Free books (Kindle) 4 titles by Norman Spinrad [Science Fiction Award Nominee]

[ATDrake]

Well, apparently as a result of Amazon's KDP Select exclusive-or-else thing, 4 of multiple Hugo/Nebula award-nominee (and classic Star Trek episode author) Norman Spinrad's (Wikipedia, list of partial award noms w/links to free shorts, interview with him regarding attitude towards e-book pricing) titles are very temporarily freebied as part of that "5 days out of every 90" thing that authors get to do. I think I see the first actual potential upside to this otherwise problematic program.

I have no idea how long these have been freebied, but grab them quickly if you want them.

Actually, I'm going to selfishly suggest that you grab them anyway, even if you don't want them, on the off-chance that a big "sales" ranking boost up the freebie bestseller list will persuade Mr. Spinrad to freebie-ize some more of his backlist later. To that end, I have put in convenient linkage to every single Amazon Kindle store out there to better enable you, my prospective 1-click army.

I don't normally ask for favours in the Deals forum, but if you've ever wanted to express any form of non-karmic appreciation or thanks, then here and now would be the recommended time to do so (as long as the price reads $0.00 for your region and you don't have that $2 Whispernet surcharge even for the freebies).

Anyway, 1 novelette, 1 short story collection, 1 collection of essays he wrote for Asimov's SF magazine, and some sort of autobiography thingy, free for a limited time across the Kindle-verse.

Spinrad's been apparently pirating the pirate versions of his backlist from the darknet in order get e-books to put up and sell, so there's probably a Möbius loop of recursive irony in the typos that apparently still riddle these things. Just so you know.

Quarantine novelette @ main, UK, DE, FR, IT, ES.

QUARANTINE is a novelette of genetic engineering, pharmacological warfare against the Big Apple, genohacking, diarrhea, terrorism, and much more, none of which has anything to do with sex, X-rated or otherwise.

Nevertheless, despite this, despite being written by Norman Spinrad, who has published scores of short stories in everything from Playboy to New Worlds to Analog and dozens of other publications, this one is too hot to handle by any of them.
The author actually does understand why, and so will you if you plunk down $3.00, the cost of 2 crummy beers or one good on, to find out.

Revolutionary in more ways than one!

New Worlds Coming short story collection @ main, UK, DE, FR, IT, ES.

The first collection of Norman Spinrad's short stories in a decade and more, written after those in the collections THE LAST HURRAH OF THE GOLDEN HORDE, NO DIRECTION HOME, THE STAR SPANGLED FUTURE and OTHER AMERCAS.

An original ebook first edition!

A Critic At Large in the Multiverse essays from Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine @ main, UK, DE, FR, IT, ES.

"Science Fiction in the Real World" revisited: an original collection a new decade's worth of Norman Spinrad's critical essays in "Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine"

FIRST PUBLICATION IN ANY BOOK FORM!!

An Experiment in Autobiography just what it says in the title @ main, UK, DE, FR, IT, ES.

A experiment in writing a very different kind of autobiography, nothing like it every done before, as far as I know, in terms of form and style.

My (mostly creative) life from school through 2005--literary, musical, political--9/11 close-up, travels and adventures in Europe and Mexico, how I became a writer, etc. etc.

Incidentally, another major-award-winning sf/fantasy/etc. writer with store-offered freebies you might want to check out pour encourager les autres is Joe R. Lansdale, who has 4 short stories and a number of reasonably priced backlist novels which are still available via this thread.

And this appears to be my 3000th post. I'm thinking of adding another "zed" to my user title but maybe that would ruin the joke?

[koland]

Mexica - http://www.amazon.com/MEXICA-ebook/dp/B00480P3Z0

on PD short I see there, too:
Subjectivity - http://www.amazon.com/Subjectivity-ebook/dp/B004UJ22UI

[ATDrake]

Sadly, neither available to Canadians (or outside the US, I'd wager), but thanks for the heads-up!

[tilia]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

Actually, I'm going to selfishly suggest that you grab them anyway, even if you don't want them, on the off-chance that a big "sales" ranking boost up the freebie bestseller list will persuade Mr. Spinrad to freebie-ize some more of his backlist later. To that end, I have put in convenient linkage to every single Amazon Kindle store out there to better enable you, my prospective 1-click army.

I don't normally ask for favours in the Deals forum, but if you've ever wanted to express any form of non-karmic appreciation or thanks, then here and now would be the recommended time to do so (as long as the price reads $0.00 for your region and you don't have that $2 Whispernet surcharge even for the freebies).

I'm not very good at remembering to give karma/thanks in the Deals forum, so I just joined your little 1-click army .

Unknown author to me so not sure when/if ever I'll get around to reading them though...

[birdbrainbb]

Those are some of the worst book covers I've ever seen, and the reviews about the books mention a lot of typos in the text. Still, free is free...I guess.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by tilia

I'm not very good at remembering to give karma/thanks in the Deals forum, so I just joined your little 1-click army .

Unknown author to me so not sure when/if ever I'll get around to reading them though...

To be honest, all of Spinrad's really good stuff was written well before I was born and for all I know he's succumbed to the Brain Eater like many other formerly-brilliant-ish sf/fantasy writers since then (and with a few exceptions, I myself really only middling-liked much of what I've read of his stuff).

But the important thing is that hopefully a well-established and reasonably respected prominent-in-his-severely-underrepresented-in-the-freebie-department-genre* award-nominated author with direct control of a big chunk of his desirable award-nominated backlist gets a nice visibility boost for his self-republished works, in addition to the take-home lesson that free promotions are a Very Good Idea and even temporary giveaways are appreciated.

And hey, maybe he'll even sign on for that heartwarming class about bargain pricing for the more obscure titles and no DRM in future releases and ditching the single-vendor exclusivity, too!

So with that in mind, to each and every one of the kind MR-goers who've contributed to the 192 page views for this thread (and hopefully were able to get this freebie deal in their region).

If nothing else, then at least the previously-printed essay and short-story collections should be worth a skim, for those who actually feel like reading the stuff they've been nice enough to 1-click.

* Seriously, I think we've maybe gotten a dozen sf/fantasy/non-PNR other-speculative freebies all year, whereas we get at least that amount every single month in the Christian fiction and erotic/paranormal romance offerings alone.

[Blue Tyson]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

Sadly, neither available to Canadians (or outside the US, I'd wager), but thanks for the heads-up!

Not in Australia, anyway, so you are likely correct.

[carld]

Originally Posted by birdbrainbb

Those are some of the worst book covers I've ever seen...

I thought you were exaggerating ... you weren't. Still, I grabbed two of the four.

[DustyDisks]

Originally Posted by birdbrainbb

Those are some of the worst book covers I've ever seen, and the reviews about the books mention a lot of typos in the text. Still, free is free...I guess.

Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes all the way to da bone.

[ozron]

Originally Posted by Blue Tyson

Not in Australia, anyway, so you are likely correct.

Worked fine for my Australian account. Also grabbed Osama the Gun which is also currently free.

[JoeD]

Originally Posted by birdbrainbb

Those are some of the worst book covers I've ever seen, and the reviews about the books mention a lot of typos in the text. Still, free is free...I guess.

Funny you should mention that, I looked at the covers and description and decided not to bother downloading them. Covers played a big part in that I think.

[Dr. Drib]

Here's the link for Mexica, free in the U.S.A.:


http://www.amazon.com/MEXICA-ebook/d...3861828&sr=1-7

-- Just now noted that Koland mentioned this one first. Thanks, Koland.

Don

[Blue Tyson]

Originally Posted by ozron

Worked fine for my Australian account. Also grabbed Osama the Gun which is also currently free.

Mexica?

[Dr. Drib]

As mentioned, many of these are horribly formatted. Two don't have a cover.

They are free, but one will have to judge for oneself whether or not to slog through these incredibly, ineptly formatted ebooks.



Don

[dwig]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

...these incredibly, ineptly formatted ebooks.

agreed!

I downloaded the short story collection New Worlds Coming and while I haven't read it yet I can say it is truly a poorly assembled book; no cover, title in all caps, no ToC, no ticks for story/chapter navigation, no separate title page, no section breaks, ... . Its just one long block of text that at least is broken into separate paragraphs.