Robert J. Sawyer originally edited and published The Engine of Recall through his imprint, and he recently contacted me to point out that I had retained the ebook rights.  So, I've prepared an ebook edition of my first collection of 'hard' science fiction short stories, and made it available (so far, on Amazon.com).  You can download it now!  (And to sweeten the pot, you can read a sample story first if you'd like.)

One of the attractions of going through Amazon is the higher royalty rate authors can achieve.  I make more from a sale of Engine at $4.99 than I would from a sale of the hardcover at $27--so buying the ebook is an inexpensive way to support my writing habit.  (Not, mind you, that the hardcover edition isn't gorgeous as well, as is the trade paperback edition.  Both are worthy of shelf space for those of us who still value the heft and sensuality of traditional books.

The Engine of Recall collects some of my best stories, including "Halo" (which inspired my novel Permanence), "The Dragon of Pripyat" (which introduces Gennady Malianov, the pathologically-shy Ukrainian arms inspector who's also the hero of my METAtropolis stories) and a story written specially for this book, "Alexander's Road."

Self-publishing an ebook is not a new experiment for me--I did it with Ventus a couple of years back.  Doing it through Amazon and selling it is new, though.  A lot of us authors are trying this route lately, with varying levels of success.  I'm going to be very interested to see how this particular experiment goes!

Just when I thought life couldn't get any stranger, MacMillan starts releasing my books as iPhone apps!  This is very cool.  Since they apparently don't have the licensing rights to sell the app into Canada, I can't confirm its presence in the iTunes Store; however, you can find my latest Virga novel, The Sunless Countries, at appshopper.com.

Not only that, but The Year's Best Science Fiction: 26th Annual Collection is also available; it contains my popular Virga story, The Hero.  

And here's what they'll look like in your iPod or iPhone:

Oh, it's terrible to play favourites.  It's just that I lived with Ventus for so long--it took seven years to write--and it was my first published solo novel.  I've offered it as a free download for nearly a year now, and it's still in high demand: for instance, last month, in July 2008, I recorded 1300 downloads from this site alone.  Since it's also available now from many public ebook sites, I have no idea what the actual numbers are like. 

Thanks to everybody who's enjoying the book, I'm gratified I've been able to share this world and these characters with you.

It's got short stories and (for a while) free ebooks.  It's got some of the best fantasy/scifi art you can find.  It's got John Scalzi...

The Tor.com website is now live.  

This place is going to become a major hub, and it's not going to take long.  With the kind of talent they've got blogging over there--and with the kind of talent they've got writing original short fiction--this site is gonna be flypaper for every SF and Fantasy fan out there.  And deservedly so:  Tor has lavished a tonne of care and ingenuity on this portal, and more importantly they've invited the readers to come in and play too.  Tor.com isn't some arms-length advertising exercise, it's a social networking site for fans of cyberculture.  Go check it out.

And while you're there, check out the jaw-dropping list of free novels and art you can download for a limited time.

I've known this was coming for months, but couldn't talk about it.  Now my publisher, Tor, has revealed that Sun of Suns, my rollicking postmodern space-opera, will be next week's free ebook download from Tor.com.  Want a copy?  Then head on over to the new site and register.  It's free, and if you act now, you'll also gain access to a couple of other free ebooks.

Believe me, it'll be worth it to join the new site.  Tor isn't just pasting new art on an old site, here; they're opening up their entire operation.  The new tor.com will be a participatory playground for fans, thoughtful readers, and aspiring writers. It'll also have original art and stories, and stuff I still can't talk about.