tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47563798709109974082024-02-20T10:09:44.633-08:00The Billion Light-Year BookshelfScience fiction and fantasy news and book reviews.Tattercoatshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07279927771714709106noreply@blogger.comBlogger101125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4756379870910997408.post-58642368293346945552021-05-28T17:46:00.001-07:002021-05-28T17:46:16.651-07:00Looking for More Books to Read?I know all too well that it's very difficult for a voracious reader to get enough books. I grew up in a small town where the nearest bookstore was an hour's drive away and the public library had all of 800 volumes, including reference materials.
Next week I'm going to be participating in an exciting new literary event. Until then, I wanted everyone to know about a <a href="http://aetherczar.com/?p=5016">cool compilation of free and 99-cent books available online</a>. Tattercoatshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07279927771714709106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4756379870910997408.post-12670602825776479972021-03-13T10:10:00.004-08:002021-03-13T10:10:54.819-08:00New Reviews Now Up at the Billion Light-Year Bookshelf<p>I just put up <a href="https://billionlightyearbookshelf.com/newadds.shtml">six new reviews</a> over at The Billion Light-year Bookshelf. These include one on <a href="https://www.billionlightyearbookshelf.com/reviews/hitchhikersguidetothegalaxy.shtml">The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy</a>, in which I look at how humorous works, even excellent ones, are often passed over for awards because "not serious" is seen as evidence of a lightweight.</p>
<p>On a darker note, I also look at Boris and Arkady Strugatsky's <a href="https://www.billionlightyearbookshelf.com/reviews/roadsidepicnic.shtml">Roadside Picnic</a> with an eye to the authors' treatment of the alien visitation as fundamentally unknowable and incomprehensible to humanity.</p>
<p>There are also books by Robert J. Sawyer, Octavia E. Butler, and Marie Brennan, as well as a collaboration by Buzz Aldrin and John Barnes which is arguably a technothriller, but is treated as science fiction because it deals with space travel.</p>Tattercoatshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07279927771714709106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4756379870910997408.post-91661050441253764232020-05-21T22:12:00.000-07:002020-05-21T22:12:19.721-07:00<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36643081-1636" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="1636: The Vatican Sanction (Ring of Fire #24)" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1511377389l/36643081._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36643081-1636">1636: The Vatican Sanction</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8688.Eric_Flint">Eric Flint</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3327022221">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
This volume completes the sub-series that began with 1634: The Galileo Affair. Frank Stone and his new family were rescued in the last volume, 1635: The Papal Stakes. However, Pope Urban VIII still has business to conduct. In particular, he has become convinced that Grantville and the future it represents is a warning of what will come to pass if the various branches of Christianity, and of Judaism, are not able to make peace with one another.<br /><br />In this volume he sets forward to create an ecumenical council that will bring together representatives of the various Protestant sects and of the Orthodox autocephalous churches, as well as representatives of Judaism. There's a pretty strong hint that he's becoming concerned about averting future Islamic extremism, although it could also be interpreted as concern about the present power of the Ottoman Empire.<br /><br />However, his enemies continue to be active, sending agents to kill him and disrupt the council. In the end, it's almost a comedy of errors, except that it turns out tragic. A series of want-of-a-nail single-point failures, including a man who ignored a wound too long and the stubborn pride of an old man who just wants to take a leak in private -- but the book ends with the hope that from this martyrdom will come a greater determination to create a lasting legacy, rather like the Kennedy assassination was a big driver to the lunar landings.
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/4128940-leigh-kimmel">View all my reviews</a>
Tattercoatshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07279927771714709106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4756379870910997408.post-26944323918790024062020-04-25T08:45:00.002-07:002020-04-25T08:45:14.982-07:00Days of Futures Past<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24891544-old-venus" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Old Venus" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1423502131l/24891544._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24891544-old-venus">Old Venus</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/346732.George_R_R_Martin">George R.R. Martin</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3279374978">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
I grew up with the stories of the old Solar System from before the first interplanetary probes destroyed the dreams of finding new life and new civilizations right in our astronomical backyard. The worlds where Mars was home to an older and wiser civilization, where Venus was a swampy world of monsters and beautiful people. Where action and adventure was only a few weeks or months away, rather than a centuries-long journey to another star. In our small-town library, books stayed on the shelves until they began to disintegrate, so the classics of SF didn't disappear simply because they had become dated.<br /><br />And this anthology was like going back down memory lane. I really loved the story that was openly set in the world of CL Moore's Northwest Smith stories, which have fallen into the public domain because of the rules at the time about renewal of copyright. There were other stories that had the flavor of various major authors, from Heinlein's First Future History version of Venus to Edgar Rice Burroughs' Carson of Venus novels, without actually using any copyrighted IP. Other stories gave a nod to the New Venus. In one story, the protagonist travels not only through space, but also through time to a past when Venus was still a lush and dangerous water world. In another, the characters live in a far future when Venus has been terraformed, rather like David Drake's Seas of Venus novels. And the final one seemed to be a retelling of the old action-adventure stories of travel to distant and exotic lands, the sort that are now condemned as Orientalizing and exoticizing -- but since Venusians manifestly do not exist, it's able to fly under the watchful eye of the SJW moral watchdogs.<br /><br />There was only one story I truly Did Not Like. That's the Bernie Wooster pastiche, which grated on my nerves. By the time I got through it, I was thoroughly sick of all the "right ho" and "what ho" and quite glad to be done with it. However, that's probably more of a personal taste thing, and someone who's a Bernie Wooster fan and also loves stories of the Old Solar System of the pre-spaceflight pulps would probably get a real kick out of it.
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/4128940-leigh-kimmel">View all my reviews</a>
Tattercoatshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07279927771714709106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4756379870910997408.post-64608094464785558092020-02-15T19:24:00.000-08:002020-02-15T19:24:52.636-08:00I Never Expected to Like a Political Soap Opera<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35664108-emergence" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px;"><img alt="Emergence (Foreigner, #19)" border="0" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1504858569l/35664108._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35664108-emergence">Emergence</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/989968.C_J_Cherryh">C.J. Cherryh</a><br /><br />My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3174883541">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br /><br />This novel is pretty much a direct continuation of Convergence, as Bren facilitates the arrival of Cajeiri's three human associates in Mospheria, the island set aside for humans on the atevi Earth. Meanwhile, things are getting interesting for Cajeiri at his great-uncle's estate as rival claimants of the Ajuri lordship make nuisances of themselves.<br /><br />When I was waiting for the second meeting with the kyo, I remember how frustrated I was with what felt like book after book of political soap opera among the atevi. I even wondered if Ms. Cherryh had lost her way, if she literally had no idea how to deal with the kyo at the depth it would take, and was just spinning out all these books to try to hold off the inevitable.<br /><br />But now, with the kyo having made it clear that they want to be good neighbors but no, they do not wish to make themselves fortunate three with humans and atevi, there's no longer that sense of frustrated anticipation. There is the possibility of an unpleasant encounter with the mysterious hostile fourth species (unfortunate four, which is ill-omened to the atevi, although perhaps not in the same way as it is in Japan, whose traditional culture they remind me of), but it's a dark cloud on the distant horizon, just menacing enough that we're happy to keep it far away. This series is a story of communication and learning about the Other, and I'm afraid that having those aliens actually come calling would make it something more on the order of a military science fiction story.<br /><br />Not to say that CJ Cherryh can't write military sf, because she has done quite a good job with her Company Wars series in the Union-Alliance universe. But it's just too much of a change of tone from what has gone before for me to be really comfortable with the idea of her taking it in that direction.<br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/4128940-leigh-kimmel">View all my reviews</a><br />Tattercoatshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07279927771714709106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4756379870910997408.post-45122501360236014142020-01-27T09:44:00.000-08:002020-01-27T09:45:48.482-08:00"Phoenix Dreams" Now Available as a Standalone E-bookStarship Cat Press is proud to reprint "Phoenix Dreams," which was originally published in <i>Lazarus Risen</i>, an anthology of transhumanist speculative fiction.<br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0847HW7GJ/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=83aa3e04c968b94e1ce1e82fee883215&language=en_US" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B0847HW7GJ&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel&language=en_US" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&language=en_US&l=li2&o=1&a=B0847HW7GJ" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
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<a href="https://amzn.to/2RwCFrD">Phoenix Dreams by Leigh Kimmel</a><br />
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In Greek myth, the phoenix is a bird that rises from its own ashes.
Growing up in the city named for it, Toni knew the story well, and her
experience with computer games made her comfortable with the idea of
death being negotiable. So when she found a cache of old space
memorabilia in her grandfather's attic, she never guessed that her
eagerness to right a historic wrong would meet with such ferocious
opposition.<br />
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But it only made her more determined to give this man
his spaceflight, even a century late. She would learn the skills,
develop the code, and do whatever it tookTattercoatshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07279927771714709106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4756379870910997408.post-50093124296837500742020-01-26T11:59:00.003-08:002020-01-26T12:02:18.457-08:00More cool new booksLast week there was a vignette prompt at Sarah Hoyt's blog, but no book promo. This week it seems the vignette prompt has gone astray, but there are <a href="https://accordingtohoyt.com/2020/01/26/the-writer-against-the-forces-of-evil-and-promo/">two new books you might want to look into</a>, as well as a humorous tale of obstacles overcome.<br />
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Also, I just wanted to remind everyone about Joseph T Major's new novel. I'm hoping to start reading it shortly.<br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B083FKVSL8/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=830ef708559d79ea1d2425750fb4f758&language=en_US" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B083FKVSL8&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel&language=en_US" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&language=en_US&l=li2&o=1&a=B083FKVSL8" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
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<a href="https://amzn.to/3aJYXxE">The Motherland Knows by Joseph T Major</a>
They thought he could help.
The First Man in Space was under pressure. He had to regain his flight status. A friend had died for him. And from all over the Soviet Union, workers and other proletarians wrote him begging for help. Sometimes he could help
And now, he was beginning to think, the Soviet Union was going the wrong way, a very wrong way.
They might decide to solve some matters. A dead hero can't disagree with the authorities.
So he reached out, to someone he had met, someone who was known, someone he thought he could trust.
Then, on a cold and clear Christmas night, he took the most daring step -- and the world changed.
In a tale of space flight, spying, and politics, people who thought they would never get into that sort of thing now found themselves propelled into it. A turbulent and tumultuous world is shaken into a different path, as leaders react to embarrassment with a desire for prestige, where the wish of a pilot is brought closer to coming through, and famous men are brought together, to find that enemies are more like them than they had imagined.<br />
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****<br />
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Crossposted at <a href="https://starshipcat.livejournal.com/687203.html">my LiveJournal, The Starship Cat</a><br />
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Please remember that indie writers depend upon reviews for visibility. If you've read and enjoyed something, please consider writing a review -- if not on Amazon.com, at least on Goodreads or on your blog.Tattercoatshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07279927771714709106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4756379870910997408.post-86216512703665952082020-01-05T11:51:00.000-08:002020-01-26T12:04:07.133-08:00New Books for the New YearIt's a brand-new year, and there are some brand-new books, some long-awaited and some surprises.<br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Survive-Atlantis-Grail-Book-4-ebook/dp/B083G9VLBY/ref=as_li_ss_il?keywords=vera+nazarian+survive&link_code=qs&qid=1578252992&sourceid=Mozilla-search&sr=8-1&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=968ee87e419dd71f8bc7de5401f90bd7&language=en_US" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B083G9VLBY&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel&language=en_US" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&language=en_US&l=li2&o=1&a=B083G9VLBY" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
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<a href="https://amzn.to/2sFH9mr">Survive by Vera Nazarian</a>
The End is Here, in a Fiery Cosmic Apocalypse!
Gwen Lark knows how to Qualify, Compete, and Win...
The time has come to Survive.
The Games of the Atlantis Grail have come to a ground-shaking halt and Gwen Lark, nerd, geek, and awkward smart girl, survived the remarkable ordeal, for the time being.
But the worst is yet to come!
Now, both the colony planet Atlantis and Earth are under a threat of annihilation, and everything is up in the air, including dire and stunning wonders in the Atlantean skies.
Will there be a Wedding? Will there be a future for Gwen Lark, her beloved, and all their families, friends, and loved ones?
Is Gwen’s rare and powerful talent, the Logos voice of creation, enough to resolve the greatest mystery of the Kassiopei Imperial Dynasty and its role in the events of deepest antiquity since the dawn of time?
The fate of the entire human species is at stake, and now there can be no respite, not a moment to lose. The final battle is here, and Gwen, and everyone she knows and loves, are in for the greatest fight of their lives.
It is time to survive.
SURVIVE is the fourth and final book in The Atlantis Grail series, now an international cross-genre phenomenon, optioned for film.<br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Motherland-Knows-Joseph-T-Major-ebook/dp/B083FKVSL8/ref=as_li_ss_il?keywords=joseph+t+major&qid=1578253076&sr=8-2&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=ddea29c38a31aaf9e85c8c16b1aa51a8&language=en_US" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B083FKVSL8&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel&language=en_US" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&language=en_US&l=li2&o=1&a=B083FKVSL8" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
<a href="https://amzn.to/37AYlrV">The Motherland Knows by Joseph T. Major</a>
They thought he could help.
The First Man in Space was under pressure. He had to regain his flight status. A friend had died for him. And from all over the Soviet Union, workers and other proletarians wrote him begging for help. Sometimes he could help
And now, he was beginning to think, the Soviet Union was going the wrong way, a very wrong way.
They might decide to solve some matters. A dead hero can't disagree with the authorities.
So he reached out, to someone he had met, someone who was known, someone he thought he could trust.
Then, on a cold and clear Christmas night, he took the most daring step -- and the world changed.
In a tale of space flight, spying, and politics, people who thought they would never get into that sort of thing now found themselves propelled into it. A turbulent and tumultuous world is shaken into a different path, as leaders react to embarrassment with a desire for prestige, where the wish of a pilot is brought closer to coming through, and famous men are brought together, to find that enemies are more like them than they had imagined.<br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Time-Daughters-I-Sherwood-Smith-ebook/dp/B07XZ9F4D1/ref=as_li_ss_il?keywords=sherwood+smith&qid=1578253180&sr=8-2&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=c61b6bb49e1f639663c34ba1691773ca&language=en_US" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B07XZ9F4D1&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel&language=en_US" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&language=en_US&l=li2&o=1&a=B07XZ9F4D1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
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<a href="https://amzn.to/37HDanV">Time of Daughters I by Sherwood Smith</a>
In a time of change and danger, peace sparks to war, and sons become daughters...
It’s nearly a century after the death of Inda, the unbeatable Marlovan commander.
Danet and Arrow, content in their arranged marriage, just want to live in peaceful obscurity and raise their family. But when a treaty sends them to the royal city to meet the heir to the throne, they discover that peace is fragile, old enemies have long memories, and what you want isn't always what you get.
By the time they learn that you can’t go back again, events ignite a conflagration that no one could have foreseen—except for the ghosts who walk the walls in the royal city.
This is the first half of an epic story of politics, war, family and magic in the beloved world of Sartorias-deles.<br />
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<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Time-Daughters-II-Sherwood-Smith-ebook/dp/B07Y6KVRZ8/ref=as_li_ss_il?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B07Y6KVRZ8&pd_rd_r=20325636-c7fb-4127-a2b5-357339af8f6c&pd_rd_w=aTUky&pd_rd_wg=9X8Ge&pf_rd_p=04d27813-a1f2-4e7b-a32b-b5ab374ce3f9&pf_rd_r=FNEF6YP4CNEP4Q4JG771&psc=1&refRID=FNEF6YP4CNEP4Q4JG771&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=2cc3e06eb8bd50c8414ed2bb56e2ec6e&language=en_US" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B07Y6KVRZ8&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel&language=en_US" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&language=en_US&l=li2&o=1&a=B07Y6KVRZ8" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
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<a href="https://amzn.to/2QrzUaL">Time of Daughters 2 by Sherwood Smith</a>
In a time of rising danger, women go to war, and ghosts walk the walls...
A few years have passed since the Night of Four Kings, when the least expected candidates for rulership found themselves in charge of a disintegrating kingdom.
These years of tenuous peace see their children reach adulthood. Threats from the border become raids, led by an idle noble with an eye to kingship.
The two princes, Noddy and Connar, newly emerged from the military academy, are dispatched to patrol the troubled area until they find themselves under attack.
Their loyalty to one another is strong, but what happens when one brother discovers a taste for war and the other a loathing for it?
Matters of marriage and love tangle up with the menace of war. But the greatest threat of all comes when the world’s strongest army faces enemies from within.
This is the concluding half of an epic story of politics, war, family and magic in the beloved world of Sartorias-deles.<br />
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Also Sherwood Smith has been <a href="https://sartorias.livejournal.com/790950.html">signal-boosting for Australian writers</a> affected by the massive fires in that country. After seeing so many images of shocking destruction, a lot of us are asking how we can help. Right now, the best way we can help is to buy their books so that they will have some income to return home to and start over. There are several names of both authors and publishers who have lost everything, and who could really use some solid income streams right now, when everything is at its lowest.Tattercoatshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07279927771714709106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4756379870910997408.post-89409827509269038232019-12-30T21:55:00.000-08:002019-12-30T21:55:08.744-08:00A Cautionary Tale Applicable to Our Present World<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48081629-the-year-of-jublio" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="The Year of Jublio!" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1567983624l/48081629._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48081629-the-year-of-jublio">The Year of Jublio!</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19470021.Joseph_T_Major">Joseph T Major</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3016386019">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
It's long been theorized that John Wilkes Booth and his convicted accomplices were in fact part of a much larger conspiracy aimed at wiping out as much of the Union government as possible. This novel of alternate history is based upon the idea that, not only was this true, but it succeeded almost completely.<br /><br />However, the author does not immediately present us with this scenario. Instead he begins the novel some years later, when our protagonist is a youngster growing up in a United States that superficially looks like the Gilded Age US we know from history books. Except weird little things keep popping up, such as the references to Lincoln as "Father Abraham," and being spoken of as though he were still President, yet also being referred to as having been martyred. Only slowly do we learn how Lincoln's assassination was part of a decapitation strike that wiped out the entire Line of Succession, leaving the surviving senior Union government officials in a position where they had to somehow maintain the function of the Executive Branch, but none of them had any formal standing to assume the Presidency.<br /><br />Much like Aleck in the author's Alternate World War II series, the protagonist of this novel is American-born but with strong ties to the UK aristocracy, being heir to a baronetcy. As he goes to England to receive an appropriate education and subsequently becomes an officer in the British Army in the Boer War and then their equivalent of World War I, he watches the land of his birth go deeper and deeper down a rabbit hole of obsession with seccesionism and slaveocracy.<br /><br />I do not believe that the author intended this novel to be allegorical of any Primary World government (although certain actions are strongly reminiscent of the former USSR, particularly under Stalin, albeit with the Cult of Personality focused on a martyred President rather than a living Leader), but it is certainly a very applicable warning against the dangers of becoming obsessed with an enemy long after the defeat of the nation it represents. And most of all, the danger of erasing or rewriting history, as the alternate America does in reducing every leader from the Revolution to the 1860 election to nameless ciphers, as if Lincoln personally masterminded and led every success the US ever enjoyed.<br /><br />Review copy provided by the author.
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/4128940-leigh-kimmel">View all my reviews</a>
Tattercoatshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07279927771714709106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4756379870910997408.post-2145719215892611362019-12-29T13:50:00.000-08:002019-12-29T13:51:08.649-08:00<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49201832-zilbrant-the-traitor" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Zilbrant the Traitor" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1576034660l/49201832._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49201832-zilbrant-the-traitor">Zilbrant the Traitor</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1101381.Catherine_Mintz">Catherine Mintz</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3098331165">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
I originally started reading this novel as the family was coming back home from Christmas Eve service at church, and intended to read it piecemeal over the next several days. However, when I got back to reading it the next day, I ended up spending pretty much all day on Christmas reading it, even when I'd intended to do some other projects. I just couldn't keep myself from reading "just a little bit more."<br /><br />I originally met Zilbrant in Ms. Mintz's short story "Earth Ashes Dust" in the anthology <i>Past Future Present 2011</i>. When I read it, I initially assumed that the author was unthinkingly using the trope of the Medieval peasant village recreated In Space, since such things are not uncommon in space opera. But as I read further in the story and learned about the history of the Varr, of the initial hostility of many humans to their creation and the consequent wars with atrocities on both sides, I reinterpreted the crushing poverty of Zilbrant's family's village and the religion that seemed deliberately designed to keep them down as a case of vengeance being more valuable than economy.<br /><br />When I found out that there was a novel about Zilbrant, I was immediately interested. The title intrigued me, since she didn't seem to be the sort of person who would willfully and maliciously betray anyone, but she was certainly in a situation in which conflicting loyalties could create one or more double-binds that would lead her to be condemned by one or another party (or maybe several) as a traitor. A situation sort of like "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter."<br /><br />The beginning does not simply copy the original short story, instead weaving in first person narrative threads by two apparently artificial entities, one a spaceship in orbit over Zilbrant's homeworld, which finally has a name and a place in a larger galactic setting that Zilbrant's brutally limited education gave her no way to know. There are also two other human characters' stories, both told in third-person limited POV, one a rebel against the Varr and the other one of their trusted servitors. All these POV's can be a little difficult to follow at times, but it gives us a far broader and more nuanced view of the situation. The Varr are not entirely vicious oppressive tyrants, although their rule is certainly not democratic even on the worlds where the elite has not become corrupt. It turns out that, while the Skalmar religion was indeed artificially created, it was not as a tool of oppression, but as a way of keeping the early settlers of newly terraformed worlds from self-sabotage when the scientific rationales for restrictions on their activities couldn't be culturally transmitted. The Skalmar faith was supposed to be something that their descendants outgrew when the world's ecology became sufficiently established to allow for luxuries, for interstellar travel, not a crab bucket ideology dragging everyone back down.<br /><br />Perhaps it was too much to hope for our protagonist to break free of her conditioning and move beyond the stifling poverty of her upbringing to go out into the bright and unbounded universe. But it's quite possible that she was right in believing that this transformation, however delayed, still needed a number of generations before their people could view the Skalmar revelations as mere superstition (albeit supported by the judicious, if creepy, use of tech) and roll their eyes at what their ancestors once believed.<br /><br />Even so, I do want to read more stories set in this fascinating universe, even if Zilbrant has no more stories, just an ordinary life as an ordinary peasant woman.
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Tattercoatshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07279927771714709106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4756379870910997408.post-1226268540334490682019-12-29T13:19:00.001-08:002019-12-29T13:19:50.591-08:00Short, but Has a Punch<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48764425-the-chooser" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="The Chooser: A Tale of Modern Valkyrie" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1573659599l/48764425._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48764425-the-chooser">The Chooser: A Tale of Modern Valkyrie</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2864314.David_L_Burkhead">David L. Burkhead</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3070765107">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
I don't know whether this novella inspired the meme going around about the child who died fighting off his abuser showing up in Valhalla, or if the novella is a response to the meme, but it certainly digs into the idea, trying to understand what it would mean -- and what it would take for a child to grow into the reward for that moment of adrenaline-fueled courage.<br /><br />I really like how the author dropped just enough details for us to figure out the ethnic background of young Kamil and his father, but never explicitly stated that they were immigrants (probably refugees) from the Middle East living in one of the Scandanavian countries. By doing this, he's able to keep the focus on the individuals and their choices, and avoids having a whole bunch of political stuff dragged into what is fundamentally a story about a person breaking free of a dysfunctional, abusive family situation and winning his freedom.
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Tattercoatshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07279927771714709106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4756379870910997408.post-3225946203473756892019-09-26T18:34:00.000-07:002019-09-26T18:34:47.222-07:00The First Novel in a New Trilogy in a Beloved World<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45037940-a-sword-named-truth" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="A Sword Named Truth (Rise of the Alliance, #1)" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1555200090l/45037940._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45037940-a-sword-named-truth">A Sword Named Truth</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/12350.Sherwood_Smith">Sherwood Smith</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2984274278">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
I wanted to read this one slowly, because there's so much to savor, so much detail, so many things that link to other books in the same 'verse. But I'd borrowed it from the library, and there were two more people waiting to read it, so I had to hurry through it so it could go back for the next person in the hold queue.<br /><br />I'm in an unusual position reading this, because I've read some parts of the overarching storyline in various stages from the earliest rough drafts through various rewrites over the years, including material that has yet to see print and may never. So I know some characters by other (nick)names than the ones used in this novel, and some backstory to certain characters and magical objects that I'm not sure I want to mention, lest I snerk something important in an upcoming book.<br /><br />The book itself starts with a sudden and dramatic political shakeup, the removal of a rotten dark-magic king to the mysterious place outside of time known as Norsunder, a sort of artificial Hell created as a base and bolthole by the aggressors in a long-ago war known as the Fall of Old Sartor. Suddenly there's a power void in Chwahirsland, but nobody wants to move lest Wan-Edhe (literally, The King, reminiscent of several 20th-century dictators whose titles translated into The Leader) should return and be displeased. Jilo, formerly the heir-apparent to the bad king's brother Prince Kwenz, steps into the breach, trying to maintain some sort of forward motion in a land that has lain far too long under dark-magic spells.<br /><br />Chwahirsland was not a well-liked country back in Banner of the Damned (events of which are referred to several times in this book), but now it has become a dark-magic horror. The comparison to North Korea is rather apt, although magic enables some horrors that even the worst Primary World police state can't manage (paralleling something I contemplated a couple of years ago when I was writing a story based on a bit of backstory and realized that my villain could hardly be distinguished from any of several Rotten Dictators of History, and I needed to think about just what a tyrant could do in a world with Functional Magic). Things like the energy-sucking spell and time-bindings cast over the palace, or the book that traces the movements of people whose names are written in it.<br /><br />Meanwhile, in other parts of the world of Sartorias-deles, other leaders are responding to the sudden change in the balance of power as a result of Norsunder's decapitation strike on Chwahirsland. It's becoming obvious that, after millennia of waiting and occasionally playing cat-and-mouse games with various countries, Norsunder is on the move, sending its minions wholesale rather than retail. While the older rulers struggle with the concept that the status quo is being upended, a group of youngsters who came to thrones extraordinarily young are forming their own network to defend against these new threats.<br /><br />And then Norsunder moves, and it's horrifying how fast carefully-laid light-magic defenses are swept away. It's a fight that leaps all over the world of Sartorais-deles, and even to its sister-world of Geth-deles (the two planets are in each other's L3 position relative to their primary, known as Erhal but generally just called "the sun"), where the Norsundrians are trying to steal a different type of transfer-magic after having their old methods forcibly blocked.<br /><br />And this doesn't even get into the fascinating discussions of morals and ethics, and particularly the ethics of the use of power, or the hint that the original foundation of Norsunder was some kind of eldritch entity of pure hunger for life-energy that came from Outside, and that may have been why the Fall didn't get humanity kicked off Sartorias-deles by its mysterious indigenous inhabitants, who had been ready to do that for far less in the first centuries after humans first settled.<br /><br />I'm hoping to get it back out once there's no longer a hold queue and read it more slowly and carefully, then write a longer and more analytical review on my book reviewing site.
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Tattercoatshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07279927771714709106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4756379870910997408.post-40910597655101632672019-09-12T17:46:00.001-07:002019-09-12T17:46:59.315-07:00A Story of Magic and Peril<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9708616-banner-of-the-damned" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Banner of the Damned" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1331202982l/9708616._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9708616-banner-of-the-damned">Banner of the Damned</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/12350.Sherwood_Smith">Sherwood Smith</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/439474022">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
This novel forms a bridge between the Inda tetralogy and the era of Crown Duel and the CJ Notebooks. In Crown Duel, there was a reference to the ties between Remalna and Marloven Hess, going back to when a Marloven princess married into the old royal family. There have also been references in the later books to Indevan's ride into Norsunder with his First Lancers. This is the story of those events.<br /><br />In the Inda books we saw the Marlovens through their own eyes, but in this, we see them through the eyes of the Colendi, a cultured people reminiscent of Heian Japan or the court of the Sun King at Versailles, but with magic. And by this point magic has become far more common than it was in Inda's era, although not to the near-ubiquity of CJ's notebooks.<br /><br />It is also the story of a woman on trial: Emras the Scribe, who became royal scribe to Princess Lasva, and who accompanied her to Marloven Hesea (as the country was known at the time) when she weds Prince Ivandred, who rescued her from the Chwair king. Officially, Emras went as a scribe, but the Queen gave her a secret mission: protect Princess Lasva from dark magic, which both the Chwair and the Marlovens had a reputation for using.<br /><br />A very open-ended mission, with almost no instruction on how to go about it. So Emras does so as best she knows how, trying to learn how magic works. And her very diligence and determination lead her down a path she might not have, had she been given better instruction and been less easily led astray.
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Tattercoatshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07279927771714709106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4756379870910997408.post-68923114001299793622019-08-14T19:47:00.001-07:002019-08-14T19:47:53.513-07:00Bittersweet and Poignant<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1800853.Rollback" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Rollback" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1317063341l/1800853._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1800853.Rollback">Rollback</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/25883.Robert_J_Sawyer">Robert J. Sawyer</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2469083904">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
It's nice to see a story with a happy, functional family -- a loving couple who've been happily married for decades, with children who've done well in life and bright-eyed grandchildren to spoil rotten. It seems like so many stories these days are about dysfunctional families and dysfunctional people, the more screwed up, the better.<br /><br />But everything changes when a wonderful gift goes terribly wrong. Many years ago, Sarah solved the puzzle of an alien message -- it was in fact an ethics questionnaire for a thousand people to fill out, covering a wide range of topics about how intelligent beings ought to treat one another and their environment. Now the aliens have sent a new message -- but it's encrypted, and nobody can figure out how to translate the description of a decryption key into practice. It's hoped that Sarah can repeat her previous feat -- but she's now elderly and things aren't as easy as they once were for her.<br /><br />But technology can fix that -- a rollback, a treatment that resets everything to about twenty-five years old. Yes, it's incredibly expensive, but SETI's biggest patron is a multi-billionaire for whom the cost is pocket change. Sarah accepts, but only under the condition that her husband Don also receive a rollback.<br /><br />Except Sarah's doesn't work. It's thought that an experimental cancer treatment she took to beat breast cancer may have made fundamental changes in her biochemistry or microbiome that prevent the rollback from working on her. So now Don's biologically a young man while his wife remains elderly and in failing health.<br /><br />Given that the central focus of the aliens' communication is ethics, it's not surprising that a lot of Don's story is his own struggles with impulses contrary to his own moral compass. I'm not entirely comfortable with how his relationship with one character was resolved -- it felt too much like he got the reward after failing the test -- but then I think of Andrew Greeley's novels, and how he so often wrote about flawed characters failing, then finding their way back to redemption, and how many of them still get to have happy endings.<br /><br />The ending is happy, in a bittersweet way that's almost impossible to discuss without spoilers. I'd love to see another novel dealing with what comes next, but I could also live with the novel as it stands.
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Tattercoatshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07279927771714709106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4756379870910997408.post-66579097207004265292019-07-25T18:42:00.000-07:002019-07-25T18:42:25.222-07:00A Light, Fun Read<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27774712-thunderlord" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Thunderlord" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1464805645l/27774712._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27774712-thunderlord">Thunderlord</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4841825.Marion_Zimmer_Bradley">Marion Zimmer Bradley</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2902768195">3 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
In many ways I feel that this is more Deborah J Ross's book set in Marion Zimmer Bradley's fictional world rather than a true posthumous collaboration. Maybe that's why I feel less uneasy about reading it, if it doesn't have so much of a shadow cast over it by the very serious questions about MZB's personal life.<br /><br />Also, it's much lighter than the novel to which it is a nominal sequel. All the time I've been reading it, I've been wrestling with just what I mean when I say that. Most obviously, it has a happy ending, whereas STORMQUEEN is fundamentally a tragedy, the story of spoiled young Dorylis whose Gift came upon her too young, who never learned wisdom or control as a child and thus could not learn it when she needed it.<br /><br />By contrast, this story starts with adventures of derring-do as the two sisters Kyria and Alayna, travel from Rockraven to Scathfell, where Kyria is betrothed to its lord. But Kyria is kidnapped by bandits and taken to their stronghold, setting off a chain of events and misunderstandings that are only possible in a world where travel and communications are painfully slow. At times the turns of events take on an almost soap opera character, but everything is clearly moving toward a happy ending at the end, when the characters come to their senses and sort out an amicable solution to a longstanding feud. In fact, I could anticipate several major plot twists as soon as the critical elements were introduced.<br /><br />Its a popcorn book, but not a bad book. Sometimes you want or even need something lightweight and nicely predictable, that you can read without being braced for horrible surprises thrown at you by the author.
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Tattercoatshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07279927771714709106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4756379870910997408.post-56494148716324142172016-10-30T17:34:00.000-07:002016-10-30T17:34:48.993-07:00Books, Books and More BooksBetter than water, water everywhere, which is what our plumbing is threatening to give us. While we're trying to nurse a failing drain along until we can get a plumber out here to work on it, here are some delightfully spooky reads for Halloween.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Rachel-Many-Splendored-Dreamland-Unexpected-Enlightenment-ebook/dp/B01ILF5Q18/ref=as_li_ss_il?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1477870111&sr=1-1&keywords=l+jagi+lamplighter&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=2c4b62e95241f0f2b0b00d742cf53bb5" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B01ILF5Q18&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&l=li2&o=1&a=B01ILF5Q18" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br /><br /><a href="http://amzn.to/2ecwGEI">Rachel and the Many-Splendored Dreamland by L. Jagi Lamplighter</a><br /><br />It’s Halloween at the Roanoke Academy for the Sorcerous Arts, and Rachel Griffin is stirring up the dead!<br /><br />All her life, Rachel has wanted to visit Beaumont Castle in the kingdom of Transylvania, the last known location of her hero, librarian-adventurer “Daring” Northwest. Only falling out of the land of dreams onto her face was not how she had expected to arrive.<br /><br />Now, the castle is right there, looming over her. Only her best friend, the Princess of Magical Australia does not want to go in, so as to avoid an international incident. But what if the castle holds some clue as to her hero’s final fate?<br /><br />And who was that mysterious figure hanging by the neck she glimpsed in the dreamlands, just before she fell. Could the Dead Men’s Ball, where the spooks and ghosts of the Hudson Highland gather once a year on Halloween to dance to the music of some very unexpected musicians, be the key to discovering the hanged man’s identity?<br /><br />(The third in the Rachel Griffin series, which began with <a href="http://amzn.to/2f3quOi">The Unexpected Enlightenment of Rachel Griffith</a> and continued in <a href="http://amzn.to/2f7fv50">The Raven, the Elf, and Rachel</a>, it will be on sale October 31 for Halloween.)<br /><br /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Cobweb-Bride-Trilogy-Book-ebook/dp/B00DK02MHG/ref=as_li_ss_il?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1477871992&sr=1-5&keywords=vera+nazarian&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=9ba66cbb0d5da1c0404eb9234963fadd" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B00DK02MHG&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&l=li2&o=1&a=B00DK02MHG" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br /><br /><a href="http://amzn.to/2fkV4a1">Cobweb Bride by Vera Nazarian</a><br /><br />Many are called... She alone can save the world and become Death's bride.<br /><br />COBWEB BRIDE (Cobweb Bride Trilogy, Book One) is a history-flavored fantasy novel with romantic elements of the Persephone myth, about Death's ultimatum to the world.<br /><br />What if you killed someone and then fell in love with them?<br /><br />In an alternate Renaissance world, somewhere in an imaginary "pocket" of Europe called the Kingdom of Lethe, Death comes, in the form of a grim Spaniard, to claim his Bride. Until she is found, in a single time-stopping moment all dying stops. There is no relief for the mortally wounded and the terminally ill....<br /><br />Covered in white cobwebs of a thousand snow spiders she lies in the darkness... Her skin is cold as snow... Her eyes frozen... Her gaze, fiercely alive...<br /><br />While kings and emperors send expeditions to search for a suitable Bride for Death, armies of the undead wage an endless war... A black knight roams the forest at the command of his undead father… Spies and political treacheries abound at the imperial Silver Court.... Murdered lovers find themselves locked in the realm of the living...<br /><br />Look closer—through the cobweb filaments of her hair and along each strand shine stars...<br /><br />And one small village girl, Percy—an unwanted, ungainly middle daughter—is faced with the responsibility of granting her dying grandmother the desperate release she needs.<br /><br />As a result, Percy joins the crowds of other young women of the land in a desperate quest to Death's own mysterious holding in the deepest forests of the North…<br /><br />And everyone is trying to stop her. <br /><br /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Spirits-Dobrenica-Sherwood-Smith-ebook/dp/B0054TVVRS/ref=as_li_ss_il?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1477872181&sr=1-29&keywords=sherwood+smith&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=f7439c2fa9258d8989c747e4055a6a5c" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B0054TVVRS&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&l=li2&o=1&a=B0054TVVRS" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br /><br /><a href="http://amzn.to/2eSkdo7">Blood Spirits by Sherwood Smith</a><br /><br />Everyone's favorite sword-wielding California girl returns-from the author of Coronets and Steel.<br /><br />With the man she loves set to marry a look-alike princess, Kim Murray returns to California from the magical country of Dobrenica to heal her broken heart. But family politics soon have her leaving for London, where she is forced into a duel with a Dobrenican nobleman. He reveals that her great sacrifice, leaving Alec, was a disaster. To fix her mistake, Kim returns to Dobrenica, but what she finds there is far more shocking and dangerous than she ever imagined. Not just politics and personalities but ghosts and magic, murder and mystery, await her as she struggles to understand the many faces of love. Once again Kim has to take sword in hand as she tries to make peace and learn the truth. Only, whose truth?<br /><br />(The sequel to <a href="http://amzn.to/2ecGr61">Coronets and Steel</a>, it delves deeper into the supernatural elements of Sherwood Smith's Ruritanian kingdom of Dobrenica).<br /><br /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Steampunk-Cthulhu-Mythos-Terror-Steam-ebook/dp/B010GPI5VY/ref=as_li_ss_il?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1477873165&sr=1-1&keywords=steampunk+cthulhu&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=80ba81f67f7d19388c454bbe2302d708" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B010GPI5VY&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&l=li2&o=1&a=B010GPI5VY" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br /><br /><a href="http://amzn.to/2ecDJgO">Steampunk Cthulhu by Brian Sammons and Glynn Owen Barrass, editors</a><br /><br />"We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.”<br /><br />So said H.P. Lovecraft in the first chapter of his most famous story, "The Call of Cthulhu" (1926). This is also the perfect introduction to Steampunk Cthulhu, for within these stories mankind has indeed voyaged too far, and scientific innovations have opened terrifying vistas of reality, with insanity and worse as the only reward.<br /><br />The Steampunk genre has always incorporated elements of science fiction, fantasy, horror and alternative history, and certainly the Cthulhu Mythos has not been a stranger to Steampunk. But until now there has never been a Steampunk Cthulhu collection, so here are 18 tales unbound from the tethers of mere airships, goggles, clockwork, and tightly bound corsets; stories of horror, sci-fi, fantasy and alternative realities tainted with the Lovecraftian and the Cthulhu Mythos. Here you will discover Victorian Britain, the Wild West era United States, and many other varied locations filled with anachronistic and sometimes alien technology, airships, submersibles and Babbage engines. But the Victorian era here is not only one of innovation and exploration, but of destruction and dread.<br /><br />(This anthology includes my own short story "The Baying of the Hounds," which features Gilded Age heroes Nikola Tesla and Thomas Alva Edison).<br /><br /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LADQ1VM/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=932e4bd086f5d00dd12a00ce3d1aca8f" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B01LADQ1VM&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&l=li2&o=1&a=B01LADQ1VM" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br /><br /><a href="http://amzn.to/2fl0nGu">The Shadow over Leningrad by Leigh Kimmel</a><br /><br />In Stalin's Soviet Union, Tikhon Grigoriev lives a precarious life. He knows too much. He's seen too much. A single misstep could destroy him, and if he stumbles, he will take his family down with him. With Leningrad besieged by Nazi armies, the danger has only increased.<br /><br />He's not a man who wants to come to the notice of those in high places. But when he solved a murder that seemed supernatural, impossible, he attracted the attention of Leningrad's First Party Secretary.<br /><br />So when a plot of land grows vegetables of unusual size and vigor, and anyone who eats them goes mad, who should be called upon to solve the mystery but Tikhon Grigoriev. However, these secrets could get him far worse than a bullet in the head. For during the White Nights the boundaries between worlds grow thin, and in some of those worlds humanity can have no place.<br /><br />(The sequel to "Gnawing the Bones of the City," which was published in Fiction Vortex).<br /><br />If you'd like to have your works included in future promo posts, let me know at <a href="mailto:leighkimmel@yahoo.com">leighkimmel@yahoo.com</a><br /><br />Crossposted at <a href="http://starshipcat.livejournal.com/">The Starship Cat Blog</a> and <a href="http://tattercoats.blogspot.com/">Through the Worldgate</a>.<br /><br />Tattercoatshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07279927771714709106noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4756379870910997408.post-10240360803161576372016-10-16T17:28:00.000-07:002016-10-16T17:28:43.635-07:00Promo AwaitsI'm busy getting ready for <a href="http://www.grcomiccon.com/">Grand Rapids Comic Con</a>, including catching up on some bookwork. So I wanted to get this week's promo post out before the day slips away from me. Enjoy, and hope to see a least some of you at the con.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Unexpected-Enlightenment-Rachel-Griffin-Books-ebook/dp/B01FVJ7DAY/ref=as_li_ss_il?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1476661479&sr=1-1&keywords=unexpected+enlightenment+of+rachel+griffin&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=1e87bba4939233fa9c81986f8a3e53ac" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B01FVJ7DAY&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&l=li2&o=1&a=B01FVJ7DAY" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br /><br /><a href="http://amzn.to/2dUxM7p">The Unexpected Enlightenment of Rachel Griffin by L. Jagi Lamplighter</a><br /><br />Roanoke Academy for the Sorcerous Arts – A magic school like no other!<br /><br />To Rachel Griffin, Roanoke Academy is a place of magic and wonder. Nestled amidst the beauty of New York’s Hudson Highlands and hidden from the eyes of the Unwary, it offers everything a young sorceress could desire—enchantments, flying brooms, and the promise of new friends.<br /><br />On her first day of school, Rachel discovers her perfect memory has an unexpected side effect. She can see through the spell sorcerers use to hide their secrets.<br /><br />When someone tries to kill a fellow student, Rachel investigates. She soon discovers another far-vaster secret world that hides from the Wise the way the Wise hide from mundane folk. Rushing forward where others fear to tread, Rachel bravely faces wraiths, embarrassing magical pranks, mysterious older boys, a Raven that brings the doom of worlds, and at least one fire-breathing teacher.<br /><br />Described by fans as: "Fringe meets Narnia at Hogwarts", The Unexpected Enlightenment of Rachel Griffin is a tale of wonder and danger, romance and heartbreak, and, most of all, of magic and of a girl who refuses to be daunted.<br /><br />Curiosity may kill a cat, but nothing stops Rachel Griffin!<br /><br />"Lamplighter introduces many imaginative elements in her world that will delight..." VOYA<br /><br />(The first of a series that currently stands at three volumes, with more to come).<br /><br /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Diabolical-Bargain-Mary-Catelli-ebook/dp/B00SZIQU8U/ref=as_li_ss_il?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1476661646&sr=1-15&keywords=mary+catelli&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=7ffd9803f58be4ad4a4913e6a885c50c" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B00SZIQU8U&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&l=li2&o=1&a=B00SZIQU8U" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br /><br /><a href="http://amzn.to/2eGZSVO">A Diabolical Bargain by Mary Catelli</a><br /><br />Growing up between the Wizards' Wood and its marvels, and the finest university of wizardry in the world, Nick Briarwood always thought that he wanted to learn wizardry.<br /><br />When his father attempts to offer him to a demon in a deal, the deal rebounded on him, and Nick survives -- but all the evidence points to his having made the deal.<br /><br />Now he really wants to learn wizardry. Even though the university, the best place to master it, is also the place where he is most likely to be discovered.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Wren-Journeymage-Books-Book-ebook/dp/B0047GMHPE/ref=as_li_ss_il?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1476662407&sr=1-9&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=1bb22508f8863b92f5ff641122c04c0f" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B0047GMHPE&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&l=li2&o=1&a=B0047GMHPE" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br /><br /><a href="http://amzn.to/2dUAoSF">Wren Journeymage by Sherwood Smith</a><br /><br />The first summer of peace brings Wren on her weekly visit to the young Queen Teressa, where she encounters the derisive, upsetting Hawk Rhiscarlan riding in! Wren races to warn Teressa, to discover he's expected, which causes the girls' first argument. Tyron gives Wren a chance to leave Meldreth by sending her on a new journeymage project--to find Connor, who had wandered off to the Summer Isles. When Wren vanishes, her scry stone abandoned, Teressa veers between regret over the argument, worry about Wren, and the beguilement of attraction as Hawk skillfully upsets her court. Wren has just made friends with some young sailors when they are captured and forced on board a shady smuggler, where Wren learns all about the sea. When pirates attack, Wren does magic, which leads her straight to another confrontation with the villain she hates most, aided by the boy she . . . what do you call these feelings? Once again the four--Wren, Teressa, Connor, and Tyron--find themselves deep in adventure, as they try to navigate the treacherous waters of growing up.<br /><br />(The first three Wren books were originally published by Jane Yolen's YA imprint with Harcourt. When Harcourt discontinued the imprint, it left the series orphaned with the fourth book unwritten. Sherwood Smith has reissued the series through Book View Cafe, a writers' co-op. It begins with <a href="http://amzn.to/2eH1VcH">Wren to the Rescue</a> and continues through <a href="http://amzn.to/2dZikdP">Wren's Quest</a> and <a href="http://amzn.to/2ew2hDC">Wren's War</a>.)<br /><br /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sun-Never-Sets-Fredericks-Destiny-ebook/dp/B01K6T6KS0/ref=as_li_ss_il?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1476662756&sr=1-7&keywords=joseph+t+major&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=e394a9460e08fcd9ce9504b6fc24e73d" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B01K6T6KS0&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&l=li2&o=1&a=B01K6T6KS0" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br /><br /><a href="http://amzn.to/2eH0wTh">The Sun Never Sets by Joseph T. Major</a><br /><br />A passionate defense of an exiled prince leads to changes that shake the course of European and world history, and lay the stage for a wider and wider yet monarchy.<br />In our world, the Electress Sophia of Hanover, sister of the gallant Prince Rupert of the Rhine, was made heir to the British throne, only to die just too soon, leaving the succession to her son. Once, though, she got a little too exercised about the poor exiled Pretender . . . and if she had been just a little more exercised, William of Orange might have changed his mind.<br />Such a change could put a strange and striking monarch in reach of the British throne. But the heirs of the Stuarts were not yet gone, and they could strike back. The result of this bold decision would mean wars across the world, involving people from lands spreading from Poland to Virginia, from Scotland to Naples. It would mean battles in the Cockpit of Europe, in the wilds of Saxony, and indeed on the green fields of England itself.<br />Not all is war. Literary figures such as Swift,Johnson, and Voltaire have strange and different meetings. The universal genius Benjamin Franklin, Printer, has an entirely new field of endeavor.<br />The opposed royal houses, and the other princes of Europe, face off in new and strange alliances in this novel.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Historical-Lovecraft-Tales-Horror-Through/dp/0986686409/ref=as_li_ss_il?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1476662950&sr=1-1&keywords=historical+lovecraft&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=e1a36f57956764bbf00ec3775f82c8ee" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0986686409&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&l=li2&o=1&a=0986686409" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br /><br /><a href="http://amzn.to/2dtPWNN">Historical Lovecraft by Silvia Monero-Garcia, editor</a><br /><br />Historical Lovecraft, a unique anthology blending historical fiction with horror, features 26 tales spanning centuries and continents. This eclectic volume takes the readers through places as varied as Laos, Greenland, Peru, and the Congo, and from antiquity until the 20th century, pushing the envelope of Lovecraftian lore. William Meikle’s inquisitor tries to unravel the truth during a very hostile questioning. Jesse Bullington narrates the saga of a young Viking woman facing danger and destruction. E. Catherine Tobler stops in Ancient Egypt, where Pharaoh Hatshepsut receives an exquisite and deadly gift. Albert Tucher discovers that the dead do not remain silent in 10th century Rome.<br /><br />These are tales that reimagine history and look into the past through a darker glass. Tales that show evil has many faces and reaches through the centuries. Tales that will chill your heart.<br /><br />Join us in our journey through horror and time, if you dare.<br /><br />Stories by: Regina Allen, Jesse Bullington, Nathalie Boisard-Beudin, Mason Ian Bundschuh, Andrew G. Dombalagian, Mae Empson, Nelly Geraldine García-Rosas, Orrin Grey, Sarah Hans, Travis Heermann, Martha Hubbard, Nathaniel Katz, Leigh Kimmel, Meddy Ligner, William Meikle, Daniel Mills, Aaron Polson, Y. Wahyu Purnomosidhi, Alter S. Reiss, Josh Reynolds, Julio Toro San Martin, Bradley H. Sinor, Molly Tanzer, Albert Tucher, E. Catherine Tobler, Bryan Thao Worra<br /><br />(Contains my short story "Red Star, Yellow Sign," which is tied to my indie short stories <a href="http://amzn.to/2elLRK8">The Other Side of Midnight</a> and <a href="http://amzn.to/2dZj6Yn">The Shadow over Leningrad</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FX3STEM/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=101cc21e861d6e11d1b222b7cf50c786" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B01FX3STEM&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&l=li2&o=1&a=B01FX3STEM" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br /><br /><a href="http://amzn.to/2elLmjv">All the Little Hedgehogs" by Leigh Kimmel</a><br /><br />The Lower Volga Special Bio-Research Laboratory is one of the Soviet Union's most closely guarded secrets. Yona Feldberg didn't even know it existed until the day Academician Voronsky arrived at the Suvorov School and took him away from the austere life of a military cadet.<br /><br />Here Yona learned why he, the son of a KGB labor camp commandant, should have been placed in a school to train the Soviet Army's future officers: he is a clone of one of the Red Army officers murdered in the Great Terror. However, his extraordinary talent for genetics makes him more valuable as the Academician's personal student, learning the technology of gene splicing alongside the Academician's adopted son.<br /><br />But privileges can be revoked, as Yona discovers when he runs afoul of the local guardians of propriety. Now he will get a different kind of education, in teh darker secrets of the Soviet cloning program.<br /><br />(Another story set in the Soviet Union, in the <a href="http://www.gusonthemoon.com/">Gus on the Moon</a> timeline).<br /><br />Over at Sarah Hoyt's blog, the Free Range Oyster has <a href="https://accordingtohoyt.com/2016/10/16/a-fall-of-books-by-free-range-oyster/">even more cool books</a>. In the comments you can also find a story beginning of mine, for another story in the Gus on the Moon timeline.<br /><br />I also have some <a href="http://billionlightyearbookshelf.com/newadds.shtml">new in-depth book reviews</a> up at The Billion Light-Year Bookshelf.<br /><br />As always, if you'd like to have your works included in future versions of this promo post, please let me know at <a href="mailto:leighkimmel@yahoo.com">leighkimmel@yahoo.com</a>. Because I'll be setting next week's promo post up while I'm at Grand Rapids Comic Con, they'll stand a better chance of being included in it if sent earlier.<br /><br />Crossposted at <a href="http://starshipcat.livejournal.com/">The Starship Cat Blog</a> and <a href="http://tattercoats.blogspot.com/">Through the Worldgate</a>.Tattercoatshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07279927771714709106noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4756379870910997408.post-66992833879121270532016-10-09T18:03:00.000-07:002016-10-09T18:03:01.888-07:00Making Time for PromoI'm between events right now, but it doesn't mean I'm not busy. There's merchandise to manage and bookwork to do. And there is my other business, developing and maintaining AdSense websites, which has suffered from lack of attention for far too long. So it's easy to let the day slip away and discover it's gone and I still haven't done the promo post this week.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Bandit-Steals-City-Lady-Was-ebook/dp/B01LYH578X/ref=as_li_ss_il?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1476060150&sr=1-9&keywords=joseph+t+major&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=0728ac9eb7c148f8a26a7863afe75315" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B01LYH578X&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&l=li2&o=1&a=B01LYH578X" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br /><br /><a href="http://amzn.to/2dV0vaL">The Bandit Steals a City by Joseph T. Major</a><br /><br />Ordinary worlds have problems with fanatics. So do faerie ones. The faerie worlds have ways to deal with them, but some may be very mundane and ordinary. And then there is the problem of cleaning up afterwards.<br />Our bandit and her husband the scholar have to deal with a family crisis, an evil that masquerades as good. Not to mention having to raise more of their kind, understand how their lives work, and provide for family of all sorts. There are so many things that go into life, and having it for longer only makes them accumulate.<br /><br />(The second in the Lady Was a Bandit series, which began with <a href="http://amzn.to/2e2lmcL">The Death of a Bandit</a>)<br /><br /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Pride-Platypus-Darcys-Dreadful-Secret-ebook/dp/B008D303J4/ref=as_li_ss_il?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1476060429&sr=1-12&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=0908739380c3a42b57c52e6a7ae95f80" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B008D303J4&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&l=li2&o=1&a=B008D303J4" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br /><br /><a href="http://amzn.to/2e5Xc4R">Pride and Platypus by Jane Austen and Vera Nazarian</a><br /><br />From the critically acclaimed author of Mansfield Park and Mummies and Northanger Abbey and Angels and Dragons...<br /><br />Pride and Platypus: Mr. Darcy’s Dreadful Secret<br /><br />When the moon is full over Regency England, all the gentlemen are subject to its curse.<br /><br />Mr. Darcy, however, harbors a Dreadful Secret...<br /><br />Shape-shifting demons mingle with Australian wildlife, polite society, and high satire, in this elegant, hilarious, witty, insane, and unexpectedly romantic supernatural parody of Jane Austen's classic novel.<br /><br />The powerful, mysterious, handsome, and odious Mr. Darcy announces that Miss Elizabeth Bennet is not good enough to tempt him. The young lady determines to find out his one secret weakness -- all the while surviving unwanted proposals, Regency balls, foolish sisters, seductive wolves, matchmaking mothers, malodorous skunks, general lunacy, and the demonic onslaught of the entire wild animal kingdom!<br /><br />What awaits her is something unexpected. And only moon, matrimony, and true love can overcome pride and prejudice!<br /><br />Gentle Reader -- this Delightful Illustrated Edition includes Scholarly Footnotes and Appendices<br /><br />(Who ever thought lycanthropy could be <i>funny</i>?)<br /><br /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Trouble-Kings-Sherwood-Smith-ebook/dp/B00UA7QA48/ref=as_li_ss_il?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1476060561&sr=1-7&keywords=sherwood+smith&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=8ad3a7ae67ec413e7c2dce53664483d3" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B00UA7QA48&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&l=li2&o=1&a=B00UA7QA48" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br /><br /><a href="http://amzn.to/2ehpqZy">The Trouble with Kings by Sherwood Smith</a><br /><br />“With music you can tell the truth about human experience.”<br /><br />In this romantic fantasy set in the same world as Crown Duel, Flian is an ordinary princess who would rather be left with her music, but gets abducted not once, not twice—three times.<br /><br />What is a civilized princess to do? Especially when she can’t tell which prince is the hero and which the villain!<br /><br />Re-edited and reissued by Book View Cafe<br /><br />(If Jane Austen were to write a novel in Sherwood's Sartorias-deles universe, it would look like this).<br /><br /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Lazarus-Risen-Hayden-Trenholm-ebook/dp/B01M1G4KMG/ref=as_li_ss_il?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1476060686&sr=1-1&keywords=lazarus+risen&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=a38ddb8ce124bea5b3217f256332a969" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B01M1G4KMG&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&l=li2&o=1&a=B01M1G4KMG" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br /><br /><a href="http://amzn.to/2dCv2fQ">Lazarus Risen by Hayden Trenholm (ed.)</a><br /><br />Dreams of immortality and eternal youth are almost as old as human culture itself. But what would the world look like if everyone could live and be young forever? What would it look like if only some of us had that privilege? Lazarus Risen presents sixteen stories from around the world that explore the economic, political, social and psychological consequences of life extension, human cloning, the hard upload and other forms of the biological singularity.<br /><br />Stories by Brent Nichols, Sean McMullen, Teri Babcock, Nancy SM Waldman, Brad C. Anderson, Fiona Moore, Felice Picano, Matthew Shean, Matt Moore, Suzanne Church, Peter Wendt, Holly Schofield, Deborah Walker, Kevin Edwin Stadt, Leigh Kimmel, and Andrew Barton.<br /><br />(This anthology contains my story "Phoenix Dreams," a companion story to <a href="http://www.gusonthemoon.com/antoniadevilbiss.shtml">The Crime and Glory of Antonia DeVilbiss</a>.)<br /><br /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01B5EIVKU/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=45c44afd9547943d3076ad4e1a46bb63" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B01B5EIVKU&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&l=li2&o=1&a=B01B5EIVKU" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br /><br /><a href="http://amzn.to/2dpgxct">The Moon Mirror by Leigh Kimmel</a><br /><br />Chelsea Ayles dreamed of going to the Moon since she was a child. Now her dream job at NASA has turned into a nightmare, thanks to those many blood-sucking arachnids. Yeah, politics, as in a Senator accusing her of destroying America's priceless heritage because she chose the moonrocks that were used to make a proof-of-concept mirror segment for a lunar telescope project. Now the mirror sits in her office like a bitter mockery of what might have been -- until the day her reflection turns into a handsome stranger who calls himself the Man in the Moon and offers her visions of a world that might have been. Visions that ignite a longing of an intensity she hasn't known since she was in grade school and watched videos of the Apollo lunar missions in science class.<br /><br />(Another story that involves the Gus on the Moon universe).<br /><br />Over at Sarah Hoyt's blog, Free Range Oyster has <a href="https://accordingtohoyt.com/2016/10/09/belated-promo-by-free-range-oyster-and-sunday-vignettes-by-by-luke-mary-catelli-and-nother-mike/">more interesting books for you to check out</a>.<br /><br />To get your book in next week's promotional posting, send me a note with the title and publication information at<a href="mailto:leighkimmel@yahoo.com">leighkimmel@yahoo.com</a><br /><br />Crossposted at <a href="http://starshipcat.livejournal.com/">The Starship Cat blog</a> and <a href="http://tattercoates.blogspot.com/">Through the Worldgate</a>.Tattercoatshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07279927771714709106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4756379870910997408.post-50876102734228736892016-09-04T19:56:00.000-07:002016-09-04T19:56:00.887-07:00Books for FallIn the United States, Labor Day is considered the beginning of autumn for social purposes. Traditionally, white shoes and hats were put away until Memorial Day, outdoor public swimming pools were closed, and school reopened for the fall semester after summer break.<br /><br />Today the rules aren't nearly so strict. People wear whatever colors they want throughout the year. Heated pools stay open well into fall, and a lot of schools open near the beginning of August, shortening summer vacation in hopes of increasing retention of skills learned the previous year.<br /><br />But it's still a good time for some fun books.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Wondrous-Thing-World-Shijuren-Book-ebook/dp/B01HHKZJVA/ref=as_li_ss_il?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1473041108&sr=1-4&keywords=rob+howell&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=5a7f1a5bd4ef6caea2398d3062f30603" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B01HHKZJVA&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&l=li2&o=1&a=B01HHKZJVA" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br /><br /><a href="http://amzn.to/2bXTdBj">I Am a Wondrous Thing by Rob Howell</a><br /><br />War looms in the west as sword, axe, and flame sweep the Kreisens and threaten to drag all of the neighboring realms, including Periaslavl, into the maelstrom.<br /><br />Irina Ivanovna, ruler of Periaslavl, knows that war would destroy much of her land. Even though magic has kept her body young, she is tired and sees that she is not the one to lead her land through the upcoming storm.<br /><br />She steps down in favor of her heir, as tradition dictates, and disappears from sight. She heads to the Kreisens to see if her magic can halt the bloodshed and pain.<br /><br />But the storm was orchestrated by foes she does not know she has. They stalk her, knowing her magic is the key.<br /><br />She must elude the hunters so she can discover what is truly threatening not just Periaslavl, but all of Shijuren.<br /><br />Where will the lightning strike?<br /><br />(This is the third and latest volume in the World of Shijuren.)<br /><br /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Death-Bandit-Lady-Was-ebook/dp/B01CPD9LBS/ref=as_li_ss_il?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1473041405&sr=1-9&keywords=joseph+t+major&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=67a47cc41361d3acc6fcf21c819b5ee7" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B01CPD9LBS&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&l=li2&o=1&a=B01CPD9LBS" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br /><br /><a href="http://amzn.to/2bPEBK7">The Death of a Bandit: The Lady Was a Bandit volume 1 by Joseph T. Major</a><br /><br />You can easily find the tale of the Diverse Band of Ordinary But Special People questing for the Magic Knickknack of Querty to help them win the Ultimate Battle Between Good and Evil which will mark the End of the Faerie Folk in Our World. This isn't one of those stories.<br />A bandit queen finds herself forced to choose between domesticity and execution. A scholar goes to extraordinary ends to find a wife. Together, they seek to solve the problems presented them in a world where magic and faerie are, well, just there.<br /><br />WARNING: Contains violence, sex, and family.<br /><br />(Humorous fantasy -- avoid choking, don't read while eating or drinking)<br /><br /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Whispered-Magics-Sherwood-Smith-ebook/dp/B00ECGP4KY/ref=as_li_ss_il?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1473041669&sr=1-24&keywords=sherwood+smith&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=441f16629492ccb7e8c143b7b469808f" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B00ECGP4KY&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&l=li2&o=1&a=B00ECGP4KY" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br /><br /><a href="http://amzn.to/2c51eGY">Whispered Magics by Sherwood Smith</a><br /><br />As a child, Sherwood Smith was always on the watch for magic: no fog bank went unexplored, no wooden closet unchecked for a false back, no possible magical token left on the ground or in the gutter. In these nine stories, the impossible becomes possible, magic is real, aliens come visiting. How would our lives change?<br /><br />(Although Sherwood Smith's muse usually runs to novels, even whole sequences of novels, every now and then it serves her up a perfect little gem of a short story. These are stories from the heart, that have stuck with me ever since I read them in the now-vanished magazines and kids' anthologies in which they first appeared).<br /><br /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Salt-Air-Vera-Nazarian-ebook/dp/B003I84MQO/ref=as_li_ss_il?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1473041977&sr=1-14&keywords=vera+nazarian&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=1daf120720d530672d3cde1d492a90e2" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B003I84MQO&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&l=li2&o=1&a=B003I84MQO" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br /><br /><a href="http://amzn.to/2bPGh5Y">Salt of the Air by Vera Nazarian</a><br /><br />You are familiar with the salt of the earth. But did you know there is an even finer, more delicate essence?<br /><br />Take wisdom and imagination, responsibility and beauty, and mix them together in arcane proportions to form a rich and peculiar brine. The resulting water of life is an emotional muddy liquid, filled with existential sediment swirling in the light of secret reality and reflecting prismatic colors of hope and wonder. If allowed to evaporate -- escape, flee, ascend into the ether and join the music of the spheres -- what remains is the quintessence; a precious concentrate that is elusive and volatile, neither fully solid nor so illusory as to be devoid of pithy substance. It is the Salt of the Air.<br /><br />In this debut collection from the critically acclaimed author of Dreams of the Compass Rose and Lords of Rainbow, the nineteen stories are distillations of myth and philosophy, eroticism and ascetic purity. Dipping into an ancient multi-ethnic well, they are the stuff of fantasy—of maidens and deities and senior retirees, of emperors and artists and con artists, of warriors and librarians, of beings without a name and things very fey indeed....<br /><br />Don't be afraid of ingesting ethereal salt.<br /><br />Open your mind and inhale.<br /><br />"Cautionary, sensual stories of love, reversal and revenge upend fairy tale conventions in Nazarian's lush collection... Sumptuous detail, twisty plots and surprising endings lift these extravagant tales."<br />-- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY<br /><br />"These are beautiful, haunting confections, reminiscent of Tanith Lee's erotically charged tales... Fine shades of emotion, mythic grandeur, crystalline prose, sharp revisionist intelligence: these are Vera Nazarian's hallmarks..."<br />-- Nick Gevers, LOCUS<br /><br />Vera Nazarian immigrated to the USA from the former USSR as a kid, sold her first story at the age of 17, and since then has published numerous works in anthologies and magazines, and has seen her fiction translated into eight languages.<br /><br />She made her novelist debut with the critically acclaimed novel DREAMS OF THE COMPASS ROSE, followed by epic fantasy about a world without color, LORDS OF RAINBOW. Her novella "The Clock King and the Queen of the Hourglass" with an introduction by Charles de Lint made the Locus Recommended Reading List for 2005. This first collection Salt of the Air, with an introduction by Gene Wolfe, contains the 2007 Nebula Award-nominated "The Story of Love." Recent work includes the 2008 Nebula Award-nominated, baroque novella "The Duke in His Castle."<br /><br />Ancient myth, moral fables, eclectic philosophy, and her Armenian and Russian ethnic heritage play a strong part in all her work, combining the essences of things and places long gone into a rich evocation of wonder.<br /><br />In addition to being a writer and award-winning artist, she is also the publisher of Norilana Books.<br /><br />Official website: www.veranazarian.com <br /><br />(A collection of Vera Nazarian's fantasy short stories that don't belong to the Compass Rose universe.)<br /><br /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mortis-Operandi-Samantha-Mills-ebook/dp/B00AP9IBZC/ref=as_li_ss_il?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1473042166&sr=1-1&keywords=mortis+operandi&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=9f26167ffdda0ebb2b274046fe0965ee" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B00AP9IBZC&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&l=li2&o=1&a=B00AP9IBZC" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br /><br /><a href="http://amzn.to/2crj2uW">Mortis Operandi by Kfir Luzzatto and Dru Pagliassotti</a><br /><br />Although not every criminal is a monster, nor every monster a criminal, you might be forgiven for mistaking the two as you investigate the gritty underworld of supernatural crime. Join officers of the law, private eyes, firefighters, bodyguards, crime-scene cleaners, security specialists, and other not-so-everyday citizens as they struggle against the macabre machinations of MORTIS OPERANDI.<br /><br />MORTIS OPERANDI features stories that revolve around the investigation of a crime and in which the supernatural plays a central role.<br /><br />(This anthology includes my short story "Once a Chekist," which belongs in the Gus on the Moon timeline but is set in Russia).<br /><br /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Shadow-over-Leningrad-Leigh-Kimmel-ebook/dp/B01LADQ1VM/ref=as_li_ss_il?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1473042515&sr=1-1&keywords=shadow+over+leningrad&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=4bf3fb41cd0ab6632e7cc38c9105946e" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B01LADQ1VM&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&l=li2&o=1&a=B01LADQ1VM" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br /><br /><a href="http://amzn.to/2bXVpsF">The Shadow over Leningrad by Leigh Kimmel</a><br /><br />In Stalin's Soviet Union, Tikhon Grigoriev lives a precarious life. He knows too much. He's seen too much. A single misstep could destroy him, and if he stumbles, he will take his family down with him. With Leningrad besieged by Nazi armies, the danger has only increased.<br /><br />He's not a man who wants to come to the notice of those in high places. But when he solved a murder that seemed supernatural, impossible, he attracted the attention of Leningrad's First Party Secretary.<br /><br />So when a plot of land grows vegetables of unusual size and vigor, and anyone who eats them goes mad, who should be called upon to solve the mystery but Tikhon Grigoriev. However, these secrets could get him far worse than a bullet in the head. For during the White Nights the boundaries between worlds grow thin, and in some of those worlds humanity can have no place.<br /><br />(The sequel to "Gnawing the Bones of the City," which appeared in Fiction Vortex in 2015.)<br /><br />And over at Sarah Hoyt's blog, there's the annual <a href="https://accordingtohoyt.com/2016/09/03/third-annual-indie-author-labor-day-sale/">Indie Author Labor Day Sale</a>.<br /><br />Crossposted at <a href="http://starshipcat.livejournal.com/">The Starship Cat blog</a> and <a href="http://tattercoats.blogspot.com/">Through the Worldgate</a>.<br /><br />Tattercoatshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07279927771714709106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4756379870910997408.post-36309165944387516262016-08-28T16:32:00.000-07:002016-08-28T16:32:14.455-07:00Back Home With BooksWe're back home from Worldcon, and back into the beastly heat. A perfect time to curl up in a cool place with a good book.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Eyes-Doll-World-Shijuren/dp/0996125949/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&qid=1472421458&sr=8-3&keywords=rob+howell&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=cd826b8586f36b9bab86c23e67bba3a7" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0996125949&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&l=li2&o=1&a=0996125949" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br /><br /><a href="http://amzn.to/2bsIQYX">The Eyes of a Doll by Rob Howell</a><br /><br />Just another day in Achrida... All Edward Aethelredson wanted to do was to enjoy his ale, heal from his wounds, relax during the summer, and help his friend with what should have been nothing more than a pleasant ride in the country. Two bodies later, including one he kills in self-defense, Edward is drawn into the dark recesses of the Empire’s criminal underworld. He cannot flee, for that would impugn his honor. He cannot hide, for that would leave a six-year-old girl and her family in danger for merely being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He cannot attack, for he does not know who to strike at. With an ally who is more foe than friend and his back against the wall, can Edward find the cunning necessary to save his friends? Or will crime lords and deadly wizards spell the end of him?<br /><br />(This is the second volume of the world of Shijuren, which began with <a href="http://amzn.to/2bKyJwj">A Lake Most Deep</a>).<br /><br /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Silent-Meridian-Time-Traveler-Professor-ebook/dp/B01FIRKK40/ref=as_li_ss_il?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1472422180&sr=1-1&keywords=elizabeth+crowens&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=fcfe699d8ee85f68d6e91de4060772b6" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B01FIRKK40&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&l=li2&o=1&a=B01FIRKK40" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br /><br /><a href="http://amzn.to/2c77lfN">Silent Meridian by Elizabeth Crowens</a><br /><br />Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is obsessed with a legendary red book. Its peculiar stories have come to life, and rumors claim that it has rewritten its own endings. Convinced that possessing this book will help him write his ever-popular Sherlock Holmes stories, he takes on an unlikely partner, John Patrick Scott, known to most as a concert musician and paranormal investigator. Although in his humble opinion, Scott considers himself more of an ethereal archeologist and a time traveler professor.<br /><br />Together they explore lost worlds and excavate realms beyond the knowledge of historians when they go back in time to find it. But everything backfires, and their friendship is tested to the limits. Both discover that karmic ties and unconscionable crimes have followed them like ghosts from the past, wreaking havoc on the present and possibly the future.<br /><br />Silent Meridian reveals the alternate histories of Conan Doyle, H.G. Wells, Houdini, Jung and other notable luminaries in the secret diaries of a new kind of Doctor Watson, John Patrick Scott, in an X Files for the 19th century. Stay tuned for A Pocketful of Lodestones; book two in the Time Traveler Professor series by Elizabeth Crowens.<br /><br />(If you like steampunk and time travel, take a look).<br /><br /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/After-Sundial-Vera-Nazarian-ebook/dp/B003YH9IUO/ref=as_li_ss_il?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1472423630&sr=1-18&refinements=p_82:B001K8E7DC&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=776ed9098589ab77b962c00c301ad2bc" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B003YH9IUO&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&l=li2&o=1&a=B003YH9IUO" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br /><br /><a href="http://amzn.to/2bsPRsG">After the Sundial by Vera Nazarian</a><br /><br />AFTER THE SUNDIAL by Vera Nazarian is the author's first short fiction collection that focuses specifically on science fiction works, and can be viewed as a companion volume to her earlier collection, SALT OF THE AIR which focused on fable, myth, and fantasy.<br /><br />Bound by the common theme of time and temporal exploration, the ten selections here range widely from traditional speculative fiction to the surreal literary to poetry to bawdy adventure humor to space opera and far future speculation.<br /><br />Includes an introduction by the author, two previously unpublished works and a full-length critically acclaimed novella THE CLOCK KING AND THE QUEEN OF THE HOURGLASS.<br /><br />(One of my favorite single-author collections, I originally read it in uncorrected proof. And I still enjoy re-reading it, savoring the stories that range from pretty hard sf to mystical speculation that isn't exactly sf or fantasy, almost philosophical fiction).<br /><br /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sasharia-En-Garde-Sherwood-Smith-ebook/dp/B0141FDTZW/ref=as_li_ss_il?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1472423935&sr=1-3&keywords=sherwood+smith&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=7c91df2d98d200c3eb3dba6c3fb9bb12" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B0141FDTZW&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&l=li2&o=1&a=B0141FDTZW" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br /><br /><a href="http://amzn.to/2bsQdzn">Sasharia En Garde by Sherwood Smith</a><br /><br />First published as two books—Once a Princess, and Twice a Prince—this romantic fantasy has been revised and published as one book, as first intended. It is set in the same world as Crown Duel, to which Sasha’s mother, Sun, was once swept away by a real prince.<br /><br />But not to happily ever after. Her prince vanished, and a wicked king took the throne. Since then, Sasha and Sun have been hiding on Earth, both training in martial arts until Sasha is tricked into going back to Khanerenth.<br /><br />She’s more than ready to kick some bad-guy butt, but is the stylish pirate Zathdar the bad guy? Or artistic, dreamy Prince Jehan, son of the wicked king?<br /><br />Meanwhile Sun is determined to cross worlds to save her daughter. She might not have been a very good princess, but nobody messes with Mom!<br /><br />(I originally read the two-volume version. A side story, but with ties to <a href="http://amzn.to/2c7bWhW">Crown Duel</a> and <a href="http://amzn.to/2bvc5vB">A Stranger to Command</a>. Because it's self-contained and starts on Earth, it may be a good entry point to the intricate world of Sartorias-deles).<br /><br /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ten-Just-Men-Alternate-WWII-ebook/dp/B01HXQ21F0/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=487c1ea4c212f931bfaa4377faf6e0c4" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B01HXQ21F0&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&l=li2&o=1&a=B01HXQ21F0" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br /><br /><a href="http://amzn.to/2bJZP9r">The Ten Just Men by Joseph T. Major</a><br /><br />The fighting in Europe is over but the war is not yet done. The allies cannot agree. The defeated must rebuild, faced with the problem of overcoming the last eleven years, of creating a new structure of society, of making some sort of economy.<br />All the while, the former allies are facing problems inside and out.<br />In the not very pacific Pacific, the power of the Allies is converging on the last enemy. The price needed to be paid to overcome them may be more than can be paid -- even if wonder weapons provide a final out.<br />In the midst of this tumult, ordinary people try to pick up and carry on, to bring new life into the world and to reconstruct existing life.<br />The war is grinding to an end . . . but only the dead have known the end of war.<br /><br />(The fifth volume of Joseph T. Major's Alternate World War II series, it covers the time after VE Day, as Japan alone of the Axis remains to be defeated. This saga began in <a href="http://amzn.to/2bvcyhk">Bitter Weeds</a> and continued in <a href="http://amzn.to/2bsV2c0">No Hint of War</a>, <a href="http://amzn.to/2bJZiEH">The Road to the Sea</a> and <a href="http://amzn.to/2c0JOdw">An Irresponsible Gang</a>).<br /><br /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Visions-V-Milky-Jay-Werkheiser-ebook/dp/B01I7LHNUI/ref=as_li_ss_il?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1472424393&sr=1-1&keywords=visions+v+milky+way&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=68850508e8eede08abe4a2f0c1614a96" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B01I7LHNUI&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&l=li2&o=1&a=B01I7LHNUI" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br /><br /><a href="http://amzn.to/2bvbM49">Visions V: Milky Way, edited by Carrol Fix</a><br /><br />Visions V stories take place somewhere—anywhere—in the Milky Way Galaxy. Planets, stars, and aliens, with no limitations, form the subject and action taking place outside our Solar System and within the Milky Way.<br /><br />Humankind has forded the immense stream of space between stars and reached our nearest solar neighbors. What will we discover on hospitable planets circling those new stars? Will we find almost familiar moons, asteroids, planetary rings? Or, could there be never before seen astronomical formations? The sky is no longer the limit for our soaring imaginations, because somewhere out there is a potential haven for the remnants of our beleaguered civilization.<br />Global catastrophe is a constant threat for our war-torn and dysfunctional human race. No one can foresee the future, but we have lived on the brink of extinction since the invention of the atomic bomb and, more recently, germ warfare and genetic manipulation.<br />Astrophysicist Professor Stephen Hawking has said, "I believe that the long term future of the human race must be space and that it represents an important life insurance for our future survival, as it could prevent the disappearance of humanity by colonizing other planets."<br />The vast Milky Way Galaxy may allow the seeds of our future to be widely distributed, past the danger of a final extinction.<br />Visions V: Milky Way brings together a collection of fascinating and entertaining stories by award-winning science fiction authors.<br /><br />“Ships in the Night” by Jay Werkheiser<br />“End Around” by E. J. Shumak<br />“Unwanted Gifts” by S. M. Kraftchak<br />“Greatcloak” by Jonathan Shipley<br />“Claim Jumpers” by Doug C. Souza<br />“The Device” by Tara Campbell<br />“Where the Last Tramz Stops” by Sam Bellotto Jr.<br />“Eighteen Winters” by D. A. Couturier<br />“Yellow Star” by John Moralee<br />“The Shadow of a Dead God” by Leigh Kimmel<br />“Black Hearts and Blue Skins” by Timothy Paul<br />“Welcome to Your Dream House” by Steve Bates<br />“Pan Ad Aster” by Bruce C. Davis<br />“Rachel’s Fall” by Teresa Howard<br />“When Unknown Gods Leave” by Margaret Karmazin<br />“First Sunrise” by Marie Michaels<br />“Dropworld” by Fredrick Obermeyer<br />“Bright Horizon” by Thomas Olbert<br />“The Mirror Dialogues” by Richard Zwicker<br />“The Drive” by W. A. Fix<br /><br />(Yet another anthology with a story of mine -- except why did I persistently remember the title as "The <b>Long</b> Shadow of a Dead God"? Was that an earlier working title, later edited away, or was it from some ot her work, now abandoned? Memory is such a tricky thing).<br /><br /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Stirge-Leigh-Kimmel-ebook/dp/B00YLS59MG/ref=as_li_ss_il?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1472425242&sr=1-13&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=675bcbac746ce09fd312ee8ac293126d" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B00YLS59MG&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&l=li2&o=1&a=B00YLS59MG" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br /><br /><a href="http://amzn.to/2bvd4Mr">The Stirge by Leigh Kimmel</a><br /><br />When Liphrel's family fell too far on their debts, he was sold to the priests of the death god. But his family were followers of the birth goddess, which left him in a difficult position.<br /><br />(One of my first published stories, it was accepted right at a time when I was at the nadir of my life. Not only was I despairing of ever being published, I was starting to wonder if my life as a whole was ever going to improve. And then things turned around, and by the time it actually saw print, I was in considerably improved circumstances).<br /><br />The Free-Range Oyster also has <a href="https://accordingtohoyt.com/2016/08/28/the-promo-my-friend-by-free-range-oyster/">more cool book recommendations</a> over at Sarah Hoyt's blog.<br /><br />And as always, If you would like your work promoted in my blog, please e-mail me at <a href="mailto:leighkimmel@yahoo.com">leighkimmel@yahoo.com</a>.<br />
<br />
Crossposted at <a href="http://www.starshipcat.livejournal.com/">The Starship Cat</a> and <a href="http://tattercoats.blogspot.com/">Through the Worldgate</a>.Tattercoatshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07279927771714709106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4756379870910997408.post-91470810821693923062016-07-24T18:34:00.000-07:002016-07-24T18:34:25.541-07:00Cool Books for Hot Summer NightsSo often we use metaphors of heat: "hot off the press," "hot new author" etc. to create excitement about a book we want to promote. Yet right now, with a dome of unbearable heat settled over so much of the US, it just doesn't seem to be appropriate.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Man-Plane-Alternate-Germany-ebook/dp/B01BIX3VMG/ref=as_li_ss_il?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1469408158&sr=1-5&keywords=joseph+major&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=1c69ca910675e2e714f48313fdb5859b" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B01BIX3VMG&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&l=li2&o=1&a=B01BIX3VMG" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
<br />
<b>A Man and a Plane by Joseph T Major</b><br />
<br />
Who could stop Hitler? Germany in 1933 tottered on the brink of revolution, dissolution, and destruction. The Nazis were some kind of a solution.<br />
There was no one who could be an alternative.<br />
A stroke of fate took from the scene one man who could have made the difference. In that fateful April of 1918, Germany's hero fell from the skies.<br />
And if he hadn't?<br />
<br />
(I read this one in draft, or rather, several different drafts in the course of transforming it from idea to novel).<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Bitter-Weeds-Alternative-WWII-Alternate-ebook/dp/B01COJPYNW/ref=as_li_ss_il?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1469408158&sr=1-1&keywords=joseph+major&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=21dd3f79df03fd20c304579bbf74eb25" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B01COJPYNW&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&l=li2&o=1&a=B01COJPYNW" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
<br />
<b>Bitter Weeds by Joseph T. Major</b><br />
<br />
"There are bitter weeds in England." The Dunkirk Evacuation was a great deliverance. But some of the soldiers did not make it. If someone had only known . . . A troubled man, a man divided between two nations and several natures, delivered from the continent, pursues a twisted course in a wilderness of mirrors to serve his masters. A woman staging a great pretense that is almost true finds herself in the heart of darkness, seeing the advance of evil. Their relatives and connections each struggle with his or her own burdens as the horrors of war spread. The simple kindness of stopping to give the dead some small dignity begins a wave of change that will wash across the world, in this first volume of a series highlighting the great and the petty, the powerful and the victims, and finding both pain and hope.<br />
<br />
(This is the first in a series that is currently up to five volumes: <a href="http://amzn.to/2a6o3X7">No Hint of War</a>, <a href="http://amzn.to/2a6omkG">The Road to the Sea</a>, <a href="http://amzn.to/2an3mvW">An Irresponsible Gang</a> and <a href="http://amzn.to/2aEAVpl">The Ten Just Men</a>. I've read the first and half of the second, and would be reading faster if only I had no obligations in life to attend. Unlike <i>A Man and a Plane</i>, it's a story of small changes that build in significance through the course of the story arc.)<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fleeing-Peace-Sherwood-Smith-ebook/dp/B004PYDHSO/ref=as_li_ss_il?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1469408845&sr=1-1&keywords=sherwood+smith+fleeing+peace&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=89442163dd38ad79e7fa77361298f467" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B004PYDHSO&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&l=li2&o=1&a=B004PYDHSO" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
<br />
<b>Fleeing Peace by Sherwood Smith</b><br />
<br />
Siamis said, “Your young friend Liere is not going to enjoy the trap she’s walking into, I fear. But you figured that out, did you not? Why didn’t she listen to you?”<br />
<br />
“To snap her fingers under your nose,” Senrid retorted.<br />
<br />
“Irresistible.” Siamis smiled gently. “But it’s going to cost.”<br />
<br />
<br />
Fifteen-year-old Senrid is newly king of the difficult warrior kingdom Marloven Hess . . . just in time to lose it, and find himself running for his life. When Senrid is captured he overhears a secret—one he can use against the enemy, a charismatic, handsome man named Siamis who can read minds, and who enchants people just by talking to them.<br />
<br />
Liere has always known she was special, which just increased her loneliness and sense of isolation. She can hear others’ thoughts, and she senses the real emotions below the façade. When a golden-haired man named Siamis comes to her village and enchants the entire town around her, she finds herself on the run.<br />
<br />
Liere and Senrid couldn’t be more different, but their goal is the same, to locate the powerful magic that will unravel Siamis’s world enchantment.<br />
<br />
Chased by powerful enemies, Liere and Senrid are tested to the max as they form an alliance of kids to aid them, and gain magical support from surprising sources.<br />
<br />
Neither ever expected to discover something even more powerful than magic: friendship. First written when Sherwood Smith was fifteen, this is the story of how Senrid and Liere first met.<br />
<br />
(This is another story I read in draft over the course of its development, from photocopies of fragile hand-written notebooks through typescripts and printouts to digital files. JRR Tolkien was not alone in discovering that it is not easy to reconcile the visions of one's youthful exuberance with the work of one's more mature older self).<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Poor-World-CJs-Notebooks-Book-ebook/dp/B004QOA7WW/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&dpID=51f5ClaNigL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_OU01_AC_UL160_SR107,160_&psc=1&refRID=Z64FHWW0MMCRDBCV40Y7&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=6ae80169b591c7e3ce11c9c6932d7a28" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B004QOA7WW&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&l=li2&o=1&a=B004QOA7WW" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
<br />
<b>Poor World (CJ's Notebooks Book 4) by Sherwood Smith</b><br />
<br />
CJ and the gang of girls from Mearsies Heili like their adventures fun and villains to be defeatable by a well-thrown prune pie. In fact, they laughed at the very idea of stories about kids who have to Save the World . . .<br />
<br />
Until it happens to them.<br />
<br />
Written when Sherwood Smith was a teenager, this is the story of the M girls up against the toughest challenge of their lives so far.<br />
<br />
(Another novel I got to play auntie to, as it went from that first draft in a crumbling notebook to polished prose).<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Eldritch-Embraces-Putting-Love-Lovecraft/dp/1523954205/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&qid=1469409886&sr=8-1&keywords=eldritch+embraces&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=df87b5ca2d00af3075e16ec70143ac76" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1523954205&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&l=li2&o=1&a=1523954205" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
<br />
<b>Eldritch Embraces: Putting the Love Back into Lovecraft by Michael Cieslak</b><br />
<br />
Combine the mind splintering horror of the Cthulhu Mythos and the heart shattering portion of that most terrible of emotions - love - and what do you have? You have Eldritch Embraces: Putting the Love Back in Lovecraft. This collection of short stories from some of the best working in the fields of horror and dark speculative fiction blends romance and Lovecraft in a way which will may make you sigh, smile, weep, or leave you the hollow shell of your former self.<br />
<br />
(I have a short story in this one: "Beach House on the Moon.")<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ice-Storm-Leigh-Kimmel-ebook/dp/B01BL1TV0G/ref=as_li_ss_il?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1469409329&sr=1-1&keywords=leigh+kimmel+ice+storm&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=ab9cd29ed834aed69f4d7c90bd227af9" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B01BL1TV0G&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&l=li2&o=1&a=B01BL1TV0G" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
<br />
<b>Ice Storm by Leigh Kimmel</b><br />
<br />
Everywhere Evangeline looks, a thin coating of ice makes objects gleam in the sunlight. Yet the beauty proves deceptive, for it hides a deadly secret, one only she can recognize.<br />
<br />
In her youth, Evangeline had aspired ot master the powerful magics of her world. Those dreams died the day her Gift awakened uncontrolled and plunged her into a vision of a full fleet battle. The Admiral's Gift will not be denied, and for Evangeline there was no choice but to trade her mage's robes for Navy blue.<br />
<br />
Now she is faced with an enemy she cannot fight save by magic. Except those who bear the Admiral's gift are forever barred from working magic.<br />
<br />
(A nice, chilly selection, this short story was one of the finalists for a writing contest at LoneStarCon II, the 1997 World Science Fiction Convention.)<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Workhouse-War-Leigh-Kimmel-ebook/dp/B012EQDUG8/ref=as_li_ss_il?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1469409644&sr=1-1&keywords=leigh+kimmel+workhouse+war&linkCode=li2&tag=leighkimmel&linkId=3735a970f0f790fa03cda77fd33a4c41" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B012EQDUG8&Format=_SL160_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=leighkimmel" /></a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=leighkimmel&l=li2&o=1&a=B012EQDUG8" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
<br />
<b>The Workhouse War by Leigh Kimmel</b><br />
<br />
An afternoon for sketching in peace – that was all Nadine Darby wanted. She thought she was taking a shortcut to get past an overgrown levee and gain a better view of the Mississippi for some landscape work. Instead she ended up somewhere else. A place called Elyssium, where the past walks alongside the present. Where you can see a modern car pull up and a Confederate Navy officer climb out, talking on a cellphone.<br />
<br />
On the riverbank Nadine met a strange little man who told her he was an artist as well, and showed her his sketchbook to prove it. But no sooner had Nadine made her first friend than she discovered all was not well. She watched in helpless horror as a young man was pursued, arrested and beaten by thugs from an institution that goes by the official name of the City Orphanage, but is generally called the Workhouse by the inhabitants of Port of White Fleet.<br />
<br />
Nadine can count herself fortunate that she fell into the company of a man who has little use for this organization. But his efforts to help her attain her artistic ambitions instead attract the attention she must avoid, and draws her into quarrels that have simmered for decades.<br />
<br />
Can Nadine thread her way through the myriad perils of this world and save herself and her new-found friends? And even if she defeats the Workhouse, will it be at the cost of losing everything she's found here?<br />
<br />
(A little Christmas in July).<br />
<br />
If you read and enjoy any of these selections, please consider rating and reviewing them on Amazon.com -- reviews are critical for getting onto recommendation lists, which are critical for indie authors.<br />
<br />
PS: I'm hoping to make these promotional posts a recurring, if irregular, feature of my blog. If you have indie or small press<br />
<br />
(Crossposted at <a href="http://tattercoats.blogspot.com/">Through the Worldgate</a> and <a href="https://www.blogger.com/starshipcat.livejournal.com">The Billion Lightyear Bookshelf</a>Tattercoatshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07279927771714709106noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4756379870910997408.post-67703999742647894762014-12-26T08:49:00.000-08:002014-12-26T08:49:28.581-08:00The Intestinal Fortitude of the IndependentsI'm happy to see that <i>The Interview</i> is showing after all, thanks to the courage of the owners and managers of our independent theaters. When the big chains refused to take the risk of showing it in the face of threats by North Korea's tyrant Kim Jong-Un and his tame hackers, these brave men and women stood up and insisted that Sony provide them with copies to show.<br />
<br />
And with that bolstering their courage, Sony also decided to release <i>The Interview</i> online, which means that anybody with an adequate Internet connection can watch it, even in the absence of an independent theater showing it. <br />
<br />
As of yet I haven't had a chance to watch it. But I'm going get it done, just to show that pudgy little two-bit dictator that I'm not scared of his threats.Tattercoatshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07279927771714709106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4756379870910997408.post-40123431132753688452014-12-18T18:51:00.000-08:002014-12-18T18:51:24.259-08:00The New CowardiceBack in 1989, when the Ayatollah Khomeini issued a <i>fatwa</i> against Salman Rushdie over the novel <i>The Satanic Verses</i>, I made a point of getting a copy of it and actually reading the whole thing through. It wasn't the sort of thing that I would normally read, and quite honestly I found a good bit of it tedious, but I was disgusted by the notion of a religious leader calling for the death of a writer (personally I think it's for the unflattering <i>roman a clef</i> portrayal of Khomeini himself, and that the disrespect to Mohammed issue is a convenient cover).<br />
<br />
Recently, when the news came out that North Korea was trying to suppress <i>The Interview</i> through cyberterrorism, I thought I was going to need to sit through a showing of it, just to show my support for intellectual freedom. But it looks like I won't even get the opportunity. Sony has caved completely and shelved the movie indefinitely, rather than even risk the chance that the pudgy little dictator of a two-bit tyranny actually can carry through on his threats of violence against theaters showing it.<br />
<br />
What a long way we've fallen in just twenty-five years.Tattercoatshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07279927771714709106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4756379870910997408.post-59534848993554435642014-12-14T19:11:00.001-08:002014-12-14T19:12:42.887-08:00When They Don't Know Their Own HistoryI've written before of the problems that happen <a href="http://billionlightyearbookshelf.blogspot.com/2014/11/when-writers-dont-read-foundational.html">when writers don't read the foundational works of their own genre</a> in reference to the breathless praise being heaped upon certain recent works by reviewers who seem to never have read Ursula K LeGuin's award-winning <a href="http://billionlightyearbookshelf.com/reviews/lefthandofdarkness.shtml">The Left Hand of Darkness</a>. But that's not the only area in which it's becoming abundantly clear that the new generation of writers are failing to read the works of the great masters of the genre, and as a result are re-inventing the wheel and making fools of themselves in the process of chattering about how wonderfully forward-thinking they are.<br />
<br />
Take for instance the current push to write post-colonial narratives. As I was re-reading David Brin's <i>Sundiver</i> to get a review up, I realized that here we have a post-colonial narrative. It's a world in which humanity went blithely out to the stars, fully expecting to carry out the taming-of-the-west narrative that had been replayed In Space in so many science fiction stories -- and then thumping their noses hard against the discovery that the galaxy is occupied by a civilization of incredible antiquity, that even seemingly empty planets are in fact owned, and the penalties for trespass on fallow planets can be horrific. And it was published in 1980, before most of the current crop of Bright Young Things were born, or at least before most of them were doing much reading of grown-up books that are all words and no pictures.<br />
<br />
And he's not even the first classic science fiction writer to posit a future in which humanity doesn't get to just go taking over every planet that takes their fancy. All the way back in the 1950's, Robert A. Heinlein was writing <a href="http://billionlightyearbookshelf.com/reviews/redplanet.shtml">Red Planet</a>, in which humanity has a presence on the Red Planet -- but it is very clearly at the sufferance of the ancient indigenous sapient Martians. And when crooked bureaucrats forget that, the Martian Old Ones are quite ready to kick every last human off the planet and kill those who won't evacuate.<br />
<br />
I wonder what they'd say if you pointed these little facts out to them. Wiggle and squirm and try to find reasons that those books Don't Count -- because they're written by white males, because the indigenous populations aren't marginalized and weaker, whatever? I'd like to think that maybe someone out there would have the courage to actually read those books and appreciate them in the context of the time in which they were written -- but that would require <b>work</b>, not to mention an actual historical perspective, when it seems a lot of the current crop of Bright Young Things are adamantly presentist and don't want to hear it pointed out to them.<br />
<br />
Which is a pity, really. Yes, old science fiction can be Zeerusty to the point of embarrassment at times -- but it can also be chock full of sense of wonder, not to mention ideas some people would claim have been absent from science fiction until just now.Tattercoatshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07279927771714709106noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4756379870910997408.post-79232869095321246632014-11-29T09:44:00.002-08:002014-11-29T09:45:24.013-08:00A Million Open DoorsOne of the most exciting things about the digital publishing revolution is the sheer variety of publishing possibilities that are opening up for writers and readers alike. Science fiction has long imagined that the future would change the book, but it tended to be part of the "furniture" of the future world, background rather than the focus of the story. A character may read a "filmbook" or the like, but its mechanics are glossed over. It's just there to provide a sense that We're Not In Kansas Any More, rather than a serious extrapolation of the future of publishing.<br />
<br />
When digital publishing first became a practical reality as a result of the growing popularity of the personal computer, the first forays were simultaneously excited and hesitant. Excited because it was seen as the realization of generations of science fiction readers' dreams. Hesitant because of the enormous uncertainty about how to translate the experience of the printed page into digital format.<br />
<br />
Some of the problems were simply the immaturity of the technology. Physical media such as floppy disks and CD-ROM's required distribution networks, which imposed their own limitations, especially since there was no easy way to piggyback onto existing print book distribution. But even as more people gained access to the Internet and distribution of the intellectual good no longer required the movement of a physical object, problems remained. Concerns about digital piracy tended to be the most publicized, and led to a great number of counterproductive digital rights management schemes that effectively punished the legitimate user for the possible crimes that might be committed with the technology. But the real problem was that most people didn't want to read for pleasure on a computer screen. They wanted something they could carry with them and read during random bits of time here and there, something for which even the lightest laptop was too bulky and awkward.<br />
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Various companies produced dedicated e-book readers, but all of them were bulky and expensive, and their proprietary formats meant that you could only buy books from the company's bookstore, and if the company went out of business, you had an expensive, useless brick. Sure, you could keep reading and re-reading the books you had loaded on it until the device stopped working, but you couldn't get anything new for it. As a result, people were reluctant to buy these devices, ensuring they would fail in the market.<br />
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In the first decade of the twenty-first century, several changes converged to finally realize the possibility of the e-book: Baen offering DRM-free e-books through their Webscriptions system, Amazon.com creating the Kindle e-book reader that wasn't entirely tied to their bookstore, Apple producing the iPad and iPhone (which opened the way for Google to offer the Android OS for other companies to produce tablet computers and smartphones). Suddenly readers had the possibility of an easily portable and relatively seamless reading experience, which made it easy to move from the familiar old paperback to digital format not just because of the cool factor, but because of utility considerations.<br />
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As a result, we have not only conventional e-books that are effectively digital versions of paper books, but also a wide variety of other formats. For short formats, publishers have been experimenting with e-zines ever since the Web really took off. Serialization is another distribution model that has come back into fashion through digital media.<br />
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Such a wide variety of possibilities can be overwhelming, but it can also be liberating. A writer who doesn't find success in one model of fiction distribution can try a different one. If serialization proves disheartening when readership dribbles off to nothing after the first several chapters, publishing whole novels via Kindle Direct or some other e-book publisher may reach a greater audience. Similarly, a reader who prefers bite-sized reading can find a wide variety of short-form and serialized novel formats, while a reader who wants the substance of a book can download full e-books onto a reader.<br />
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And it's quite probable that we're only seeing the beginning of the digital publishing revolution. The futures imagined by even the most innovative and imaginative writers may actually prove short of the mark, for the simple reason that they had to write a world comprehensible to their contemporary readers.<br />
<br />Tattercoatshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07279927771714709106noreply@blogger.com0