As I noted recently, the sci-fi publishing house Tor has started making some of its “classic” books available for free download. Obviously they hope that people will read the freebies and pay for more, and if I’m at all typical the strategy is working. First I downloaded “Spin” by Robert Charles Wilson, transferred it to my Kindle, and read it over the next week. By the time I finished, John Scalzi’s “Old Man’s War” was available. I installed it on my Kindle, read it during my trip to California, and was ready for more. No problem: a quick search and a couple of clicks located and purchased the Kindle edition of Scalzi’s “The Ghost Brigades”. Excellent!
I finished this over my breakfast coffee this morning, and went to download the third book in the trilogy, “The Last Colony”. Except I couldn’t… there was no Kindle edition. C’mon Tor: you don’t have to wait until the book hits paperback before releasing the e-book version. I poked around to see if “The Sagan Diary” was available… alas, no. Reluctantly, I abandoned Scalzi for now, and checked out other works by Robert Charles Wilson. “The Chronoliths” took my fancy, and by the time I finished my coffee it was ready to read on the Kindle. Unusually, it’s set in a very tight ((I guess “condensed” would be the right term.)) typeface that I haven’t seen before on any of my Kindle purchases. I normally read Kindle books at the smallest font setting; with “The Chronoliths” I may need to bump it up a notch. It’s very crisp, though, with better definition than most Kindle typefaces.
Before leaving the subject of the Kindle, it’s worth noting ((Noting? Celebrating!!)) that they’ve added their first UK newspaper, “The Independent”, for $14.99 a month. I’ve just started the 14 day free trial: so far, I’m impressed.