In the last few months I’ve read:
- Project Hail Mary, Weir
- Fall, Stephenson
- The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Gaiman
- The Ultimate Earth, Williamson
- The first four Discworld books, Pratchett
- Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge, Resnick
- A Memory Called Empire, Martine
- A Desolation Called Peace, Martine
- The first five Murderbot Diaries books, Wells
- The Imperial Radch trilogy, Leckie
- Annihilation, Vandermeer
- The Kingston Cycle trilogy, Polk
For comparison, I think I read two or three books last year. It’s starting to be a non-trivial amount of money, even though they’ve all been the ebook versions, which are generally a little cheaper. Has anyone who reads a lot of SF found Kindle Unlimited to be worth the price?
Not sure if your device supports connection to your public library, but I have been reading literally hundreds of books since Covid on my iPhone using Libby at first, and now the Palace Project. I still purchase the odd book if it’s one I know I will read repeatedly but I haven’t bought an ebook in some time due to using the library.
Good list, btw. I loved the Arkady Martine books. You might want to try Gideon the Ninth and the sequels.
Can you tell me more about those two options? What’s the difference between them, and why did you switch? Is it easy to find and borrow recent books, or is there a waiting list?
Not OP but I have both Libby and Cloud Library because I have library cards for 2 different libraries. I default to Libby but if they don’t have the book I’m looking for I check Cloud Library. Both are really easy to use though. There’s usually a wait-list for new/popular books, but sometimes your library will acquire additional digital copies. It’ll tell you your expected wait time and how many people are in front of you.
Sounds worth checking into. Not really anything to lose, right?
Absolutely worth checking into IMO. If your e-reader device does support library connections, so much the better, but if not, your phone/tablet will.
In addition to e-books, your library also likely offers access to other services including streaming. I have access to Kanopy, which has an interesting catalog of movies and shows that is well outside the mainstream. I’ve found some interesting stuff on there to consume even though I don’t use it as often as Netflix/Apple/etc.
Regarding Libby and the Palace Project, I used Libby for some time but shifted to Palace after reading (here, here) about the e-book lending market space and how ripe for enshittification it is at present. (Overdrive, the company behind the app of the same name and the Libby app, was recently sold to private equity firm K.K.R., notorious for horrible business practices. Overdrive controls about 90% of the library lending market, so I’m a little fearful for what might come.) The Palace Project is a non-profit, so I’m supporting it as a competing platform in case Overdrive starts to tank. The Libby app is more polished, but the search, borrowing and reading experience on Palace is largely comparable and still just fine.
Thank you, I appreciate the thoughtful response. I’ll check into it.
I have found Kobo and Z-Library to be worth it for sci-fi.
+1 for zlibrary.
Not familiar with those. Any comments on them or the differences between them?
It’s a little tongue in cheek. Kobo has good support for uploading your own ebooks. Z-Library is a user sharing and exchange site with excellent breadth and depth of content, but technically is copyright infringement. The onion site works great.
I buy via B&N, Kobo or the Play store. B&N and Kobo tend to have better quality epubs (embedded fonts, larger images) but the play store runs more sales. I don’t buy ebooks from Amazon, their deals with publishers don’t pay authors enough money. If at all possible I try to buy self published ebooks to support authors directly, same deal with magazine subs - I pay Clarkesworld and Lightspeed directly and download epubs from them.
I’ll check those out, thanks
I tried KU for a month or two but I couldn’t find enough good books to read to justify the cost. Instead I just got a digital library subscription and read on my phone/tablet.
I guess I could just do the free trial and answer my own question. How much is the monthly fee, by the way?
The kindle fee is 13.99 aud/month for me which is pricy by my standards. The library however is totally free but it doesn’t have every book I want. So it’s either wait for a physical copy at the library, just buy it outright, or take it off the reading list.
Hmmm okay. So the KU would be fine if I read at least two books a month. I’ve been doing closer to four, but they haven’t all had a KU option, especially the latter books of a series.
I guess I can try the free trial and see.
For sure, good luck!
As everyone here is suggesting, the public library is the best way to get sci fi for the Kindle. Whatever app yours uses, it just connects you to Amazon to download the book for free, for 1-3 weeks, whichever you choose. Sometimes there is a wait, place a hold and it shows up eventually.
If you like Space Opera, try the Kris Longknife series (starting with Kris Longknife: Mutineer) and the Aeon 14 books by M D Cooper (starting with The Complete Intrepid Saga) - all of which are on Kindle. Also on Kindle: Columbus Day (Expeditionary Force Book 1) All books in the series John Ringo’s Empire of Man series starting with March Upcountry
Thanks, I’ll poke into those.
K U is awesome on the free trial but I wouldn’t (didn’t) renew for money.
Check out the Omega Force books. They are a really fun read. Sort of like Guardians of the Galaxy but less magicky.
Thanks!
I use smashwords personally, they don’t have all the big authors but I have read dozens of multiple book series, and lots of them are free
