Maria’s Ephemeral Finds

    
Hal Spacejock

A while back, I downloaded the free copy of the first Hal Spacejock book by author Simon Haynes. It was a good book and as a result, I have been following the news that the others in the series would be made available as downloads too. Well, here they are:

As of March 9, ’09 the rest of the series is available in DRM-free ebook format at a super-low price of A$5 each. (Approx US$3.50) That means you can grab the entire series for A$15 (approx US$10), which is less than the price of a single paperback, and way less than the international postage on one book.

    
There’s also an opportunity to win a free download of the second book–by talking about the books on blogs.

The first Hal Spacejock adventure was really quite weird and zany, but fun. Hal is incompetent, lazy, sometimes annoying, but always entertaining! Given that the first is still a free download, it was even better–trial book, no purchase necessary!

Here are the details on how to get the others:

– Download Hal Spacejock

– You’ll also find a custom mission patch for the launch.

– Perhaps if these DRM-free ebooks prove a big success then other publishers will follow Simon Haynes’ lead. That’ll lead to a bigger choice of titles to read anywhere. I may be in the minority now, but I do read e-books–and because they tend to be cheaper or free, I find myself reading more of them each year. It’s still not a large part of my reading overall, but it’s growing.

Oooh, another good story out from The Town Drunk! Here is the gist on A Natural History of the Pancake Badger by Matthew Bey:

The pancake badger looked nothing at all like a badger. A multitude of segmented legs surrounded a disc-shaped body about the size of a bicycle tire… When it growled, its entire body split open like a clam shell, revealing one of the most powerful jaws ever discovered in a galaxy of fauna. It reminded Mike of a chattering teeth wind-up toy. It also reminded Mike of a rabid bulldog, his garbage disposal, the sound a city bus makes, a bandsaw, and his ex-boss at the Field Museum.

    
I got a kick out of it. Good story!

There’s a new voice in town: SFZINE.ORG

As always, I wait for these new zines to come out, mainly because I like to submit to them–but also to check out the overall quality and to find shorts for road trips. Sometimes it takes a new zine a while for the audio to be clear or to get the background music just right. Then there’s the actual performance to check out–how is the voice–steady, professional or needing work?

In the case of SFZINE, it sounds like they procured a professional reader–or at least someone with some experience. Deidre Green does a good job–clear, easy to listen to, good enunciation, all that stuff. My only complaint is that for the first episode they chose a story that has been long published and also already done in Podcast: HP Lovecraft’s “The Rats in the Walls.”

Starting with a classic is a safe move–but let’s see where they go from here and how fast they get there!

Some new, some old, but worth checking out:

Andromeda Spaceways – This isn’t a new magazine by any means–it’s one that I’d classify as oldie, but goodie. I like it because its focus is on fantasy/sci-fi of the humorous kind! And you gotta love that title–Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine -–can’t you just picture it? A space travel magazine in the pocket of the seat flap in front of you… It’s a fun magazine from Down Under (Australia) available as a PDF download for a small fee or an actual PRINT magazine if you want to hold it in your hands!

Big Pulp – This is new to me and I think pretty new. The interesting thing about Big Pulp is that they publish all kinds of genre fiction–mystery, horror, fantasy, sci/fi, humor. It’s a real buffet–something for everyone. I’ve read a few of the selections and they were well-done.

Beneath Ceaseless Skies – Check out the artwork on this e-zine. Wow. It’s a free read, but stays open via donations.

_{These and other fascinating picks (including fresh vegetables, stories, and miscellany) can be found at Maria’s blog at Bear Mountain Books.}