2013 book log 10) Subterranean Scalzi Super Bundle

This is an ebook omnibus of some of John Scalzi's work published by Subterranean Press, which was made available for a short period at a very good price as a promotional item. The contents included three very funny short stories, two short pieces from the Old Man's War universe, a novella, and a non-fiction essay collection on writing. They're all still available as individual titles, and I think all worth having, assuming you like Scalzi's writing style.

Fiction:

How I Proposed To My Wife: An Alien Sex Story
Trashy newspapers don't change their methods just because the embassies downtown include the ones from off Earth...
Amazon UK, Amazon US

An Election
An insight into local election time, science fiction style.
Amazon UK, Amazon US

Questions for a Soldier
Amazon UK, Amazon US
The Sagan Diary
Amazon UK, Amazon US
A short story and a novella set in the Old Man's War universe. I think that reading the first book of the series gives enough background knowledge to follow and enjoy these, but The Sagan Diary in particular probably isn't going to work for anyone who hasn't read at least the first novel.

Judge Sn Goes Golfing
Omitted for the first release, and I didn't manage to grab the update before it went off sale, so I've not read this one.
Amazon UK, Amazon US

The Tale of the Wicked
Short story riffing off Asimov's Laws of Robotics.
Amazon UK, Amazon US

The God Engines
A blend of dark fantasy and science fiction, about exactly what the title says. Starship engines that are captured gods, and a universe in which this is reality. This examination of faith and power isn't going to be to everyone's taste, but if you do like it, you'll like it a lot.
http://www.librarything.com/work/8343179, Amazon UK, Amazon US

Non-Fiction

You're Not Fooling Anyone When You Take Your Laptop to a Coffee Shop

Collection of essays, mainly from Scalzi's blog, about writing as a business. I'd read many of these when they first appeared, but I'd have still been happy to pay full price for this ebook. Scalzi has selected and arranged the essays in a coherent order, often with notes updating the older essays and putting them in context. The essays span a decade, and some of the early information about writing as a career is now largely of historical interest, but that historical interest is useful in understanding what has happened to writing as a business during the rise of the internet.

Scalzi has spent his adult life earning his living through writing, intially non-fiction but latterly adding fiction. He's a great believer in teaching other writers the financial knowledge they need to manage their writing as a self-employed small business, and this collection is very much focused on writing as a business, not an art. It's entertaining in its own right as a species of memoir, but it's also full of practical information for writers.

http://www.librarything.com/work/2332168, Amazon UK, Amazon US

Eeee! Colin Kapp's Unorthodox Engineers re-released!

Paging jhall1...

Just trundled over to Amazon to poke forlornly at the The Unorthodox Engineers listing to see if there's an affordable copy -- and found that it was released in ebook format by Gateway back in September. I think DRMed, alas, but at least it's available. 30 seconds later I was logged into my Kobo account and chucking a couple of quid at the Kobo server...

Gateway have several other books by Kapp in their ebook catalogue, so I may add to my collection.

http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/the-unorthodox-engineers -- Kobo (epub)
The Unorthodox Engineers - Amazon UK
http://www.amazon.com/Unorthodox-Engineers-Colin-Kapp-ebook/dp/B00F50EX5I/ - Amazon US