Come, I will conceal nothing from you: I don’t red Ryk E. Spoor. But I’ve heard his name, and he’s definitely one of the guys that my regular readers might read, so check out his Shadows of Hyperion Kickstarter. Old-school Sci-Fi, from the looks of it, and needs that final burst in the last week. So take a look.
Category: Books
In the (e-)Mail: 1636: The China Venture.
Baen finally released another 163x series e-ARC. 1636: The China Venture. Pretty obvious what that one’s about, hey?
…I’m sorry. So far, that’s easily the most interesting thing that’s happened to me today. Or possibly the ONLY interesting thing. And it’s barely worth fifty, sixty words.
The Sword Interval Volume 2 Kickstarter.
Ben Fleuter’s The Sword Interval is one of the webcomics I take regularly: it’s extremely good horror-magical-apocalyptic comic, with excellent world-building and (alas) a plot that seems to be approaching its crescendo. I backed the Kickstarter for the first volume, and I jumped to back this one, too:
So check it out. Heck, get on the Patreon. I did.
Book of the Week: Bears Want to Kill You.
Not using an Amazon link, because bullshittery regarding Amazon links is why Ethan Nicolle’s Bears Want To Kill You is the Book of the Week to begin with. Short version: Nicolle (you probably know him as the guy involved with AXE COP and the Babylon Bee) is in some Kafkaesque, Catch-22 loop with Amazon over his book, and it’s getting old. Doesn’t help that the aforementioned bullshittery by Amazon is all probably automated, too.
I like the service, all in all: but this is why in the end you have to have a human to pick up the phone, Mr. Bezos. Because a human could have solved this problem in about five minutes, and, well, I know that folks with more reach than me these days are noticing this because I bloody well told them about it.
But never mind me.
Book of the Week: Raising Steam.
I’m in the middle of going through Late Pratchett — I assume because of Good Omens, and everything — and Raising Steam was on the rotation. It squared away a lot of characters whom I’m quite fond of; squared them away and had them doing well for themselves. …That’ll do.
Book / Miniseries of the Week: Good Omens.
I think I have done Good Omens before, but there’s a new miniseries on Amazon Prime that’s adapted it. If you haven’t seen any of the miniseries yet, I binge-watched half last night; and to quote Harold from Captain Underpants, “So good.” So good that right now I hope there isn’t a sequel. If Pratchett and Gaiman couldn’t get one done. It’d be almost blasphemous for them to try.
Book of the Week: Night Watch.
Why Terry Pratchett’s Night Watch? Because it is the Glorious 25th of May. And in memory of the man, here is a link to the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America.
Book of the Week: Theater of Spies.
Theater of Spies is SM Stirling’s second book in his alt-history Black Chamber series (change point: Howard Taft has a heart attack just in time for Teddy Roosevelt to win the 1912 election instead of vicious racist and would-be totalitarian Woodrow Wilson*). It’s a nice, taut spy thriller, full of in-jokes and historical references and the nagging feeling that the USA in that universe is heading down a somewhat darker road than they realize. It’s fun to watch, mind you, mostly because it’s not my world so by definition it’s an adventure. Check out the series.
Moe Lane
*I’m kind of making it a point to refer to the jackwagon that way from now on.
Book of the Week: Dracula Unredacted.
Forgot that this was a weekly Patreon pledge. Anyway: Dracula Unredacted is designed for use with the Dracula Dossier supplement for the Night’s Black Agents RPG, but it can stand on its own. It’s an annotated and expanded version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, only with more conspiracy and spycraft and a lot of stuff from the Icelandic edition (which had additions made to it, presumably much to Stoker’s eventual surprise). I grabbed it to read, and to show to my sister-in-law: it may amuse her.
In the E-Mail: Tim Powers’ More Walls Broken.
More Walls Broken is a novella, not a novel. But it’s by Tim Powers. …Enough said, surely?