Science Fiction by Real Scientists

Well, my kindle is now looking like my bookcase; full of interesting books on my ‘to read’ list. I recently bought a package of sixteen science and science fiction books for $15. Well, $20.78 when converted from US dollars. Since cheap books seems to be one thing everyone loves, I decided to turn into a spam bot for a few minutes and share some information about this deal.

My partner is the one that showed me this deal, which is found on Humble Bundle. He usually finds bundles of games there, but until now I’ve never known they do books as well. The purpose of Humble Bundle is to support charities by offering games and books at a pay what you want rate. In this case, you get to name your price for up to $294 worth of digital books from Springer Publishing. Proceeds go to Unicef, Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, or a charity of your choice. Theoretically, you could pay as little as $1 (though that would only unlock six of the books on offer) or up to… well I don’t think there is an upper limit, but the highest contribution so far as been $100. It’s a great way to support charity, and so far, this bundle has raised over $80,000.

As for the books themselves, I’ll admit I hadn’t actually heard of any of the ones in this package before, though some of the names are familiar. I remembered Nick Kanas – the author of three of the novels in the bundle – from his articles about the psychological and physiological effects of space travel in Analog Science Fiction and Fact. Brad Aiken’s short story collection Small Doses of the Future: A Collection of Medical Science Fiction Stories includes a couple that have previously been published in Analog. Including Locked In, a story I remember quite fondly. H.G Stratmann is also an Analog regular who has a book in the bundle, called Using Medicine in Science Fiction: the SF Writer’s Guide to Human Anatomy. As an aspiring writer a fan of Stratmann’s fiction, and someone who is interested in Biology, I’m really looking forward to that one. I’ve never heard of Stephen Webb before, but his book, If the Universe is Teeming with Aliens… Where is Everybody? Will probably be one of the first ones I read, because the possibility of alien life is one of the most fascinating unanswered questions facing us today.

You can view the entire collection here.

One more thing before I leave you. There are only five days left for this deal. Not having read any of the books here, I can’t with confidence say ‘if you have an e-reader go buy these books; they are awesome and you won’t be disappointed.’ But they can be as cheap as you want, and it’s for charity. If this sounds like something you’d be interested in checking out, head over to Humble Bundle as fast as you can.

~ Lauren