Eggplant.place

29d

Chapter 31 of Stone Prophet is available to read on #RoyalRoad: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/108234/jigsaw-city

Ogomid tries to kill Nicole, forcing her to retreat further into Chalgos, trapping her inside!

He then destroys their radios, allowing Nicole to send only a brief message: Tin Man Protocol.

Vanu releases the golems shaped like Nicole, which arrest every Ulkun in the city...

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #actionadventure #fiction #fairies #webseries

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26d

“[P]ay attention to the moments of contradiction and uncertainty threaded through character dialogue and self-reflection […] Watch his tone. Watch his humour. For me, that’s where the sharpest lessons are.”

—Bethany Jacobs on the worldbuilding of Iain M. Banks

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2506129-why-sci-fi-novelist-iain-m-banks-was-an-astounding-world-builder/

#Scottish #literature #IainBanks #IainMBanks #TheCulture #ScienceFiction #Scifi #worldbuilding

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26d

Paperback now available: https://books2read.com/TheNextHorizon

Amelia and The Book of Newts are in conflict. She wants to explore her feelings. It wants to explore space, taking back the gift for mathematics and piloting it gave her. She’s left unable to plot a direct course home. She’s desperate to see the man she loves, lest she lose him forever and The Book is in her way…

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #sciencefantasy #scifi #actionadventure #fiction #books

(Left) The cover of The Next Horizon, by Owen Tyme.

The black silhouette of a man and woman hugging and kissing. The woman has lifted one leg, while the man leans toward her. They stand atop the dark side of a planet or moon in space, which has a slim crescent along the right side. The background in the stars of space, but some have been highlighted with a heat shape that surrounds the kissing couple. Everything is in shades of blue.

(Right) Deep space, displaying the edge of an orange and blue gaseous cloud from a nebula, while most of the stars appear golden in color. Floating in space is a square, red leather book with the image of a newt stamped on the cover. Over the top of everything is the following text:

“You can back down and cooperate, right now, or Marta will hit you so hard, you should reach a tenth the speed of light…”

“No one will ever find you again, but even if someone does, there’s no way they’ll have the capacity to safely slow you down, before you’re gone to them!”

(Bottom) https://books2read.com/TheNextHorizon

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27d

Chapter 32 of Stone Prophet is available to read on #RoyalRoad: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/108234/jigsaw-city

While Nicole heals her shattered pelvis and legs, she discusses what happened with Ogomid, who apologizes.

Nicole forgives him and suggest he may be dealing with post-traumatic stress.

She takes ownership of the life stones of Ogomid and Irkith, then looks closer at Irkith's...

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #actionadventure #fiction #fairies #webseries

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9d

50% off @ #Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1795512

Nicole’s brain is slowly being taken over by a magic city. She seeks a cure, before the city can destroy her sanity and then eventually, take her life by replacing her mind. Racing against time, she gathers pieces of the city, hoping to find an answer among them.

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #sciencefantasy #scifi #actionadventure #fiction #books #EOYSale25 #ebook #sale #books2read #indiebooks

(Left) The cover of Jigsaw City, by Owen Tyme.

The background is a futuristic city of sky scrapers covered in greenery, with water ways in place of some streets. The background has been divided by dark lines that cut it up, into a jigsaw puzzle.

The foreground is a hexagonal coin with an indentation in the center that follows the same shape, with raised lines forming a hexagram in the center, which has a smaller one turned at a ninety-degree angle inside the hexagon at the center of it. The smaller hexagram has another inside it, a pattern that repeats until the lines become so fine and indistinct, they blend together.

(Right) There's a pool of lava at the base of a rocky slope, with some sharp rocks sticking upward out of it and the following text over the top:

“I’m immune to heat and fire. I can easily carry and protect one of you…”

“That’s suicide! Ye’d need to deliver an army to make a difference, not one person!”

“I *am* an army.”

(Bottom) https://books2read.com/JigsawCity

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12d

50% off @ #Smashwords: https://books2read.com/SkyChildren

With a strange virus giving colonists magic powers, they call for government aid, but warships packed to the gills with nuclear ordnance arrive! They run for the hills, totally terrified for their lives as their city is struck down as if by the wrath of an angry God!

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #sciencefantasy #scifi #actionadventure #fiction #books #EOYSale25 #ebook #sale #books2read #indiebooks

(Left) The cover of Sky Children, by Owen Tyme.

The background is a nuclear explosion and its mushroom cloud, in some distant hills. There's a dirt road along some rocky hills leading away from it.

The foreground is dominated by the dark silhouettes of another hill, some tall grass and a family of five holding hands, going left to right: girl, mother, girl, boy and father. The mother and father look down at the children, while they look up at their mother. The tallest of the children appears to be a boy in shorts, while the other two are girls of the same height, indicating they may be twins. The girls have pony tails and wear dresses. The mother wears a skirt and the father wears pants. The family holds hands.

The silhouettes are highlighted by the orange light of the explosion.

(Right) An explosion is fiery and bright. Someone hold up their left hand to block the light, but the light is so intense, their flesh only tinges the light a pinkish-red shade and their bones are visible, outlined with dark red lines. The following text is laid over that:

He shielded his eyes with his hands, but even with his eyes closed, he could see the shadows of his finger bones, as highlighted by the monstrous, nuclear light!

Temporarily blinded, tears fell from his eyes.

*What more could I have done? Could we have saved more people somehow? How could I have known the consequences of setting up the navigation beacon? Why is this happening?*

(Bottom) https://books2read.com/SkyChildren

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25d

Chapter 33 of Stone Prophet is available to read on #RoyalRoad: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/108234/jigsaw-city

Nicole discusses Chalgos with Ogomid and learns along the way that the piece of Kurg in her mind gives her the ability to speak in Ulkun, via radio waves.

They reach the center and Ogomid uses the abandoned husk of Irkith, but curiously find no trace of the Seventh Sage...

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #actionadventure #fiction #fairies #webseries

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24d

In the weird coincidence department, yesterday I read the @clarkesworld interview of R.T. Ester by @arleysorg.bsky.social where he mentions Iain M. Banks being a major influence. https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/ester_interview_2025/ Then @scotlit shared this article on Banks' world building: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2506129-why-sci-fi-novelist-iain-m-banks-was-an-astounding-world-builder/ Then @lategamer shared their TTRPG Mind Games about the Culture: https://lategamer.itch.io/mindgames - Mind games indeed! #TTRPG #IainMBanks #ScienceFiction

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11d

I have a new patron-only post up on Patreon! This holiday season, why not give the gift of Xauri'EL Zwaan? Pledges start at just $5USD and include free copies of three short ebooks!

https://www.patreon.com/posts/patron-update-145733009

#SciFi #ScienceFiction #AmWriting

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22d

Chapter 34 of Stone Prophet is available to read on #RoyalRoad: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/108234/jigsaw-city

Having found what she came for, Nicole reasons out a method to get herself to the surface, which will require her to drown, while in torpor.

She climbs into the chilly water and soon nods off. Ogomid carries her to the surface, while the doll-woman follows...

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #actionadventure #fiction #fairies #webseries

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22d

Ebook and paperback : https://books2read.com/TrollSong

Having an abusive assassin for a sister was bad enough, but when Lyra’s older sister, Nicole, becomes obsessed with killing the teenage troll, her life becomes a special kind of nightmare. Will she escape, or become just another victim of the unstoppable woman?

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #sciencefantasy #scifi #actionadventure #fiction #books

(Left) The cover of Troll Song, by Owen Tyme, Illustrated by Ryan Johnson.

There's a woman in mud spattered white, leather armor crossing a pair of short swords against the neck of a terrified, shirtless dwarf.

The woman has white hair and a darker skin tone on the left side of her face. Her left eye is green and her right eye is blue.

The dwarf's hair and beard are blond.

The background is a green forest, with some flowers among the tall grass.

(Right) The background is a snow-covered forest, with a pair of dark silhouettes in it, one small and the other large, like a giant. The smaller silhouette is of a young woman walking away and the interior is filled with musical symbols, in green, white and two shades of blue. The larger silhouette is a woman wielding two swords and the interior is full of blood spatter. The larger one appears to be chasing the smaller one.

The following text is laid over the scene:

“I can’t die until Lyra takes her last breath! She’ll regret betraying her sisters!”

“There’s no price I won’t pay to see that happen, no pain I won’t endure and I’d sacrifice the whole world to seal her fate!”

(Bottom) https://books2read.com/TrollSong

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8d

Book Review: Rumor Has It by Cat Rambo
The Disco Space Opera (a.k.a. You Sexy Thing) universe continues with more relationship-based SF, this time at an amazing space station

@Princejvstin has our review!

http://www.nerds-feather.com/2025/12/book-review-rumor-has-it-by-cat-rambo.html

#books #review #sciencefiction #bookstodon @bookstodon

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8d

📚 The Ministry of Time by: Kaliane Bradley

In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she'll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering expats from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible for the body, but also for the fabric...

https://bookblabla.com/book/the-ministry-of-time

@bookstodon

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #romance #sciencefiction

In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she'll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering expats from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.

She is tasked with working as a bridge: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as 1847 or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin's doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he’s a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as washing machines, Spotify, and the collapse of the British Empire. But with an appetite for discovery, a seven a day cigarette habit, and the support of a charming and chaotic cast of fellow expats, he soon adjusts.

Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic, evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry's project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined. Forced to confront the choices that brought them together, the bridge must finally reckon with how—and whether she believes—what she does next can change the future.

An exquisitely original and feverishly fun fusion of genres and ideas, Th

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1y

I've just finished the first stage of a more long-term project, which has produced an audiobook version of the prologue and first two chapters of Troll Song.

If you enjoy this sample, you can learn more about the novel from my website: https://owentyme.us/books/wizards-scion/troll-song.html

This was achieved with an open source neural network text to speech synthesizer named Piper: https://github.com/rhasspy/piper

#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #actionadventure #fiction #ai

ad8a77239a0acbeb.mp3

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22d

📚 The Electric State by: Simon Stålenhag

A teen girl and her robot embark on a cross-country mission in this illustrated science fiction story, perfect for fans of Fallout and Black Mirror.

In late 1997, a runaway teenager and her small yellow toy robot travel west through a strange American landscape where the ruins of gigantic battle drones...

https://bookblabla.com/book/the-electric-state

@bookstodon

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #sciencefiction #conceptual

A teen girl and her robot embark on a cross-country mission in this illustrated science fiction story, perfect for fans of Fallout and Black Mirror.

In late 1997, a runaway teenager and her small yellow toy robot travel west through a strange American landscape where the ruins of gigantic battle drones litter the countryside, along with the discarded trash of a high-tech consumerist society addicted to a virtual-reality system. As they approach the edge of the continent, the world outside the car window seems to unravel at an ever faster pace, as if somewhere beyond the horizon, the hollow core of civilization has finally caved in.

The inspiration for Netflix blockbuster starring Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt.

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23d

Ebook and paperback : https://books2read.com/WrathOfTheSky

Zechariah Jacobs has angered a vast empire that spans a third of the galaxy, which is far too much for his planet to stand against, but in a clash of wizards and magic versus technology, it's hard to say which will win.

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #sciencefantasy #scifi #actionadventure #fiction #books

(Left) The cover of Wrath of the Sky, by Owen Tyme.

On a black background, a planet much like earth burns, set aflame. The flames are on the top and sides, but haven't yet reached the bottom.

(Right) An ogre stands on a rocky cliffside path, clearly quite upset, with both his head and arms raised as he cries out! The background is blue sky with white clouds. The following text is laid over the top of the scene:

Winzon grinned evilly. With great slowness and ceremony, he undid the draw-string of his sack and up-ended it, dropping an ogre skull at the brute’s feet!

The massive ogre’s entire demeanor changed in an instant! He backed away, carefully stepping out of reach of Winzon’s ax, even though it was still strapped to his back!

The brute whispered, “Ogre-slayer!”

(Bottom) https://books2read.com/WrathOfTheSky

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23d

Support an indie author by reading my scifi adventure story, Death In Transit. @bookstodon Can Greis, a Duwgian trader, keep human passengers from messing up the business opportunity of a lifetime?

On Amazon and more!

#ScienceFiction #Adventure #SciFi #Fiction #Bookstodon

Greis is a Duwgian trader looking for new opportunities. When the ship's captain takes ill, the dangers are almost as serious as the opportunities!

Can he keep his human passengers from making life-threatening mistakes?

Find out in Death In Transit now on Amazon and more!

jallbarret.writeas.com/death-in-transit

Background image is Starry Sky Night Stars by Felix Mittermeier.

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8d

Chapter 40 of Stone Prophet is available to read on #RoyalRoad: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/108234/jigsaw-city

Nicole and her team find themselves in a shared mindscape, in which Lyra and Gida pilot a shuttle, while the team prepares to be dropped at a fortress for a tactical assault.

The fortress is armed with antiaircraft blasters and it's a bumpy ride...

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #actionadventure #fiction #fairies #webseries

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21d

Check out my scifi adventure story, Death In Transit. @bookstodon Mechanical issues aren't the only interruption in Lia Conway's unplanned vacation. Can her skills help her to build a new life?

On Amazon and more!

#ScienceFiction #Adventure #SciFi #FediBookFair #Bookstodon

Lia Conway's unscheduled vacation threatens to strand her in the middle of nowhere if she can't figure out how to get the transport working again.

Could the trouble provide an opportunity for the next phase of her life?

Find out in Death In Transit now on Amazon and more!

jallbarret.writeas.com/death-in-transit

Background image is Starry Sky Night Stars by Felix Mittermeier.

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6d

Chapter 41 of Stone Prophet is available to read on #RoyalRoad: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/108234/jigsaw-city

Ogomid encounters reason in the Mindscape, finding him in a brightly-lit artist's studio, where he's sculpting.

The art is good, but completely lacks emotion of any kind, leaving the Ogomid untouched.

He asks Reason to betray Olyna, but they begin a logical debate on the subject...

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #actionadventure #fiction #fairies #webseries

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20d

Chapter 35 of Stone Prophet is available to read on #RoyalRoad: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/108234/jigsaw-city

After some scans to satisfy the curiosity of a scientist and some discussion of restoring Irkith, Nicole assembles the Seventh Sage's life stone, playing right into the hands of Olyna, who hides within Reason...

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #actionadventure #fiction #fairies #webseries

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20d

Ebook and paperback: https://books2read.com/TheThirdWish

Spies, aliens, trolls, wizards and a disowned prince use a time machine, to improve their place in history, but Levi Jacobs stands in their way, despite having just lost his parents in war. Will he stop them or will the time travelers kill his father at a pivotal moment, on which the fate of the galaxy hangs?

@bookstodon
#author #indieauthor #writing #fantasy #scifi #sciencefiction #sff #sciencefantasy #scifi #actionadventure #fiction #books

(Left) The cover of The Third Wish, by Owen Tyme, illustrated by Ryan Johnson.

A wizard in a black robe that glitters with hints of gold stands on a mountain and looks down at a city of sky scrapers covered in greenery. In his shadow lurks a creature with glowing red eyes.

In the background, the sun is setting and stars are becoming visible.

(Right Background) Four images separated by black lines, with the silhouette of a woman wielding two swords laid over them. She's outlined in black and her interior is yellow clock-based imagery that spirals outward from the center.

The upper left quarter is a queen in a red, furred robe, wearing a gold and diamond crown. She has dark eyebrows and blond hair.

Upper right is a planet seen from orbit.

Lower left is a symbolic wire frame representation of the view inside a wormhole, in green and yellow.

Lower right is dandelions among grass.

The angle of the planet, one of the woman's swords, the yellow highlights of the wormhole and some of the dandelions form a line that draws the eye along a sweeping curve.

(Right Foreground) The following quote:

He admired the flawless beauty of the insane swordswoman’s fluid movements as Ida took desperate step after step, backwards!

He felt waves of mental energy pour off the panic-stricken troll, but the energy bounced right off of Nicole’s mind, as though she’d shut herself inside a solid, red-hot, steel box of rage!

(Bottom) https://books2read.com/TheThirdWish

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7d

📚 The Ghost Brigades by: John Scalzi

Jared Dirac is the only human who can provide answers... A superhuman hybrid, created from Boutin's DNA, Jared's brain should be able to access Boutin's electronic memories. But when the memory transplant appears to fail, Jared is given to the Ghost Brigades.

At first, Jared is a perfe...

https://bookblabla.com/book/the-ghost-brigades

@bookstodon

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #sciencefiction #militaryfiction #actionadventure

Jared Dirac is the only human who can provide answers... A superhuman hybrid, created from Boutin's DNA, Jared's brain should be able to access Boutin's electronic memories. But when the memory transplant appears to fail, Jared is given to the Ghost Brigades.

At first, Jared is a perfect soldier, but as Boutin's memories slowly surface, Jared begins to intuit the reason's for Boutin's betrayal. As Jared desperately hunts for his "father," he must also come to grips with his own choices. Time is running out: The alliance is preparing its offensive, and some of them plan worse things than humanity's mere military defeat...

The Ghost Brigades are the Special Forces of the Colonial Defense Forces, elite troops created from the DNA of the dead and turned into the perfect soldiers for the CDF's toughest operations. They're young, they're fast and strong, and they're totally without normal human qualms.

The universe is a dangerous place for humanity—and it's about to become far more dangerous. Three races that humans have clashed with before have allied to halt our expansion into space. Their linchpin: the turncoat military scientist Charles Boutin, who knows the CDF's biggest military secrets. To prevail, the CDF must find out why Boutin did what he did.

Old Man's War Series
#1 Old Man’s War
#2 The Ghost Brigades
#3 The Last Colony
#4 Zoe’s Tale
#5 The Human Division
#6 The End of All Things
Short fiction: “After the Coup”

Other Tor Books
The Andr

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6d

Merci à @Airr pour ce conseil de lecture !

#SF #ScienceFiction #féminisme #livre #lecture #littérature #PAL #BookWyrm

(comment on Hope)

Noëmie Lemos: Hope (EBook, French language, 2024, Timelapse)

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6d

📚 Kindred by: Octavia E. Butler

"I lost an arm on my last trip home. My left arm."

Dana’s torment begins when she suddenly vanishes on her 26th birthday from California, 1976, and is dragged through time to antebellum Maryland to rescue a boy named Rufus, heir to a slaveowner’s plantation. She soon realizes the purpose of her summons to the past: pro...

https://bookblabla.com/book/kindred

@bookstodon

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #sciencefiction #historical

"I lost an arm on my last trip home. My left arm."

Dana’s torment begins when she suddenly vanishes on her 26th birthday from California, 1976, and is dragged through time to antebellum Maryland to rescue a boy named Rufus, heir to a slaveowner’s plantation. She soon realizes the purpose of her summons to the past: protect Rufus to ensure his assault of her Black ancestor so that she may one day be born. As she endures the traumas of slavery and the soul-crushing normalization of savagery, Dana fights to keep her autonomy and return to the present.

Blazing the trail for neo-slavery narratives like Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad and Ta-Nehisi Coates’s The Water Dancer, Butler takes one of speculative fiction’s oldest tropes and infuses it with lasting depth and power. Dana not only experiences the cruelties of slavery on her skin but also grimly learns to accept it as a condition of her own existence in the present.

Where stories about American slavery are often gratuitous, reducing its horror to explicit violence and brutality, Kindred is controlled and precise. (New York Times).

Selected by The Atlantic as one of THE GREAT AMERICAN NOVELS. ("You have to read them.")

The New York Times best-selling author’s time-travel classic that makes us feel the horrors of American slavery and indicts our country’s lack of progress on racial reconciliation

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