Spells & Chrome has come out, but there is supposed to be a novel by Jason M. Hardy, Triptych by Phaedra Weldon, and lastly -- and the one I have been looking most forward to since I heard rumors of it being announced in late 2008; is Cut & Run by Mel Odom.

Any word on these novels and their status? I've scoured the net several times lately, but always seem to come up with old info.

I got it from the horse's mouth, they're hoping for something by August or ass kicking will occur.

What is in Spells and Chrome? I was under the impression that it was the same fiction from SR4A.

Wow, apparently other people were in the same frame of mind I was. Most excellent; and thank you!



It is just a collection of short stories in the SR4 universe, I believe -- all new, I thought?

All but the last one was my recollection. I'd have to pull up the file to be sure though.

I want a dead tree edition. Hard to carry and read off my desktop while on the bus.

The "all new but the last one" description of Spells & Chrome is correct. Dead tree editions should be floating around out there--the street date for the print edition was in December.

Jason H.

I put my order in at my FLGS long and ever ago. And CGL is one of the companies they're able to get stuff from easily enough. (There's issues with getting stuff over the border. Even from the USA.).

Getting an e-book is cheaper than buying dead trees.

I know that feeling.

Getting an e-book does not strike me as the smartest way to enjoy a story in the tub.

Also, there's issues with E-Books that I have on moralistic grounds.

My problem is that they have no pages. I want pages. Also, they don't fit in my pocket in screen sizes I want. Most paperbacks do.

Yet it is.

And what are your moralistic problems, then?

Jobs. Books are still mostly made within North America (Typically Canada for the books that I've purchased, with a good number of books coming from the USA), with the paper and glue being locally made also (I'm fairly certain.). There's also shipping, warehousing, brick & mortar stores, supply companies for all of said...

With so much else vastly being shipped overseas, book printing and binding is still a local business, with an infrastructure that's also local as well. The "worst" I've seen from imported books is from England. (OK, not quite true, I've seen some gaming stuff from other parts of Europe.). And, well, as a member of the British Commonwealth, I can hardly call that a bad thing.

While I have no issues with e-books and the idea behind them, I do buy PDF copies of RPG books for instance (Often with the book itself from my FLGS), when it comes to novels, I'll stick with Dead Tree Format.

Mom was a cook, Dad was a truck driver, Dad was a machinist. I learned a fair bit about infrastructure from the combination of all their jobs.

Hey, I could be completely off, but if I have at least some chance at supporting a fellow countryman in keeping a job, I'll take it.

Well, the book industry as it is is doomed anyway. Some companies will move to making premium editions for collectors, others are still dying from the lack of demand, whether you personally decide to support them or not.
It's just the same as telegraph operators as a job dying out - they are producing a ware that is not needed in the quantity they're used to producing any longer.

I think there was some study that said that reading a real book has a lot of "associated" information with it, that you lose with an e-book. Like, remembering that something was on a certain page is easier with a real book because you subconciously remember all kinds of little clues from holding the actual book in your hand and flipping the pages, instead of just hitting a "next" button.

Not bashing e-books either. They both (still) have their place, I think.

I can't do e-books, as I'd have to read them on my computer -- and I am wayyyy too easily distracted. Mostly by the internet at large.

Oh, I'm aware. Just trying to stave that off as long as possible.

Going to be a bad day when print dies... I used to be a librarian. I saw the writing on the walls and decided not to get into that industry as a career.

I mean the e-paper devices when I talk about e-books.

Oh, I don't think it will die completely; neither, in fact, will the libraries. There are always people who want their book printed on good paper, with that nice smell and feel that comes with that. And there are always will be people who are afraid of computers

Yeah, but then it'll become a niche and classist thing. Unaffordable to the masses. Libraries, I'm not so sure on, print dies, they'll be next on the chopping block for government funding...

On the flipside, e-books are nice in that they hold a lot of books in one item. I'm waiting for longer battery life and still lower prices, both for the devices and books.

Uh, do you really really think that "the masses" read? Not watch TV and play casual games?
Uh, an e-paper book lives for two months on a single charge, what more could you ask for?

I've been grossly misinformed on their lifetime then, I was told four hours of battery life. (Which confused me, as my First Generation Eee PC can go longer than that, and it has a faulty battery system!).

As for "The Masses", I'm referring to folks like me. The intelligent poor. There's still quite a few of me around (Scary a thought as that is.), at least enough to be considered a "Mass". But if you're referring to the general public...

Well, one classmate in High School did a book report on a Rolling Stone magazine... And got a B.

PDAs with LCD displays live for four hours. The very point of e-paper is high contrast and low power consumption.

I still by hard copy everything- I do not enjoy using e readers, and I love my books- and I've been 'poor' my entire life I used to skip lunch to use the money to buy paperbacks in primary school

The smell. That smell books have. If you've ever worked in a bookstore, odds are you still smell like books a little. No e-reader can duplicate that and for our favorite books, it's worth every penny.

The smell of a new book is an addiction i think.

To this day I'll be standing in a book store, looking for something and folk will come up and ask if I know where something is, like I work there. I start to get mad, but I know where it is.

I know that feeling. I take it as a compliment.

I get that wearing a "If they ban guns, how will I fight the zombies" T-Shirt and with a huge beard. I really don't look like I work there.

And, yes, I usually know as well, unless it's on the discount racks. Too many years working in a library I think. Or it might be the glasses.

On the flip side, that's normal for when I hang out at my FLGS, and the owners have no issue with me helping folks if they're busy.

I really need to find some more of the novels missing from my collection, I think I have maybe 14 novels... And I really don't like paying $6 - $8 a pop for them since they're in second hand stores at best now except that at best they're out of print now for almost 10 years. Though I'll gladly fork over that much for the new ones when they hit the shelves.

I used to have near the whole collection... Very near.

Stupidly got rid of them when I moved as I had storage issues. Been trying to slowly rebuild them from used book stores.