If you love science fiction, check out this website which offers free downloads of ebooks by a number of popular authors.
So what's the catch? There isn't one. The publisher is hoping to entice people to either buy a print copy of the book after reading it or to purchase other books by the same author.
This publisher is not the first to do this. Cory Doctorow, who is - among other things - the co-editor of the very popular website "Boing-Boing", has written several novels which he offers on the internet for free as "Creative Commons-licensed downloads". His explanation for this is simple but eloquent:
I believe that we live in an era where anything that can be expressed as bits will be. I believe that bits exist to be copied. Therefore, I believe that any business-model that depends on your bits not being copied is just dumb, and that lawmakers who try to prop these up are like governments that sink fortunes into protecting people who insist on living on the sides of active volcanoes. Me, I’m looking to find ways to use copying to make more money and it’s working: enlisting my readers as evangelists for my work and giving them free ebooks to distribute sells more books. As Tim O’Reilly says, my problem isn’t piracy, it’s obscurity. Best of all, giving away ebooks gives me lots of key insights into how to make money without restricting the copying of bits. It’s a win-win situation.
Too bad the RIAA can't get this kind of thought process through their thick collective skull.
