The Human Division, the latest story set in the universe of John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War, will debut on January 15, 2013.
The episodic narrative will kick off with “The B-Team,” the first of 13 episodes available as serialized DRM-free ebooks every week. Much “Like the episodes of a good high-end cable drama, each one will have enough internal integrity to work as an enjoyable chunk of story on its own, but each will advance a ‘season’-long storyline as well,” according to the project’s editor, Patrick Nielsen Hayden. (Read more about the project here.)
Ron Hogan will be reading and talking about the developments of each episode every Tuesday here on Tor.com, too. Just bookmark The Human Division Read-Along index for the latest.
Check out the episode titles and release dates below.
January 15 – The Human Division #1: The B-Team
January 22 – The Human Division #2: Walk the Plank
January 29 – The Human Division #3: We Only Need the Heads
February 5 – The Human Division #4: A Voice in the Wilderness
February 12 – The Human Division #5: Tales from the Clarke
February 19 – The Human Division #6: The Back Channel
February 26 – The Human Division #7: The Dog King
March 5 – The Human Division #8: The Sound of Rebellion
March 12 – The Human Division #9: The Observers
March 19 – The Human Division #10: This Must Be the Place
March 26 – The Human Division #11: A Problem of Proportion
April 2 – The Human Division #12: The Gentle Art of Cracking Heads
April 9 – The Human Division #13: Earth Below, Sky Above
A hardcover collection of all the Human Division episodes (and some bomus material) is forthcoming in spring/summer 2013.
Each episode will feature artwork by John Harris. If you visit more of your favorite science fiction websites today, you will see artwork for the various episodes.
Amazon, through the Kindle platform, has started releasing serials in which you subscribe to the whole thing, and the pieces arrive weekly. This would be far more convenient that buying each episode separately.
Have you considered using that mechanism on the Kindle rather than the “buy each episode separately” mechanism you’ve set up?
(I’d give you a link to their Serial page, but the link is huge. Instead, go to the Kindle eBook main page, and click on Kindle Serials on the left.)
Oh, yes. That – serializing for Kindle – would be great. I don’t even mind paying for the whole thing up front, since Scalzi has yet to disappoint me…
My question/problem is feeling like I’d have to buy the thing twice if I want to read all of it. Why buy a hardcover after buying all of the book in a more convienient (digital), space saving, form and then turn around and have to buy it again if I want to read the rest. Sure I could check it out from the library to read the extra bits, but then I’d have to do that every time I wanted to. Is there going to be a way for the digital purchasers to buy the bonus material?
Ditto on the serializing for Kindle. I’d love to add a subscription to my christmas list, but don’t want to have to include complicated instructions on how to order all of the available issues.
From a quick reading of the Amazon Serials section of their site, it looks as if they are looking for exclusive rights to serials published through their site, and are asking prospective authors to pitch them here:
Kindle Serials
Makes sense that Amazon is trying to cultivate Amazon-only content, but unfortunately that doesn’t make this a great fit for Amazon’s business plan. Their loss.
Yeah, count me in as having no idea what to buy here. I’d like to read along with everyone else and not have to wait until summer to get the extras, but I’m not gonna buy it twice either because that just seems silly.
Think of “buying it twice” as supporting a great author.
Oh drat! It’s not a real book. I was just about to put this in my newsletter. I guess I will just have to wait
“…Ron Hogan will be reading and talking about the developments of each episode…”
As in reading it aloud, with downloadable .mp3 file and an RSS feed? Now THAT would be pretty awesome. Tor needs some kind of audio podcast, for sure. Not just a long commercial, either, but something that is entertaining in it’s own right. I’d trade the rest of this Snicker’s Bar for something like that.
Single epidoded should be DRM free, right? Why is it then that Kobobooks.com offers The Human Division files only in Adobe DRM epub? At least looking at their offerings from Finland.
Does anyone know if there are ePub versions of these available anywhere? Some of us don’t own Kindles or iCrapples, as hard as I know that is to believe for some sheeples! ;-p
(Nothing beats the Moon+ ereader on my droid :)
@nostromo:
Check out calibre e-book management, and free your e-library. My preferred e-book format is HTML.
:D
Argh! A John Scalzi book I can’t read!!! Went to buy this on Google Play Books and can only find bibliographic references. Why the heck can’t I buy it?? Is it cos I’m in Australia and this is a US only release? I read on John’s website it would be worldwide. I am very sad… (only want to read it on my Android phone, haven’t got a kindle or any other kind of specialised ereader)