atanamar

These are amazing!

Absolutely gorgeous.

Oliver and Lucy hiding from the overly rambunctious kitten.

Gorgeous prose, deep characters, does not outstay its welcome. The kind of story a lesser author might sprawl across multiple novels. In the league of authors like Ursula K. LeGuin, setting the stage for modern-day genre-literature luminaries like Alastair Reynolds and Anne Leckie, et al.

Samuel R. Delany - Nova (1968): Finished a couple of days ago. My first Delaney novel. Absolutely fantastic. A ripping revenge tale steeped in deep, inventive science ideas with a predilection for fine arts, literary references, and revelatory pondering on society and economics.

Wall to wall characterization and ideation of the early cold-war earth kidnapped into time and space. Loved it.

Forwarding my resolution to work through the millions of short stories I've got on the shelves. I've read nothing by Stross so far, but Accelerando is on the queue. This novella-length yarn was fantastic.

Ringworld wasn't bad, but just barely compelling. I'll continue my march to the sea through Larry Niven's novels, but this one just felt like a speed-bump.

The Hugo win feels like a consolation prize for his excellent novels in the previous years. Out of context and out of time, every novel contemporary to Ringworld was more enjoyable to me.

I've enjoyed every single novel and short story of his that I've read lately more than this one. (World of Ptavvs, A Gift from Earth, Neutron Star, Protector). I remembered literally zero from my original read, and I think that's for a reason. Everything happening here felt like a big nothingburger.

I've been reading through Larry Niven's novels, and finally got to Ringworld. Last read.... 34 years ago (!!!). I was not impressed this time around.

Dedication. 🫡 Sounds like the kind of thing I'd focus on more than any other kind of session prep.

Holy moly that's gonna be wild.

What system are you going to use to run Ave Nox? I've read through a lot of it and found it compelling but I'm torn on system.

Four-Day Planet by H. Beam Piper, 1961

Four Day Planet was really fantastic. A story about journalism and resistance on a neglected colony planet left to rot in fascism. Tons of cool concepts, mystery, action, hope, good guys kicking ass. Loved it. Felt very Hitchcockian.

...but it turned out to be a fantastic analysis of the societal fears, impacts, and pitfalls of THE IDEA of artificial intelligence. Not even the AI itself, just the sociological ramifications of it existing. And capitalism based on AI run wild. Deeply prophetic. Great book.

The Cosmic Computer by H. Beam Piper, 1963.

My second H. Beam Piper book after Uller Uprising, which was well written but a preachy-anti-nuke parable. This one felt like it was going to a predictable, preachy-anti-computers parable...

MAGA Adult Male assaults Texas High School students protesting ICE

Coming soon: Make 100 Spaces Creating 100 strange, wondrous and liminal spaces for sci-fi games, based on backer prompts, with illustrations by Josh White.

We are creating 100 strange spaces based on your prompts, with illustrations by the amazing concept artist and animator @joshwhiteart.bsky.social.

Sign up to be notified when the project launches, and get your prompts ready!

www.kickstarter.com/projects/72s...

Feels like he predicted the entire oeuvre of shitty AI art in this style. Which is a bummer, but prescient of the surrealism of our cursed timeline.

7 year old me is ecstatic and confused and very happy.

YouTube video by Nuclear Blast Records KREATOR - Krushers Of The World (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO)

I'm a staunch foe of faux triumphalism in my metal, but nowadays Kreator is so good that its "call to arms for metal brotherhood" brings a fucking tear to my eye. The world is so ass that I guess even the dreaded 'crushing with K' sounds like heaven. youtu.be/pkXVwVIS97w?...

Cooking up a new #TTRPG zine for @zinemonth.bsky.social. Going to be a #sci-fi adventure for Parallax Protocol. Rides on an idea from Alistair Reynold's Absolution Gap that has stuck in my brain like an ice pick for years. Cover art from @silverglass.bsky.social
atanamar.itch.io/parallax-pro...

With so much focus on sensation and multi-tenant headspace, I think this one is going to stick we me for its embodiment of synesthesia. Not a "feel-good" novel, but a "feels-a-lot" novel.

At the same time, you feel an immediate trust in @jesswynne.bsky.social authorial intent, like I JUST NEW Andre Norton was going to tell a story where everything is going to be alright at the end.