Category: Books

The Great September Patreon Pledge Drive.

It being September, I think that it is a marvelous time to start really pushing the Patreon every day. Short version of Patreon: give me money, I give you original fiction and gaming material.  The more I make, the more you get. And it can all be yours for as little as one dollar a month!

The plan is to boost the signal a bit, so I’ll be showcasing some of my stuff, enticing with some more of my stuff, and in general riding that thin line between banging-the-pot and being-a-nuisance. Right now the goal is to reach the $200/month goal, which will result in subscribers getting a 3,ooo word short story every month.  Seriously, this is an amazing bargain. Tell your friends! Heck, tell your enemies and pretend that it’ll hurt your feelings if they subscribe. I’m not proud.

Today’s story being showcased is “Lay My Bones Next To Jimmy Hoffa’s.” It’s available for free over there, so check it out.  I am rather pleased with how it came out.

Book of the Week: Golden Age and Other Stories.

Golden Age and Other Stories is Naomi Novik’s collection of stories from her Temeraire series. It’s an interesting collection of alternate takes, short vignettes, and “Dragons and Decorum,” which is absolutely worth the six bucks to any of my readers who enjoy both Napeolonic Wars stories involving dragons AND the works of Jane Austen.  …Yes, that story is exactly what you think that it is, and my only problem with it is that it is far too short*.

And so, adieu to The Man in the High Castle. Continue reading Book of the Week: Golden Age and Other Stories.

Lemme lay down a marker: we’re gonna see those unfinished Terry Pratchett novels eventually.

What’s that I hear?  The drives containing those novels got run over by a steamroller, then thrown into a stone crusher?  Yup!  Yup, they were.  At Sir Terry Pratchett’s own request, no less.  I understand.

I also understand this. Continue reading Lemme lay down a marker: we’re gonna see those unfinished Terry Pratchett novels eventually.

Book of the Week: The Man in the High Castle.

Philip K Dick, of course. The Man in the High Castle is interesting and readable* in its own right; but I would have liked to have read The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, too. It’d be interesting to read an alternate history World War II novel where the broad outlines were true to our history, but the details were not. Or at least, one written by Philip K. Dick. He was an interesting dude.  And, of course, a deeply weird one.

And so, adieu to The Starry Wisdom Library.

*While also being absolutely absurd. Cactus Jack Garner would have been perfectly capable of rallying the country** after a hypothetical FDR assassination; and Wendell Wilkie would have easily won the 1940 Presidential election, or some other fellow who would been able to add 2+2 and get “better keep England afloat.” I grant that FDR did a good, solid job of wartime Presidenting, but his skill set would have hardly been unique.

**We also have a more balanced view of the actual utility of the New Deal in these, more modern times.

Just finished the first three series in Jack Campbell’s The Lost Fleet.

Short version: hoo, boy, these were fun. I kind of wish that I had read them earlier; but then what would I have been reading over the last two weeks?  My reaction, by series: Continue reading Just finished the first three series in Jack Campbell’s The Lost Fleet.

Book of the Week: The Starry Wisdom Library.

I bought this one back in April; but it’s been a slow week, so I’m catching up on stuff. The Starry Wisdom Library: The Catalogue of the Greatest Occult Book Auction of All Time is indispensable for anybody doing Cthulhu Mythos gaming or writing. So indispensable, in fact, that I’m just going to use it as the definitive source for Mythos tomes from now on; there is no point in trying to improve on its entries, given how well it was put together originally.

And so, adieu to the Lost Fleet.  Which was excellent, all the way through.