Weekly Roundup: February 12th - February 17th
Ash Cinema is coming in the weeks ahead. I don’t know when the cover will be done so I don’t know when I’ll put this out into the world, but I’m very excited to bring this back into the world.
This Week’s Posts
Tuesday: BERSERK: The Black Swordsman Arc - In which I discuss the start to one of the most iconic and beloved manga of all time. Berserk begins as a wild ride and I’m curious to see how this develops.
Wednesday: Episode 002: Count Zero -
and I discuss Count Zero, book two in William Gibson’s Sprawl Trilogy. We agree it’s a better book, which may be a bit controversial! Check it out.And because it was Valentine’s Day, I wrote a brief piece about love.
From the Archives
Did you listen to our episode on Neuromancer?
Listening
Reading
I’ve been reading the Saxon Stories by Bernard Cornwell and, man, it’s so good. I’ve already watched the TV show and the books are still great.
Rebecca Solnit is one of the best essayists around and her piece on San Francisco and Silicon Valley is worth checking out. Thanks to
for sharing this with me.
Sony is erasing digital libraries that were supposed to be accessible “forever” | Ars Technica. This is reason one million why we need to return to owning analogue media. Buy yourself some DVDs and CDs and so on.
These won’t disappear. Unless you lose them. But that’s on you.
Watching
We watched the 1980 miniseries Shogun, the adaptation of the James Clavell novel that I haven’t read. It’s real good! We even bought the blueray. Expect some words about it near the end of the month.
What Else?
I started this substack last year and for the foreseeable future it’s devoted to Varney the Vampyre, the grandfather of vampire fiction. I forgot to post anything this week, so expect more too!
I misheard something Kelby told me and now the next Howl book has a title: GOBLIN FIRE. He sort of handed me a central idea for the plot too, which I’m going to tinker with. Expect that relatively soon.
Very busy week! Going to spend this week catching up on things.
And Valentine’s Day.
Don’t forget!
That’s it from me.
Be well.
Anyway, read my books that are currently out. Then review them.
Thank you.
My novels:
Glossolalia - A Le Guinian fantasy novel about an anarchic community dealing with a disaster
Sing, Behemoth, Sing - Deadwood meets Neon Genesis Evangelion
Howl - Vampire Hunter D meets The Book of the New Sun in this lofi cyberpunk/solarpunk monster hunting adventure
Colony Collapse - Star Trek meets Firefly in the opening episode of this space opera
The Blood Dancers - The standalone sequel to Colony Collapse.
Iron Wolf - Sequel to Howl.
Sleeping Giants - Standalone sequel to Colony Collapse and The Blood Dancers
Broken Katana - Sequel to Iron Wolf.
Libertatia; or, The Onion King - Standalone sequel to Colony Collapse, The Blood Dancers, and Sleeping Giants
Noir: A Love Story - An oral history of a doomed romance.
Some free books for your trouble:
Not a Damsel: Epic Women in SFF
Wolf.
Howl.
Ooh, Shogun - are you interested in the *new* Shogun miniseries at all? (Or was that the genesis of you checking out the '80s Shogun, in the same way I watched the Oppenheimer miniseries with Sam Waterston to spite Christopher Nolan?)
I greatly agree with you about DVDs and CDs. I collect them both and they're invaluable permanent records of the music and media I enjoy now or have in the past.