We've got five years, stuck on my eyes!

July 18, 2013 12:44 PM

Download The Stories: Five Years of Original Fiction on Tor.com Nearly 4000 pages of some of your favorite authors for free. [Past offers not valid in all countries. Sorry if yours is one of these.]
posted by cjorgensen (29 comments total)

Cool!
posted by brundlefly at 12:50 PM on July 18, 2013

I only have so much free time in my life!

*sinks to knees, covers face with hands*
posted by Kitteh at 12:59 PM on July 18, 2013 [2 favorites]

If it's only 4,000 pages, I assume Neal Stephenson has been left off the list.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 1:04 PM on July 18, 2013 [6 favorites]

If it's only 4,000 pages, I assume Neal Stephenson has been left off the list.

They would have put him in, but wouldn't know how to finish the list if they did.
posted by Celsius1414 at 1:05 PM on July 18, 2013 [6 favorites]

I've read a lot of these over the years. I was one of the founding list members, since I was on something that got converted to their new list. Anyway, I am excited they did this. I'm not a huge e-reader type person. I tend to prefer physical copies if possible, but the price is right on these. If you prefer to read them at your computer there's a link for that as well (link from the article).
posted by cjorgensen at 1:11 PM on July 18, 2013

I've just started reading this, and I'm not the short story fan I once was, but I think they could have started it off with a stronger story.
posted by srt19170 at 1:12 PM on July 18, 2013

There are other ways to read this, but I read ebooks on a kindle, and the kindle file they provide is too big to transfer, even using the desktop "Send to Kindle" transfer client. :(
posted by ocherdraco at 1:18 PM on July 18, 2013

There are other ways to read this, but I read ebooks on a kindle, and the kindle file they provide is too big to transfer, even using the desktop "Send to Kindle" transfer client.

Have you tried hooking the Kindle up to the computer via USB and then copying the ebook into its Document file?
posted by Iridic at 1:33 PM on July 18, 2013 [2 favorites]

4000 pages? That's almost half of a Wheel Of Time book!
posted by Diskeater at 1:43 PM on July 18, 2013

I misspoke! I use the Kindle app on my phone, not an actual Kindle—it's possible this file would be too big for my phone in any form.
posted by ocherdraco at 2:15 PM on July 18, 2013

Let's start a public list and share recommendations and reviews.

I am an idea man, not an execution man.
posted by One Hand Slowclapping at 2:24 PM on July 18, 2013

I misspoke! I use the Kindle app on my phone, not an actual Kindle—it's possible this file would be too big for my phone in any form.

epub version = 68 mb

"Once again, the conservative, Nook-heavy portfolio pays off for the hungry investor!" - Dr. John A. Zoidberg (paraphrased) *
posted by Celsius1414 at 2:27 PM on July 18, 2013 [3 favorites]

I suspect that the Tor folks need a lesson in compression. I gzipped that 500mg pdf down to 160mg. I suspect the mobi can be compressed down to a manageable size in Calibre.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 2:41 PM on July 18, 2013 [1 favorite]

TOO SKIFFY NOOOOO
posted by Mo' Money Moe Bandy at 3:21 PM on July 18, 2013

I tried reading these, but then my brain hurt like a warehouse, it had no room to spare...
posted by Chuffy at 4:07 PM on July 18, 2013 [2 favorites]

ocherdraco: If you use iTunes, you can sync the mobi file to Kindle for iOS by selecting Kindle in the File Sharing pane in iTunes and dragging the mobi file to the Kindle Documents pane.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 4:16 PM on July 18, 2013

I gzipped that 500mg pdf down to 160mg.

Well, but who's going to notice? I mean, your ereader probably weighs a couple hundred grams anyway.
posted by stebulus at 5:29 PM on July 18, 2013 [3 favorites]

I downloaded the epub file, but it must have gotten corrupted because nothing could read it. I don't really understand why it's half the size of the mobi.
posted by jeather at 8:32 PM on July 18, 2013

jeather, I was able to import it into Calibre, and it opened fine.
posted by Celsius1414 at 12:21 AM on July 19, 2013

Regarding the massive file size:

From comment 37 in the article, by poster virotti:
"I just would like to add that I was able to get a 24,5 Mb file by just converting the Mobi file using Calibre and a 48,1 Mb Epub file doing the same thing, so there's definely something wrong that is making your files too big."
posted by Nossidge at 4:31 AM on July 19, 2013

Yeah, I redownloaded it, then converted it epub->epub and got it down in size a fair bit. Now I can read it.
posted by jeather at 6:48 AM on July 19, 2013

Did the rest of you manage to convert it easily? I've downloaded multiple times, tried Calibre conversions for both epub>epub and mobi>epub and it gets stuck at 67% each time.
posted by tavegyl at 6:04 AM on July 20, 2013

It took me thirteen minutes to convert, with a two week old version of Calibre. I find that things often work badly if I'm more than a dozen versions behind so I update every four minor versions.
posted by jeather at 7:31 PM on July 20, 2013

I suspect you're right; I'm not nearly as regular about downloading updates as Calibre is about putting them out.
posted by tavegyl at 2:22 AM on July 21, 2013

Okay, I'm not a science fiction person but I thought I should take a look to broaden my horizons. I've thumbed through about half a dozen of these and what strikes me is that none of them have plots.

Characters, interesting premises, narrative drive, sure, but at the end they just - stop. Like, I've got nothing, go figure out the rest of it yourself.

Is this an aberration, a fluke of my small sampling, or is it a thing in Sci-fi in general? Does it apply to full length novels? (And if anyone has recommendations of sci-fi that does have plots, I would be most interested in hearing about them.)

Disappointed in Suburbia
posted by IndigoJones at 7:49 AM on July 23, 2013

Seconding the request for specific recommendations. It's a big pile.
posted by prefpara at 5:29 AM on July 27, 2013

Here is the full list and links to individual stories on Tor, for sake of posterity.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:52 PM on August 4, 2013

Of the list -- I haven't had a chance to read the stories yet -- I can recommend Charlie Jane Anders, Kij Johnson, Garth Nix, Nnedi Okorafor, Tim Pratt, Cat Rambo, Rachel Swirsky, Genevieve Valentine. This is not an exhaustive list.

Also I can recommend the Daily Science Fiction mailing list, which mails you a science fiction or fantasy story every weekday, with longer ones on Friday. The quality can be variable, but there are some excellent stories in there.
posted by jeather at 2:59 PM on August 4, 2013

Daily Science Fiction - their mailing list sign-up is on the right side.
posted by filthy light thief at 3:05 PM on August 4, 2013 [1 favorite]