During the hourly wake of the city's mourners,
I escaped
to where none of us dared venture,
with the gynandromorphophile's long shadow
over my shoulder,
I escaped
to where no other nectar but yours—the XY-code's,
was harvested by the drones…
We always found ourselves in Magdalena, a quaint, abandoned town nestled far in the western reaches, Lya and I, as we ventured into the Spree. I didn’t know why. And I had never really thought about it. Until now…
In the neon-lit sprawl of tomorrow, I'll hoist
the milky-white rose
of synthetic essence—its fragrant code will weave
through the data stream, perfuming
the holonight's
Pro-Rata enthymeme
with sweet binary echoes of virtual "Qui Vive."
This evening we'll light 8 candels in our Hanukkah Mennora's.
On this occasion I've decided to highlight the 8 books that made an impression on me in the past year.
Emissaries from the Dead by Adam-Troy Castro
Adam-Troy Castro is such a catchy name, I was sure I've read somehting by him before, but apparently this was by firs Adam-Troy Castro novel.
Emissaries from the Dead is a novel about the interaction between humanity and a god like AI taking place on a cylindrical space station / artificial world.
In places it echoes John Varley's, Titan.
It is an engaging murder investigation and no one is entirely innocent.
But ultimately it is a study of free will in an unjust universe.
I haven't finished The Virtu yet, so today's entry in #DecRecs is Labyrinth's Heart, book 3 of the Rook and Rose trilogy by M. A. Carrick (half of whom is @swan_tower )
Oh, you haven't read the first two? Lucky! You get to read all three for the first time! The only thing I so much as reading that trilogy for the first time was re-reading books 1 and 2 in preparation for book 3 when it dropped this year.
Oh, forgot to mention--my review of 'The Betrayals' by Bridget Collins (which I've RAVED about on here--you may have seen some toots) is up on Nerds of a Feather!
Heroes do The One Right Thing. With rising fascism, sometimes The One Right Thing doesn't exist; and usually heroes don't either. In this book, we see what happens when weak, flawed people do a small, right thing.
#JustFinished The Splinter in the Sky, by Kemi Ashing-Giwa
It was good. It wasn't enthralling. I liked the story well enough. I liked the characters, though I felt they weren't that deep. It just didn't grab me all that well. And I found the Great Reveal to have been obvious. It wasn't marked YA, but I felt it should have been.
The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007). Cover Art for the 1959 Dell first paperback printing, and the frontispiece for the 1990 Masterpieces of Science Fiction series from The Easton Press by Richard M. Powers (1921-1996). Plus an amusing note from Vonnegut about Powers.
#DecRecs No.8 is 'Just Like Home', by Sarah Gailey. A woman goes home to look after her mother in her last days. Dark secrets in the woman's past surround something horrible that her father did (no, nothing sexual, relax). Her house, built by her father, is really super creepy. True-crime loving weirdos swarm all over it. But sometimes we must love monsters, no matter how monsterous they are. What is a monster, anyway?
The great science fiction writer Leigh Brackett was #BOTD
The “Queen of Space Opera” wrote SF/F for the pulps of the 1940s and 1950s. In 1944 she wrote her first mystery novel, which came to the attention of legendary director Howard Hawks. When Hawks needed help on an adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s ‘The Big Sleep’…
But instead of heading to Hollywood after the end of the pulps, Edmond ended his long career at DC Comics. She died from cancer in 1978, but not before turning in the first draft script for what would become “The Empire Strikes Back!” Although her script was rewritten by others, many key elements remain.
...he told his secretary to "get this guy Brackett." She then left for Hollywood, leaving a half-finished tale for Planet Stories 'Lorelei of the Red Mist'. She asked her emerging writer friend to complete it for her, which Ray Bradbury did seamlessly. Her husband was another SF/F writer of the era, Edmond Hamilton.
The thing I like so much about #DecRecs looking back over all the terrific books I read over the past year.
Today's DecRec is 'How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse', by K. Eason.
Imagine that the fairy tale fantasy land of fairies granting wishes at christenings, and magic and alchemy, moved forward in time and developed spaceships and interplanetary trade alliances. This is that. Quirky and fun, with a dry wit and terrific characters.
Tonight, while I wait for the cover for my Wolf book (grumble), I have another sales opportunity for you.
This time, it's a collection of fantasy and SF for your pleasure, all books are on sale or even free.
Yes, it's another BookFunnel promo, but this one comes without the newsletter sign-up (but you might have to pay for the book). Just check out which tales might appeal to you.