Free (DRM-free) Reboots by Mercedes Lackey [Sci-Fi Undead Paranormal Space Opera]

[ATDrake]

Reboots by bestselling fantasy author Mercedes Lackey (ISFDB, Wikipedia, SFE) & Cody Martin (ISFDB) is an entry in the Stellar Guild multi-author series which pairs a story written by a well-known established writer with a follow-up in the same setting by a talented newcomer, this one a sci-fi paranormal space opera with undead creatures crewing missions in the harsh conditions which would damage normal humans, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher Phoenix Pick Press.

This is their featured Free Book of the Month selection for January. This has previously been offered free in 2014, and apparently had some formatting issues at the time, which hopefully have since been fixed.

Currently free throughout the month of January directly @ the publisher's dedicated promo page (DRM-free ePub/Mobi bundle available worldwide)

There are two tie-in offers this month, also for Stellar Guild titles: the first is for a sequel volume by the same creative team for $3.99 (also previously offered as a tie-in deal), the second includes the sequel volume and adds two more Stellar Guild titles from other authors (one has previously been free, and the other you may have already gotten as a tie-in deal to the Turtledove freebie last month) for a total of $9.99.

Description
VAMPIRES, ZOMBIES AND WEREWOLVES IN SPACE

Space travel is tough. No air, cosmic radiation, absolute lack of other life-sustaining essentials.

What better way to deal with space travel than to man ships with creatures that regenerate or don’t need air, or are immune to various maladies?

In a future world where zombies, vampires and werewolves co-exist with ‘normal’ humans on Earth, these ships are staffed by a motley crew of various types of undead or near-dead creatures.

Of course no one really knows what happens when zombies and vampires are squeezed together in the close confines of a spaceship.

Don’t you love surprises?

[gbm]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

Reboots by bestselling fantasy author Mercedes Lackey (ISFDB, Wikipedia, SFE) & Cody Martin (ISFDB) is an entry in the Stellar Guild multi-author series which pairs a story written by a well-known established writer with a follow-up in the same setting by a talented newcomer, this one a sci-fi paranormal space opera with undead creatures crewing missions in the harsh conditions which would damage normal humans, free for a limited time courtesy of publisher Phoenix Pick Press.

This is their featured Free Book of the Month selection for January. This has previously been offered free in 2014, and apparently had some formatting issues at the time, which hopefully have since been fixed.

The format issues have not been fixed, easier to download the mobi convert to epub then use the editor to fix it.

bernie

[JSWolf]

Phoenix Pick Press is an awful publisher. They make the most poorly made eBooks.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by gbm

The format issues have not been fixed, easier to download the mobi convert to epub then use the editor to fix it.

bernie

It's easier to ignore them and don't even get free stuff from them. After trying to fix a few of them years ago, I decided it was too much work.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

It's easier to ignore them and don't even get free stuff from them. After trying to fix a few of them years ago, I decided it was too much work.

I agree. I've looked at the code when trying to fix some of the free ones and it's like looking at a Mobi format eBook in an ePub container. It's awful. They are the worst company to make eBooks. While a lot of companies have no idea how to properly format eBooks, at least the code is easy enough to edit.

[MikeB1972]

To be fair to them, their new books are formatted a lot better.

It would be nice if they could reformat their old ones though.

[ATDrake]

Just a reminder that this will probably be the last day to pick up the freebie or purchase any of the tie-in bundles, if you haven't already.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by MikeB1972

To be fair to them, their new books are formatted a lot better.

It would be nice if they could reformat their old ones though.

Getting this publisher to clean up their old ebooks would be like asking a zombie to put on clean underwear.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by MikeB1972

To be fair to them, their new books are formatted a lot better.

It would be nice if they could reformat their old ones though.

So does the code in the new books no longer look like the source code from crappy Mobi?

[MikeB1972]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

So does the code in the new books no longer look like the source code from crappy Mobi?

Yeah, it's a lot better now, has a css & not fixed to pt sizes like before.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by MikeB1972

Yeah, it's a lot better now, has a css & not fixed to pt sizes like before.

Is there a free eBook that shows the new coding?

[MikeB1972]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Is there a free eBook that shows the new coding?

I don't think so, the current one certainly doesn't.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by MikeB1972

I don't think so, the current one certainly doesn't.

Can post a sample of the new coding? Thanks.

[MikeB1972]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Can post a sample of the new coding? Thanks.

This is from Oracle book 3 - Prophet

<h2 class="Chapter-Title">3</h2>

<p class="First-Para"><span class="First" style="font-size:1em;">NEIL</span>&nbsp;withdrew all his money from his bank, then parked in a secluded spot where he and Lomax waited until nightfall.</p>

<p class="Basic-Paragraph">Then they drove back to the spaceport, where Neil approached the hangar and had them bring his employer’s ship out onto the reinforced pavement of the takeoff strip. While the ship’s computer was waiting for clearance, the young man raced out of the cockpit and stopped the first security man he could find.</p>

<p class="Basic-Paragraph">“Something’s wrong!” he panted.</p>

<p class="Basic-Paragraph">“What?” asked the man.</p>

And the relevant styles
p.Basic-Paragraph {
font-family : "Times New Roman", serif;
font-weight : normal;
font-style : normal;
font-size : 0.96em;
text-decoration : none;
font-variant : normal;
line-height : 1.22;
text-align : justify;
color : #000000;
text-indent : 18px;
margin : 0px;
}
p.First-Para {
font-family : "Times New Roman", serif;
font-weight : normal;
font-style : normal;
font-size : 0.96em;
text-decoration : none;
font-variant : normal;
line-height : 1.22;
text-align : justify;
color : #000000;
text-indent : 0px;
margin : 36px 0px 0px 0px;
}

[JSWolf]

That's still in need of fixing. Some of that poorly constructed CSS could very well block some options from working such as night mode, changing the font, and changing the margin.

This is what I would have done...

<h2>3</h2>

<p class="first-para">NEIL withdrew all his money from his bank, then parked in a secluded spot where he and Lomax waited until nightfall.</p>
<p>Then they drove back to the spaceport, where Neil approached the hangar and had them bring his employer’s ship out onto the reinforced pavement of the takeoff strip. While the ship’s computer was waiting for clearance, the young man raced out of the cockpit and stopped the first security man he could find.</p>
<p>“Something’s wrong!” he panted.</p>
<p>“What?” asked the man.</p>

And the relevant styles

body {
widows: 1;
orphans: 1;
margin-top: 0;
margin-bottom: 0;
margin-left: 0;
margin-right: 0;
text-align: justify;
}
p {
margin-top: 0;
margin-bottom: 0;
text-indent: 1.2em
}
h2 {
margin-top: .8em;
margin-bottom: .8em;
text-align: center
}
p.first-para {
text-align : justify;
text-indent : 0;
margin-top: 0;
margin-right: 0;
margin-bottom: 0;
margin-left: 0;
}