Redshirts Chapters 1 – 4 Now Out in eBook Form
Posted on April 10, 2012 Posted by John Scalzi 25 Comments
For those of you who missed the Tor.com excerpts, or simply want to carry my words everywhere you go, Tor has released an eBook excerpt of the first four chapters (and also the prologue) of Redshirts into electronic book form. Right now it’s available on Kindle, Nook, Google and iTunes (warning: opens iTunes link).
The cost to you? Why, nothing, my friends! Enjoy.
Of course, if you like it and want to know where the story goes from there, and also want to feed and clothe my adorable family, then you should consider buying the actual book when it comes out on June 5th. And to assure you have a copy on that day, you can preorder at your local bookstore or through those self-same eBook services mentioned above. Let everyone else fight each other bloody for copies! You’ll remain unsoiled, calm in the knowledge your copy is waiting for you.
(Also: For all those non-Americans who are going to gripe that this preview is not available in your country, remember that the same excerpt is still available on Tor.com, and all you have to do to see it is register for the site.)
More Redshirts news is coming in the reasonably near future. I mean, yeah. That’s not a surprise. Even so.
I’m going to wait for the book since (a) I don’t have any of those e-book forms and (b) I want to not just read it, but wear it like a hat. That way I can soak it in via osmosis.
I endorse your hat, Gary. I endorse it SO MUCH.
I, too, would like to wear it like a hat. Not for the nutritional osmosis value, but as protection against alien signaling.
Ah John, with your continued taunting. I am pleased to be able to get it on my Nook. For it shall spare the staff of my local bookstore my wrath. Without my Nook, I would be storming their doors at opening, and if they dared not have it out from the back yet, my wrath would be a terrible thing. So, yes, I’ve already downloaded this, even though I read the chapters on Tor.com, just in case I need a fix over the next several weeks of The Long Wait.
Plus, there are still a bunch of books coming out between now and then, which I have been looking forward to as well. So take that, you taunting taunter who taunts.
Oh yeah, I’ll be getting a shiny hardcover as well, for my collection. So you’re selling it to me twice, YOU BASTARD!
E-book! OM NOM NOM.
(Osmosis takes far too long.)
In this wonderful digital age, at some point around March 30 I apparently signed up for those first 4 chapters. I opened my Kindle this morning, and, voila, it was there! That is great fun! The same thing is true for the full-length version (if, of course, the first 4 chapters live up to my high expectations, which I strongly suspect they will). I can pass on the shiny red covers for the pleasure of enjoying a brand-new book on its first day out over my morning coffee with a cat on my lap.
That’s right Scalzi, give ’em the first hit for free then set yer hook! Learnt it from the crack peddlers dint ya?
You pulled this same stunt with Old Man’s War. You cost me tens of dollars and provided many hours of reading pleasure. Although the wait for the full version took way to long for my poor OCD brain to deal with…
Now I gotta wait nearly TWO month’s for more? Bastard!
Barnes and Noble why do you taunt me? I know my CC is out of date and you can’t charge me for a FREE item. Guess I will have to download the kindle version and then convert it for my nook. I love my ebook reader and don’t mind paying for content but B&N continually punishes the consumer. (okay rant over time to enjoy some reading over lunch).
Except for the usual nonsense of being US only… Why, oh Scalzi, why? How very nice of you :(
John, have you considered having an artist friend do a sketch of the Intrepid? BTW, not an inderect solicitation for involvement. I have had people who care about me sit me down, and very gently ask that I never try to draw anything ever again. The reason I ask, is that I had the “Look we made a new model. Isn’t it pretty?” scene from the original Trek movie play in my head as I read these chapters. You know, the one where Scotty takes Kirk the long way around to the airlock. Complete with people floating around in their vacuum suits, in case you forgot they were in space. Ah, the unintentional hilarity to be found in many movies.
Anyway, I just thought it might be neat to see what you intended the Intrepid to look like.
I am always passing along books to my 11 year-old niece, and she wanted to get me something in return, so she secretly called my husband, who called Sondra, and based on the intel she provided, my niece pre-ordered a copy for me. She then made a card for me that looks just like the cover of the book. I thought it was very sweet. And, now I’ll have the crack, er, book as soon as it’s released! Woohoo!
Curse you John Scalzi, I had already preordered the Kindle version, but this afternoon some mysterious force MADE me download this preview and read it during lunch. NOW I have much higher anticipation and the wait will be more painful.
If I wait another week or so can I have a couple more chapters please. At this rate the entire book will be released before it is released!
John – will we be able to obtain an autographed copy from your local bookstore? I’m moving far away from Dayton, and so will miss the double thrill of the book tour *and* getting an in-person autograph when the book is released in June.
I have no doubt I could buy the book where I’m moving. (Florida!) I will show it off and encourage others to purchase the book, so, you know, I’ll continue to be encouraging everyone I know to read your books.
Oh, shoot… I was going to do an ebook about Redshirts… of course mine was going to be done as a 26 page abecedarium book similar in concept to the Gastlycrumb Tinies. “A is for Adams, Lost in a Beam. B is for Bennett who died in his dreams” and so forth up the alphabet. I even did a preliminary version of Adams: http://imforeman.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d3kkj4j
Now, though… I’m not competing with Mr. Scalzi. I’ll just move on to another project I’ve been meaning to do.
Thank you. It’s now top of the iPhone reading on the bus to and from work — if i can resist inhaling it in one sitting like at lunch.
The evil scheme worked: The sample was dwnloaded, read and the e-book pre-ordered within the hour. Curious though, what percentage of the book length is the sample?
I’m going to assume it’s only available in the US, or that it’s simply not available in Australia. Sadface. I rarely sit at my computer, so I was rather hoping to read it on my kindle.
SO GLAD I checked out the preview. I’d intended to buy it eventually, but after the prologue–oh, hell, after the FIRST PAGE of the prologue, I went and pre-ordered it.
Very excited for this. Only question, for me, is if I want a tactile version with real pages, or an approximation with fake pages. Still have 800+ pages of 1Q84 to get through first, though!
Alycia:
Go to the version of the preview on the Tor site, cut and paste it into a ebook-readable file. Easy.
That’s genius in its simplicity. Thank you, John!
Why not simply a downloadable .epub? Sure I *could* register to yet another site … and get yet another load of spam … I’m not going to buy it as an electronic book anyway, prices are a joke, and I’m never ever supporting DRMs. If I want to read it I’ll buy the paper version (cheaper!) and download an illegal copy that I can put it on my iPad, that’s what I did with “Fuzzy Nation.”
Just hours after I ranted against DRM, it appears Tor is actually going DRM-free … http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/04/torforge-e-book-titles-to-go-drm-free … Excellent move, now let’s see if those eBooks are actually meaningfully cheaper than the paper version; indeed most Amazon Kindle books I see are only a dollar or two cheaper than their hardcover version, even including shipping, and quite often _more expensive_ than the paperback ones!
(Rant alert) Can anyone explain to me why I can read the chapters on the Tor website, but if I try to get a nicely formatted Kindle version for my iPad I am denied due to geographic restrictions (I’m in Australia)?