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Even though I no longer buy books or ebooks from Amazon, I am still interested in their prices and the potential impact they might have on the publishing industry. So I have decided to continue my periodic survey of the price of the top 100 bestselling ebooks on Amazon.  I checked the bestseller list at around 2PM today and this is what I found.   The most popular prices of ebooks in the top 100 were 99c (14), $1.99 (15), $2.99 (13), $3.99 (14), $4.99 (11) with six at both $6.99 and $9.99.   Compared with recent surveys, the number of ebooks on the list at 99c continued to fall. The number of ebooks at $1.99 dropped after a rise in August.    The number of ebooks selling at the guru nominated price of $2.99 rebounded to just about average levels after reaching its lowest number in August.    The number of ebooks on the list at $2.99 or less rebounded to a near record high. It appears that consumers are after cheaper ebooks once mor...

I have watched a lot of science fiction on television this year. A lot of short series, which I appreciate because there is less padding. Some of the science fiction was very good, some of it inconsistent, some of it pretty ordinary. Let’s start with the good.   The Good.     SBS2 screened some good science fiction this year, much of it second seasons. The standout series was the second season of Real Humans . A series set in an alternative Sweden where robots called Hubots are common. The series tackles the issue of androids interacting with society from many angles. It explores the robots as sentient beings and ponders if they will attempt to take over the world. It has humans being infatuated with androids, and also using them as sex toys. It has humans, one dead, one badly burnt, uploading themselves, or at least attempting to, into hubots. It also explores the violent reaction of those afraid of technology against the androids. So it covers many areas th...

After reading about all the awards Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice had accumulated, I just had to read it. It won the 2014 Nebula, Hugo and Arthur C. Clarke awards for best science fiction novel. I was also intrigued by it being told from the viewpoint of an artificial intelligence. The novel’s main character is an ancillary, a human body controlled by a colossal starship, the Justice of Toren. The starship is part of the Radch empire, whose main quest is to invade other civilisations and incorporate them into the Radch empire. They rely on human greed to control the civilisations they colonise and incorporate aspects of their religions and cultures into the Radch empire. The novel is set thousands of years in the future and begins with an ancillary known as Breq on a quest on an isolated ice planet. She seeks a special weapon to kill the leader of the Radch, Anaader Mianaai. While on the planet, Breq rescues a former comrade Seivarden, who had become a drunk and a thief,...