#sciencefiction

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2025.12.12 — What's the longest book you've ever read?

Don't laugh! My nose was in that book a lot as a teenager and university student. Read the .

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]


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Thicker than three reams of paper, smellier than most libraries, with enough dust to kill a bear, weighing in at 11.5 lbs. my black hardbound Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia 4th Ed 1968 sits on an office chair with reading glasses atop it for a size comparison.

2025.12.12 — Are bodily functions omitted or discussed in your stories?

I don't write things intentionally squick or gratuitous, but on the other hand the stories in the reluctance series do not take place in any society that is remotely derivative of any currently extant human culture. Part of the raison d'être of the stories is to point out how strange humans are. Are bodily functions mentioned, referred to, discussed amongst, or commented upon (sometimes rudely) by characters? Yes. Each culture has its standards and has its manners, and there are always people unwilling to follow the rules except when they suit them. When such matters pop up, they're important to the characters and therefore important to the story. One major example is that most public places have a unisex restroom that is more on the Roman model than it is on the Allie McBeal model, and …

50% off @ : https://books2read.com/SkyChildren

With a strange virus giving colonists magic powers, they call for government aid, but warships packed to the gills with nuclear ordnance arrive! They run for the hills, totally terrified for their lives as their city is struck down as if by the wrath of an angry God!

@bookstodon

(Left) The cover of Sky Children, by Owen Tyme. The background is a nuclear explosion and its mushroom cloud, in some distant hills. There's a dirt road along some rocky hills leading away from it. The foreground is dominated by the dark silhouettes of another hill, some tall grass and a family of five holding hands, going left to right: girl, mother, girl, boy and father. The mother and father look down at the children, while they look up at their mother. The tallest of the children appears to be a boy in shorts, while the other two are girls of the same height, indicating they may be twins. The girls have pony tails and wear dresses. The mother wears a skirt and the father wears pants. The family holds hands. The silhouettes are highlighted by the orange light of the explosion. (Right) An explosion is fiery and bright. Someone hold up their left hand to block the light, but the light is so intense, their flesh only tinges the light a pinkish-red shade and their bones are visible, outlined with dark red lines. The following text is laid over that: He shielded his eyes with his hands, but even with his eyes closed, he could see the shadows of his finger bones, as highlighted by the monstrous, nuclear light! Temporarily blinded, tears fell from his eyes. *What more could I have done? Could we have saved more people somehow? How could I have known the consequences of setting up the navigation beacon? Why is this happening?* (Bottom) https://books2read.com/SkyChildren

Wow! The stuff of sci-fi but real! 🪐🌌🛰️
"Voyager 1 will reach one light-day from Earth in 2026"

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/voyager-1-will-reach-one-light-day-from-earth-in-2026-here-s-what-that-means/ar-AA1S1N0y

📚 Zoey Punches the Future in the Dick by: Jason Pargin, David Wong

Zoey Ashe is like a fish so far out of water that it has achieved orbit. After inheriting a criminal empire, the twenty-three year-old finds herself under threat from all sides as a rogue's gallery of larger-than-life enemies think they smell w...

https://bookblabla.com/book/zoey-punches-the-future-in-the-dick

@bookstodon

Zoey Ashe is like a fish so far out of water that it has achieved orbit. After inheriting a criminal empire, the twenty-three year-old finds herself under threat from all sides as a rogue's gallery of larger-than-life enemies think they smell weakness. On the eve of the world's most lavish and ridiculous Halloween celebration, a steamer trunk-sized box arrives at Zoey's door and she is shocked to find that it contains a disemboweled corpse. She is even more shocked when that corpse, controlled by an unknown party, rises and goes on a rampage through the house. Speaking in an electronic voice, it publicly accuses Zoey of being its murderer. This is the kind of thing that almost never happened at her old job. The city was already a ticking time bomb of publicity-hungry vigilantes with superhuman enhancements and Zoey knows this turn of events is unlikely to improve the situation. Now, she and her team of high-tech tricksters have to solve this bizarre murder while simultaneously keeping Tabula Ra$a from descending into chaos. Biting humor and blatant digs at modern society overlay a subtly brilliant and thoughtful plot” (Publishers Weekly) in John Dies at the End author Jason Pargin’s first installment of the Zoey Ashe Series, Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits. Now, one of today’s great satirists (Nerdist) is back with Zoey Punches the Future in the Dick, the second installment in a Technicolor tomorrowland. (Kirkus Reviews) THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER New Yo

I've finished: Bang Bang Bodhisattva by Aubrey Wood

Kiera is such a wonderful character, capable but totally in over her head. Thrust in to the middle of the action against her better judgment, she is a true reluctant heroine.

Bang Bang Bodhisattva manages to explore the trans experience, body modification, polyamory vs monogamy, police, crime and inequality via a fun sci-fi thriller that is both deadly serious and self deprecating.

https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/7300b0fa-3f05-4e74-8eec-3c219fdd6f19

@bookstodon @audiobooks

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Amelia and The Book of Newts are in conflict. She wants to explore her feelings. It wants to explore space, taking back the gift for mathematics it gave her. She’s unable to plot a course home, but desperate to see the man she loves, lest she lose him forever…

@bookstodon

(Left) The cover of The Next Horizon, by Owen Tyme. The black silhouette of a man and woman hugging and kissing. The woman has lifted one leg, while the man leans toward her. They stand atop the dark side of a planet or moon in space, which has a slim crescent along the right side. The background in the stars of space, but some have been highlighted with a heat shape that surrounds the kissing couple. Everything is in shades of blue. (Right) Deep space, displaying the edge of an orange and blue gaseous cloud from a nebula, while most of the stars appear golden in color. Floating in space is a square, red leather book with the image of a newt stamped on the cover. Over the top of everything is the following text: “You can back down and cooperate, right now, or Marta will hit you so hard, you should reach a tenth the speed of light…” “No one will ever find you again, but even if someone does, there’s no way they’ll have the capacity to safely slow you down, before you’re gone to them!” (Bottom) https://books2read.com/TheNextHorizon

25.12.07 — Week 28 (December 7-13) Craft: With erotic works, do you begin with the end in sight, or discover the finished work as you go? What tools or processes to you use to help you plan ahead, or to guide you as you create?

The only good way for me to learn the chemistry between characters is to let them interact. It doesn't matter if the content is spicy or not. I rarely know all the characters in the beginning, with relatives, friends, coworkers, lovers, and antagonists appearing as the need for them is implied by the story. I start knowing the protagonist, what they like, what they want, where they live, and what mess they've stepped into.

In the current WIP, when the protagonist at the end of the first scene deliriously kisses a man she has just met (she's actually delirious), it's …

2025.12.10 — Is it ethical to base characters on real people? What is the limit?

Satire has a long tradition in fiction, but the ethics of portraying someone even fictionally is often determined by the libel laws where the fiction is publish, which differ radically between, for example, the US and the UK. To a large extent, you can satire or make light of politicians and celebrities in the US; other places like Thailand will imprison you. In practice, I could satire an orange-complexioned man, but the nuisance suit, or the attention of malicious fans that would garner, would destroy me. That doesn't mean that I haven't written satire. I completed a very pointed dystopian novel this year.

All this said, I think it is ethical the base characters on real people, but not to write about real people as if they are …

2025.12.10 — Who is your most chaotic character?

Chaos implies more than unpredictability and less than randomness. My characters, even the less cerebral ones, tend to think things through and plan, or react predictably. That doesn't take into account what people think of them, however. Whilst I don't think the main series antagonist is above sowing chaos if it were the best means available to accomplish what's needful, what few people are able to do is predict her actions. She's an absolute ruler in some of the stories she appears in, but in practice maintaining social order and an economy is very constraining. There is one thread though where she meets the MCs of Reluctant Moon, Streak and Thorn Rose, who are essentially a couple of high school seniors, and a couple, applying to her university. Rainy Day's interaction with Streak, and his support for her, …

The sign to my office (*cough* our living room) has been upgraded yet again!

Tony has contravened the NO SPACE FACTS BEFORE GEORGE'S FIRST CUP OF TEA OR WHILE GEORGE IS SWEARING AT HER MANUSCRIPT and ventured forth this morning to deliver not one but MANY space facts.

It was a cavalcade of space facts. I am now smeared over the event horizon of a space fact black hole, which sounds far dodgier than it probably would be.

Yes, the man is back to writing another science fiction novel so it's technically *brainstorming* but I shall persevere! The first cup of tea has yet to be drunk. The rules must stand!

*Insert threatening sounds of thunder rolling, maybe sound of the odd lightning strike hitting someone armed with a space fact for any occasion for added emphasis. followed by maniacal gleeful cackling.*

You're looking at a small folding blackboard that says "So I'm not saying that Smaug and I are besties but if you pass this point I might call him so he comes and flames you, just sayin'" The writing on this blackboard is ominous. It's multicoloured and in all capitals. You know that if you venture past this blackboard armed with a space fact, stepping into a brightly lit room full of house plants, comfy furniture and a rather nice sunbeam you will be vaporized. By a dragon or by a five foot three author, we're not sure. But it will happen.

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The undead witch that rules the space pirates, known as the Dead Queen, has finally been defeated. That only makes it worse for the witches that pulled it off. She’s livid and coming for them, at least once she gets her star ship back under control…

@bookstodon

(Left) The cover of Legacy of Newts, by Owen Tyme. In the background dawn, as seen from space, above a blue world. In the foreground is a line drawing of a red spotted newt, in white. The lines of the newt are outlined in black, to help it stand out. The interior of the line drawing has been filled with the image of a spiral galaxy in red, orange and yellow, with a blue color that shades to white at the center, which lines up with the newt's head. The galaxy almost looks like fire. (Right) The background is a blue and orange nebula, with the following text over it: “You gotta be real strong, real bright, real quick, or real lucky to survive drawing *attention*. Which are you?” “I’m quick, Amelia is bright, Marta is strong and all three of us have been lucky, after a fashion: if we didn’t have bad luck, then I suppose we wouldn’t have any luck at all.” (Bottom) https://books2read.com/LegacyOfNewts

Eight species. One ship. Zero reason to trust each other.
Philosophers and predators. Merchants and mechanics. An AI older than human civilization.
They're about to become the most unlikely alliance in the galaxy.
EARTH UNBOUND: LEGACY RISING — 2026