Asimov's Foundation fans...

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

Yes, I know it's a drag reading in another language. At least on an e-reader we have the dictionary. Have you tried some of the short stories in the original English? I read Strugatsky in English, and find them fine to read. I actually prefer the older translations. They are less polished, but perhaps they convey the original Russian better.

I will add that Clarke writes particularly beautiful prose. Against the fall of night is shorter, and just as good as the city and the stars. It's worth reading just for the opening scene. Apparently the opening scene was what spawned both books. It appeared in his mind all by itself with great power, and he wrote it down immediately.

I'm not really a short story person, but I may try Against the Fall of Night.

I agree re the prose. It was evident even in translation.

The Strugatsky brothers have written some good things too, but I find much of their stuff somewhat depressing. Still, Dead Mountaineer's Hotel is another of my top ten fav books (again in a superb Estonian translation from Russian). Hard to Be a God and Roadside Picnic are also good.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I'm not really a short story person, but I may try Against the Fall of Night.

I agree re the prose. It was evident even in translation.

The Strugatsky brothers have written some good things too, but I find much of their stuff somewhat depressing. Still, Dead Mountaineer's Hotel is another of my top ten fav books (again in a superb Estonian translation from Russian). Hard to Be a God and Roadside Picnic are also good.

As originally published, "Against The Fall of Night" would be classified as a novella or a short novel. It was published in Startling Stories, November, 1948, Volume 18, No. 2.

It was later revised and expanded in 1951 and published in book form in 1953 by Gnome Press.

[Pajamaman]

deleted

[gmw]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

As originally published, "Against The Fall of Night" would be classified as a novella or a short novel. It was published in Startling Stories, November, 1948, Volume 18, No. 2.

It was later revised and expanded in 1951 and published in book form in 1953 by Gnome Press.

The copy that ended up on my shelf was from 1991, an omnibus with the sequel novella Beyond the Fall of Night by Gregory Benford. I really really ... really didn't like the Benford story, but the book stayed on the shelf because of how much I like the Clarke story.

[Pajamaman]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

As originally published, "Against The Fall of Night" would be classified as a novella or a short novel. It was published in Startling Stories, November, 1948, Volume 18, No. 2.

It was later revised and expanded in 1951 and published in book form in 1953 by Gnome Press.

The original magazine version is online.

https://archive.org/details/Startlin...v18n02_1948-11

Here's the original magazine installments of the Foundation series.

https://www.reddit.com/r/asimov/comm...ce_fiction_in/

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

The original magazine version is online.

https://archive.org/details/Startlin...v18n02_1948-11

Here's the original magazine installments of the Foundation series.

https://www.reddit.com/r/asimov/comm...ce_fiction_in/

I was aware of this, but I want to thank you, especially for individuals who may not be aware of archive.com.

Aside: I wish the scans were better and without the yellow. I have an old Ipad, and that's the only way these can be read. I tried various ebook readers that I own, but the page-turn delay is unacceptable.

[Pajamaman]

Works plenty fast enough even on an old Onyx Nova Gen 1. I zip it up into a .cbr or .cbz and it's treated like a comic. The old pictures are interesting.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

Works plenty fast enough even on an old Onyx Nova Gen 1. I zip it up into a .cbr or .cbz and it's treated like a comic. The old pictures are interesting.

I rarely use my Aura One anymore, which would work for a cbr.

I now use (almost exclusively) my Kindle Oasis 3, which will not read cbr. (I have no desire to do any kind of jail breaking - even if available - to achieve this. And the Kindle does not read cbr.

The problem is the yellow tint on those scans.

[Pajamaman]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I rarely use my Aura One anymore, which would work for a cbr.

I now use (almost exclusively) my Kindle Oasis 3, which will not read cbr. (I have no desire to do any kind of jail breaking - even if available - to achieve this. And the Kindle does not read cbr.

The problem is the yellow tint on those scans.

On the Onyx there is no yellow tint, being B/W. The age marks around the edge remain there, but I am able to remove those using the various settings (watermark). The downside is this makes the text less clear, but I can bump that back up with the contrast setting. Then I also turn the white light up for increased clarity. It is then quite readable, for me.

It is for cases like this that I own an Onyx. The combo of the hardware (speed, screen size in landscape) and software (Neoreader, and other app options) make it generally possible to read nearly any scans. YMMV. Neoreader is very good at filtering images to be readable.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

On the Onyx there is no yellow tint, being B/W. The age marks around the edge remain there, but I am able to remove those using the various settings (watermark). The downside is this makes the text less clear, but I can bump that back up with the contrast setting. Then I also turn the white light up for increased clarity. It is then quite readable, for me.

It is for cases like this that I own an Onyx. The combo of the hardware (speed, screen size in landscape) and software (Neoreader, and other app options) make it generally possible to read nearly any scans. YMMV. Neoreader is very good at filtering images to be readable.

Can you give some more detail on this, please. What program on the Onyx allows one to remove (or tone down?) the yellow?

Thanks.

[Quoth]

Maybe similar to the Likebook Mars eink. The supplied reader does PDF and epub, it's poor for epub so I use KOReader for that.

But on PDF you can adjust the white level, black level (and on real text PDF, the font weight) and "watermarks". Makes the grey on yellow (as PC previewed) perfectly black on white. Also has manual, semi automatic, automatic and none for crop. Could it be FBreader?

Before that to read on Kobo or Kindle:
1) Import PDF to The GIMP choosing required DPI taking account of cropping and eventual screen size. It creates a layer per page. Then export layers in reversed order as a motion png. This step is only because Image Magick on my computer can't read PDFs for security reasons, I could disable that protection, but a bad idea. Works on password protected PDFs
2) Convert the mpng to PDF (needs security setting) using Image Magick. It allows conversion to 16 levels, Black, White and 14 greys. You can set brightness and contrast to have good paper white and black text. You can set the XY offset and right and bottom crop. It's a command line tool. https://imagemagick.org/script/magick.php

Or you can use k2pdfopt https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...47#post4157747

But the Boyue Likebook Mars, like P78, is a 7.8" 300 dpi eink with Android 8.x
Really I bought it to be able to use my County Library Android App, Belinda Borrow Box. There is some way to use a web download and ADE, but I don't have ADE on Linux. I probably have it on an old XP PC for games which I don't connect to the internet.

[Dr. Drib]

^

Thank you!

[Pajamaman]

It's the default reader called neoreader that comes with onyx. I only use for pdf and comics/scans. You can also crop, zoom and pan within it.

[Karellen]

Well, I just watched the Foundation TV Series and I have nothing nice to say about it.

Spoiler:

It was a complete re-imagining of Asimov's universe. One where Asimov's 3 laws don't exist. Where Eto Demerzel is nothing more than a nurse-maid, instead of the power behind the throne. The Emperors (yes plural) are clones. Gaal Dornick, the greatest psycho-historical scientist is an over-emotional young girl prone to violent outbursts and fights Hari Seldon and sleeps with his adopted son, Raych.

This show should be a how-to guide for ruining a story.

Anybody else seen the show?

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by Karellen

Well, I just watched the Foundation TV Series and I have nothing nice to say about it.

Spoiler:

It was a complete re-imagining of Asimov's universe. One where Asimov's 3 laws don't exist. Where Eto Demerzel is nothing more than a nurse-maid, instead of the power behind the throne. The Emperors (yes plural) are clones. Gaal Dornick, the greatest psycho-historical scientist is an over-emotional young girl prone to violent outbursts and fights Hari Seldon and sleeps with his adopted son, Raych.

This show should be a how-to guide for ruining a story.

Anybody else seen the show?

I hadn't yet, and won't be now, thanks for the heads up.