Humble EBook Bundle (DF)

I've highlighted the guys over at Humble Bundle a time or two in the past, for their game bundles. This month, they have a Science Fiction and Fantasy ebook bundle that is well worth buying. You can pay as little as you want (down to $1 - the minimum set to cover the charges for processing the charge) or as much as you want (two have paid $1,000 or more). Their bundles allow you to split your purchase between the authors, Humble (for organizing the bundle and processing the payments, running the servers, etc) and charity (this month, it's the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Child’s Play Charity, and/or the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America).

If you pay more than the average (currently right at $14), they are throwing in several more titles: a graphic novel by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean, Randall Munroe's xkcd: volume 0 (I started reading xkcd back when it was free on the internet and I'm looking forward to reading the collection; the comic pictured here is from xkcd), John Scalzi's Old Man's War ($8 on it's own at Amazon, although it does get you access to the $4 companion audiobook), two graphic novels by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik and two more from Zach Weiner. That's a baker's dozen of titles in all, for just over a buck apiece.

These are the base six novels that everyone gets (I'm linking to Amazon, so you can read the descriptions and reviews):

• Pirate Cinema, by Cory Doctorow ($9.99 Kindle)
• Pump Six and Other Stories, by Paolo Bacigalupi ($7.99 Kindle)
• Zoo City, by Lauren Beukes ($5.38 Kindle)
• Invasion: Book One of the Secret World Chronicle, by Mercedes Lackey ($7.99 paperback)
• Stranger Things Happen, by Kelly Link ($6.99 Kindle)
• Magic for Beginners, by Kelly Link ($7.69 Kindle)

All are DRM-free, so you can view them on most ereaders (although I'd use a large color tablet for the graphic novels, unless you have very young eyes; plus, these are PDF's, with the HD quality versions quite large in size). I always add at least a few cents more than the average, just in case it goes up a bit before I click on buy, to ensure I get the entire bundle. You can checkout using Paypal, Google Payments or Amazon Payments (the payments get processed by Amazon, but the purchase is via Humble, so the books are not automatically in your Kindle Library -- but you can email them to yourself for easy access and backup). If you do use Paypal, you'll ensure more of the payment goes towards Humble (or the charity or authors; you pick the split) by not paying with a credit card. Once your payment has been processed, click the link in the center of the page to get your access key and the follow the link on the next page to download your books.