New Baen CD - Claws that Catch

[vsalvaggio]

We all know that Baen Books is one of the few publishers that really "get" ebooks. They offer them in many formats with no DRM at reasonable prices. And they often provide some for free through the Baen Free Library and by including CD's in new releases.

The latest CD comes with "Claws that Catch" by John Ringo and Travis Taylor (the 4th book in the Looking Glass series which, BTW, I HIGHLY recommend). Baen encourages that the CD be shared as long as they remains free of charge.

You can find all of their CD's here or go right to the latest CD here.

If you find something you like, be sure to visit Baen's Webscription.net (their ebooks sales site) and look for more books to buy.

[JSWolf]

Very nice find. Thank you.

[mtravellerh]

Oh goody, goody!!!!

[Gibbo]

Thx amigo

P.S. Just bought the other ebooks from the series

Regards

[JeffElkins]

Just as an fyi... the iso reports as an invalid format for me. The Baen16-ClawsThatCatchCD.zip file is OK.

[Xenophon]

And if you read Vorpal Blade (the second book in the Looking Glass series) you can cheer as the RedShirt with my name dies... after torturing the other Marines with his bagpiping "skills." I'm happy to say that Staff Sgt. Sutherland dies well.

Xenophon

[stxopher]

Ah, a Universe member, are we? Been Tuckerized?

[Xenophon]

Nope, not Tuckerized. I got red-shirted for helping vote in "Ghost" as the 'Best Romance Novel of the Year' at a moderately widely read publishing-related blog. Not, I should note, one that specializes in the Romance genre.

I was dubious about doing so (although the twisted humor value was clear), until I read the samples of some of the other books that had been nominated. Ghost was only a little more extreme than many of the 'real' nominees.

Once I figured that out, I explained the situation to a couple of dozen graduate students and helped boost the vote count (open voting, don't-ya know). I, along with quite a few others, got red-shirted for my efforts. I got a tiny bit more stage time than most of the other red-shirts because my one-sentence distinguishing feature tickled Ringo and Taylor's fancy. I truthfully claimed "plays the bagpipes -- badly."

Xenophon

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Xenophon

Nope, not Tuckerized. I got red-shirted for helping vote in "Ghost" as the 'Best Romance Novel of the Year' at a moderately widely read publishing-related blog. Not, I should note, one that specializes in the Romance genre.

I was dubious about doing so (although the twisted humor value was clear), until I read the samples of some of the other books that had been nominated. Ghost was only a little more extreme than many of the 'real' nominees.

Once I figured that out, I explained the situation to a couple of dozen graduate students and helped boost the vote count (open voting, don't-ya know). I, along with quite a few others, got red-shirted for my efforts. I got a tiny bit more stage time than most of the other red-shirts because my one-sentence distinguishing feature tickled Ringo and Taylor's fancy. I truthfully claimed "plays the bagpipes -- badly."

Xenophon

that's a hilarious story. but can you explain what "red-shirted" means ?

[Xenophon]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

that's a hilarious story. but can you explain what "red-shirted" means ?

Sure. It comes from the original Star Trek series. They'd beam down to a planet with the usual main characters and a security officer or two. The security guy (or guys) would always die before the first commercial. Security wore red shirts.

So... characters whose sole purpose is to be a spear carrier who gets killed (perhaps after a few lines) quickly became known as "red-shirts." And authors began offering the opportunity to be "red-shirted" in their books -- written in as an extremely minor character who gets killed -- as an item in charity auctions as SF conventions.

Similarly, being "Tuckerized" is having your name (and possibly physical description and/or personality) written in as a less-minor character who (presumably) doesn't get killed. Tuckerized got its name from well-known fan Wilson Tucker, because... um... OK, I've reached the end of my knowledge of the subject. Someone else will have to help me out here!

Xenophon

P.S.

Spoiler:

I should note that in Vorpal Blade Ringo and Taylor kill off nearly the entire marine complement of the good ship Vorpal Blade, so they needed a lot of names for marines.

Ringo used it as a red-shirting opportunity to drum up votes for the "best romance novel" thing. But only after he stopped laughing hysterically over having Ghost nominated in the first place. His name for Ghost is "the wanker book," which may tell you his attitude about it.

[Dahak]

Originally Posted by JeffElkins

Just as an fyi... the iso reports as an invalid format for me. The Baen16-ClawsThatCatchCD.zip file is OK.

What kind of error did you get?

I didn't actually burn it to CD before making it live, I used Deamon Tools to read its contents and build the zip archive.

I haven't received any email about it, either.

[stxopher]

Originally Posted by Xenophon

Similarly, being "Tuckerized" is having your name (and possibly physical description and/or personality) written in as a less-minor character who (presumably) doesn't get killed. Tuckerized got its name from well-known fan Wilson Tucker, because... um... OK, I've reached the end of my knowledge of the subject. Someone else will have to help me out here!

Stolen wholesale from the Baen Universe site:

• Tuckerization is the use of a real person's as a character name, place name, or equipment name in a story. The term is related to the term Red Shirting where a real person's name is used for a character who dies, this term taken from the tendency in Star Trek for red shirted characters to be short lived.
  
• Note that tuckerized characters share only the NAME of the person, not their other characteristics. There are no guarantees.
  
• The term is derived from the works of Wilson "Bob" Tucker, who frequently incuded his friends names as characters in his stories.
  
• Tuckerization is the opposite of the more common roman à clef story in which the characters are all real people whose names and titles have been changed (to protect the innocent) but whose background, appearance, and personality have been kept.
  
• Being tuckerized is considered a high honor in Science Fiction fandom, and popular authors will sometimes auction off tuckerization at conventions as charity auctions, frequently bringing very large prices. The members of the Tucker Circle have agreed that Universe is important enough that they will provide the service of tuckerization of Universe Club members. We are very greatful.

But as for getting killed off due to your own effort, kudos! My grandpappy always used to say a man should be knocked off due to his own bad habits. 'Course grandpappy used to think that the squirrels in the yard could play a mean game of poker. Needless to say, he was a bit crazy. Let's be real: squirrels can't bluff worth a darn. Tails give it away you know.

[JeffElkins]

Originally Posted by Dahak

What kind of error did you get?

I didn't actually burn it to CD before making it live, I used Deamon Tools to read its contents and build the zip archive.

I haven't received any email about it, either.

Neiher GNU mount nor K3B recognize it as a valid iso9960 format file.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Xenophon

Sure. It comes from the original Star Trek series. They'd beam down to a planet with the usual main characters and a security officer or two. The security guy (or guys) would always die before the first commercial. Security wore red shirts.
(...)
Ringo used it as a red-shirting opportunity to drum up votes for the "best romance novel" thing. But only after he stopped laughing hysterically over having Ghost nominated in the first place. His name for Ghost is "the wanker book," which may tell you his attitude about it.

heh. actually, i know *of* Ghost from reading about it here, and i get the profound irony of the nomination. (or was it some sort of subversive joke ????) thanks for explaining red-shirting

Originally Posted by stxopher

Stolen wholesale from the Baen Universe site:
(...)

But as for getting killed off due to your own effort, kudos! My grandpappy always used to say a man should be knocked off due to his own bad habits. 'Course grandpappy used to think that the squirrels in the yard could play a mean game of poker. Needless to say, he was a bit crazy. Let's be real: squirrels can't bluff worth a darn. Tails give it away you know.

and thank you for explaining tuckerization.

watch out for the squirrels. you may not think they can bluff, but they're a lot sneakier than you give them credit for...

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

watch out for the squirrels. you may not think they can bluff, but they're a lot sneakier than you give them credit for...

You forget the hidden super power of all squirrels - gravity control - they get to define their own local direction of down.