Comments on: vN: a science fiction novel about robots, perverts, power and privilege

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 20:36:00 +0000

They work for me.

By: Phil Fot

Phil Fot — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 15:50:00 +0000

My copy arrived yesterday.

Asshat mailman left it on the front steps… in a pouring rain. Didn’t even ring the bell. When I picked up the box, it literally fell apart into brown slop.

That is the absolute first time I’ve ever been thankful Amazon having prepackaged the book on cardboard with a heavy heat sealed plastic covering.

The book was pristine. I’m waiting on the slop to dry before I try to clean it off the steps.

By: Phil Fot

Phil Fot — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 15:47:00 +0000

If only ;-)

By: Phil Fot

Phil Fot — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 15:46:00 +0000

If you have an amazon card it matters. I don’t. I prefer a debit card. I don’t like spending money that isn’t in my pocket, as it were.

By: Aaron Burke

Aaron Burke — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 15:42:00 +0000

Is it just me, or are the Amazon links 404s?

By: Culturedropout

Culturedropout — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 04:06:00 +0000

Read as James Earl Jones: “Julie Andrews stars in… ‘Silicon Bukake’. Sand has never been this dirty.”

By: glittalogik

glittalogik — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 02:03:00 +0000

Not currently available from the Kindle Store for some reason, I’ll be grabbing a copy as soon as it is.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 22:00:00 +0000

I’ve stopped using One-Click because I always want to use Amex points. But lately, even when I do snail check-out, I don’t get an option to use points, and I have to start from the beginning. Which always means signing in again. Amazon loves those multiple sign-ins.

By: malindrome

malindrome — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 21:34:00 +0000

Or fighting that supercomputer from Superman III.

By: Robert Baruch

Robert Baruch — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 21:06:00 +0000

I thought it was a dashing Ginger Rogers.

And maybe it’s just me, but I like the cover just fine.

By: Robert Baruch

Robert Baruch — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 21:04:00 +0000

You can turn if off… but it turns itself on for Kindle purchases anyway.

By: redhead

redhead — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 20:49:00 +0000

except for one scene that squicked me out (and I think that was the point), vN was simply superb.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 20:20:00 +0000

I stopped using One-Click for that reason. Their check-out process still doesn’t work very well after all these years.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 20:17:00 +0000

I thought that it was a young Julie Andrews.

By: chellberty

chellberty — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 17:05:00 +0000

“apocalyptic Christian cult that wanted to leave behind a kind of relief mission for the unbelievers and heretics who’d be left behind by the Rapture.”
Gah that ruins the one good thing about the rapture that the christian fundamentalists would be gone.

By: Darren @ RTC

Darren @ RTC — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 16:43:00 +0000

Thank you very much indeed. Hope you enjoy vN!

By: Pablo Defendini

Pablo Defendini — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 15:43:00 +0000

Just bought the DRM-free edition directly from the publisher, and loaded it up on Readmill, which has become my favourite ereader on the iPad. Looking forward to reading it!

By: dangerous_mouse

dangerous_mouse — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 15:36:00 +0000

The publisher, Angry Robot, sells DRM free ePub ebooks without geographical restrictions at http://robottradingcompany.com, this book included.

For those that hate the cover, here’s an interview with the artist http://angryrobotbooks.com/2012/07/behind-the-cover-vn/. Also covers are a matter of taste. But… Some Angry Robot books have undeniably awesome cover art. Such as this http://angryrobotbooks.com/our-authors/adam-christopher/empire-state-adam-christopher/ and this http://angryrobotbooks.com/our-authors/chuck-wendig/blackbirds-chuck-wendig/

By: Robert Baruch

Robert Baruch — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 15:21:00 +0000

I hate it, at least for Kindle books, because it doesn’t seem to give you the option of using Amazon points from your Amazon card :(

By: NickEightyOne

NickEightyOne — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 15:19:00 +0000

That’s easy: the cover isn’t there to attract people like you who read books based on the review on BoingBoing, it’s there to attract people who read books based on the cover.

They won’t lose many discerning readers with a bad cover, but they may pick up a few “ohh, this looks like robot porn” sales.

By: Dave X

Dave X — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 15:14:00 +0000

I think it looks like Sarah Michelle Geller is having a bad day repairing air conditioners in Terry Gilliam’s “Brazil”.

By: Vinnie Tesla

Vinnie Tesla — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 15:06:00 +0000

I disagree; I thought it was a striking and creepy cover.

By: GlyphGryph

GlyphGryph — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 15:03:00 +0000

Gotta agree with this, that cover is an enormous turn off. I might give it a try because of the review, and I know I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but that makes it look really, really bad.

By: Phil Fot

Phil Fot — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 14:55:00 +0000

Thanks, Cory. I’m a fan of sentient machine fiction.

(edit: Man, I love amazon’s one-click!)

By: bumblebeeeeeee

bumblebeeeeeee — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 14:34:00 +0000

it’s rather see a plain cover than this mess of tired motifs and stock type

By: brint

brint — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 14:19:00 +0000

What appears to be a short version of this story was in the most recent Flurb (which I learned about from boingboing) under the name “Give Granny a Kiss” – http://www.flurb.net/13/13ashby.htm

By: CSBD

CSBD — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 13:49:00 +0000

I agree about the cover… they need better artists. The art is just terrible. It looks like a little kids collage or something. Nothing fits and none of the elements look like they were sitting next to each other, they just look photoshopped in.

This book does however look to have an interesting premise. I think ill add it to the que.

By: bumblebeeeeeee

bumblebeeeeeee — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 13:36:00 +0000

why do these books always have such poorly designed covers? really puts me off checking them out.

It undermines the content. If they care so little about the cover and doing a decent job of that with the right talent, what impression does it give of the content?