Read the First Issue of 44

Seems like the net is going crazy over Letter 44, a new comic book Sci-Fi series.  The number refers to a letter that an outgoing president writes to his replacement.   But the letter to 44 has some very disturbing information in it.  

I wont give away anything else, but if you are into comics and enjoy sf than this series is looking good.  So good in fact, the publishers are going to let you read the first issue for free. Click the url below and enjoy. 

http://io9.com/read-the-first-issue-of-letter-44-the-comic-everyones-1472795323

Trathh & Other Stories Available

 

Hey, Dave Scholes just wrote me a note that his book is available for free for a limited time.

Here is what he sent me, and if you have been enjoying Trathh stories like I have this is a golden opportunity. 

• The e-book version of my new book “TRATHH and other science fiction stories” will be free on Amazon for 5 days from 12.01am 22 November (US Pacific Time):   
• 
  
  http://www.amazon.com/TRATHH-other-science-fiction-stories-ebook/dp/B00GQY7QOW/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1384832974&sr=1-1&keywords=TRATHH+and+other+science+fiction+stories
  
  
  
  

100 SF Films - Free to watch - online

Amanda Harris sends in a list of science fiction (used rather loosely here) 1oo in all, that can be watched online for my favorite price point, zero!

Films range from the 1980s to films from the early part of the 1900s. Movies like A Trip to the Moon 1902 to 2010: The Year we Make Contact from 1984.

Plenty of good stuff here so if interested, check it out!

EV Free Stuff

In celebration of BSFA award nominations, Escape Velocity has made three of its issues available for free PDF downloads (for a limited time). Tons of free fiction in them.

This is the word from on high from SF Signal via Quasar Dragon

So get ya free issues from Escape Velocity by clicking HERE

Celestia, Impressive Free Planetarium

Celestia is a very impressive, and free, planetarium that "Unlike most planetarium software, ... doesn't confine you to the surface of the Earth. You can travel throughout the solar system, to any of over 100,000 stars, or even beyond the galaxy." Also, unlike other planetarium software, it has a huge repository of optional add-ons that include Science Fiction worlds and vessels from Star Trek, Star Wars, Babylon 5, and others.

I've recently been enjoying this software, though I haven't had time to read the manual, which is probably necessary. Still just using it to view the planets in the solar system in real time is interesting enough. Even just using it for its opening view of the Earth as it rotates in real time is worth the download.

It is available free for windows, mac, and linux HERE and its add on repository is HERE.

Free eBook: The Infinite Sea by Jeffrey A. Carver

SF Signal has posted a message that:

• Jeffrey A. Carver has just posted a freely downloadable copy of The Infinite Sea, the third book in The Chaos Chronicles.

• For those who missed the first two books, check out Neptune Crossing and Strange Attractors.

• They are all available in multiple formats.

The download area of Jeff Carver's web page "The Science Fiction Worlds of Jeffery Carver

Tor to resume free E-book program!

In the latest Tor newsletter:

• More details next week--but yes, we plan to resume giving away selected e-books on Tor.com, at least one title per month. To download them you’ll need to not just visit Tor.com but register as a user; the downloads won’t be accessible until you do. Registering on the site takes maybe thirty seconds if you type particularly slowly...so Act Now, Act Without Thinking, get over to Tor.com and create yourself a user account today.

Night Shade Books offering free e-books

Wolfkahn over at Quasar Dragon blog writes that:

• Night Shade Books has a few free SF e-books and stories available for free download. Jon Williams’s Nebula Award-winning novella The Green Leopard Plague, Andy Duncan’s Nebula-nominated story “Unique Chicken Goes in Reverse,” Garth Nix’s Ditmar-nominated story “Bad Luck, Trouble, Death, and Vampire Sex,” Richard Kadrey’s novel Butcher Bird, and Jon Armstrong’s novel Grey.
  

Go Here for more information at Quasar Dragon

Last Free Tor ebook is Darkness of Light by Peter David

Tor Books' newest message contains news about the newest selection and news on the upcoming opening of their news online area. Here is the basic gist of the message:

This week’s free book mailing is Darkness of the Light by Peter David. Once the full Tor.com site opens on Sunday, July 20, we'll be making all the books in this program briefly available one last time, so be sure to stop by for our launch!

Download your eBook in:

>> PDF format

>> HTML format

>> Mobi format

Once the full Tor.com site opens on Sunday, July 20, we'll be making all the books in this program briefly available one last time, so be sure to stop by for our launch!

go to Tor.com for complete info

Tor's current free book Soul by Tobsha Learner.

Among the other goodies that Tor books is giving away this week is another free ebook. This week's selection is Soul by Tobsha Learner.

The available formats for the book are HTML, MobiPocket, and PDF.

If you haven's signed up yet, go to Tor.com and once signed up, they will notify you when and what is new.

Did Tor’s free ebooks affect sales?

Simon Owens asks a very interesting question. As background, you know that I have been listing the free books that Tor has been releasing in preparation for the unveiling of their new site that will have news, reviews, books and a host of other material. Well it seems Owens stepped behind the curtain and speak to the wizard as it concerns just what kind of impact Tor's efforts had. Simon spoke to Tobias Buckell and John Scalzi among others to get their reaction to Tor giving away their books. The results were telling, since we have so many very vocal nay sayers in the industry that would say that giving away material is pandering to those that would steal it and the only ones that benifit is the freeloaders and the authors get the dirty end of the stick. Well, pleasantly enough both Buckell and Scalzi report that while Tor was featuring one of their books, sales of these same titles experienced a sharp increase. Other authors did not see any significant results, but in my mind I wonder if that says something about how the work was promoted initially or maybe it reflects on the prevailing tastes. For me, I think the creative commons and free releases are a brilliant stratergy. Vertually any other product has a way to "test drive" it. From food court pass outs to automobile test drives, its a way for the customer to see if they like the product, and of course get a feel for "owning" the product. But they want you to buy a book with virtually no idea of what is inside?! Almost self defeating in today's market.

But I am degressing some. Click on the article's title to go to Simon's post on the background and reaction to Tor's program. Its very interesting.

Pic Simon Owens from Blogasm

Free Eos eBook: City of Pearl by Karen Traviss

I read on the SF Signal blog:

• For a limited time, Eos is making City of Pearl by Karen Traviss, the first book of the Wess'har Wars series, available as a free download. (use the coupon code EOS4) Formats provided include Adobe Digital, Microsoft Reader and Mobipocket.

ok that being said, because I love the idea that there is a good novel available for free, I have to say that I went through the whole Harper Collins rigmarole to download the book. And I was more than slightly agrevated by the end of the process. First off, you have to sign up for an account. Yes Tor has the same thing, but Harper takes it to a whole new level. Not just email and password, you want the book be prepaired to do the complete info gathering song and dance. First / last etc etc. Then you get your book? Nope, select type of media Adobe, Microsoft etc Ok, then you get it? Nope, next you have to download more software to view the book, Now I had Adobe pdf but they wanted me to download and install something a bit different live version so after 15 minutes of trying, I still don't have the book , I am begining to think that you read the book online or something....not sure now and I am agrevated enough to chuck the idea. But that aside, if you are a bit patient and don't mind jumping through a few hoops give it a go. Tor was much easier.

Tor's Newest free e-book FLASH by L.E. Modesitt

As I have been saying now for weeks, Tor has a new site in the works. The site will contain original fiction from authors, galleries of images from the field’s best artists plus news and commentary. Topical coverage of major events, weblog posts and guest appearances by some of the most interesting personalities and thinkers around. Tor has put a completion date for start up of this endeavor - July 20, 2008. With this announcement came the newest free e-book: Flash by L. E. Modesitt, Jr. which is available in HTML, MobiPocket, and PDF versions.

if you haven't signed up yet, head over to Tor.com to be added to the mailing list for notification of the newest e-book available.

Night Shade releases excerpts from Implied Spaces

From Boing Boing blog I see that to celebrate the release of Implied Spaces by Walter Jon Williams, Night Shade Books has posted a self-contained excerpt from the book to their website and posted the complete text of Williams's Nebula Award-winning novella "The Green Leopard Plague."

Author S.M. Stirling calls this book a whole new sub-genre in science fiction - he called it a 'Sword & Singularity' novel.

That's a novel twist

<Boing Boing article>
<Night Shade Books>

Tor's Newest Free E-book: Book: Battlestar Galactica by Jeffrey A. Carver

Thanks to SF Signal's for this update, I totally spaced it. Tor Books newest free ebook is

Battlestar Galactica by Jeffrey A. Carver. If your already signed up you can get the book in a variety of formats. (Available in HTML, MobiPocket, and PDF versions.) If you haven't signed up yet to be notified when the newest free book is available, you can go to Tor.com and get a free account.

Tor's current free book is In the Midnight Hour by Patti O'Shea.

Tor reports that: Our current free book is In the Midnight Hour by Patti O'Shea.

Go to Tor.com to sign up for the free book - They should send you one every week or so until their new site is up. They offer the book in HTML PDF and MOBI

<TOR>

Fiction Liberation Front now offering Free Novels

Lew Shiner has taken a bold leap and extended the range of his website the fiction liberation front by adding free downloads of his novels. This is what he wrote:

Dear friends,

I've just expanded the range of Fiction Liberation Front to include free downloads of my novels, and I've kicked things off with my brand new thriller, BLACK & WHITE. My publisher, Subterranean, is fully supporting this move, and as we bring my other novels back into print we plan to release free PDF versions on the FLF site as well.

That URL is fictionliberationfront.net.

--Lew

Very exciting news from a very exciting writer. I have read a great deal of his work and have hosted a few of his stories here. His site has always been a wealth of information, this makes it doubly so.

Orphans of Chaos by John Wright - Tor books newest free E-book

Tor's current free e-book is Orphans of Chaos by John Wright.

I got a nice bit from Roses are Read page where they listed the dust jacket blurb for the book. It reads:

From DJ: "What if your teachers taught you everything - except who you really are? For Amelia and her friends, the strict English boarding school they live in is all they have ever known. The sprawling estate, bordered by unknown territory on all four sides, is both orphanage, academy, and prison. The school has a large staff, but only five students, none of whom know their real names or even how old they are. Precocious and rebellious, all five teenagers are more than just prodigies. Amelia can see in four dimensions. Victor can control the molecular arrangement of matter. Vanity can find secret passageways where none existed before. Colin is a psychic. Quentin is a warlock. And, as time goes by, they're starting to suspect that none of them are entirely human .... John C. Wright's previous fantasy novels, the epic Chronicles of Everness, were lavishly praised by both readers and reviewers. Now he embarks on an ambitious new saga that explores the overlapping boundaries of science, mythology, and the imagination."

If you haven't signed up yet, go to Tor.com and sign to receive your notice of free e-books!

A Shadow in Summer Tor's newest free E-Book

Tor's current free e-book is A Shadow in Summer by Daniel Abraham.

here is a really good review by Aaron Hughes

If you haven't as yet (and if you haven't what is wrong with your head?!!!) signed up for the introductory free ebook notification, go to tor.com and fill out the app. No cost, just FREE E-BOOKS!!!

Baen's entire Webscriptions catalog available for free... in low Earth orbit

Hey, here is another reason to get off your backside and become an astronaut! According to SFScope: Baen Books is now offering its entire Webscriptions catalog of e-books free to the astronauts living aboard the International Space Station. Baen's Webscriptions have more than 600 of the publisher's books available as downloadable e-books in a variety of unencrypted e-book formats. Baen Publisher Toni Weisskopf offered to make the complete Webscription library available to ISS personnel, free of charge, including both of Baen's on-line magazines, The Grantville Gazette and Jim Baen's Universe, and NASA promptly accepted.

"It's very satisfying to know that ISS crewmembers will be able to get our books easily and without fuss," Weisskopf said. "They're the ones who are truly creating a future for humankind in space."