29 thoughts on “Alliance of Shadows EARC Out Now!”

  1. Larry,
    Is it better for you as an author, professionally, for people to get the E-arc or to wait until release? I really want to see this, so please say the E-arc is better. Please?

    1. He makes more off the eARC, but has said several times that the most important thing is that you buy the best copy for you.

      In my case, that’s the eARC and then the audio version when it’s released.

  2. It’s always funny to me that Baen does this–and that they make a lot of money doing it–considering the standard practice is for publishers to provide ARCs for free (they’re actually a loss to the publisher, financially) to drum up reviews/buzz. Just another example of how Baen does things differently than the Big 5 and it works for them, I suppose.

    1. I’m kind of amazed they sell as well as they do, given that for US$3 more and two months wait, I also get books by Flint & Spoor, Gannon, Drake… but then I’m OK with delayed gratification, and kind of cheap in some ways.

      1. Yes, Craig, I also don’t have a hard time waiting a couple months, even for books I really want, especially if it means saving money.

    2. The difference is publisher’s normally only give ARCs to specific people, reviewers, sale, etc. Like everybody else Baen was making these too. But then on the Bar people kept saying that they would spend good money to get an ARC early, so Jim said what the heck,and started selling them to the hard core. So now we just put them out there available for everybody.

      1. I would be interested to know how the numbers compare as far as how much “buzz” their is in online reviews and such for these $15 e-arcs vs. traditional free arcs sent to reviewers.

  3. Hurray! BTW thanks again for the Earl Swagger rec, getting toward the end of the first book after reading the second on your recommendation — if anything it’s better than the second.

    Also eternally indebted to you for introducing me to Wright’s work, a shame Somewhither didn’t make the Hugo cut as it was clearly the best sci-fi work of the year, probably the best book of its kind since Jack of Shadows.

  4. Bought it yesterday, and read it last night. Best of the three books, by far! That said, have a minor technical quibble. Modern railcars use positive pressure braking (thank George Westinghouse, about 1873, or so) which uses the compressor on the locomotive to pump compressed air to the cars, causing them to release their brakes. (If you ever get caught at a railroad crossing, you’ll see that the cars are connected at the drawbar (the “knuckle”) and by a hose just beneath the drawbar. The hose is connected by “gladhands” and when pulled to a certain angle, as when cars are disconnected, the connection releases, dumping the compressed air. This has the effect of locking the brakes on the cars behind the break, and the cars ahead of it, as well, and unless someone closes the angle cock on the last car, the engine will not be able to generate enough air pressure to release the brakes on the cars ahead of the disconnect.

    Granted, this is a bit of esoteric trivia, but if someone has worked around railcars for a while, it will jump out as a glaring discrepancy.

    (Don’t ask how I know this. It was a really interesting write-up in my personnel file.)

    1. For that scene (trying to avoid spoilers for anybody else reading) I did look up how that worked, but because we needed certain things to happen a certain way, I kind of cheated, and ascribed it to being for the fancy new prototype (spoiler)

      1. You also have to consider that it may have been devised that way in order to ensure the train arrives at its destination, no matter what. ^_^

  5. I hate you so much. Pay extra, or two months… I don’t think I can take the pressure.
    As a side note, I spent the entire first books suspecting that it was an alternate history for if the AK47 hadn’t been invented, since I didn’t notice a single one the entire book. I think one appeared in the second, though, but I’ve still been doing a lot of head scratching over why there hasn’t been a bigger role for the world’s single most popular assault rifle. What do you guys think? Did I just blank the out of my memory, or was it to make room for cooler, niftier guns?

        1. Now I really need to go back and find that! I’m still a bit puzzled at the general lack of AKs in so many third world shoot-em-ups, but I’ve already got a few references I missed the first time to go find, now.

          I am still wondering what makes the Dead 6 world different from ours. I mean, China split in two? And apparently not just a different ending of the Nationalist/Communist civil war, it sounded like a whole new conflict. Of course, it also sounded like it was a result of something that’s the point of the entire series, so I’ll hold off asking questions until the last one is thoroughly read and digested.

      1. I need to go back and read them again, since the last one is coming out anyway; I have a hard time counting references when I get engrossed in a book, so I’m not too surprised that I missed a couple.

    1. Most of Sala Jihan’s men were armed with AKs.
      There were AKs in Zubara, though if I recall correctly their military issued the G3.
      This book mostly takes place in western Europe.

      1. If most of Sala Jihan’s men were, that explains why one reference finally got through my head enough for me to notice the book haze!

  6. Really enjoying this so far, I’ve lost the thread a little bit since the last one, but this is one of those few series good enough to go back and read start to finish someday.

    BTW if anyone else ran into this problem — Baen will ignore your order until you sign up, the shopping cart just stays empty. Signing up is pretty painless though.

  7. Fuck yeeeeaahhh. I originally came here to complain that the Urban Allies anthology had all these pages with words from other people where there could’ve been more Ledger & Franks (which sounds like the title of the most awesome sitcom ever). But then you go and release this awesomeness, so I guess we can still be friends.

  8. Hi Larry, a few typos after 40% or so — I started marking them, do you want my Kindle notes when I’m done? Or are these already fixed for the next edition? Thanks.

      1. Great! Look forward to reading the whole series again in a year or so.

        Really enjoyed the end, came together well.

  9. Really enjoyed it! Small comment about Evangeline…

    You can’t write de Evangeline… It should be d’Evangeline… Think of d’Artagnan for example. The rule in French is clear: if you have a vowel at the beginning of a word, then the word before can’t end in a vowel…

    Besides this nitpicking… Had a blast

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