Sci-fi/Fantasy e-book recommendations

Memnoch

Hey all.

I think it would be handy to have a dedicated thread for this subject. E-books are gaining in popularity and while not quite at the level of ubiquitous mainstream acceptance, there are plenty of authors now turning to this as a route to reaching readers while publishing houses become ever more selective and discriminating in taking on new writers.

The problem with e-publishing, of course, is that anyone can do it and great stories can be lost within the deluge of unedited trash. So I think it'd be great to have a thread where we can recommend any good finds. I see this aimed more at books that are exclusively available in the e-format or at least where the e-format is much cheaper. Personally, I still prefer the feel of a page between my fingers, but I'm starting to take ebooks a bit more seriously.

To get the ball rolling I'd like to recommend the following:

Wool Omnibus Edition

A dystopian novel with some interesting and unique ideas. Well written and realised, an absolutely compulsive page turner. There are some aspects where I'm unhappy with the author's approach, such as the not so subtle use of foreshadowing, but all in all it compares very well with most sci-fi paperbacks that I've read. In general I prefer sweeping space operas when it comes to sci-fi so this was quite fresh and different.

'The Omnibus edition,' is a little misleading as the 5 parts together just about constitute the size of a largish sci-fi tome. Still, at $7 I found it good value for a great read. I wouldn't buy the parts individually as the first part is more of a longish short story or a shortish novella than anything.

Would love to know if anyone has unearthed any other gems or have ye avoided the ebook world thus far?

mcgovern

Memnoch wrote: »

Hey all.

I think it would be handy to have a dedicated thread for this subject. E-books are gaining in popularity and while not quite at the level of ubiquitous mainstream acceptance, there are plenty of authors now turning to this as a route to reaching readers while publishing houses become ever more selective and discriminating in taking on new writers.

The problem with e-publishing, of course, is that anyone can do it and great stories can be lost within the deluge of unedited trash. So I think it'd be great to have a thread where we can recommend any good finds. I see this aimed more at books that are exclusively available in the e-format or at least where the e-format is much cheaper. Personally, I still prefer the feel of a page between my fingers, but I'm starting to take ebooks a bit more seriously.

To get the ball rolling I'd like to recommend the following:

Wool Omnibus Edition

A dystopian novel with some interesting and unique ideas. Well written and realised, an absolutely compulsive page turner. There are some aspects where I'm unhappy with the author's approach, such as the not so subtle use of foreshadowing, but all in all it compares very well with most sci-fi paperbacks that I've read. In general I prefer sweeping space operas when it comes to sci-fi so this was quite fresh and different.

'The Omnibus edition,' is a little misleading as the 5 parts together just about constitute the size of a largish sci-fi tome. Still, at $7 I found it good value for a great read. I wouldn't buy the parts individually as the first part is more of a longish short story or a shortish novella than anything.

Would love to know if anyone has unearthed any other gems or have ye avoided the ebook world thus far?

I think its a bit of a misleading topic, most popular sci-fi/fantasy releases will be available in both e-book and hardback/paperback, even the Wool books are available in paperback from the author. Granted, there are a few that are much easier to get as ebooks and some that are only on one or the other, but they are few and far between.
The Parasite by Neal Asher (recommended by ixoy) is a good example though I suppose, since the paperback is next to impossible to obtain.

On the Wool books, I only read the first two. The first one I found very short but it was based on an interesting idea. Second one, very well written but not much really happens, it seemed to serve as an introduction to the world, but while you can get away with doing that for a few chapters in a novel, I don't think it works in Howey's episodic delivery method. Put me off the series a bit and am now in no real hurry to read book 3 (whereas I'd have kept reading if it was a novel).

Memnoch

I think when it comes to self-published stuff there might be an option to buy the paperback but it's usually prohibitively expensive especially when compared to regular books.

I bought the entire omnibus to start with and just treated it as a novel, so it was fine for me but I understand your criticism.

I don't see how or why the topic is misleading. The idea is to recommend those self-published authors especially via the e-book medium where you might be able to get good novels at a price much better than your average paperback.

I discovered Wool that way and would be interested to see if anyone else gives the format a try what their recommendations would be.

I'm not really looking for mainstream stuff like Ian M Banks or Peter F Hamilton as I always get the paperback version.

Raging_Ninja

The Honor Harrington series (bar the latest book) is available online for free from here:

http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/22-MissionofHonorCD/MissionofHonorCD/

So are a bunch of other books published by Baen.

mcgovern

Memnoch wrote: »

I think when it comes to self-published stuff there might be an option to buy the paperback but it's usually prohibitively expensive especially when compared to regular books.

I bought the entire omnibus to start with and just treated it as a novel, so it was fine for me but I understand your criticism.

I don't see how or why the topic is misleading. The idea is to recommend those self-published authors especially via the e-book medium where you might be able to get good novels at a price much better than your average paperback.

I discovered Wool that way and would be interested to see if anyone else gives the format a try what their recommendations would be.

I'm not really looking for mainstream stuff like Ian M Banks or Peter F Hamilton as I always get the paperback version.

Maybe "Sci-Fi/Fantasy Self Published Works" would be a better thread title then? I would say that at this stage, a good proportion of the regulars here are reading the majority of what they read on an e-reader, and most of that is going to be mainstream.
I think its a good idea for a thread, just that if you want it to be about self published works, and not just any e-book people have read, then that should be stated. Not trying to be pedantic, just giving my opinion on how to get the info you want.

Memnoch

mcgovern wrote: »

Maybe "Sci-Fi/Fantasy Self Published Works" would be a better thread title then? I would say that at this stage, a good proportion of the regulars here are reading the majority of what they read on an e-reader, and most of that is going to be mainstream.
I think its a good idea for a thread, just that if you want it to be about self published works, and not just any e-book people have read, then that should be stated. Not trying to be pedantic, just giving my opinion on how to get the info you want.

Fair enough. Didn't know there had been that much of a shift towards e-readers. Very interesting. I still prefer proper books.

smithcity

I'd recommend looking into H.P Lovecraft, he's the grandaddy of Fantasy/Sci Fi/Horror and most of his works are now in the public domain so they can be downloaded free. The top 5 titles I'd recommend are:
The Shadow out of Time
Herbert West; Reanimator
The Call of Cthulhu
The Haunter of the Dark
The Dunwich Horror