Help Requested For My Amazon E-Book Experiment

Based on my post yesterday about the Tad Williams e-book silliness, I decided I wanted to conduct an experiment. On pages for the print versions of books on Amazon, if there is no Kindle version they post a link that allows you to request a Kindle version. Supposedly, this request is sent on to the publisher. I don't know how this works behind the scenes or how many requests are needed before a publisher will be take action. But I wanted to request your help and see if we can encourage Amazon and/or the publisher to give us the digital versions of the first 2 Memory, Sorrow & Thorn books. Who knows, maybe this is in process already, since they did release the 2 part edition of To Green Angel Tower. Then again, maybe the first 2 books are not being converted at the moment. I am using Amazon for this experiment because I think it has a higher chance of success than at other ebook sellers, and also I'm not sure if the other ebook stores have this formal process for requesting books.

So, this is where you come in. Visit the pages for The Dragonbone Chair and The Stone of Farewell and click on the "I would like to read this book on the Kindle" link that appears on the left side of the page, right below the image of the book cover. Note that I did not include my associates id in those links, as I don't want you to think its some sneaky way of making money off this. I simply want to see if I can get enough of us to request these 2 books, so that we have a complete digital set of Memory, Sorrow & Thorn (and I already own them in hardcover, trade pb, and mmpb. That's how much I like this series).

If you can help out by requesting Kindle version of these books, that would be great. And if you have time, leave a comment in this thread letting me know you helped out, so that we can sorta keep track of how many requests have been sent to Amazon. Of course if you are pressed for time, requesting the Kindle books on Amazon is way more important than leaving a comment here :)

Finally, to get as many folks as possible "voting" for this 2 books, if you have a blog or twitter account, feel free to mention this on your blog or tweet it on your twitter account...I would greatly appreciate it! For you twitter folks, here is a short url link to this post: http://tinyurl.com/yd5b5re

Now let's see if we can make this work. This will be the only blog post I make until Monday, so that this post stays at the top of my blog through the weekend.

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E-Book Silliness: Incomplete Series (Memory, Sorrow, & Thorn Edition)

This will be a new occasional feature as a find incomplete series in e-book format.

Memory, Sorrow and Thorn: Sometime in October, most all of the major e-book stores added a couple of new Tad Williams books. No, not the first 2 Shadowmarch books. Instead we get To Green Angel Tower, Parts 1 & 2. Its a good first step, but come on..where are the first 2 books? Nowhere to be found. I could understand if the series was recently published, and they hadn't bothered to make ebook versions of the older books. But the To Green Angel Towers books are new to the ebook format. If you are going through the bother of releasing the series in ebook format, why do the last 2 books, first? My first thought was that Amazon was handling the Kindle conversion, and maybe they just finished the conversion on the last 2 books before The Dragonbone Chair or The Stone of Farewell. That theory went down the drain when other ebook stores listed only To Green Angel Tower 1 & 2. Well, its been about 4 weeks now, and still no sign of the first 2 books.

How are readers supposed to embrace the digital format when stupid stuff like this appears to be the norm, rather than the exception?


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Book Deals: The Gathering Storm 61% Off at Amazon (plus 2 other books)

I thought it was time to do another Book Deals post, so I browsed around Amazon for December Fantasy releases, looking for books that were 40% off (or more). Here is what I found (US site deals):

-The Gathering Storm (Wheel of Time) - by Bradon Sanderson & Robert Jordan (hardcover, list: 29.99, Amazon: 11.75...61% off. Was this book part of that $9 price war? If so, it has gone up 2 bucks. If now, then 11.75 is a heckuva deal if you haven't bought the book yet)

-Arms-Commander (Saga of Recluce) by L.E. Modesitt, Jr (hardcover, 45% off. list: 27.99, Amazon: 15.11)

-First Lord's Fury (Codex Alera, Book 6) by Jim Butcher (hardcover, 65% off, list: 25.95, Amazon: 9.00. I have mentioned this before, but since it is due out next week, I thought I would include it again. I'll also do my Series Finale post about this book next week. Note that the Kindle edition is also just 9 bucks.)



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Series Finale: Full Circle by Pamela Freeman

The third and final book in Pamela Freeman's The Castings Trilogy hit shelves last week. So if you have been waiting for the series to be complete, now you can start reading. I tried the first book, Blood Ties, but just didn't get attached to the story. Below are some other reviews of the first 2 books (extracted from my Fantasy Index on the right side of the blog)

Blood Ties
Fantasy Book Critic, Grasping for the Wind, The Book Swede, Fantasy & Sci-Fi Lovin' Book Reviews, Graeme's Fantasy Book Review, The Bookbag, A Dribble of Ink, NextRead, Bookspot Central

Deep Water
Fantasy Book Critic, Grasping for the Wind

I had thought about including the book summary for Full Circle from Amazon, but if you haven't read book 1, the summary might include spoilers, so I'll refrain from including the book description. You can view the Amazon page here.

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Today in Fantasy: November 18, 2009

FBNR Stuff:

Not much to report today...I've got just 2 chapters left to read in Cursor's Fury, so hopefully I finish it tomorrow. Tonight, I'm going to the Bruce Springsteen concert here in Nashville. It will be my 15th (or so) time seeing him since I became a fan in the mid 1990s. BRUUUUUUUCE!!!!

Reviews:

I understand that people keep refering to this as an Adult Harry Potter book. I vehemently disagree. In fact, the only similarity I found was that Quentin, like Harry Potter, went to a wizard school. And that is where the similarities end. In fact, for some strange reason, the cynical depressing undertones and attitude of the characters in the story reminded me more of Hancock in how added powers need not necesarily add up to greater happiness.

link: Fantasy & SciFi Lovin' News & Reviews: The Magicians - Lev Grossman

Between the thick layers of plot and the intense worldbuilding, there wasn’t a lot of room for character development. But that’s not bad in this case. The characters were just sympathetic enough to pull you into the story, and for a plot-driven story like this, I think that worked for the best. The focus was on the story and the unique world it takes place in. Any more would have overwhelmed it. So the sparse characterization works well in The Court of the Air.

link: Review: The Court of the Air by Stephen Hunt « Debuts & Reviews

Here are my issues: Zoey is constantly whining about her boyfriends and her best friend keeping secrets while all hell is breaking loose in the world around her. One would think these issues could be tabled until evil is defeated and life returns to normal. But alas, no. We have to hear about every painstaking bit of boy trauma Zoey has while she is trying to save the world. I understand the Kalona thing as that is part of the evil she is fighting and I suppose I should remember that these are still teenagers who constantly think about their love life. But good grief it starts to get annoying.

link: Robots and Vamps » RaV Book Review: Tempted (House of Night, book 6) by P.C. Cast & Krstin Cast

It may seem a conventional plotline, but far from it. Twists are executed with Brooks' usual comic flair, and although lacking in conventional hilarity, Brooks' own style is prevalent here. It's brilliant, and additions (like Laphroig) to our eclectic cast, aside from the usual mix, only make it more so. A few twists are anticipated, admittedly, but there are few flaws in this polished novel

link: Drying Ink: Review|A Princess of Landover - Terry Brooks

Finch himself also drives the plot forward in the best possible way. Here’s a character who can’t even remember who he really is and has enough ties with the shadowy organisations of Ambergris to make knowing who to support a tricky question every single time. Finch is a tenacious character though, even if his overall motives are questionable, and it’s this tenacity that makes you want to stick with him and for him to make it through to the end. Does he end up doing the right thing though? I’m still not sure about that one...

link: Graeme's Fantasy Book Review: ‘Finch’ – Jeff Vandermeer (Underland Press)

Anyway, Carey blends his gumshoe style investigation deliciously with the supernatural activity and a little sardonic humour, it's not dissimilar to the Dresden books, but British and a little darker. The image of the modern world with magic in it is bleaker and the humour a little sharper and a little more sparse. The human behaviour in this book covers all sorts of weird, seedy, brutal and vile.

link: Unbound!: Mike Carey - The Devil You Know

Aside from the constantly humorous inversion of fantasy stereotypes, the novel also tells an engaging and heartfelt story about family. It is a very complex novel, though, with an enormous cast of characters and a great many things happening at one, with much for a reader to keep track of as the plot unfolds. Although my library shelves this book in the teen section, I would say that it is equally appealing to adults, and perhaps even more appropriate for older readers - not because of any potentially objectionable content, but because it is so very complicated.

link: Books & other thoughts: Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones

‘The Cardinal’s Blades’ is one of those books where I find myself really wishing that I spoke the original language that it was written in (French) so I could get a proper feel for this book and what it’s all about. Not that there’s anything majorly wrong with the translation. Clegg takes the original text and reworks it into an English version that doesn’t seem to spare any of the detail. Or does it? An overabundance of descriptive pieces (about the history of certain locations or simply what they look like) has the unfortunate effect of slowing the book down to a crawl when it really needs to be gearing up for a sprint. I also found that the relative shortness of each chapter (and the constant switching back and forth between characters) lent a choppy air to the pace which made it difficult to stay with the story. I was left wondering if translating ‘The Cardinal’s Blades’ into English robbed the piece of the more natural flow that it may have enjoyed as a book written in French. Has anyone here read the original French version? If you have, how did it work for you?

link: Graeme's Fantasy Book Review: ‘The Cardinal’s Blades’ – Pierre Pevel (Gollancz)

I may have mentioned this in other reviews but I always find the introduction of certain Lovecraftian elements endear to fiction. Intentional or not that is the case hear as well not only in the foulthings Mena fights but in certain revelations late in the novel as well (I don’t want to spoil it though I hinted at it above). There are other elements of horror hear as well, particularly as we learn how Lothun Aklun magic actually functions. While not as ground breaking and engaging as I had hoped The Other Lands is still an exciting, well-crafted read that leaves me eager to see if things explode quite as large as I expect them to in the next volume. In addition to a fascinating plot and tangled (in a good way) politics Durham has created what I think is an excellent study on the nature of leadership and family, particularly as the two pertain to one another, in additional to providing some vibrant portraits of our three main characters and their relationship to one another.

link: Review: The Other Lands by David Anthony Durham « King of the Nerds!!! (has anyone read a review where the reviewer liked The Other Lands better than Acacia? Both are getting good reviews, but I get the impression that most expected a bit more from ToL. I still plan to read them when the series is finished)

The final verdict: 7.5/10

link: Pat's Fantasy Hotlist: The Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb (some of you will get the joke..i.e. why i posted just that part of the review :) )

Does This Really Qualify as a Review?

I know there has been a lot of discussion this year about what actually constitutes a review. To me, it has to contain at least some personal opinions and thoughts from the reviewer. I just read a review of A Young Man Without Magic by Lawrence Watt-Evans on the SFRevu.com site. I read the "review" twice, and still can't find the actual review. I do see a book summary/book report, but nothing in regards to the reviewer's thoughts. I mean, there is no way to even know if the reviewer read the book, as the "review" sounds to me like extended jacket copy that you would find on the back of the book (or the hardcover jacket). Below is the entire review, though you can find it on the SFRevu site here.

The kingdom's present social order was established by a Grand Council more than five hundred years ago. Sorcerers form the nobility with responsibility for maintaining the land and making farming possible. Those without magic are treated as servants or worse. Of late, the land no longer produces rich harvests, and unrest among the commoners grows.

The Emperor has no magical talent and vies for control against the nobles. Debt-ridden and concerned about the growing unrest, he invokes a new Grand Council in hopes he can gain greater control of the kingdom.

Anrel's best friend, Valin, was born a commoner but possesses talent and passes his trial to become a sorcerer and noble. Anrel's uncle fosters and trains Lord Valin. A political firebrand, angry at what he perceives as the abuses of power, Valin challenges the status quo. He sees the Grand Council as a means to give the commoners power and to curb the nobles.

Anrel's troubles begin when his friend challenges the status quo and champions the need for change. Lord Allutal, a powerful sorcerer, condemns the baker's son is to death for stealing from his private herb garden. Valin protests, but to no avail. Frustrated, he inadvertently challenges the lord to a duel. Unable to marshal enough magic to stave off the attack by the sorcerer, he suffers a horrible death.

His death frightens Anrel, and he demands justice. The death also awakens his latent magic. Despite not sharing his friend's beliefs, he remains determined to ensure his friend's voice is heard. He travels to the capital of the province and makes an impassioned speech demanding change. A riot ensures, and Anrel flees for his life. Now considered a traitor no safe haven exists for him.

After a narrow escape, hungry and cold, he encounters a family of witches. They sense his power, but he has no ability to manage it. He learns simple spells from the witches. They live a precarious life. Witches are beloved and feared by the commoners and regarded as a nuisance by the nobles. They live on the fringes of society. However, if anyone lodges a complaint they can be executed because technically witchcraft is illegal.

Plans go ahead for the Grand Council, and Anrel's speech ensures the election of those opposed to the present order. Half the council consists of nobles and half of commoners. They agree on little.

When one of the witches attempts to place a love spell on Lord Allutal, he apprehends and condemns her to death. Anrel had accompanied her to a reception and must flee again. He vows to save the woman.

Watt-Evans, author of more than thirty fantasies, plans a sequel, Above His Proper Station, for November 2010.

That's it. I know I shouldn't 'call-out' another reviewer, since everyone has their own opinion on what a review should contain. But come on, how is this really a review?

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