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It can’t be coincidental that both e-book bundles I talked about last week have chosen to add more titles on the same day, can it?

First, because they updated first, is StoryBundle, which updated its Sci-Fi Bundle with a free copy of the June issue of Lightspeed, an on-line SF magazine. Judging by the magazine’s on-line store, this is a $3.99 value. No additional purchase is required to get it; anyone who donates any amount, even if it’s not enough to unlock the $10 extra titles, will receive it. I’ll be honest, this doesn’t exactly make me want to run right out and grab the bundle, though I’m mildly interested to note one of the stories in that issue is by Carrie Vaughn, author of the “Kitty Norville” werewolf books I kind of like.

Then there’s the Humble eBook Bundle II, which added four more titles. Only two of these are new to Humble, however. Making a return appearance from the first e-book bundle are Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean’s immense (in terms of file size) graphic novel Signal to Noise, which was a pay-more-than-average-donation unlock for Humble eBook Bundle I, and xkcd volume 0, which was a second-week addition back then, too. If you gave more than average to the first bundle, odds are you’ve already got those. If not…well, the xkcd volume is especially amusing, given that it’s got a lot of additional footnotes and doodles and things that the online versions of the comic didn’t have. I haven’t read Signal to Noise yet, but how can you go wrong with both Gaiman and McKean?

The other two books are Poison Eaters and Other Stories by Holly Black and Machine of Death edited by Ryan North, Matthew Bennardo, and David Malki. They’re both story collections, the former of works by an author named Holly Black, and the latter of stories revolving around a machine that, given a blood sample, tells you how you are going to die. (Shades of Heinlein’s “Life-Line.”)

I’ve never heard of Black, myself, but she seems to be a popular young-adult novelist. Nor have I heard of anyone relating to the second book. But they’re available multi-format and DRM-free in return for donating more than the average donation at Humble right now (currently $9.89 and creeping upward). If you already donated more than the average when these books were added when you bought the bundle, you’ve already got them. Otherwise, you can go back and kick in enough to bring you over the top to grab them now.

Happy bundling!

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