The Human Division Read-Along at Tor.com Begins
Posted on January 8, 2013 Posted by John Scalzi 29 Comments
The official release of The Human Division begins next week, with “The B-Team” being sent to the public — but if you’re one of the folks who signed up for Tor’s special promotion of the series several months ago, you’re getting that first installment today. Congrats and enjoy! Everyone else: Dudes, it’s only a week. You’ll be fine.
Also, if you want to chat about it, Tor.com is running a “read along” series on The Human Division, hosted by Ron Hogan and featuring insights into the writing and production by me, editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden, and others. The first installment, delving into “The B-Team,” is up today. You can catch up, read-along, and discuss plot points and opinions with other folks.
WARNING: The read-along will contain spoilers. Don’t check it out unless a) you’ve already read the episode and/or b) you’re willing to have the episode spoiled for you. There, that’s your official spoiler alert.
Supposing I haven’t yet read *all* the Old Man’s War novels, can I skip ahead to this one and not ruin the others too much?
John, it’s great to see that you and (some folks) at Tor really get e-distribution and the electronic market, unlike a certain editor of her late husband’s books who’s holding up the release of a particular ebook for another couple of months.
Jared M:
Well — I wrote this one so that you could read it without having read the others. But as a consequence, it will tell you about things that happened in the previous books that are relevant to the plot here.
So: No, you don’t absolutely need to read the previous books to read this one. Yes, if you read this one, at least one major plot point of the series to date will be revealed to you.
I guess this starts the point where I have to skim over all further discussions of The Human Division, since I’m one of the Luddites who plans to wait until the hardcover print edition is published, and I don’t want to see spoilers.
I’m not complaining, all your books have been great and the wait will definitely be worth it.
Jared M.:
I’d think you probably want to read at least Old Man’s War and The Last Colony first.
Just received my copy of the first section by email – thank you (and Tor).
I had completely forgotten that I’d signed up for the early release, so this was a truly lovely surprise this morning! Can’t wait to read it and join in the discussion fun!
What is the best android phone app for reading the downloads? What is the favorite mobi app? I can view the PDF in Kindle but can’t zoom in.
Perfect for today…home sick in bed wishing I had something to read. So the fun begins!
Dr. Fluids Engineering Mom – I just downloaded the .prc file and sent it to the Kindle app on my Android device using Amazon’s Send To Kindle program.
Like Cereballer, I’d also completely forgotten that I’d signed up for the early release, so the poor e-mail was subject to a lot of very suspicious “this is very in line with my interests, but is it just extremely-well-disguised spam?” poking.
I was very pleased and somewhat bemused to find out that it wasn’t. I still don’t remember having signed up for it, but I must have done! I look forward to reading it this evening.
I’m relieved to see that I’m not the only soul who signed up and then promptly forgot having done so until this morning. Thanks, John and Tor and Past-Self for the surprise!
Have just realized that signing up for the early release means waiting TWO weeks for the next episode. Unfair! I want it NOW!
Loved it. Can’t wait for more.
Got mine today courtsey of Tor. Very happy. Will be busy reading it this evening… Thank you John!!
I had also forgotten I’d signed up. A most enjoyable lunch hour; thank you.
I’m having trouble downloading the files. I click on the link in the email and it takes me to a page showing three files with different formats. Only the .PDF file shows as a (blue) link. When I tap on any of the titles (even the link) nothing happens. Sorry to be stupid but what am I doing wrong. I’m using a Google nexus 7.
Help anybody?
I also have the files, can download the pdf, (and print it), but it doesn’t save as a pdf so I can’t email it to my kindle. I know I should be able to drop it into my kindle folder but I have NEVER been able to make this work with any file EVER – depite researching online how it should work. I am obviously missing some simple step but damned if I know what it is.
Can someone take pity on an old man and advise?
Hope it’s ok to ask this qustion here John.
Jerry- Are there little down pointing arrows on the right? That is what I had to click.
Ron: I just looked again and no arrows on my screen. There is an icon before each file name (a document icon before the first two and the adobe thingamajig in front of the .PDF) tapping them does nothing. Thanks for your response. Maybe it’s a jelly bean thing. Don’t want to make Mr. Scalzi’s site a tech support area. I’ll ping Tor and see if they will send as attachments. Thanks.
Scalzi said: “Everyone else: Dudes, it’s only a week. You’ll be fine.”
Speak for yourself! I’m dying here!
But apparently not enough to want to fork over for an e-reader as opposed to waiting for the paper copy. In four+ motnths.
Anyone else into self-flagellation?
For folks having trouble downloading the files, on my screen, there’s a little downward-pointing triangle to the right (not directly, but on the same line) of the files. Clicking on that gave me options including saving to google docs, which I thought was pretty handy, and saving to my own computer (also handy.)
Arg. I cannot edit the comment – sorry about the double-comment. To be absolutely clear, the little downward-pointing triangle is located to the right of the file sizes. (It opens a drop-down menu. I have been doing tech support for my mother today, so “little downward-pointing triangle” it is!
That was quite a good intro. Now I’m on the hook for $0.99 per week for the next umpteen weeks. Sheesh! *grumble* Srsyl, tho – nice work Mr. S!
I am one of the lucky ones who signed up! I read the episode last night and ‘dat smaakt naar meer’ (as we say in my native Dutch), literally ‘that tastes of more’ or ‘that leaves me wanting more’. So, thank you John and Tor for that lovely surprise in my mailbox, and I am very much looking forward to the next episode!
I downloaded it last night from Tor and read it straightaway. At was a nice intro to the new story, but Bah! Now I have to wait two weeks for the next part.
Just my luck that I get the email about this and I’ve left my kindle fire at home because I’m currently re-reading The Ghost Brigades in paperback! CURSES!
Thanks for having them make this available early, thanks for taking the (reasonably safe, but still awesome) gamble on the episodic format and thanks for writing this – it was the most fun read i’ve had in a long while.
I’d pay per episode to see this as a TV show. Just sayin.
The OMW series of books are always finding there way in to my read pile. I have probably read them a dozen times by now. I really like the idea of bite size stories that I can read at lunch. Way to go! Story is great, distribution model is great!
Just a question…
If it’s completely written, why are you releasing it episodically? Wouldn’t episodic stories cater more to a write-as-you-go schedule? It’s almost like this is artificially episodic. We potentially could get the whole book right now, couldn’t we? They’re just sitting in a queue waiting to see daylight.
It’s almost like you should have been releasing chapters a few months ago. If this were a true experiment in episodic writing.
Sure. I’m saying that now partially because I read part 1 last week and am dying for part 2. But it seems to me the experiment isn’t quite sound.