Bay 12 Games Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

Author Topic: The Humble E-Book Bundle  (Read 2139 times)

Scelly9

  • Bay Watcher
  • That crazy long-haired queer liberal communist
    • View Profile
The Humble E-Book Bundle
« on: October 18, 2012, 11:03:12 am »

So, the new humble bundle is out, and boy it looks good.
Book list:
Signal to noise - Neil Gaiman & Dave McKean (Beat the average)
Old Man's War - John Scalzi (Beat the average)
Pirate Cinema - Cory doctorow
Pump Six and Other Stories - Paolo Bacigalupi
Zoo City - Lauren Beukes
Invasion: The Secret World Chronicle - Mercedes Lackey, Steve Libby, Dennis Lee, and Cody Martin
Stranger Things Happen -  Kelly Link
Magic for Beginners -  Kelly Link

PLus the five bonus ebooks(Beat the averagefor all of these):
xkcd: volume 0 - Randall Munroe
Two SMBC books
and finally, two Penny Arcade books.

Well, looks like fun! The average is a bit expensive for a bundle at $14 currently, but considering the books, I'd say well worth it.
Logged
You taste the jug! It is ceramic.
Quote from: Loud Whispers
SUPPORT THE COMMUNIST GAY MOVEMENT!

Levi

  • Bay Watcher
  • Is a fish.
    • View Profile
Re: The Humble E-Book Bundle
« Reply #1 on: October 18, 2012, 11:04:01 am »

Man.  I should really get an e-reader sometime.
Logged
Avid Gamer | Goldfish Enthusiast | Canadian | Professional Layabout

ChairmanPoo

  • Bay Watcher
  • Send in the clowns
    • View Profile
Re: The Humble E-Book Bundle
« Reply #2 on: October 18, 2012, 11:13:33 am »

Man.  I should really get an e-reader sometime.
If I were you I'd get a tablet instead. But that's just me
Logged
Everyone sucks at everything. Until they don't. Not sucking is a product of time invested.

Levi

  • Bay Watcher
  • Is a fish.
    • View Profile
Re: The Humble E-Book Bundle
« Reply #3 on: October 18, 2012, 11:17:30 am »

Man.  I should really get an e-reader sometime.
If I were you I'd get a tablet instead. But that's just me

I have a tablet.  I can't see myself reading on it for any length of time without my eyes hurting.  Its great for comics, but I couldn't use it for books.  I also tend to read before sleeping, and I don't like looking at bright screens before going to bed.
Logged
Avid Gamer | Goldfish Enthusiast | Canadian | Professional Layabout

Scelly9

  • Bay Watcher
  • That crazy long-haired queer liberal communist
    • View Profile
Re: The Humble E-Book Bundle
« Reply #4 on: October 18, 2012, 11:24:53 am »

The kindle is pretty good, it's also not ridiculously expensive, which is a plus.
Logged
You taste the jug! It is ceramic.
Quote from: Loud Whispers
SUPPORT THE COMMUNIST GAY MOVEMENT!

palsch

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: The Humble E-Book Bundle
« Reply #5 on: October 18, 2012, 01:04:47 pm »

I love this idea, but can't help but be a little disappointed with this. I'm going to pay, over the average, but it's mostly to encourage more of these in the future rather than any actual desire for the books included here.

The only one here I'm definitely willing to shell out for is the Gaiman/McKean book. I love John Scalzi, but Old Man's War is his first novel and I have it three ways already (paper, free pdf from Tor.com's launch, jailbroken .epub). The webcomic collections are, well, webcomic collections. Digital versions of print collections of digital comics. None of the ones involved have bonus material I'm especially interested in. If it were Schlock, OOTS or Dresden Codak I'd be happy to pay. Not to mention that .pdf isn't the best (or even a good) way to read comics.

As for the below-the-average goods, not bad but not amazing. The new Cory Doctorow, but then all his books are CC licensed anyway, and that one went up on his site around the same time the bundle launched (along with his Charles Stross collaboration, Rapture of the Nerds, which I am much more interested in). Both the Bacigalupi and Link books are single-author short story collections. I usually only go for such collections when I'm really into an author, have run out of novels by them and know they are good enough I'm willing to read the filler that always pads such collections. Paolo Bacigalupi is supposed to be that good but I've yet to dive into his novels (I have The Windup Girl but keep finding things that interest me more). I've not heard a thing about Kelly Link before this.

I'm vaguely interested in the Mercedes Lackey volume, which is actually a collaborative world superhero concept that sounds like a fresh take on the old Wild Cards series. Could be good. As for Zoo City... the reviews I've seen don't really make me giddy with anticipation.
Logged

Shadowlord

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: The Humble E-Book Bundle
« Reply #6 on: October 18, 2012, 10:21:50 pm »

Are any of these any good? I've never heard of any of them or their authors, except Cory Doctorow, █████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ of whom I have a negative opinion.
« Last Edit: October 18, 2012, 10:29:52 pm by Shadowlord »
Logged
<Dakkan> There are human laws, and then there are laws of physics. I don't bike in the city because of the second.
Dwarf Fortress Map Archive

palsch

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: The Humble E-Book Bundle
« Reply #7 on: October 19, 2012, 08:59:18 am »

Are any of these any good? I've never heard of any of them or their authors, except Cory Doctorow, █████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ of whom I have a negative opinion.
Shorter summary of my above;
Scalzi is great.
Gaiman always wonderful.
Paolo Bacigalupi is supposedly fantastic.
Mercedes Lackey looks interesting.
Rest is meh.
Logged