by John Barnes, for example, were both $9.99 yesterday.Here are a few of the imprints, sorted by publication date (funny how these seem to be most of my favorite authors), if you want to take a walk thru the New Books aisle at Amazon:
Book Reviews and Bargain reads for the Amazon Kindle, nook, Kobo, Sony and other ereaders, Kindle Fire, nookColor, Kobo Vox, and other tablets, along with some games, music, technology and computers tossed in now and then.
Custom Search
Friday, May 28, 2010
Penguin Books now in Stock
I checked this morning and most of the Penguin books on my watch list are now in stock in the Kindle store and Publishers Weekly says that all titles should be available no longer than Monday. I still don't see Changes, by Jim Butcher, for example (then again, I gave up and bought it in hardcover, long ago). Prices, of course, are mostly up (although Bullet, by Laurell K. Hamilton, is down to $12.99), including the hardcovers that were temporarily lowered to $9.99 by Amazon to help prevent their customers leaving for another ebook platform; Bullet and Directive 51 by John Barnes, for example, were both $9.99 yesterday.
Here are a few of the imprints, sorted by publication date (funny how these seem to be most of my favorite authors), if you want to take a walk thru the New Books aisle at Amazon:
by John Barnes, for example, were both $9.99 yesterday.Here are a few of the imprints, sorted by publication date (funny how these seem to be most of my favorite authors), if you want to take a walk thru the New Books aisle at Amazon:
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Free Game - Pirate Island
The free game this week at Sandlot Games is Pirate Island.Game Description
- 12 exciting chapters of high-seas adventure
- More than 100 levels of increasingly challenging game play
- 11 unique trophies awarded for in-game combinations
- 6 level-altering power-ups
The Dread Captain Weevil, Scourge of the Seven Seas, has vowed revenge on the Twelve Islands if his golden peg-leg is not returned and it's up to you to collect enough gold to satisfy his demands before he unleashes his, and his skeleton army's, wrath.
Click HERE to sign up for the free download. For step by step purchase and installation instructions, see this post.
Free Book (PDF) - Mother's Milk
ENC Press, a small, independent publisher, is giving away a copy of Mother's Milk, by Andrew Thomas Breslin, thru July 15.Book Description
Cindy Kichlklug, a young, emphatically non-idealistic attorney finds herself in Washington, DC, working for a group of radical nutrition advocates with a passionate distaste for cow milk. Little does she suspect that their militant intolerance for lactose is a reaction to a secret global conspiracy orchestrated by the dairy industry, itself a puppet of alien masters from a distant planet orbiting the star Vega.
These Vegans (the ones from Vega, not the other kind) have been running things on Earth for thousands of years through mind-controlling substances secreted by the cows they brought here long ago, but now one of Cindy’s colleagues, socially inept mathematician Eddie Fishman, has discovered an innovative analytical technique that may expose their nefarious schemes. When Eddie is captured, Cindy teams up with cranky old anti-conspiracy veteran Tom Logan and a host of other rabble-rousing extremists to rescue Eddie and put an end to the diabolical (albeit delicious) machinations, all the while pursued by the dapper but devious “milk thugs” and fighting her own overwhelming desire for lattes and cheesecake.
Click HERE to get the book. Thanks to an alert reader, who found this deal on their Facebook page.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Penguin and Amazon Reach Agreement - Books to Follow
An official Amazon Customer Service rep has announced that Amazon and Penguin have reached an agreement on ebook sales. The message is buried in one of the myriad of threads complaining about the lack of newer Penguin titles in the Amazon store.I'm already seeing signs of the logjam of titles clearing: you can now pre-order Bullet ($14.82), by Laurell K. Hamilton (although if you hurry, you can still get the Hardcover for $9.99, where it was marked down during the standoff). Interestingly enough, this title (and a couple of others from the Penguin imprint Berkley) isn't sold by the publisher, but by Amazon; it looks like the new agreement is NOT an Agency agreement at all, but the traditional retailer agreement that Random House and a few others have stuck with. I don't see any Roc or Ace titles yet, but the ones from Berkley are only starting to show availability in the states and not all of those (I suspect they have to be manually updated, one at a time).
Book Description
The music came back up and the next group of little girls, slightly older, came out. There was a lot of that in the next hour and change. I liked dance, and it was no reflection on the kids, but my will to live began to seep away on about the fifth group of sequined children...
Anita Blake is back in St. Louis and trying to live a normal life-as normal as possible for someone who is a legal vampire executioner and a U. S. Marshal. There are lovers, friends and their children, school programs to attend. In the midst of all the ordinary happiness a vampire from Anita's past reaches out. She was supposed to be dead, killed in an explosion, but the Mother of All Darkness is the first vampire, their dark creator. It's hard to kill a god. This dark goddess has reached out to her here-in St. Louis, home of everyone Anita loves most. The Mother of All Darkness has decided she has to act now or never, to control Anita, and all the vampires in America.
The Mother of All Darkness believes that the triumvirate created by master vampire Jean-Claude with Anita and the werewolf Richard Zeeman has enough power for her to regain a body and to immigrate to the New World. But the body she wants to possess is already taken. Anita is about to learn a whole new meaning to sharing her body, one that has nothing to do with the bedroom. And if the Mother of All Darkness can't succeed in taking over Anita's body for herself, she means to see that no one else has the use of it, ever again. Even Belle Morte, not always a friend to Anita, has sent word: "Run if you can..."
Update (12:42PM): Looks like all the Berkley titles that had shown up earlier today as available to order are now back to being unavailable in the US. Including Bullet, above. A lot more books are showing up in the Kindle store; however, they are unavailable to US customers (including several that were available earlier today). Here are a few of the imprints that are starting to show up:
Berkley
Roc
Ace
Penguin
Dutton
Puffin
Putnam
Viking
And there are others.... Looking thru the lists, there are several books that I want to order (and several where I am tempted to get the Hardcover instead, since they are down to $9.99).
Hugo Awards Packet
This year, the Hugo Awards are doing things a little differently. Rather than a physical packet of reading material, they are releasing the entire list electronically to members, including supporting members who are not able to attend the conference in Australia. What that means is that for $50US or $70AUD, you can get copies of six novels, six novellas, six novelettes, five short stories, four graphic stories (plus a couple to read online only), and a number of related works, fanzines and other writing excerpts in various categories, all of which were considered to be prize-worthy examples by the awards committee. I found a password on one PDF (and, yes, most of the packet is in PDF form, although there are a few with multiple formats and I saw at least one PRC/Mobi file on a quick look-thru), so that one will be a PC only read, rather than moving to my Kindle and there are a few that include links to online only reads (a few graphic/comics sites are online only publications, for example), but otherwise they should work well on an ereader.
If you don't want to join, a number of the short stories, novelettes, novellas and graphic stories are available online to read, for the duration of the voting period (yes, you are expected to vote, but there is little to stop you from skipping this part), which ends 31 July 2010 23:59 PDT. You can sign up online, HERE, but you will have a decision to make: let them process the charges in Australian dollars, which will mean possibly paying a small exchange fee to your bank or credit card company, and a total based on the current exchange rate (when I checked, it worked out to around $65US; PayPal tells you how much before you complete the transaction), OR you can use their manual registration and payment option via PayPal and pay a flat $50US (directions are on the registration page). If a bargain price is your main consideration, the latter is the way to go. However, you'll want to add to your PayPal message that you wish to get all your material via email, or they will send you everything via snail mail - adding at least a week to get anything, here in the States. In addition, rather than the automated system set up to issue registration info (which you need to download the books), your registration is handled manually, by a group of volunteers; even with several emails to them to check on status, mine took three weeks to complete and get my password via email. With only two months left in the voting period, that would not leave much time to read the entries if I chose that method today.
I'm listing below the complete packet contents, with links to the freely available items (many are only online until voting ends). I've included Kindle or Amazon book links to the novels (along with prices), so you can check out reviews or a few samples before deciding if you want to participate.
BEST NOVEL (699 nominating ballots)
Boneshaker
($9.99) by Cherie Priest (Tor)
The City & The City ($9.99) by China Miéville (Del Rey; Macmillan UK)
Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America ($8.99) by Robert Charles Wilson (Tor)
Palimpsest ($9.99) by Catherynne M. Valente (Bantam Spectra)
WWW: Wake ($6.29) by Robert J. Sawyer (Ace; Penguin; Gollancz; Analog)
The Windup Girl ($10.17 paperback) by Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade)
BEST NOVELLA (375 nominating ballots)
Act One ($4.99) by Nancy Kress (Asimov's 3/09) - Free Download (PDF)
The God Engines ($13.60 paperback) by John Scalzi (Subterranean)
"Palimpsest" by Charles Stross (Wireless ($10.79); Ace; Orbit) - Read Online
Shambling Towards Hiroshima ($10.17 paperback) by James Morrow (Tachyon)
"Vishnu at the Cat Circus" by Ian McDonald (Cyberabad Days ($9.59); Pyr; Gollancz)
The Women of Nell Gwynne's (hardcover) by Kage Baker (Subterranean)
BEST NOVELETTE (402 nominating ballots)
"Eros, Philia, Agape" by Rachel Swirsky (Tor.com 3/09) - Read Online
"The Island" by Peter Watts (The New Space Opera 2; Eos) - Read Online
"It Takes Two" by Nicola Griffith (Eclipse Three; Night Shade Books) - Free Download (PDF) or Audio
"One of Our Bastards is Missing" by Paul Cornell (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction: Volume Three; Solaris) - Free Download (PDF)
"Overtime" by Charles Stross (Tor.com 12/09) - Read Online
"Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast" by Eugie Foster (Interzone 2/09) - Read Online
BEST SHORT STORY (432 nominating ballots)
"The Bride of Frankenstein" by Mike Resnick (Asimov's 12/09) - Free Download (PDF)
"Bridesicle" by Will McIntosh (Asimov’s 1/09) - Free Download (PDF)
"The Moment" by Lawrence M. Schoen (Footprints; Hadley Rille Books) - Read Online
"Non-Zero Probabilities" by N.K. Jemisin (Clarkesworld 9/09) - Read Online
"Spar" by Kij Johnson (Clarkesworld 10/09) - Read Online
BEST RELATED WORK (259 nominating ballots)
Canary Fever: Reviews ($30.40 paperback)by John Clute (Beccon)
Hope-In-The-Mist: The Extraordinary Career & Mysterious Life of Hope Mirrlees by Michael Swanwick (password protected; Temporary Culture)
The Inter-Galactic Playground: A Critical Study of Children's and Teens' Science Fiction (Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy) ($45.00 paperback) by Farah Mendlesohn (McFarland)
On Joanna Russ ($29.95 paperback) edited by Farah Mendlesohn (Wesleyan)
The Secret Feminist Cabal: A Cultural History of Science Fiction Feminisms ($14.82 paperback) by Helen Merrick (Aqueduct)
This is Me, Jack Vance! (Or, More Properly, This is "I") ($29.20 paperback) by Jack Vance (Subterranean)
BEST GRAPHIC STORY (221 nominating ballots)
Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? ($16.49 Deluxe Edition, Hardcover)Written by Neil Gaiman; Pencilled by Andy Kubert; Inked by Scott Williams (DC Comics)
Captain Britain And MI13 Volume 3: Vampire State ($14.99 paperback) Written by Paul Cornell; Pencilled by Leonard Kirk with Mike Collins, Adrian Alphona and Ardian Syaf (Marvel Comics) - Read Issues #10 and #11 Online
Fables Vol. 12: The Dark Ages ($12.23 paperback) Written by Bill Willingham; Pencilled by Mark Buckingham; Art by Peter Gross & Andrew Pepoy, Michael Allred, David Hahn; Colour by Lee Loughridge & Laura Allred; Letters by Todd Klein (Vertigo Comics)
Girl Genius Volume 9: Agatha Heterodyne and The Heirs of the Storm ($15.61 paperback) Written by Kaja and Phil Foglio; Art by Phil Foglio; Colours by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment) - Read Online
Schlock Mercenary : The Longshoreman of the Apocalypse Written and Illustrated by Howard Tayler - Read Online
BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION - LONG FORM (541 nominating ballots)
Avatar Screenplay and Directed by James Cameron (Twentieth Century Fox)
District 9 Screenplay by Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell; Directed by Neill Blomkamp (TriStar Pictures)
Moon Screenplay by Nathan Parker; Story by Duncan Jones; Directed by Duncan Jones (Liberty Films)
Star Trek Screenplay by Robert Orci & Alex Kurtzman; Directed by J.J. Abrams (Paramount)
Up Screenplay by Bob Peterson & Pete Docter; Story by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, & Thomas McCarthy; Directed by Bob Peterson & Pete Docter (Disney/Pixar)
BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION - SHORT FORM (282 nominating ballots)
Doctor Who: "The Next Doctor" Written by Russell T Davies; Directed by Andy Goddard (BBC Wales)
Doctor Who: "Planet of the Dead" Written by Russell T Davies & Gareth Roberts; Directed by James Strong (BBC Wales)
Doctor Who: "The Waters of Mars" Written by Russell T Davies & Phil Ford; Directed by Graeme Harper (BBC Wales)
Dollhouse: "Epitaph 1" Story by Joss Whedon; Written by Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed Whedon; Directed by David Solomon (Mutant Enemy)
FlashForward: "No More Good Days" Written by Brannon Braga & David S. Goyer; Directed by David S. Goyer; based on the novel by Robert J. Sawyer (ABC)
BEST EDITOR, LONG FORM (289 nominating ballots)
Lou Anders
Ginjer Buchanan
Liz Gorinsky
Patrick Nielsen Hayden
Juliet Ulman
BEST EDITOR, SHORT FORM (419 nominating ballots)
Ellen Datlow
Stanley Schmidt
Jonathan Strahan
Gordon Van Gelder
Sheila Williams
BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST (327 nominating ballots)
Bob Eggleton
Stephan Martiniere
John Picacio
Daniel Dos Santos
Shaun Tan
BEST SEMIPROZINE (377 nominating ballots)
Ansible edited by David Langford
Clarkesworld edited by Neil Clarke, Sean Wallace, & Cheryl Morgan
Interzone edited by Andy Cox
Locus edited by Charles N. Brown, Kirsten Gong-Wong, & Liza Groen Trombi
Weird Tales edited by Ann VanderMeer & Stephen H. Segal
BEST FAN WRITER (319 nominating ballots)
Claire Brialey
Christopher J Garcia
James Nicoll
Lloyd Penney
Frederik Pohl
BEST FANZINE (298 nominating ballots)
Argentus edited by Steven H Silver
Banana Wings edited by Claire Brialey and Mark Plummer
CHALLENGER edited by Guy H. Lillian III
Drink Tank edited by Christopher J Garcia, with guest editor James Bacon
File 770 edited by Mike Glyer
StarShipSofa edited by Tony C. Smith
BEST FAN ARTIST (199 nominating ballots)
Brad W. Foster
Dave Howell
Sue Mason
Steve Stiles
Taral Wayne
THE JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD FOR BEST NEW WRITER (NOT A HUGO AWARD) (356 nominating ballots)
Saladin Ahmed
Gail Carriger
Felix Gilman *
Seanan McGuire
Lezli Robyn *
* Second year of eligibility
If you don't want to join, a number of the short stories, novelettes, novellas and graphic stories are available online to read, for the duration of the voting period (yes, you are expected to vote, but there is little to stop you from skipping this part), which ends 31 July 2010 23:59 PDT. You can sign up online, HERE, but you will have a decision to make: let them process the charges in Australian dollars, which will mean possibly paying a small exchange fee to your bank or credit card company, and a total based on the current exchange rate (when I checked, it worked out to around $65US; PayPal tells you how much before you complete the transaction), OR you can use their manual registration and payment option via PayPal and pay a flat $50US (directions are on the registration page). If a bargain price is your main consideration, the latter is the way to go. However, you'll want to add to your PayPal message that you wish to get all your material via email, or they will send you everything via snail mail - adding at least a week to get anything, here in the States. In addition, rather than the automated system set up to issue registration info (which you need to download the books), your registration is handled manually, by a group of volunteers; even with several emails to them to check on status, mine took three weeks to complete and get my password via email. With only two months left in the voting period, that would not leave much time to read the entries if I chose that method today.
I'm listing below the complete packet contents, with links to the freely available items (many are only online until voting ends). I've included Kindle or Amazon book links to the novels (along with prices), so you can check out reviews or a few samples before deciding if you want to participate.
The 2010 Hugo and John W. Campbell Award Nominees
864 Total Ballots CastBEST NOVEL (699 nominating ballots)
Boneshaker
($9.99) by Cherie Priest (Tor)The City & The City ($9.99) by China Miéville (Del Rey; Macmillan UK)
Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America ($8.99) by Robert Charles Wilson (Tor)
Palimpsest ($9.99) by Catherynne M. Valente (Bantam Spectra)
WWW: Wake ($6.29) by Robert J. Sawyer (Ace; Penguin; Gollancz; Analog)
The Windup Girl ($10.17 paperback) by Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade)
BEST NOVELLA (375 nominating ballots)
Act One ($4.99) by Nancy Kress (Asimov's 3/09) - Free Download (PDF)
The God Engines ($13.60 paperback) by John Scalzi (Subterranean)
"Palimpsest" by Charles Stross (Wireless ($10.79); Ace; Orbit) - Read Online
Shambling Towards Hiroshima ($10.17 paperback) by James Morrow (Tachyon)
"Vishnu at the Cat Circus" by Ian McDonald (Cyberabad Days ($9.59); Pyr; Gollancz)
The Women of Nell Gwynne's (hardcover) by Kage Baker (Subterranean)
BEST NOVELETTE (402 nominating ballots)
"Eros, Philia, Agape" by Rachel Swirsky (Tor.com 3/09) - Read Online
"The Island" by Peter Watts (The New Space Opera 2; Eos) - Read Online
"It Takes Two" by Nicola Griffith (Eclipse Three; Night Shade Books) - Free Download (PDF) or Audio
"One of Our Bastards is Missing" by Paul Cornell (The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction: Volume Three; Solaris) - Free Download (PDF)
"Overtime" by Charles Stross (Tor.com 12/09) - Read Online
"Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast" by Eugie Foster (Interzone 2/09) - Read Online
BEST SHORT STORY (432 nominating ballots)
"The Bride of Frankenstein" by Mike Resnick (Asimov's 12/09) - Free Download (PDF)
"Bridesicle" by Will McIntosh (Asimov’s 1/09) - Free Download (PDF)
"The Moment" by Lawrence M. Schoen (Footprints; Hadley Rille Books) - Read Online
"Non-Zero Probabilities" by N.K. Jemisin (Clarkesworld 9/09) - Read Online
"Spar" by Kij Johnson (Clarkesworld 10/09) - Read Online
BEST RELATED WORK (259 nominating ballots)
Canary Fever: Reviews ($30.40 paperback)by John Clute (Beccon)
Hope-In-The-Mist: The Extraordinary Career & Mysterious Life of Hope Mirrlees by Michael Swanwick (password protected; Temporary Culture)
The Inter-Galactic Playground: A Critical Study of Children's and Teens' Science Fiction (Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy) ($45.00 paperback) by Farah Mendlesohn (McFarland)
On Joanna Russ ($29.95 paperback) edited by Farah Mendlesohn (Wesleyan)
The Secret Feminist Cabal: A Cultural History of Science Fiction Feminisms ($14.82 paperback) by Helen Merrick (Aqueduct)
This is Me, Jack Vance! (Or, More Properly, This is "I") ($29.20 paperback) by Jack Vance (Subterranean)
BEST GRAPHIC STORY (221 nominating ballots)
Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? ($16.49 Deluxe Edition, Hardcover)Written by Neil Gaiman; Pencilled by Andy Kubert; Inked by Scott Williams (DC Comics)
Captain Britain And MI13 Volume 3: Vampire State ($14.99 paperback) Written by Paul Cornell; Pencilled by Leonard Kirk with Mike Collins, Adrian Alphona and Ardian Syaf (Marvel Comics) - Read Issues #10 and #11 Online
Fables Vol. 12: The Dark Ages ($12.23 paperback) Written by Bill Willingham; Pencilled by Mark Buckingham; Art by Peter Gross & Andrew Pepoy, Michael Allred, David Hahn; Colour by Lee Loughridge & Laura Allred; Letters by Todd Klein (Vertigo Comics)
Girl Genius Volume 9: Agatha Heterodyne and The Heirs of the Storm ($15.61 paperback) Written by Kaja and Phil Foglio; Art by Phil Foglio; Colours by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment) - Read Online
Schlock Mercenary : The Longshoreman of the Apocalypse Written and Illustrated by Howard Tayler - Read Online
BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION - LONG FORM (541 nominating ballots)
Avatar Screenplay and Directed by James Cameron (Twentieth Century Fox)
District 9 Screenplay by Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell; Directed by Neill Blomkamp (TriStar Pictures)
Moon Screenplay by Nathan Parker; Story by Duncan Jones; Directed by Duncan Jones (Liberty Films)
Star Trek Screenplay by Robert Orci & Alex Kurtzman; Directed by J.J. Abrams (Paramount)
Up Screenplay by Bob Peterson & Pete Docter; Story by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, & Thomas McCarthy; Directed by Bob Peterson & Pete Docter (Disney/Pixar)
BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION - SHORT FORM (282 nominating ballots)
Doctor Who: "The Next Doctor" Written by Russell T Davies; Directed by Andy Goddard (BBC Wales)
Doctor Who: "Planet of the Dead" Written by Russell T Davies & Gareth Roberts; Directed by James Strong (BBC Wales)
Doctor Who: "The Waters of Mars" Written by Russell T Davies & Phil Ford; Directed by Graeme Harper (BBC Wales)
Dollhouse: "Epitaph 1" Story by Joss Whedon; Written by Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed Whedon; Directed by David Solomon (Mutant Enemy)
FlashForward: "No More Good Days" Written by Brannon Braga & David S. Goyer; Directed by David S. Goyer; based on the novel by Robert J. Sawyer (ABC)
BEST EDITOR, LONG FORM (289 nominating ballots)
Lou Anders
Ginjer Buchanan
Liz Gorinsky
Patrick Nielsen Hayden
Juliet Ulman
BEST EDITOR, SHORT FORM (419 nominating ballots)
Ellen Datlow
Stanley Schmidt
Jonathan Strahan
Gordon Van Gelder
Sheila Williams
BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST (327 nominating ballots)
Bob Eggleton
Stephan Martiniere
John Picacio
Daniel Dos Santos
Shaun Tan
BEST SEMIPROZINE (377 nominating ballots)
Ansible edited by David Langford
Clarkesworld edited by Neil Clarke, Sean Wallace, & Cheryl Morgan
Interzone edited by Andy Cox
Locus edited by Charles N. Brown, Kirsten Gong-Wong, & Liza Groen Trombi
Weird Tales edited by Ann VanderMeer & Stephen H. Segal
BEST FAN WRITER (319 nominating ballots)
Claire Brialey
Christopher J Garcia
James Nicoll
Lloyd Penney
Frederik Pohl
BEST FANZINE (298 nominating ballots)
Argentus edited by Steven H Silver
Banana Wings edited by Claire Brialey and Mark Plummer
CHALLENGER edited by Guy H. Lillian III
Drink Tank edited by Christopher J Garcia, with guest editor James Bacon
File 770 edited by Mike Glyer
StarShipSofa edited by Tony C. Smith
BEST FAN ARTIST (199 nominating ballots)
Brad W. Foster
Dave Howell
Sue Mason
Steve Stiles
Taral Wayne
THE JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD FOR BEST NEW WRITER (NOT A HUGO AWARD) (356 nominating ballots)
Saladin Ahmed
Gail Carriger
Felix Gilman *
Seanan McGuire
Lezli Robyn *
* Second year of eligibility
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)