Coming up - September is Terry Pratchett month here!

This week E-Volving Books is launching a Terry Pratchett month, starting Sept 1st.



A celebration of all things Pratchett - Discworld, DEATH and Music with Rocks in.


I love his books, and have read them all several times over. I recently read through most of his backlist in the last month, for the Nth time, and thought I should spread the love.


This will be jointly hosted, more on that tomorrow!
If you are interested and want to take part, do sign up by leaving a comment below. Feel free to do whatever you like to share the joy that is Pratchett's stories. 
If you like challenges - the challenge is to read and review 4-5 books by Pratchett this month! A potential/new fan? Your challenge is 2-3 books.


Create a post on your blog, link back here to this post.


Plan for Week 1: Talking of Captain Sam Vimes

Teaser Tuesday: The Steerswoman's Road

This is a book I've just finished, had a great time reading, and wanted to share with you.

From the first line of Page 27:

"I thought everyone had to answer a steerswoman." 

"Nobody has to answer anyone; people answer because they want answers in turn. If you deny any steerswoman's questions, no steers­woman will ever answer yours again."

Mini Review:

The author was recommended on Tor.com as having written this brilliant series. I hadn't ever heard of either the series or the author before, but fantasy recommendations are always worth trying :) What I really enjoyed was the sneaky way the story starts off as fantasy and then you slowly unveil the science behind what is called "magic". 

You might recall the famous saying - A sufficiently advanced science is magic. So true in this series.

Blurb: If you ask, she will answer. If she asks, you must reply. A steerswoman will speak only the truth to you, as long as she knows it—and you must do the same for her. And so, across the centuries, the Steerswomen— questioning, searching, investigating—have slowly learned more and more about the world through which they wander.

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To join into the TT fun, visit the link below!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

Free short stories - Sharon Lee and others

The wonderful Baen Publishing house has a really strong collection of short stories (about 6 so far) which is available in multiple formats. You can either read these online, or download a Kindle-friendly, html, palm, microsoft reader or other device's version.
They are all available FREE!
http://www.webscription.net/p-1387-free-short-stories-2011.aspx
The stories I'm planning to start off with is Tanya: Princess of the Elves by Larry Correia.

Oh, and Sharon Lee's new Liaden short story, currently available here, will also go into this collection by Monday next.
More about Baen and their philosophy of free here. 
Click here for a recent review of one of Sharon Lee's magical books, Carousel Tides.

Is the hardback book dying?

The time between hardbacks and paperbacks is progressively decreasing, and ebooks now release at almost the same time as the hardback. My recent purchase of Kate Daniel's latest by Ilona Andrews was the same day as the hardback, but I got it at 1/2 the cost.
We know more buyers are doing this, as Amazon recently reported that ebooks were outselling hardbacks by 143 to 100 (Publishers Weekly).
Ebooks also accelerate the paperbacks release dates - several publishing houses now release paperbacks within 6 months of the hardback release. 

“I really do think that e-books are part of the reason for this trend of hurrying up that paperback,” said Carrie Kania, the publisher of Harper Perennial and It Books. “You don’t have to wait for a lower-priced version of that book now. I think we need to move more quickly in general.”

Traditionally, the gap between hardback and paperback releases was 1 year.
Still, I would rather wait the three-odd months to the ebook release, and perhaps get it from my library, unless the author was a favorite of mine (Terry Pratchett, Brandon Sanderson, Patrick Rothfuss, Ilona Andrews among others).
Lots of interesting books have recently released directly as trade of mass market paperbacks - Scott Westerley's Uglies series did crazy good business in this format, perhaps justifying the no-hardback decision taken. Does this mean we are seeing a trend where the end lies in no hardback releases? 
Who knows!

Further reading? (nytimes)

Teaser: Terry Pratchett and Dark side of the Sun

The book I'm reading in my daily commute today is Terry Pratchett's The Dark side of the Sun.
From the first line of Page 27:

As he walked toward the domes he was aware of the silence. It spread out from him like a wake, from man to man.

(Bonus Teaser below, because this is a fantatic quote)

"I perceive a possibility of an immediate chronological sequence of events which includes a violence," said Three. He stepped back, "I express preference for a chronological sequence of events which precludes a violence."

Mini Review:

The author is one of my favorites, and while this isn't his best work, I am doing a very diligent re-read of Terry Pratchett's entire catalogue.
Highly recommend you start with either Night Watch or any book in the DEATH series, don't worry about an order or timeline. His books are hysterically funny, great to read and re-read, and very imaginative.

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To join into the TT fun, visit the link below!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!

Simon and Schuster ebook sales now 15% of revenues

The recent Q2 results for CBS corp included the Simon and Schuster results too, under the Publishing section. While overall revenues went down in the past year, the ebook and digital sales grew and more than doubled in revenue. Which means that those sales now count for 15% of their business!

I'm excited - I hope this translates into easier ebook sales in multiple countries.
Wouldn't it also be great if ebooks are released on the same day as the hardback release, but priced lower? I know that cannibalization of hardback sales by ebooks is a real and prevalent issue but Publishers ought to start figuring out ways to combat this aside from Price. 

"Publishing revenues for the second quarter of 2011 decreased 3% to $183 million from $189 million for the same prior-year period, as strong growth in the sale of more profitable digital content was offset by lower print book sales.  Digital content revenues for the second quarter of 2011 more than doubled last year's second quarter digital sales and represented 15% of Publishing's total revenues.  Best-selling titles in the second quarter included The Greater Journey by David McCullough and The Original Argument by Glenn Beck."

Read the entire results here (cbsatlanta.com)

Teaser: Charlie Stross and Halting State

The book I'm on today is a first-person crime fiction/near-futuristic thriller novel by Charlie Stross, called Halting State. It was a finalist for the Hugo and Locus awards in 2008 as best novel of the year.

Kindle Location 219 (of 4834 locations - FYI the kindle does not do pagination like books) 

Behind you, Bob's got both his handcams out as well as his headcam, and he's sweeping the room like a cross between the Lone Gunman and a star-crazed paparazzo: It's policing, but not as your daddy knew it.

You're going to have a word with the lad afterwards, remind him he's a cop, not a cinematographer.

Mini Review:

The author is new to me, and I've barely started this book. I can't say much at this point, except perhaps the reason I picked Halting State up. 
The reason is 1) A glowing review from www.cybermage.ae and 2)Desperation for a new and exciting author!

Do read a recent post, perhaps a review of the latest Buffy graphic novel by Joss Whedon.
Read more about Charlie Stross at his blog here: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/

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To join into the TT fun, visit the link below!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along!