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HARMONY [Archive]

Harmony reviews or, we meant to do that!

Here’s a very brief review of Harmony’s ebook edition.

One shouldn’t really “answer” reviews, but in this case I’ll make an exception only to avoid further confusion—in Harmony the story is told partially through HTML (or rather, futuristic emotional-textual markup language or ETML) thanks to the technology in the narrator’s brain. So if you see a page full of HTML in the book, just read it and you’ll see what I mean. Our online excerpt has a sample of the sort of thing you might see. It’s an honest mistake; our ebook production staff started flagging all the HTML when they first started creating the ebook version. I suppose that’s the risk one takes when one tries to be a little avant-garde.

In better news, The Manga Critic has also reviewed the book, writing, in part: Harmony is a solidly entertaining book, offering a judicious mixture of globe-trotting action, social commentary, and suspense to engage all but the hardest science fiction fans, and a surprise ending that neatly resolves the main plot while raising new, thought-provoking questions. Recommended. And it’s fuuuuull of HTML, so check it out!

Ebooks are HERE!

Popping in from my vacation to share this picture with you!

See that on the lower righthand side? That the iPad link to Harmony. That wonderful book, and The Next Continent and Slum Online are now available for your reading pleasure (and my selling pleasure!) for the various Apple devices.

We should have news for the Kindle and other devices in a couple of months. What are you waiting for Apple fans? CONSUME!

Ebooks are coming!

One of the most frequently asked questions we receive here at Haikasoru HQ (hidden high atop Mount Pikachu!) is “Are you going to do ebooks?” And now we can say, “Yes, and soon!” Behold, the first three books in our model Apple bookstore:

We’re still working out the actual release date, but it should be within weeks. We’re starting with Harmomy, The Next Continent, and Slum Online for iPads, the more recent iPhones, and whatever other readers or systems Apple uses. Kids, I edit science fiction for a living. I can’t afford these gadgets. My boss showed me her iPad the other day, but I wasn’t allowed to touch it. :(

We’ll also soon have news about other formats and other titles as we bring out ebooks. Mostly, it’s just a matter of contracts, but there are some amusing technical challenges. Check out the first page of Harmony:

When the tech person saw this, we got an email asking “On content page - codes appearing in PDF (see attached PDF for ready reference). Please provide the revised PDF for this page or advise.” He thought they were live links, and not just part of the story! When you do get the ebooks though, you can go to our backpage where we advertise our titles and this website, and click directly back to here by tapping your screen.

Anyway, the books look pretty neat, as you can see above. Also, check out the first page for Slum Online:

When we get the exact launch date, I’ll be sure to let you know!

Harmony AND Happy Anniversary

Harmony by Project Itoh releases today! As I mentioned last month when editorial copies arrived, I am especially excited about this book, which presses all my buttons—it’s a satire, near-future SF with a darkly comic tinge to it.

It’s also Haikasoru’s anniversary—our first two titles released a year ago tomorrow. So far we’ve put out eleven books, and I think we’ve done pretty well. All You Need Is KILL is on the production fast-track at Warner Bros, ZOO was nominated for the Shirley Jackson award, and we’ve found plenty of enthusiastic readers for science fiction in translation—something many observers said simply couldn’t be done. Here’s hoping there’ll be many more years, and many more readers, to come.

It’s my anniversary, but buy yourselves a present: I recommend Harmony.


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