The ULTIMATE, CURATED, SCIENCE FICTION and FANTASY book Collection -- The 1950s (in Calibre format) [Torrent 2015 Ed]

THE 1950s!! The "Silver Age"!!

The Grandmasters continue on the action, while the pulps continue on strong!! The endless stream of anthologies and collections!!

The Novel format begins to rise, though comprising still just a small part, while the best stories are being collected in anthologies and presented as a standalone book. I have included anthologies that were published in further decades but included stories from the 50s. This is because if you were reading chronologically, you wouldn't see this until much, much later, and some stories are only available in these books. Science Fiction was starting to be taking seriously by the literary mainstream, but the horrible '50s B-Movies left a bad impression on the general public.

This is part of a collection:

1930s (and before): https://kat.cr/the-ultimate-...rrent-2015-ed-t10776111.html
1940s: https://kat.cr/the-ultimate-...rrent-2015-ed-t10837997.html


Includes all Science Fiction and Fantasy from January 1950 to December 1959.

I have collected al the Science Fiction and Fantasy collections available, a lot of fiction books, and separated the Science Ficton and Fantasy genre into this collection. I have personally curated, de-duplicated, merged and checked every entry.

This is a collection created with Calibre, a free Library Manager (http://calibre-ebook.com/). Install it, and then select 'Switch/Create Library', and select the folder "CALIBRE SFF 1950s" as 'existing library'.

More details in the previous torrent and the following:

FAQ:

- Why Calibre? Can I just download the files?

Because Calibre gives you a better view on which to organize, collect, tag, change format, and view in other ways. I do recommend you give it at least a try. It's great software and it's free.
Yes, you could just open the files directly, Calibre is optional.

- Why shouldn't I just save my book collection by author?

Because a lot is missing in context and you're missing out. Firstly, you won't have it tagged with the correct date. An author grows and matures as he writes. Also, I have identified the correct magazine in which the stories first came out, and right there you have the full original scan of the magazine, complete with Illustrations, the editor blurb, and even the font that was used when it first came out. That's the difference in reading a first edition than reading a reprint. I personally have enjoyed a lot seeing the original illustrations, seeing it with the original font and layout, and even detecting the original errors when it was first printed! This is all lost on the other files.
Also, seeing the books in their historic context helps you understand the story better. I've been reading right through the invention of television, and it changes from the 'viewing disk' (When TVs were mechanical disks) to 'electronic screens'.
Besides, you can sort or filter by author, and then order by publication date or by title. Having it in a tagged database is a real advantage!

- But I already have everything by author in folders!

Ok, Open up your current collection. Is it organized? Can you sort by date? Can you easily see their covers? (Do they even have?) Is that cover the first printed? Do you have multiples versions? Can you know in what magazine it was first printed? Have the titles been checked againt a central database?

- Why are there so many duplicated of the same books in those other (weird) formats?

Because I have not had time to select the best from there. As I have been collecting from old collections on the Net, there tends to be some conversions done by the people, who pass them to their favorite formats. Along the way, on each conversion, something is sometimes lost. Formatting, hyphens, chapter titles, etc. It's difficult to fix and very tedious. So I have kept the formats as I have first found them, letting you select the best to convert to YOUR favorite format. I might eventually fix them, but it is time I would like to finish importing from the unsorted pile.

- Calibre doesn't run in my machine/Operating System! I just want text files! Wouldn't that be easier?

Well, progress goes on, please upgrade! Any decent old windows box can run Calibre, and there IS a version for Macs. I don't write that software, but I have found it to be the best of the ones I have tried, and it's sorting/tagging is top-notch. You can export from there if you wish to keep in another system, but I really do recommend using it. Also Yes, the full scans are huge compared to text, but disk space is coming cheaper all the time, and viewers in tablets and even phones are getting faster and better. I still keep the text files when found, but viewing the books with their illustrations is really great.

- Is it really ALL the science fiction and fantasy books ever printed (in this period)?

Actually NO. There are some good ones missing, unfortunately. This is practically everything that is AVAILABLE freely on other sites on the Internet that I have managed to download. I have taken some big collections, joined them and then cross-checked everything. I still keep hunting and updating, so keep your eyes open for further Torrent Editions!

- Can I see a list of files in the torrent?

See the list here, it contains the book metadata:

(I will update this shortly)

- But I'm really only interested in ONE author (or some files):

Well, you can do the following steps:
- Select only the files in the torrent list (One author per folder)
- download the metadata.db file, open Calibre and change Library to that folder.
- Click the Library Button, Library Maintenance and Select 'Check Library'. It will ask if you want to check that the files match the database, do so.
- Mark all for fix, then click Fix. This will update the database.
- Then enter the filter 'Formats:False' (will select empty records) and press the Delete key.
You will only be left with the files you did download.

Even so, I do recommend you widen your horizons and read other authors! That's what the collection is great for!