John Elliot, the guy who introduced me into the scary world of web development has recently developed Science-Fictions – a website devoted to science fiction literature, utilising the Amazon web services. Being a huge fan of sci-fi books, I had to run and take a look (and of course, all of my favourite authors were there).
The design of the website is very true to the genre, which is quite aesthetically pleasing. It’s nice and quick, too, and easy to navigate. Whether the prices are direct from Amazon’s catalogue, or if they’re at a slightly discounted price because they’re on a website using Amazon web services, I don’t know – but they seem very fair either way. There’s an abundance of books available (as one would hope), too – which are browse-able by author, alongside literature being featured on the homepage.
The website has only just launched, so a review is to be had of the functionality, and no doubt several features will be integrated as time passes. For now though – go and check out Science-Fictions for all of your science fiction books, make some suggestions and maybe even sit down with a book. You know, like you used to…
Hi Dan
Thanks for the write-up. When I set out to make this design I was thinking more about what you imagine a Sci Fi website to look like – in actual fact most of the are pretty ugly, but was more influenced by book covers.
There are always constraints in the sense that if you want to sell Sci Fi books you don’t want pictures of flowers and ponies and babies – likewise astronauts tend to be inappropriate if you want to sell baby clothes… but within that I wanted to try and make something a little different (although I love the astronauts)
Particularly glad you think it fast – as it is running on not the speediest of servers right now – but I spent quite a lot of time optimising it, and it makes very heavy use of cacheing.
It is very much a work in development (only been in the big wide world a little over a week) but upcoming features include:
- Search
- Reviews / Comments
- Shopping Cart
- Possibly a blog or news section (would be great to have film clips etc.)
Reading is the only thing that keeps me sane ;)
I like to read real books in bed.
Does this site offer that option?
Yes. I like to read books in the bath – you can’t do that with a bloody kindle.
If you buy a book, you could read it in bed… :)
I’m too lazy to read. Can I push a button on this website and let the book read to me?
If only…
You need to get younger – my kids get plenty of books read to them. (Can’t wait till they learn how to read)