Awesome free ebook - His Majesty's Dragon (Temeraire Series #1)
The Suvudu free book library is currently offering the first book in the "Temeraire" series as a free download as a promotion as the sixth book is about to come out in a couple weeks (and I am anticipating it highly!).
The book - His Majesty's Dragon, by Naomi Novik (published in Australia just as 'Temeraire') is basically historical fiction with a twist. It tells the story of the Napoleonic Wars between England and France, largely from the viewpoint of the British. The twist is, and I s*** you not, it has dragons. Basically it's a retelling of the wars as if dragons existed and were employed by the military in combat. Aerial combat adds a thrilling new dimension to the Napoleonic Wars as valiant warriors rise to Britain's defense by taking to the skies...not aboard aircraft, but atop the mighty backs of fighting dragons. If you haven't yet begun to read the adventures of Captain Will Laurence and his dragon Temeraire, you owe it to yourself to do so today!It is a really awesome read and if you have a portable device that lets you read ebooks, definitely check it out. The only problem is that it is in the world's most useless and annoying format, PDF. You can download it here from Akamai - it's less than 9mb. Stanza can't seem to open it for me to convert into ePub, but Calibre can, and will happily convert it though it leaves page footer/header s*** scattered through the text. |
11:09am 22/06/10 Permalink
Tycho from Penny Arcade recommended this book too, it sounded like a pretty interesting idea, might have to check this out. Is there a good ebook reader anyone could recommend for android?
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11:29am 22/06/10 Permalink
I like this series, filter out the dragon stuff (but why would you want to?) and you can learn stuff about European history. From memory the author worked in games design for Forgotten Realms universe stuff (Baldur's Gate and the like) writing back story, before realising that she liked writing the back story more than she liked writing code, and decided to write fantasy fulltime.
They're easy reads but good fun, the next book is set in the colony of New South Wales, it should be cool. last edited by StopShootingMe at 11:31:22 22/Jun/10 |
11:30am 22/06/10 Permalink
Sounds interesting, I'll give it a shot.
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12:25pm 22/06/10 Permalink
ComicRack is just about the best reader for various formats Ive found. with the ghostscript addon it apparently renders PDFs better than Acrobat Pro ;-P
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12:56pm 22/06/10 Permalink
In other news, for those who read a ton of books, Amazon has dropped the price on the Kindle 2 to compete with Barnes and Noble's Nook (not that we can get that here anyway). source
I've got a Kindle 2 and it rocks. The free "whispernet" allows me to purchase a book on the device (for around $10 USD on average) and have it downloaded within 20 seconds or so when I'm in a 3G area. If you've been considering buying one, now might be the time to go for it. Oh, and contrary to Amazon's information and other reviews, we do get access to the experimental browser here in Australia, although I wouldn't recommend it for any serious surfing. The kindle is designed to be (and excels at being) a reader and nothing more. Amazon Kindle page. Make sure you buy the international version. *edit* for those too lazy to click on links, the new price is $189 USD. |
07:25pm 22/06/10 Permalink
nerf, I'm sure I recommended this to you ages ago.
I love this series, she's a brilliant writer. Plus it reminds me heaps of O'Brian's Aubrey and Maturin series, which is also the bomb! |
07:28pm 22/06/10 Permalink
I've got a Kindle 2 and it rocks. The free "whispernet" allows me to purchase a book on the device (for around $10 USD on average) and have it downloaded within 20 seconds or so when I'm in a 3G area.I'm not paying USD$10 for an ebook unless I get the physical book mailed to me as well, considering most paper books I can buy for USD$10 these days@#!@# |
07:35pm 22/06/10 Permalink
The point is, with the kindle you don't need the physical book. It seems like you're reading a real book - the e-ink screen is fantastic. Reading on any LCD screen sucks compared to it - I know first hand.
Oh and you're not limited to books from Amazon - you can copy various other ebook formatted files on to it via USB. It presents as an external drive. |
07:42pm 22/06/10 Permalink
The point is, with the kindle you don't need the physical book. It seems like you're reading a real book - the e-ink screen is fantastic. Reading on any LCD screen sucks compared to it - I know first hand. Yes but if the book price no longer includes the cost of printing and physical materials, why should it be just as expensive? Its the same stupid proposition that big media do when they make video available for download at the same price (or more expensive!) as buying a disk form a store. |
08:13pm 22/06/10 Permalink
The point is, with the kindle you don't need the physical book. It seems like you're reading a real book - the e-ink screen is fantastic. Reading on any LCD screen sucks compared to it - I know first hand.Yes but if the book price no longer includes the cost of printing and physical materials, why should it be just as expensive? Because some people argue you're buying the work rather than the physical product. |
08:50pm 22/06/10 Permalink
Yeah, you are buying the work, but you're also covering the costs of producing, printing, distributing, etc the physical copy of the book. If you don't have to pay those overheads, it stands to reason the cost of the ebook version should be significantly less.
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09:09pm 22/06/10 Permalink
Ill have to pick up and read books 3 through 5 before I get number 6! .. Definitely enjoy those books.
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09:11pm 22/06/10 Permalink
$10 for me is a decent price to pay for a book. And the move to ebooks was for two reasons. Firstly I can buy a book at anytime and start reading in seconds. Secondly, I no longer have to store boxes and boxes of books and I can carry many with me when I travel.
*edit* back on topic though, thanks for the head's up - i'll give it a read. |
09:12pm 22/06/10 Permalink
I don't mind paying $10 for the ebook if I get the physical book as well, considering it costs practically nothing to send someone a digital version of a bookDon't Amazon give you a free 3G connection through the kindle to their store though? I actually think they have a lot more right charging full price than Apple or Bigpond Music which require you to pay for the delivery while charging full retail price. I guess the real convenience is you don't have to wait 6 weeks for delivery to get a book at US prices. Then again it's only a matter of time before they open an Australian store and start charging the standard $25+ per book that we pay here at brick and mortar stores. They would likely simply regionalise the prices and pocket the taxes, which make up a big part of why our books are so expensive. I don't know how these things become popular in the US where digital prices are the same as store prices, since Steam prices started to become regionalised I've found very little reason to look at their games sans sales. |
12:29am 26/06/10 Permalink
Yes, the 3G connection is free.
And no, they already have an Australian list of books on their store thanks to stupid regional publishing rights that they've had to honour. >.< |
10:04am 26/06/10 Permalink
