Free Book - In Other Worlds (DF)

koland · 09-02-2012, 01:44 AM

Phoenix Pick's free ebook for September is A. A. Attanasio's 'In Other Worlds.' This is the second book in the highly acclaimed Radix Tetrad though it stands alone and is NOT a sequel.

Quote:

Schirmer spontaneously transforms into light.

Then, 130 billion years later, when all of spacetime is collapsing into
the vast nothingness of the cosmic black hole, Carl Schirmer is remade
from the remnants of his light. He is reborn in time’s last world, the
strangest of all—the Werld.

There, Carl discovers the Foke, nomadic humans who travel among the
floating islands of the Werld. Among them he finds the beautiful Evoë, and
their life together is blissful in this kingdom that knows no aging or
disease. But it is cut brutally short when Evoë is captured by the zotl, a
spidery intelligence who hunt the Foke and eat them in an excruciating
fashion. In order to save her life, Carl must return to Earth—130 billion
years earlier—where he is shocked to discover that the Earth he’s come
back to is not the one he left.

Can he meet the harsh demands of his task before the zotl find him and
begin ravishing the Earth?

“Richly imagined and crafted...a compelling and often brilliant
novel”—Publishers Weekly

“Brilliant...exuberantly entertaining”—Library Journal

“A dimension-spanning adventure that combines elements of hard science,
classic SF plotting, and derring-do with a timeless love story.”—The Houston Post

The Coupon code for September (good from now through September 30th) is 9991484 and the link, as usual, is www.PPickings.com.

No extras this month, as they are at Chicon.

Apache · 09-02-2012, 09:28 PM

Thank you.
Apache

JSWolf · 09-02-2012, 10:03 PM

I just downloaded In Other Worlds and it is a horribly made ePub. It won't work in most devices as it is one HTML of about 932KB in size. There is no CSS as this looks like it was pulled out of a Mobi version. Every line has styles. There is no CSS. I'm wondering if this is indicative of the quality of the eBooks they sell.

The best way to deal with this is to convert it to ePub in Calibre and load it into Sigil to fix it up from there.

I will be contacting Phoenix Pick to tell them of the problems with this eBook. I suggest everyone do the same.

OddCosine · 09-02-2012, 11:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I just downloaded In Other Worlds and it is a horribly made ePub. It won't work in most devices as it is one HTML of about 932KB in size. There is no CSS as this looks like it was pulled out of a Mobi version. Every line has styles. There is no CSS. I'm wondering if this is indicative of the quality of the eBooks they sell.

My experience with them says yes. All the epubs I've seen from them have been a horrible mess internally. There is CSS, just not in a separate file. It's all defined in the header. If you want to split the file you can pull the CSS out into its own file before you split.

I think the worst part for me is all the identical <span> tags embedded in the paragraphs. Sometimes you'll see individual letters wrapped in a span identical to all the others in the paragraph, like:

Code:

... lo</span><span class="sgc-36">i</span><span class="sgc-36">tered</span>

Valhalla · 09-03-2012, 04:58 AM

I don't see the link for the freebie. It's not where it usually is - or am I missing something?

JSWolf · 09-03-2012, 10:32 AM

What I see in the ePub is the following mess...

Code:

<meta name="generator" content="Aspose.Words for .NET 6.6.0.0" />
<title>In Other Worlds</title>
</head>
<body>
<div>
<p style="line-height:14pt; margin:0pt; orphans:0; text-align:center; widows:0"><img src="image.001.jpeg" width="398" height="615" alt="" style="border:none" /></p>
<p style="line-height:14pt; margin:0pt; orphans:0; text-align:center; widows:0"><span style="color:#000000; font-family:serif; font-size:14pt; font-weight:bold">*</span></p>
<p style="line-height:14pt; margin:0pt; orphans:0; text-align:center; widows:0"><br style="page-break-before:always; clear:both"/></p>
<p style="line-height:14pt; margin:0pt; orphans:0; text-align:center; widows:0"><span style="color:#000000; font-family:serif; font-size:14pt; font-weight:bold">IN OTHER WORLDS</span></p>
<p style="line-height:14pt; margin:0pt; orphans:0; text-align:center; widows:0"><span style="color:#000000; font-family:serif; font-size:14pt">A. A. Attanasio</span></p>
<p style="line-height:14pt; margin:0pt; orphans:0; text-align:center; widows:0"><span style="color:#000000; font-family:serif; font-size:14pt">*</span></p>
<p style="line-height:12pt; margin:0pt; text-align:center"><span style="color:#000000; font-family:serif; font-size:12pt">Phoenix Pick</span></p>
<p style="line-height:13pt; margin:0pt; orphans:0; text-align:center; widows:0"><span style="color:#000000; font-family:serif; font-size:12pt">An Imprint of Arc Manor</span></p>
<p style="line-height:12pt; margin:0pt; orphans:0; text-align:center; widows:0"><span style="color:#000000; font-family:serif; font-size:12pt">**********************************</span></p>
<p style="line-height:12pt; margin:0pt; orphans:0; text-align:center; widows:0"><span style="color:#000000; font-family:serif; font-size:12pt">*</span></p>
<p style="line-height:12pt; margin:0pt; orphans:0; text-align:center; widows:0"><span style="color:#000000; font-family:serif; font-size:12pt">Want Free Ebooks (including Hugo and Nebula </span><br/><span style="color:#000000; font-family:serif; font-size:12pt">nom</span><span style="color:#000000; font-family:serif; font-size:12pt">i</span><span style="color:#000000; font-family:serif; font-size:12pt">nees/winners)?</span></p>
<p style="line-height:12pt; margin:0pt; orphans:0; text-align:center; widows:0"><span style="color:#000000; font-family:serif; font-size:12pt">*</span></p>
<p style="line-height:12pt; margin:0pt; orphans:0; text-align:center; widows:0"><span style="color:#000000; font-family:serif; font-size:12pt">Sign up for our Monthly Free Ebook Coupon </span></p>
<p style="line-height:12pt; margin:0pt; orphans:0; text-align:center; widows:0"><br/><span style="color:#000000; font-family:serif; font-size:12pt">http://www.PhoenixPick.com</span></p>

JSWolf · 09-03-2012, 10:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Valhalla

I don't see the link for the freebie. It's not where it usually is - or am I missing something?

You are not missing anything. It's not worth the bother.

jgaiser · 09-03-2012, 10:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What I see in the ePub is the following mess...

And what's your point Jon? That the code is ugly? So what... 99.9% of the people downloading the book couldn't care less. The book displays, it's readable, and that's all that really counts.

JSWolf · 09-03-2012, 10:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jgaiser

And what's your point Jon? That the code is ugly? So what... 99.9% of the people downloading the book couldn't care less. The book displays, it's readable, and that's all that really counts.

It won't display on most ePub capable readers as it breaks the mobile ADE rules. It is a single HTML of about 932KB. It needs to be fixed so it will work.

koland · 09-03-2012, 11:01 AM

Displays fine here.

jgaiser · 09-03-2012, 11:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It won't display on most ePub capable readers as it breaks the mobile ADE rules. It is a single HTML of about 932KB. It needs to be fixed so it will work.

Ok.. Thanks Jon. I didn't realize you owned all those epub capable readers. Mea Culpa --

JSWolf · 09-03-2012, 11:50 AM

Most readers that handle ADE use the mobile ADE standard. That means each XML has to be (I think) no bigger then 300K. 932K won't work. It's too big.

JSWolf · 09-03-2012, 12:40 PM

I've just loaded this onto the iPad using Bluefire Reader and onto the T1.

The font size cannot be changed. The line height is inconsistent in a lot of places. Mostly we get a large line height and in others we get the two lines butting up to each other. There are places where the font size is different. Overall, a mess.

banjobama · 09-03-2012, 12:54 PM

Yeah, I think most of the epubs I've gotten from them have been wacky. Often they won't even display, this one included. Since they're free I don't really care. I usually convert them to LRF format which I like better anyway.

Edit: This book won't display on my Sony but looks 100% fine on my Nook Color except for not being able to change the font size.

09-03-2012, 12:54 PM	#14
banjobama Busy Read'n Posts: 980 Karma: 5039283 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Auburn, WA Device: Pocketbook Touch Lux 5	Yeah, I think most of the epubs I've gotten from them have been wacky. Often they won't even display, this one included. Since they're free I don't really care. I usually convert them to LRF format which I like better anyway. Edit: This book won't display on my Sony but looks 100% fine on my Nook Color except for not being able to change the font size. Last edited by banjobama; 09-03-2012 at 12:58 PM.

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version Email this Page	Search this Thread: Advanced Search

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Free Book - The War of the Worlds (K/Christianbook/Nook)	koland	Deals and Resources (No Self-Promotion or Affiliate Links)	4	06-13-2012 09:24 AM
Free (Kindle KDP) House Between the Worlds by Marion Zimmer Bradley [ESP SF/Fantasy]	ATDrake	Deals and Resources (No Self-Promotion or Affiliate Links)	16	03-09-2012 12:38 PM
The Best of All Possible mobilereading Worlds?	RDaneel54	General Discussions	1	08-17-2011 05:06 PM
eHarlequin FREE book - The Amazon's Curse (No longer free; different title is free)	bookratt	Deals and Resources (No Self-Promotion or Affiliate Links)	9	05-31-2009 09:09 PM
Best of both worlds?	sdmama	Amazon Kindle	26	03-09-2009 01:04 PM

09-02-2012, 09:28 PM	#2
Apache Readaholic Posts: 5,132 Karma: 89858112 Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: South Georgia Device: Surface Pro 6 / Galaxy Tab A 8"	Thank you. Apache

09-02-2012, 10:03 PM	#3
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 73,835 Karma: 128597114 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	I just downloaded In Other Worlds and it is a horribly made ePub. It won't work in most devices as it is one HTML of about 932KB in size. There is no CSS as this looks like it was pulled out of a Mobi version. Every line has styles. There is no CSS. I'm wondering if this is indicative of the quality of the eBooks they sell. The best way to deal with this is to convert it to ePub in Calibre and load it into Sigil to fix it up from there. I will be contacting Phoenix Pick to tell them of the problems with this eBook. I suggest everyone do the same.

09-03-2012, 04:58 AM	#5
Valhalla Zealot Posts: 109 Karma: 495253 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Adelaide, Australia Device: Kindle Paperwhite	I don't see the link for the freebie. It's not where it usually is - or am I missing something?

09-03-2012, 11:01 AM	#10
koland Grand Sorcerer Posts: 8,560 Karma: 8033155 Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: TN, USA Device: kindle(all), nook, nookcolor, Sony, Kobo, epic, iphone, iPad, pc	Displays fine here.

09-03-2012, 11:50 AM	#12
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 73,835 Karma: 128597114 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	Most readers that handle ADE use the mobile ADE standard. That means each XML has to be (I think) no bigger then 300K. 932K won't work. It's too big.

09-03-2012, 12:40 PM	#13
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 73,835 Karma: 128597114 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	I've just loaded this onto the iPad using Bluefire Reader and onto the T1. The font size cannot be changed. The line height is inconsistent in a lot of places. Mostly we get a large line height and in others we get the two lines butting up to each other. There are places where the font size is different. Overall, a mess.

Advert

Advert