Spontaneous ∂erivation

What was great in 2008 and possibly early 2009? This year’s Locus Online recommended reading list is up.

Here’s what’s available on the Kindle.

Science Fiction Novels

Fantasy Novels

To be continued next time with First and Young Adult novels.

1. Yes, my own copy from late October. [↩]
2. From New on Kindle: Black Friday. [↩]

It’s not just the end of the previous month/start of this month. It’s also the coming holidays. Thus I’m breaking up the New on Kindle lists by groups of publishers, starting with all the ones with three letters in their imprint name. This is surprisingly many. (Eos is not covered, because it’s grouped under the parent publisher HarperCollins in the Kindle store.)

Updated 10/19 with the Kindle editions of Territory and Gospel of the Knife.
Updated 9/20 with the Kindle edition of The Servants.

The 2008 nominations for the World Fantasy Awards are here!

There are plenty of nominees, all of them good. There are life achievement and art awards, which can’t really be Kindle-ized. And Emma Bull’s Territory is up for best novel, and I love it.

Currently, only a few of the nominees can be digested (or easily made digestible) on the Kindle:

Territory — Emma Bull

One of the executive producers for Shadow Unit, an ongoing web serial that’s akin to The Sandbaggers meets Lovecraft. Tor.com is also offering a free eBook (Mobipocket format, Kindle-edible) of another of her novels, War for the Oaks, to registered members unto maybe next week (the offer started in the middle of September).

The Gospel of the Knife — Will Shetterly

His also a producer on the collective serial online work Shadow Unit, along with Emma Bull. Tor.com happens to also be offering a free eBook of another of his novels, Dogland, to registered users.

Both Dogland and Gospel of the Knife are available under the Creative Commons license as well, but the Kindle edition and the Mobipocket edition on Tor.com are much better formatted.¹

The Servants — Michael Marshall Smith

He’s a five-time winner of the British Fantasy Award!

Ysabel — Guy Gavriel Kay

He also blogged about his experience writing Ysabel.

Stars Seen Through Stone — Lucius Shepard

Also a 2008 Hugo Nominee for Best Novella.

The Cambist and Lord Iron: a Fairytale of Economics — Daniel Abraham

Also a 2008 Hugo Nominee for Best Novelette. Part of the excellent and Kindle-available Logorrhea anthology, edited by John Klima.

The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park After the Change — Kij Johnson

She also wrote The Fox Woman, an excellent Heian Japan fantasy novel with Kitsune—and available on the Kindle.

Singing of Mount Abora — Theodora Goss

Available as part of the Logorrhea anthology.

Wizards — edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois

One of the few SFF anthologies available on the Kindle.

Logorrhea — edited by John Klima

Already mentioned multiple times in this article due to the great stories this anthology harbors.

I feel guilty for not mentioning everyone else—but I’m short on time, and this blog is pretty Kindle-centric.

Go ye, download, and enjoy.

1. The problem with many CC works on the web is that they often aren’t well-formatted; it usually takes the likes of Feedbooks, which can’t do all the works in the world, and ill formatting still slips through the cracks. [↩]

Photography: tvol

More about some of the authors featured at Tor’s Freebies Bonanza. Here was part 1.

Onwards…

Reiffen’s Choice – Fantasy – Book 1 of a Series
by S. C. Butler

I don’t know if he likes bears in real life, but he does like writing about shape-shifting ones. Also, he writes a monthly column for SF Novelists, with entries like Why I Like Jane Austen and E.E. “Doc” Smith.

Sun of Suns – Science Fiction – Book 1 of a Series
by Karl Schroeder

Among other things (like being a cool user of Plone), he’s involved with technological foresight work for the Canadian government.
You can also get another novel of his, Ventus, for free at his website.

Four and Twenty Blackbirds – Alternate History – Book 1 of a Series
by Cherie Priest

Gal blogs a lot; hooray for writers-what-are-bloggers! And also she’s got a really good About page, as well as columns over at SF Novelists.

Spirit Gate – Fantasy – Book 1 of a Series
by Kate Elliott

Here’s another site of hers with great articles related to writing. She’s also been featured on John Scalzi’s The Big Idea series.

Starfish – Science Fiction – Book 1 of a Series
by Peter Watts

He knows cool stuff about marine animals! His older novels and short stories are available on his site for download under the Creative Commons License. PDFs are available for all, and MobiPocket for the books.

Touch of Evil – Fantasy – Book 1 of Series
by C. T. Adams and Cathy Clamp

A dynamic duo in paranormal romance, it’s rare that two authors can work in tandem so well. (They each have also published separately.) Cathy also wrote a list of articles about writing.

A Shadow in Summer – Fantasy – Book 1 of a Series
by Daniel Abraham

His short story, The Cambist and Lord Iron, is 2008 Hugo nominee. He has a great deal to say about fiction and writing.

Orphans of Chaos – Fantasy – Book 1 of a Series
by John C. Wright

His blog is quite fun to read and I highly recommend it. Bloggers try not to bore; he doesn’t seem to have that problem.

The authors of books 18 – 24 will be covered tomorrow.

And now I shall go cuddle with my Kindle.

Definition: novelette

A story between 7,500 and 17,500 words long.

Click here to read more »