'Foundation' is Key to a Great Sci-Fi Read

I have always been fond of Isaac Asimov’s ‘Foundation’ series. Like the ‘Lord of the Rings’ I have come back to the ‘Foundation’ books several times over my last 50 years. Although I have read the original trilogy I never finished the entire 7 book series. I am currently on ‘Foundation and Earth’ and am enjoying it so far.


My current excitement for the 'Foundation' series was re-energized this last week (May 9^th - 15^th, 2011) when the web site iO9 took an in depth look into the series. It is an excellent read, written by Josh Wimmer and Alasdair Wilkins, and I wanted to share it will all ‘Foundation’ fans.


Now since this blog focuses on e-books I wanted to also point out the current 'Foundation' books that are available in e-book format. Not all of them are unfortunately. Luckily the first 3 books are available in both Kindle and ePub format.

Foundation -

Foundation and Empire -

Second Foundation - 

'Foundation’s Edge' and 'Foundation and Earth' are both available in ePub format on the Apple iBooks store but I could not find Prelude to Foundation or Forward the Foundation in e-book format anywhere.  All e-book editions are currently price reasonable at $7.99.

Now here are the links to a VERY interesting take on all seven of the Asimov written 'Foundation' books. Enjoy!

Day one featured - ‘The Foundation’ - ‘Isaac Asimov’s Foundation: The little idea that became science fiction’s biggest series’

http://io9.com/5799655/isaac-asimovs-foundation-the-little-idea-that-became-science-fictions-biggest-series

Day two featured - ‘Foundation and Empire’ - ‘In which events take a generally darker turn: Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov’ - 

http://io9.com/5799689/in-which-events-take-a-generally-darker-turn-foundation-and-empire-by-isaac-asimov

Day three featured - ‘Second Foundation’ - ‘Mind games and mysteries abound in Isaac Asimov’s Second Foundation’ - 

http://io9.com/5799734/mind-games-and-mysteries-abound-in-isaac-asimovs-second-foundation

Day four featured - ‘Foundation’s Edge’ - ‘Foundation’s Edge by Isaac Asimov: The end is the beginning is the end’ -

http://io9.com/5799785/foundations-edge-by-isaac-asimov-the-end-is-the-beginning-is-the-end

Day five featured - ‘Foundation and Earth’ - ‘Home again, home again, in so many ways: Isaac Asimov’s Foundation and Earth’ - 

http://io9.com/5800423/home-again-home-again-in-so-many-ways-isaac-asimovs-foundation-and-earth

Day six featured - ‘Prelude to Foundation’ - ‘In Prelude to Foundation, Isaac Asimov delves into psychohistory’s sorta psycho history’ -

http://io9.com/5800631/in-prelude-to-foundation-isaac-asimov-delves-into-psychohistorys-sorta-psycho-history

Day seven featured - ‘Forward the Foundation’ - ‘In which a great work is finally completed: Isaac Asimov’s Forward the Foundation’ -

http://io9.com/5801963/in-which-a-great-work-is-finally-completed-isaac-asimovs-forward-the-foundation

Macmillan Lets A 'Brother' Down

This will be a short post. All I can say is - REALLY? Ah, and then I noticed it is being sold by Macmillan. Should have known. $9.99 for a book that is in the public domain. Wow! I wonder, do I get a kiss with this purchase too?

'The Shrike' Slashes On To E-book Format

I just discovered one of my favorite books, Dan Simmon's 'Hyperion', has finally made it to Amazon's Kindle and Apple's e-book stores! It has been awhile since I first read 'Hyperion' but it is indeed a CLASSIC as are the follow-up books to the story - 'The Fall of Hyperion', 'Endymion', and 'The Rise of Endymion'.

I am not sure how long these e-books have been out but if you are a sci-fi fan this is a must read. I have read, in some reviews of the e-book, that the conversion of the book to e-book format has many misspellings and has some formatting issues. Hopefully a cleaned up version will be release to address these issues.

I am VERY excited about this release and have already downloaded and purchased all of the 'Hyperion' e-books and will re-read them as soon as I finish Simmon's 'The Terror'.

Penguin Vs. 'The Bugs'

The other day I was surfing around the web site eReaderiQ.com and under the recently Kindized section I found Robert Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" being offered at $9.99 US dollars. My first thought was REALLY 10 bucks for an almost 52 year old book! Pricing like this really has me questioning publishers pricing policies on older e-books. Then I looked to see who the publisher is for this latest outrageous offering and I should have known - Penguin Publishing strikes again!

It almost seems that Penguin Publishing purposely prices their e-books high to force a reader to go elsewhere. I can't remember the last time I even bothered purchasing any e-book from Penguin Publishing. In fact now I won't even purchase ANY book from Penguin Publishing.

Publishers need to realize there are hundreds of thousand if not millions of books to pick from to read and if a book isn't priced right or is priced outrageously, I, as a consumer, can easily just move on to something else, which is what I do whenever I now see something published by Penguin.

Now for anyone who hasn't read Heinlein's 'Starship Troopers' try and find an old paperback edition or run to your library and give it a read. It is indeed a classic and highly recommended! It is a lot better then movie!! I would have loved to have given it another read on my iPad or Kindle but at the current e-book pricing I will sadly pass. The Penguin strikes again!

New Ad Support Kindle

Yesterday Amazon announced their new ad supported Kindle for $114 dollars. As much as I like the idea of a cheaper Kindle I was a bit surprised that Amazon only reduced the overall price for the ad supported Kindle $25 dollars. Of course I would have preferred a free Kindle if I am going to be bombarded with ads. Like many others I feel the best price point would have been $99 dollars. Although I am pretty much a full time iPad e-book reader these days I have to admit this ad supported Kindle does seem some what attractive to me. I guess the one thing I will want to find out is how intrusive the ads will be to the reader. If the ads are just on the screen saver screen and go away the instant I want to get down to reading then I won't have a problem with this idea at all. If however ads pop up while I am reading, which I don't think will be the case, then I would have a REAL big problem! I have to give a huge thumbs up to Amazon for trying different things to bring new users to the Kindle reader. I might be retiring my 1st generation Kindle very soon.

I'm Back!

Wow! I can't believe I haven't touched this blog since Nov. 2010. Insane! I guess between the holidays, family, work, and my little side app making business I let my poor e-books blog fade. That doesn't mean I haven't been reading and staying on top of the e-book world. I have read several e-books over the last couple of months and I will try and share the best of the best that I have read as the weeks move forward.

Today I wanted to restart this blog again and share an awesome link I found to help keep track of new Kindle e-books and price reductions for the Kindle. I have used this link the last couple of days and have found it extremely handy. The name of the website is ereaderiq. Check it out! I think you will find it very useful. I have already purchased several e-books I didn't even know were finally available on the Kindle.

iBooks Gift Cards - Don’t be Fooled!

I have been seeing in various stores Apple iBook gift cards (see the picture below). These cards look to be specific to the Apple iBook store but it needs to be noted that they are good for anything on iTunes; apps, music, videos, tv shows, and ibooks. You can still use regular iTunes gift cards and buy iBooks, as well as iTunes gift cards that you might get discounted from places like Costco, Sam’s Club, etc... (note - Costco has stopped selling the discounted iTunes gift cards, however some locations might still have a supply on hand).

Also be on the look out on Black Friday (Nov. 26th) here in the United States for many discounted iTunes Gift card offers. There is a pretty firm rumor going around that Best Buy will be discounting $50 dollar iTunes gift cards for $40 bucks! That is a 20% savings and can easily help take some of the sting of the higher e-book prices found in the Apple iBook store. As I hear about various deals I will pass them on here. Hope all have a great Thanksgiving!