Free New Books

DC are offering the first issue of Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli’s post-apocalyptic New York City graphic novel DMZ for free download

I just finished reading DMZ: On The Ground last week, having long wanted to get hold of some of Brian Wood’s work. It’s excellent stuff, and this first issue of On The Ground is a great introduction to the series to give you a taste of it yourself. It’s not for the squeamish.

Here’s the blurb:

“From indie comics icon Brian Wood (Demo, Channel Zero, GLOBAL FREQUENCY) and up-and-coming Italian artist Riccardo Burchielli (John Doe) comes the first volume of DMZ, collecting the first 5 issues of the series about the ultimate embedded war journalist trapped in a most unlikely war zone: the streets of New York City.

In the near future, America’s worst nightmare has come true. With military adventurism overseas bogging down the Army and National Guard, the U.S. government mistakenly neglects the very real threat of anti-establishment militias scattered across the 50 states. Like a sleeping giant, Middle America rises up and violently pushes its way to the shining seas, coming to a standstill at the line in the sand - Manhattan or, as the world now knows it, the DMZ.

Matty Roth, a naive young man and aspiring photojournalist, lands a dream gig following a veteran war journalist into the heart of the DMZ. Things soon go terribly wrong, and Matty finds himself lost and alone in a world he’s only seen on television. There, he is faced with a choice: try to find a way off the island, or make his career with an assignment most journalists would kill for. But can he survive in a war zone long enough to report the truth?”

You can download the first issue of DMZ at Vertigo Comics.

The 9/11 Commission Report turned into a graphic novel - except, of course, it’s not fiction.

Slate.com is currently serialising The 9/11 Report - A Graphic Adaptation by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon, which adapts The 9/11 Commission Report into a graphic novel format. At the time of writing there are four chapters online and a new one being added each week.

Read The 9/11 Report - A Graphic Adaptation online.

The KLF’s hilarious and strangely profound guide to getting a Number One single

The KLF were one of those great bands who continually messed with everyone’s heads. From their explosive debut “1987: What The Fuck Is Going On?” through to their huge chart topping stadium pop singles and their heartstopping art projects (see The KLF Burn A Million Quid), The KLF were archetypal cultural plunderers, in love with pop but utterly unsentimental about it.

At the heart of The KLF were Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty, both fiercely intelligent and restlessly experimental, fascinated by the money and media attention having something as trivial as a pop single could provide and determined to mess around with it.
The Manual is a genuine attempt by the duo to explain the incompetent alchemy that goes into creating a Number One single, and as well as being a masterpiece of dry humour and rightly cynical appraisal of the music industry, it is a genuinely wise book - you really could have a Number One single if you followed their recipe.

Bill Drummond has gone on to write several more books, the autobiographical 45 being an excellent place to pick up the KLF legacy and go beyond it.

I’m not actually sure of the legal status of The Manual being available for free on the Net, but given it’s out of print and unavailable at Amazon, and given The KLF’s own notoriously liberal attitudes to respecting copyright, I’m sure they won’t mind if I link to the full text that’s available online.

Read The Manual online.

Huxley’s 80 year old dystopian classic is still as vital as ever - and completely free to read online

By no means new, but one of my favourite books, so it’s appearing here anyway. Here’s the synopsis:

“Far in the future, the World Controllers have created the ideal society. Through clever use of genetic engineering, brainwashing and recreational sex and drugs all its members are happy consumers. Bernard Marx seems alone in feeling discontent. Harbouring an unnatural desire for solitude, and a perverse distaste for the pleasures of compulsory promiscuity, Bernard has an ill-defined longing to break free. A visit to one of the few remaining Savage Reservations where the old, imperfect life still continues, may be the cure for his distress-Huxley’s ingenious fantasy of the future sheds a blazing light on the present and is considered to be his most enduring masterpiece.”

Read Huxley’s Brave New World online

A technothriller about a looming disaster at a nuclear power plant, written by an engineer with over twenty years of experience in the American nuclear industry

Rad Decision: A Novel Of Nuclear Power tells the story of the people and machinery that make up a nuclear power plant, and the dark tale of a man who believes it is his destiny to destroy it. Written by an engineer with over twenty years experience in the American nuclear industry, Rad Decision includes an overview of how electricity is made and a step-by-step, inside look at how a nuclear plant operates - - from its equipment to its people to the politics and money behind it. Chernobyl, TMI and the wonderful world of radiation are also discussed. Armed with this background, the reader plunges into a nuclear accident in the making.

“I’d like to see Rad Decision widely read.” Stewart Brand, noted futurist and founder of The Whole Earth Catalog.

You can read Rad Decision’s complete text online

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Before David Wellington’s zombie novel Monster Island was published in April 2006, Wellington serialised the entire book on his website - and it’s still available to read online too. Here’s some of the praise Monster Island received:

“Excellent… It’s got all the stuff a zombie aficionado wants… plus a lot of welcome surprises that add a level of richness to the genre.” - Mark Frauenfelder, BoingBoing.net

“Glorious and grisly… Click over and feast with the undead, you won’t be left unsatiated.” - Rue Morgue

“…what sets this gleefully apocalyptic first novel apart from the pack is the witty intelligence with which Wellington reinvigorates zombie clichés and the cast of richly developed characters he puts through their paces.” - Scifi.com

Clearly Wellington’s experiment with serialising his novel online before publication worked out well, as he is doing it again with his new novel Frostbite.

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