By Matthew Marchesano | for Technology Tell One of the most significant figures in the world of science fiction, writer Arthur C. Clarke, has been digitized. Thirty-five titles by Clarke, including the 2001: A Space Odyssey, will be released in digital format for the first time in the U.S. The availability comes with an announcement made by independent e-book company RosettaBooks. You can now browse and purchase Clarke’s available e-books at Amazon, the Nook store and Kobo for $8.99 per title. Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey was famously adapted into the classic Stanley Kubrick film of the same name. The book’s sequel, 2010: Odyssey Two, was also...

Back in March, we brought you the story of Singularity & Co., a four-person team obsessed with obscure science fiction novels, and "aimed at purchasing [the] publishing rights to out-of-print classic SF titles, scanning them, and publishing them as e-books," as former TeleRead reporter Chris Meadows wrote. The group has since opened a brick-and-mortar bookstore in Brooklyn's DUMBO neighborhood—a grand opening celebration was held on August 9—where vintage sci-fi and fantasy paperbacks are organized chronologically. Singularity & Co. has also completed its first two e-book publishing projects: Robert Cromie's A Plunge Into Space (first published in 1890) and the 1948 novel The Torch, by Jack Bechdolt. According to Wired, the company's...

As anyone who reads news or social media on the web may have noticed, Ray Bradbury has passed away at the age of 91. Bradbury was a truly great writer, and a great visionary, though I tended not to enjoy his work as much as other writers—too much of it had downer themes and endings. But then a lot of SF always has. Bradbury was probably best remembered among the literary set for his novel Fahrenheit 451, which has long been regarded as a cautionary tale against censorship though Bradbury himself said (much later in life than when he...

While perusing the ConQuesT dealer room, I stopped to talk to Tyree Campbell, managing editor of small press publisher Sam’s Dot Publishing. He was kind enough to consent to a five-minute interview, in which he discussed how his small press operates: Me: How long has Sam’s Dot Publishing been in operation? Tyree Campbell: As Sam’s Dot it's been operating since 2002. My predecessor was on-line mostly; we're in print. My predecessor was mostly on-line since 1986. So we've been around for a while. Me: So you were formerly an on-line publisher? Tyree Campbell:...

We live in an age of miracles. When you look at the current state of technology, of medicine, of transportation, that’s true in general (even if few people realize it), but it’s particularly true when it comes to publishing. I’ve lately been working my way through Barry Malzberg’s Engines of the Night, a collection of essays about the state of science fiction publishing prior to 1980 (republished by Baen as the first part of Breakfast in the Ruins), and wow is it pessimistic. An oft-repeated theme is how many works of high-quality SF never saw print because the magazine...

From the press release: The first volume of the anthology Philippine Speculative Fiction, which was first released in 2005 and paved the way for a unique literary movement in the Philippines, is now available as an eBook on Amazon and Flipreads. Series editor Dean Francis Alfar has partnered with Flipside Publishing to make the first four anthologies in the series available. The two books complement the speculative fiction eBooks in Flipside Publishing’s lineup. “Speculative Fiction opens the trapdoor of the imagination beneath our feet,” says Dean Francis Alfar, on why the genre is important.  “As we fall to new worlds, familiar or...

Blogger James W. Harris has been thinking about the effects the Kindle is having on the science fiction genre. Looking at Amazon’s Top 100 lists for paid and free e-books in the SF genre, he notices many unknown, usually self-published, authors grabbing up position on both lists, and a lot of books by classic SF authors (such as his favorite, Robert A. Heinlein) aren’t even on the list. Harris finds a lot of new writers are taking a cue from Amazon’s sales technique of lowering the price of a book for a few days to get attention and then raising...

Science fiction in literature and movies has a long history and dates way back. The great Polish writer Stanisław Lem (1921-2006) wrote the 1961 sci-fi novel ”Solaris” that was later turned into a film in 1972 by Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky and again in 2002 in a new Hollywood remake by Steven Soderbergh, starring George Clooney. And from “Soylent Green” in 1973 to “The Day After Tomorrow” in 2004, movies also began to venture into a new genre of science fiction that might be called “cli-fi” (for climate fiction). Cli-fi is also a new genre for novels and short stories, and one of the new practitioners is American writer...

In case you’re wondering why you haven’t heard from me much over the last few days, part of the reason is that this weekend is the weekend of VisionCon, the yearly science fiction/fantasy and gaming convention in Springfield, Missouri, which has been going on for some twenty years now. Over the con, I met urban fantasy author Patricia Briggs and her husband, and attended a panel on the current state of SF that veered into e-book territory and I will probably cover in that respect tomorrow. I also met Palladium Games head Kevin Siembieda (for the third time), and...

From the press release: E-Reads, a leading independent e-book publisher and a powerhouse in fantasy and science fiction, has acquired US e-book and print rights to fifteen titles by British science fiction Grandmaster Brian Aldiss, winner of two Hugo Awards, a Nebula Award and a John W. Campbell Memorial Award. Included in the trove are his Helliconia trilogy, the Squire quartet, and such other classics as Greybeard, Dark Light Years, and Galaxies like Grains of Sand. E-Reads will also publish a new work, Finches of Mars. The reissue program will begin with fifteen titles, but E-Reads has...

I've decided to re-read my 15 volume White Wolf Publishing edition of Michael Moorcock's works.  Unfortunately very little of his stuff is available in ebook form, so I'm holding a big, heavy Volume 1, entitled The Eternal Champion. I'd never looked at Moorcock's website, and so I decided to do so this evening.  What I found was this little posting, dated December 4, 2011: I'm at the point of signing a big contract with Victor Gollancz (Orion) which ultimately will make pretty much all my books available as e-books in the UK. The process might be slower in the US but Titan...

Once again Open Culture performs a good service by putting us onto these free ebooks.  Here's the list and links.  More info about Dick in the article. eTexts (find download instructions here) “Beyond the Door” – Multiple formats – iTunes First published in 1954, the text is not usually found in collections of Dick’s writings. “Beyond Lies the Wub” – Multiple formats – iTunes Dick’s first published story. Originally appeared in Planet Stories in July, 1952. “Mr. Spaceship” – Multiple Formats Appeared first in Imagination in 1953, and later in The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick. “Piper in the Woods” – Multiple Formats First published in 1953 in the fantasy and science fiction magazine, Imagination. “Second Variety”...