You could use your computer or cell phone....

Well, computer beats pone in my book, but that's personal taste. Also, the paper will never offer the searchability of a file. There it really loses out.

Still, why epub format, not .pdf.

FWIW, I'm not here to declare the death of print, or the superiority of the electronic product. There are positives and negatives about electronic versions, but if you came to my home, you'd see that I love physical books. Just love 'em. Catalyst management people tend to feel the same way. So we're not giving up on print just yet. For print-heavy, illustration-light things like fiction, I think ePub/Kindle works better than PDF--text resizing and reflowing can improve the reading experience.

Re: Rotten Apple 2, that should include info on Brooklyn, the Bronx, and criminal syndicates in NY.

Jason H.

Two, count them two books for NYC and only a partial for LaLa Land?(Corporate Enclaves)
We demand equal time!

Grexul

[sarcasm]
Bah! You should be used to the media East Coast bias. Just don't expect it from a West Coast team.
[/sarcasm]

Bah...who cares about Los Angeles? Its all about Seattle! Everywhere else is unimportant. The proof:
Seattle has gotten more book time then any other city. Heck, correct me if I am wrong, but are not
most of the novels set in Seattle?

Well, the multiple NYC books might bring NYC close to the word count that Los Angeles got in Corp Enclaves.

Let me ask, what's the inter-compatibility of different formats/devices? If I buy a "kindle" book, will it work in Adobe reader, will ePub work on those new Sony readers, etc.?

(I have been considering buying a digital reader at some point in the future, but I don't know much about them.)

ePub is a standard, open format. Therefore, it will work on many devices/piece of software, in slightly different ways. It's basically just HTML + CSS + some wrapper stuff.

Little to no compatibility between Kindle and other readers. Out of the box you can't read the kindle format with other readers, or open ePubs on the Kindle. There are various converters around that can get around this, though, as long as you're willing to lose some formatting.

BattleCorps provides both Kindle and ePub formats with their products, as you're probably aware of.

In general, Kindle supports less formats than other readers (AFAIK, without checking the facts). I have a 5" Astak EZReader Pocket Pro, which supports "20+ open formats", and I've been very happy. No wireless, but at least Big Brother won't be deleting my books without my consent.

The MobileRead Wiki has a nice comparison matrix, if you want more information.

--

Oh, and I really liked the anthology! Keep the fiction coming and let the old hats have a go at it, as well.

Current batch of smart phones are not good enough IMO. Need better tech including rollable screens.

I have multiple computers & laptops. I will happily use PDFs as they are easily read and searched. That's fine for a rule book.

Novels belong in dead tree and in my hands, not on a computer screen.

My iPhone works really well for that. And I found it in some bar, somebody just left it there. Shaped a bit odd, but man can that thing fly....

iPhone . . overexpensive hipster crap . . *pats his Archos 5g*

I fail to understand how you can read a book in letter stamp format.

barely . .

Isn't that what optic augmentation is for? @=)

I find it reassuring to know that if my power goes out and my cell phone battery dies, I can still read my dead-tree versions by sun, candle, or oil lamp.

Though I admit the only reason I haven't gotten an e-reader is that, IMHO, the e-readers as a separate device will be out of vogue in no more than five years. E-readers will become platform independent software that can be downloaded on laptops, netbooks, tablets, PCs, and cell phones (as the user desires) and part of the This-Device-Does-It-All drive that technology seems to be evolving toward.

Thank you! Quite handy!

Sigh. If my mobile battery dies and my power goes out, that's the only way I get enough time to read my dead-tree versions. : (

Just a quickie. I'm reviewing the anthology on my blog (see sig). Pretty good so far although the Dirk one was a bit irritating.

Carl

Continuing my little review ...

Wetwork
Nice, pretty standard Shadowrun tale. Durr for the Ultramarine cybersuite, but there's been worse references already (Dead Names, I am looking at you), so meh. Not good, not bad, average. But fun enough to read.

Big Jake
Nice one, albeit a repetition of the "I have been hiding for so long and all my ware is obsolete but I still kick ass" theme of The Good Fight. Also average, hence, though the writing's nice.

Epub is a open, completely DRM-free format. And you don't need a smartphone or dedicated reader to read it. There is, in fact, a Firefox extension that does it quite nicely, and which I found after like, 5 minutes of googling. So I can't really say I find the objections against epub valid. This and the Findley omnibus were my first experiences with epub, and I found it to be a better format for this kind of long, text-only, layout-independent books than PDF would be.

You know what is a better, DRM-free format? Dead Tree!

Dead tree is usually not better for me, especially when it comes to books not already available in Brazilian stores. While I like a good paper book now and then, I'm not such a Luddite that I'd pay the outrageous shipping fees most stores charge me and wait 3+ months for delivery when there's a much cheaper and faster alternative at hand.

Many thanks for the info, the HTML conversion this extension creates is great for laptop reading, and ports well to my now ancient PDA.

P.S. I am definitely a bibliophile–a well crafted hardcover is a work of art in itself. I prefer fiction in paperback (over hardcover), only because its more comfortable to read in bed or while traveling. Having said that, searchable versions of the other 42 Shadowrun novels would give me a wealth of background material for playing Shadowrun.

Comparing electronic vs. paper formats with an eye towards what is "better" is fine, but you can only draw a conclusion _for yourself_ or people who have exactly the same habits and needs as you do. Electronic reading formats and paper reading formats are different enough that each of them has a serious pro/con list, and anyone who thinks paper "wins" for everyone, everytime, is delusional.

Signed, stamped and fully approved of.

Though, given where I am from, it's 86 novels. Most of them are crap, but some are pretty neat. Pity they never were translated.

On a side note, and addressing the people responsible for the anthology: Back in FanPro days, an anthology of fan written stories was published by FanPro's books branch, Phoenix. Later, most of these authors actually wrote at least one, usually more, novels for the line that apparently sold rather well. Maybe this could be done by IMR, too? There certainly is a need for many fans to publish shorts, and maybe more. And there is a need among fans for fiction, which also always is good for drawing in new blood.

I prefer electronic, myself.

Agreed. While I do like the concept of e-reading, to me there's nothing like that feel of printed media. Call me a tradiitionalist in that reguard.

BTW, any news on Rotten Apple 2? Just curious. I'll keep quiet afterwards.

Electronic Format is Interesting; and I await the Skiff in anticipation, but regardless, I am not able to purchase such a device now or in the near future, so it is Dead Tree Novels for me, at least for now...

Doesn't hurt htat I have several thousand books in my library...

Keep the Faith

This last statement totally confuses me. Unless you're saying "I have a ton of unread books and so I really don't need to buy another book for months if not years" -- what does the size of your physical library have to do with buying books in electronic format? There is no Book Police that will come over and take away your print books if you buy electronic books!

(I buy both, since both print books and electronic books have pros and cons ... I pick whichever format is most appropriate for the book I'm buying!)

Since I can't read electronic books on a handheld device, I am happy that I have many, many, many books to keep me entertained, even if I have read some of them more than a dozen times... and yes, there are a few that I have yet to read, as I tend to add them faster than I can consume them, what with all of my other hobbies...

And as far as I know, the reader that I am most interested in (The Skiff) is still not out for general consumption (I could be wrong)... I would buy E-Boks if I had an appropriate reader... but since I can get Paperback books for less than a dollar (Yeah, space is becomming an issue with this route) it is not such a big issues yet... Now, if those physical books start costing me the list price, then yeah, I would have more of an impetus to possibly purhcase such a reader...

That is all...

So the issue isn't the size of your existing print library -- but a) that you can't get an ereader that you like yet, and b) that there's no used books economy for electronic books.

Something like that... as for e-books that are used... doesn't help me much even if there is an economy for those, as I have no reader for them anyways...

No worries though...

Keep the Faith

In the mean time since they won't grace us with some new dead tree versions of things, I will continue to troll around used book stores and collect the older versions of the ones for which there are some.

Also I agree with the poster who commented on the smell of old books being one of their favorites <3 Seeing as how I own over a thousand novels in print, and my mother owns even more I don't think I'm going to change my mind anytime soon.