Ken MacLeod's comments.
The title comes from two quotes:
“If these are the early days of a better nation, there must be hope, and a hope of peace is as good as any, and far better than a hollow hoarding greed or the dry lies of an aweless god.”—Graydon Saunders
Contact: kenneth dot m dot macleod at gmail dot com Blog-related emails may be quoted unless you ask otherwise.
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Déjà Vu all over again
A few years ago I read and gave an enthusiastic blurb for a small-press, POD-published book, something I don't often do. The book was Déjà Vu, by Ian Hocking. It was a cracking story, more technothriller than SF, using plausible-sounding physics to set up, as I recall, a time-travel paradox that powered a cleverly thought-through plot. It was at least as good as lot of more widely-published work in the same genre. I wasn't the only reviewer who thought the book, and the writer, deserved a lot better. Ian's efforts to become a properly published writer were serious, unavailing, and in the end heartbreaking. He had another life than being a writer, and reckoned it was time he got on with it.Now he has decided to make Déjà Vu available on Kindle for a very low price. Give it a go. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised, and find yourself, as I did, looking forward to the sequel.
21 Comments:
Okay, I got my copy. You'd better be right about this! :) Good luck, Dr. Ian! I hope it really does sell a million!
Ted, I'm offering a money back guarantee - but you have to collect in person, and I live in a cave on Svalbard :-)
I agree. I bought the book when it first came out and thought it was great. Waited for the second then offered to buy a LULU copy if Ian would go that route. I don't have an e-reader so still hope for a hard copy.
John
Can't complain about the price, this is exactly what makes ebooks an instinctive purchase.
At $0.99 I don't care if I hate it (given the recommenders I very much doubt that'll happen), I didn't need to think twice about buying it. Done. And if I like it I'll be over the moon at getting so much enjoyment for so little! I'll be telling everyone I know to grab it quick.
I'm waiting with baited breath to see the book appear on smashwords, so that us non-Kindle ebook folk can get it too :-). Good luck with all of this Ian, hope it works out well for you.
Thanks, Anonymous - you can also get the book as an epub on Lulu right now: http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/déjà-vu/15160212
Best wishes,
Ian
Ian, thank you for pointing out the Lulu link. I'm happy to find that the file comes without any DRM, so you now have a new reader (sitting less than a mile from the location of your opening scene, nice surprise that :-)
Thanks, David, and thanks, Anonymous.
Anonymous - I hate DRM and the horse it road in on. Enjoy the book.
I immediately purchased a Kindle edition after reading this post. (Well, not immediately, because the link took me to the UK Amazon site, which wouldn't sell it to me, so I had to go to the US site.) I wound up doing the same with McAuley's Cowboy Angels, and found that Pasquale's Angel wasn't available in a US Kindle edition at all.
I'd read a lot more out-of-print books if authors released them in e-book format. Thanks, and good luck.
Thanks, Ian. I've often wanted to visit Svalbard, because it has such a cool name, but I'm afraid it won't be to collect the refund—I quite enjoyed the book (read it on the way to Prague, as it happens). I can heartily recommend it to anyone who happens upon this comment thread in the future
Thanks, Ted. Would you mind putting your review on Amazon if you have a spare minute? I'll tell the huskies to stand down :-)
Ian
Just finished reading Deja Vu (puchased for Kindle on iPad.)
What can I say - absolutely briliant stuff. I wouldn't have been remotely disappointed with the book if it had been full price but, at 70p it has to rank as one of the biggest bargains I have ever happened upon.
I have already reviewed it on Amazon (should be up in the next 48 hours or so.) All I can say is congratulations - you have a real talent and if the publishing industry cannot see it then there is little hope left for them.
So, when can we expect to see Flashback? ;-)
So I found this post more or less by accident, downloaded Deja Vu on a whim, read it and really enjoyed it. Thanks to Ken and Ian for a couple of nights' entertainment. I'll definitely keep a look out for Flashback.
Sean, many thanks for your kind words and for your review. You'll probably hear when Flashback is released (should be in a month or so).
Thanks again, Ian.
Thanks, Gareth. Again, if you can pop up an Amazon review, I'd appreciate it - but no obligation. Glad you enjoyed it.
All right Ian, you got my 99c. I'm thinking maybe I should offer my Droidin pro (http://droidin.net) as a barter exchange :) Man it's not easy to make people to part with their precious 99 cents, get the Android coder word on that
Thanks for your support, Ken!
If any readers would like a non-Kindle version of the book (for the iPad, Sony Reader, et al.), email me at ihocking@gmail.com and I'll send you a version while I figure out how to get Déjà Vu onto those stores. A small charity donation would be great in lieu of payment.
By
Dr Ian Hocking, at
Wednesday, March 23, 2011 10:52:00 am