by Jeremy Lassen
September is upon us and I've got new DVDs to recommend. Please ignore all the new Michael Jackson DVDs hitting the shelves and go directly to the SF/Fantasy/Horror section.
First up is the complete series of the manga-turned-anime "Ah! My Goddess". Our protagonist is a college student with a hot girlfriend who is really a goddess, and doesn't know how to behave amongst humans. Hijinx ensue, and this new 6-disk collection of the series is the best way to enjoy all the hijinx.
For all you people out there who have been holding off on buying John Carpenter movies, I have to ask: "What is wrong with you?" But if you HAVE been holding out, now is your chance to buy a quadruple feature of some of his best (and one of his worst) movies. Universal is putting out "John Carpenter: Master of Fear". It contains "The Thing","Prince of Darkness","Village of the Damned", and "They Live". For my money, there is only one clunker in this set, and that's "Village of the Damned". . . but it's got Christopher Reeve and creepy little kids, so I won't complain too much. This set comes on two disks, so my guess is it's not loaded with extras like some of the JC releases are, but "Prince of Darkness" and "They Live" were pretty bare-boned as single disks, so you probably aren't missing much, and if you don't already own these movies, you probably don't care about the extras anyway. But if you don't own these movies, this is a great chance to pick up JC on the cheap -- $5 a movie. And let's face it: everybody reading this should own at least a couple of JC movies. I think there's a rule about that somewhere.
Getting into more quadruple feature action is Turner Classic Movies. This month they are giving us both a horror and a science fiction set. The horror set contains "House Of Wax" (1953), "The Haunting" (1963), "Freaks" (1932), and "Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde" (1941). The science fiction set contains "Forbidden Planet" (1956), "The Time Machine" (1960), "Soylent Green" (1973), and "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968). These are better-then-average selections for discount box sets, and with a per-movie price of $7, they are a great bargain.
For a classic of a completely different sort, don't miss the 1971 Angela Lansbury/Disney classic "Bedknobs and Broomsticks". It might not be for everyone, but if you love this movie, this restored, remastered edition has a heaping of extras. I repeat, don't miss it.
And leaving the realm of classic, and back to the realm of multi-movie sets: the first three Amityville Horror movies are collected together in the "Amityville Horror Collection". Cheesy 70s/80s haunted house movies, all in one box. It may not be great cinema, but if the profile of that house ever gave you nightmares, this might be the box set to have in your collection.
Speaking of cheesy movies that have been repackaged: this month Universal Pictures is FINALLY (they originally announced it as a May title but pulled it) releasing a new edition of "Army of Darkness" (The Screwhead Edition). Now, you might say that "Army of Darkness" has had a million different editions, and you'd be right. But EVERY LAST ONE of the Anchor Bay releases of "Army of Darkness" used a really really really bad, grainy, high-compression version of the film. It looked like crap. It looked like it was shot on 16mm, and I can tell you. . . I saw this baby in the theater the week it came out, and it looked glorious.
For a long time, the MGM Japanese DVD was THE disk to get if you wanted the best picture quality. Well, the North American rights reverted back to MGM, and they are releasing this on both DVD and Blue Ray, so the transfer is bound to be the best available. Now, the bad news is that it is ONLY the "theatrical cut" on the disk: the "slept until the future" ending is tacked onto the disk as an alternate ending/bonus material. This is NOT the significantly longer running time "director's cut" that featured the original ending and a bunch of other dialogue and bits that were cut from the North American theatrical edition. So don't throw away your Anchor Bay Director's Cut DVDs just yet. But for my money, the theatrical cut was always the tightest/best version of the movie anyway, and I say that as someone who has owned the original dual disk Anchor Bay Theatrical and Director's Cut disks since they were first released. I've watched both versions. . . a lot. Actually, I have to admit that I even had the laserdisc of "Army of Darkness" for a while too. Yeah. I'm a geek on so many levels it hurts.
I'm going to sort my "Evil Dead" disks, and move them into my zombie section, instead of my Bruce Campbell section, while I wait for this new "Army of Darkness" disk. I'll talk to you next month about a bunch of Halloween releases, and more stuff, I'm sure.
September 01, 2009
August Bestsellers
Hardcovers
1) Fairest of All by Serena Valentino
2) Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey
3) Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie
4) Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
5) Galileo's Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson
6) Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
7) The Sunless Countries by Karl Schroeder
8) Sword of the Lady by S.M. Stirling
9) Winds of Dune by Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert
10) Grantville Gazette V edited by Eric Flint
Paperbacks
1) Anathem by Neal Stephenson
2) Marsbound by Joe Haldeman
3) The Devil You Know by Mike Cary tie with
Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan
4) Toll the Hounds by Steven Erikson
5) Lightbreaker by Mark Teppo
6) Skin Deep by Mark Del Franco
7) Cape Storm by Rachel Caine
8) Passage at Arms by Glen Cook
9) The Dragon Never Sleeps by Glen Cook
10) Eifelheim by Michael Flynn
Trade Paperbacks:
1) Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
2) World War Z by Max Brooks
3) Red Tree by Caitlin R. Kiernan
4) Hotel Under the Sand by Kage Baker
5) Desolation Road by Ian McDonald
1) Fairest of All by Serena Valentino
2) Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey
3) Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie
4) Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
5) Galileo's Dream by Kim Stanley Robinson
6) Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
7) The Sunless Countries by Karl Schroeder
8) Sword of the Lady by S.M. Stirling
9) Winds of Dune by Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert
10) Grantville Gazette V edited by Eric Flint
Paperbacks
1) Anathem by Neal Stephenson
2) Marsbound by Joe Haldeman
3) The Devil You Know by Mike Cary tie with
Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan
4) Toll the Hounds by Steven Erikson
5) Lightbreaker by Mark Teppo
6) Skin Deep by Mark Del Franco
7) Cape Storm by Rachel Caine
8) Passage at Arms by Glen Cook
9) The Dragon Never Sleeps by Glen Cook
10) Eifelheim by Michael Flynn
Trade Paperbacks:
1) Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
2) World War Z by Max Brooks
3) Red Tree by Caitlin R. Kiernan
4) Hotel Under the Sand by Kage Baker
5) Desolation Road by Ian McDonald
Sony Gets Smart
by Alan Beatts
This month's piece is going to be kind of short since I'm working like mad to get the final paint and other work done on the cafe. But I thought that, given some announcements and events in the last month, it would be interesting to follow up on my article from last month about ebooks.
It seems that someone at Sony has decided to get serious about their ebooks and readers. And, whoever it is, they're very, very smart. First off, they have announced three new readers. One is much like their original reader but with the addition of a touch screen (which adds note taking abilities to the device) and at the same price point, $299. The other two readers both break new ground, albeit in very different ways. The Pocket edition brings the screen size down to 5" from 6" and the price to $199. That price is a major watershed for readers, though not the under-$100 price that people expect will be needed for large scale purchasing by people who aren't either avid readers or tech-heads. The other reader is the Daily edition which brings wireless connectivity and an even larger screen (7") for the premium price of $399. But, this reader can finally compete with Amazon's Kindle in the area of on-demand, wireless downloads of books.
But that's not all that Sony has been up to. Last month they also announced that they were abandoning their proprietary ebook format and switching to EPUB, which is the book industry standard open format. Also announced was a deal with Google to make all 500,000 of Google's archived public-domain works available for free download.
But Sony's last move was the icing on the cake -- they've made a deal with the American Bookseller's Association to make their readers available to independent bookstores for resale as well as making Sony's ebooks available at wholesale prices for resale on independent bookstore ecommerce sites. That means Sony will be able to get bookstores to act as a sales force for their hardware, which is a move that Amazon can't even consider.
All in all, Sony is setting itself up as the new power in ebooks.
Also, a number of other businesses are jumping into the market for ebook readers -- Asus, the manufacturer of low cost netbooks like the Eee PC has announced that they are going to produce a dual screen reader and Astak, a British company, is about to ship their 5" screen reader, the EZReader Pocket PRO, which is notable for its low price ($199).
That's about all I have time for right now but before I go, I've got a question for you. Is all the stuff about ebook and readers of interest? If so, there is enough going on in that area right now that I could write a column about it every month. But, I'm not sure if there is enough interest on the part of our customers for it to make sense. What do you think? (I should point out that something like that would be in addition to my usual column, not instead of it.)
This month's piece is going to be kind of short since I'm working like mad to get the final paint and other work done on the cafe. But I thought that, given some announcements and events in the last month, it would be interesting to follow up on my article from last month about ebooks.
It seems that someone at Sony has decided to get serious about their ebooks and readers. And, whoever it is, they're very, very smart. First off, they have announced three new readers. One is much like their original reader but with the addition of a touch screen (which adds note taking abilities to the device) and at the same price point, $299. The other two readers both break new ground, albeit in very different ways. The Pocket edition brings the screen size down to 5" from 6" and the price to $199. That price is a major watershed for readers, though not the under-$100 price that people expect will be needed for large scale purchasing by people who aren't either avid readers or tech-heads. The other reader is the Daily edition which brings wireless connectivity and an even larger screen (7") for the premium price of $399. But, this reader can finally compete with Amazon's Kindle in the area of on-demand, wireless downloads of books.
But that's not all that Sony has been up to. Last month they also announced that they were abandoning their proprietary ebook format and switching to EPUB, which is the book industry standard open format. Also announced was a deal with Google to make all 500,000 of Google's archived public-domain works available for free download.
But Sony's last move was the icing on the cake -- they've made a deal with the American Bookseller's Association to make their readers available to independent bookstores for resale as well as making Sony's ebooks available at wholesale prices for resale on independent bookstore ecommerce sites. That means Sony will be able to get bookstores to act as a sales force for their hardware, which is a move that Amazon can't even consider.
All in all, Sony is setting itself up as the new power in ebooks.
Also, a number of other businesses are jumping into the market for ebook readers -- Asus, the manufacturer of low cost netbooks like the Eee PC has announced that they are going to produce a dual screen reader and Astak, a British company, is about to ship their 5" screen reader, the EZReader Pocket PRO, which is notable for its low price ($199).
That's about all I have time for right now but before I go, I've got a question for you. Is all the stuff about ebook and readers of interest? If so, there is enough going on in that area right now that I could write a column about it every month. But, I'm not sure if there is enough interest on the part of our customers for it to make sense. What do you think? (I should point out that something like that would be in addition to my usual column, not instead of it.)
Overheard at The World Science Fiction Convention
This is a feature that appears periodically, as we attend conventions and overhear things. The tradition of keeping track of anonymous overheard bits and bobs started for us at the 2002 ConJose in San Jose, where trying (or trying not to) fill in the blanks on overheard conversations made us laugh so much that we made it a tradition. In this issue we share the newest "overheards" from the World Science Fiction Convention in Montreal. This year was especially fruitful for quotes, not all of which could be printed!
1: "I just wondered if he had a function at all."
2: "Ah ha, look at me being tactful! And silent."
"Australians keep New Zelanders around to **** sheep for us!"
"I was the bouncer at a pinball arcade in Ann Arbor, Michigan called The Cross-Eyed Moose."
"People with tattoos on their eyes buy art."
"There are some things I don't mind you doing to my wife. Mutual tattooing is not one of them."
"Attending Comic-Con is like swimming through a sea of human meat."
"You must be a writer because you're dressed so well."
"And now they're swabbing the air conditioner with giant q-tips!"
"If she ends up licking his burger, I'm totally taking pictures."
"I rely upon the meekness of strangers to get me through life."
"Tor has just agreed to buy our new anthology, 'Tales of the Callused [Omitted]'!"
"How do you tip strippers in Montreal?"
"I've got two words for you: shut the **** up!"
"Bauderlaire & tentacles? I think we've got a pitch for the Jane Austen zombie guys."
"Sometimes I think the tool chest of literary criticism is overflowing with cow turds."
To a famous editor: "I really have no interest in putting your foot in my mouth."
"How would history have been changed if Winston Churchill had been Elmer Fudd?"
"When you use bread you don't have to wear a mask."
"People would like to look back on the future fondly."
1: "I just wondered if he had a function at all."
2: "Ah ha, look at me being tactful! And silent."
"Australians keep New Zelanders around to **** sheep for us!"
"I was the bouncer at a pinball arcade in Ann Arbor, Michigan called The Cross-Eyed Moose."
"People with tattoos on their eyes buy art."
"There are some things I don't mind you doing to my wife. Mutual tattooing is not one of them."
"Attending Comic-Con is like swimming through a sea of human meat."
"You must be a writer because you're dressed so well."
"And now they're swabbing the air conditioner with giant q-tips!"
"If she ends up licking his burger, I'm totally taking pictures."
"I rely upon the meekness of strangers to get me through life."
"Tor has just agreed to buy our new anthology, 'Tales of the Callused [Omitted]'!"
"How do you tip strippers in Montreal?"
"I've got two words for you: shut the **** up!"
"Bauderlaire & tentacles? I think we've got a pitch for the Jane Austen zombie guys."
"Sometimes I think the tool chest of literary criticism is overflowing with cow turds."
To a famous editor: "I really have no interest in putting your foot in my mouth."
"How would history have been changed if Winston Churchill had been Elmer Fudd?"
"When you use bread you don't have to wear a mask."
"People would like to look back on the future fondly."
August 01, 2009
Notes from a DVD Geek
by Jeremy Lassen
Hey everyone. Summertime is upon us, and while most of the big summer blockbusters have come and gone, there are some absolutely scrumptious movies hitting home video.
Right out of the gate we have a gem of 60's sleeze, with Elio Petri's "The 10th Victim". Imagine a future where society is so depraved and filled with blood lust that murder is sanctioned as a sport. The Big Hunt is an international game and its two top assassin/players are played by a Felini Playboy(Marcello Mastroanni from "La Dolce Vita") and Bond Girl (Ursula Andress of "Dr. No" fame), you've got a recipe for a cult SF classic of distopian sex and violence. Don't miss this one.
Staying in the 60s, I wanted to mention that Criterion is releasing Roman Polanski's classic movie of psychological horror, "Repulsion," starring Catherine Deneuve. Polanski, Deneuve, and Criterion? What could possibly be wrong with this? Grab it up if you don't already own it. And even if you do, it might be time to upgrade as this Criterion disc has audio commentary featuring Polanski and Deneuve, as well as both a 2003-era documentary, and a 1964 era documentary, both on the making of this classic piece of film history.
On a slightly different note, a film that may be worth checking out is "Necessary Evil". It MIGHT be a cookie cutter bio-hazard "'28 Days Later' meets 'Saw'" kind of thing. But it's got two things that are going to make me put it in my DVD player the day I get it. Lance Henrikson and Danny Trejo. Because even if it's a bad movie, there are worse ways to spend 90 minutes then to watch Lance Henrikson and Danny Trejo chew up the scenery. I'm up for this one. Anyone else?
Speaking of a different note. . . "Machine Girl" hits DVD this month. This is the tender story of a young Japanese schoolgirl who gets her arm sawed off by the Yakuza, but survives and returns for a bloody revenge spree, with cyborg-enhanced prosthetics. Part "Full Metal Yakuza," part "Ms. 45" this movie features cyborg violence galore. While not by Takashi Mike or anything, this Japanese cult film is by a promising young Japanese exploitation director Noboru Iguchi ("A Larva To Love," and "Cat-Eyed Boy").
Dwayne Johnson (AKA The Rock) "Races to Witch Mountain" this month, on DVD. The less said about this the better, I guess. Its main problem is that it is no longer two alien kids lost and alone and getting over. . . It's The Rock, helping kids get over. Far less compelling then the original, IMO. But, if you are a fan of "The People's Eyebrow". . . well, I guess there are worse ways to spend your time.
Another very forgettable remake hits the shelves this month. "The Last House on The Left," AKA "The Last Money Grab Left On The Shelf". I'm not saying that the original movie is some kind of sacred cow that can never be touched; I'm just saying that if you want to watch this story line over again, go get the Criterion Edition of "Virgin Spring" by Ingmar Bergman and be done with it.
Having just mentioned three clunkers, let me cleanse my typing pallet by mentioning that "Coraline" is out on DVD (and Blue Ray, natch) and it is just as awesome as it was on the big screen. I myself can take or leave the 3-D effects, but with or without, this is a great movie, and a great adaptation of the Neil Gaimen novel of the same name. If you somehow missed this one, run out and get it.
Until next time, I am forever yours, A DVD Geek.
Hey everyone. Summertime is upon us, and while most of the big summer blockbusters have come and gone, there are some absolutely scrumptious movies hitting home video.
Right out of the gate we have a gem of 60's sleeze, with Elio Petri's "The 10th Victim". Imagine a future where society is so depraved and filled with blood lust that murder is sanctioned as a sport. The Big Hunt is an international game and its two top assassin/players are played by a Felini Playboy(Marcello Mastroanni from "La Dolce Vita") and Bond Girl (Ursula Andress of "Dr. No" fame), you've got a recipe for a cult SF classic of distopian sex and violence. Don't miss this one.
Staying in the 60s, I wanted to mention that Criterion is releasing Roman Polanski's classic movie of psychological horror, "Repulsion," starring Catherine Deneuve. Polanski, Deneuve, and Criterion? What could possibly be wrong with this? Grab it up if you don't already own it. And even if you do, it might be time to upgrade as this Criterion disc has audio commentary featuring Polanski and Deneuve, as well as both a 2003-era documentary, and a 1964 era documentary, both on the making of this classic piece of film history.
On a slightly different note, a film that may be worth checking out is "Necessary Evil". It MIGHT be a cookie cutter bio-hazard "'28 Days Later' meets 'Saw'" kind of thing. But it's got two things that are going to make me put it in my DVD player the day I get it. Lance Henrikson and Danny Trejo. Because even if it's a bad movie, there are worse ways to spend 90 minutes then to watch Lance Henrikson and Danny Trejo chew up the scenery. I'm up for this one. Anyone else?
Speaking of a different note. . . "Machine Girl" hits DVD this month. This is the tender story of a young Japanese schoolgirl who gets her arm sawed off by the Yakuza, but survives and returns for a bloody revenge spree, with cyborg-enhanced prosthetics. Part "Full Metal Yakuza," part "Ms. 45" this movie features cyborg violence galore. While not by Takashi Mike or anything, this Japanese cult film is by a promising young Japanese exploitation director Noboru Iguchi ("A Larva To Love," and "Cat-Eyed Boy").
Dwayne Johnson (AKA The Rock) "Races to Witch Mountain" this month, on DVD. The less said about this the better, I guess. Its main problem is that it is no longer two alien kids lost and alone and getting over. . . It's The Rock, helping kids get over. Far less compelling then the original, IMO. But, if you are a fan of "The People's Eyebrow". . . well, I guess there are worse ways to spend your time.
Another very forgettable remake hits the shelves this month. "The Last House on The Left," AKA "The Last Money Grab Left On The Shelf". I'm not saying that the original movie is some kind of sacred cow that can never be touched; I'm just saying that if you want to watch this story line over again, go get the Criterion Edition of "Virgin Spring" by Ingmar Bergman and be done with it.
Having just mentioned three clunkers, let me cleanse my typing pallet by mentioning that "Coraline" is out on DVD (and Blue Ray, natch) and it is just as awesome as it was on the big screen. I myself can take or leave the 3-D effects, but with or without, this is a great movie, and a great adaptation of the Neil Gaimen novel of the same name. If you somehow missed this one, run out and get it.
Until next time, I am forever yours, A DVD Geek.
That's Not Your Ebook, It's Amazon's . . . Forever
by Alan Beatts
I've held out for months now when it comes to talking about ebooks. After writing so much about them last year, I figured that you all might have had enough and so I switched to other topics. But the recent kerfluffel about Amazon's remote deletion of books from their Kindle eReader is too interesting to ignore.
For you readers who haven't heard about what happened, I'll summarize briefly (if you've been following the story, please feel free to skip to the next paragraph). On July 17th, Amazon remotely deleted two books from all the Kindles in the US via the wireless connection that allows Kindle users to brows the internet and purchase books. In a truly lovely bit of irony, the books were George Orwell's 1984 and ANIMAL FARM. The reason for the deletion was that the ebook publisher from whom Amazon got the books was based in the UK, where both books are in the public domain (i.e. they may be freely copied, distributed and published by anyone without the need for permission or payment). However, in the US, the books are still under copyright. What that meant was that, though the electronic editions were legal outside of the US, they were in violation of copyright _in_ the US. Amazon was contacted by the US rights-holder (Harper Collins) and told that they couldn't sell that particular electronic edition in the US. Amazon responded by not only removing the edition from their site, they also remotely deleted it from the Kindle of everyone who had bought it. Amazon did refund the purchase price of the books to the people who had bought them but despite that many people felt that they had been taken advantage of and that their privacy and property had been violated.
The legality of Amazon's action is debatable but one thing that it points out with clarity is that, despite the marketing hype that presents ebooks as "just like regular books", ebooks bought for the Kindle through Amazon are not at all the same as printed books.
Strangely for a bookseller, I don't have a problem with ebooks. Don't get me wrong, I think they're going to put most bookstores out of business eventually (how soon, I'm not sure) but overall as a reader I don't think that they are awful or a sign of the end-times for literature or reading. But, I have a huge problem with ebooks business models like Amazon's which build an unbreakable two-way connection between the reading device and the company providing content. A good ebook is one that is purchased and can then be read on a number of devices (i.e. a computer, a cell phone, a dedicated reader or other personal electronic devices) without requiring contact or permission from the company that sold the ebook. For my money, Amazon's model is broken on a very basic level.
Other ebook readers like the Sony eReader <http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&categoryId=8198552921644523779> are stand-alone devices that can be used for any sort of content that the user chooses. You can load them with books bought from Sony, other ebook publishers like Baen <http://www.baen.com> or Harper Collins <http://www.harpercollins.com/imprints/index.aspx?imprintID=517980>, or free public-domain content from places like Project Gutenberg <http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page> or Feedbooks <http://feedbooks.com/> (a side note about free content from these sites -- many books that Amazon is happy to sell for the Kindle are available for free. But Amazon not only won't tell you that but they set things up with the Kindle so that you have to jump through a few hoops and pay to get that content on their device). If Sony goes out of business (not likely) or decides to get out of the ereader-and-book business (more likely), the only ebooks that you might lose the use of are the ones you bought directly from Sony, and the ereader will keep working for as long as it can still function. Conversely, if Amazon folds or decides to stop supporting the Kindle (which might happen -- Amazon isn't an electronics manufacturer and their reason for creating the Kindle is more about building a market for eBooks than being a electronics manufacturer) books bought for the Kindle are liable to be unusable and completely worthless. You could have spent a ton of money buying books that someday may be just as outdated and useless as an 8 track tape.
As someone who has seen music formats change from LPs to CDs and then to MP3s and video go from VHS to DVD, I can accept that you have to re-buy things as formats change. But I'll be damned if I'm going to go through that with my books too. Especially when there is _no_ reason for it other than Amazon's greed and desire to make their customers dependent on them indefinitely.
And all the forgoing was a problem _before_ Amazon demonstrated that they were willing to do the virtual equivalent of breaking into people houses and taking books off their shelves. But the recent incident demonstrated yet another problem with Amazon's model. What else can happen due to the connection between the Kindle and Amazon and the power that it provides? How about --
* A tell-all account of the Bush or Clinton presidency is published. One of the subjects of the account sues for Defamation of Character and wins (FYI - that's a civil action which means that all you need to do to win is convince seven out of twelve people that you're right). As part of the judgement the court orders that the offending chapters be rewritten and, without the consent of the Kindle owner (and possibly even without their knowledge), remotely substituted for the original chapters.
* A controversial book, such as The Turner Diaries or The Autobiography of Malcolm X, is tied to a criminal act and as part of the investigation Amazon (while under a gag order so they can't tell anyone) is compelled to provide not only purchase information about anyone who bought it for the Kindle but also information about how many times it's been read as well as any notes or bookmarks that the individual reader may have added.
* A violation of the contract that you have to sign when purchasing a Kindle gives Amazon the right to not only terminate your use of the Kindle but also delete all your books, lock the device, and lock you out of your Amazon account. All this without legal recourse or appeal and to correct it you, the user, have to take Amazon to court with the associated costs and headache.
So, if you want to buy ebooks and use a reader, please do so. There are some great reasons for it and some huge advantages. But don't get a Kindle. The Sony reader is better designed and so very much smarter. Or wait 'til fall and get one of the Apple Tablets. Sure it's more expensive and uses a LCD screen instead of eInk but it's going to be super-slick and will do _much_ more than any ebook reader out there.
I've held out for months now when it comes to talking about ebooks. After writing so much about them last year, I figured that you all might have had enough and so I switched to other topics. But the recent kerfluffel about Amazon's remote deletion of books from their Kindle eReader is too interesting to ignore.
For you readers who haven't heard about what happened, I'll summarize briefly (if you've been following the story, please feel free to skip to the next paragraph). On July 17th, Amazon remotely deleted two books from all the Kindles in the US via the wireless connection that allows Kindle users to brows the internet and purchase books. In a truly lovely bit of irony, the books were George Orwell's 1984 and ANIMAL FARM. The reason for the deletion was that the ebook publisher from whom Amazon got the books was based in the UK, where both books are in the public domain (i.e. they may be freely copied, distributed and published by anyone without the need for permission or payment). However, in the US, the books are still under copyright. What that meant was that, though the electronic editions were legal outside of the US, they were in violation of copyright _in_ the US. Amazon was contacted by the US rights-holder (Harper Collins) and told that they couldn't sell that particular electronic edition in the US. Amazon responded by not only removing the edition from their site, they also remotely deleted it from the Kindle of everyone who had bought it. Amazon did refund the purchase price of the books to the people who had bought them but despite that many people felt that they had been taken advantage of and that their privacy and property had been violated.
The legality of Amazon's action is debatable but one thing that it points out with clarity is that, despite the marketing hype that presents ebooks as "just like regular books", ebooks bought for the Kindle through Amazon are not at all the same as printed books.
Strangely for a bookseller, I don't have a problem with ebooks. Don't get me wrong, I think they're going to put most bookstores out of business eventually (how soon, I'm not sure) but overall as a reader I don't think that they are awful or a sign of the end-times for literature or reading. But, I have a huge problem with ebooks business models like Amazon's which build an unbreakable two-way connection between the reading device and the company providing content. A good ebook is one that is purchased and can then be read on a number of devices (i.e. a computer, a cell phone, a dedicated reader or other personal electronic devices) without requiring contact or permission from the company that sold the ebook. For my money, Amazon's model is broken on a very basic level.
Other ebook readers like the Sony eReader <http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&categoryId=8198552921644523779> are stand-alone devices that can be used for any sort of content that the user chooses. You can load them with books bought from Sony, other ebook publishers like Baen <http://www.baen.com> or Harper Collins <http://www.harpercollins.com/imprints/index.aspx?imprintID=517980>, or free public-domain content from places like Project Gutenberg <http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page> or Feedbooks <http://feedbooks.com/> (a side note about free content from these sites -- many books that Amazon is happy to sell for the Kindle are available for free. But Amazon not only won't tell you that but they set things up with the Kindle so that you have to jump through a few hoops and pay to get that content on their device). If Sony goes out of business (not likely) or decides to get out of the ereader-and-book business (more likely), the only ebooks that you might lose the use of are the ones you bought directly from Sony, and the ereader will keep working for as long as it can still function. Conversely, if Amazon folds or decides to stop supporting the Kindle (which might happen -- Amazon isn't an electronics manufacturer and their reason for creating the Kindle is more about building a market for eBooks than being a electronics manufacturer) books bought for the Kindle are liable to be unusable and completely worthless. You could have spent a ton of money buying books that someday may be just as outdated and useless as an 8 track tape.
As someone who has seen music formats change from LPs to CDs and then to MP3s and video go from VHS to DVD, I can accept that you have to re-buy things as formats change. But I'll be damned if I'm going to go through that with my books too. Especially when there is _no_ reason for it other than Amazon's greed and desire to make their customers dependent on them indefinitely.
And all the forgoing was a problem _before_ Amazon demonstrated that they were willing to do the virtual equivalent of breaking into people houses and taking books off their shelves. But the recent incident demonstrated yet another problem with Amazon's model. What else can happen due to the connection between the Kindle and Amazon and the power that it provides? How about --
* A tell-all account of the Bush or Clinton presidency is published. One of the subjects of the account sues for Defamation of Character and wins (FYI - that's a civil action which means that all you need to do to win is convince seven out of twelve people that you're right). As part of the judgement the court orders that the offending chapters be rewritten and, without the consent of the Kindle owner (and possibly even without their knowledge), remotely substituted for the original chapters.
* A controversial book, such as The Turner Diaries or The Autobiography of Malcolm X, is tied to a criminal act and as part of the investigation Amazon (while under a gag order so they can't tell anyone) is compelled to provide not only purchase information about anyone who bought it for the Kindle but also information about how many times it's been read as well as any notes or bookmarks that the individual reader may have added.
* A violation of the contract that you have to sign when purchasing a Kindle gives Amazon the right to not only terminate your use of the Kindle but also delete all your books, lock the device, and lock you out of your Amazon account. All this without legal recourse or appeal and to correct it you, the user, have to take Amazon to court with the associated costs and headache.
So, if you want to buy ebooks and use a reader, please do so. There are some great reasons for it and some huge advantages. But don't get a Kindle. The Sony reader is better designed and so very much smarter. Or wait 'til fall and get one of the Apple Tablets. Sure it's more expensive and uses a LCD screen instead of eInk but it's going to be super-slick and will do _much_ more than any ebook reader out there.
July Bestsellers
Hardcovers
1. Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie
2. Green by Jay Lake
3. Wireless by Charles Stross
4. Naamah's Kiss by Jacqueline Carey
5. The City & The City by China Mieville
6. By Heresies Distressed by David Weber
7. The Strain by Chuck Hogan and Guillermo del Toro
8. The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan
9. Hylozoic by Rudy Rucker
10. Julian Comstock: A Novel of 22nd Century America by Robert Charles Wilson
Mass Market Paperbacks
1. Implied Spaces by Walter John Williams
2. Saturn's Children by Charles Stross
3. Lightbreaker by Mark Teppo
4. Vicious Circle by Mike Carey
5. The Devil You Know by Mike Carey
6. Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan
7. Jhegaala by Steven Brust
8. Bestial by Ray Garton
9. 1634: The Bavarian Crisis by Eric Flint and Virginia DeMarce
10. Escapement by Jay Lake tie with
Thirteen Orphans by Jane Lindskold
Trade Paperbacks
1. Footprints edited by Jay Lake and Eric T. Reynolds
2. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
3. Return of the Crimson Guard by Ian Cameron Esslemont
4. World War Z by Max Brooks
5. Mall of Cthulhu by Seamus Cooper tie with
Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey
1. Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie
2. Green by Jay Lake
3. Wireless by Charles Stross
4. Naamah's Kiss by Jacqueline Carey
5. The City & The City by China Mieville
6. By Heresies Distressed by David Weber
7. The Strain by Chuck Hogan and Guillermo del Toro
8. The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan
9. Hylozoic by Rudy Rucker
10. Julian Comstock: A Novel of 22nd Century America by Robert Charles Wilson
Mass Market Paperbacks
1. Implied Spaces by Walter John Williams
2. Saturn's Children by Charles Stross
3. Lightbreaker by Mark Teppo
4. Vicious Circle by Mike Carey
5. The Devil You Know by Mike Carey
6. Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan
7. Jhegaala by Steven Brust
8. Bestial by Ray Garton
9. 1634: The Bavarian Crisis by Eric Flint and Virginia DeMarce
10. Escapement by Jay Lake tie with
Thirteen Orphans by Jane Lindskold
Trade Paperbacks
1. Footprints edited by Jay Lake and Eric T. Reynolds
2. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
3. Return of the Crimson Guard by Ian Cameron Esslemont
4. World War Z by Max Brooks
5. Mall of Cthulhu by Seamus Cooper tie with
Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey
July 01, 2009
June Bestsellers
Hardcovers
1. The City and the City by China Mieville
2. Naamah's Kiss by Jacqueline Carey
3. Hylozoic by Rudy Rucker
4. Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
5. An Empire Unacquainted With Defeat by Glen Cook
6. Julian Comstock: A Novel of 22nd Century America by Robert Charles Wilson
7. Green by Jay Lake
8. Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris
9. Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
10. Empress of Mars by Kage Baker
Mass Market Paperbacks
1. Lightbreaker by Mark Teppo
2. Kushiel's Mercy by Jacqueline Carey
3. Prefect by Alastair Reynolds
4. Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan
5. Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey
6. The Devil You Know by Mike Carey tie with The City, Not Long After by Pat Murphy
7. Mirrored Heavens by David J. Williams
8. Edge of Reason by Melinda Snodgrass
9. Juggler of Worlds by Larry Niven & Edward M. Lerner
10. Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik
Trade Paperbacks
1. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
2. Burning Skies by David J. Williams
3. Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey
4. Alive in Necropolis by Doug Dorst
5. World War Z by Max Brooks
1. The City and the City by China Mieville
2. Naamah's Kiss by Jacqueline Carey
3. Hylozoic by Rudy Rucker
4. Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
5. An Empire Unacquainted With Defeat by Glen Cook
6. Julian Comstock: A Novel of 22nd Century America by Robert Charles Wilson
7. Green by Jay Lake
8. Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris
9. Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
10. Empress of Mars by Kage Baker
Mass Market Paperbacks
1. Lightbreaker by Mark Teppo
2. Kushiel's Mercy by Jacqueline Carey
3. Prefect by Alastair Reynolds
4. Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan
5. Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey
6. The Devil You Know by Mike Carey tie with The City, Not Long After by Pat Murphy
7. Mirrored Heavens by David J. Williams
8. Edge of Reason by Melinda Snodgrass
9. Juggler of Worlds by Larry Niven & Edward M. Lerner
10. Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik
Trade Paperbacks
1. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
2. Burning Skies by David J. Williams
3. Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey
4. Alive in Necropolis by Doug Dorst
5. World War Z by Max Brooks
June 01, 2009
Notes from a DVD Geek
By Jeremy Lassen
The big release for science fiction fans this month is a documentary about legendary SF writer Harlan Ellison. This documentary, "Dreams With Sharp Teeth", is directed by the producer of "Grizzly Man" (You know… the documentary about the guy who disappeared while filming bears in Alaska,) Erik Nelson.
This documentary is not a tell-all attack piece, nor is it an even-handed, balanced documentary that gives equal time to Ellison's critics. Instead, it is a riotous celebration of the man, his work, and the character that he has created, "Harlan Ellison", over the course of his career. Many funny tidbits and gems are in this documentary and in the associated "extras" on the DVD.
In celebration of this documentary, I'd like to point out some of the movies and TV episodes that have been based on Harlan Ellison's work.
Probably the most famous movie adaptation is "A Boy and His Dog", staring a very young Don Johnson. This story of Ellison's is one of his most memorable, and the movie does it some justice . . . even though the tone of the film does tend to veer wildly from act to act.
One of the most (in)famous movies inspired by Ellison's work is James Cameron's original "Terminator" movie. Ellison sued to get a credit for this movie, and won, claiming it was inspired by his Outer Limit episodes "Soldier," and "The Demon With a Glass Hand". Despite losing this battle in court, director (and script co-writer) James Cameron has always resented this assertion, and there seems to be a back-and-forth battle of the credit line in the various home video versions of this film, with Ellison's story credit slipping in and out of the credits as each new version of the film is released.
Moving past "Terminator", we can get to some of Ellison's television writing, which includes the above-mentioned Outer Limits episodes and the famous Star Trek episode, "The City on the Edge of Forever". He was also responsible for the episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents' "Memo from Purgatory." There were numerous other lesser-known TV episodes that he banged out early in his tv writing career, from episodes of "Burke's Law", to an episodes from "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea".
Much later, several of his stories were adapted for the 1980's "The New Twilight Zone" series ("Crazy as a Soup Sandwich," "Gramma," "One Life," "Furnished in Early Poverty," "Paladin of the Lost Hour" and "Shatterday").
There were also a couple of "Babylon 5" episodes written by Ellison, a "New Outer Limits" episode from 1999 based on "The Human Operators", and a "Masters of Science Fiction" episode based on his story "The Discarded."
There were many other legendarily unproduced pilots and scripts, which Ellison chronicles at length in his books, THE GLASS TEAT, and THE OTHER GLASS TEAT. [Editor's note: Both of these volumes are now out of print.]
Moving away from Ellison, to another cult SF personality, Joss Whedon's "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" hits DVD in June. This one was the "online only" production that Whedon worked on during the writers' strike last year, and it's now more widely commercially available, with a bunch of extras on the DVD that were not part of the original download.
And, moving from the cult SF side of the house to the cult horror side of the house, I bring you the most unlikely adaptation to ever be made. "Header". A movie based on Edward Lee's "classic" splatter-porn short story, soon to be available on DVD. This looks to be a mostly mediocre low budget horror film, but wow. "Header". Edward Lee. I can't wait. It's like when I found out "The Girl Next Door" was being made into a movie. But somehow sleazier and seedier.
And that's all I've got for you this month.
The big release for science fiction fans this month is a documentary about legendary SF writer Harlan Ellison. This documentary, "Dreams With Sharp Teeth", is directed by the producer of "Grizzly Man" (You know… the documentary about the guy who disappeared while filming bears in Alaska,) Erik Nelson.
This documentary is not a tell-all attack piece, nor is it an even-handed, balanced documentary that gives equal time to Ellison's critics. Instead, it is a riotous celebration of the man, his work, and the character that he has created, "Harlan Ellison", over the course of his career. Many funny tidbits and gems are in this documentary and in the associated "extras" on the DVD.
In celebration of this documentary, I'd like to point out some of the movies and TV episodes that have been based on Harlan Ellison's work.
Probably the most famous movie adaptation is "A Boy and His Dog", staring a very young Don Johnson. This story of Ellison's is one of his most memorable, and the movie does it some justice . . . even though the tone of the film does tend to veer wildly from act to act.
One of the most (in)famous movies inspired by Ellison's work is James Cameron's original "Terminator" movie. Ellison sued to get a credit for this movie, and won, claiming it was inspired by his Outer Limit episodes "Soldier," and "The Demon With a Glass Hand". Despite losing this battle in court, director (and script co-writer) James Cameron has always resented this assertion, and there seems to be a back-and-forth battle of the credit line in the various home video versions of this film, with Ellison's story credit slipping in and out of the credits as each new version of the film is released.
Moving past "Terminator", we can get to some of Ellison's television writing, which includes the above-mentioned Outer Limits episodes and the famous Star Trek episode, "The City on the Edge of Forever". He was also responsible for the episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents' "Memo from Purgatory." There were numerous other lesser-known TV episodes that he banged out early in his tv writing career, from episodes of "Burke's Law", to an episodes from "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea".
Much later, several of his stories were adapted for the 1980's "The New Twilight Zone" series ("Crazy as a Soup Sandwich," "Gramma," "One Life," "Furnished in Early Poverty," "Paladin of the Lost Hour" and "Shatterday").
There were also a couple of "Babylon 5" episodes written by Ellison, a "New Outer Limits" episode from 1999 based on "The Human Operators", and a "Masters of Science Fiction" episode based on his story "The Discarded."
There were many other legendarily unproduced pilots and scripts, which Ellison chronicles at length in his books, THE GLASS TEAT, and THE OTHER GLASS TEAT. [Editor's note: Both of these volumes are now out of print.]
Moving away from Ellison, to another cult SF personality, Joss Whedon's "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" hits DVD in June. This one was the "online only" production that Whedon worked on during the writers' strike last year, and it's now more widely commercially available, with a bunch of extras on the DVD that were not part of the original download.
And, moving from the cult SF side of the house to the cult horror side of the house, I bring you the most unlikely adaptation to ever be made. "Header". A movie based on Edward Lee's "classic" splatter-porn short story, soon to be available on DVD. This looks to be a mostly mediocre low budget horror film, but wow. "Header". Edward Lee. I can't wait. It's like when I found out "The Girl Next Door" was being made into a movie. But somehow sleazier and seedier.
And that's all I've got for you this month.
May Bestsellers
Hardcovers
1. The City and the City by China Mieville
2. Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
3. In the Stormy Red Sky by David Drake
4. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
5. Empire Unacquainted with Defeat by Glen Cook
6. The Revolution Business by Charles Stross
7. Conspirator by C.J. Cherryh
8. Empress of Mars by Kage Baker
9. Turn Coat by Jim Butcher
10. Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris
Mass Market Paperbacks
1. The City, Not Long After by Pat Murphy
2. Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi
3. Line War by Neal Asher
4. Relentless: The Lost Fleet by Jack Campbell
5. Dragons of Babel by Michael Swanwick
6. The Devil You Know by Mike Carey
7. Lightbreaker by Mark Teppo
8. The Prefect by Alastair Reynolds
9. Kushiel's Mercy by Jacqueline Carey
10. Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson
Trade Paperbacks
1. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
2. World War Z by Max Brooks
3. The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie tie with
Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey tie with
Jack Wakes Up by Seth Harwood
4. Burning Skies by David Williams
5. Palimpsest by Cathrynne Valente
1. The City and the City by China Mieville
2. Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
3. In the Stormy Red Sky by David Drake
4. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
5. Empire Unacquainted with Defeat by Glen Cook
6. The Revolution Business by Charles Stross
7. Conspirator by C.J. Cherryh
8. Empress of Mars by Kage Baker
9. Turn Coat by Jim Butcher
10. Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris
Mass Market Paperbacks
1. The City, Not Long After by Pat Murphy
2. Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi
3. Line War by Neal Asher
4. Relentless: The Lost Fleet by Jack Campbell
5. Dragons of Babel by Michael Swanwick
6. The Devil You Know by Mike Carey
7. Lightbreaker by Mark Teppo
8. The Prefect by Alastair Reynolds
9. Kushiel's Mercy by Jacqueline Carey
10. Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson
Trade Paperbacks
1. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
2. World War Z by Max Brooks
3. The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie tie with
Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey tie with
Jack Wakes Up by Seth Harwood
4. Burning Skies by David Williams
5. Palimpsest by Cathrynne Valente
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