Our colleagues over at Suvudu.com, Random House’s SF/F portal, have jumped into the eBook ring with the Suvudu Free First Book Library! From their post:
NEW YORK, NY – March 4, 2009 – Random House, Inc. today unveiled the first five titles in its new Suvudu Free First Book Library. Designed to introduce new readers to popular and acclaimed science fiction and fantasy series, the Suvudu Free First Book Library allows readers to access free digital copies of the first book in each series.
The program launches with access to the following novels:
• His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik
• Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb
• Settling Accounts: Return Engagement by Harry Turtledove
• Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
• Blood Engines by T.A. PrattThe books will be made available through Random House’s science fiction/fantasy portal, Suvudu.com (http://www.suvudu.com), as well as on other content services, including Scribd.com and the Stanza ebook reader application for the iPhone.
Says Christine Cabello, Random House Publishing Group Deputy Director of Marketing: “The Suvudu Free First Book promotion provides us with a new digital vehicle to build an author’s fan base and is an ideal way to bring new readers to these series.”
New titles are scheduled to be added to the Suvudu Free First Book Library on a regular basis. Coming soon are Terry Brooks’s Magic Kingdom for Sale—Sold!, Elizabeth Moon’s Trading in Danger, and many more.
This is fantastic news for SF/F fandom in general, and for eBook aficionadoes (like me!) in particular. As of right now, they’re only offering the books as PDFs, but according to the above statement, they will be coming to Scribd and Stanza, which can only mean that at the very least ePub verisons are in the works. Happy reading!
