Today is the day! The story more than 22 years in the making is finally released! Arachne’s Crime has just gone on sale in trade paperback and e-book editions! Available from: eSpec Books Amazon (trade paperback) Amazon (e-book) The Amazon TPB and e-book entries will probably be combined soon. Other vendors’ links will be added on my home page at https://christopherlbennett.wordpress.com/ as they become available.
A month after Arachne's Crime came out, the sequel Arachne's Exile has gone on sale today! Also on sale is The Arachne Omnibus, a deluxe hardcover edition containing both novels and several bonus stories, including the prequel story "Comfort Zones" for the first time in print (after being a Kickstarter exclusive and then appearing on my Patreon). Here are the ordering links I have so far: Arachne’s Crime Available from: eSpec Books Amazon (trade paperback) Amazon (e-book) Barnes & Noble (TPB) Arachne’s Exile Available from: eSpec Books Amazon (e-book) Barnes & Noble (e-book) The Arachne Omnibus Available from: eSpec Books Amazon
There's a new charity anthology coming out next month from the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers called Turning the Tied. The anthology will benefit the World Literacy Organization, and will feature some fantastic tie-in writers writing stories about various existing characters, albeit ones in the public domain. Several Trek prose stylists are in this one, including: Rigel Ailur (Hua Mulan) Derek Tyler Attico (Sherlock Holmes) Greg Cox (Mina Harker from Dracula) Keith R.A. DeCandido (Ayesha from She) Kelli Fitzpatrick (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea) Robert Greenberger (Dr. Nikola) Jeff Mariotte (Hopalong Cassidy) Scott Pearson (the worlds of H.G. Wells) Aaron Rosenberg (Sinbad) Robert Vardeman (Space Patrol) Other contributors include David Boop (Alan Quatermain & Kit Carson), Jennifer Brozek (The Cats of Ulthar), Max Allan Collins & Matthew V. Clements (Sherlock Holmes), Steven Paul Leiva (Cyrano de Bergerac & Baron Munchausen), Jonathan Maberry (John Carter), Will McDermott (Tales of Asgard), Yvonne Navarro (Frida Kahlo), Weston Ochse (Octobriana), Jean Rabe (the Ghost of Christmas Past), Marsheila Rockwell (Ozma of Oz), Ben H. Rome (War of the Worlds), Stephen D. Sullivan (Dracula), and Tim Waggoner (Herne the Hunter). Ben Rome also put together this nifty book trailer. Please consider preordering it! It's got some great stories and it's for a good cause!
Anybody here read any of the Pangaea anthologies? I stumbled across them on Amazon a while ago, and the sound interesting, and feature a ton of Trek writers. The idea is that they take place in on an alternate version of Earth where Pangaea never broke up, so all of humanity has spent it's entire history coexisting on one supercontinent. Here are the Trek authors and the books their stories appear: Peter David (1,2,3) Kevin Dilmore (1,2,3) Michael Jan Friedman (1,2,3) Robert Greenberger (1,2,3) Glenn Hauman (1) Paul Kupperberg (1,2,3) Aaron Rosenberg (1,2,3) Lawrence M. Schoen (1,2,3) Geoffrey Thorne (1,2,3) Dayton Ward (1,3) Kirsten Beyer (2) Ilsa J. Bick (2, 3) KRAD (3)
Would you be so kind and post an Amazon link for one of these books? I tried searching for these anthologies but could not find them (I searched for 'Pangea anthology', 'Pangea Peter David' etc...
Here's one of them (I think) https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product...ut_uk-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738 And here are the others https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pangaea-Bo...eywords=pangaea&qid=1612728660&s=books&sr=1-2 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pangaea-Do...eywords=pangaea&qid=1612728660&s=books&sr=1-5
I backed and read all three. I enjoyed them! There were some very interesting elements of the world-building that I don't want to get into for spoilers (I'd really enjoy a behind-the-scenes look at precisely how that was all developed and what initial inflection-points were chosen that were extrapolated into the vast differences from our own world, as well as some clarification on ambiguities like the state of telecommunications/computers and space travel), including one element that I assumed was some sort of fanciful authorial invention but I learned in the past few days is actually a real thing in biology. Spoiler: The fanciful invention that wasn't Some of the stories talk about Neanderthals lacking the ability to imagine the future or past the way homo sapiens do, which I found out was a real thing after someone on Twitter joked about how you can see how a housecat is unburdened by worry or regret, but will also get its head stuck in a tissue box ten minutes after having previously gotten its head stuck in the same box, and linked to the wikipedia page on the phenomena. I had some issues with the ending of the main meta-narrative in the final book (a lot of sudden surprise revelations), and the round-robin aspect to telling a more epic story also left me confused sometimes over who was at war with who over what where, but each story is more-or-less self-contained, so it's not that important to any given narrative that I couldn't write a Vox article explaining the geopolitical reasons why this particular person was suddenly living in the middle of a crisis. But overall, I'd say they're a good read.
The fine folks at eSpec Books have started a new imprint called Neo Paradoxa. In cooperation with Cryptid Crate, they're doing a series called Systema Paradoxa. These are original novellas about cryptids, and the fourth book in the series is mine! It's called All-the-Way House, it's about the legendary Jersey Devil, and it's a story that spans three centuries. Here's the cover: And here's the back cover copy: The book officially goes on sale in June, but it's now available for preorder -- I put up a bunch of links on my blog.
I can finally announce the big new project I've been working on for most of the past year! https://christopherlbennett.wordpress.com/2021/07/13/announcing-tangent-knights-1-caprice-of-fate/ Tangent Knights 1: Caprice of Fate GraphicAudio introduces a spectacular original Super-heroic Action Series available in no other format! In the year 2046, on the artificial-island arcology of New Avalon, Corazón “Cory” Kagami is a bright but impulsive college student who follows her passions, resisting the will of her mother, Morgan Herrera, head of a tech conglomerate responsible for astonishing breakthroughs. Morgan controls Catchfire Industries, and is effectively the ruler of New Avalon through her near-monopoly of its technology and through the numerous government officials she keeps in her pocket. In a world where communication with parallel Tangent Earths has brought a disruptive influx of new beliefs and scientific innovation, Morgan promotes a strong defense against threats from within and beyond this world, developing advanced personal armor and weaponry for her cyborg peacekeeping team Fireforce. When Cory is accidentally empowered with the most advanced armor system yet, Morgan tries to renew her bond with her daughter and train her to be a hero, a decision she may come to regret. Cory Kagami, a fan of Japanese tokusatsu action entertainment, has her own ideas about what it means to be a hero. You can read more about it in my blog post linked above.
Trek novelist Michael Jan Friedman is putting together a shared-world superhero anthology called Phenomenons: Every Human Creature, which will be published by Crazy 8 Press. The anthology is currently being funded on Kickstarter, so you can find it there, and Mike has gathered a bunch of Trek scribes to help put this superhero world -- which is also an alternate history -- together: Ilsa J. Bick Peter David Keith R.A. DeCandido Robert Greenberger Glenn Hauman Paul Kupperberg Aaron Rosenberg Geoffrey Thorne Plus there are comics veteran Ron Marz, TV writer Dan Hernandez, and SF/fantasy scribes Michael A. Burstein, Russ Colchamiro, Mary Fan, Heather E. Hutsell, Hildy Silverman, and Marie Vibbert. My own story involves a woman from the Bronx who gives up her job as an assistant district attorney to fight crime more aggressively as Luminosity, who can control the entire light spectrum. There are tons of other heroes, who will all be working to defend the powerless from the powerful. Check it out on Kickstarter!
Having read Christopher's work for this so far (I helped him out with some of the martial arts stuff), I can say that this is a very nifty concept and is incredibly enjoyable.
For the lazy, here's the link to the Kickstarter KRAD posted: [link removed] (Money's tight so it's just the ebook for me, unfortunately... I very much hope this gets funded!) Mod Note: thanks for trying to be helpful, but direct advertisement links aren't allowed, sorry