Making Light: I'm Pleased to Report...

October 5, 2011

I’m Pleased to Report…
Posted by Jim Macdonald at 12:50 AM * 34 comments

…that the Mageworlds books are returning to e-print.

Volumes 1, 3, and 5 have already come out. I expect the others will be along soon.

	The Price of the Stars Kindle Nook iTunes
	By Honor Betray’d Kindle Nook iTunes
	The Long Hunt Kindle Nook iTunes

We had a great deal of fun writing these books. Nor is the series entirely finished; I’m working (in among other projects) on the direct sequel to By Honor Betray’d. The working title for that is Commodore Gil in the Mageworlds. The long-beleaguered commodore has to contend with (among other things) pirates flying solar sails, all while dealing with local politics and his own increasingly-complicated love life. That’ll be volume 8. Then volume 9 will be the Grand Wrap Up and the Completion of the Great Working begun in the prequels (The Stars Asunder and A Working of Stars).

We started The Price of the Stars way back when we were in Panamá and were so unclear on the concept that we were still calling it “The Short Story” when it had topped 200 pages with no end in sight.

All of these books were edited by Patrick and Teresa. They were Locus bestsellers in their day. The Price of the Stars went to seven printings. I’m happy to see them available again.

[Updated to add: Book 4]

The Gathering Flame

[Updated to add: Book 2]

Starpilot’s Grave

See also: Five Hundred Years Before: The Mageworlds prequels in electronic form. Two from the Mageworlds. Mageworlds short stories in all major electronic formats.

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Comments on I'm Pleased to Report...:

#1 ::: Jessica ::: (view all by) ::: October 05, 2011, 01:54 AM:

Excellent!!!

#2 ::: Jules ::: (view all by) ::: October 05, 2011, 02:46 AM:

Shows up as not available for me on Amazon -- are they only available in the US?

#3 ::: James D. Macdonald ::: (view all by) ::: October 05, 2011, 03:22 AM:

Dunno what the rights-and-territories situation is with Amazon.

#4 ::: GHN ::: (view all by) ::: October 05, 2011, 05:18 AM:

Amazon and Barnes and Noble. *sigh* That means I'll have to stick to my old Dead Tree editions. Baen, and some small presses, they also permit those from outside the US to buy ebooks - I used to buy a lot of them, but now I all too frequently get that spiteful "not available in your country" message.
*grumblegrumblegrumble*

#5 ::: James D. Macdonald ::: (view all by) ::: October 05, 2011, 07:13 AM:

GHN: You're in Norway, right? If you read German, there's a Kindle version in translation.

#6 ::: Mike G. ::: (view all by) ::: October 05, 2011, 08:26 AM:

Darn. I was hoping these were self-pub'd after rights reversion.

I mean, sure, congrats! It's good that they're back in circulation. But I'd be much happier paying a sane price and having you collect most of the money, than paying $6.99 and having most of it go to McMillan...

Time to dust off my paperbacks of the series...

#7 ::: Paul (@princejvstin) ::: (view all by) ::: October 05, 2011, 10:30 AM:

And a more reasonable price than a used mass market paperback on Amazon.

#8 ::: Brenda Kalt ::: (view all by) ::: October 05, 2011, 10:57 AM:

For used mass market paperbacks, may I recommend www (dot) alibris (dot) com?

#9 ::: Mary Aileen ::: (view all by) ::: October 05, 2011, 11:35 AM:

I'm not into ebooks yet, but I'm delighted to learn that there are two more Mageworlds books in the works. That series is on my extremely short "buy in hardcover" list.

#10 ::: Dave Trowbridge ::: (view all by) ::: October 05, 2011, 12:03 PM:

Good news!

#11 ::: LinD ::: (view all by) ::: October 05, 2011, 02:23 PM:

Oh goodie!

#12 ::: Robert Glaub ::: (view all by) ::: October 05, 2011, 04:53 PM:

And I just ordered a Kindle Fire because I was tired of lugging heavy books around...

#13 ::: Michael Walsh ::: (view all by) ::: October 05, 2011, 06:09 PM:

Only #s 1,3, & 5? That's odd.

#14 ::: eric ::: (view all by) ::: October 05, 2011, 06:46 PM:

And prime, too.

#15 ::: Tom Whitmore ::: (view all by) ::: October 05, 2011, 07:00 PM:

If it were prime, there'd be number 2 as well.

#16 ::: Singing Wren ::: (view all by) ::: October 05, 2011, 08:39 PM:

This might be just what it takes to get me to start buying ebooks, instead of just searching out the freebies. My paperbacks are, well, let's call them "well read".

#17 ::: Laina ::: (view all by) ::: October 05, 2011, 08:57 PM:

My paperback copies are also "well read", so I'm happy to have e-books available and delighted to learn there are more two more books in the works!

#18 ::: P J Evans ::: (view all by) ::: October 05, 2011, 10:48 PM:

Oh goody!
(I remember reading a very early short story version, lo these many years ago. Which was why I bought the books when I saw them. Now I can buy them - again.)

#19 ::: kaleissin ::: (view all by) ::: October 06, 2011, 04:23 AM:

Not available for me either. Meh.

#20 ::: James D. Macdonald ::: (view all by) ::: October 06, 2011, 06:34 AM:

POTS at Library Thing

POTS at Goodreads

#21 ::: James D. Macdonald ::: (view all by) ::: October 08, 2011, 10:32 PM:

And now The Gathering Flame (The Prelude to Mageworlds) is available.

Book Four.

#22 ::: James D. Macdonald ::: (view all by) ::: October 10, 2011, 10:37 PM:

Our Mageworlds short story collection, Two From The Mageworlds, at the Apple iBookstore:

#23 ::: Andrew Plotkin ::: (view all by) ::: October 11, 2011, 01:23 AM:

You can just post the one link, really. If a user has Safari and iTunes installed, it'll send them to their locale-appropriate part of Apple's store.

#24 ::: meteorplum ::: (view all by) ::: October 11, 2011, 11:55 AM:

You had me halfway through the free chapter of PotS. I only waited until I finished the chapter before hopping onto Amazon to buy the Kindle version.

(Of course, now that I'm finished with PotS, I have to wait on some bizarre publisher schedule that put the second book in a series last on the release list. Facepalm)

#25 ::: fidelio ::: (view all by) ::: October 11, 2011, 12:20 PM:

meteorplum @24--It's an ancient secret of publishing, which is seldom revealed to the public. The second book must always be the hardest to find. It's carved in stone in the secret temple deep in the mountains along with other tenets of the faith. Even e-books must abide by these laws, or those releasing them will be declared anathema and dealt with accordingly.

#26 ::: meteorplum ::: (view all by) ::: October 13, 2011, 02:38 PM:

fidelio@25, I had this happen with Charlie Stross' Merchant Prince series. You'd think I'd learn....

#27 ::: P J Evans ::: (view all by) ::: November 26, 2011, 04:46 PM:

Paid for five at B&N, got four, and ... they're DRM'd. Which wasn't indicated on the B&N pages.

I can't even read them.

#28 ::: Rob Rusick ::: (view all by) ::: November 26, 2011, 11:37 PM:

P J Evans @27: Are you sure it's DRM? I had downloaded some e-books from B&N, and hadn't been able to open them on my Nook (B&N's own e-book reader)!

But bringing them into Calibre (a free-ware e-book management program), and then transferring them to my Nook worked.

#29 ::: James D. Macdonald ::: (view all by) ::: December 19, 2011, 10:26 PM:

And now ...

Starpilot's Grave is available for various e-readers. Hurrah! It's out!

The only one still lacking is the Nook, and I expect it'll be along shortly.

(Meanwhile: A link to Calibre ebook management (freeware).)

#30 ::: James D. Macdonald ::: (view all by) ::: December 19, 2011, 10:53 PM: