Free SF ebooks

[Majuss]

I have finally taken the step and ordered a Kindle. While waiting for it to arrive I thought I would start to build a library for it.

I have looked at the SFF sections at Gutenberg.org and Manybooks.net and come to the conclusion that I need some advise from people more well read than I.

So, give us your good reads, the must haves and you-can't-call-yourself-fan-of-sff-if-you-haven't-read lists of free SFF books.

[Hobbit]

Useful discussion on this matter is also HERE, though the comments there are mainly related to Fantasy and Horror.

Have fun with the Kindle!

LATER EDIT:
I've reopened this thread and stuck it, because it's probably about time.

Please note that this thread is for free SF books.



Mark

[Hobbit]

OK: here's one I got in the email, from Phoenix Pick:

September's Free EBook is Carolyn Ives Gilman's outstanding novella, 'Arkfall.'

'Arkfall' was nominated for the Nebula this year (but lost out to 'The Women of Nell Gwynne's' by Kage Baker).

Carolyn Gilman is a not a prolific (or very well known author), but nearly everything she writes get outstanding reviews. Her novel 'Halfway Human'
is an outstanding study of gender issues and her novellette, 'The Honeycrafters' won the nebula in 1993.

Stephen Leigh, who's book 'Dark Water's Embrace' was our free ebook of the month for August is a fan of her works as well.

The Coupon Code for September is 9991426. Instructions and download link (as usual) at:

www.PPickings.com.

The new book will be available from September 2 (not September 1) through September 30th.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Hope that's useful! (Actually, might be more SF than Fantasy, but I'll put in both.)

[BEEFY]

I know there is 4 starwars novellas available on the sony ebook website. It's a series that all runs together called lost tribe of the sith sorry for not having a link it might be available from other places as well I read it very good if your into the starwars novels.

[Andols]

do these count?

http://www.baen.com/library/defaulttitles.htm

[DailyRich]

I know there is 4 starwars novellas available on the sony ebook website. It's a series that all runs together called lost tribe of the sith sorry for not having a link it might be available from other places as well I read it very good if your into the starwars novels.

Those are also free from Barnes and Noble for the Nook.

[Hobbit]

Perhaps I should've said that this is one of the few threads where we can actively encourage links. Please put them here, so others can see!

Mark

[psikeyhackr]

Project Gutenberg is a very mixed bag. It definitely brings to mind Sturgeon's Law:

90% of everything is crud.

When I am in the right peculiar mood I can enjoy stuff by E.E. Doc Smith like Triplanetary and Skylark of Space but my tongue is very firmly in my cheek. Mostly I avoid stuff from before 1945 except a few things by exceptional authors. Mostly going through PG is like trying to pick gems out of the muck. And the fact of the matter is there is so much stuff you will spend a significant amount of time searching and downloading.

All Day September, by Roger Kuykendall
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/24161...-h/24161-h.htm

The Brain, by Alexander Blade
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32498...-h/32498-h.htm

The movie GOG was derived from that story.

http://alldaysci-fi.cerizmo.com/

TANSTAAFE

There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free E-book

Books take time to read. The question is: "Which are worth the time?"

I don't mind paying $8 for a paperback because even at $5 an hour it will probably cost me $25 worth of time to read it. But when I can't stand it before I reach page 50 I'm pissed off. So many reviews of books today are worthless to me. I don't care what most people think of the WRITING when they don't seem to give the slightest damn about the SCIENCE or the IDEAS in the stories. So I figured I might as well wade through a lot of old stuff that was FREE anyway. It was kind of a LOSE/LOSE situation but one loss didn't involve money.

I bought this book way back when.

The Status Civilization, by Robert Sheckley
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20919...-h/20919-h.htm

psik

[JunkMonkey]

The Brain, by Alexander Blade
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32498...-h/32498-h.htm

The movie GOG was derived from that story.

This is a recommendation?

[psikeyhackr]

This is a recommendation?

ROFL

Not really, just an interesting historical detail.

The names of the robots killing a few people and the secret government installation and automatic controls are the same. But the entire basis for what is happening is different. The movie has foreign agents using some kind of stealth plane to remotely control the computer. The book is completely different and the solution to the problem in the book isn't even mentioned in the movie.

That movie was made long before I could even have understood it. So I try to judge it from a 1954 perspective. Maybe it really isn't as bad as I thought it was the first time I saw it considering when it was made. But the acting is pretty poor but that has nothing to do with the book.

I think The Brain is better than Considr Phlebas.

psik

[Hobbit]

In my email box today, from Phoenix Pick:


October's Free EBook is Canadian author, Terence M. Green's 'Barking Dogs.'

Mitch Helwig is a cop who has gone over the edge. He's got a Barking Dog--an infallible, illegal lie-detector, worn under street clothes--and he's tired of being lied to. He's become a criminal's worst nightmare.

"The near-future cop-thriller is a growing sub-genre, in which old-time heroes walk the dark and subtly altered mean streets of a cityscape we can all identify from Blade Runner. Barking Dogs is the first novel to turn Toronto into one of those darkly menacing cities."--The Toronto Star

"A real page-turner... Not to be missed."--Locus

"A thrill-a-minute story of vigilante justice and a nuanced, well-observed character study."--Robert J. Sawyer

The Coupon Code for September is 9991566. Instructions and download link (as usual) at:

www.PPickings.com.

The new book will be available from October 2 through October 31st.

--------------------------------------------------

Mark

[JunkMonkey]

That movie was made long before I could even have understood it. So I try to judge it from a 1954 perspective. Maybe it really isn't as bad as I thought it was the first time I saw it considering when it was made.

For those tempted to watch Gog here's what I thought of it when I first saw it. The book has GOT to be better.

[psikeyhackr]

For those tempted to watch Gog here's what I thought of it when I first saw it. The book has GOT to be better.

The movie is pretty bad by even 60s standard. But surprisingly reading The Brain made me remember it. The similarities were just too obvious. Then I checked the dates, 1948 book and 1954 movie.

One really funny thing I remembered was an incident in a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode where Data was trapped in a room with a laser trying to "kill" him was almost exactly like a scene in Gog where a solar mirror was after a woman.

Sci-fi is just SO unoriginal!

psik

Now I remember, Home Soil.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Soil

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASwYE9h6Scw

[catii]

I almost hate to post this link, but .....


I'd like to know if anyone else has found this great resource.

[Hobbit]

Apologies, catii, but that link has been removed, as many of the books there are in copyright and we would be in trouble if we let people use them.

Mark