Tor Freebies (no series!)

[carandol]

www.tor.com are giving away two more ebooks to people who join their (rather good IMHO) sf & fantasy blogging site. They are:

The War of the Oaks by Emma Bull, and
Dogland by Will Shetterly.

Critics of Tor will be pleased to hear that neither is first in a series, and the first is actually out of print. Don't know about Dogland, but I thoroughly enjoyed The War of the Oaks when it came out, and so was really pleased to see it as an ebook.

[GingerTez]

Thanks - downloaded them.

Free stuff..... is anything better than free stuff?

[bwaldron]

I had previously read Dogland as a Mobi file available here at MobileRead (thanks to Madam Broshkina).

[Xenophon]

Actually, Dogland is the first in a series of (at least) two books. Second is The Gospel of the Knife.

But both books are available for free download here at MobileRead, so it's really not a problem.

Xenophon

[carandol]

Originally Posted by GingerTez

Thanks - downloaded them.

Free stuff..... is anything better than free stuff?

Stuff people pay you to read?

[carld]

I'm getting a database error for War of the Oaks. I've been wanting to read this as an ebook for a while now, so I'm happy Tor has put it up. Now, if I can just download it.

Carl

Edit: Momentary glitch, it's working now.

[Robotech_Master]

I suspect that everybody is hitting up the site as word of the freebies spreads.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by carandol

www.tor.com are giving away two more ebooks to people who join their (rather good IMHO) sf & fantasy blogging site. They are:

The War of the Oaks by Emma Bull, and
Dogland by Will Shetterly.

Critics of Tor will be pleased to hear that neither is first in a series, and the first is actually out of print. Don't know about Dogland, but I thoroughly enjoyed The War of the Oaks when it came out, and so was really pleased to see it as an ebook.

I am delighted. _War for the Oaks_ is a minor classic I have loved since it was released. I told Emma at a con I had to love a book that began with a band at a club playing a Richard Thompson tune, and we digressed into an hour long discussion of obscure bands we loved. I think I made it clear I loved the book, too. (Emma is musician as well as writer, and formely part of a band called Cats Laughing that included Steven Brust on drums.)

And _Dogtown_ has been a hard to find item for years, and is equally worth the read.

These are just wonderful. Sign up at Tor.com and grab them. If you like urban fantasy, you'll love them. If you don't like urban fantasy, they may just change your mind.
______
Dennis

[bwaldron]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

I told Emma at a con I had to love a book that began with a band at a club playing a Richard Thompson tune

Absolutely!

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by bwaldron

Absolutely!

It was even sweeter that the band was Boiled In Lead, a Minneapolis based Celtic rock band I've seen live. I didn't see them do a Richard Thompson tune, but I was certain they'd do it splendidly.

(A defunct music magazine called Pulse! used to run a column called "Desert Island Discs". The premise was that you were marooned on a desert island, and could have a record player and ten albums. Which ten? I'd have a hard time not picking ten of Richard's, since there is other worthwhile music... )
______
Dennis

[Robotech_Master]

War for the Oaks was one of the titles I remember being at the top of my Alexlit list that I never got around to reading.

I miss Alexlit. Hope it comes back someday.

[radius]

Dogland finally made it to the top of my reading pile and I really enjoyed it, but I'm having some trouble figuring out who everybody is. I was hoping to swap ideas with people here...

This can be considered spoiler-ish I suppose, so don't go further if you care about that.



I think:

Artie Drake = King Arthur
Maggie DeLyons = descendant of Ponce de Leon
Nick Lumiere = Lucifer
3 "circus" visitors = Norse gods
Johnny Tepes = Launcelot?

But I can't figure out wh0 many of the characters represent, eg:

-Joe and Mary with the three-legged dog, and whose son has left
-Ethorne Hawkins who is possibly very long-lived
-the three children Chris, Little Bit and Digger who were born under strange circumstances and might be special (drunk man claims to be Chris' father at the hospital, birds present at Little Bit's birth and she talks to animals and God, Digger was born at Mardi Gras accompanied by a green woman and satyr)
- Gideon the ex-drunk, evangelist
- the French and British tourist visitors to Dogland

Any ideas out there?

[Xenophon]

Well... Joe and Mary are

Spoiler:

from the middle east, and have been around for two thousand years or so. Lots of folks think that their son was very very important...

[radius]

Originally Posted by Xenophon

Well... Joe and Mary are

I considered that but thought it would be too obvious

And the dog threw me too.

[Bob Butler]

And the dog threw me too.

The dog does have three legs.