The Evolution of Science Fiction discussion

Project Gutenberg is a site which contains public domain books - based on U.S Copyright laws - generally anything before 1923. http://gutenberg.org/
It has most of the classics of sci-fi for download.

Currently there are various "newer" sci-fi e-books appearing on the site, various short stories from Other worlds magazine so:

Diagnosis by R. A. Palmer
What do you read by Boyd Ellanby
The Machine that floats by Joe Gibson

Also
Lord Tedric by E.E. "Doc" Smith
First Lensman by E.E. "Doc" Smith

There are more books coming through proof-reading so there will be various others appearing in the coming weeks.

That's neat, Jo. I love Gutenberg. There are a couple of other public domain sites to keep in mind. Australia has its own Project Gutenberg with their copyright laws:
http://gutenberg.net.au/
They don't have as many books, but since the copyright laws are different, so are some of the books. For instance, Robert E. Howard only has Red Nails on gutenberg.org while the Australian one has dozens of his stories last time I looked.

The Internet Archive
http://archive.org
has a lot of books, but also other copyright free media including old time radio shows, radio & TV news clips, & even movies. "Attack of the Giant Leeches" is on there! It's a bit dark, but still fun to watch. They have torrent downloads for the OTR programs like X-minus One, Dimension X, & plenty more.

I've gotten books from project Gutenberg on occasion. I checked Project Gutenberg for Metroplis, the front runner in the poll for our monthly read. Unfortunately, it was published after 1923. Gutenberg does have a copy of The Metropolis, by Upton Sinclair.

My library has a DVD of the restored film, but not the book. It's my understanding that the book was written from the film, so if we discuss Metropolis, I may have to watch the visual version.

Buck, it's on Gutenberg.net.au
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0601...

Buck wrote: "My library has a DVD of the restored film, but not the book...."

The film itself is fantastic, i'd highly recommend it. It's a silent film from the 1927 so will probably not appeal to everyone but the art deco sets are wonderful. It's going to make a change to read the book of a film I really like not the other way around.

The book itself is also at the internet archive, i've downloaded it for my Kindle but the formatting is a bit bizarre.

https://archive.org/details/Metropoli...

I've seen the old silent film several times & still have it on VHS. It's definitely a classic worth watching. I've never read it, though.

Jo wrote: "The book itself is also at the internet archive, i've downloaded it for my Kindle but the formatting is a bit bizarre.

https://archive.org/details/Metropoli...."

Thanks Jo - If it becomes our selected book for September, I now have it on my Kindle.

Jim wrote: "Buck, it's on Gutenberg.net.au
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0601..."

Thanks Jim

That's good to know about the different copyright laws in Australia. I couln't figure out how to download Metropolis to my Kindle. It looks like I would have to read it in a browser, as if it were a PDF.

Jo's link was better for you then. I generally just print the page to PDF using a free utility call 'CutePDF' & save it. I use Calibre for all my ebooks & it converts them to mobi format automatically.

The remastered film can also be watched or downloaded from Archive.org
https://archive.org/details/Metropoli...

There are a couple of new scifi books on PG:

Junior by Robert Albernathy
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/49809

The Lights on Precipe Peak by Stephen Tall
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/49826

A couple more new e-books:

Operation Interstellar by George. O. Smith
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50406

Master Of Life And Death by Robert Silverberg
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50441

Recruit for Andromeda by Milton Lesser
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50449

I'm not familiar with Smith or Lesser. Robert Silverberg is a first class author.

Buck wrote: "I'm not familiar with Smith or Lesser. Robert Silverberg is a first class author."

I don't know the other two either, i'm sure i've read Silverberg before a long time ago but I can't remember what. He has written a huge number of books.

Another new one:

Falcons of Narabedla by Marion Zimmer Bradley

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50566

Some more from well know authors:

The Green Odyssey by Philip José Farmer

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50571

A Thousand Below Zero by Murray Leinster

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50585

The Secret Martians by Jack Sharkey

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50668

The Planet Mappers by E. Everett Evans

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50682

Thank you everyone for the information.....I'm so happy to see this as I have them listed as one of my go-to libraries but I never would have suspected sci-fi as part of their collection. Oh I have a specific book to check on....

Jo wrote: "The Planet Mappers by E Everet Evans

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50682"

That should be E. Everett Evans. Man of Many Minds is an old favorite of mine by him & it's available on Gutenberg, too.

Jim wrote: "Jo wrote: "
That should be E. Everett Evans. Man of Many Minds is an old..."

Oops edited to correct, thanks.

I don't know if anyone is aware of the TPP partnership but if this is implemented in the US it can have some impact on the books that are available in the public domain particularly some of the more recent books.

It's possible that some books currently in the public domain will become unavailable - copyright would change to 70 years after the authors death rather than before 1923 (and the other rules), although other books would become available. So it's probably a good idea to download anything you want to read.

If anybody is interested there is an article here from a group against the change:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/12...

Thanks, Jo. That's just what we need, more copyright BS. That should give piracy another boost.
:(

There is a lot more sci-fi being published on Project Gutenburg. Basically the stories in Galaxy magazine where copyright has expired are being published. As there are going to be lots, i'm not going to list them all, you can always check the latest releases here:

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/searc...

If anybody has any interest in helping with the proof-reading of them, they are all being run via http://www.pgdp.net/ This is a feeder site to project gutenburg and produces all types of books.

A couple of new items on the copyright front from the Internet Archive (archive.org). The Internet Archive is now leveraging a little known, and perhaps never used, provision of US copyright law, Section 108h, which allows libraries to scan and make available materials published 1923 to 1941 if they are not being actively sold.
https://blog.archive.org/2017/10/10/b...

The Boston Public Library announced the transfer of significant holdings from its Sound Archives Collection to the Internet Archive, which will digitize, preserve and make these recordings accessible to the public. The Boston Public Library (BPL) sound collection includes hundreds of thousands of audio recordings in a variety of historical formats, including wax cylinders, 78 rpms, and LPs.
http://blog.archive.org/2017/10/11/bo...

These initiatives plus the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine are preserving & making a lot of historical material available. Here's a pretty good explanation of why this is so important:
http://blog.archive.org/2017/10/13/th...

Jim wrote: "A couple of new items on the copyright front from the Internet Archive (archive.org). The Internet Archive is now leveraging a little known, and perhaps never used, provision of US copyright law, S..."

Cool! Thanks for sharing, Jim.
Matt