The Truth Machine and The First Immortal, namely.
http://coins.ha.com/ttm/http://coins.ha.com/tfi/
The First Immortal by James L. Halperin is now available as a free download for yourself and to share with your friends and loved ones (just email the link to this page, or forward the entire book in MS Word format). The First Immortal is the novel to read if you're curious about cryonics, which suggests freezing humans after legal death in the hopes that someday science can advance to the point where even those now considered terminal will be resurrected and rejuvenated with their youth, health, memories and personality intact. A national best-seller, The First Immortal is one of the most meticulously researched scientific novels ever written, and presents a balanced, and at times frightening, yet ultimately optimistic view of the possibilities of human science and philosophy. It has been estimated that, since its initial publication by Random House in 1997, this novel has been instrumental in recruiting over half of those people now joining cryonics organizations.
P.S. If you enjoyed "The First Immortal" or "The Truth Machine" (Halperin's first novel), please consider posting a review on Amazon or purchasing copies at:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345421825/ref=ase_jameslhalpe
or
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345421825/ref=ase_jameslhalpe
The Truth Machine by James L. Halperin is now available as a free download for yourself and to share with your friends (just email the link to this page, or forward the entire book in MS Word format). An international best-selling "futurism fiction" novel, The Truth Machine imagines a world logically extended from 1995 through the next half-century in which a foolproof lie detector is unleashed upon civilization, changing every aspect of human existence on earth and upending the life of its own creator. The Truth Machine has been translated into many languages, including Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, Serbian, and Hebrew. Over 300,000 copies have been sold since it was first published by Random House in 1996. Many readers claim to have read the book dozens of times. The Truth Machine is currently under development as a major motion picture by Lion's Gate Entertainment.
Amidst the many glowing reviews for his books I found this.
Truth be told, Halperin is not a novelist. He is an extremely accomplished amateur futurist.
I suspect that's about as good a "caveat downloader" as any I'm likely to find. I haven't read these books but I thought some here might like some free cerebral entertainment for the weekend.
I gather you're supposed to read The Truth Machine first.
Baen Books has a number of authors who've graciously allowed their novels to be downloaded.
http://www.baen.com/library/defaultTitles.htmhttp://www.baen.com/library/home.htmBaen Books is now making available — for free — a number of its titles in electronic format. We're calling it the Baen Free Library. Anyone who wishes can read these titles online — no conditions, no strings attached. (Later we may ask for an extremely simple, name & email only, registration. ) Or, if you prefer, you can download the books in one of several formats. Again, with no conditions or strings attached. (URLs to sites which offer the readers for these format are also listed.)
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/The above site offers a lot of content, part of which is making available short stories that are (apparently) in the public domain.
A great example would be the short story by Ambrose Bierce, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, which has been the inspiration for several movies.
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/OccOwl.shtmlThough I found the annotated version, from a different site, very useful.
http://extend.unb.ca/wss/1145demo/owl2.htmI have to mention Project Gutenberg.
"Project Gutenberg is the oldest producer of free ebooks on the Internet. Our collection was produced by thousands of volunteers."
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_PageOne last link, here's the e-book reader I use.
http://www.spacejock.com/yBook.htmlHuh, I just now noticed, it even offers the option of downloading Project Gutenberg index of books. Using it now, it performed two downloads, several megabytes in size, and now I have a nice list of books I can download. :)
I grabbed "Colony,"--or "Free State"?
"Dependence,"--or "Just Connection"?, by Alpheus H. Snow as a test, it worked.
I assume no liability for any of the above, as always, use safe computing practices when installing and using software.