Which is the better e-reader, Nook or Kindle? If you listen to Consumer Reports, the answer is the Nook—by a nose. Book eReader reports that CR’s latest review, comparing the Kindle to the Nook Simple Touch, calls the Nook better…by 1 point. The Nook tied the Kindle on most things, such as battery life and wifi access. Where the Nook shone, apparently, was its simplicity—it focuses on “reading with minimal fuss and extra features.” It eschews bells and whistles in favor of offering a simplified reading experience. Of course, a difference of one point is scarcely even a...

As I mentioned in my review of Honor Among Enemies, with In Enemy Hands the Honorverse series changes from a pure space navy series to something more politically-based. While there are still plenty of naval battles in the offing, at times the space combat takes a distinct back seat to all the political maneuvering. I suspect that this is why a number of readers seem to feel it “jumped the shark” at this point—they started reading it because they liked space battles, and suddenly it turned into something very different. This book begins a phase of the series expressly...

Sony sent me a PRS-T1 for review - and at the outset let me say what a nice unit it is.  Let's start with a comparison to my new Kindle.  (Of course the best comparison is to the new Kindle Touch, but that isn't out yet.) Here are two screens side-by-side.  I used the third largest font for both pictues as well as the same passage from the same book.  The Kindle is on the right:   As you can see there isn't much difference between them, which is to be expected since they are both using the Pearl screen.  The addition of...

Next up, chronologically, in the Honorverse are a pair of short stories. Although they have nothing to do with each other, they both cover events that become important in the next book. And they both involve events of great change to their respective worlds—one not violently, but the other very much so. Previously: Introduction Treecat Trilogy A Beautiful Friendship Young Honor and Elizabeth Prince Michael rescues and Honor dances On Basilisk Station The Honor of the Queen...

As I continue my series of Honor Harrington reviews, in the hope of eventually reviewing the entire almost-completely-free e-book series from start to finish, I notice some news from David Weber has popped up lately: Weber and an unnamed CGI/3D movie studio are in the process of finalizing negotiations over the movie rights (Baen Bar link; free registration required) to the Honorverse series. Weber is very optimistic over the studio’s intentions to be as faithful to the books as possible (especially since they’re also fans of the series), and has been doing a lot of consultation with them on how best...

Previously: Introduction Treecat Trilogy A Beautiful Friendship Young Honor and Elizabeth Prince Michael rescues and Honor dances On Basilisk Station The Honor of the Queen The Short Victorious War Irresponsible captain, itinerant noble Field of Dishonor Continuing my review of Honor Harrington stories and novels in chronological order: Flag in Exile by David...

Previously: Introduction Treecat Trilogy Young Honor and Elizabeth Prince Michael rescues and Honor dances On Basilisk Station The Honor of the Queen The Short Victorious War Irresponsible captain, itinerant noble Field of Dishonor Continuing my review of Honor Harrington stories and novels in chronological order: A Beautiful Friendship by David Weber For this book, we actually jump back to the beginning of the chronology, because this novel is an expanded version of the novella of the same name, which I reviewed as part of the “Treecat Trilogy”. In fact, it also serves as a partial sequel to the second story in that group, “The Stray”, as well. Unlike most books in the...

In his latest column for the Guardian, nerd blogger/novelist extraordinaire Cory Doctorow reviews the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and finds it to be lacking in features for a putative iPad replacement. In particular, he dislikes the way that it uses a proprietary docking cable just like Apple, lacks the micro-SD card reader in the wi-fi version, and requires a proprietary application for file transfer rather than acting like a USB hard drive when connected the way most other tablets do. Doctorow mentions that he had high hopes for the Galaxy Tab because it was based on Android, and Google allowed...

Lately, I have been working my way through the works of science fiction writer H. Beam Piper. Piper was one of the great science fiction writers of the fifties and early sixties, and, tragically, he committed suicide right before his works' popularity really took off. Perhaps as a result of the disorder brought about by his untimely demise, the copyrights on many of Piper's works were never renewed. They now reside in the public domain, where they can be read for free on sites like Project Gutenberg, or the Baen Best Of Gutenberg Science Fiction CD. Recently, writer...

I purchased a Borders-discounted Kobo Reader for my father at his request and set it up for him a few weeks ago. Now he has contributed a review of his experience with the device. –CM I have been using my new Kobo electronic book reader for a month now, so it is time for me to ponder what I do and do not like about it and how it compares with reading the old fashioned way from a book with paper pages. Apparently the e-book reader has evolved from more primitive forms. I have been exposed to various e-readers which our e-book...

Random House sent me a promo code for their new Pat the Bunny app. Anyone with kids knows this book and now Random House has done an adaptation for the iPad/iPhone. This is clearly an app to be used by very young children and will need parent supervision. This is good, because one of the neat things about the original Pat the Bunny was that it was something to be shared by a parent and child together. Here is a little video I made to give you a feel for it. In the last part of the...

I have been fielding a lot of author queries lately, and I have some suggestions for all you authors who want to ensure a smooth review. I'm going to explain my review process; of course, not all review bloggers work this way, but even so, I think many of them will relate to some of the potential review stumbling blocks I post here :) 1) First, I read the author's email to see if the book interests me. If the book is of a genre I don't review, I immediately email the author back and...