The Sword and Laser discussion

The March pick will be Gateway by Frederik Pohl

Currently on sale at Audible's First-In-Series sale at $4.95!

Leesa wrote: "Currently on sale at Audible's First-In-Series sale at $4.95!"

Yeah. I just picked that up. Sadly the sale is for members only. It's also ending 2/27, so don't sleep on it if you're an audible member.

Read it many years ago. I remember having mixed feelings about it. It was *huge* when it came out - won ALL the things.

About three seconds into the Audible sample I'm going "I KNOW that voice!" Same guy who narrated Legion and Skin Deep. I may have trouble thinking of it as a different character...

Bummer, no ebook version.

Robert wrote: "Bummer, no ebook version."

I couldn't find any Kindle version for Australia either.

But it is available as an eBook through iBooks. (and only Aus$3.99)
($2.99 in the US)
Not good for Kindle owners. But good if you have an iPad or like reading on an iPhone.

Luckily I use my iPad for iBooks and Kindle books.

Tassie Dave wrote: "Robert wrote: "Bummer, no ebook version."

I couldn't find any Kindle version for Australia either.

But it is available as an eBook through iBooks. (and only Aus$3.99)
($2.99 in the US)
Not good ..."

I have an iPod touch. I will have to look into seeing if there is anything I can do in Calibre. So far I see that iBooks have some kind of proprietary DRM that is different from other epubs for nook and kobo which I can strip.

Tassie Dave wrote: "Robert wrote: "Bummer, no ebook version."

I couldn't find any Kindle version for Australia either.

But it is available as an eBook through iBooks. (and only Aus$3.99)
($2.99 in the US)
Not good ..."

Thanks! I picked it up in iBooks.

Great choice! I'm going to enjoy this one. Only slight downside is that it's the first book in a five book series and the obsessive compulsive in me will insist on reading the other four...

Leesa wrote: "Currently on sale at Audible's First-In-Series sale at $4.95!"
Thanks for the heads up. I didn't get it when I was shopping that sale, I'll just go back for it now:)

Is it odd that the list of editions shows a kindle version but it's not in the Amazon store?
"Published November 12th 2013 by Macmillan
Kindle Edition, 292 pages"

Nice, read this last year as part of my very slow-going quest to read the Hugos winners.

There seems to be a Kindle version for the German translation. This may not be helpful for most of the S&L community, but maybe for some.

Baen has an ebook of "The Gateway Trip" for $5. Not sure that is the same one but it seems likely.

This is probably not legit but I found this
http://www.e-reading.club/book.php?book=1010245

Glad to know you can get it for a reasonable price somewhere, £2 from ibooks in the UK.

John (Taloni) wrote: "Baen has an ebook of "The Gateway Trip" for $5. Not sure that is the same one but it seems likely."

That looks like Book 5 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/218429.The_Gateway_Trip

Leesa wrote: "Currently on sale at Audible's First-In-Series sale at $4.95!"

Just bought the Audible version - thanks for the heads up on the sale! Am picking up the dead-tree version from the library today as well.

This is an absolute classic of SF. It's not hugely fun, or beautifully written, but boy does it get your brain going.

Robert wrote: "I have an iPod touch. I will have to look into seeing if there is anything I can do in Calibre. So far I see that iBooks have some kind of proprietary DRM that is different from other epubs for nook and kobo which I can strip."

Yup, and that's why I always tell people to avoid iBooks like the plague. I don't know if this is still the case but they used to add their DRM on books that are sold DRM free elsewhere.

I read Gateway last year when it was an Audible daily deal for $2.95. A quick read and I will be interested to see what other people think of it.

Finished it. I seem to recall that it is courteous to wait until the first of the month before discussing? I'm glad to wait if so, if not I'd be good to start any time.

I would be happy for you to start a topic and jump right in (just in a different thread)

:-)

John (Taloni) wrote: "Finished it. I seem to recall that it is courteous to wait until the first of the month before discussing? I'm glad to wait if so, if not I'd be good to start any time."

I generally try to wait until the Month begins. But it's not a hard and fast rule. A separate thread would be preferable.

Thanks Rob. I'll start up a separate thread and then whoever wants to come by can.

I was all set to pick up the Audible version of this, but read this strange review:


"Great book, shame it's not genuinely unabridged

The book is deservedly known as a science fiction classic, but watch out for this audio version as it is heavily abridged. Although it's titled 'unabridged', in fact all the side bars in the text have been removed."

Does anyone know the book well enough to know what this is talking about? Would this be a significant loss to the reading experience?

I've been doing the audio, and it seems fine to me. However I've never read it/have no text to compare it to.

Colin wrote: Does anyone know the book well enough to know what this is talking about? Would this be a significant loss to the reading experience? "

If the review is referring to the "found documents" sprinkled throughout the book, then yeah that is unfortunate. They really set the tone of the world and to me added a lot to the story.

Hmm. Then yeah, I guess those are missing from the audio, since I'm more than halfway through and that doesn't sound familiar to me.

Yeah...it's not just the flavor of the world, they help set up a major plot point at the end. You'll probably understand anyway, but the setup is helpful.

My friend Google didn't find those listed on the net with a quick search. S&L braintrust? Perhaps it's out there separately?

Bummer on the missing text. Im trying to avoid buying physical paper books (too many in my house right now--converting as much as i can to ebook or audio).

Rob wrote: "Hmm. Then yeah, I guess those are missing from the audio, since I'm more than halfway through and that doesn't sound familiar to me."

If they are missing, then yes that pretty much rips the soul out of the novel. A good chunk of making the setting feel "real" is in those documents and I think the end will be rather flat without them for reasons I won't go into.

Basically it makes it a totally different book.

Okay, I've ended up with two copies of the book! I'll listen to the audiobook while I commute and browse those chapters again on the iPad in the evening to pick up the missing text. (As reported elsewhere, the iBooks edition is pretty cheap.)

Looks like my library has a copy, which is very rare with my library, so I may actually have to find my library card.

I started listening and ended up halfway through already. Absolutely love the way it handles infodumps-- "Guy refuses to say what's on his mind to therapist so he just spouts to the reader instead" is fun/smooth. Grounding it as a character study of this dude who's at once fun, charismatic, traumatized, and slightly scary is also great; easy to see how it won the SFF EGOT.

Sad but excited to learn that the audiobook is abridged-- sad that audible is mislabeling some of its books, excited for found documents, which are my jam. Time for a library search.

John (Taloni) wrote: "Great choice! I'm going to enjoy this one. Only slight downside is that it's the first book in a five book series and the obsessive compulsive in me will insist on reading the other four..."

Ditto

This will be my first time reading along with the book pick for the month and I'm very excited! I picked up a copy at a used book store yesterday.

Has anyone compared the ebook to the print book (I hope the weird glitch like text bits are part of the book)

Greg wrote: "Looks like my library has a copy, which is very rare with my library, so I may actually have to find my library card."

and, of course, it was unfindable at the library so I bought it anyway *shrugs*

I bought the audio book as usual and upon reading this thread purchased the actual book.

Once I have gotten into it I will let you know if there are any differences as I plan to read it and listen along to the audio book at the same time.

So a big thank you Colin for the heads up

I had both a print version and the Audible version, and while I found the sidebars really interesting and enjoyable, I don't think their omission in the audio detracts from the story.

The sidebars seem like excerpts from the Gateway Orientation Manual.
It may give some background, but I think all the information is in the main story.

Yeah, the sidebars are mildly interesting. Mostly they add flavor, not content.

Honestly, I didn't find the sidebars interesting, and they seemed like filler to pad out the page count, but to each their own I guess. I would say you're not missing out on much if your copy doesn't have them.

Now that I've read them: they're fun but really don't do what they're capable of.

I'd never heard of this book, so I went in pretty much blind. About 20 pages in, my first impression is that it's incredibly bleak and depressing. The 70s really weren't a fun time for America, were they.

Dominik wrote: "I'd never heard of this book, so I went in pretty much blind. About 20 pages in, my first impression is that it's incredibly bleak and depressing. The 70s really weren't a fun time for America, were they."

There's a reason we were all hooked on drugs and disco dancing.

(I got kicked out of grade school for drinking. I'm not even kidding.)

Trike wrote: "Dominik wrote: "I'd never heard of this book, so I went in pretty much blind. About 20 pages in, my first impression is that it's incredibly bleak and depressing. The 70s really weren't a fun time ..."

Dang. You'd have to be in a really bad place to take up disco.

Dominik wrote: "Dang. You'd have to be in a really bad place to take up disco. "

In my defense, I can really rock platform shoes.

Dominik wrote: "Dang. You'd have to be in a really bad place to take up disco."

My excuse is, that that was where the cute girls were.

The bad music and bad fashion was the price you had to pay in the 70's.

Well worth it ;-)

Thankfully I turned 18 in 1980 as disco was dying. So the nightclubs I could then visit were playing better music and I could "legally" drink. Also a bonus :-)

Dominik wrote: "Dang. You'd have to be in a really bad place to take up disco."

Excuse me

Rob Secundus wrote: "Dominik wrote: "Dang. You'd have to be in a really bad place to take up disco."

Excuse me"

Hey, I didn't start it. I even like Disco, but the line was too good to waste :P