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Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Books Your Cheap, Nerdy E-Book Buy of the Week

Posted by Paul Constant on Tue, Oct 9, 2012 at 3:20 PM

The Humble Bundle, which ordinarily sells collections of independently produced video games, is currently selling six sci-fi e-books. You get to set the price, but if you pay more than the average (which is right now floating around $11) you get two extra books—Old Man's War by John Scalzi and Signal to Noise by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean—thrown in, too. (And! You get to determine how much of your payment goes to charity.) The books are DRM-free, which means you can load them onto any e-book reader in the world, and unlike most e-bookstores, you get to own the file forever, too.

I haven't read most of these books, but I can tell you that Kelly Link's two books of short stories, Magic for Beginners and Stranger Things Happen, are totally worth the $11 on their own. She's one of the best fantasy writers in the business today. In addition to those two, you get Cory Doctorow's newest novel, Pirate Cinema*, the first book in a "modern military superhero saga" that "chronicles the battle between Earth's superheroes and a transdimensional Third Reich," and a highly promising novel set in an alternate-universe Johannesburg that stars a journalist with a sloth on her back. I don't think you can go wrong with this deal.

* Cory Doctorow is reading at University Book Store at 12:30 PM on October 23rd and at 7 pm at Elliott Bay Book Company on the same day, so you'll have plenty of time to read his new book before the reading if you buy soon.

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aw, no love for the bundle. I bought it, I try to support DRM-free ebooks whenever I can. Also, as usual, Linux users pay the most.

Posted by unpure on October 9, 2012 at 4:04 PM

I trust you Paul! I'm looking forward to some good reads! Thanks!

Posted by DevoutAtheist on October 9, 2012 at 6:44 PM

I will vouch for both Zoo City and Punp Six. They are really, really good. In my experience, Mercedes Lackey is really, really good until you turn sixteen, but I haven't read that particular one so who knows.

Posted by thryn on October 9, 2012 at 10:46 PM