Hooray for Baen!

The guiding philosophy of this blog since its inception has been "if you can't say something mean, don't say anything at all." However, the odd nice comment does slip through, and this is one of those occasions.

Baen have long been a publisher who've recognised the power of the internet and, indeed, of letting people read their books for free. When they first started letting people download their stuff, they made the first volume of a bunch of series available on the assumption that if the reader was suitably impressed, the likelihood of purchasing subsequent volumes (and, indeed, those that were downloaded) would increase. They've since expanded their range of freebies, so we can infer that they were right in their assumptions (have a look at their rationale on their Free Library page).


Now, they've gone and made the entire Vorkosigan saga by Lois McMaster Bujold available for download. Those who know me are doubtless sick of my constant raving about how good Bujold is; she's far and away my favourite author. Your humble servant has interviewed, dined with and generally hung around with some of the world's best and most famous authors, but upon meeting Bujold I was reduced to a gibbering, incoherent fanboy. My autographed copy of Barrayar is falling apart it's been read so many times; I really should buy a new one before it disintegrates completely.

Of course, I don't really need to; I've got an electronic copy. But as Baen guessed, I'd rather have an actual book.

Point your browser thisaway and revel in the delights of the best space opera writer you'll ever read. But don't just dismiss it as space opera; Falling Free is an amazing book in every regard (though not strictly a Vorkosigan book, it's set in the same universe, but not on the freebie list).

All hail Bujold; my year was made when I found out Cryoburn was coming out. And all hail Baen for making available not just this most wonderful of authors, but a huge range besides.