5 excellent places to find DRM-free science fiction
Posted on July 27, 2006
I’m a science fiction reader these days, and it has been a long time since I have read a real fiction book - I much prefer the convenience of always having a book with me that ebooks provide. So I have decided to let you know five excellent places to find DRM-free reading material, from no-cost to low-cost.
- Baen Free Library - free - here you can get 80+ free full length books. This is intended to get you hooked so you’ll start paying by the month (see number 4).
- Cory Doctorow - free - Cory has released all his recent stories and novels under Creative Commons licenses so you can download away. However, Cory is probably even more useful because he finds out when other authors do similar and lets everyone know through his blogging at Boing Boing, so keep an eye there.
- Strange Horizons - no cost - “a weekly web-based magazine of and about speculative fiction”. Every week they have more fiction available, as well as articles, reviews, poetry and art. They don’t seem to have any syndication feeds, so I created one here.
- Baen Webscriptions - $15 USD for 4+ full length books - If you’ve read all the books in the free library, every month Baen releases at least 4 full length books in copy-protection free goodness. There are usually a few new books, and a few re-released older books. They don’t have feeds either, so I created one for them too.
- Fictionwise - cost varies - this online store has a large catalogue of ebooks available for download, with many reasonably priced. Just make sure you only get the multiformat books, as the secure formats are obviously DRM’d. I do like it that fictionwise at least allows you to easily select non-secure formats only.
One final option is to subscribe to my fiction del.icio.us feed, as I regularly bookmark any fiction I find so that I may come back and download it later.
Whatever you do, don’t buy DRM’d ebooks. You are just ripping yourself off in the long run.
Thanks to darahgna for the photo.
UPDATE: Boing Boing’s post brought in a lot of good comments and suggestions below. I don’t think I’m going to run out of fiction any time soon.
UPDATE II: I have written a post about how I read ebooks that might interest you.
» Filed Under DRM, ebooks, fiction, sf
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64 Responses to “5 excellent places to find DRM-free science fiction”
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Check out the Annotated Baen Free eBook Listing. The non-DRMed redistribute-but-don’t-sell CD-ROMs that come with some Baen hardcovers have a lot of books on them; if you only look at the Baen Free Library, you’ll miss a bunch of these.
“Free Speculative Fiction Online”, http://freesfonline.de/
Lots of classic SF at Memoware. Also check out Manybooks. Both sites have the advantage of having a lot of free books (so they are free free as well as DRM-free!).
Baen rocks.
There’s a pretty good selection of SF at Manybooks.net. Not sure if they’re all DRM-free, but they appear to be.
http://manybooks.net/categories/SFC
Charles Stross released his novel Accelerando under a Creative Commons license. It’s available for download (in several DRM-free formats) here.
Don’t forget Manybooks.Net which is a great front end to the Project Gutenberg free texts. What Manybooks.net does is provide these free ebooks in whatever format you can think of. Here is the science fiction category on the site, where you can find older SF books from Jules Verne, Lester del Ray, H. Beam Piper, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and of course, works from Cory Doctorow and other modern authors who release their books under Creative Commons licenses. There is even a general Creative Commons category there, although this is obviously more than just SF books. [David: Fixed manybooks link]
(Sorry, messed up the first link to Manybook.Net, although the other links are OK) [David: no probs, fixed]
DRM Free and public domain MP3 science fiction stories. Sci-fi stories written by ‘old’ visionaries like Ray Bradbury and Robert Heinlein. A great way to spend the day hearing about 3D televisions and space travel. Recommend ‘X-Minus One’, ‘Exploring Tomorrow’, ‘British Sci-Fi’, ‘Dimension X’ and ‘SF 68′ for starters.
http://www.oldradiofun.com/catindex.asp?cat=SF
I started a little project called iFiction - http://www.aburt.com/ifiction/stories - to allow authors to put their work up (DRM-free) and charge whatever they feel reasonable, after one reads however much of their work free (0%…100%). It’s not a publishing site per se, but a tool for authors to use to easily collect payment. Nonetheless, anyone can browse the list, etc. Around 70 pieces so far, including, for example, John Stith’s MANHATTAN TRANSFER.
(I also suggest folks check out http://www.supportSF.com for other donation funded SF.)
The Librivox project gets volunteers to record readings of public domain works. The recordings themselves are also Public Domain and free. SciFi works include “War of the Worlds”, “Journey to the Center of the Earth” and “A Princess of Mars”.
http://librivox.org/
Try your local public library. If it is a decent size it will have a large number of online ebooks. They may have DRM, but they are free as long as you have a library card.
Kind of the like the regular library books, not good if you want to keep a copy forever, great if you want to read them for free.
Many libraries have either the http://www.netlibrary.com or http://www.overdrive.com licensed for their own customers.
[...] Link [...]
I’m serialising the novel MORTAL GHOST from my blog in weekly instalments. It’s a YA fantasy/SF hybrid that is attracting adult readers as well.
http://mortalghost.blogspot.com
http://www.365tomorrows.com/ a free sci-fi story a day, large archive.
http://zenvirus.com/alphadiabolical.html - lots of Hugh Cook’s sci-fi novels for free. Don’t be fooled by the fantasy trappings and hokey titles, these are pretty damn good.
An old favourite: http://zenvirus.com/wizard-wizards-warrior-warriors/read-free-online-sword-sorcery-novel.html
Couple of sites I visit on a regular basis for sci-fi-ish reading material:
http://www.ewpub.org
http://www.fanfiction.net
There’s excellent SF new and old in the Sci Fiction Archive and The Escape Pod podcasts SF under a creative commons licence.
All the SF at ScienceFictional.com is published under a Creative Commons license. (There is an odd flash piece there about the adventures of liberal bloggers.)
All the SF Audio at AudioCD.com is published under a Creative Commons License.
Some of it is good, some of it is awful, all of it is interesting.
I don’t know how much science fiction is in there, but I love
http://www.gutenberg.org
Lot’s of great classical novels, stories and plays. The last three months, I’ve been reading once short story a day by Chekov, during my lunch, and I’ve only scratched the surface of his work.
I’m giving away my own book here:
http://www.blakeschwendiman.com/blook/2006/07/the_agency_delta_downloadable.html
Escape Pod pays authors for science fiction short stories, and then gives away mp3 recordings http://www.escapepod.org/
Also, do not forget the granddaddy of them all, Project Gutenberg. Thanks to the excellent work of Greg Weeks, much of H. Beam Piper’s work is showing up there, as well as other SF from pre-1963 that never had its copyright renewed (some Andre Norton, E.E. Smith). http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/p#a8301
escapepod.org isn’t to be missed.
The Other*Worlds*Cafe has a bunch of classic SF e-texts available for download: http://www.other-worlds-cafe.com/fiction/stories.php (right-hand list of links).
[...] 5 excellent places to find DRM-free science fiction Get some DRMless, mostly free SF ebooks. (tags: books free scifi etext) [...]
[...] Link (via BoingBoing) [...]
My own book, “Brave Men Run - A Novel of the Sovereign Era” is available in five different e-book formats, all DRM-free, from http://www.bravemenrun.com/ebook.php
It’s also available as a free podcast from Podiobooks.com:
http://www.podiobooks.com/podiobooks/book.php?ID=40
Sorry for the plug — but I am a very vocal opponent of DRM. All of my future work will be released as “Brave Men Run” was released — print, free podcast, MP3 Audio CD, and DRM-free e-books.
Many thanks,
Matt
The BBC has a few out of print Doctor Who books up in DRM-free format.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/ebooks/index.shtml
Something to read while waiting for the next new episode to arrive!
If there is an interest in DRM-free audio books which are freely available, we have a few dozen SF titles available at Podiobooks.com.
If there is an interest in DRM-free audio books which are freely available, we have a few dozen SF titles available at Podiobooks.com. These are new books, not public domain. We’re working directly with many authors to get their books on the site as well.
I’ve posted my first sci-fi novel along with some short stories on my website:
http://www.BillSmithBooks.com
http://www.OutlawGalaxy.com
The stories are action-adventure space fantasy aimed at the same folks who enjoy Star Wars, Babylon 5, etc.
[...] 3 - 5 excellent places to find DRM-free science fiction Does what it says on the tin. Link via BoingBoing. (tags: DRM commons creative download ebooks sf scifi fiction science books free) [...]
[...] 5 excellent places to find DRM-free science fiction - cebidae: the blog of david dean (tags: blog books science reference life literature education) [...]
SF short story podcasts at RevolultionSF.com.
[...] Well, it appears the link from Boing Boing to my article about locating DRM-free ebooks may have brought a little bit more traffic here than normal (click on the thumbnail for a close-up). As a result there are a lot of good comments about other places to get your scifi than the 5 I mentioned. I’ll wait a little longer and write up a summary to get all the links in the one spot. [...]
Wow. Cory Doctorow has free books lmao. A veritable Tom Clancy of the SF community. Thanx for the rest of the links however. The trifecta is complete: 1)Have a good service 2)Put Cory Doctorow’s crap in your page 3)Get free link from BoingBoing.
We publish one new science fiction short story per month at Futurismic. Most of our fiction is published under a Creative Commons license, all of it is DRM free.
hi, i have been a reader of storiesonline.net for some years now. it is a non paying sex story site. but wait, there are some jewels in there that are worth the try. for instant one of my favorite SF autors, pen named Al Steiner have published 4 full length SF novels & a lot of small SF stories half of them non erotic & if i may say so very very good!
for the record i love good SF Books & have a collection of more than 2000 paper back in frenche & english.
ilan
sorry forgot another one with at lest 4 full SF novells
http://www.beyondthefarhorizon.com/
hosted by an authors herself. named Gina Marie Wylie, she is very good & it is worth the try
ilan
PS again sorry for the 2 consquantly posted emails
You can read several of my SF/horror shorts and novels for free on my homepage (see Website link)… not “Creative Commons,” but “Fair Use” applies.
[...] I live and breathe sci-fi, and thanks to David Dean, here’s a crapload of DRM-free science fiction for all my fellow geeks. I do seem to be morphing into Mr Freeshit, amn’t I? Hey, but it’s all legit, mind. [...]
There is also the Gutenberg Australia SF Project, as an excellent guide.
http://www.gutenberg.net.au/sfproject.html
What means DRM? I’m new to this concept….
Joe, the wikipedia article is probably a good start and covers both sides of the issue fairly well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Rights_Management
[...] I’ve been reading ebooks on my Palm Zire 31 for a year and a bit…but not thought about listing the resources I use. Well, here’s the first step — and I didn’t have to do much of the work either thanks to this great link from David Dean. He lists five, I’ve grabbed three, but check out the comments on his post…even more great resources there. [...]
[...] 5 excellent places to find DRM-free science fiction (tags: free scifi books ebooks fiction ebook blog) [...]
[...] 5 excellent places to find DRM-free science fiction (tags: ebooks) [...]
Don’t forget the archive at sci-fiction:
http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/archive.html
Also, most of the authors who are nominated for the hugo and nebula awards make thier works available during the perioud between the nominations and the awards - there are a couple of days before the Hugos are given out.
Which I see Duncan pointed out already.
Damn.
[...] A couple of days ago I found an interesting post in David Dean’s blog called 5 excellent places to find DRM-free science fiction. In his post, David talks about two of my favorite places to get ebooks, Baen Free Library and Baen Webscriptions as well as 3 other good sites. As you may have guessed by now, I am a voracious reader (I don’t post reviews of everything I read…that’d mean 5-8 reviews a week…and I don’t have time to write that much
and my preferred way to read is in electronic form in my ipaq. [...]
[...] A couple of days ago I found an interesting post in David Dean’s blog called 5 excellent places to find DRM-free science fiction. In his post, David talks about two of my favorite places to get ebooks, Baen Free Library and Baen Webscriptions as well as 3 other good sites. As you may have guessed by now, I am a voracious reader (I don’t post reviews of everything I read…that’d mean 5-8 reviews a week…and I don’t have time to write that much
and my preferred way to read is in electronic form in my ipaq. [...]
[...] 5 excellent places to find DRM-free science fiction. Technorati Tags: creativecommons day against drm drm free stuff [...]
James Patrick Kelly offers his new novel “Burn” for free download and as a podcast. Check out his RSS feed for podcasts of his short stories.
http://www.jimkelly.net/pages/free.htm
This web site is a new index of ‘free fiction’ ebooks. I hope people/authors will add good books they find to this index. The intention of this site is to only list free ebooks and to provide reliable independent reviews.
Drat I forgot to add the link
http://only-free-fiction.com
[...] Looking for legal and encryption-free (read: open it however you want) science fiction ebooks? Blogger David Dean has concocted a list of places to find stuff to keep you reading. [...]
Thanks all for the info
http://www.rkphunt.com/hed - Has lots of free ebooks to read online as well as paid.
We specialize in speculative fiction ebooks by new authors. Our ebooks are in pdf format with no DRM–completely portable and printable. If you like SF, mystery, and topical fiction, check us out. The first few chapters of our books can be downloaded for free.
Here is a lot a science fiction free ebooks.. oh its in spanish
http://www.libroselectronicosgratis.com
regards
Here is a great place to find paperbacks- they have over 1 million:
http://www.paperbackswap.com/
We’re serializing A.A. Roi’s science fiction series The Promethead, which is available free online and in downloadable text and mp3 formats.
You’ll find a growing library of free books in The Reading Room at John T. Cullen’s author website. I have been active on the Web from the early days. According to Internet publishing historian Karen Wiesner, I was the second person in history to publish weekly serialized chapters of complete novels in 1996. I was the sixth digital publisher in the world. As a result of my Web exposure, I had two books published through Simon & Schuster (The Generals of October, 2004; and A Walk in Ancient Rome, 2005). However, I still felt as if I were swimming against a strong current. I figured out that I was one of a million or more struggling midlist authors. Web commerce, e-books, POD…they were all obstacles and walls rather than being solutions in and of themselves. In Feb 2008, I decided to go back to my roots and give most of my stuff away for free. I did some of this in 1996, but now I’m doing it with a twist. I have targeted goals for growing my readership, and I offer all sorts of incentives to help me out, including buying my books–but above all, send me more readers. That’s not asking a lot for giving you over 250 hours of reading pleasure or 1.1+ words of quality fiction and nonfiction. In the early days, with nothing between me and my reader but a one keystroke download, I got lots of emails from around the world, thanking me and praising the work. Now I’m banking on that core of avid readers with a heart to help me break through that wall I was banging my head on. Charles Dickens is a case in point (as are James Joyce, Will Shakespeare, D. H. Lawrence, and so many others who broke in by self-publishing). The establishment, from English majors to publisher/printers, hated his work. An eager and avid public couldn’t get enough. Economics triumphed over academic posturing, and he became one of the premier novelists in English literature. I don’t aspire to become the next Dickens. I aspire to be and remain John T. Cullen, who offers you some exciting, professional, eclectic reading. Come to the Reading Room and decide for yourself. I hope you’ll like what you read, and help others discover the books there. Thanks! //JTC
And Free SF Online
http://freesfonline.de
I’ve just started an online science fiction novel too,
http://stephenjsweeney.blogspot.com
Will be updated with more chapters and PDF downloads in time!
I’ve just started offering free copies of my NEW science fiction, fantasy, and action adventure novels (with my out-of-print titles with Avon Books and HarperCollins to follow along with art books, manuals, etc., etc.). I’m hoping those who enjoy ebooks in PDF format will check out my free ebook page at:
http://duncanlong.com/e-books.html