FREE/BARGAIN - Science Fiction, Fantasy - 2016

[DHNightshadow]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

So who's bought the Humble Bundle package?

I did buy it. Read the old classic Amber as a pbook and have two as e-book.
So I look for the new ones, for the Roboter fiction and for the Wild Cards read a few of them ages ago.

[Dngrsone]

As always, I will wait until all the bonus books are revealed... it looks like I'm going to build up my TBR enough for a couple months with these deals.

[rguion]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

So who's bought the Humble Bundle package?

I bought it, couldn't resist having the Bester / Zelazny books and the 2 Wild Cards anthologies. Like you, I don't consider the Amber sequels as part of Zelazny's work, regardless, I thought it was a good value for the bundle.

[Brendan Moody]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I personally don't consider those 'franchise spinoffs' from this bundled set to be classics. (Zelazny is a 'classic writer; Betancourt is not.)

There are certainly a number of classics in that set, and they are deserving of the name 'classics of science fiction,' - but those spinoffs....well, it just ain't so, Magoo.

Yeah, they should have just called it what it is: a publisher bundle from ibooks inc., the imprint started by the late Byron Preiss and later acquired by J. Boylston and Company. (Although for whatever the Humble Bundle page lists them all as being published by Brick Tower Press, which is actually J. Boylston and Company's nonfiction imprint. Go figure.)

I haven't decided whether to buy the bundle yet. The Wild Cards books are tempting, but then I already have a print copy of Deuces Down.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Dngrsone

As always, I will wait until all the bonus books are revealed... it looks like I'm going to build up my TBR enough for a couple months with these deals.

When will the bonus books be revealed? Also, I thought it said 'games', rather than ebooks. Am I imagining this?

[bgalbrecht]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

When will the bonus books be revealed? Also, I thought it said 'games', rather than ebooks. Am I imagining this?

You're imagining it. It says: More books coming soon!

My first guess for another book would be Isle of the Dead, since at Amazon, it's normally sold with Eye of Cat which is in the bundle. I don't think I've ever bought one of these bundles before, but the Zelazny and Bester appeal to me.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

When will the bonus books be revealed? Also, I thought it said 'games', rather than ebooks. Am I imagining this?

Clicking on "More books coming soon" is says:

More books will be added to this bundle next Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. Pacific time!

If you pay more than the average price when you purchase the bundle, you'll automatically receive the additional games once they're revealed!

I will be buying this bundle whatever they are, but I hope they are books and not games :-)

[pdurrant]

I'm sure the bundle extras will be more books, it's clearly a copy/paste error.

If you're only going for the >average price bundle, get it now - the average price is likely to rise rather than to fall. If you're going for the full $15+ bundle, I don't suppose it matter when you get it - although I did once see the average price for a bundle rise above the full price.

The additional books should be revealed next Wednesday at 11am Pacific Time, which is around 7pm UTC

[MikeB1972]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

So who's bought the Humble Bundle package?

I got it, some of the files have terrible formatting

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by MikeB1972

I got it, some of the files have terrible formatting

I was wondering about that, especially why the preview on some of these was in PDF - a horrible, horrible way to present an ebook for possible purchase (in my opinion).

Which ones are horrible and in what way?

Thanks.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by bgalbrecht

You're imagining it. It says: More books coming soon!

My first guess for another book would be Isle of the Dead, since at Amazon, it's normally sold with Eye of Cat which is in the bundle. I don't think I've ever bought one of these bundles before, but the Zelazny and Bester appeal to me.

Here you go with the quote:


More books coming soon!

"More books will be added to this bundle next Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. Pacific time!

If you pay more than the average price when you purchase the bundle, you'll automatically receive the additional games [emphasis added] once they're revealed!"

As mentioned by another member, I would hope that's a typo from lazy editing, as I'm not interested in any games.

Question: If I purchase this entire set for $15, then that will entitle me to the extra book(s) next week?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Question: If I purchase this entire set for $15, then that will entitle me to the extra book(s) next week?

Yes, since the average price of the bundle at the moment is $12.66 which is less than $15.

[MikeB1972]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I was wondering about that, especially why the preview on some of these was in PDF - a horrible, horrible way to present an ebook for possible purchase (in my opinion).

Which ones are horrible and in what way?

Thanks.

Arthur C Clarke Venus Prime - Fixed font
This is pretty typical
<p class="para" style="margin: 0px; text-align: center; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><em class="calibre5">Arthur C. Clarke’s Venus Prime: Volume 2</em></p>

The Wild Card ones had very little formatting - and the chapter headers for "Death Draws Five" were all at the end of the book for some reason, NO TOC.
The Asimov ones were mostly just missing formatting
The Betancourt ones varied from very little formatting to OK, NO TOC.

The Zelazny ones were mostly OK as was the Preiss one

I've not looked for OCR errors yet, I tend to start reading and see how things go for that.

The HumbleBundle preview is always pdf, I think they standardised on that as they do a fair number of graphic novel bundles.
Normally the formatting in anything they do is fine, this bunch not so much.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by MikeB1972

Arthur C Clarke Venus Prime - Fixed font
This is pretty typical
<p class="para" style="margin: 0px; text-align: center; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><em class="calibre5">Arthur C. Clarke’s Venus Prime: Volume 2</em></p>

The Wild Card ones had very little formatting - and the chapter headers for "Death Draws Five" were all at the end of the book for some reason, NO TOC.
The Asimov ones were mostly just missing formatting
The Betancourt ones varied from very little formatting to OK, NO TOC.

The Zelazny ones were mostly OK as was the Preiss one

I've not looked for OCR errors yet, I tend to start reading and see how things go for that.

The HumbleBundle preview is always pdf, I think they standardised on that as they do a fair number of graphic novel bundles.
Normally the formatting in anything they do is fine, this bunch not so much.

Thank you for the detailed info on these, Mike.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Yes, since the average price of the bundle at the moment is $12.66 which is less than $15.

Thanks, Paul.

The only ones I own are the Bester titles, and I think one or two other titles.

I'm still trying to decide on whether or not to buy this set.