I was raised in the pre-internet era. You should see the looks that I get from my kids when I tell them that I could not “Google” anything and that the “CDs” (which are kind of gone nowadays) were 12 inches wide…
It goes without saying that there were no ebooks, but it did not matter.
For the record, I do like ebooks, but from time to time I get some nostalgia about the times when I was growing up when I could immerse myself in a book, specially a science fiction book. And there were great books with great stories written by great writers like Clarke, Weinbaum and the one and only Asimov.
One (very) positive effect of the internet in general and ebooks in particular is that it allows many more people to express themselves in multiple ways, one of them is through storytelling. There is a fierce competition for traditional fiction publishers, with the sad effect that a good deal of good writing simply do not make the presses. The internet has changed that forever, and I am not alone in thinking that this is a good thing. In terms of independent writing, without a doubt there is something for everyone and of course there is the good, the bad, the worse and the just plain ugly. Given the huge amount of possibilities, sometimes you really need to search for the really good things.
I recently discovered independent Sci-Fi, really good independent Sci-Fi. I must admit that I am still pretty new to all of this, but I would really like you to check independent science fiction out. I recently got paper copies of two really good novels: Xenophobia and Monsters, both by Peter Cawdron, the mind behind the. Thinking Sci-Fi blog.
My reviews of Xenophobia and Monsters can be found here and here. These are not the only novels of Peter’s; he’s written a few more; you won’t regret checking them out.
(Psst… I like all of Peter’s novels, but my absolute favorite of them all is Monsters, please do not tell the others, they may get sad… (;-)…).
