Episodes

  • A tale of two masters

    A tale of two masters
    Jul 20 2024
    My novelette, An Illicit Mercy, is part of a new promotion in July, Free eBooks Featuring Strong Independent Young Girls and Women.Over 125 science fiction, fantasy, young adult, and general fiction books, available at no cost.Get your FREE copy of Zoe Calloway and The Temporal TidesZoe Calloway is about to unravel the secrets of time travel and her father's mysterious disappearance.In the year 2075, New York City becomes the battleground for humanity's future as a team of scientists, led by the brilliant geneticist Dr. Zoe Calloway, embarks on a covert mission to investigate an unauthorized time jump. Little do they know, they face a far greater challenge than anticipated. Following the revolutionary research of Zoe's late father into time travel and genetic engineering, the team discovers a path that could alter the destiny of the human race and secure its survival. However, lurking in the shadows is Chrono Kinetics, a ruthless organization determined to ensure their catastrophic failure.As the TGRI team delves deeper into the mystery, they uncover the existence of "Project Perseus," a clandestine operation with far-reaching consequences. They encounter genetically engineered children with extraordinary abilities, including the power to manipulate time itself. The team must race against time to prevent a catastrophic future, all while unraveling the secrets of Zoe's father and the true nature of their enemy.Will Zoe and her team be able to stop them before it's too late? Will they uncover the secrets of time travel and prevent a dystopian future from becoming a reality?Find out in this thrilling sci-fi adventure that blends time travel, genetic engineering, and a battle against a powerful enemy. The Time Navigator series will keep you turning the pages as the team fights to protect the timeline and ensure a better future for humanity.On June 8, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) held the 59th Annual Nebula Awards Ceremony.The Association presented the SFWA Damon Knight Memorial Grandmaster Award to Susan Mary Cooper, and the Infinity Award to Tanith Lee.Starting in 1975, and eventually named for Damon Knight, the founder of SFWA, the Grandmaster Award honors “a living author for a lifetime's achievement in SF and/or fantasy.”Last year, SFWA began giving out the Infinity Award “to posthumously honor acclaimed creators who passed away before they could be considered for a Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award.”British author Susan Mary Cooper published her first science fiction novel, Mandrake in 1964, and Over Sea, Under Stone, the first novel in her multi-award winning fantasy series, The Dark is Rising, in 1965. You can find an interview with her online.Tanith Lee, also British, began her career as a novelist with The Dragon Hoard in 1971, followed by the science fantasy The Birthgrave in 1975. For the Infinity Award, SFWA makes “a donation to a cause that an Infinity Award honoree supported or that their loved ones request.” Lee’s family has asked “the donation be split between two charitable causes, Pasadena Humane and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. “You can watch this year’s Nebula Awards ceremony on YouTube.My latest novelette, “Long Night On the Endless City,” appears in Boundary Shock Quarterly 26: Tomorrow’s Crimes:On the vast ring habitat Ouroboros, Jel and her synthetic companion Marcus search for Arja, the third member of their triad. This quest leads them to a cryptic technology cult with questionable motives. When they suffer a vicious attack, Marcus and Jel join forces with one of Ouroboros’most renowned computer and robotics experts to get to the bottom of the mystery.This thought-provoking sf tale explores artificial intelligence, religion, and the ties that bind families together in a fast-paced story full of action, intrigue, and heart.Club Codex is reading and discussing Venomous Lumpsucker through the end of July.Follow along with my thoughts on this novel and contribute your own in the following thread:Click here for more details about Club Codex in 2024. Please join us!Questions or comments? Please share your thoughts! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thecosmiccodex.com
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    2 mins
  • Club Codex (July 2024): "Venemous Lumpsucker" by Ned Beauman

    Club Codex (July 2024): "Venemous Lumpsucker" by Ned Beauman
    Jul 16 2024
    My novelette, An Illicit Mercy, is part of a new promotion in July, Free eBooks Featuring Strong Independent Young Girls and Women.Over 125 science fiction, fantasy, young adult, and general fiction books, available at no cost.Get your FREE copy of Wait for MeThis is an intense crossover short, where two of Dawn Chapman’s favorite characters meet the main character from Tailspin. Enjoy! Sometimes, the hardest thing you'll ever do is tell someone you love them.Amid intense helicopter missions, a teenager arrives at Rise Hospital, requiring life-saving yet experimental tech. Nico and Lacy are called in for their expertise, with no clue who this stranger is or how meeting him will change their lives forever. Lacy's skills as a magic healer will be pushed to the limit.For the first time in a long time, Niko and Lacy spend meaningful time together when it matters most to their relationship. Niko realizes that if he never says those words, he might lose Lacy for good.Club Codex is discussing Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman in July. Due to my work demands, we’re starting this book later than expected. In 2023, Venomous Lumpsucker won Beauman the Arthur C. Clarke Award “for the best science fiction novel first published in the United Kingdom during the previous year.”Thanks for reading The Cosmic Codex! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.From the Penguin Random House website:“The near future. Tens of thousands of species are going extinct every year. And a whole industry has sprung up around their extinctions, to help us preserve the remnants, or perhaps just assuage our guilt. For instance, the biobanks: secure archives of DNA samples, from which lost organisms might someday be resurrected . . . But then, one day, it’s all gone. A mysterious cyber-attack hits every biobank simultaneously, wiping out the last traces of the perished species. Now we’re never getting them back.Karin Resaint and Mark Halyard are concerned with one species in particular: the venomous lumpsucker, a small, ugly bottom-feeder that happens to be the most intelligent fish on the planet. Resaint is an animal cognition scientist consumed with existential grief over what humans have done to nature. Halyard is an exec from the extinction industry, complicit in the mining operation that destroyed the lumpsucker’s last-known habitat.Across the dystopian landscapes of the 2030s—a nature reserve full of toxic waste; a floating city on the ocean; the hinterlands of a totalitarian state—Resaint and Halyard hunt for a surviving lumpsucker. And the further they go, the deeper they’re drawn into the mystery of the attack on the biobanks. Who was really behind it? And why would anyone do such a thing?”Thank you for reading The Cosmic Codex. This post is public so feel free to share it.We’ll be reading Venomous Lumpsucker through the end of July.I plan to post my thoughts to Club Codex as I read. Join me! All you need is a free subscription to The Cosmic Codex.I look forward to sharing ideas with each of you.The next Club Codex selection will be The Hieros Gamos of Sam and An Smith by Josephine Saxton.Questions or comments? Please share your thoughts!My latest novelette, “Long Night On the Endless City,” appears in Boundary Shock Quarterly 26: Tomorrow’s Crimes:On the vast ring habitat Ouroboros, Jel and her synthetic companion Marcus search for Arja, the third member of their triad. This quest leads them to a cryptic technology cult with questionable motives. When they suffer a vicious attack, Marcus and Jel join forces with one of Ouroboros’most renowned computer and robotics experts to get to the bottom of the mystery.This thought-provoking sf tale explores artificial intelligence, religion, and the ties that bind families together in a fast-paced story full of action, intrigue, and heart. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thecosmiccodex.com
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    3 mins
  • "The Eyes Have It" by Philip K. Dick

    "The Eyes Have It" by Philip K. Dick
    Jul 13 2024
    My novelette, An Illicit Mercy, is part of a new promotion in July, Free eBooks Featuring Strong Independent Young Girls and Women.Over 125 science fiction, fantasy, young adult, and general fiction books, available at no cost.Get your FREE copy of What If...: Science Fiction and Paranormal Short Stories, Volume 2!Come for the fiction, stay for the science in this second collection of science fiction and paranormal short stories with a twist of reality.Tim Trott’s short stories often blend real science or theories with imaginative elements. Some draw inspiration from his work experience or focused studies on specific topics. His unique take on science fiction and the paranormal sets him apart.Whether you’re seeking thought-provoking science fiction, captivating paranormal tales, non-fiction, or a blend of both, Tim Trott’s writing offers a delightful journey for readers.“He turned on his left side.”The discourse of mundane fiction more or less constrains us to read such a string of words as referring to some kind of masculine, insomniac tossings. SF discourse retains the greater margin to read such words as meaning that a male threw a switch activating the circuitry of his sinistral flank.—Samuel R. Delany, Starboard WineI’ve written previously about Philip K. Dick’s brilliant derangement. While devastating to his personal life, this mental instability allowed Dick to see elements of our society and world most of us miss. Or perhaps we perceive but ignore them, because they make us uncomfortable.Like the very “phildickian” movie The Matrix, Dick was concerned with how the way in which we (or others) construct our reality can blind us to what is really happening.One of our most powerful tools for constructing reality is language. Setting aside the specific case of mathematics in scientific disciplines, to understand a concept, most of us have to put it into words.But words can both reveal and conceal. Talking about a subject in a certain way may blind us to seeing it from a different point of view. A shift in perspective can cause us to realize something we’ve been missing, although it may have been right in front of us the whole time. Such insight can spark amazement, or horror.Such is the case in Dick’s 1953 short story “The Eyes Have It,” now in the public domain due to non-renewal of copyright.From one vantage point, this is the mundane tale of a man suffering anxiety and paranoia. The science fiction story is merely one he tells himself.From another perspective, he faces a revelation which could mean peril for the entire human species."Of course," we think, when we reach the last line, "Dick is only having fun. He's not serious."But as Delany reminds us, in sf, the literal reading is often the most likely.“The Eyes Have It”by Philip K. DickIt was quite by accident I discovered this incredible invasion of Earth by lifeforms from another planet. As yet, I haven’t done anything about it; I can’t think of anything to do. I wrote to the Government, and they sent back a pamphlet on the repair and maintenance of frame houses. Anyhow, the whole thing is known; I’m not the first to discover it. Maybe it’s even under control.I was sitting in my easy-chair, idly turning the pages of a paperbacked book someone had left on the bus, when I came across the reference that first put me on the trail. For a moment I didn’t respond. It took some time for the full import to sink in. After I’d comprehended, it seemed odd I hadn’t noticed it right away.The reference was clearly to a nonhuman species of incredible properties, not indigenous to Earth. A species, I hasten to point out, customarily masquerading as ordinary human beings. Their disguise, however, became transparent in the face of the following observations by the author. It was at once obvious the author knew everything. Knew everything — and was taking it in his stride. The line (and I tremble remembering it even now) read: … his eyes slowly roved about the room.Vague chills assailed me. I tried to picture the eyes. Did they roll like dimes? The passage indicated not; they seemed to move through the air, not over the surface. Rather rapidly, apparently. No one in the story was surprised. That’s what tipped me off. No sign of amazement at such an outrageous thing. Later the matter was amplified. … his eyes moved from person to person.There it was in a nutshell. The eyes had clearly come apart from the rest of him and were on their own. My heart pounded and my breath choked in my windpipe. I had stumbled on an accidental mention of a totally unfamiliar race. Obviously non-Terrestrial. Yet, to the characters in the book, it was perfectly natural — which suggested they belonged to the same species.And the author? A slow suspicion burned in my mind. The author was taking it rather too easily in his stride. Evidently, he felt this was quite a usual thing. He made absolutely no attempt to conceal this...
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    10 mins
  • Club Codex (July 2024): "Ruby Finley vs. the Interstellar Invasion" by K. Tempest Bradford

    Club Codex (July 2024): "Ruby Finley vs. the Interstellar Invasion" by K. Tempest Bradford
    Jul 9 2024

    My novelette, An Illicit Mercy, is part of a new promotion in June and July, Get the page turners before they’re gone!

    Nearly 60 books available for free.

    Get Tim Trott’s new collection, What If, Volume 2: Science Fiction and Paranormal Short Stories, in print or digital!

    Have you ever felt as though you were dreaming someone else’s dream? What if you could experience a dream of your choosing? In your dreams, you could be someone else, experience a different world from your own, and see the world through different eyes. What if you could buy dreams?

    Club Codex is discussing Ruby Finley vs. the Interstellar Invasion by K. Tempest Bradford in July. Due to my work demands, we’re starting this novel later than expected. Bradford received the Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction for this novel last year.

    Thanks for reading The Cosmic Codex! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

    From the Macmillan website:

    “Eleven-year-old Ruby is a Black girl who loves studying insects and would do just about anything to be an entomologist, much to the grossed-out dismay of her Gramma. Ruby knows everything there is to know about insects so when she finds the weirdest bug she’s ever seen in her front yard, she makes sure no one is looking and captures it for further study.

    But then Ruby realizes that the creature isn't just a regular bug. And it has promptly burned a hole through her window and disappeared. Soon, random things around the neighborhood go missing, and no one's heard from the old lady down the street for a week. Ruby and her friends will have to recover the strange bug before the feds do.”

    Thank you for reading The Cosmic Codex. This post is public so feel free to share it.

    This book is very short, so we will spend one week on it before moving to the next novel on the list.

    I plan to post my thoughts to Club Codex as I read. Join me! All you need is a free subscription to The Cosmic Codex.

    I look forward to sharing ideas with each of you.

    The next Club Codex selection will be Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman.Questions or comments? Please share your thoughts!

    My latest novelette, “Long Night On the Endless City,” appears in Boundary Shock Quarterly 26: Tomorrow’s Crimes:

    On the vast ring habitat Ouroboros, Jel and her synthetic companion Marcus search for Arja, the third member of their triad. This quest leads them to a cryptic technology cult with questionable motives. When they suffer a vicious attack, Marcus and Jel join forces with one of Ouroboros’most renowned computer and robotics experts to get to the bottom of the mystery.

    This thought-provoking sf tale explores artificial intelligence, religion, and the ties that bind families together in a fast-paced story full of action, intrigue, and heart.



    This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thecosmiccodex.com
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    2 mins
  • A funny thing happened on the way to the past

    A funny thing happened on the way to the past
    Jun 27 2024
    My novelette, An Illicit Mercy, is part of a new promotion in June and July, Get the page turners before they’re gone!Nearly 60 books available for free.Get your FREE copy of Wait for MeThis is an intense crossover short, where two of Dawn Chapman’s favorite characters meet the main character from Tailspin. Enjoy! Sometimes, the hardest thing you'll ever do is tell someone you love them.Amid intense helicopter missions, a teenager arrives at Rise Hospital, requiring life-saving yet experimental tech. Nico and Lacy are called in for their expertise, with no clue who this stranger is or how meeting him will change their lives forever. Lacy's skills as a magic healer will be pushed to the limit.For the first time in a long time, Niko and Lacy spend meaningful time together when it matters most to their relationship. Niko realizes that if he never says those words, he might lose Lacy for good.In 1995, Australian genre small-press Chimaera Publications founded the Aurealis Awards to honor “the achievements of Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror writers.”Thanks for reading The Cosmic Codex! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This year, sff author Tansy Rayner Roberts has won the Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Novel with her time travel comedy Time of the Cat. Roberts holds a doctorate in Classics and reads her work on the podcast Sheep Might Fly. She lives in Tasmania.Thank you for reading The Cosmic Codex. This post is public so feel free to share it.Here’s the description of Time of the Cat from the book’s Kickstarter page:It’s time to take history seriously.The cats and humans of Chronos College know that time travel is the best job in the world, and nothing bad can ever happen to them in the past… except that one time they lost a traveller. And that other time they lost a cat.Now they have a chance to make up for past mistakes by rescuing a long lost legend. If only they could convince Professor Boswell, the grumpiest marmalade tabby of all time, to join their mission to the Swinging Sixties, and save one of their own. (Plus pick up a missing episode or two of their favourite TV show along the way.)Join Ruthven, Boswell, Monterey and Lovelace on the most chaotic time travel adventure of their lives. Featuring special appearances by Cleopatra, Anne Boleyn, famous actress Fleur Shropshire, and the even more famous house where they filmed Cramberleigh between 1964-1986.Way to go, Tansy!Have you read Time of the Cat, or do you plan to? Please share your thoughts!My latest novelette, “Long Night On the Endless City,” appears in Boundary Shock Quarterly 26: Tomorrow’s Crimes:On the vast ring habitat Ouroboros, Jel and her synthetic companion Marcus search for Arja, the third member of their triad. This quest leads them to a cryptic technology cult with questionable motives. When they suffer a vicious attack, Marcus and Jel join forces with one of Ouroboros’most renowned computer and robotics experts to get to the bottom of the mystery.This thought-provoking sf tale explores artificial intelligence, religion, and the ties that bind families together in a fast-paced story full of action, intrigue, and heart.Club Codex is finishing our discussion of the Prometheus Award-winning novel “Cloud-Castles” by Dave Freer in June.Follow along with my thoughts on this novel and contribute your own in the following thread:Click here for more details about Club Codex in 2024. Please join us! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thecosmiccodex.com
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    2 mins
  • Hell on wheels

    Hell on wheels
    Jun 21 2024
    My novelette, An Illicit Mercy, is part of a new promotion in June and July, Get the page turners before they’re gone!Nearly 60 books available for free.My latest novelette, “Long Night On the Endless City,” appears in Boundary Shock Quarterly 26: Tomorrow’s Crimes:On the vast ring habitat Ouroboros, Jel and her synthetic companion Marcus search for Arja, the third member of their triad. This quest leads them to a cryptic technology cult with questionable motives. When they suffer a vicious attack, Marcus and Jel join forces with one of Ouroboros’most renowned computer and robotics experts to get to the bottom of the mystery.This thought-provoking sf tale explores artificial intelligence, religion, and the ties that bind families together in a fast-paced story full of action, intrigue, and heart.Get your FREE preview of Fallen!This is a sneak-peek of the first book of a two-part series. The sequel, Risen, is coming soon.Brendan Murphy nearly died fighting for his country.Now he’s trying to stop a war.Five years ago, alien ship appeared in low orbit all around the world and stayed there, waiting. A highly advanced alien race known as the Sabia lingered with little contact with humanity, and the worlds’ governments have been eager for answers – and access- for years.When combat veteran Brendan Murphy is wounded stopping an attack on a Sabia diplomat, he finds himself whisked aboard one of their ships and given medical aid. This rare opportunity finds him walking a tenuous line between burgeoning friendships and secret agenda that will test his loyalties and sanity in ways he can’t begin to imagine.Club Codex is finishing our discussion of the Prometheus Award-winning novel “Cloud-Castles” by Dave Freer in June.Follow along with my thoughts on this novel and contribute your own in the following thread:Click here for more details about Club Codex in 2024. Please join us!The recent premier of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, the latest movie in the Mad Max franchise, provides a good opportunity to correct the record regarding the origin of a couple of popular cinematic characters.A number of science fiction movie franchises have their origins in sf literature. Often, this debt is acknowledged, but sometimes credit doesn’t go the the author who deserves it.Thanks for reading The Cosmic Codex! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.The latter appears to be the case for the popular characters Max Rockatansky from the 1979 movie Mad Max, and Snake Plisskin from the 1981 movie Escape from New York. While it may be easy to distinguish between these two charismatic, post-apocalyptic anti-heroes because of their unique settings, they appear to share a common ancestor in Hell Tanner, the protagonist of Roger Zelazny’s 1967 Hugo-nominated novella ”Damnation Alley”.While I can’t prove George Miller, director of Mad Max, and John Carpenter, director of Escape from New York, read “Damnation Alley”, it seems likely.Consider, for example, one of the first scenes in Zelazny’s novella:He saw the roadblock and turned. They were not sure how he had managed it that quickly, at that speed. But now he was heading away from them. He heard the gunshots and kept going. Then he heard the sirens.He blew his horn twice in reply and leaned far forward. The Harley leaped ahead, and he wondered whether they were radioing to someone farther on up the line.He ran for ten minutes and couldn’t shake them. Then fifteen.He topped another hill, and far ahead he saw the second block. He was bottled in.He looked all around him for side roads, saw none. Then he bore a straight course toward the second block. Might as well try to run it.Reading this is like watching a Mad Max movie in my head. A harried protagonist deals with armed attackers while navigating a high speed vehicle down a perilous road. And make no mistake, Hell Tanner’s driving skills are a match for any character Miller ever created for the Mad Max series.Thank you for reading The Cosmic Codex. This post is public so feel free to share it.It turns out Tanner is running from a deal he made in exchange for a full pardon from the national (you read that right) government of California. He’s been serving time for the extensive rap sheet he’s run up in his 25-30 years of life. But now he’s having buyer’s remorse. To earn his pardon, he has to deliver the vaccine for bubonic plague to an infected Boston before all its residents die. The problem is he can only accomplish this in time by running Damnation Alley, the coast-to-coast route across a post-apocalyptic (like Rockatansky’s Australia or Plisskin’s New York) America. The only person to do this successfully was the messenger who delivered the news of the epidemic to California. And he immediately died of the injuries he sustained en route.A prisoner of the national government is coerced into service facing a hellscape for the greater good. If this plot sounds familiar,...
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    9 mins
  • Space adventure about contemporary problems

    Space adventure about contemporary problems
    Jun 14 2024
    My novelette, An Illicit Mercy, is part of a new promotion in May and June, Science Fiction & Fantasy Reads.Check out over 80 books available for free.My latest novelette, “Long Night On the Endless City,” appears in Boundary Shock Quarterly 26: Tomorrow’s Crimes:On the vast ring habitat Ouroboros, Jel and her synthetic companion Marcus search for Arja, the third member of their triad. This quest leads them to a cryptic technology cult with questionable motives. When they suffer a vicious attack, Marcus and Jel join forces with one of Ouroboros’most renowned computer and robotics experts to get to the bottom of the mystery.This thought-provoking sf tale explores artificial intelligence, religion, and the ties that bind families together in a fast-paced story full of action, intrigue, and heart.Get your FREE copy of Elemental by Liane MahughRaya's ability to control the elements is more than a way of life - it could be her death sentence. Sent on a solo mission to Earth, she runs into trouble when her ship crashes near a small town. Will her supernatural powers be enough to keep her safe on this unfamiliar world?For Raya to make it home, she must learn to trust the teens who befriend her while keeping the truth about her mission a secret from them. It doesn't take long for her new friends to wonder: was she sent to help, or destroy us?Read Elemental now to find out if Raya will triumph or be taken down as a threat to mankind.Elemental is the first in the series. Be sure to follow-up with Book 2 - Down Comes the Dark.The science fiction young adult novel (or “juvenile,” as it used to be called) has been with us since Robert A. Heinlein published Rocket Ship Galileo in 1947. While they may not have been labeled as such, many of Andre Norton’s science fiction novels also read like juveniles. Her protagonist is usually a young adult, almost always an orphan, who has to find his (most are young men) way in the galaxy. In my hometown library, this ambiguity caused Norton’s duology The Zero Stone (1968) and Uncharted Stars (1969) to be cataloged with the children’s books. Meanwhile, I could find the very similar Sargasso of Space (1955), Plague Ship (1956), and Voodoo Planet (1959) in the adult section.While the library may have been confused, sf readers weren’t. In 2005, the year Norton died, the Young Adult Fiction Committee for the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association created the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy, since renamed the Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction.Charlie Jane Anders received the 2023 Andre Norton Nebula Award for Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak, the middle book of her Unstoppable space adventure trilogy.Anders tells the story of several teenagers from Earth who’ve been transported to the multi-species galactic civilization known as the Firmament, which is protected by the Royal Fleet. The protagonist is Tina Mains—an adolescent who is also an immature clone of Captain Thaoh Argentian, hero of the Royal Fleet. A procedure to restore Argentian’s memories doesn’t work as expected, so for the most part, Tina must manage using her own resources and those of her friends.The previous volume, Victories Greater than Death, ended with a big win pointing to deeper, darker mysteries. The middle book explores where each of the kids go in their new lives, including their relationships with one another and those they meet along the way.Thanks for reading The Cosmic Codex! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.With this novel, Anders continues her examination of two main themes from the first book and elevates another to primary status.Gender identity is one significant theme, including how languages refer to this characteristic. Members of the Royal Fleet, as well as other citizens of the Firmament, often introduce themselves to new acquaintances by providing both their name and their preferred pronoun. Automatic translation accommodates the gender-fluid by updating those they meet regarding their current pronoun.Informed consent is another theme carried over from the previous novel. This topic comes up frequently in conversations between the teenagers, whether they are close friends or dating one another.Cultural imperialism is the newly-elevated theme. While the first book touched on this idea, developments during the novel’s climax make it a major concern in Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak.This is a lot of territory to cover in a young adult book, and for the most part Anders pulls it off.She aptly handles a large cast without confusing readers about what’s going on or who’s doing it. In this volume, she innovates on the structure of the first book by labeling sections with the name of the current point-of-view character. This helps prevent the reader from getting lost in the details and keeps the overall storyline clear.Anders is talented at describing non-human species in ...
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    16 mins
  • The thief who could topple an empire

    The thief who could topple an empire
    May 26 2024
    My novelette, An Illicit Mercy, is part of a new promotion in May and June, Science Fiction & Fantasy Reads.Check out over 80 books available for free.My latest novelette, “Long Night On the Endless City,” appears in Boundary Shock Quarterly 26: Tomorrow’s Crimes:On the vast ring habitat Ouroboros, Jel and her synthetic companion Marcus search for Arja, the third member of their triad. This quest leads them to a cryptic technology cult with questionable motives. When they suffer a vicious attack, Marcus and Jel join forces with one of Ouroboros’most renowned computer and robotics experts to get to the bottom of the mystery.This thought-provoking sf tale explores artificial intelligence, religion, and the ties that bind families together in a fast-paced story full of action, intrigue, and heart.A reluctant thief. A caring robot. A death that changes everything.Get your FREE copy of Neuracode - Part 1 by Eris Goode and Kris Ruhler.QUINN wants nothing more than to live a normal life after being rescued from the New Realm station. But when he and his eccentric friend Hana encounter Cass, he finds himself dragged into countless daring schemes.Normal is no longer an option.And with their most ambitious job on the horizon, the stakes are higher than ever. They’ll need to pull out all the stops—their lives depend on it.TSUKI is a special PAC—Personal Assistant and Care—bot. Her unique personality chip allows her to experience the intricacies of life, including a wide spectrum of emotions.Humanity is hers to embrace.Through painting and taking care of her friends, Tsuki enjoys her life on the New Realm station. But she’s about to discover everything she thought she knew about humanity is wrong. So very wrong.Neuracode: Part I is the first half of the prequel to Project Juniper, a thrilling YA/NA cyberpunk series written by Eris Goode.Science fiction author Bethany Jacobs once taught sf and writing at the college level. Five years ago she left academia for the education technology field so she would have more time to write.Thanks for reading The Cosmic Codex! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.On March 29, presenters at Norwescon announced Jacobs as the winner of the 2024 Philip K. Dick Award for her first novel, the space opera These Burning Stars.From the publisher’s website:A dangerous cat-and-mouse quest for revenge. An empire that spans star systems, built on the bones of a genocide. A carefully hidden secret that could collapse worlds, hunted by three women with secrets of their own. This is an explosive space opera debut from one of the most powerful new voices in science fiction.On a dusty backwater planet, occasional thief Jun Ironway has gotten her hands on the score of a lifetime: a secret that could raze the Kindom, the ruling power of the galaxy.A star system away, preternaturally stoic Chono and brilliant hothead Esek— the two most brutal clerics of the Kindom—are tasked with hunting Jun down.And tracking all three across the stars is a ghost from their shared past known only as Six. But what Six wants is anyone’s guess. It’s a game of manipulation and betrayal that could destroy them all. And they have no choice but to see it through.Thank you for reading The Cosmic Codex. This post is public so feel free to share it.Sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society, and supported by the Philip K. Dick Trust, the Philip K. Dick Award is “…presented annually…for distinguished science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States.”Congratulations to Bethany Jacobs!She currently lives in Buffalo with her wife (and her dog!)Have you read These Burning Stars? Do you plan to? Please share your thoughts! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thecosmiccodex.com
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    3 mins