free science fiction books

[miriam_e]

Want to read more science fiction ebooks, but are reluctant to pay money for locked ebooks that you know will sooner or later lock you out?

I just found out that Project Gutenberg has a special area devoted to more than 800 science fiction ebooks: subject 36.

They not only have the old stories you'd expect, such as those by Jules Verne, H G Wells, and Edgar Rice Burroughs, but also modern stories by Cory Doctorow, Damon Knight, Harry Harrison, Katherine MacLean, Leigh Brackett, Philip K Dick, and many more.

A random wander around Project Gutenberg turns up real gems. Tonight, while looking for something else entirely, I found Preliminary Specifications: Programmed Data Processor Model Three (PDP-3) by Digital Equipment Corporation, from back in 1960 -- before anybody had thought of stack registers.

Some other amazing things I've found by accident on Project Gutenberg recently:

• Dinosaurs, by W D Matthew, Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology, New York Natural History Museum in 1915, and containing about 50 photos and diagrams.
  
• David Hume - Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. The great thinker from the late 1700s wrote this philosophical piece as a conversation, making it more accessible.
  
• William Curtis' beautifully illustrated Botanical Magazine from the late 1700s (the first 8 volumes so far)
  
• several of Stanley G Weinbaum's stories, for which I have a bit of a soft spot, as his stories use very original concepts, but he died very young before he had a chance to really make an impact on the SF world.
  
• Cory Doctorow's most recent books are available for free download (please do buy some of his books to make it worth his while)

I like to use the old author listing to go beachcombing at Project Gutenberg:
http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/a

It seems the folks at Project Gutenberg realise some people like to wader aimlessly, browsing. They've provided a random search function:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?sort_order=random

You can sign up to get [a list of] their latest releases emailed to you each month
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:Subscribe_How-To

Comments

[greylock]

They not only have the old stories you'd expect, such as those by Jules Verne, H G Wells, and Edgar Rice Burroughs

The lack of ERB in my explorations of second-hand bookstores is of grave annoyance to me, especially cheaply. The bulk of the ones I have are still the ones you kindly sent me.
It annoys me to see copyright books reprinted for mega-dollars too.
If I was interested in an e-book reader I'd be all over these.
Bit surprised by some of the modern books too. Assumed they would all be copy-written, even in Australia.

[miriam_e]

If you have any kind of modern mobile phone then you have an ebook reader, or potential ebook reader. I have an Android phone which I don't use as a phone. I only use it as a hand-held computer. Both "FBReader" and "Cool Reader" let you read epub format ebooks. Both readers programs are available for free download (using an Android machine go to the online "market"). Otherwise you can use one of the many HTML readers to read HTML formatted ebooks. (Actually epub is really a variation on HTML which has a few extra tags and is compressed along with any pictures so that it all sits in one file.)

The reason why a number of the recent works are available for free on Project Gutenberg varies.

Cory Doctorow explicitly makes all his writings available electronically for free. He has found it boosts his sales of paper books. I've bought some of his paper works and have downloaded most of his books. Most recently I read his book "Makers", which I loved and think is his best yet. When I have some money free I'll buy a copy, but not for me; he has this neat arrangement where people can buy books to be donated to libraries.

I think the other recent science fiction works were the result of some science fiction magazines (IF, Galaxy, Analog, and others) not maintaining their copyright and they slipped into the public domain before the recent copyright extensions.

There are also some other writers who have willingly made their work available free through Project Gutenberg.
http://self.gutenberg.org
I only discovered this last night. I'll be uploading some of my work there shortly. :)

As Cory Doctorow is fond of saying, "my problem isn't piracy, it's obscurity".

correction

[miriam_e]

Near the end of my post: "You can sign up to get their latest releases emailed to you each month".

I just realised that is ambiguous. What I mean is that they post out a list of their most recent releases. They don't post out the actual ebooks. :)