Having disagreed (somewhat) with Tobias Buckell in the previous post, let me follow that up with something positive: He's got a new book, Ragamuffin coming out soon, and he's putting excerpts up on the official Ragamuffin page. You can get RTF files of the first two chapters, and he's promised a chapter a week leading up to the release.
So, if you like steampunk space opera with Aztecs, or open-source literary distribution, go check it out.
Chad: thanks for the props, man!
Good disagreement on the Pullman. I like it because of its audicity more than the agitprop, living in the midwest where people who aren't christian have to tip toe around everyone who is seeing god offed at the end was just ballsy enough it endeared itself to me. That being said, I have a confession, I didn't read the first 2 Pullman books, I picked up the last one by mistake and never did read the first 2 once I wrapped it up.