The Sword and Laser discussion

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/10/get-...

heh. I was just getting ready to come post this.

I love these for indie games, it's awesome to see them trying it for eBooks. Plus Child's Play is my favorite charity.

Not to mention Old Man's War has been on my list.

Hopefully this one works out and they keep it up.

The money goes to charity (in whatever fashion you decide):

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (Internet freedom non-profit)
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (writers advocacy non-profit)
Child’s Play Charity (providing for kids in hospitals in the form of technology and games)

For those who don't want to click through/or add stuff to their shelves:

The books included are:

Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow, an intense story of youthful techno-defiance

Pump Six and Other Stories by Paolo Bacigalupi, a hard-hitting collection of 11 impactful stories

Zoo City by Lauren Beukes, an alternate Earth mystical science fiction tale

Invasion - The Secret World Chronicle by Mercedes Lackey, Steve Libby, Dennis Lee, Cody Martin, a modern military superhero saga packed with bonus content

Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link, a delightful fantasy collection of 11 stories

Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link, the cross-genre follow-up to Stranger Things Happen
If a buyer decides to pay more than the average price for the bundle, they will also receive:

Old Man's War by John Scalzi, a science fiction war epic

Signal to Noise by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean, an ethereal graphic novel of a man’s last days

All of the books are available completely DRM-free for a wide range of eBook readers, mobile devices, and desktop computers. All the books are available in PDF, ePub (open ebook standard), and MOBI (Amazon Kindle) formats.

Direct Link to buy. Right now the average is $11.87 to get the 2 bonus books, which is more than reasonable. That may go up or down as more people buy (only 100 as of this post)

Hah I posted this to twitter and included @swordandlaser, hoping they'd see it too and retweet it. I think I'll be jumping in on this.

oh noooo not more bundles! there goes my money :(

Rob wrote: "Right now the average is $11.87 to get the 2 bonus books, which is more than reasonable. That may go up or down as more people buy (only 100 as of this post)
"

Right now it's around 3700 purchases, with an average of $10.38. Even with Wil Wheaton attempting to dramatically drive the average price up. =-}

Yea I suspect it will drop a bit more as more people donate, but hopefully I'm wrong. I'm planning on spending at least $25 (I need do some math when I get home from work)

I always find the statistics fascinating. Linux users always seem donate the most. Followed by Mac.

I wonder if it's the DRM-free thing. It could also be that there are fewer Linux users so there may be less people paying less to drive their average down than on other platforms.

So far the average is higher than what I've normally seen for video games too. I guess book-readers/sci-fi fans are more generous and/or well off than the average video game players?

I blame the kids. Obviously they're playing too many video games and not reading enough books! ^_^

Just picked these up for $15 to make sure I got the bonus books. Thanks for letting us know about it :)

I tried doing the send to kindle option but only one has come through so far. Anyone else having issues or have any ideas?

EDIT: Ignore that bit about the kindle the rest have now appeared in my pending deliveries so it was probably just going a bit slow.

Just was adding these books to my tbr goodreads pile and noticed this thread. There is also the second story bundle going on for the next six days(storybundle.com) and all their books are drm free.

Nice bundle - I've bought games from Humble before. This lot will see me comfortably through to the New Year!

Just got it for $15 despite the fact that I already own Old Man's War. The charities are well worth supporting (especially EFF, they make a really good job).

It's almost hypnotic watching the sales counter go up. It's up like 3000 in 45 mins.

Neil wrote: "It's almost hypnotic watching the sales counter go up. It's up like 3000 in 45 mins."

I know, right?

Sold! I mean, bought!

Especially excited for Stranger Things Happen which has been on my list for awhile, Pump Six and Other Stories since I've been meaning to read more Bacigalupi since reading The Windup Girl with this group, and Old Man's War since it's been talked about on these forums a lot (and proposed as an official S&L read). I'd never heard of that particular Gaiman work either, so that'll be interesting.

It got me!

Looks like I'm happily wrong (though I was right briefly). I think the average dropped down to 9.50 or something, but right now it's running at $12.22

for a total of $387,970.80 from 31,760 Purchases.

Those numbers are likely out of date before I hit post. At one point yesterday they were changing like crazy.

I noticed this earlier today, but will have to wait a couple of days to make my purchase :(

I've bought Humble Bundles in the past, but I love that they're trying it for eBooks. I hope they do more like this in the future, as I seem to spend more time reading these days :)

EDIT: Screw it, couldn't wait any longer and bought it anyway, lol.

I wanted to bump this up only 7 days left! And yes i just bought it :)

https://www.humblebundle.com/

Another reason to bump is they just added 5 new books collecting webcomics. I aleady owned 3 of these in physical form but still pretty cool and another good reason to buy if you haven't already.

Neil wrote: "Another reason to bump is they just added 5 new books collecting webcomics. I aleady owned 3 of these in physical form but still pretty cool and another good reason to buy if you haven't already.
..."

And it would seem that if you already purchased, and your price was above the average, you don't need to spend more to download the 5 new books.

David(LA,CA) wrote: "Neil wrote: "Another reason to bump is they just added 5 new books collecting webcomics. I aleady owned 3 of these in physical form but still pretty cool and another good reason to buy if you have..."

I can confirm this.

Okay, I was on the fence until they added the stuff. Gotta get 'em now!

I figured I was too late to post this. I got the email while I was out riding. I LOVE Penny-arcade/XKCD so I'm super excited they did this!

David(LA,CA) wrote: "And it would seem that if you already purchased, and your price was above the average, you don't need to spend more to download the 5 new books.
"

Yeah, that was a great surprise :)

They seem to do it with a lot of the bundles. I did humble bundle 5, and it went from five games to eight before the end. I've still only managed to play two of them.

I bought this bundle today. Glad it is open to Aussie readers too :-)

I spent above the average, but $25 for 2 books I want to read, and a few more that I like the sound of, is a bargain.

I bought it and sent a link out to my friends. I love XKCD.

Final bump for anyone who might have missed this/has been procrastinating buying.

As of this post there is roughly 5.5 hours left.

They've already taken in nearly $1.2 million, with over 82k purchases and an average price of $14.25.

I'd say it's been pretty successful.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the library...

Humble ebook Bundle 2.

Featuring

The Last Unicorn
Just a Geek: Unflinchingly honest Tales of the Search for Life, Love, and Fulfillment Beyond the Starship Enterprise
Little Brother
Boneshaker
Spin
Shards of Honour

Awesome. This one seems much better than that other bundle you linked in another thread. Sounds like they will add some more next week too.

Plus Child's Play!