Eggplant.place

294d

The Project Hail Mary trailer looks good. I hope they do justice to this story! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VYsnngkS_U

#Books #ScienceFiction #ProjectHailMary #Film #FilmMastodon

@bookstodon

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293d

New Ebook release: 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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270d

I'm thinking I'll get myself a copy of Samuel Butler's Erewhon. It's on Project Gutenberg but lately I've been acquiring paper books and this seems like a good one to have in hard copy. I feel vaguely embarrassed that I've never read it, given how closely it relates to what I've researched in computer science (evolutionary algorithms and artificial life) and what I spend my time thinking about these days (clarifying why I believe machines cannot be alive or intelligent in the way we usually mean these words).

Apparently Giles Deleuze and Felix Guatarri were influenced by this book and Butler's other writings on machine life. The Butlerian Jihad of Dune is possibly named after him (so far haven't found a definitive statement of this, though a very similar event happens in Erewhon). Even Alan Turing references it. Butler, in turn, was heavily influenced by Darwin's On the Origin of Species. So there is a fascinating confluence around this book.

Without spoiling it, does anyone have thoughts about Erewhon?

#Erewhon #Butler #fiction #SciFi #ScienceFiction #evolution #MachineIntelligence #AI #ArtificialLife #ComputerScience #EvolutionaryBiology

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293d

📚 Chocky by: John Wyndham

David Gore becomes concerned that his twelve-year-old son, Matthew, is too old to have an imaginary friend. His concerns deepen as Matthew becomes increasingly distressed and blames it on arguments with this unseen companion, whom he calls "Chocky".

As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that the friend is far from imaginary, but i...

https://bookblabla.com/book/chocky

@bookstodon

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #sciencefiction #general

David Gore becomes concerned that his twelve-year-old son, Matthew, is too old to have an imaginary friend. His concerns deepen as Matthew becomes increasingly distressed and blames it on arguments with this unseen companion, whom he calls "Chocky".

As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that the friend is far from imaginary, but is an alien consciousness communicating with Matthew's mind—a fact that is of interest to shadowy government forces.

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189d

Chapter 21 of Princess of Kurg is available to read on #RoyalRoad: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/108234/jigsaw-city

Ustrina finally realizes Nicole isn't a dragon and she's completely furious, though she's quite silent as she slowly puzzles through the facts, in plain sight of the bridge crew of Jigsaw City.

Vanu and Lognur give the order for Bevna Protocol, once the dragon leaves the bridge...

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

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291d

Wha’s Doctor Wha? Wha better kens nor he
that jouks the yetts and rides the birlin wheels
o time and space, shape-shiftin as he reels
through endless versions o reality? …

—James Robertson, “Doctor Wha”
First published in Where Rockets Burn Through (ed. Russell Jones, 2012)

Today, 23 November, is Doctor Who Day!

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#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #sciencefiction #SFpoetry #DoctorWho #DoctorWhoDay

Doctor Wha
by James Robertson

Wha’s Doctor Wha? Wha better kens nor he
that jouks the yetts and rides the birlin wheels
o time and space, shape-shiftin as he reels
through endless versions o reality?
Bit dis he ken himsel? Weel, mibbe sae,
yet wha’s tae ken gin aw that’s kent by Wha
maks mair or less or better sense ava
nor whit we ithers ken, or think we dae?
The universe is fou o parallels:
wha’s like us? Hunners? Thoosans? We oorsels
micht be mere glisks o life-forms yet tae be.
Whit’s real? Whaur’s here? When’s noo? Wha’s quick or deid?
Wha’s jist a thochtie in anither’s heid?
Wha’s Doctor Wha? Wha better kens nor he?

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291d

📚 The Merge by: Grace Walker

Earth and its resources have been pushed to breaking point, giving rise to a revolutionary and highly controversial procedure in which two people’s consciousness can be combined to exist in one body.

How far would you go to never say goodbye?

Laurie is sixty-five and living with Alz...

https://bookblabla.com/book/the-merge

@bookstodon

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #literaryfiction #sciencefiction #generalfiction #politicalfiction

Earth and its resources have been pushed to breaking point, giving rise to a revolutionary and highly controversial procedure in which two people’s consciousness can be combined to exist in one body.

How far would you go to never say goodbye?

Laurie is sixty-five and living with Alzheimer’s. Her daughter Amelia, a once fiery and strong-willed activist, can’t bear to see her mother’s mind fade. Faced with the reality of losing her forever, Amelia signs them up to take part in the world’s first experimental merging process for Alzheimer’s patients, in which Laurie’s ailing mind will be transferred into Amelia’s healthy body and their consciousness will be blended as one.

Soon Amelia and Laurie join the opaque and mysterious group of other merge participants: teenage Lucas, who plans to merge with his terminally ill brother Noah; Ben, who will merge with his pregnant fiancée Annie; and Jay, whose merging partner is his addict daughter Lara. As they prepare to move to The Village, a luxurious rehabilitation center for those who have merged, they quickly begin to question whether everything is really as it seems.

An exhilarating, immersive debut from an astonishing new voice, The Merge is a personal story of love, family, and sacrifice, as well as a thought-provoking examination of the limits of control, resistance, and freedom in our modern world.

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289d

📚 Neuromancer by: William Gibson

Case was the sharpest data-thief in the matrix—until he crossed the wrong people and they crippled his nervous system, banishing him from cyberspace. Now a mysterious new employer has recruited him for a last-chance run at an unthinkably powerful artificial intelligence. With a dead ma...

https://bookblabla.com/book/neuromancer

@bookstodon

#books #reading #libraries #fiction #sciencefiction #cyberpunkfiction #thrillers #technological

Case was the sharpest data-thief in the matrix—until he crossed the wrong people and they crippled his nervous system, banishing him from cyberspace. Now a mysterious new employer has recruited him for a last-chance run at an unthinkably powerful artificial intelligence. With a dead man riding shotgun and Molly, a mirror-eyed street-samurai, to watch his back, Case is ready for the adventure that upped the ante on an entire genre of fiction.

Neuromancer was the first fully-realized glimpse of humankind’s digital future—a shocking vision that has challenged our assumptions about technology and ourselves, reinvented the way we speak and think, and forever altered the landscape of our imaginations.

Winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Awards, Neuromancer is a science fiction masterpiece—a classic that ranks as one of the twentieth century’s most potent visions of the future.

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288d

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

The undead witch that rules the space pirates, known as the Dead Queen, has finally been defeated. That only makes it worse for the witches that pulled it off. She’s livid and coming for them, at least once she gets her star ship back under control…

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

(Left) The cover of Legacy of Newts, by Owen Tyme.

In the background dawn, as seen from space, above a blue world.

In the foreground is a line drawing of a red spotted newt, in white. The lines of the newt are outlined in black, to help it stand out. The interior of the line drawing has been filled with the image of a spiral galaxy in red, orange and yellow, with a blue color that shades to white at the center, which lines up with the newt's head. The galaxy almost looks like fire.

(Right) The background is a blue and orange nebula, with the following text over it:

“You gotta be real strong, real bright, real quick, or real lucky to survive drawing *attention*. Which are you?”

“I’m quick, Amelia is bright, Marta is strong and all three of us have been lucky, after a fashion: if we didn’t have bad luck, then I suppose we wouldn’t have any luck at all.”

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

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161d

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

Since Kazic is busy for the evening, with his mysterious new activities, Nicole looks for a short mission to complete, settling on the matter of the monkeys with crossbows.

It begins with a hike through an alien jungle, but the monkeys turn out to know all about building traps...

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

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289d

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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286d

“[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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286d

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

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147d

Chapter 39 of Princess of Kurg is available to read on #RoyalRoad: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/108234/jigsaw-city

A patient carrying a virus breaks quarantine and literally runs into Eden and Nicole is splashed with his sweat, leaving both of them exposed to the virus...

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

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287d

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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147d

A Review of Cosmophobia: https://lydiaschoch.com/a-review-of-cosmophobia/

#Books #ScienceFiction #BookReview

@bookstodon

Book cover for Cosmophobia by George Saoulidis. Image on cover shows a computer-generated drawing of the sort of probe scientists have been sending to places like Jupiter. It’s gold-coloured, oblong shaped, and has two wings that look like they also double as solar panels.

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269d

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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272d

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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285d

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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284d

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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271d

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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282d

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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63d

50% off @ #smashwords : https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1691775

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 quote 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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282d

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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268d

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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