Books – Page 371

“From the Afterword to Pillars of Hell: The Birth of the Republic of Terra Navy, 2030-2080”

From the Afterword to Pillars of Hell_ The Birth of the Republic of Terra Navy, 2030-2080

Don’t know where to take this from here, to be honest.

From the Afterword to Pillars of Hell: The Birth of the Republic of Terra Navy, 2030-2080.

The Terran Navy was born in a hundred desperate orbital battles, fought by a handful of national wet navies that had been hastily converted into spacefaring (barely) vessels. The first crews took to Earth orbit and fought using clumsy copies of captured, half-understood technologies; and they mostly died. The ships that did survive were the ones whose captains were mad enough and lucky enough to get their ships within visual range of the enemy, using reckless speed and ignoring all thoughts of safety as a matter of course.

This tactic worked. Not ‘worked better than anyone could have expected it to:’ it simply worked. Nobody in the Galaxy voluntarily fought ship battles at that range, and the swarming planetary looters who were Humanity’s first spacefaring enemy were swept from control of Earth orbit (at terrible cost) before the invaders could change their tactics. And once Earth controlled its own high ground again, the end was inevitable. The nascent Terran Navy had the resources of a planet backing it up, and in that campaign their enemy did not.

Continue reading “From the Afterword to Pillars of Hell: The Birth of the Republic of Terra Navy, 2030-2080”

In the Mail: Gotham by Gaslight.

No picture for it tonight: my wife’s reading it at the moment, and it’s her birthday so there you go. Gotham by Gaslight was good, though. Batman generally comes close to a Victorian aesthetic anyway — it’s sort of implied by the word “Gotham” — so having the comic just drill down and embrace it fully works pretty well. Fair warning, though: it’s more of a mood piece than an action comic.

In the mail: Armistice: The Hot War.

Harry Turtledove’s latest in his Hot War series, which is set in an alternate universe where we started throwing A-bombs around in response to setbacks in the Korean War. Armistice: The Hot War is shaping up to be one of those series where people don’t precisely win; they just kind of survive it. Which is kind of interesting, because his last series (The War That Came Early) is the exact opposite. In that alternate history the world thinks that it went through the wringer, even though having the war start over Czechoslovakia ended up ensuring that most of Western Europe got through it all relatively easily. Heck, even the Germans ended up in that one with no Hitler, continued union with Austria, and the Holocaust stopped before it could even begin.

Sorry; geeking. Anyway, it’s good, so far, but Armistice is the third book in a series. So read the first two… first.

In the (E-)Mail: The Monster Hunter Files.

I actually wasn’t over on Baen E-books for this — it’s been a while since the latest Honor Harrington, David Drake’s no doubt going to write another Leary & Mundy story any day now, and of course there’s all the 163X stuff — but I’ll grab the ARC of The Monster Hunter Files, ya, you betcha. It is, after all, now on my list of wait-fors. This one is a compilation of other authors playing around in Larry Correia’s universe, so it should be of particular interest. I’m there largely for the “Agent Franks vs. Nazis,” myself. Should prove to be… entertaining.

Book of the Week: A Wrinkle in Time.

Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time is, of course, a classic; but it’s also a children’s book — and one the first science fiction stories that I got to read. Which makes it a favorite of mine. :narrowed eyes: Not to mention a subject of some concern, given that Disney is making a movie of it.

…And it had better be a good movie, too. Some things may not be borne.

And so, adieu to 1636: The Kremlin Games.

Moe Lane

Thirteen bucks is a ridiculous amount for a e-book, @MacMillanUSA.

If it had been something like eight bucks, I’d be happy to social-media my reaction to the upcoming book whose name I am carefully not mentioning now. It is, after all, the sort of book that scratches several of my genre itches. However, since Macmillan decided to ask a ridiculous price for the electronic version: they instead get a snarky post in its place that points out how lame Macmillan is being.

They should take a lesson from Baen. Baen wants that sale. So much so that they’re willing to match the price of the text to the format. And, go figure: Baen still manages to make a profit without getting hammered by the courts for price-fixing. Fancy that…

In the Mail: The Delirium Brief.

Come, I will conceal nothing from you: I enjoy Charlie Stross’s books quite a lot, but I think that he should possibly restrain himself to writing in either the past, or the far future. The man’s ability to accurately predict near-future events… well. Politeness is a virtue.

Still, The Delirium Brief should prove as entertaining as the rest of Stross’s stuff. Spy-meets-Lovecraft, and all that. I look forward to perusing it.

Atomic Overmind Press is coming back on-line!

They’re doing that Ken Hite second volume Tour de Lovecraft Kickstarter later in the month, and they’re also going to do new content for The Day After Ragnarok:

The Speleo-Herpetologist’s Handbook opens up the biggest, deadliest, most poisonous dungeon ever — the 2,500-mile long body of the dead Midgard Serpent — to adventure and horror. Loathsome new monsters, deadly ophi-tech, and complete adventure support in The Day After Ragnarok style all wait for you … inside!

The day’s looking up.

DC doing Gotham By Gaslight Batman animated flick.

It’s supposedly leaked, but I have to wonder whether I should be writing ‘leaked.’ After all, what is the downside of people learning a month and a half early that the upcoming Batman and Harley Quinn DVD is going to have a sneak peek at a hitherto-unannounced Gotham By Gaslight project? The original title is popular,* and strategically revealing the feature on the DVD may spark both sales and interest.

I mean, I may now pick up B&HQ. Because Gotham By Gaslight would be pretty cool, if they do it right. And if it works, they could do The Doom That Came To Gotham, which would also be pretty cool (and is exactly what you’d expect it to be, from the title).

Moe Lane

*For those who don’t know, it’s a Mignola/Augustyn Batman story that reimagines him in Victorian England, hunting Jack the Ripper. The favorable reception of this caused DC to come up with their alternate DC history Elseworld series. So, pretty seminal, there.

7102017 Day today, Prime Day Tomorrow!

Today is kind of neat, in a palindrome kind of way: you can write today’s date (July 10, 2017) in numeric form so it’s the same, backwards and forwards (7102017). Which means nothing in the greater scheme of things, of course. But it’s still cool.

And tomorrow is Amazon’s Prime Day. Well, actually today is Prime Day, annnnd there’s a code (PRIMEBOOKS17) for $5 off book purchases over $15. It’s not five bucks per book, and it’s Amazon-only — but that’s still potentially worth contemplating, yes?