well, most of it, I read my first Jessica Scott some time back and wasn’t blown away), while the books on the Best Romances list don’t tempt me at all.  To be fair, there is also a lot of historical romance on the latter, and I’ve not been reading much of that this year.

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World Fantasy Con 2013 was held in Brighton this year, and while there appears to be a bit of post-con fallout around anti-harassment fail on the part of the organisers, I did like this post @ The Writer’s Greenhouse detailing the unfortunately-titled panel “Broads with Swords” (uh, can’t believe I actually typed that out on my blog), which was thankfully subverted by the panelists. Apart from notes about the panel discussion, the post includes a list of women authors writing martial fantasy recommended by the panel and their audience – it’s a great list, IMO, probably because I totally agree with the recs for the authors I recognised (Kate Elliott, Martha Wells, Lois McMaster Bujold, to name but a few…) and have made mental notes to check out the rest!

Shorts & E-Publishing

I drafted this post a couple of months ago, and then promptly forgot about it.  I stumbled upon it earlier this month, but figured it was slightly out-of-date as both the serials I talk about have finished.  And then John Scalzi posted today that the two extra short stories in the hardcover of THE HUMAN DIVISION was now available for free on Tor.com, which kind of makes this post relevant again.

So with some minor edits, here are my thoughts on serials – or rather, e-publishing experiments, because that’s what they really are – and some updates below on my current position now that both the John Scalzi and Eloisa James serials have been completed.

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I’m a sucker for short stories and anthologies.  The number of themed anthologies I have is well into double digits (I blame the editors for coming up with amazing ideas and tossing in a few must-read contributors – they know me so well), and yet, the “theme-iness” of anthologies sometimes doesn’t work for me. I’m still halfway through Jonathan Strachan’s UNDER MY HAT anthology because I can’t read too many witch stories at one go without thinking “oh no, not another witch”.

With the advent of e-publishing, it gets a lot easier to release single short stories, but yet I don’t find myself hitting that Buy button for very many standalone shorts.  I’ve been pondering the reasons, and here are some rather rambly thoughts on what short stories work for me, pricing, and whether the serial format would work in any other genre.

On the first, you may have seen some of my mentions of John Scalzi‘s THE HUMAN DIVISION serialisation – we’re now up to week 7 (update: the last episode was released April 9) and I’m still eagerly turning on my Kindle every Tuesday evening to get the latest episode.  Reasons why this set of shorts is working well (and specifically) for me:

• Each episode is self-contained enough for me to feel entertained and satisfied when I turn off my Kindle.  There aren’t any cliffhangers – sure, there are points to speculate about in each episode, but there is no “To Be Continued…” kind of ending.   
• The weekly gap between episodes feels right.  I’ll caveat that by saying this may be due to the fact I’m not invested enough in the overall story or characters to the extent that I feel I *must* know what happens next. I do like the recurring characters, especially Harry Wilson and Hart Schmidt, but I don’t feel short-changed if they don’t show up in an episode.
• The time commitment works.  They’re not ultra-short stories (though the length varies), but I know I don’t have to find a spare hour in my day to finish the story.  
• Most importantly, the price feels right – £0.63 (or £0.64 for the latter ones (I’ve no idea why the 1p increase but I’m guessing the exchange rate, boo). 

Which brings me to the price point question. The good old “coffee v an ebook” price debate made its rounds a couple of months ago, but we won’t go into that.  I think the not-very-helpful answer is that the “right” price point for me as a reader is the point at which I feel I get value for money, which in turn is tied to how much enjoyment I get out from the story (and I have some thoughts on that and recent self-pubbed releases by auto-buy authors… but that would be another post).  That’s a rather vague answer – talking specifics, why am I happy to pay £0.63 for each Scalzi episode?

I can’t help comparing the price of a short story to that of an anthology – take John Joseph Adams’ THE MAD SCIENTIST’S GUIDE TO WORLD DOMINATION anthology for example.  It retails on Amazon UK for £7.20 and has 22 short stories in it – I make that 33p each.  Jonathan Strachan’s UNDER MY HAT, which I mentioned above, is £7 for 18 stories, so again approximately 38p each.  So each story is half the price of the Scalzi series, but on the other hand, I know I’ll have hits and misses with an anthology. I’m not going to love every story in this book; heck, I may not even like any of them.

With the Scalzi shorts, I know I like his writing and he’s been consistent.  For 13 episodes, I’m paying around £8.30* – that’s more expensive than a mass-market paperback, but probably what I would pay for a hardcover (including discounts).  And THE HUMAN DIVISION is being released as a hardcover at the end of the serial run, so I don’t feel short-changed, even for the shorter episodes.  If it was £0.99 an episode, I think I would hesitate because of cost – that’s 3x the cost of a short story in an anthology.

The other point I was thinking about was if an SF serial works for me, would it would work for another genre, such as romance? 

I find it hard to imagine a romance novel published serially in such a way that would leave me feeling satisfied after each installment, yet with a HEA that I would believe in.   I did notice Eloisa James is doing an online serial for her new novella(?) WITH THIS KISS – it looks as though it’s £0.99 for each installment (three in total) or £4.49 for the entire book AS YOU WISH, which will also include a previously-published e-short.  I’m hesitating – partly because I’m not sure if the length will be right for £0.99, but also because I’m thinking cliffhanger-type endings based on the descriptions.  I’m looking forward to seeing how successful it is, though.

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Update 28 May:

• I still haven’t bought Eloisa James’ serialised story, and that’s really due to pricing.  As much as I love her writing,  I’m balking at the price for three short stories, which (based on Goodreads reviews) aren’t complete stories in themselves – it sounds like one story split into three, which is slightly different to the Scalzi serialisation. I’m not saying never – I may feel like an EJ fix one day, and decide to splash out on it, but it’d be a special occasion kind of purchase.
• I finished THE HUMAN DIVISION and liked it well enough (I rated the majority of the shorts 3 stars on GRs, with a couple of 4s, IIRC) – would I buy the second “season”?  It’s interesting, because I don’t think I would have bought the hardcover of THD (John Scalzi’s more of a wait-for-the-paperback-release kind of author for me), but that’s essentially what I ended up doing by signing up to the serialised version.  I probably would buy the next serialisation, just because I thought it was good value for money.  However, I would have answered differently if you had asked me the same question back in April – see next (and final) point.  
• I was annoyed when it was announced that the hardback version of THE HUMAN DIVISION would have exclusive extras not available to the purchasers of the online serial, but held my peace.  Obviously I didn’t feel strongly enough about THD to blog about it, though I have posted previously about my feelings when “extras” are only available in either hardcover or mass market paperback (hint: it really annoys me).  However, the fact that Tor is now offering the additional shorts for free a couple of months after the hardcover release makes me a lot happier – I would have voted with my cash otherwise (as I’ve done when publishers have offered exclusive content specific to certain formats) and not bought the sequel.

So, your thoughts – do serialised releases work for you or not?  Did you buy either (or both) of the John Scalzi or Eloisa James serials?  

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*One could also argue we get 13 pieces of cover art for the serialised version. Or that editing 20 short stories written by 20 different authors is more overhead than editing 20 short stories by a single author. I don’t know.

One SF, One (Almost) Fantasy

I posted a while back about my plan to start talking about free (or bargain-priced) ebooks.  And then that kind of fell by the wayside, as many of my grand(-ish) blogging plans do.  But new year, new start, so here are a couple.

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Firstly, you may have heard about John Scalzi‘s THE HUMAN DIVISION, which is a serialised novel being released in 13 parts on a weekly basis from around now onwards. Once all installments have been released, it’ll also go on sale as a single book (both hardcover and e), but at a price point comparable to buying each individual short.  I like John Scalzi’s writing – I’ve read his debut novel, OLD MAN’S WAR, and its immediate sequel, and I have ZOE’S TALE sitting in my TBR pile somewhere.  He writes accessible and entertaining SF – and while that may sound like damning with faint praise, it’s not.  It may not be ground-breaking SF, but it’s good storytelling of the sort that keeps you turning the pages.  And I like his blog – which counts for quite a bit too!

So I pre-ordered the first installment, THE B-TEAM – my thinking being that if I liked the story, I would order the next in the series.  If not, well, £0.63 (or $0.99, I believe) wasn’t going to break the bank.  And then last week, I had an email come through from Tor – apparently, I had signed up on some sort of mailing list, and as a result, I got a free copy of THE B-TEAM a week in advance of the on-sale date.  Win.

And I really enjoyed THE B-TEAM.  I liked that it was a standalone short with quite a bit of story packed in (Scalzi does note that it is one of the longer stories in this serial). I also liked that I was caught somewhat off-guard after the first chapter – I thought the story was going to go one direction, but it ended up going down another route, and that certainly caught my attention.  I didn’t find the setting confusing, though having said that, it is set in the OMW universe, so I do have the benefit of having read previous books set in the same world.  All in all, it’s a great introduction to a bigger story and I’m looking forward to following the characters on their next adventure (or at least, I’m assuming it’s the same cast of characters), and if you’re in the mood for some SF, I’d certainly suggest you give the first story a go.

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Hilcia @ Impressions of an Reader is taking part in the 2013 Science Fiction Experience and she’s been reviewing a few Andre Nortons.  While I’ve read a few Nortons, they’ve not been a big part of my SFF reading past.  So inspired by Hils, I “dusted off” an Andre Norton that was in my e-TBR – THE PRINCE COMMANDS was offered as a freebie a while back and so I had it sitting on my Kindle.

So first off, this is not an SF.  In fact, it barely qualifies as a fantasy – the only fantastical element being the setting, it being one of those made-up Eastern European kingdoms.  I did some research (i.e. Googling) when I finished the novel, and it turns out that this is actually Andre Norton’s first book.  I know – fail on the SFF history front.

Anyway, once I figured out what I was getting into, this turned out to be a very fun, very Ruritanian adventure.  Michael Karl, the young protagonist, finds out that he is the heir to the kingdom of Morvania, and reluctantly sets out to be crowned king.  But it’s obviously not going to be smooth sailing, and well, hi-jinks ensue with escapes and near-escapes, conspiracies, hidden identities, secret passages, passwords… It has some unexpectedly touching moments, and ended up being slightly more than just a straightforward adventure.

While I enjoyed the story, something struck me as being slightly off, and it was only after I finished reading THE PRINCE COMMANDS that I pinpointed what was missing.  And it was that there was no women or POC playing any significant parts in this novel – from memory, the only female character with a couple of cameos played a vaguely mother-ish capacity.  This made me realise how far we have come in around eight decades (THE PRINCE COMMANDS was published in 1934), and the diversity that I tend to take for granted in the YA fantasy books on the market nowadays.  So yes, this book came with an unexpected social history realisation.

My Latest Toy (and Other Links)

I got a Kindle Paperwhite!

I was going to wait on a new ereader until the Nook made an appearance in the UK, especially as I wasn’t that keen on the Kindle Fire.  But when Amazon announced that they were also launching the Paperwhite this month, I couldn’t resist.  I was pretty happy with my Kindle, but the screen contrast meant that I struggled to use it in not-so-well-lit conditions, and the Paperwhite with its improved display sounded like an ideal option.  Of course, after I placed my order, I checked the online forums and found some complaints on the screen quality…

Fast-forward a couple of weeks or so, and the Amazon package arrived on my doorstep.  The excitement!  Quick thoughts:

• I’ve no issues with the screen – the display is definitely an improvement over the previous version.  Some people have reported a degradation over time, so that may change, but for now, I’m really happy.
• I’m having some minor issues adjusting to the touch screen – I’m more used to pressing a button to change pages instead of tapping or swiping.  I wish there was an option to switch the tap zones around (I think that’s what you call them?).  Also, there’s no quick way to skip to the next chapter apart from going via the menu (unless I haven’t found that feature yet).
• It helps having had a Kindle before, because I found it pretty easy to navigate and figure out how to do things.
• I don’t think it’s significantly heavier than the previous version, but I find it a bit more difficult to hold in one hand (I think it’s to do with the taps/swipes than the actual weight actually).
• I still need to figure out how I’m going to transfer all my old books and collections across from my old Kindle (any tips, anyone?) – in the meantime, I’ve been downloading the ones I want to read from the Amazon cloud.

So initial verdict is a definite yes.  That may change once I see the Nook IRL…

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Possibly tied in to the new Kindle launches – Amazon UK is having an Autumn Book Harvest sale until Nov 7.  Probably only for UK readers, but there are some good bargains.  I snapped up e-versions of the first four Amelia Peabody books for £1.19 (for the set!).  Other bargains that caught my eye (but I refrained from buying):

• Nora Roberts‘ TAMING NATASHA – £1.09 (Estara and I were just discussing the Stanislaskis family books the other day)
• Ree Drummond‘s PIONEER WOMAN – £0.99 (I like the Pioneer Woman blog, so was tempted)
• Jim Butcher‘s STORM FRONT – £1.99 (first in his Dresden Files series – not his best, IMO, but introduces the whole series)
• HOME IMPROVEMENT edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni Kelner – £1.69 (UF anthology with contributors including Patricia Briggs – I borrowed this from the library as I was only interested in a couple of stories, IIRC, but it’s probably worth buying at that price)

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And a couple of links:

• Jacqueline Carey blogs about her inspiration for DARK CURRENTS , her new urban fantasy (I haven’t posted about it yet but I quite liked the story – promising start for a UF series, though I did have a couple of reservations)
• Sherwood Smith posts about how much she enjoyed Andrea K Höst’s books (and Estara gets a shout out for book-pushing!)