Sci-Fi Classics Humble Bundle

For anyone interested, I felt I should point out the Sci-fi Classics Humble Bundle currently running (for what looks like two weeks).

As usual for the humble bundles, you get some of the books no matter how much ytou pay, same if you pay more then average, and in this case, some if you pay 15$ or more. Here's a list of what's in there:

Base:
Damnation Alley - Roger Zelazny
The Last Defender of Camalot - Roger Zelazny
The Deceivers - Alfred Bester
Dragonworld - Bryan Preiss
Wild Cards - Deuces Down - Anthology edited by George RR Martin
"Roger Zelazny's" The Dawn of Amber - John Betancourt

Average:
The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth - Roger Zelazny
Eye of Cat - Roger Zelazny
The Computer Connection - Alfred Bester
Robot Visions - Isaac Asimov
Wild Cards - Death Draws Five - Anthology edited by George RR Martin
"Roger Zelazny's" Chaos In Amber - John Betancourt
"Roger Zelazny's" To Rule In Amber - John Betancourt
"More books coming soon"

$15:
The Stars My Destination - Alfred Bester
The Demolished Man - Alfred Bester
Robot Dreams - Isaac Asimov
Arthur C Clarke's Venus Prime 1 - Arthur C Clarke / Paul Preuss
"Roger Zelazny's" Shadows of Amber - John Betancourt

First off, Alfred Bester's "The Stars My Destination" and "The Demolished Man" are excellent. Both are great novels well worth reading. I seem to recall horizon having a bunch of Alfred Bester, and if the other books by him live up to those, they'd be worth getting. Robot stories by Isaac Asimov are always worth reading, in my opinion, as well.

There are several collections of short stories here by Zelazny. Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth ought to have "A Rose for Ecclesiastes" in it, which is amazing, and something everyone should read. There were several other good stories in there as well, and The Last Defender of Camalot has "Home is the Hangman" and "24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai", if it's the edition I think it is, as well as Permafrost. 24 Views was a quite remarkable story in itself.

It's been a while since I read the Wild Cards stories. They were all stories by different authors in a shared alternate universe. From Wikipedia:
"The series relates an alternate history of the Earth after World War II. In 1946 an alien virus that rewrites human DNA is accidentally unleashed in the skies over New York City. It kills 90% of those who come into contact with it (referred to as 'drawing the Black Queen'). However, 9% mutate into deformed creatures (known as 'Jokers') and the remaining 1% gain superpowers (known as 'Aces'). A percentage of the Aces are referred to as 'Deuces', having acquired useless or ridiculous powers, such as the ability to levitate up to two feet, or to grow body hair at will. The airborne virus eventually spreads all over the world, infecting tens of thousands."

I recall them as being interesting, at least.

Can't really comment on the Arthur C Clarke co-written book.

The Amber books here... well... these are books I've been avoiding reading for quite a while. You see, Zelazny wrote a five book series that was very popular, the Chronicles of Amber, and followed it up with a not quite as popular five book series as a sequel, as well as a few short stories.

He didn't leave any notes for his stories when he died. He'd also said that he didn't want anyone to write sequels after his death. The Amber books were very good, and it would take somebody talented to follow up on it. Well, his heirs decided "Oh, he just said no sequels. Let's have a prequel series.".

But no talented authors that could pull it off would touch it with a 10 foot pole, because they respected his wishes. So we get this series by Betancourt. I have not read it. I've heard it's not very good, but, you know, I respect Zelazny's wishes too, so I never picked it up...

There's still lots of good stuff in this collection, and justifying the $15 is easy enough, especially since the Average is pretty close to $15 at the moment anyways. (around $13, last I checked.)

Of course, it omits plenty of things I'd consider sci-fi classics. I'd like some Henry Kuttner, Cordwainer Smith, Ray Bradbury, Ursula Leguin, Anne McCaffery, Larry Niven, Robert Heinlein, etc... In fact, I'd love to see the three book "The Science Fiction Hall of Fame" anthology from the 70's, edited by Ben Bova thrown in, because that had an absolutely incredible collection of science fiction in it. Or, you know, "The Witches of Karres", by James H. Schmitz? "Little Fuzzy" by H Beam Piper? Harry Harrison's "Stainless Steel Rat" series?

Still, some good books in here, so I thought I'd make sure people were aware of it. You can find it over here:
Sci-fi Classics Humble Bundle