FREE/BARGAIN — DRM-Free

[Little.Egret]

Originally Posted by Little.Egret

Following along, free


Comet Fall (Wine of the Gods Book 6) by Pam Uphoff

A thousand years ago, they said, a comet fell. Nearly everyone had died.

Now a small one is going to hit in six months . . . and a planet killer in eight years.

The young witches and wizards of Ash have a lot to learn, and a lot of growing up to do. Rustle Neverdaut is going to be a powerful witch, if she survives bullies, high society, rapists and her own great-grandmother.


https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009RYGE1E/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B009RYGE1E/

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B009RYGE1E/

add, also free


Spy Wars (Wine of the Gods Book 5) by Pam Uphoff

Now, both the Earth and the Empire of the One have laid claim to the same World, and are not about to back down and look weak.
Pity about the native population, which has some odd idea about owning their own World.
The magicians of Ash and the King's Own Intelligence officers try to keep track of the Emire of the One's relationship with a foreign nation, while they monitor the spies from both the Empire and the Earth on their own territory.


https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008BHPC5C/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B008BHPC5C/

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B008BHPC5C/

[ATDrake]

StoryBundle has a new offering for the next two weeks:

The Sci-Fi Adventure Bundle is chock-full of novels by indie authors on Exactly What It Says In the Title.

There are two freebies for newsletter subscribers.

$5 minimum gets you 5 titles (one of them a 3-novel omnibus collection, another the first-ever appearance of a newly-written novel), $15 top tier an additional 8 titles.

Bundle of Holding's latest RPG gamebook offering is Hunter: The Vigil, which is a horror campaign from White Wolf in their Chronicles of Darkness setting. Last week's bundle for Adventurer Conqueror King System fantasy kingdoms at war from Autarch is still available.

Humble Bundle's current ebook offerings are mainly for comics, and expiring tomorrow is the Humble Book Bundle Pathfinder Worldscape presented by Paizo and Dynamite, with a mix of RPG gamebooks in a public domain mashup/crossover setting, and the accompanying tie-in comics in the franchises, with 2 sampler freebies available. The Humble Comics Bundle Image at 25 celebrating the popular publisher's 25th anniversary is very good value for money, with the 1st volumes of many of their award-nominated titles (including recent Hugo fodder) starting at the $10 level, plus omnibus editions for the first complete storyarcs of Saga and The Wicked and the Divine at the top tier.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

The Sci-Fi Adventure Bundle is chock-full of novels by indie authors on Exactly What It Says In the Title.

There are two freebies for newsletter subscribers.

$5 minimum gets you 5 titles (one of them a 3-novel omnibus collection, another the first-ever appearance of a newly-written novel), $15 top tier an additional 8 titles.

I've been agonizing over this for the past few days (it's a three-week duration that started last week), as I have the first novel from that omnibus and the other three are on my wishlist - but I haven't read that first book yet. The rest of the bundle is right on the cusp of "interesting, but I'm not sure I'd buy 'em separately" for me, so I think I'll end up reading the first Big Sigma book between now and Feb. 1 and letting that guide my decision. If I like it enough, a February purchase puts the charge on my March credit card statement.

If nothing else, of course, I can buy in at the $5 level, which gets me the two books I lack from the omnibus cheaper than I could get 'em separately. It's really the $10 bump to the bonus level that concerns me.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by Rev. Bob

It's really the $10 bump to the bonus level that concerns me.

Maybe also read the two newsletter freebies while you're at it? If you happen to like them and want to keep on with their series, then the top tier will have 2 more titles in it to amortize the extra cost.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Rev. Bob

I've been agonizing over this for the past few days (it's a three-week duration that started last week), as I have the first novel from that omnibus and the other three are on my wishlist - but I haven't read that first book yet.

Don't do it, Rev. Bob! How many as good or better books do you have on your TBR, just waiting to be read?

There'll be a better offer along in the next few months, almost certainly before you've actually got around to reading any of the ones in this bundle!


(This is a message from the Ebook Buying Addicts Support Group.)

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Don't do it, Rev. Bob! How many as good or better books do you have on your TBR, just waiting to be read?

There'll be a better offer along in the next few months, almost certainly before you've actually got around to reading any of the ones in this bundle!

Well, here's the math - now that I've taken the step to pull up the appropriate wishlist.

The two Big Sigma books I lack from the omnibus would total $7.98 on their own, and that series is already on my radar. Thus, buying in at $5 is a decent bargain if I like the first book, so Big Sigma 1 gets bumped up in the queue. If I like it and buy in here, I look at the other books on this tier as "we'll give you these books if you'll accept a $3 discount" - which, okay, fine by me.

The remaining Big Sigma book is $4.99, which in and of itself is not a convincing case for the bonus step-up. The two newsletter freebies have sequels in the bundle, though, and there are a couple of others that interest me enough for a second look; buying in at this level will definitely take some more persuading. If the only bonus book I want is Big Sigma 4, better to spend $5 for it whenever I want than $10 under countdown pressure.

[ATDrake]

New Humble Bundle is up, and it's for:

Humble Book Bundle Hacks presented by O'Reilly containing a selection of the popular tech publisher's guides to DIY computer and hardware tools and tips.

There's stuff for programming, and cars, and understanding statistics and analysis via baseball, and astronomy, and many other things. This is an auto-buy for me, as O'Reilly is one of my favourite publishers whom I'd like to support as I've benefited greatly from my library's having a subscription to their Safari Online service for reading their back-catalogue, and getting my own copies of several titles I'm actually interested in is an extra bargain, to boot. I hope they offer more bundles in the future as well.

Fixed tiers of $1, $8, and $15 (no new titles added next week).

Can you hack it? Hack, noun: a short dry cough; a rough or irregular cutting stroke; a usually creative solution to a computer hardware or programming problem or limitation. Well, O'Reilly is back at Humble, and they brought a whole library of creative solutions! Cough sold separately.

Pay $1 or more for Perl Hacks, BSD Hacks, Mind Hacks, Gaming Hacks, and Kinect Hacks.

Pay $8 or more and you’ll also get Baseball Hacks, Car PC Hacks, IRC Hacks, Astronomy Hacks, Raspberry Pi Hacks, Statistics Hacks, and Home Theater Hacks.

Pay $15 or more for all of that plus HTML5 Hacks, Excel Hacks 2ed, Retro Gaming Hacks, and SQL Hacks.

Last week's Humble Comics Bundle Tank Girl presented by Titan, starring the iconic post-apocalyptic British comics character (basis of the eponymous film) is still available.

StoryBundle has a new offer for The Hero-Up Middle Grade Bundle, containing tween/YA titles from small publisher Curiosity Quills, across multiple genres from mundane to fantastical.

$5 minimum for 5 titles, $15 top-tier adds 6 more.

Their previous Sci-Fi Adventure Bundle full of curated indie titles, with 2 freebies for newsletter subscribers, is still available for another week.

Bundle of Holding's new RPG gamebook offering is for Fading Suns, a science fiction game set in a far-future interstellar empire, out from Holistic Designs. Last week's Hunter: the Vigil campaign for White Wolf's Chronicles of Darkness horror setting is still available as well.

[ATDrake]

Humble Bundle has a new multimedia special offering for charity, just for the next week:

The Humble Freedom Bundle goes 100% to charity, and Humble Bundle with further match the proceeds up to $300,000 extra. The funds will be divided up between the American Civil Liberties Union, Doctors Without Borders, and the International Rescue Committee.

There's a good mix of mostly games (not all DRM-free, but most are available via Steam for Mac & Linux, with only a couple of games being Windows or Windows/Mac only), audiobooks, comic books, fiction and non-fiction (all book items are DRM-free), with contributions from publishers O'Reilly, No Starch Press, Dynamite, IDW, creators Neil Gaiman and Cory Doctorow, and more.

On the games front, I can recommend the DRM-free Mini Metro (a surprisingly addictive minimalistic DIY subway system planning game) and Human Resource Machine (a very fun computer programming game with cute graphics and a cynical corporate downsizing storyline, and had put the developer's other game, World of Goo which is also in this bundle, on my wishlist on the strength of this), both of which I got from previous HBs.

Fixed single tier of $30 for 47 items thus far if I've counted correctly, with the chance of more titles being added later, as HB may be able to get more developers on board with the offer. This has a few games that were on my wishlist in it, and it's all going to a good cause and my pledge will be matched, effectively doubling its worth, so I'm thinking I might as well splurge.

ETA: book content currently stands at 1 full audiobook (+ 1 preview, both from Cory Doctorow), 2 comics collections/GN (including 1 National Book Award winner), and 2 non-fiction (both computer-related), and 1 collection of mixed stories/poetry/essays from Neil Gaiman.

ETA2: 28 of the games are DRM-free, and those ones appear to be available for all platforms, except for two which are Windows-only (one of which asks you to choose between the DRM-free download and the Steam key, for some reason). 1 game includes the soundtrack album.

Take a stand for freedom. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door. – "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus, from an engraving on the Statue of Liberty.

We humbly remember that the United States is a nation of immigrants, and we proudly stand with developers, authors, and charities that champion liberty and justice for all.

This special one-week bundle features over $600 in incredible games and books for just $30. 100% of your payments will go to the American Civil Liberties Union, the International Rescue Committee, and Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). Humble Bundle will proudly match your contributions up to $300,000.

We chose these three organizations because of the inspiring work they do in providing humanitarian assistance to refugees and displaced people as well as in defense of justice, human rights, and civil rights

The previous regular HB offerings for Humble Book Bundle Hacks presented by O'Reilly with DIY non-fiction for tweaking your computer, home hardware setup, and brain skills (expiring Wednesday), and Humble Comics Bundle Valiant containing GNs, RPG gamebooks, and introductory catch-up videos for the popular superhero universe, with a #1 comic issue freebie if you sign up for the newsletter, are still on offer.

Bundle of Holding's new RPG gamebook offering is for Bundle of Two, featuring a selection of games from various publishers which can be played with just two players (well, one gamemaster and one player). Some are romance-themed, some are horror/other genres. Previous bundles for the fantasy dungeon-crawling Advanced Adventures from Expeditious Retreat Press (who have a cool name) and the far future space empire campaign Fading Suns from Holistic Design are still available for a limited time.

[GeoffR]

Australian SF author Greg Egan self-published many of his earlier books in the US a while ago, but Gollancz had the rights elsewhere.

Now nine of the self-published versions are available DRM-free in other countries too via Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/nagegerg

In New Zealand most of the Gollancz editions are $16.99, compared to the DRM-free Smashwords editions at about $4.

[ATDrake]

New Humble Bundle is up, and it's for:

Humble Bundle Fantastic Fiction presented by Subterranean Press, chock-full of high-quality sfnal works from the specialty sfnal small press.

This is an excellent selection featuring a complete short story collection from Hugo & Nebula-winner Connie Willis (which I'd already bought during a Kobo deep-discount sale, but still consider worth the price of entry), and more works by notable authors such as Tim Powers, Cherie Priest (another one of her Clockwork Century zombie steampunk series), Joe. R. Lansdale, Jacqueline Carey, Kelley Armstrong, John Scalzi, Alistair Reynolds, Harlan Ellison, and more. Needless to say, this is an auto-buy for me.

ETA: for fans of Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden novels, this contains a collection of 3 never-before published (at time of blurb-writing, which may have been some years ago) novellas in the series.

Fixed tiers of $1, $8, and $15 (no new titles added next week).

Fantastic Mr. Fiction. This bundle is pretty foxy! Subterranean Press has brought a glorious selection of fiction to Humble Bundle. Kelley Armstrong and Jacqueline Carey rub shoulders with Alastair Reynolds and Harlan Ellison… but if we started listing the great authors in this bundle, we'd be here all day!

Pay $1 or more for Fender Lizards, Down and Out in Purgatory, Jacaranda: A Novella of the Clockwork Century, Glimpses, and The Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories.

Pay $8 or more and you’ll also get The Purloined Poodle, Deep Navigation, One Hundred Ablutions, A Long December, Can and Can’tankerous, and The Bread We Eat in Dreams.

Pay $15 or more for all of that plus Miniatures, Lost Souls, Tortured Souls: The Legend of Primordium, Working for Bigfoot, The Border, and Final Girls.

StoryBundle also has a new sfnal offering, for:

The Steampunk Bundle curated by Nebula-nominated author/editor Cat Rambo (ISFDB, Wikipedia).

This contains backlist titles by authors like Ekaterina Sedia and Frank Tuttle (both of which I think I got via older Fictionwise purchases and Samhain giveaways) and Genevieve Valentine, and newer works by established and indie authors.

$5 minimum for 5 titles, including the two backlist I mentioned, a Lavie Tidhar, and a shared-universe collection by Rambo herself containing several stories which appeared in regular magazine venues.

$15 top tier adds 6 more titles, including one best-of anthology edited by Star Wars tie-in novelist Kevin J. Anderson, one involving stories with a South East Asian author and/or setting, and one of steampunk ghost/horror stories, all from small presses, as well as a Nebula-nominated backlist title by Genevieve Valentine originally out from Prime Books.

Their previous Hero-Up Middle Grade Bundle with tween/YA titles from Curiosity Quills Press is still available for the next week or so.

[ATDrake]

Humble Bundle has updated the Humble Freedom Bundle which has 100% proceeds going to the charities American Civil Liberties Union, Doctors Without Borders, and International Rescue Committee. The $300,000 that HB was going to match has long since been exceeded, and over $4 million has now been raised for charity thus far.

There are 17 new items in the mostly-games bundle (11 more DRM-free games, 1 soundtrack album, 1 introductory game programming textbook using HTML5 and JavaScript among the new offerings). At least three two (it looks like the developer of one of them donated some more Steam keys to the cause) of the Steam-key games are sold-out for new customers (but one is still available as a DRM-free download), but there are now 63 items total for new customers (64 if you bought in during the early period yesterday), which is excellent value if you play games, at less than 50 cents each for the asking price of $30 for the entire bundle.

I can also recommend the new Chroma Squad addition which I'd gotten from a previous HB as a fun light RPG where you pretend to be a Mighty Morphing Power Rangers-style TV show and fight cheesy villains while managing your studio budget and ratings, and there are some pretty decent if scanty ebook/audiobook offerings in there as well.

ETA: two games have Android versions included: Waking Mars and Mini Metro, which I recommended upthread in the original post about this bundle.

ETA 2: now at 67 titles total (66 for new customers). They stealthily added a behind-the-scenes making-of documentary for a video game studio, and what looks like 2 more games, so maybe there'll be even more stuff forthcoming later.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

New Humble Bundle is up, and it's for:

Humble Bundle Fantastic Fiction presented by Subterranean Press, chock-full of high-quality sfnal works from the specialty sfnal small press.

This is an excellent selection featuring a complete short story collection from Hugo & Nebula-winner Connie Willis (which I'd already bought during a Kobo deep-discount sale, but still consider worth the price of entry), and more works by notable authors such as Tim Powers, Cherie Priest (another one of her Clockwork Century zombie steampunk series), Joe. R. Lansdale, Jacqueline Carey, Kelley Armstrong, John Scalzi, Alistair Reynolds, Harlan Ellison, and more. Needless to say, this is an auto-buy for me.

It is notable that Mira Grant's Final Girls novella is available here more than two months before its street date; Amazon lists the hardback as due out at the end of April.

[ATDrake]

StoryBundle has a new offering for:

The Escapist Bundle curated by Allyson Longueira, an editor for WMG Publishing which ISTR was established by former Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction editor Kristine Kathryn Rusch and which publishes the Fiction River anthology series.

This contains a mix of offerings, both sfnal and otherwise, from contributing authors to the anthologies, which include award-winning backlist authors as well as newer writers, with an escapism theme.

$5 minimum gets you 5 titles, including one of the Fiction River anthologies and four indie novels, some of them written by authors who've previously had trad-published short stories.

$15 top tier adds 6 more titles, including three collections of shorts by Kristine Kathryn Rusch and World Fantasy Award-nominated editor Cat Rambo (curator of The Steampunk Bundle which is still available) and Aurora-nominated Canadian Rebecca M. Genese, and some superhero humour and mystery/crime novels.

The Hero-Up Middle Grade Bundle full of tween/YA titles in various genres from small publisher Curiosity Quills Press is still available for another day or so.

Just a reminder that expiring later today (at 11 AM Pacific Time) is the Humble Comics Bundle Valiant full of superhero comics, introductory series recap videos, and the RPG spin-off, which has added another deluxe edition GN collection to the middle tier, and for which you can still get a freebie #1 issue and introductory sampler video for. And of course the thoroughly sfnal Humble Book Bundle Fantastic Fiction presented by Subterranean Press, full of excellent sf/fantasy/horror by notable writers, is still on for the next week and I am pleased to see seems to be doing fairly decently in the sales, hopefully enough so that there will be more such offered in the future.

Also for RPG franchise aficionados, Bundle of Holding's latest offering is for Classic BattleTech, featuring the guidebooks for the popular MilSF setting (Wikipedia). The previous Advanced Adventures bundle with classic fantasy dungeon-crawling in it is still available.

[Dngrsone]

In the Steampunk collection, you have Alchemy of Stone which is worth the price of the bundle right there, IMO; and in the Hero Up there is Richard Robert's Don't Tell my Parents I'm a Supervillian which is the start of a very fun must-read series for any fan of capes.

[ATDrake]

New Humble Bundle is up, and it's for:

Humble Book Bundle Arduino & Raspberry Pi presented by Make: consisting of home tech hobbyist titles aimed at robotics and DIY gadgets enthusiasts, based on the titular platforms.

Fixed tiers of $1, $8 (more titles added next week), and $15, and a bonus coupon for a discounted subscription to Make: magazine.

Unusually, they haven't put up a compact description of the contents yet in the bundle blurb area, but it seems to be mainly new titles with a few repeats from past Make:/DIY tech bundles.