MyVerbalOutlet

Amazon and one of the largest book publishers got in a fight last weekend over what the pricing on ebooks should be and as a result Amazon stopped selling the publishers books directly and only allowed sales by third parties.  Buying books from Amazon is very convenient and they usually have the best price on new hardback books. Amazon’s pricing on new hardbacks has enabled me to order several  in the last few months that I would had to wait on paperback copies of otherwise. For this I love buying books from Amazon.

I have been an avid reader since the 6th grade; I love books. As someone who makes their living through technology I have been fascinated by ebooks and ebook readers. Amazon’s Kindle platform and Apple’s upcoming iPad are very cool devices. I however will not be using them as ebook readers anytime soon for several reasons.

1. I love books. I love holding a book in my hands.
2. I reread books I love. I have several series of books I have reread many times.
3. When I buy a book I own a physical copy and no one else can tell me what I can and cannot do with it.
4. I am not dependent on a third party corporation or reader to be able to read what I have purchased.

For ebooks to be attractive to me they would have to have the following attributes.

1. Be cheaper than the print books.
2. Be available within a reasonable time frame of the books release.
3. Be unencumbered by formats that restrict my use of the ebook on the platform of my choice.

Here are some articles with commentary by some of the authors that were effected by Amazon’s actions over the weekend.

Charles Stross: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/01/amazon-macmillan-an-outsiders.html
Cory Doctorow: http://www.boingboing.net/2010/01/29/amazon-and-macmillan.html
John Scalzi: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2010/01/30/a-quick-note-on-ebook-pricing/

I couldn’t help myself and I went ahead and ordered Dust of Dreams by Steven Erikson. I really enjoy the Malazan books and I will post a review when I have finished the book.

I wasn’t going to go anywhere near another Wheel of Time book because from my point of view the wheels had come off it a long time ago. No one involved in the Wheel of Time had lived up to their responsibilities not the publisher, author, or editor. The storyline got so out of the author’s control it had gotten up to eleven books and the end was nowhere in sight. When I heard that the author Robert Jordan past away after completing the eleventh book I figured that I would never read the conclusion to the story. However Robert Jordan knew he was ill and found another author to finish the series.

Brandon Sanderson had a written a stand alone debut novel Elantris and followed it up with the Mistborn Trilogy. I ended up reading all of Sanderson’s books and I loved them all. Sanderson is an imaginative writer who brings new approaches to the fantasy genre. If I hadn’t enjoyed reading Sanderson’s books as much as I did I would not have bought “The Gathering Storm”.

With Brandon Sanderson authoring the story now this was the Wheel of Time as it should have been written since book four of the series. There is much less of the overly verbose world building that plagued the Wheel of Time series. The female characters aren’t the one dimensional caricatures Robert Jordan turned them into. Brandon Sanderson did what needed to be done in “The Gathering Storm” he pared the story down and moved the plot forward.

The plot focused much more on the main character Rand something that has been missing from the storyline. Robert Jordan included so many minor characters in the books he wrote that giving them story time meant less time for the characters who drive the plot. Reading a Wheel of Time book by Robert Jordan had become an exercise in frustration because he wasn’t moving the plot forward. Sanderson balanced the story very well by developing the main character and the main supporting character’s stories. I read “The Gathering Storm” in a week and loved every minute of it.

“The Gathering Storm” isn’t the final volume of the Wheel of Time because there was no possible way to wrap up a story as big as the Wheel of Time in one volume. There are two more books to follow after “The Gathering Storm” and I am now looking forward to reading them and finally finishing The Wheel of Time.

I finished up reading “The Demolished Man” by Alfred Bester last weekend. I enjoyed it but I don’t think it is in the same league as “The Stars My Destination” which I absolutely love. The prose in Demolished Man really feels like its coming out of the 1950’s.  The story concept though is pretty thought provoking.

The premise that the highly driven individual should not have to conform to societies rules, that he is exempt by virtue of his drive to succeed is a very relevant topic today. I see the main character in the financial flim-flam men of today, those who manipulated markets and companies solely for their own gain at the expense of the home buyer, the investor, the company employee, and the share holder.  These are men who believe that they are exempt from societies rules and the morals of regular men.

Bester warns us of these men and the damage that they can do to the world as a whole. I see “The Demolished Man” as a cautionary tale more than a work of great fiction. I believe “The Demolished Man” is a unique piece of American literature and would encourage you to read it.