The Crooked Letter

Sean Williams, (who has been compared to China Mieville, Philip Pullman, Ursula K Le Guin, Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, and Michael Moorcock, gosh that's good enough by itself, isn't it?) is the author of numerous works for adults, young adults, and children, covering new space opera, science fiction thrillers, fantasy, and horror. He's written for Star Wars (the New Jedi Order Series and the Force Unleashed novelization) and Doctor Who (Midnight in the Café of the Black Madonna from the Destination Prague Anthology) and has called his new award winning novel

"...my attempt to take all the world's religions and wrap them up in a crazy Darwinian package that even a hardcore atheist like me might be tempted to buy."

Now his publisher, Pyr (in a daring move) is offering his new novel, The Crooked Letter, free as a PDF without DRM. The author's confesses that he's always wanted to release a novel via the web. A move I think will only drive the uninitiated to his further works.

After attending a recent meeting of the Society of Young Publishers in London, where the Marketing Director for the Orion Group declared the internet a death knell for print. I fought the temptation to sound off in disagreement. The book market is undergoing an identity crisis similar to say, National Geographic's aversion to color pages, the big Four's record labels pathetic cling to DRM delusions, or American car companies fatal hesitation to perceive long term green economy trends, syndromes that I shall now refer to as product DEATH (Delayed Evolution and Adaptation to Technology Hierarchies). Book publishers are stubbornly refusing to think outside the box when it comes to the future of their own franchise not realizing that books corner the market on the greatest commodity of all, ideas, and while print may be floundering, technology is re-imagining how ideas are conveyed and commoditized. Authors purvey vision and publishers purvey authors, being uniquely poised to transform higher communication the way ipod transformed your music collection.

Anyhow, download The Crooked Letter, unless you’re a publisher to which I say, evolve!

Update: Mirrors can be found here and here if traffic is hells a busy.