On Sunday I discovered that Goodreads have free book give aways.  The idea is that you get early copies of new books, or earlier books in a series when a new title is coming out, and you ideally write and publish a review of them.  Writing the review is not required, but it is kind of why the publishers are giving the books away.

So I thought, "I don't have nearly enough books on my to-read book cases." No, seriously, I have a bookcase and a half of to-read books. "I'll look and see if I can get any."  I found a few that were available in the UK and were science fiction and or fantasy.

Nothing complicated in applying; just supply an address where the book is to be shipped, accept the completely reasonable (and brief) terms and conditions and that's you.

About only a day I've been notified that I'm going to receive one of these books.

The Digital Plague (Avery Cates, #2) by Jeff Somers:

Avery Cates is a very rich man. He's probably the richest criminal in New York City. But right now, Avery Cates is pissed. Because everyone around him has just started to die - in a particularly gruesome way. With every moment bringing the human race closer to extinction, Cates finds himself in the role of both executioner and savior of the entire world.

Okay, it's book two in its series and I've not read the first book.  Should be interesting to see if it can be read on its own.

I have only written reviews for audio books so far, so this is my chance to see how different one for a print novel is.

My first review in a while is now up at SFFAudio.com. Lev Grossman's The Magician.

• Kelley Armstrong
  • Bitten (Otherworld, Book 1)
• Kage Baker
  • Rude Mechanicals
• Iain M. Banks
  • Transition
• Sam Bourne
  • The Final Reckoning
• Lois McMaster Bujold
  • The Curse of Chalion (Chalion, Book 1)
• Cory Doctorow
  • Down and Out in the Magical Kingdom
  • Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town
• Neil Gaiman
  • The Graveyard Book
• Robert Goddard
  • Name to a Face
• Graham Greene
  • The Third Man
• Peter F. Hamilton
  • The Dreaming Void (Void Trilogy, Book 1)
  • The Temporal Void (Void Trilogy, Book 2)
• Simon Kernick
  • Relentless
• Stephen King
  • Under The Dome
• Tee Morris & Lisa Lee
  • Morevi (The Chronicles of Rafe and Askana, Book 1)
• Lawrence Lessig
  • Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity
• Nathan Lowell
  • Full Share (Golden Age of the Solar Clipper, Book 3)
  • Double Share (Golden Age of the Solar Clipper, Book 4)
  • Captain's Share (Golden Age of the Solar Clipper, Book 5)
• Scott Lynch
  • The Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentlemen Bastards, Book 1)
  • Red Seas under Red Skies (Gentlemen Bastards, Book 2)
• Jack McDevitt
  • A Talent For War (Alex Benedict, Book 1)
  • Polaris (Alex Benedict, Book 2)
  • Seeker (Alex Benedict, Book 3)
  • The Devil's Eye (Alex Benedict, Book 4)
• Patrick McLean
  • How to Succeed in Evil: The Novel
• Hayao Miyazaki
  • Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Volume 1)
  • Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Volume 2)
  • Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Volume 3)
  • Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Volume 4)
  • Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Volume 5)
  • Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Volume 6)
  • Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Volume 7)
• Karen Marie Moning
  
  • Bloodfever (Fever, Book 2)
• T. A. Pratt
  • Blood Engines (Marla Mason, Book 1)
  • Poison Sleep (Marla Mason, Book 2)
  • Dead Reign (Marla Mason, Book 3)
• Ian Rankin & Werther Dell'Edra
  • Dark Entries
• Matthew Reilly
  • Temple
• Alastair Reynolds
  • Revelation Space (Revelation Space, Book 1)
• John Ringo
  • A Hymn Before Battle (Posleen War, Book 1)
• Jeremy Robinson
  • Kronos
• Phil Rossi
  • Eden
• J. Daniel Sawyer
  • Predestination and Other Games of Chance (Antithesis, Book 1)
• Robert J. Sawyer
  • Flashforward
• John Scalzi
  • METAtropolis: The Dawn of Uncivilization
  • Zoe's War
• Karl Schroeder
  • Queen of Candesce (Virga, Book 2)
  • Pirate Sun (Virga, Book 3)
• Scott Sigler
  • Contagious
• E. E. "Doc" Smith
  • Triplanetary (Lensman, Book 1)
• Allen Steele
  • Coyote (Coyote, Book 1)
  • Coyote Rising (Coyote, Book 2)
  • Coyote Frontier (Coyote, Book 3)
  • Spindrift (Coyote, Book 4)
• S. M. Stirling
  • Against the Tide of Years (Nantucket, Book 2)
• Andrew Taylor
  • The American Boy
• J. R. R. Tolkien
  • The Fellowship of the Ring (Lord of the Rings, Book 1)
• John Varley
  • The Presistence of Vision
• David Weber
  • On Basilisk Station (Honor Harrington, Book 1)
  • Off Armageddon Reef (Safehold, Book 1)
  • By Schism Rent Asunder (Safehold, Book 2)
  • By Heresies Distressed (Safehold, Book 3)
• H. G. Wells
  • The Magic Shop

I am no where near exploiting my latest piece of tech.  It is a Behringer BCF2000.  A USB-MIDI controller.

Using the Mackie Emulation mode it Just Works(tm) with Ardour. Well, that's a tiny bit of an exaggeration.  You doo need to put the BCF into a Mackie Emulation mode, then you need to edit your Ardour config file (.ardour2/ardour.rc) to mention the BFC.  After that, as long as I remember to switch it on before opening ardour, it is working perfectly well.

It is still habit to reach for the control on the screen with the mouse or to the keyboard, rather than the BCF.  That will just take practice.  And sadly I'm trying to relearn some of what I have forgotten.  I've been using Ardour during the last year, but since I finished Episode 6, I haven't done anything with SFX.  Mostly just narrations.  I'm getting there, and possibly trying a few more complicated configurations.

The last scene I was editing this evening involves transitions between 5 locations, including flipping over to the other end of a phone call.  Using the Behringer is making me look at how I structure this scene differently.  The sound of a penny dropping on how I could manage this with about a third of the Sends I would have used before was almost enough to drown out the sound of the weight-lifter upstairs dropping all his weights.

No, I'm not highly strung.  I just like it under my desk.

A pleasant surpise today was the the arrival of Gregg Taylor's Tales of the Red Panda: The Crime Cabal.  This book of based on the series of free Audio Drama's that have been produced by Gregg for  Decoderring Theatre since 2005 (and before).  If you like your Pulp superheroes with a slug of wit and sass, then this book is for you.  The Red Panda, together with The Flying Squirrel, protects the Toronto of the 1930s from crime, corruption and invaders from other dimensions.  Highly recommended!  You'll also find the fantastic Black Jack Justice in their archives, also writter the Gregg Taylor.  Each show is under 30 minutes long.  Listen to one.