Nine Princes Nowhere to Be Found
May. 18th, 2014 02:41 amI am croggled to discover that Zelazny’s Nine Princes in Amber is apparently not available as an ebook (not commercially, anyway — my library seems to only have it in electronic format). Furthermore, if I wish to purchase the dead tree edition new, my only option seems to be buying an enormous honkin’ omnibus of all ten main novels.
I would welcome evidence that I am wrong about this, likely on account of searching when it is nearly 3 a.m. here and I need sleep. But if it is indeed as it appears: what the heck? Why has the rights-holder not made the book more widely available? This is not some obscure novel nobody’s ever heard of except academics and three Yuletide fans; it’s a reasonably well-known classic. I want to give the rights-holder money, whoever they are. But they are making it annoying to do so. I don’t want a giant omnibus; I want the instant gratification of an ebook, which I can take with me to Wiscon, and then if I like the first one I’ll probably buy it and the rest in paper. I do not want to carry a brick on the plane.
Grrr. Argh.
Originally published at Swan Tower. You can comment here or there.
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Date: 2014-05-18 09:56 pm (UTC)(And checking up on their catalog now, they don't seem to own any of the Amber books anymore.)
Possibly more helpfully, there is also this edition of the first 5 books for people who want a normal fantasy brick rather than a super-size fantasy brick.
I can sort of see why people might not want to sell the books individually they are really short by modern standards. When I read book 1, I didn't like it all that much, but I kept reading because my boyfriend was a big fan of the series, and things got a lot better around book 3 in ways that dealt with some of my problems with book 1. Also, the individual books are really short by modern standards, and have a tendency to end on cliffhangers. So I can see parsing books 1-5 as a single fantasy epic.
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Date: 2014-05-18 09:58 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2014-05-18 10:24 pm (UTC)(Also I just learned that "non-romantic" is a subgenre of fantasy and science fiction.)
But you're right, there's no reason not to split the e-book.
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Date: 2014-05-18 01:14 pm (UTC)If I had the rights to Zelazny's work I'd be milking that for all it was worth.
I've been hearing a lot about Nine Princes in Amber lately, from io9 and other sources. Is something up or is interest just springing up independently?
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Date: 2014-05-18 04:52 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2014-05-18 07:38 pm (UTC)Failing to make commercial editions available, though . . . that's less sensible. As
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Date: 2014-05-19 12:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-05-19 01:59 am (UTC)Can you give more details about that?
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Date: 2014-05-18 07:36 pm (UTC)As for the piracy thing, yes: I want to pay money to somebody for this. They do not want to take my cash. I don't understand.
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Date: 2014-05-18 10:53 pm (UTC)That's a shame though, because it was also on my list, due to hearing about it.
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Date: 2014-05-19 02:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-05-19 02:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-05-19 07:34 am (UTC)Well, legally. Morally-constitutionally, it's a privilege that society grants for a limited time for the purpose of rewarding creativity. It's meant more for authors getting some reward, not necessarily squeezing out every last drop, let alone keeping things off the market because someone can't be bothered to sort out the rights or to provide things in a decent form.
Things really went downhill when long terms became automatic, vs. having to be renewed every 14 years. Not that'd help here, where it's just in inconvenient print.
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Date: 2014-05-18 04:13 pm (UTC)http://www.powells.com/s?kw=nine+princes+in+amber&class=
I do prefer dead trees to electrons.
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Date: 2014-05-19 11:31 am (UTC)Don't know if you're still looking but...
Date: 2014-05-23 02:20 pm (UTC)I found this copy on eBay. It's a paperback, not omnibus. Not electronic, either, obviously, but might do.
Re: Don't know if you're still looking but...
Date: 2014-05-27 07:55 pm (UTC)