The End of All Things is Out! The End of All Things Tour Begins!
Posted on August 11, 2015 Posted by John Scalzi 38 Comments
Today is the day! The End of All Things, the sixth novel in the Old Man’s War universe and my eleventh novel overall is now out and available at your favorite local bookstore or online retailer. Get it! Get a copy for your friends! Get a copy for the people you would like to be friends with! Get it for people who are currently your enemies but with whom you hope for some sort of détente! Get it for your dog! Your dog won’t be able to read it, but it certainly knows when you are doing something nice for it! It will appreciate the thought!
Don’t get it for your cat. Honestly, like your cat gives a shit about anything.
And while you’re picking up The End of All Things, remember that my book tour starts today! The first four stops are Memphis (tonight!), Raleigh, Athens, GA and Lexington. If you are in or around those cities, please come to my events and being along every single person you know. It’ll be fun. And, because you’re making the effort to show up, I’ll be giving you something special: A sneak preview of “The Dispatcher,” the new novella I just completed that’s coming out later this year. Plus other cool stuff. And yes, if someone brings a uke, I might even play it. You’ve been warned (please make sure it’s tuned). The entire tour itinerary is at that link above, or (if you’re on the actual site) in the sidebar for the duration of the tour.
Want a signed copy of the book? Order it from one of the bookstores I’ll be at for the tour, or visit or call up Jay and Mary’s Book Center in Troy, Ohio and order one from there — I signed a bunch of them yesterday.
I’m very happy with The End of All Things — it’s not the last Old Man’s War book ever (my Tor contract specifies at least one more), but it’s likely to be the last one for a few years. I think it leaves the universe in a good place. I’m excited for you all to read it. And I’m excited to see at least some of you on the tour. We’re going to have fun. So much fun. Like, nearly illegal amounts of fun. See you soon.
It’s the End of All Things as we know it…and I feel fine. :)
Sorry, had to make the joke. Happy Release day, John!
My copy arrived yesterday. I have to say there is something Awesome about pre-ordering. While I didn’t forget the book was coming, it wasn’t in my for thoughts and since I already paid for it, it was like Christmas in August
Yay! Book launch!
I hope it’s a rousing success. I haven’t ordered it; I only recently discovered your work in Redshirts (awesome!) and I’ll start this series at the beginning when I get the chance. I’ve been busy doing adoption-related family things all summer so I haven’t picked up OMW yet.
And I think due to wierd coincidences, I can’t make any of your tour dates near me. So have a lovely tour, sir, I hope it’s a rousing success, and I hope that all the people (except me) come and listen and cheer and that it’s awesome. I’ll (hopefully) catch you the next time around.
Looking forward to the book tour. Living in Lima Ohio I have decided to go to the Dayton event. You have it listed as 9/1 at Books & Co. Books & Co website has you listed as 9/1 in there event calendar, but 9/9 on their homepage.
You might have answered this before, but… how do you handle laundry on these tours?
Achievement Unlocked! New Kindle book is now available on your device.
The Audible version came out today too… Audible was kind enough to wake me at 2:05am and let me know .
I misread “And yes, if someone brings a uke, …” as “And yes, if someone brings a nuke, …” and my first thought was “I must have missed something on Twitter about Scalzi being accused of being an arms dealer” and not “maybe read that again because that doesn’t make sense”
Josh Jasper:
Currently, I’m handling it by traveling with three weeks worth of clothes in a carry-on. Lots of rolling.
Downloaded it onto my Kindle at 12:01 last night.
Yay!
Sadly, those of us (which is quite possibly only me?) in the Southeast Asian market have to wait two more days for it to download to our Kindles, as Amazon tells me it doesn’t release until the 13th. :(
I CAN’T WAIT!! SOOOOO EXCITED! :D
In my morning mail, got your Whatever email, received Amazon’s SF&F newsletter, a notice of Scott Knight’s review (but I didn’t read it because spoilers), and I’m pretty sure this is what my cat was trying to tell me before my first cup of coffee. Whoopee! See you at the Poison Pen in Scottsdale on the 26th.
My cat likes book boxes. Books, not so much.
WHEN (and how) do those of us who have already purchased the original installments as released get the REST of the material?
Robin in NM: Scalzi said on Twitter today that the extra material will be available electronically for free in a couple of weeks.
Sadly, the closest you are coming to me (a former Daytonian, I might add) is Athens, GA, on the night I will be at a Weird Al Yankovic concert. I shall contact one of the stores you will visit for an autographed copy, and buy on locally to give to a friend. Maybe if we get enough books sold in Florida, we might get to see you a little farther south.
(Georgia is good though, just wish I didn’t have a conflict)
Pre-ordered to be delivered to my KIndle in time for my vacation Thursday. Now if I could just remember where I left my Kindle.
I can’t wait to jump back into this universe. Man, I remember reading Old Man’s War in a couple of sittings back in 2006. That said, I hope the audio book comes with some ukulele tracks.
I’m getting my copy at your signing in SF, so waiting for that (also then I’ll have it to read on the plane the next day) . Super excited though!
Okay, okay, stop the beatings! I bought my copy from Jay and Mary today… while I could drive to Troy from my house, it’s cheaper to have it shipped via USPS, especially since the price of gas just jumped 30 cents a gallon this morning……I should have it by Thursday, and it’ll go with me on my trip to Spokane (no, I am NOT going to WorldCon, but will be visiting two very well-known science fiction and fantasy writers who live there, CJC and JSF)
Damn you, Scalzi! It showed up on my Kindle just as I was getting ready for bed. So much for sleep last night.
Don’t want to give anything away, but were you affected in any way by your work on “Lock In” when you wrote the first segment about Rafe?
Rec’d it yesterday and consumed it last night until finished. I’ve now chowed down all six of the OMW books and must admit I’m feeling a tad stuffed. Time to take a nap and do some digesting.
I’ve got my copy, but I don’t have dog to purchase a copy for. Should I get a dog John so I can buy another copy?
Ah that new book smell. But for me Kindle, now just to wait awhile for the kindle price to drop to something more reasonable. I can wait, have lots of time with plenty on the virtual stack to read. But this joins the virtual stack.
Mine’s here!
(I opted for hardback, so had to wait till afternoon instead of midnight ebook.)
Must read.
I love it and I will certainly buy it, but I do need to ask why the kindle version is more expensive than the hardcover?
I came home from a writers conference two find both of my beautiful hardcover copies waiting for me. (One goes to a friend.)
Helen
The cover price is $24.99 the eBook is $11.99. Amazon has the hardcover discounted to $11.95. Neither John nor Tor control Amazon discounting the hardcover of a brand new book by more than 50%. You won’t get the hardcover that cheap at any of John’s tour stops, because either Amazon gets a better discount buying the books or they are selling it at a loss in order to fan the flames of the “ebooks are too expensive” debate. Other stores can’t afford to do that, including Barnes and Noble who has the hardcover priced at $14.52.
Personally I don’t mind an eBook price that is less than half the cover price of the hardcover. Others disagree. Ultimately everyone has to decide for themselves.
I have my copy. Looking forward to hearing you speak to the cheesy masses.
@Helen: The big publishers have decided they aren’t going to let Amazon discount their ebooks. They are, however, unable to keep Amazon from discounting the dead-tree version, and Amazon has enough spare cash that they can afford to knock prices down that low for their own purposes, which might or might not be nefarious.
Barnes and Noble doesn’t have that kind of money, but even they’ve knocked down the hardback price to within hailing range of the ebook, for reasons I don’t know.
Your local bookstore isn’t supported by a giant conglomerate or even a chain of stores, and therefore has to pay all expenses involved, like rent, book buying, utilities, employees, and setting up tables for John to come do his dog and pony show (Minus the pony).
It all depends on what form you like your books in and how much you want to pay.
TL;DR: Capitalism.
Dude! You got a SHIELD Helicarrier on the cover of your book!
Was so looking forward to today, only to find that it’s not published in iBooks until September.
Sadface.
Got it yesterday morning. Finished it last night. I Liked it. I didn’t love it. The first novella was the strongest, IMO. The rest… well, there was a lot of politics (not a killer, but not a plus either) and honestly I really never felt any suspense. It was good to be back in the OMW universe, and I really like Rafe. I still like Harry Wilson. It was nice to spend some time with them. The ending (rather, the political resolution bit) felt… well, I expected something quite like it, but I also had trouble buying its plausibility. Things got tied up in a neat little bow.
You really got worked up about the “Chinese” curse about interesting times, eh? Thanks for teaching me something. It was amusing to then come across the passage that mentioned the Romans salting Carthage… which never happened. Or at least there is no evidence it happened and quite a bit that it didn’t – Carthage and environs was an immensely productive grain farming area for the Romans, quite soon after Carthage was destroyed. It was almost certainly a 19th century invention (I wonder if it has to do with the famous “They make a desert, and call it peace” from Tacitus). Anyway, I thought the “Chinese curse” thing was real and knew “Romans Salted The Earth”was false… and you had it the other way round. Funny.
My copy arrived yesterday. When I say the ~$12 price tag from amazon I couldn’t refuse.
How can they sell it for so little? I almost pay that much for paperbacks. Speaking of cost, I wonder if the royalties for the hard cover are different from the other versions. e-book, audio, paperback. Does the Author get more if I buy a hard cover?
Downloaded to Kindle last night; sleep is for the weak! I love this universe. (I wish we could import a few of these characters into key roles in the US government. They’re smart, ethical, and have a grasp of realpolitik sadly lacking in Washington.)
I like Harry better than John Perry. I just do. He and Hart are a great combo, and then Rafe on top of that!
Also, while my cat didn’t care about the book, he quite liked the box it came in. And he liked leaning up against me while I sat still and read it. So I’d say it was a success all around.
John, I’m a bit confused. I read The Life Of The Mind on Kindle before, and just purchased the The End Of All Things audiobook on audible since I couldn’t wait for the rest.
I wanted to skip the reading of the (really really enjoyable) The Life Of The Mind, simply because I just read it a few days ago and it was still living in my mind, but in the audiobook’s prologue you say that this would be an alternative version. Yet, when I started listening to it, and later skipping through it, it seemed to be the same version, verbatim.
Did I misunderstand something, or are the differences either more subtle or happening later on instead?
P. 194 has the phrase “free reign” when I think free rein is what you meant
If you have a typo hunt post for your books, like Charlie does, then apologies for posting in the wrong place