The Sword and Laser discussion

Nerdgasm, begin.

There'll be Audible versions of the episodes too...

Darren wrote: "Is it thirteen stories or a serialized single story? Oh, the alliteration. "

John Scalzi describes the Human Division like a series of a TV show, you will get 13 episodes that each tell an individual story but when you put them together there is a larger arc where all the stories fit together.

But is it like Star Trek (self contained) or Deep Space 9 (constant continuing story)?

On Amazon it says:
"John Scalzi's new thirteen-episode novel in the world of his bestselling Old Man's War."
It looks like each "story" will be part of a larger novel.
The first one will be 368 pages for 99 cents.
That works out to about 4,000 pages for $13 dollars.
FYI- War and Peace is 1,400 pages long

Warren wrote: "On Amazon it says:
"John Scalzi's new thirteen-episode novel in the world of his bestselling Old Man's War."
It looks like each "story" will be part of a larger novel.
The first one will be 368 pa..."


The entire book will be 368 pages. Not each episode. Note that Amazon has that page length for every episode. And, frankly, think about it... John writes quickly but do you really think he's turned out an entire 13 volume series of 350+ page novels in a year?

That makes more sense.
When I pulled up the first episode (Human division- Kindle)
They list the print length as 386 pages.
I don't see the individual episode length.
I'll take your word for it.

PS- Old Mans War is 368 pages as well

Hmm... I think the page count for THD is a placeholder in Amazon's system. Barnes and Noble lists what sound like correct page counts for the episode - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-h...

Rick wrote: "Hmm... I think the page count for THD is a placeholder in Amazon's system. Barnes and Noble lists what sound like correct page counts for the episode - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-h......"

Thanks. About 30 pages a week will be great.
While standing behind someone who's never used a credit card before in their life,I can read an episode. I hope this catches on.

I am wondering if these are stand alone stories or if OMW and it's 3 sequels are required reading. Anyone know?

They're standalone in the OMW universe. LIke most shared universe stories you'll probably get more out of them if you have read others, but it's not needed. Personally, I'd read OMW at least since that book lays out the bones of the universe... the CDF, etc.

Darren? Did you read the last sentence in my post? Did you read the question I was replying to? Note the word 'required' in the question. OMW etc aren't required..

You'll be able to read THD without reading anything else in the OMW series. You'll get more out of it if you DO read them, esp OMW. And frankly, the reveals in OMW itself aren't really shocking. There's nothing new to SF in that book - it take several well known SF tropes and mixes them up into a fun story, but there are no real "OMG I couldn't imagine that" moments. Plus, well, S&L is reading OMW next month, so...

Warren wrote: "Thanks. About 30 pages a week will be great.
While standing behind someone who's never used a credit card before in their life,I can read an episode. I hope this catches on. "

As someone who also writes an SF serial, I really hope it catches on to.