Here’s how:
THE STARWARD BOUND BUNDLE
The Starward Bound Bundle – Curated by Martin Kee
Even in the most violent and darkest of timelines, space opera remains steadfast in its insistence that we as a species will eventually find our place among the stars. It’s the promise the subgenre makes to its fans, that we will one day leave this ball of dirt and water, and move on to more interesting things.
But more importantly, space opera is just plain fun as hell.
I’m curating a bundle this year that encapsulates the genre from one end of the spectrum to the other, from the gritty to the absurd, from the dark to the whimsical. The beauty of space opera is in its diversity, in its limitless imagination, and in its consistent vision of humanity living abroad in the cosmic sense of the word. Even at its darkest, space opera spins from a core of optimism.
Much like our charity, this bundle aims to inspire, excite, and educate. We’re offering novels and anthologies from world-famous Hugo and Nebula winners, updated collections of short fiction and essays, and novellas compiled specifically with this bundle in mind.
To start, legendary author, and several-times-over Hugo, Nebula, and Locus award-winner, David Brin offers up his timeless anthology OTHERNESS, with stories that begin on Earth and chronicle humanity’s ascension into space. This updated book also contains newer essays and thoughts from his perspective as futurist, scholar, writer, and scientist.
Hugo and Nebula nominee and winner, Mike Resnick, provided THE OUTPOST, a fantastically imaginative novel, filled with wildly epic characters, given names as big as their personalities. Marko Kloos is presenting his immensely popular TERMS OF ENLISTMENT, a crazy-good military scifi novel, that I fell in love with at the first chapter. Bryan Thomas Schmidt gives us a thrilling continuation of his debut novel with THE RETURNING. Hugo nominee and winner, Brad Torgersen’s book RACERS OF THE NIGHT runs the gamut from lunar NASCAR to interplanetary bricklayers.
This bundle also contains the first two of my novellas from my PATCHER universe, combined into one book, which I’ve compiled specifically for this bundle. Best-seller B.V. Larson submitted his novel STARFIRE, which centers around an alien artifact and a reignited Cold War to capture it. Moira Katsen’s CRUCIBLE is a fantastic beginning to her trilogy about alien genocide at the hands of humans. Edward W. Robertson’s OUTLAW follows a space janitor who becomes a reluctant pirate. And Erik Wecks offers up his space noir adventure AETNA ADRIFT.
As always, with StoryBundle, you pay what you want for the books and a portion goes to charity. For this bundle, our charity is the Challenger Space Center, a Smithsonian organization, which exists to help excite, educate, and inspire young people with an interest in science and space exploration. The center is a museum, simulator, and school, all rolled into one, offering space camps, hands-on learning experience, and science programs for economically challenged children, helping them dream a bigger future. We are thrilled to be able to help support them in their mission.
As with every bundle, you pay what you want. $5 or more gets you the basic bundle. All books are DRM-free, in multiple eBook formats. You can download them anywhere, anytime, worldwide, and they are yours to keep. Paying $15 (or more, if you are feeling generous) gets you the bonus books, written by award-winning masters of science fiction. You can also choose what percentage of your price goes directly to the charity.
It’s our pleasure, offering this bundle to help the Challenger Space Center. Optimism for the future is rare in these pessimistic and cynical times, and these books, no matter how dark or gritty, all share a common vision: Humanity’s true destiny is yet to come. We hope that you too will find this bundle to be a hopeful promise of our place in the cosmos. – Martin Kee
The initial titles in The Starward Bound Bundle (minimum $5 to purchase) are:
- Starfire by B. V. Larson
- Outlaw by Edward W. Robertson
- Aetna Adrift by Erik Wecks
- Patcher: Books 1 & 2 by Martin Kee
- The Novum Trilogy Book 1: Crucible by Moira Katson
If you pay more than the bonus price of just $15, you get all five of the regular titles, plus five more:
- Otherness by David Brin
- Terms of Enlistment by Marko Kloos
- The Outpost by Mike Resnick
- Racers of the Night by Brad R. Torgersen
- The Returning by Bryan Thomas Schmidt
The bundle is available only for a limited time via http://www.storybundle.com. It allows easy reading on computers, smartphones, and tablets as well as Kindle and other ereaders via file transfer, email, and other methods. You get multiple DRM-free formats (.epub and .mobi) for all books!
It’s also super easy to give the gift of reading with StoryBundle, thanks to our gift cards – which allow you to send someone a code that they can redeem for any future StoryBundle bundle – and timed delivery, which allows you to control exactly when your recipient will get the gift of StoryBundle.
Why StoryBundle? Here are just a few benefits StoryBundle provides.
- Get quality reads: We’ve chosen works from excellent authors to bundle together in one convenient package.
- Pay what you want (minimum $5): You decide how much these fantastic books are worth to you. If you can only spare a little, that’s fine! You’ll still get access to a batch of exceptional titles.
- Support authors who support DRM-free books: StoryBundle is a platform for authors to get exposure for their works, both for the titles featured in the bundle and for the rest of their catalog. Supporting authors who let you read their books on any device you want—restriction free—will show everyone there’s nothing wrong with ditching DRM.
- Give to worthy causes: Bundle buyers have a chance to donate a portion of their proceeds to the Challenger Space Center
- Receive extra books: If you beat the bonus price, you’ll get the bonus books!
StoryBundle was created to give a platform for independent authors to showcase their work, and a source of quality titles for thirsty readers. StoryBundle works with authors to create bundles of ebooks that can be purchased by readers at their desired price. Before starting StoryBundle, Founder Jason Chen covered technology and software as an editor for Gizmodo.com and Lifehacker.com.
For more information, visit our website at storybundle.com, tweet us at @storybundle and like us on Facebook.