The Sword and Laser discussion

Caution, it may be Literary:

http://io9.com/5808480/pick-up-hugo+n...

Thanks!

Thanks for the heads up! It will be waiting for me when I finish the Game of Thrones series.

It's brilliant.

You know, I have a print copy in hand but am really tempted because I keep stopping to look up words on my iPad anyway. But it is great, so great.

ETA: Bought the Kindle version, but had to change the display from sepia to white because the odd language characters had white backgrounds, which was super distracting. Now it is seamless.

Huh. That's really weird that the Kindle edition would have trouble with the special characters in the book. My copy is the free one from the voters' package, which was ePub and I converted to mobi in Calibre. I would half expect the characters to be mucked up in it, but they're fine. Perhaps the publisher never even thought to check it on anything but a white background.

Found a cool site a while back and thought I'd share:
http://www.ereaderiq.com/

You can track books that you want to read, but cost too much in ebook form and the site will e-mail you when there's a price drop. I was tracking Shades of Milk and Honey because it was $12.99 and got an e-mail recently that it dropped to $8.62.

Amy wrote: "Huh. That's really weird that the Kindle edition would have trouble with the special characters in the book. My copy is the free one from the voters' package, which was ePub and I converted to mobi..."

Amy, what's the voters' package?

Amy, what's the voters package?

The voters' package is a zip file done up every year for those who vote for the Hugos. The publishers and artists usually donate all or a portion of their work that is nominated so that the voters can have access to as much as possible before voting. It's usually all of the novels (though All Clear was missing this year), novellas, novelettes, graphic novels and short stories, as well as excerpts from the related works and a selection of the artwork that's nominated. It's released in May, to give the voters a little over 2 months to read and look over everything before the deadline. Everything is in at least PDF, though a few of the novels were also in .mobi, which was a bonus for me.

It's provided for anyone who has a membership to the current year's WorldCon. So, this year that's Renovation 2011 in Reno. You don't have to attend though. I do the $50 Supporting membership, which goes to the convention, and in return I get to vote and nominate in the Hugos annd get the package. It's a pretty good deal, considering all the content.

Here's the convention site: http://www.renovationsf.org/index.php