Karl Schroeder's Ventus now a free CC download

Award-winning sf writer Karl Schroeder has just released his debut novel, Ventus under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial- NoDerivs license, meaning that you can download it, share it and copy it as much as you like. Karl's one of my favorite writers in the field, and has been a pal of mine since I was a teenager -- he's always seemed to be one step ahead of everyone else (he was the first person to use the word "fractal" in conversation with me). It's an indication of just how far ahead he is that this seven-year-old book still feels like it's on the cutting edge, with its object-oriented sapient planet, bizarre copyright wars, and assorted grace-notes. Link

Discussion

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#1 posted by Anonymous , September 18, 2007 12:24 AM

That's great! Ventus is a good book.

#2 posted by Anonymous , September 18, 2007 6:55 AM

Karl Schroeder also did a great interview with EcoGeek.org last week as part of their science fiction authors interviews series. [Link]

#3 posted by Anonymous , September 18, 2007 9:12 AM

Any way to contact him and ask whether this could go up on some forum where I could actually pay him for it? I appreciate good reading, and I like the idea of authors eating hot food and sleeping indoors.

#4 posted by Anonymous , September 18, 2007 6:49 PM

Cool! I talked on the phone to Karl a few weeks ago as part of the WorldChanging Canada retreat weekend (which I was unable to attend in person). In addition to being a visionary author, Karl's a super-nice guy and really great to chat too.

I mentioned to him that I appreciated Ventus because the notion of every molecule on the planet being "intelligent" and knowing what it was and its context reminded me of the highest hopes that people have for the "semantic web" (web 3.0?) - every piece of info knowing its own significance and place.

FYI: I tried to register for a commenter account, but the confirmation email takes ages to arrive.

#5 posted by Anonymous , September 18, 2007 7:49 PM

I have formatted this book for reading on the Sony Reader over at the MobileRead forums in the ebook section. http://www.mobileread.com

#6 posted by bcrowell

, September 18, 2007 8:17 PM

Re #3, you can buy a printed copy on amazon or bn.com. He also has a link for donations at http://www.kschroeder.com/ , but I think virtually everybody who's made writing available for free online has found that you get virtually zero revenue by asking for donations. Buying a copy will also help to convince bookstores and his publisher that people like his work; sending him money via paypal won't do that.