Re: DOWN & OUT IN THE MAGIC KINGDOM

From: Michael M. Butler (mmb@spies.com)
Date: Mon Mar 10 2003 - 14:34:23 MST

  • Next message: Michael M. Butler: "Re: DOWN & OUT IN THE MAGIC KINGDOM"

    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.



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Mon Mar 10 2003 - 14:41:10 MST