MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - FREE/BARGAIN — DRM-Free

ATDrake · 05-11-2016, 03:08 PM

StoryBundle has a new offering, good through the next 3 weeks:

The Story Collection Bundle curated by Lisa Mason (ISFDB, Wikipedia), containing single-author short story collections by acclaimed sfnal authors, including Elizabeth Hand (ISFDB; Tiptree, Mythopoeic & World Fantasy Award winner), Walter Jon Williams (ISFDB; Nebula & Sidewise Award winner), Kathe Koja (ISFDB; Bram Stoker & Locus Award winner), Karen Joy Fowler (ISFDB; Nebula & Shirley Jackson Award winner), Pat Murphy (ISFDB; Nebula, Sturgeon, & Philip K. Dick Award winner), etc., containing many of the actual short stories which netted them assorted nominations and wins for said awards.

This is an auto-buy for me, as I actually like sfnal literature more in the short form than at novel length in most cases, because I'm a sucker for the exploration of interesting ideas, some of which just can't be stretched out to novel length or stuffed into a subplot of a long-running series.

$5 minimum gets you 3 collections.

$12 top tier gets you 5 additional collections, for a total of 8 (unlike Humble Bundle, there doesn't seem to be a way to top up your pledge, so please be sure of which tier you want before purchasing).

Their Nerd History and Boss Fight bundles, covering computer and video game history, respectively, are still available for the next two weeks.

Humble Bundle's new Humble Comics Bundle Garth Ennis presented by Dynamite offers a free daily comic book issue as a sampler, details in the Comics megathread.

If you happen to be interested in computer programming or learning it and/or free background music, I'll also give a plug to the game Human Resource Machine in the current Humble Eye Candy Bundle which is a delightful and educational problem-solving puzzle game which teaches you how to code, and tests your optimization skills as well (apparently some of the extra problems are a challenge for experienced programmers as well, according to the reviews I've read). The creator offers the soundtrack for HRM completely free in MP3 and FLAC formats at their website here (also gives away the soundtracks for their two other games).

And the game itself in the HB is DRM-free, available for Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms in at least 12 different localized languages so far, at the $1 minimum lowest tier. I've been playing it for the past week and it's lots of fun and surprisingly addictive to try and figure out how to solve the tasks using X # of commands or fewer, and has this storyline about corporate replacement of your job by robots, if you happen to like really cynical bureaucracy jokes. (I like how it explains the concept of the subtraction command by framing it as a workplace theft incident.)

For the nostalgic RPG tabletop gamers in the audience, Bundle of Holding has a new offering: Castle Falkenstein, a 90s-era old school steampunk science/magic game.

05-11-2016, 03:08 PM	#46
ATDrake Wizzard Posts: 11,517 Karma: 33048258 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Roundworld Device: Kindle 2 International, Sony PRS-T1, BlackBerry PlayBook, Acer Iconia	StoryBundle has a new offering, good through the next 3 weeks: The Story Collection Bundle curated by Lisa Mason (ISFDB, Wikipedia), containing single-author short story collections by acclaimed sfnal authors, including Elizabeth Hand (ISFDB; Tiptree, Mythopoeic & World Fantasy Award winner), Walter Jon Williams (ISFDB; Nebula & Sidewise Award winner), Kathe Koja (ISFDB; Bram Stoker & Locus Award winner), Karen Joy Fowler (ISFDB; Nebula & Shirley Jackson Award winner), Pat Murphy (ISFDB; Nebula, Sturgeon, & Philip K. Dick Award winner), etc., containing many of the actual short stories which netted them assorted nominations and wins for said awards. This is an auto-buy for me, as I actually like sfnal literature more in the short form than at novel length in most cases, because I'm a sucker for the exploration of interesting ideas, some of which just can't be stretched out to novel length or stuffed into a subplot of a long-running series. $5 minimum gets you 3 collections. $12 top tier gets you 5 additional collections, for a total of 8 (unlike Humble Bundle, there doesn't seem to be a way to top up your pledge, so please be sure of which tier you want before purchasing). Their Nerd History and Boss Fight bundles, covering computer and video game history, respectively, are still available for the next two weeks. Humble Bundle's new Humble Comics Bundle Garth Ennis presented by Dynamite offers a free daily comic book issue as a sampler, details in the Comics megathread. If you happen to be interested in computer programming or learning it and/or free background music, I'll also give a plug to the game Human Resource Machine in the current Humble Eye Candy Bundle which is a delightful and educational problem-solving puzzle game which teaches you how to code, and tests your optimization skills as well (apparently some of the extra problems are a challenge for experienced programmers as well, according to the reviews I've read). The creator offers the soundtrack for HRM completely free in MP3 and FLAC formats at their website here (also gives away the soundtracks for their two other games). And the game itself in the HB is DRM-free, available for Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms in at least 12 different localized languages so far, at the $1 minimum lowest tier. I've been playing it for the past week and it's lots of fun and surprisingly addictive to try and figure out how to solve the tasks using X # of commands or fewer, and has this storyline about corporate replacement of your job by robots, if you happen to like really cynical bureaucracy jokes. (I like how it explains the concept of the subtraction command by framing it as a workplace theft incident.) For the nostalgic RPG tabletop gamers in the audience, Bundle of Holding has a new offering: Castle Falkenstein, a 90s-era old school steampunk science/magic game. Last edited by ATDrake; 05-11-2016 at 04:05 PM. Reason: ISFDBify author credentials while I nuke my lunch.