I read both science fiction and fantasy, but growing up in the Australian outback, I had very little access to either of them.  So whenever I hear about a “must read” book in my genres, or a list of books that one should have read to call themselves well-read in that genre, I always feel a sinking sensation because now I’m in North America, many of those “should” and “must” books are long gone. They’re out of print and unattainable at any cost.

Until now.

I have in the last few years come across one of the best ideas in ebook publishing.  Wildside Press, owned and operated by John Betancourt (who is a geek and specfic fan himself) has for a number of years now published MEGAPACKs.  These are compilations of reprints of classic stories.  The majority of them are in the science fiction genre, but there are a steadily growing number of fantasy collections, too, including this one –>

This is a great way to catch up with all those “shoulds” and “musts”.  The collections are stupidly cheap, too.  99c USD for most of them.

The link, above, is for the Wildside Press store, but there is an even larger collection of the MEGAPACK series on their sister site, Black Cat Mystery & SF Club (don’t let the name put you off — they have everything on this site.)

Alternatively, you can get some (not all) the MEGAPACKs at bookstores.  I buy mine at Kobo, but they’re also at Amazon and B&N.  Putting ‘MEGAPACK” in the search bar and they all come up.

I’m not affiliated with Wildwide or MEGAPACKs in any way.  I just think they’re a fantastic idea that is letting me catch up with the golden age this and classic that in my favourite genres.

You can, too.