From: Michael M. Butler (mmb@spies.com)
Date: Mon Mar 10 2003 - 14:34:23 MST
On Mon, 10 Mar 2003 10:54:43 -0800, Hal Finney <hal@finney.org> wrote:
> I haven't been able to get
> into it well enough to get past the first few chapters, but it seemed
> readable enough and moved along well. I'll try to get back to it when
> I have a chance. For me, there's quite a difference between a physical
> book which you have sitting around to remind you to read it and an
> electronic book which is buried in a directory somewhere on your disk.
Agree about the handiness factor being absent. Of course, that's
very much what paper and ink booksellers are still in the business
of selling at a premium (at a profit).
I got through it in one sitting. I guess I found it accessible--
or it might have been the novelty spurring me on. I'd say as a work it's on
a rough par with John Varley. Would you agree, Hal?
> The author, Cory Doctorow, got considerable publicity for making the book
> available in this way
....
> It will be interesting to see how this
> book does, as a test case.
>
> Hal
I want to rave this up. Tor Books was willing to do this with a smart new
author in part because Patrick Nielsen Hayden (Cory Doctorow's editor is
what Manny O'Kelly-Davis used to call a not-stupid.
It's kind of novella-length, and that makes the risk smaller in some ways
but limits risks and outlays in others.
Definitely a prototype.
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