Lois McMaster Bujold - Page 8

bgalbrecht · 10-22-2010, 01:23 AM

If there's a CDROM given out with the first printing of the hardcover, it's usually available for download at the Webscriptions site for people who bought the ebook 1-2 months after the month in which the book was published.

HelenaJole · 10-22-2010, 04:56 PM

I talked to somebody at Baen webscriptions and she said, "The eBooks on the CD are created by the manufacturer. The eBooks on WebScriptions are created by the Baen eBooks Web Team." So they aren't the same versions. I haven't bought any of them yet, but she confirmed for me that Memory does have paragraph indents.

Miles in Love is the only one on the CD that's formatted properly. The others are all pretty annoying.

thrawn_aj · 10-22-2010, 05:08 PM

@HelenaJole

That's very interesting. I bought the entire series recently from webscriptions. The mobi formatted books are exquisite - the epubs ... not so much (font's too faint on my nook and I still see question marks between some paragraphs in Cryoburn).

I actually deleted all the epubs and converted all the mobis to epub thru Calibre (much improved font weights). I'll have to check the CD to compare the quality. I found this strange as I remember vaguely that Baen uses Calibre too for the conversion (probably saw the Calibre stamp inside an epub once - I don't recall exactly). In any case,

Baen for giving me all the formats and not infecting their books with drm so I can at least fix these things relatively easily. Heck, since their html versions are always spanking clean, I could even start from scratch if I wanted to.

Generally speaking, I've obtained several ebooks (early Honorverse for instance) from BaenCDs and have never had a problem with formatting - they're always quite beautiful. Wonder why Bujold has been singled out for digital punishment like this

.

jgaiser · 10-22-2010, 05:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HelenaJole

Miles in Love is the only one on the CD that's formatted properly. The others are all pretty annoying.

Hmm? I just looked at both "Young Miles" and "Miles, Mutants and Microbes" (epub) and they both appear to have correct formatting. Paragraphs indented, no double space between paragraphs. Am I misreading your desires?

Comment: Just looked at prc files (I dislike prc files) and you are correct. Really ugly formatting. I'd recommend using Calibre to convert the epub files. Think you'll be happier.

sabredog · 10-23-2010, 12:03 AM

Just finished Cryoburn, superb as always.

I do hope we see more books in the series

HelenaJole · 10-23-2010, 02:54 AM

I checked the epub of Cryoburn, but I don't think I checked any of the other epubs. I'll have to do that.

FlorenceArt · 10-23-2010, 04:21 AM

I bought two of the omnibus books on the Baen site in prc format, and I would certainly not call the formatting "exquisite".

I'm not very demanding with formatting so it didn't much bother me, except for the fact that the three separate books in the file are not even separated by a page break. You finish one book and the next book starts just like a new chapter. I thought that was a bit too much.

Maybe I'll try downloading and converting the ePub version to see if it's better.

jgaiser · 10-23-2010, 12:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

Maybe I'll try downloading and converting the ePub version to see if it's better.

I've gotten into the habit of ignoring .prc files. Usually the metadata is messed up and *almost* always the formating is very poor.

Just download the epub, pop it into Calibre, quick check of metadata and convert to mobi. Works great for me.

thrawn_aj · 10-23-2010, 05:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

I bought two of the omnibus books on the Baen site in prc format, and I would certainly not call the formatting "exquisite".

Well, to be fair, I was comparing it to the webscription epubs (for BUjold only), which (as I said) appear much too faint (with any nook font selected) on the nook. I've been reading the Baen prcs (or mobi, which is the same thing) for years on my Palm and have been quite happy with the formatting. Perhaps it's a reader/device specific issue for you? Dunno. Good luck with the epubs though. Perhaps just running the epubs through Calibre (epub - epub) may solve the font issue.

In any case, just wanted to say that my experience appears to be exactly reversed where epub and prc are concerned

HowardBrazee · 10-27-2010, 05:35 PM

Since this is an e-book forum, I want to mention that her latest novel, Cyroburn is out in hardcover - and it includes a CD with most all of her earlier novels, along with many of her many lectures and articles. These books are in several different e-book formats.

I already had them all in dead tree books, but have loaded them into various readers on my iPad for me to try those readers out.

thrawn_aj · 10-27-2010, 06:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HowardBrazee

Since this is an e-book forum, I want to mention that her latest novel, Cyroburn is out in hardcover - and it includes a CD with most all of her earlier novels, along with many of her many lectures and articles. These books are in several different e-book formats.

I already had them all in dead tree books, but have loaded them into various readers on my iPad for me to try those readers out.

More info about the CD in this thread.
Cheers!

jgaiser · 10-30-2010, 12:01 AM

Just because you darn people have got me sort of hooked on Ms. Bujold...

MetaFilter, a website I follow about as religiously as i follow MobileRead, has an interesting posting about the recent release of "Cyroburn" and the subsequent release of the Vorkosigan CD. Some interesting and funny comments.

HowardBrazee · 10-30-2010, 05:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HowardBrazee

Since this is an e-book forum, I want to mention that her latest novel, Cyroburn is out in hardcover - and it includes a CD with most all of her earlier novels, along with many of her many lectures and articles. These books are in several different e-book formats.

I already had them all in dead tree books, but have loaded them into various readers on my iPad for me to try those readers out.

One Vorksogan novel that is missing is Memory

FatDog · 10-31-2010, 11:28 AM

Quote:

If you buy the first printing of her latest, Cryoburn, it includes a CD-ROM with ALL her Vorkosigan books in ebook form, as well as The Vorkosigan Companion and some other goodies.

OMG - it is only 7 am! When does Barns and Noble open??? Halloween gift to myself. The local used-book store is going to get a gift of all my paper/hard backs.

<edit>

Scratch that. I just got the companion CD from Baen as a download so Cryoburn and Memory are now in my Baen shopping cart.

HarryT · 10-31-2010, 11:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

I bought two of the omnibus books on the Baen site in prc format, and I would certainly not call the formatting "exquisite".

If you download something from Baen and it has a ".prc" extension, then it's in a very old Mobi format, and will more than likely be poorly formatted and have no metadata (other than the title). If a book has a ".mobi" extension, on the other hand, it's in the current Mobi format and should be fine.

I'd suggest converting the ePub file if you get a ".prc" file.

Note that this applies only to Baen. Generally speaking, ".prc" and ".mobi" files are completely interchangeable extensions.

10-23-2010, 12:03 AM	#110
sabredog Geographically Restricted Posts: 2,630 Karma: 14933353 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Perth, Australia Device: Sony PRS-T3, Kindle Voyage, iPad Air2, Nexus7v2	Just finished Cryoburn, superb as always. I do hope we see more books in the series Last edited by sabredog; 10-23-2010 at 12:05 AM.

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10-22-2010, 01:23 AM	#106
bgalbrecht Wizard Posts: 1,806 Karma: 13399999 Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: US Device: Nook Simple Touch, Kobo Glo HD, Kobo Clara HD, Kindle 4	If there's a CDROM given out with the first printing of the hardcover, it's usually available for download at the Webscriptions site for people who bought the ebook 1-2 months after the month in which the book was published.

10-22-2010, 04:56 PM	#107
HelenaJole Connoisseur Posts: 88 Karma: 580 Join Date: Aug 2010 Device: Kindle 3	I talked to somebody at Baen webscriptions and she said, "The eBooks on the CD are created by the manufacturer. The eBooks on WebScriptions are created by the Baen eBooks Web Team." So they aren't the same versions. I haven't bought any of them yet, but she confirmed for me that Memory does have paragraph indents. Miles in Love is the only one on the CD that's formatted properly. The others are all pretty annoying.

10-22-2010, 05:08 PM	#108
thrawn_aj quantum mechanic Posts: 705 Karma: 483827 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: NorCal Device: Nook1, Samsung Transform, Nook2	@HelenaJole That's very interesting. I bought the entire series recently from webscriptions. The mobi formatted books are exquisite - the epubs ... not so much (font's too faint on my nook and I still see question marks between some paragraphs in Cryoburn). I actually deleted all the epubs and converted all the mobis to epub thru Calibre (much improved font weights). I'll have to check the CD to compare the quality. I found this strange as I remember vaguely that Baen uses Calibre too for the conversion (probably saw the Calibre stamp inside an epub once - I don't recall exactly). In any case, Baen for giving me all the formats and not infecting their books with drm so I can at least fix these things relatively easily. Heck, since their html versions are always spanking clean, I could even start from scratch if I wanted to. Generally speaking, I've obtained several ebooks (early Honorverse for instance) from BaenCDs and have never had a problem with formatting - they're always quite beautiful. Wonder why Bujold has been singled out for digital punishment like this .

10-23-2010, 02:54 AM	#111
HelenaJole Connoisseur Posts: 88 Karma: 580 Join Date: Aug 2010 Device: Kindle 3	I checked the epub of Cryoburn, but I don't think I checked any of the other epubs. I'll have to do that.

10-23-2010, 04:21 AM	#112
FlorenceArt High Priestess Posts: 5,761 Karma: 5042529 Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Montreuil sous bois, France Device: iPad Pro 9.7, iPhone 6 Plus	I bought two of the omnibus books on the Baen site in prc format, and I would certainly not call the formatting "exquisite". I'm not very demanding with formatting so it didn't much bother me, except for the fact that the three separate books in the file are not even separated by a page break. You finish one book and the next book starts just like a new chapter. I thought that was a bit too much. Maybe I'll try downloading and converting the ePub version to see if it's better.

10-27-2010, 05:35 PM	#115
HowardBrazee Zealot Posts: 141 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Lafayette, CO Device: iPad	Since this is an e-book forum, I want to mention that her latest novel, Cyroburn is out in hardcover - and it includes a CD with most all of her earlier novels, along with many of her many lectures and articles. These books are in several different e-book formats. I already had them all in dead tree books, but have loaded them into various readers on my iPad for me to try those readers out.

10-30-2010, 12:01 AM	#117
jgaiser Omnivorous Posts: 3,283 Karma: 27978909 Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Rural NW Oregon Device: Kindle Voyage, Kindle Fire HD, Kindle 3, KPW1	Just because you darn people have got me sort of hooked on Ms. Bujold... MetaFilter, a website I follow about as religiously as i follow MobileRead, has an interesting posting about the recent release of "Cyroburn" and the subsequent release of the Vorkosigan CD. Some interesting and funny comments.