Jane’s Wildcards, which is the ultimate edition of Groundties, completely rewritten, is up.
So is Invitations, which is a Bren story.
There is a 10% discount on both and all our stock until next Friday, the 16th, if you use the code SPOCON10.
Jane’s Wildcards, which is the ultimate edition of Groundties, completely rewritten, is up.
So is Invitations, which is a Bren story.
There is a 10% discount on both and all our stock until next Friday, the 16th, if you use the code SPOCON10.
It’s mobi or prc for the Kindle. And should you ever have the wrong format, pass it through the converter in calibre [freeware].
The Kindle Fire is nice, but I don’t like it that when you NEED the keyboard it takes up half your display screen. I like having the real keyboard. I use it for editing, and when I find a mistake or needs-fix I just type xx in the spot. No ordinary word uses xx, so I can find it in a flash. I set up the Kindle beside my computer, search the xx, then run the correction on the master copy in my word processor. It’s no big deal to convert from my word processor to mobi if you aren’t being picky: I can just push-button-convert it to html, then mobi via calibre, drag it onto my kindle [treating it as a thumb drive] and there I am. It’s not a great conversion from raw wp output, far from pretty, but not so it won’t show me rocky spots. It is SUCH a nice thing on trips. I can pop it into my purse, instead of juggling 500 pages of loose typescript that end up with footprints on it and a real shaggy armful, because the usual storage for it was the floorboards.
Thank you, CJ and everyone! Now I’mma buy me some stories! 🙂
Side Note: Foreigner #15, Peacemaker, is showing available for pre-order on Amazon, in Kindle ebook and in hardcover. I pre-ordered fro Kindle. For reasons unknown, the hardcover page is not showing the order buttons on my computer. So I’ll keep trying over the next few days. Oddly, it isn’t showing a paperback version yet. Possibly, they’re going ebook and hardcover only, with paperback a year later?
Shejidan has a link to a sketch of a non-final cover for Peacemaker with some tantalizing possibilities. However, that could change before the final cover art is done. The copyeditor for the blurb placed with the preliminary cover art missed a typo. Thus, in the last line, it is up to Ben, rather than Bren, to save their lives. Heheheh. So if it’s up to me, or some other Ben, clearly, I must get busy fast! :rofl: One suspects Bren would feel similarly compelled. (And hey, it’s a simple typo, these things happen.)
LOL, they are showing anticipated release date as April 1st, 2014, leading to quiet amusement among fans.
Of much interest to fellow fans. Looking forward to the new book…. Lots of reading to get through the series, here.
I wrote last night, so this evening, I’ll be reading Invitations and restart on the first NetWalkers book.
CJ, Finished reading Invitations and now on to Wildcards…. How do you and Jane manage to get so much written along with the normal traumas of daily life and your various hobbies such as pond/aquarium and bjd?
We get to cons falling-over tired and go home early and sleep? 😉
@CJ Read Invitations yesterday. Great read, thanks ! (And HOW much that Paidhi has changed !)
However, one tiny question : what’s the best way to forward small typos ?
Jane’s blog has a typo depository, right in the lefthand column. She’s our technical wiz (all us writers wear two hats) and she’ll know what to do with it.
I read “Invitations” last night and enjoyed it thoroughly. What a great glimpse into Bren’s start and an early Tabini-aiji. Of interest, besides his obvious skills, were his outlook or disposition (from attitude towards meeting/talking with atevi to gardens) and, for someone who otherwise second guesses himself, both real talent and a touch of ego, as well as the one flash where he has an ambition to change or improve the world, to steer toward progress, through careful words and use of technology, without upsetting social change. LOL, and his shock at how appearances are used, the clothing. …The editor in me tells me that previous is probably one ot the worst run-ons I’ve ever rattled off in stream-of-consciousness, but at least it’s (I hope) understandable.
Also, it made me wonder how Wilson-paidhi stayed as long as he did, whether there were factors on both sides of the straits to keep him in office. Other mentions of Wilson-paidhi I’ve read so far hadn’t given me quite the view into him this did. (Yee-ouch, a translator-diplomat who didn’t actually talk to people much?) …Hmm, though I wonder how I’d do with a language with multiple modifiers, declensions, and conjugations depending on felicitous combinations and numbers and courtesies. I’m far better at language skills than arithmetic in my head, though when I got to higher math I could do that in my head OK.
The bit where he’d been bumped ahead so fast that he hadn’t had time to grow a queue was a nice touch. — My usual hair length wouldn’t even have enough tail for a ribbon or clip. Now that could be awkward among atevi.
The short was really fascinating as a dip into the Foreigner universe. I’m in #3 and couldn’t resist starting Protector too. But “Invitations” has me eager to continue.
(I believe I found the one typo Shadow007 is about to / has already reported: [ an misunderstand ]; My editing habits would quibble over putting punctuation inside, rather than outside, parentheses, but I don’t think that’s worth fussing over. It’s simply punctuation style, and it was consistently used.)
Also — Item perhaps of curiosity / interest — After I’d reloaded third-party ebooks from Closed Circle et al. into my Kindle app, I was surprised to find a few “samples” courtesy of Amazon Kindle. One of these was, El extranjero, ventana abierta, which is (apparently) an authorized sample of the Spanish edition of Foreigner #1. This could be great fun to read to see how my Spanish reading comprehension is holding up, and for a taste of Foreigner in Spanish. Note this and the other samples appear to be authorized official publication samples. (I’m happy they’re there, but I was surprised, didn’t know I had them. That is to say, they’re freebies provided by Kindle and the publishers.) This strikes me as very fine, if it gives science fiction readers a taste of Foreigner (in Spanish) and other works. I’m not sure how they arrived at giving me the sample, but hey, not at all complaining, I’m very happy about it.
Hmm, they’re also confused, in that apparently, I have a sample of Peacemaker pending, once Penguin Group make it available. I pre-ordered the ebook yesterday. The buttons to pre-order the hardcover weren’t there or active on my computer, a bizarre mistake for Amazon, so I’ll keep trying. I wouldn’t object to a sample of Peacemaker, once the publisher makes it available. 😀 I suspect this is a case of them getting giddy with enthusiasm and someone, somewhere, got wildly ahead of the game in having that even show up for people who’d pre-ordered. But…it will be welcome when it gets there!
Hah, fun modern world we live in, it sure keeps ya hopping. — Very curious now how “El extranjero, ventana abierta” will read compared to the English version. (And that title translates literally as, “The Foreigner, open(ed) window” or “The Foreigner, window open(ed).” El extranjero and L’étranger are equivalent/true cognates, the meaning’s the same, “Foreigner” (or Stranger or Outlander or Alien in the older, human sense, alien, xenos).
Bren is like an old friend to me. Love the Foreigner universe, and I really like exobiology/sociology/exoanthropology-type subgenre in SF. Really loved the new bren story. I’m going to finish something else I’m reading, then start on Ground Ties. Wes is irresistible. Thanks for doing what you guys do.
Thank YOU! As for GroundTies: if you’ve read ‘NetWalkers, PLEASE consider reading WildCards rather than GroundTies! It’s possible you won’t recognize our darling Wesser! GroundTies is now entering that “curiosity” status of the book that paved the way. 😀 I know it’s the same guy, but my beta readers who had read ‘NetWalkers but hadn’t read GroundTies were confused by it. I think anyone who enjoys the books will want to read the original eventually, but WildCards is definitely more in keeping with ‘NetWalkers!
Invitations — There’s a note saying Rimrunners will be upcoming from Closed Circle. Yay, I’ll be looking forward to rereading this in ebook form.
I’d love to see something more in the Alliance/Union universe and (as always) in the Chanur or Compact Space.
Love it all — and I am so delighted to have new goodies to read!
The one thing that I have wondered about throughout the Foreigner series… What was the name of Ilisidi’s aiji-husband? We know her son was Valasi, granson Tabini and great grandson Cajeiri, but it continually bugs me that we know they are of the Barjida line (five generations before Bren) but not a name. Have I missed something?
Gomez Addams or Grandpa Munster? Or was it Cousin It?
Heheheh, I’m sorry, just being a dork, flippant.
Off-Topic, but of writerly and editorial amusement:
I just had a fight with silly auto-incorrect. It insisted that “confrontationally” must be “confrontation ally”, which really gives quite another meaning or two altogether!
However, one perceives that a “confrontation ally” could be quite handy and welcome indeed.
It was not the proper syntactic or semantic meaning for the sentence, and that was within the same language, not a translation. Ah well, it’s a good thing one is aware of such nuances and does not trust auto-incorrect, which one assiduously turns off whenever it rears its ugly head.
But one thanks all those “confrontation allies” out there nonetheless.
Submitted for your edification and amusement.
Rather more on-topic:
I read the first few paragraphs of the sample of “El extranjero, ventana abierta,” which is a sample from the officially authorized Spanish edition of the same name, for Foreigner #1: Foreigner, by CJC.
The translation looks to be a good one, and captures the flavor of CJC’s style. I see I need to brush up on vocabulary, and somewhat on grammar, including a brief review of verb tense/mood conjugations. But based on that, I’m going to get the Spanish edition as a way to practice my reading comprehension and get it back to former levels. The sample was very welcome.
The sample showed up in my Kindle app. I don’t recall getting it, and so I think it’s a freebie based on my interest in CJC and in languages. At any rate, the sample is quite welcome.
An Amazon search on [ Cherryh Spanish ] turned up only the translation of Foreigner 1, and infelicitously no other Cherryh books.
However, I bought it, more like, grabbed it and ran. 🙂
Aquà se busca y se muestra el libro para comprarle:
http://www.amazon.com/extranjero-Ventana-abierta-Spanish-ebook/dp/B00E4JFCMO/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1376524937&sr=1-1&keywords=Cherryh+Spanish
I’m envious of anyone who is fluent enough in a non-native language to try reading a book in it. I got a small taste of this when I took French in high school, and we read a very simple edition of Le Compte de monte Cristo. It wasn’t in the historical “passe simple” tense, but it was still interesting to get to the point where I wasn’t translating word-for-word, and I just intuitively absorbed the nuance of the language. Getting up to speed again would be an interesting project.
@Pipistrelle, if you happen to like children’s books, I’ve found that those are a fairly easy and quick way to get the feeling for the flow of the lanuage back. They’re generally a bit shorter, with a somewhat more limited vocabulary, so that makes them easier and faster to read if you’ve gone a bit rusty.
I used to reread Tistou les pouces verts by Maurice Druon every year before we went to France on holiday (we didn’t have much choice in French kids’ books), or Kai aus der Kiste by Wolf Durian (apparently translated as Bill of the black hand), or one of the books by Erich Kästner (Drei Männer im Schnee, Das Doppelte Lottchen, Emil, or the flying classroom are nice and sometimes funny) or Otfried Preussler, if we were going to Germany.
It just helped get my ear in, before having to try and follow someone talking to me in the language, or saying something myself.
If you don’t like children’s books, plays are another good starting point. They’re mostly dialog, people can play or read them aloud in 2 hours so they’re never very long, and you can often get a good indication of what kind of story it’ll be before you start. I disliked most of the French literature we had to read at school, I found a lot of it depressing, so it was a relief to be able to pick up some comedies as light relief (our teacher allowed two plays instead of one book, for our highschool finals). I liked Mariveaux for the older period, the stories are silly but cheerful. Sorry, I’ve forgotten the name of the ones I read for the present-day period.
Comic books are another very good way to brush up or even learn a language. You have constant visual images, so you bypass the ‘translation’ aspect.
I think a Latin translation of one of CJ’s books would be interesting and appropriate. Infelicitously, no such seem to exist.
I have a game for the iThingy called The Inquisitor, and one of its languages is Latin! I’m almost curious enough to try it, but I don’t know much Latin, except the little I found in pieces for choir, etc.
Prosecutor. Has anyone said that yet?
Lol. The lord with the railroad station may be the prosecutee if Bren has his way…
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/prosecute?s=t
The one that means take it all of the way to the end…
Oh, darn. I don’t do PayPal. I thought we could use other credit cards. Did we not do this early on?
you don’t need it; PP just really tries to make you sign up for an account.
Still do. Just persist through the Paypal screens until you get to the one that lets you do that. Or mail us a check, and we can do that too. We’ll honor today’s sale price if you just make the order with us and tell us you’ll be paying by check.