Vince Twelve

An exterior shot of a house on a snowy city street. There is a large "For Sale" sign on the wall.

A dimly lit bedroom full of cardboard boxes marked with the word "bedroom."

A man sits at a desk in a large office with his back to the camera. Out the window is a snowy city skyline.

An old man sits on a couch in a living room with his head in his hands.

Some scenes from the prologue of my new adventure game. #ProjectLion

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The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw surrounded by several other books by the author.

The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw

One of my favorite authors writing today. No one describes gore & visceral emotions like Khaw and this is them at their most unhinged. Some of the non-linear storytelling didn’t fully work for me, robbing some scenes of tension, but a solid A. #booksky 💙📚

The cover of The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien. A simple pattern bordered by elvish runes.

The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien

Read this to my 7yo this month. Probably my third or fourth read, but the first in maybe a decade. Still makes me feel like a kid! I always try to make distinct voices when reading to kids but it’s hard to keep a dozen basically-indistinguishable dwarves straight. #booksky

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The cover of The State of the Art by Iain M. Banks. It depicts a man standing on a large curving structure with a spaceship hovering behind it.

The State of the Art by Iain M. Banks

In the mood for some capital-C Culture and grabbed this collection. The titular story walks well-trodden paths of what makes humans human, but adds that Culture charm while being a bit tell-don’t-show. I love these hedonistic space-anarchy-communists. #booksky

Same. No one can remember “second cousin once removed” or some bullshit like that. If they’re older? “My uncle/aunt.” Similar age range? “My cousin.”

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The cover of Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. A simple image of a hand holding the sun in its palm on a red background.

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

My 3rd Ishiguro of the year. While I didn’t like it as much as Never Let Me Go, it had a similar wistful nostalgia to the prose. He excels at showing us the world through the eyes of an earnest naïf. The ending hit me harder than I expected though. #booksky

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The cover of Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. It depicts a black-and-white closeup of a woman’s eye with the reflection of the moon and a brilliant blue flare.

Seveneves by Neal Stephenson

Stephenson’s Red Mars. Heavily-researched w/ a sweeping vision. There were parts I really loved and parts I really didn’t. 2nd part felt way too navel-gazey for me. All that for a chance to re-make humanity and they decided to keep racism and capitalism. 😭 #booksky 💙📚🪐

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The cover of If on a winter’s night a traveler by Italo Calvino. It depicts a steam locomotive traveling down a rail line made of words. The power lines running alongside the tracks are similarly made from words. The train emerges from a sunburst of words. The words are lines cut and pasted from the first chapter of the book.

If on a winter’s night a traveler by Italo Calvino

A singular novel. A multitude of novels. A meta novel about novels. Is an author truth teller or fabulist? Is a novel the words, the space between them, the relationship between ink and reader? Calvino really is a wizard. A new favorite. 😍 #booksky

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The covers of Binti, Binti Home, and Binti The Night Masquerade—three books by Nnedi Okorafor. The first shows Binti, a young African woman, coating her face in orange clay. The second shows Binti in blue standing in front of a large hovering jelly-fish-like being. The third shows Binti with blue hair, a glowing ball hovers above her cupped hands. She is floating in front of what appears to be Jupiter.

Binti series by Nnedi Okorafor

I read the first a long time ago and am glad that I finally read it all together. The three short novellas combine to almost make one novel (a bit rushed in parts to be a single cohesive volume). I liked parts 2 and 3 a lot. This is great Africanfuturist fiction. 💙📚🪐

The cover of A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine. A lone figure stands at the top of a short staircase looking out a huge window at what looks to be a space battle. A sphere with mechanical rings is disintegrating.

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine

I liked this one a lot more than the first book in the series. Some new characters like the imperial heir and Swarm help keep it interesting. But it still feels like the plotting is weak. Some threads don’t end up mattering. #booksky

So good.

This November I'll be teaching a @d6learning.bsky.social course/workshop on the creation of text-only, interactive cities using @inkle.co's ink scripting language.

Find out more here ⇢ www.d6learning.com/course/text-...

Love the colors!

A man stands in a cave full of fungus, holding his arm out to a device connected to a glowing bridge of a translucent orange material.

This scene had been waiting for me to paint the details in properly for forever. I finally got there last week. :)

I know I don’t have much reach on here, but maybe this might help someone:

I have two kids in that guy’s target audience both of whom were shown graphic video of him being shot either by their friends or by The Algorithm. Your kids may not say anything, but they might want to talk about it.

Wow! Really excited to explore this world, Ben!

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The cover of Kill or be Killed Compendium edition by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. It depicts a man in a black hoodie and red ski mask set against a city backdrop.

Kill or be Killed by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips

Ed and Sean are at the top of their game here. This is peak crime comics right here. A compelling anti-hero story with incredible writing paired with Sean’s dynamic art. Worth reading and re-reading. #booksky

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A well-worn copy of White Jazz by James Ellroy. It shows a black and white crime scene photo showing blood dripping down a porch step onto a welcome mat.

White Jazz by James Ellroy

Ellroy took the series from staccato prose to machine gun full auto. Paradoxically, it’s still quite a slow burn. I was 150 pages in and still kind of wondering what the main plot was. A dirty cop hung up on a seemingly minor crime? But the last 75 pages are 🔥. #booksky

Book 43 (I think)