As the title says. The ebook/Kindle edition of Stormblood is on sale for 0.99 cents. That’s less than one cent a page!
Highway robbery, I say!
STORMBLOOD US launch!
After nearly 2 years (thanks COVID), STORMBLOOD will *finally* be releasing locally in the US and Canada in print format! In actual bookstores!
Even better, Mysterious Galaxy in CA will have signed copies available in a few weeks time. So, if a gnarly military SF/space opera adventure about two estranged brothers on opposing sides of a drug war looks up your alley, and if having my chicken scrawl signature defacing your book happens to be your thing, you can pre-order a copy here.
Other stores that have signed copies include:
Barnes and Nobles, Lafayette IN
Considering this is basically a soft relaunch for the book, pre-orders are hugely hugely helpful. I can’t understate how essential they are for newer authors, especially with indie SFF bookstores.
New Fiction and reprints and stuff
If you’re one of those poor sods who follows my social media you’ll know that almost for the past two months I’ve overseas in Europe. It was a good trip, visited almost a dozen countries and got to see a lot of old friends. But that also means there’s little time to write, let alone blog. And while I’ve been away I’ve had a number of goodies released online or purchased. I’ll link ’em up here.
First is my latest piece from Nature, Walls of Nigeria. A story set in a future West Africa, with alien biotech and armored suits a la Halo/Crysis.I’ve been wanting to write this sort of story for a long, long time now but never had the guts. But I decided to hell with it and wrote it. The word-choice and worldbuilding is so strong in this story that it needed a lot of editing to truly knock it into the shape it needed to be in. But so far it’s been getting incredible feedback from everyone’s who read it (including some bloke on twitter who said it was Nature’s best piece. Which is…wow) and I’m very, very happy with it and the ending. Do check it out.
The second the audio release of my nihilistic faux-Lovecraft/secondary world fantasy “Last Age of Kings” over at Far Fetched Fables. I don’t usually listen or like audio adaptations of my work, but Mark Kilfoil absolutely kills the narration and I listened to the whole thing twice. Even though I wrote it nearly two years ago it still seems fresh – all thanks to Mark, of course.
The third is a mouthful: my short story, “The Galaxy’s Cube” has been killing it as far as reprints ago. It’s picked up an audio adaptation over at The Overcast by the lovely lovely J. S. Arquin who does a great job of wrapping his tongue around the tricky Thai names and phrases – very happy here. Check it out here.
It’s also been picked up to be in the hardcover anthology Dystopia Utopia by Flame Tree Press. This one is special because not only did I get pro rates for a reprint, the books are widely available in quite a few bookstores. Flame Tree have gotten their name around and I’ve seen their anthologies in bookstore chains and even in those tiny portable bookstores you see in Westfields. And this down here in Australia. A country that never gets anything. I’m told they’re in UK stores, too, although uncertain in the American front. I’ve already spoken to my local bookstores who’ve carried previous Flame Tree anthos and they’ve agreed to order it in and actually asked me to pop in and scribble a signature in ’em. This is a sale that could rival the one I made to China (for the same story, no less).
Anyway, you can pick up a copy on Book depository, which ships internationally for free. Come on, you know you want a copy.
It’s it for now. I’m still editing my novel, and there are some other sales I can’t yet discuss (both originals and reprints) but all in good time. Otherwise, onwards and upwards.
Daega’s Test in POLISH
I just got the email, it seems that my translation of “Daega’s Test” (which originally appeared here in Nature early last year) is up! With my recent Arabic translation, each of my Nature stories have had translations into languages that I have a background in!
I’ll ask my dad later on, but from my limited Polish so far the translation is very naunced. For example, the original story says “ngaw” as a fruit, but they’ve put rambutan, which is another name for it. They’ve also added “tuk-tuk” instead of auto rickshaw, which is actually what the cars are called in Malaysia, Thailand, etc. Whoever did it really knew their stuff.
There’s also a guy in the comments remarking (I think?) that this story would fit in a long time after the events of Blade Runner, and that it’s familiar, but also “fresh”.
So this makes me very very happy indeed. You can find the story here – if you can read it, that is!.
Bruce Sterling and Christopher Priest on StarShipSofa!
So it’s been a busy two weeks on StarShipSofa. Last week we played a story by one of the godfathers of cyberpunk, Bruce Sterling. He’s known in and outside of the genre slash sci-fi circles, and it was an absolute pleasure to have him.
Narrating his story is film actor Paul Cram. Paul mostly does indie films, but he’s had speaking roles with actors such as Cilian Murphy (The Dark Knight, 28 Days Later) Woody Harrelson (True Detective) Judy Greer (Jurassic Park) and others. We’re VERY proud to have him join StarShipSofa and narrate this story. Make sure you check out his IMDB profile here. And make sure you look out for some of his films, too.
You can find Bruce Sterling’s episode here.
And we’ve also had the mighty privilege of playing a story by Christopher Priest. He wasn’t that popular in the US. At least not until one of his novels was turned into a the film The Prestige by director Christopher Nolan of The Dark Knight, Inception and Interstellar variety. You’ve almost certainly seen it:
David Bowie acted in this film as well, so we’re very proud to be associated with the project. Priest himself is a masterclass, as the story demonstrates. His best work is The Inverted World, which you have to read. I won’t say much more than that.
I’ve been very proud to have worked on these two episodes and the fine gentlemen who exhibit actual skill in narrating, acting and writing. Make sure to grab the Christopher Priest episode here if you can.
…and that’s all for now.
JEREMY SZAL 