The Juice Boxes - Best SFF Press for eBooks (2011)

Winner: Pyr

The first question would be, 'Why not an award for the best SFF Press, period?' The short answer is because it would be impossible and capricious. How do I compare something like Night Shade who does 25 books a year to Orbit who does 75? Or how do I look at Spectra who only publish SFF in relation to Doubleday who does SFF and scads of other stuff? I can't, so I won't. What I can judge, is who's making the effort to put out the best eBooks. And that's Pyr.

It shouldn't be new to anyone who reads this blog that I'm a dedicated eReader. The vast majority of books I purchase are eBooks and the vast majority of ARCs I read are electronic. Gone are the days of error ridden eBooks from major publishers (largely), but there's still a huge gap between the quality of hard copies and their eBook counterparts. Lou Anders, and Pyr, are changing that one eBook at a time.

Sure, their eBooks are almost never available on release day. And yes, they're not as affordable as those from Angry Robot or Night Shade (who both do a great job with their eBooks also). But for me Pyr has become the go to source for beautiful, professional eBooks. I'm sure you're asking yourself, what the hell is a beautiful eBook and what's important about it?

Writing this post, I pulled up a random Pyr title from my electronic library, in this case, The Greyfriar by Clay and Susan Griffith. The first thing I noticed was the cover. Believe it or not, a lot of eBooks don't come with covers. They'll start with the copyright page, or a text title page, or something else equally lame. The second thing I notice is the type settings - plural. There's a typesetting for the chapter heads, for the drop letters, and for the primary text. They even take the time to drop in custom scene dividers - no triple asterisk or hash tag here. And check this out - they've been proofread. In fact, I'm pretty sure Pyr puts the same editorial integrity into each eBook than they put into their hard copies. It shows.

Lou Anders w/Hugo.

Know what else? They aren't overpriced. While not 'cheap', I've yet to see a Pyr title in the $12.99-15.99 dollar range now so popular among the big-6 new hardcover release. I get that an eBook is almost as expensive to produce as a bound copy, less print and distribution costs. Still, there's a mental hurdle that many consumers have right now in paying more than $10 for an electronic copy. Until that changes, and I'm not sure it ever will, price matters and Pyr seems to grasp that, coming in at just under $10 even for hardcover releases.

Admittedly, this isn't an award I'm going to repeat in future years, but I felt compelled to recognize Pyr for being an leader in the industry. So thanks to Lou Anders (a proclaimed eReader himself) and his editorial team for making it a priority. Special shout out to Rene Sears, who I'm pretty sure does a lot of the heavy lifting.

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If you missed my Thanksgiving post, I explained that I'm doing a series of awards. I'm going to call them the Juice Boxes. See if you can keep up here... so there are the Hugos. My name is Justin. Put those two words together and you get Jugos. Jugo in Spanish means Juice. The Juice Awards sounds like something O.J. Simpson would bestow on someone, so I added the box. After all, who doesn't like Juice Boxes?

I'll be doing a separate post for each category with a goal of having them all done before Christmas (we'll see). My award categories are as follows:

Best SFF Press for eBooks

SFF Editor of the Year

SFF Cover of the Year

Most Disappointing SFF Book (2011)

Best SFF Book I Read This Year Not Published in 2011

SFF Debut of the Year (2011)

SFF Book of the Year (2011)

A novel about J.R.R. Tolkein?

Over at Bleeding Cool there was an article on Monday about a novel called Mirkwood, by Steve Hillard.  I'd never heard of Mirkwood and Hillard, but apparently the novel features J.R.R. Tolkein as a main character.  Earlier this year it was reported that the Tolkein Estate was in a legal battle with Hillard to have all copies of the novel destroyed.  The estate was demanding an immediate halt to further sales, and threatened legal action to obtain damages.

It's now being reported that Hillard has reached an agreement with the protective estate that will see the novel make it to publication.  He also signed a deal that will see the book adapted to a movie.  The 450-page work recounts a young woman's quest to find her grandfather after discovering documents given to him by Tolkien.  Here's the blurb:

Mirkwood, re-invents J.R.R. Tolkien as a man haunted by the very myths he rewove into his famous works. As much literary criticism as boisterous epic, this episodically-driven plot explores the blurred borderlands where ancient tales, lost heroines, and epic journeys are stalked by dim monsters that will not be still. In 1970, Professor Tolkien makes a little-known visit to America-and sets in motion elvish powers embodied in a cache of archaic documents. Destinies are altered, legends become real, and two heroines must race for their lives in vastly different worlds.

It's currently available on Kindle for $2.99 and will be released in hard-copy August 18.  Anyone else interested in checking this out?  Seems very intriguing.

Couple of eBook Bargains

I'm a sucker for eBook bargains. Earlier this month I posted some great deals from Orbit and Pyr, which I'll reiterate below along with a "few" new ones.  I actually put a lot more effort into it this time around and there are a crap load of quality price-reduced offerings out there right now.  All the links I've provided are to Kindle ordering.  I have no idea if they're being offered in other formats at the same price.

Just to emphasize, all of these titles are from major publishers in SFF and discounted from full-price by as much as $10 in some cases.  Usually these reductions are for a limited time.  I'll try to do posts like this more regularly as a dedicated eReader.

Check it out!

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The Clockwork Rocket, by Greg Egan ($3.99) *New*

Zendegi, by Greg Egan (Free) *New*

The Electric Church, by Jeff Somers ($1.99)


Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke ($2.99) 


Blood of Ambrose, by James Enge ($1.99)


Child of Fire: A Twenty Palaces Novel, by Harry Connolly ($0.99)

Zoo City, by Lauren Beukes ($0.99)

Empire in Black and Gold, by Adrian Tchaikovsky ($1.99)

The Parasol Protectorate: Soulless, Blameless, and Changeless, by Gail Carriger ($9.99)

The Edge of the World, by Kevin J. Anderson ($1.99)

Armageddon's Children, by Terry Brooks ($1.99)

Hunter's Run, by George RR Martin, Daniel Abraham, and Gardner Dozois ($1.99)

Hard Spell: An Occult Crimes Investigation Unit, Justin Gustainis ($0.99)

Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack, by Mark Hodder ($1.99)

Sasha: A Trial of Blood and Steel Book One, by Joel Shepard (Free)

Kushiel's Scion, by Jacqueline Carey ($1.99)

Dawnthief: Chronicles of the Raven, by James Barclay ($1.99)

Elfsorrow: Legends of the Raven, by James Barclay ($1.99)

Fast Forward 1: Future Fiction from the Cutting Edge, Edited by Lou Anders ($0.99)

Bright of the Sky (Book 1 of The Entire and the Rose), by Kay Kenyon (Free)

Keeping it Real (Quantum Gravity, Book 1), by Justina Robson ($0.99) 

This month's eBook special offers

This week I'm going to have two reviews out that I acquired from Pyr and Orbit via their monthly eBook deals.  Sometimes these offers land me a title I've wanted to read for a long time like Joel Shepard's Sasha or Ian M. Bank's Consider Phlebas. Other times I end up buying a title I would have never considered at full price like The Greyfriar by Clay and Susan Griffith or The Edge of the World by Kevin J. Anderson.


This month Orbit is offering the first three books in Gail Carriger's The Parasol Protectorate for $9.99.


Pyr has put out Adrian Tchaikovsky's first book in the Shadows of the Apt series, Empire in Black and Gold, for $1.99.

It's also my understanding that in the UK, Angry Robot Books is offering a ton of their eBooks in the Kindle Store for 99p.  Angry Robot Books has also begun a new subscription series for their eBooks where for $75 the consumer gets every book they publish from July 1, 2011 to July 1, 2012.  It's certainly an interesting new dynamic to the eBook marketplace.  I can't wait to see if it catches on.