Quote:
Originally Posted by ATDrake
Oh, I bought that last month with the FW CyberMonday 60% coupon, and its sequel (and a whole chunk of other MacAvoy to sample) yesterday evening with the Xmas week coupon.
|
Good. If you are going to read one MacAvoy, _Tea with the Black Dragon_ is it.
Quote:
|
I did hold off on getting The Third Eagle just yet, because I've found that sometimes writers who do really enjoyable fantasy just don't carry that talent over to science fiction enough for my tastes, and vice versa. Some authors can do both genres quite well, others seem to be visibly better at one or the other.
|
I'd call MacAvoy better at fantasy. The Third Eagle was enjoyable enough, with a protagonist who is descended from American Indians. Each eagle in his culture is a mark of distinction in a particular area. I was tickled mostly by the setting, as I'm extravagantly fond of the Anthony Villiers books, and wish Panshin had in fact completed the series. (Three of a projected seven were published.)
Quote:
|
But yeah, this is probably one of the most important things about e-books: the potential to have all these old titles that might have fallen into obscurity become readily available to read (rights and other considerations permitting), regardless of physical print status or perceived profitability of maintaining such.
|
The rights are likely the thorniest issue. I'm delighted by efforts like Backlist Ebooks, which is an author led initiative to return books for which the rights have reverted to electronic life.
Quote:
|
Of course there are costs to making them available in the first place, but it seems a far lower entry barrier than for paper-format books.
|
The biggest costs are in acquiring and preparing the manuscript for publication in any format. Once you have, making an ebook has a cost to do it right, but a relatively small one.
The underlying problem is the same for print books or ebooks: letting the audience that might like them know they exist.
Quote:
|
And less potential waste. There are some things that trees just shouldn't have to die for.
|
Trees are a renewable resource, but granted, I can think of some titles I'd prefer not to have seen print. Some of them are currently wildly popular...
______
Dennis