Little Brother Downloads
Posted on May 5, 2008 Posted by John Scalzi 12 Comments
Cory Doctorow has a tradition of releasing a Creative Commons-licensed free electronic version of his books when they come out in the stores. For Little Brother, Cory was a little behind the actual book release — he had the temerity to be offline, having a life with his family, of all things! — but now he’s all caught up and has out up a Little Brother area on his personal site, complete with free CC downloads as well as other ginchy things. Check it out.
Also: if you check it out and you like it (as I expect you will, it’s excellent), go to your local bookstore (or favorite online retailer) and buy it, either to have a physical copy for yourself, or as a gift for a teen you’re hoping to either start or to further encourage on the road to geek rebellion. As you know, around here we’re big fans of rewarding authors one likes with income, so they can maybe write more books later. It’s a virtuous cycle, it is.
But what if we don’t like the books they write later? Or what if they decide not to write books at all? Or we later find out that the book we liked in the first place was an apology for Hitler or something? Can we sue them to get our money back?
See, that’s the great thing about stealing and free-loading: no ethical quandaries.
Oh, Jamaleddin. Now we have to take you round back and SHOOT YOU.
I’ve never read anything else by Doctorow but I picked this book up yesterday (I’ve always liked 1984 & I figured a riff off the same themes would be enjoyable) and I didn’t get anything else done all day. I finished before I went to bed last night and was quite satisfied.
It does get a little too much into the infodumping at times, but overall, a great read. I recommend everyone going out and getting it, and remember it’s in the young adult section.
I think what I meant to say was that author’s should be well-compensated for their works? And that there’s no greater experience than a finely told story? And you look great after the haircut and shave? And please don’t send Krissy after me?
As you know, around here we’re big fans of rewarding authors one likes with income, so they can maybe write more books later. It’s a virtuous cycle, it is.
Exactly! And I think you and Cory are doing this in JUST the right way, not just in making your work accessible, but in making yourselves (reasonably) acessible, too. Maybe it is sort of a “halo effect” (y’know, “this person reminds me of me, and therefore I look upon them favorably), too.
You both have been blogging online for a long time. you’ve had a weblog a littler longer than me, back when they were called online journals. You both have been very good about not just talking about your work, but engaging your fans and readers, giving tastes, samples and even meals on the honor system (to push the food analogy a bit). This isn’t even to mention the personal connections you’ve made for me and others (private advice, interview assistance, etc.
The end result? After borrowing Old Man’s War from the library, now that I had a little disposable iincome, I snapped up Ghost Brigades and Android’s drea, As soon as I can, I’m getting Zoe’s tale. and the Sagan Diaries. I am practically a Scalzi evangelist.
I’m getting Little Brother for my buddy’s teenage daughter in hopes it inspires her , and I will be raving to everyone about it now that I’m finished with the book.
Seriously, all of the above makes you two more than just really awesome guys that have personally, posoitively impacted my life; you guys are the frigging future, and I hope up and coming authors learn from all this.
#3, I think the only reason I was really noticing the infodumping was because I already knew a lot of the information being dumped. Mostly from reading Boing Boing and 2600 Magazine. I think this is Cory’s best novel so far. The other ones had some interesting concepts in them, but their storylines weren’t as strong.
Words can’t express how good this book is, my day is officially wasted, I can’t stop reading. I want to, I want to be doing other things I can’t stop…argh…addiction!
I haven’t been this hooked since OWM and Name of the Wind.
This really is Cory’s best work yet.
Must go read.
I’m surprised there isn’t a torrent of the audiobook up yet.
#6- I’m not really familiar with any of the material he was infodumping and I still felt it was too much. I still enjoyed the story immensely- I just ended up skimming the sections where he started explaining how the hacks work.
Jardine # 6, Dave Smith # 9: I agree with Jardine this is the best of Cory’s novels so far. It’s got the tightest plot and the most to say, and like his other work, it’s got the human heart at the center of it all.
Like Jardine, I think the infodumping is more obtrusive to those of us who know the material, but I also think Dave’s tactic of skimming a bit will be taken up but quite a few others, and that it will not hurt their enjoyment of the book.
I’m thinking it’s Roger Penrose in the intro to The Emperor’s New Mind who says that received wisdom is that every equation in a non-technical book cuts the readership by half.
His solution? He told his readers to skip the equations if they wanted and to enjoy the book anyway.
He’s a wise man.
By the way, I counted three lifts from Heinlein in the book (and forgot the second). Anyone else notice those? The direct quote (which I think Heinlein might’ve been quoting himself) was hard to miss, but the others?
I curse you Scalzi for preventing me from properly sleeping last night. CURSES! (as Mojo-jojo from the Powerpuff Girls is wont to say)
about half way through now and thoroughly enjoying it. We in the UK have to wait until November for the hardback, and who knows how much longer for a paperback. I’d love to buy 10 copies and hand them out in the street to strangers, but I don’t know how many impressionable teens would give a HB a chance.