[darryl]

Hugh has written a new Sci-Fi classic. If I wasn't so lazy I would look at the eligibility for a Nebula or Hugo award. Wool is that good. Perhaps the omnibus could be considered as a Novel. It would be a shame to have individual instalments considered as short stories.

I am very happy for Hugh on the sale of the movie rights and even on the Random House sale of some of the rights to the books, though with mixed feelings in the case of the latter. Random House have already demonstrated some of the problems of traditional publishing. Big Publishing has a proud history of ripping off Australians. Unfortunately when the US and British publishers divided the world between them we had the bad luck to end up with the British. Before and even for some time after Amazon came along, the situation, at least anecdotally, was that readers individually could import books from the US cheaper than local booksellers could obtain them wholesale. Parallel import restrictions prevented commercial direct importation.

So, unsurprisingly, First Shift is now not available as an EBook here, or, apparently, in the UK. In fact, I will not be surprised if it does not become available as an ebook until after printed paperbacks become available. If there is a first release in Hardcover then there could be quite a delay, and an even longer one if they resort to windowing. Also, I suspect all releases here whenever they may come will be significantly more expensive than in the US. Just more of the usual practices.

Fortunately, I have my copy from Amazon. And Australians, like the British and others affected, fortunately have many options to obtain the EBook which do not involve Random House. Unfortunately not all of those options result in Hugh getting his richly deserved share. If Pirate Versions are not available yet, they soon will be. And then there are the people who would buy the book now, but may no longer be interested by the time it eventually becomes available. Whilst I can't be seen to condone Piracy, I would urge those who do get their EBooks this way to visit Hugh's website and buy him a coffee. And, of course, I would also encourage you to donate to Random House the amount that you feel they deserve.

In these days of the Internet, it is just not good business practice to have non-physical product released in some areas much later. Nor is it good business practice to allow large price differences.

Okay, I've had my gripe. Let me end on a more positive note by thanking Hugh for the Wool series. Can't wait for the next instalment.