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April 11, 2003

SciFi

As a fan of SciFi, I was very interested to come across a link to Baen Books recently. As a regular borrower at the Sydney City Library, I was vaguely aware that some of the SciFi had been published by Baen but I had no idea as to the number of variety.

To make matters more interesting I discovered that one of the authors I had recently enjoyed (Eric Flint, 1632) had put together a "library" online with downloadable books. The theory he espoused is that downloading and reading books is no better or worse than allowing a library to buy a single copy and having lots of people read it. Nor is it any different to someone buying a book and passing it on to a friend.

I downloaded a couple of books and tried them and I have to say that reading html or rtf on screen for a whole book is not exactly an enjoyable activity no matter how riveting the book may be. However it did serve the purpose of giving me a quick preview into various styles and storylines that various Baen authors follow. In particular, it leads to another fellow named David Drake and a series of "alternate history" volumes that follow a Roman General named Belisarius who lived 505-565 AD and was apparently one of the greatest military strategists of his time.

I decided to check the local book stores (Angus & Robertson, Dymocks) and they both assured me that there was no Australian distributor for Baen and the books would need to come from overseas (which makes it expensive). I decided to keep borrowing them from the library but of course that meant there were gaps in the sequence and some books were read in the wrong order.

Yesterday, as I went for some batteries behind the QVB, it suddenly started to pour. I ducked into the nearest doorway and found myself in the entrance of Galaxy Books. Worth a try while I wait for the rain to ease? You betcha. Not only do they carry Baen but the assistant was both helpful and knowledgeable (nice change).

Looking for SciFi / Fantasy, give them a try on-line (or just behind the QVB).

Posted by Ozguru at April 11, 2003 12:04 AM

Comments

I'm not into scfi but you're staying up much too late these days.Or is that what toothless freeks do, stay up late to write about scfi.lol

Posted by: hjs at April 11, 2003 12:04 AM

Its alright... I've already worked out his clock aint working to well...

Posted by: Peskie at April 11, 2003 12:04 AM

Haven't you two heard about automated posting? You see a Mac runs Unix and there is this thing called "at" which is part of cron and you can tell it to send the article next time my laptop happens to connect....

Posted by: Jon at April 11, 2003 12:04 AM

I wonder prw is it his computer or is he really staying up late, but I've always known you can never trust macs or their users,as a cousin & his best friend have strongly indicated to me.

Posted by: hjs at April 11, 2003 12:04 AM