Free Science Fiction Anthologies From Microsoft and the Atlantic Council

I'm going to be paying for some roof repairs, but I'm going to save a few bucks on some science fiction reading.  There are a couple of new SF anthologies just released this fall for free as ebooks.  One is sponsored by Microsoft Research and the other by the Atlantic Council, a  think tank.  Both have some big name authors such as David Brin, Linda Nagata, Ken Liu, Greg Bear, Nancy Kress, etc.  These fine writers were commissioned to write and hopefully both educate and entertain you with their future postulations.

Inside of a construction site.  The scaffolds go on and on.

The first book is War Stories from the Future (created via the Art of Future Warfare Project).  This book explores the future of armed conflict and social conflict via science fiction stories instead of essays or papers about how things could be.  There is also a bunch of writing up on their project site that is interesting to peruse.

Download here: http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/publications/books/war-stories-from-the-future

The second book is Future Visions: Original Science Fiction Inspired by Microsoft.  This book had Microsoft Research invite eight SF writers in to see and then write about their favourite research projects.  Some very big name SF authors like Nancy Kress, Robert J. Sawyer, Greg Bear, David Brin, Elizabeth Bear, etc.  It might be a bit of a PR effort from Microsoft, but it should be interesting to read about the Microsoft tech in action.

Download here from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0182NCTWS

You may have to select your national Amazon store.  I had to change to Canada.  On a parting note, Microsoft Singapore release this really cool anime short about the IE Browser as personified by a Browser-Tan cute girl character.  Quite entertaining to watch.