Issue Six

Summer is coming...

What’cha up to?

My media consumption has been pretty low this week. It’s party due to the end-of-semester grading spree, but also partly because Stellaris released their 4.0 update. You see, for my entire adult life there has always been one representative from two genres of games in my life: one first person shooter and one grand strategy.

In college, it was Doom and Civilization. These days it’s Destiny and Stellaris. (Stellaris being the latest and best in a long tradition of what are called 4X games for exploration, expansion, exfoliation…it could be possible I don’t know what the 4X’s stand for, but they’re basically Civilization in space.) So I spent an embarrassing number of hours this past week playing a Stellaris game that I’m only half way through. But it’s okay, I only do this once or twice a year. Maybe three times. It could be possible I don’t keep track, but I’m not an addict, I promise!

The wife and I have been inching along with Andor and Last of Us. We’re actually caught up with Last of Us now. You know, I’ve been thinking about the story arc for season two…skip the next paragraph to avoid spoilers.

SPOILERS—The second game, upon which this second season of the show is based, was infamously divisive. I’ve never really been able to reconcile why. One explanation is that killing the main character from the first game alienated fans, but I just find it hard not to see the backlash as anti-woke, Gamergate B.S. As I watch season two, though, I wonder if part of the reaction is also related to the ending of this story arc. In the end, Ellie abandons her quest for revenge and spares Abby even though she killed her father figure Joel. Seems weird that a game that rewards you for violence with loot and game progress then at the end asks you to renounce violence. But for the show, I feel like this thematic arc is so much stronger than season one which was just The Professional meets Walking Dead. Plus, I know losing the Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal chemistry was a real blow, but Isabella Merced is holding her own. Maybe Bella Ramsey has chemistry with everyone? —NO MORE SPOILERS

My wife and I also checked out Thunderbolts*. Her verdict was “entertaining.” It’s not the best Marvel movie, but it’s not the worst. I’d rank it above the last Captain American movie but—DANG IT, I LIED, SPOILERS AGAIN—it is weird that two Marvel movies in a row ended by getting the not-really-villanous-threat in touch with his feelings—OKAY, NO MORE, I PROMISE.

I am cautiously optimistic about Murderbot on Apple. I know they botched Foundation so hard that it makes my skull ache, but this looks pretty funny. If you haven’t read All Systems Red, the first Murderbot book, you should check it out. I think it’s required sci-fi reading at this point and it’s a super quick read. I haven’t gone any further with the series, but I hear they’re all good.

Speaking of reading, I’m trying to get some more Iain Banks out of Libby. I like Banks because he also bounced between sci-fi and literary in his writing. So he’s—wait for it—mostly sci-fi, mostly. God, that felt good. I’ve read Consider Phlebas, but you can jump into the Culture series—far future utopia run by super-smart AIs—anywhere. I’m trying to get my hands on Player of Games. Maybe I need to check the real-world library.

What’cha givin’ away this time?

So my give away this week is different. I have one last book that I haven’t—and can’t—made free on Amazon. In fact, it’s not even on Amazon. Putting it there was going to be prohibitively expensive, so it’s only available through Lulu.

It’s called the Long Arc and it is very, very dear to my heart. I really think of it as an allegorical love letter to my kids’ generation and to my students’ generations.

Here, check this out. Or here’s the whole offer.

And here’s the “official” blurb from Lulu:

On a drowsy city street, a young Doctor and an Engineer meet, seemingly by chance—but this encounter will forever alter not only their lives, but the course of human history.

The Doctor finds herself drawn into the mystery of an airliner that either disappeared without a trace or landed safely without incident, depending on who you ask. Meanwhile, the Engineer struggles to understand the source of a voice and a sinister churning sound coming from the walls of his apartment building that only he seems to hear.

Their lives and investigations keep converging as though they’re caught in eddies of the same whirlpool. Haunted by ghosts, hounded by doppelgängers, and harried by realities that shift underneath their feet, they will cross out of their ordinary lives and into myth.

An allegory and adventure written in prose, verse, and screenplay, The Long Arc is a one-of-a-kind novel that smashes together genres and literary conventions—bending space and time themselves to tell a story at once personal and epic, about both the paroxysms of history and the search for individual purpose.

If that interests you, then I’ve got a deal for ya: I have three copies printed that I’m going to give away. E-mail or DM me your address and I will mail one to you.

But, there’s a catch. If you like it, great. It’s yours. Wouldn’t be hurt at all if you’d leave a glowing review at Lulu.

If it’s not for you—which, hey, it’s weird so maybe it won’t be—then do me a favor: There will be a Book Crossing insert in the book. If you don’t like it, then log it in BookCrossing using the code and then set it free. Put it in a free little library or leave it at the airport. Wherever.

Deal? Great!

What’s next…

The semester is ending and summer is coming, so you’d think I’d have even more time for reading books and watching shows to post about, but something has happened these last several weeks that I’ve been doing this newsletter and all these promotional give aways: I’ve stopped writing.

Remember that word count update I gave a few weeks ago? Yeah, that needle hasn’t moved. So I won’t be doing an issue every week for the near future because I’m going to shut out social media and all distractions and get back to writing my current book.

I’ll let you know when/if I make progress and if I have anything new and exciting to share. Until then, go check out Murderbot and read some Iain Banks!