I’ve spent what seems like a decade or more avoiding Kindle. It’s a prejudice I came by early but I believe honestly: Several years ago Amazon got caught in a copyright dispute or something concerning a Kindle title, which they resolved (as I recall) by reaching into the computers or possibly the cloud accounts of their paying customers and making the purchased product disappear.
As someone who had been wondering about maybe buying a Kindle reader, this offended me on a very deep and non-negotiable level and settled the question from that day to this.
But I can be tempted by freebies, and a few days ago I was. In connection with an online discussion (about this post’s second topic) I was made aware of a free Kindle book that might interest me. I’ve always been curious to know how the whole “Kindle” thing works anyway, and the book sounded interesting, so I went along with the joke.
And before talking about the book, may I say that Kindle can still kiss my ass. I don’t really know what a “cloud account” is but I don’t want my files on one, I want them downloaded into my hot little hand. And no you may not poke around in my computer ‘for offline use.’ In regard to Amazon, I’ll stick to buying the occasional paperback for now.
The book was a Baen 2008 back-catalogue title from Tom Kratman called Caliphate. Except for Larry Correia I have limited patience for the Baen stable but free often has a value all its own and this wasn’t actually a terrible book. I finished it willingly enough, though I probably wouldn’t go looking for a sequel. The willing part surprised me, frankly, because Caliphate is a nakedly polemical, arguably racist, and … almost eerily prophetic novel. It predicts in detail what’s going on in Europe right now, then extrapolates it into a very unpleasant and rather plausible future. If I’d read it in 2008 I’d have tossed it in the trash as the trash it so clearly was. But the most despicable acts of the (Moslem, of course) villains in the book are pale shadows of things in the news right frickin’ now. If anything, Kratman downplayed 2008’s near future.
Which leads me squarely to a problem I’ve been having for several months, and I don’t think I’m the only one.
I’ve said over and over and over that while terrorism is obviously very real and we should be prepared to defend ourselves from it, an exaggerated fear of Islamic hegemony is a sign of not thinking things through. ‘The Pinky and the Brain of world domination,” I called it.
I stand by that. And yet…if Muslims actually were concertedly working to take over Europe, what exactly would they do different than what’s going on right now? It gives me pause. And so do news items like this, which considering the source may or may not be blown out of proportion.
Point being, Islamic missionaries may have 1500 years of cultural ineptitude to overcome before they succeed in wrapping our daughters in burqas, but we would be foolish to completely dismiss our own leaders’ genius for giving away the store. Something to keep in mind if shooting time ever really comes.
Dammit, I don’t wanna live in interesting times.
Re pork: same as ham, yes? Has there been a massive Jewish protest? No. Your god says you can’t eat it, don’t eat it or start worshipping a more dietarily liberal god. And WTH does ADA hafta do with it? Although I gotta say religion does often seem to be a disability for some people.
Two words: Soylent Green… Problem(s) solved.
That book is in the Baen free library, I believe. As are many more, from other authors.
http://www.baen.com/catalog/category/view/s/free-library/id/2012
They do treat their readers right – buy once, DRM free, download as many times as you want.
For those who missed out on the delicious irony at the time it happened, the specific book that was mass-removed from purchasers’ Kindle devices was … George Orwell’s 1984.
I kid you not: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html?_r=0
🙂 I’d completely forgotten that delicious detail. Thanks.
I think Amazon learned a hard lesson from that incident, but that (in itself) doesn’t make it forgivable!
Perhaps a quarter-century ago, H&R Block was caught selling customer information. They probably learned that was a bad idea and haven’t done it since, but I will never in my life use them or their software.
That said, Amazon makes some damn nice readers. The backlit version of their PaperWhite would be perfect to keep up in your loft for when you can’t sleep at night. It’s easy on the eyes, and the battery life is measured in weeks!
Don’t do the “us against them” religious thing but wouldn’t hesitate to put holes in them. Our masters taught me to do that in Nam so I guess that part of my brain that “feels”guilt (yeah just had to get that word in) has been removed.
About the Kindle. You never OWN a kindle book. You are purchasing a license to read it only. That’s why they can do whatever they choose with their cloud and devices when it comes down to a book.
Personally, their is sooo much information about all of us “on the cloud” from many sources. Buy a prescription drug, go see a doctor, use a credit card? Well your info is out there to be stolen. Hell someone stole my wife’s SSN from the IRS of all people, and tried to file a fraudulent tax return.
All I can say id to stay as low profile as possible and when filling out those forms to get medical care I never fill in cell# or email addy.
Back to Amazon and the Kindle I personally have bought 5 of them over the years. As mentioned above the paperwhite version is cat’s ass. I buy a new one when I fill the old one up. They hold about 600 books and I read a lot.
I have also published 4 books and while I do not get rich I get a check for 50-100$ a month for royalty’s. Might as well join the fray old man. The way this country is headed it really won’t matter whats on the cloud soon. I guess when I turned 70 and realized I had multiple discs in my back that died before I did and now make daily life miserable what should I care about what the .gov can do to me.
“Speak of Cao Cao…”
Someone pointed this out to me on my publisher’s board, Baen’s Bar. Couple of things:
1. Who actually gets shat on the most, any given Moslem, or Buckman and his predecessor who made Buckman’s election inevitable?
2. When there are physical descriptions of the more nasty Moslems given, do most of them resemble more the leisured class of Riyadh or Germans? Look for the eyes, where given.
3. If Moslems are wicked for slavery, what does it say about white, euro-descended South Africans (Boers 2.0) that they not only have slavery but that it is infinitely viler? Remember, the most vile use to which slaves are put isn’t in a bordello, but in medical experiments run by….???
4. WRT 2, above, is Islam a race, such that Germans converting to Islam are thereafter genetically compelled to prostrate themselves and pray toward Mecca five times daily? Was Lysenko right, after all?
5. Finally, I would recommend looking at this: http://dprice.blogspot.com/2008/04/its-dystopia-you-twit.html
which is probably the most accurate review of what’s going on in the book that’s been done. “What a shitty world…”
You might try A Desert Called Peace, also free. You may like that less, but it’s more of a book (or series, rather, though only the first volume is free). Some don’t like it for the intricate build up, prep, and administrative and logistic aspects. Others do. Me; a) I was sick of armies being created with an authorial stamp of the foot and b) given where the story goes, I thought the build-up necessary to establish the overall case. Besides, I know how to do it; not many do; and future generations may need the advice.
Anyone who reads KRATMAN is okay in my book. Not a pun..
Also Michael Z Williamson, John Ringo, Travis Taylor and all the new genre entries over the past 10 years.
Not to mention pre-Ringoites such as S.M. Stirling, David Drake, David Weber …. Thru Asimov, Clark and Heinlein.
Going back to Gen Zero: E.E. “DOC” Smith
There are a few of the above authors whose entire career output I don’t own.
Working on it.