Happy Father's Day, my lovely people.
Well, happy Father’s Day to the lovely dads who reside in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Papua New Guinea, that is. To Charlie Sheen, happy birthday. And to the rest of you fine folk, happy Pet Rock Day! Whether you’re enjoying your day with the kids (like me, and my wife’s company, too), celebrating Charlie Sheen’s birthday with a slice of tiger blood cake, or forming a close bond with your pet rock, I hope the day’s treating you fantastically.
Today’s newsletter will be slightly shorter than usual (I can hear the collective sigh of relief). I don’t have as much to share, and once I’m through writing this newsletter, I have some book reviews to catch up on. Ordinarily, I’d be a little more organised, but it turns out scheduling a slew of book reviews in the aftermath of Camp NaNoWriMo isn’t the smartest idea one can have. After that month-long ordeal, which I’m still recovering from, I’ve fallen a little behind on my book reviews. They’re still hitting the website on the due date, but with virtually no time to spare.
My focus for this month will be working through the backlog and building in a little breathing room. Which shouldn’t be too difficult if I don’t procrastinate (okay, looks like I’m fucked).
And with that, on to the newsletter!
On the blog
August’s Snippets: We all know they’re posted on a Saturday, and I’ve officially dropped the alliteration. Which times out nicely since the snippets are seeing a change in direction. Out with Till Death Do Us Party (for now), and onto Luminary!
And that’s it. Seriously.
Writings
August isn’t the least productive month I’ve had this year, but it certainly feels like it. The focus—when I was actually able to focus—was on book reviews. Over the month, I wrote 21,329 words in relation to these reviews, and spent 9 hours and 45 minutes editing them.
The plan was to finish the current draft of Luminary, but that didn’t happen. It probably won’t happen this month either, but October’s looking pretty good. Maybe.
I can at least guarantee there will be a couple more blog posts to feature in next month’s newsletter, so let’s call it a win.
It’s a giveaway!
What’s that? My first ever giveaway? What could it be? A car? A holiday? A house? No, it’s nothing so rudimentary: I have one invitation to Bluesky Social to give away (no, it doesn’t have a monetary value, so let’s just say it’s priceless), and if you’d like to snag it, leave a comment. The only rules are that this is open to subscribers only (if you haven’t subscribed, but really want to win, feel free to subscribe, then unsubscribe after I’ve drawn it); and you have until 28 September to enter. Have at it—the winner won’t even have to follow me, but it would be appreciated if they do.
So it’s probably a pertinent time to say I joined the special network (find me at wasauthor.bsky.social). I haven’t done much there yet, but I’ll get there. I’ll say it’s a friendlier online environment than Twitter after Musk came on board. My next step will be to extend my social media presence to some other websites.
For legal reasons, it should probably be noted that this is no way endorsed by Bluesky Social; I happen to have an invitation, and I figure this is as good a way as any to hand it over to someone.
I’m a slightly better Neil Gaiman fan than I was a month ago
Skip ahead if you don’t want any quasi-spoilers for Good Omens 2. It’s okay; I won’t take it personally.
I got through Good Omens’ second season and rather enjoyed it. The stakes weren’t as high as the first, and it very much felt like it’s simply building towards the third season, which makes sense, as Gaiman’s stated that the sequel he and Terry Pratchett had in mind will be the third season. The stakes are lower, and I missed some of the characters from the book and the first season, and recasting Miranda Richardson as a different—and less interesting—character doesn’t quite work for it. But David Tennant and Michael Sheen are on point, and their chemistry is always brilliant.
But man, that ending. It traumatised me as much as Our Flag Means Death’s first season finale. Let’s hope Good Omens 3 moves quicker than Our Flag Means Death season two…
Superman: Space Age
I recently read Mark Russell and Mike Allred’s Superman: Space Age, and it’s refreshing to find a story that manages to feel like a classic (Silver Age, around 1956-1970) Superman story while also saying something new about the character.
It feels like the love child of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s All-Star Superman and Darwyn Cooke’s DC: The New Frontier, albeit far more depressing. Kicking off with the assassination of JFK, Superman is warned that the world will come to an end in 1985 (which fans will recognise as the year of Crisis on Infinite Earths, where almost the entire multiverse was wiped from existence), and there’s nothing he can do to stop it.
It’s a story about how no person can save the world, and all that anyone can do is try to make it a better place; to do their best to help as many people as possible. It’s about greed and power, and how meaningless it is in the grand scheme of things.
But above all, it’s beautiful. If you have a passing interest in Superman stories where he doesn’t snap a single neck, I heartily recommend it.
Book reviews
I had a few more books to review than in July, so let’s dispense with the preamble and get into them. If you’re looking for a book to read, why not start here?
SIMBiotic, The Medusa Deception, The Dodona Prophecy and The Olympus Reckoning by Linda Temple infuse science fiction and fantasy with wonderful characters. Read SIMBiotic if you enjoy some light cyberpunk; read the Medusa Legacy trilogy if you like mythology bleeding over to fantasy fiction.
Sketching Rebellion by Felicia Ketcheson presents a dystopian world where all forms of expression—or deeds considered not in the good of society as a whole—are not only banned, but punishable by death. Read it if you’re a fan of young adult books, and appreciate them including some powerful themes.
Daughter of the Beast by EC Greaves weaves dark fantasy and Slavic mythology in an affecting tale about a young girl being taken in by her parents’ killers. Read it if you like your fantasy to be epic and love strong characters; or if you simply appreciate finely crafted stories.
A Dream of Stars and Curses is the second book in Sarina Langer’s The Chaos of Esta Anderson series, and chronicles an adventure through both the waking and sleeping worlds. Read it if you enjoy fantasy tales that span multiple realities and slow burn romances, particularly when anchored by strong characters.
The Legend of Rachel Petersen by J.T. Baroni is a haunting paranormal story about an aspiring author who, upon stumbling upon a mysterious grave, is inspired to fictionalise the buried girl’s story. Read it if you like paranormal stories with plenty of twists and turns, and stories within stories.
The Travelling City by Adrienne Miller dares to do something different with the fantasy genre, with a setting that needs to be read to be believed. Read it if you like a dark undercurrent in your fantasy stories, presented through a lens full of whimsy and psychedelia.
Bowie album of the month: The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders of Mars
I was planning on holding off on this for a while, not wanting Bowie’s fourth and fifth albums back to back, and not launching into the better known albums. But after reading Space Age, I’ve had a number of the tracks running through my head. It’s also timely, given the recent release of the 50th anniversary album and blu-ray. It’s serendipity, I tell you.
A concept album about the prophesied arrival of an alien rock star, sent to Earth to be its saviour, the album goes from strength to strength. While “Star” may be a song about the artificiality of rock music, the album truly put Bowie on the map as one such rock and roll star. The album is full of juxtapositions, as “Five Years” presents a future world falling apart, fractured by excess, while “Starman” offers hope from a saviour in the sky. “Ziggy Stardust” is the triumphant story of an alien rock god, while “Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide” is about the hollowness of success. “Suffragette City” tells the story about Ziggy Stardust’s friend interfering with his sex life, while “Soul Love” looks at love on the eve of an impending disaster.
And with that, I’ll see you in October.
TTFN,
Was