PRESS RELEASES & NEWSLETTERS (see full text below)
SFWA New Releases; Atlas Obscura; Rebellion Publishing; Krypton Radio; TOR.com; Geeks Out!; RPGNet #72
SOCIAL
Food Truck Refused to Serve Gays (I think they should have posted a guy in uniform at a public restroom as the Official Genital Checker)
Tell Me What You REALLY Think: Zoe Leonard statement
ENTERTAINMENT
The Long Walk vid: Over a year and a half ago, Ricky Brown asked “Why Isn’t the Long Walk a Movie Yet?” Adriano Gazza says “now it is….”
Chim chiminey / Chim chiminey / Chim chim cher-ee! / A sweep is as lucky A pirate’s as lucky…(Listen to the theme song) New Pirates Trailer
Cold War Redux: Anyone remember Leo Gorcey? Here’s an “Atomic Poem” he wrote (text) and a reading
INDUSTRY
Worldcon 75 vs Dave Weingart (via File 770)
Review Reminds us of how prescient John Brunner could be
Nothing Changes but It Stays the Same, even Costuming Cosplay (via File 770)
New Release: Impersonations by Walter John Williams
SCIENCE
Israeli Company Designing Future Uncle Owen’s ‘Vaporators
Voyager’s Golden Disc Can Be Yours
J&J Insulin Pump Can Be Hacked
Boeing Accepts Musk’s Challenge
New Shepherd Escape Test (via Duncan Long)
Sprites Sparkle and Gravity Waves
PRESS RELEASES & NEWSLETTERS
SFWA
New Fiction for September & October 2016•FANTASY RELEASES
•Alternate History
•Spotlight on Author Michael J. Martinez
•Contemporary Fantasy
•Spotlight on Author Jennifer Brozek
•Fantasy Romance
•Spotlight on Author Jeffe Kennedy
•Paranormal
•Steampunk
•Urban Fantasy
•Spotlight on Author Barbara Barnett
•Epic Fantasy
•SCIENCE FICTION RELEASES
•Hard SF
•Space Opera
•Spotlight on Author Stephen Arseneault
•Speculative Fiction
Each month we choose several lucky subscribers
to win free copies of the new releases listed below.
Every member of this list is automatically entered to win!
FANTASY RELEASES
Alternate History
Spotlight on Author Michael J. Martinez
Tell us a bit about your release this month – is it brand new or a backlist re-release?
New release.
Is this release part of a series or a stand-alone?
Series.
What’s the theme or core idea behind this story?
The idea behind this was to explore the idea of superpowers in a very different light, set against the backdrop of the Cold War and through the lens of the MAJESTIC-12 government conspiracy theory. It ended up being kind of a cross between X-Files, X-Men and Bond.
What’s up next for you?
I’m working on the next book in the series, MJ-12: SHADOWS, and I have some short fiction coming out soon as well.
What’s your favorite thing about being a SFWA member?
SFWA’s assistance with my original publisher back in 2013 saved my debut, so that right there would have to be my favorite thing. That said, it’s a great community and a great resource for authors. Folks are great about sharing their experiences with others.
Get more info about Michael J. Martinez’s latest release MJ-12: Inception: A MAJESTIC-12 Thriller below!
It is a new world, stunned by the horrors that linger in the aftermath of total war. The United States and Soviet Union are squaring off in a different kind of conflict, one that’s fought in the shadows, where there are whispers of strange and mysterious developments. . .
Normal people across the United States have inexplicably gained paranormal abilities. A factory worker can heal the sick and injured. A schoolteacher bends emotions to her will. A car salesman alters matter with a simple touch. A former soldier speaks to the dying and gains their memories as they pass on.
They are the Variants, controlled by a secret government program called MAJESTIC-12 to open a new front in the Cold War.
From the deserts of Nevada to the palaces of Istanbul, the halls of power in Washington to the dark, oppressive streets of Prague, the Variants are thrown into a deadly game of shifting alliances. Amidst the seedy underbelly of nations, these once-ordinary Americans dropped in extraordinary circumstances will struggle to come to terms with their abilities as they fight to carve out a place for themselves in a world that may ultimately turn against them.
And as the MAJESTIC-12 program will soon discover, there are others out there like them, some with far more malevolent goals…
Amazon * Kobo * BN * Apple
After the earth’s power under her city is suddenly left unprotected, a young geomancer must rely on her unique magic to survive in this fresh fantasy standalone from the author of the acclaimed The Clockwork Dagger.
In an alternate 1906, the United States and Japan have forged a powerful confederation— the Unified Pacific—in an attempt to dominate the world. Their first target is a vulnerable China. In San Francisco, headstrong secretary Ingrid Carmichael is assisting a group of powerful geomancer wardens who have no idea of the depth of her own talent—or that she is the only woman to possess such skills.
When assassins kill the wardens, Ingrid and her mentor are protected by her incredible magic. But the pair is far from safe. Without its full force of guardian geomancers, the city is on the brink of a cataclysmic earthquake that will expose the earth’s power to masterminds determined to control the energy for their own dark ends. The danger escalates when Chinese refugees, preparing to fight the encroaching American and Japanese forces, fracture the uneasy alliance between the Pacific allies, transforming San Francisco into a veritable powder keg. And the slightest tremor will set it off. . . .
Forced on the run, Ingrid makes some shocking discoveries about herself. Her already considerable magic has grown even more fearsome . . . and she may be the fulcrum on which the balance of world power rests.
Amazon * BN
Contemporary Fantasy
Spotlight on Author Jennifer Brozek
Tell us a bit about your release this month – is it brand new or a backlist re-release?
It is a brand new YA zombie book. Perfect for October.
Is this release part of a series or a stand-alone?
Standalone.
What’s the theme or core idea behind this story?
People can do evil in the name of good while other believe sacrifice is needed to protect the whole. When these two ideas are at odds, a disaster occurs.
What’s up next for you?
My Shadowrun novel, MAKEDA RED, will come out in 2017 as will a number of short stories. I am currently working on a new tie-in novel before I dive back into my YA writing.
What’s your favorite thing about being a SFWA member?
My favorite thing about SFWA is the community. I’ve never been involved in a more helpful and knowledgeable group. The prestige of SFWA brought me here, but it’s the people that have kept me here.
Get more info about Jennifer Brozek’s latest release The Last Days of Salton Academy below!
It’s referred to as ‘The Outbreak,’ and it happened just over three months ago, casting the world (or at least this part of it) into a state of powerlessness and chaos. The Salton Academy has become a rare sanctuary for those few students who remained behind over fall break. As winter approaches, cracks are revealed in the academy’s foundations as it’s discovered someone is stealing food, another is taking advantage of a captive audience, and yet others have banded together and are thinking about mutiny, even murder. One thing’s for certain — a supply run must be made soon, or everyone will starve before winter’s end. Oh yes, and then there’s the matter of the headmaster’s son and his undead dog… The Last Days of Salton Academy is a classic tale of horror in the spirit of Night of the Living Dead meets Lord of the Flies, featuring an ensemble cast and written by Hugo Award-nominated editor and award-winning author, Jennifer Brozek.
Amazon * BN
Key has lived her entire life in captivity, forced to use her magic to kill the enemies of Ariadne, an ageless woman with powerful magic of her own. Key knows she and Ariadne are both members of the Hand of the Gods, five souls reborn through the ages, but Key remembers none of her past lives. She chafes against Ariadne’s control, and longs to escape to lead a life of her own.
Eric has worked for Ariadne for years in ignorance of her secrets, but now coincidences and bad luck are piling up. When he talks his way into the compound that houses Key and the other members of the Hand, he learns the truth about Ariadne’s magic—and the murders she’s committed with it. Together, Eric and Key escape and set out to find Lantern, the one member of the Hand Ariadne has never managed to capture—and who may know how to stop her for good.
Amazon * Kobo * BN * Apple
There are exactly one hundred halls of magic to choose from. Ever since our parents were killed I knew exactly which hall was for me.
Aurelia “Aurie” Silverthorne is one of the best and brightest to ever apply to the Hundred Halls, the only magical university in the world. To be accepted, she must pass grueling trials that claim the lives of aspirants every year.
But more than her desire to practice magic is at stake.
Aurie’s little sister has been courting powerful forces in hopes of protecting herself from the beings that killed their parents, but alliances come with complications. As things spiral out of control, and dangerous foes arise at every turn, Aurie knows the only way to protect her sister is to pass the trials—even if it means making a terrible sacrifice.
Amazon
Fantasy Romance
Spotlight on Author Jeffe Kennedy
Tell us a bit about your release this month – is it brand new or a backlist re-release?
This is a brand new release!
Is this release part of a series or a stand-alone?
This is the third book in the Sorcerous Moons series, begun with Lonen’s War and continued in Oria’s Gambit.
What’s the theme or core idea behind this story?
The series is about a marriage of convenience between the rulers of two warring nations. One people is magical, civilized – and also cruel and selfish. The other is non-magical has risen from a barbarian past. It’s about the coming together of totally different people’s and viewpoints, embodied by one couple who begin as enemies but discover their deep-seated similarities. There’s also a small dragon Familiar, who represents another race.
What’s up next for you?
The second book in my Uncharted Realms series, The Edge of the Blade, comes out December 27!
What’s your favorite thing about being a SFWA member?
The SFWA chatroom! Most weekday mornings people hang out there as a kind of water cooler, taking breaks while working and sharing support and information.
Get more info about Jeffe Kennedy’s latest releases Oria’s Gambit and The Tides of Bára below!
A Play For Power
Princess Oria has one chance to keep her word and stop her brother’s reign of terror: She must become queen. All she has to do is marry first. And marry Lonen, the barbarian king who defeated her city bare weeks ago, who can never join her in a marriage of minds, who can never even touch her—no matter how badly she wants him to.
A Fragile Bond
To rule is to suffer, but Lonen never thought his marriage would become a torment. Still, he’s a resourceful man. He can play the brute conqueror for Oria’s faceless officials and bide his time with his wife. And as he coaxes secrets from Oria, he may yet change their fate…
An Impossible Demand
With deception layering on deception, Lonen and Oria must claim the throne and brazen out the doubters. Failure means death— for them and their people.
But success might mean an alliance powerful beyond imagining…
Amazon * Kobo * BN * Apple
Book Three in the adult fantasy romance series, Sorcerous Moons. The novel, The Tides of Bára, is a paranormal kindle book of magic and sorcery – and a war culminating in a marriage of convenience between enemy kingdoms.
Amazon * Apple
For years, Always Falling has been content in the capital of the Twin Kingdoms, seeing to its beloved the imperial composer…and there the neuter might have stayed, had it not received an urgent message summoning it home. After the cruelties that saw Always Falling exiled, the last thing it wants is to go back, much less in the company of a near stranger: Amet Emendexte-ilye, the new lover its beloved took to ens breast only a few months ago.
But no one else can accompany Always Falling to the harbor city where it was once a member of a rarified aristocracy. And maybe a highland warrior, a stranger, and a musician will be the key not just to the injustices of the past, but the needs Always Falling has never admitted to, even to itself.
The sea is waiting….
A lyrical novel-length romance, set in a second world fantasy. Return to the Twin Kingdoms!
Amazon * Kobo * BN * Apple
A prince of the Sun Etherium, Mirohirokon has everything: immortality, invulnerability, and the aetheric power to be anything he desires, to satisfy almost any desire. But the one thing aether cannot give him is his father’s freedom. For a chance to win that, he will risk everything.
Sick of the petty, twisted politics of the Moon Etherium, Ardent quit it for a simpler life. Yet when Miro seeks her aid to rescue his father, she realizes that far more is at stake than one man’s life. Duty-bound, she returns.
But to save their world, must they sacrifice their love?
Amazon * Kobo * BN
Paranormal
Scarlet Wakebridge-Rosé, busy executive and less-than-stellar mother and wife, has a problem that only an exorcist can solve. Except she’s not precisely a devout Catholic parishioner any longer, and to gain assistance from the Church means telling a whopping lie of omission.
Fortunately, she discovers Father Angelo Ambrosio, whose commitment to helping the afflicted means he’s willing to overlook the things Scarlet prefers to keep hidden. Unfortunately, his sordid past keeps him under a microscope with the bishop, who’s not so liberal in his views.
But the demon harassing Scarlet is relentless. It makes its motives clear: in a previous life, she struck a bargain, promising it her body on her fiftieth birthday. Now, she and Angelo must unravel the mystery surrounding her forgotten past in order to stop the possession by next week or risk losing her to the depths of Hell forever.
Amazon * Netgalley
Steampunk
From the author of The Clockwork Dagger and The Clockwork Crown comes a compilation of short works set in the same world: The Deepest Poison, Final Flight, and the Nebula-nominated Wings of Sorrow and Bone.
THE DEEPEST POISON
Octavia Leander, a young healer with incredible powers, has found her place among Miss Percival’s medicians-in-training. Called to the front lines of war, the two women must uncover the source of a devastating illness that is killing thousands of soldiers.
WINGS OF SORROW AND BONE
After being rescued from the slums of Caskentia, Rivka Stout is adjusting to her new life in Tamarania. But when Rivka stumbles into a laboratory run by the powerful Balthazar Cody, she also discovers a sinister plot involving chimera gremlins and the violent Arena game Warriors.
FINAL FLIGHT
Captain Hue hoped he was rid of his troubles once Octavia Leander and Alonzo Garrett disembarked from his airship, but then the Argus is commandeered by a Clockwork Dagger and forced on a deadly mission. Hue must lead a mutiny that might bring down his own ship…. perhaps for good.
Amazon * Kobo * BN * Apple
Urban Fantasy
Spotlight on Author Barbara Barnett
Tell us a bit about your release this month – is it brand new or a backlist re-release?
The Apothecary’s Curse is a new release and a true cross genre. It has elements of historical fantasy, contemporary urban fantasy, science fiction. It’s got romance, immortality, and a bit of steampunk wrapped up in a medical mystery. Oh, and Conan Doyle’s fingerprints are all over it!
Is this release part of a series or a stand-alone?
Right now, it’s a standalone, and it works just fine that way. However, there’s much more to tell in my main character Gaelan Erceldoune’s story.
What’s the theme or core idea behind this story?
The Apothecary’s Curse is fundamentally a story about the consequences of playing around with knowledge or technology we don’t yet understand how to wield wisely. An ancient, fabulously illuminated book with recipes to cure every disease known to human kind seems like an amazing find, especially since it also contains the key to immortality. But what happens when its used without understanding the potential side effects? It’s also a story about greed, the quest for power, and the enduring nature of love.
What’s up next for you?
Right now, getting ready for the launch in a couple of weeks. But also writing a second novel in the series. I’m also just at the starting stages of writing a novel outside the realm of Apothecary about a man who inherits a bookstore and gets far more than he bargained for! I’ll be speaking Halloween weekend at MENSA’s HalloWEEM convention in Chicago about Conan Doyle and his rather incongruous belief in fairies!
What’s your favorite thing about being a SFWA member?
I’m a pretty new SFWA member, and just attended my first Nebula Conference in May. I love the opportunities, including the new Netgalley Initiative, which allows authors to get their work in front of a bigger critical audience.
Get more info about Barbara Barnett’s latest release The Apothecary’s Curse below!
This genre-bending urban fantasy mixes alchemy and genetics as a doctor and an apothecary try to prevent a pharmaceutical company from exploiting the book that made them immortal centuries ago.
In Victorian London, the fates of physician Simon Bell and apothecary Gaelan Erceldoune entwine when Simon gives his wife an elixir created by Gaelan from an ancient manuscript. Meant to cure her cancer, it kills her. Suicidal, Simon swallows the remainder—only to find he cannot die.
Five years later, hearing rumors of a Bedlam inmate with regenerative powers like his own, Simon is shocked to discover it’s Gaelan. The two men conceal their immortality, but the only hope of reversing their condition rests with Gaelan’s missing manuscript.
When modern-day pharmaceutical company Transdiff Genomics unearths diaries describing the torture of Bedlam inmates, the company’s scientists suspect a link between Gaelan and an unnamed inmate. Gaelan and Genomics geneticist Anne Shawe are powerfully drawn to each other, and her family connection to his manuscript leads to a stunning revelation. Will it bring ruin or redemption?
Amazon * Kobo * BN * Apple * Netgalley
Ex-cop and P.I. Robert Hoskins didn’t think twice when an old friend needed help. But little did he know where the evidence would lead him as he dug deeper into the case.
Monsters, Dragons, Fallen Angels, and Demons are only the tip of the iceberg when his old enemy escapes from Tartarus and seeks her revenge. There are wars to be waged and enemies galore as an ancient prophesy resurfaces and the universe attempts to seek balance.
Even the Gods will step down from the heavens when bloodlines are revealed and Robert faces off with the dark High Fae in an epic battle that will shake the very foundation of the Fae worlds.
Amazon
Epic Fantasy
Vast power commands a vicious price
Having unleashed the darkness inside her, Gatekeeper Jora Lanseri has chased the enemy from Serocia’s shores. Now at the height of her power, she faces a new challenge—to rescue the abducted king and retrieve the stolen godheart before the war ship carrying them reaches harbor.
The rogue scribe Ibsa has escaped Jora’s wrath aboard the fleeing ship and seeks to earn the prestigious title of Prime Maga. But she has what Jora wants. The only way to protect herself is to convince the god—by whatever means necessary—to slay the Gatekeeper. To her great fortune, among the ship’s cargo is the god’s crystal heart.
Can Jora rescue the king and save the god from unspeakable torment before the darkness inside consumes the last vestiges of her humanity?
Dirge of the Dormant is an inspired epic fantasy full of surprises and fierce battles. If you like relatable characters, imaginative magic systems, and unexpected twists, then you’ll love the fifth installment of K.C. May’s Mindstream Chronicles.
Amazon * Kobo * BN * Apple
Everything has a spirit: the willow tree with leaves that kiss the pond, the stream that feeds the river, the wind that exhales fresh snow . . .
But the spirits that reside within this land want to rid it of all humans. One woman stands between these malevolent spirits and the end of humankind: the queen. She alone has the magical power to prevent the spirits from destroying every man, woman, and child. But queens are still just human, and no matter how strong or good, the threat of danger always looms.
With the position so precarious, young women are chosen to train as heirs. Daleina, a seemingly quiet academy student, is under no illusions as to her claim to the throne, but simply wants to right the wrongs that have befallen the land. Ven, a disgraced champion, has spent his exile secretly fighting against the growing number of spirit attacks. Joining forces, these daring partners embark on a treacherous quest to find the source of the spirits’ restlessness — a journey that will test their courage and trust, and force them to stand against both enemies and friends to save their land . . . before it’s bathed in blood.
Amazon * Kobo * BN * Apple
SCIENCE FICTION RELEASES
Hard SF
August 2016 brought news – real news, in our reality – that an Earth-like planet was discovered circling Proxima Centauri, the third star in the Alpha Centauri system, just over four light years from Earth. This is exactly what happens in Borrowed Tides, first published in hardcover in 2001, re-issued in Kindle this past April. It tells the story of the first starship to the Alpha Centauri system in 2029, employing a new technology which can move it through deep space at almost half the speed of light. But it requires an enormous amount of fuel, and can only carry enough for a one-way trip. A philosopher of science and his childhood friend, an anthropologist with a specialty in Native American culture, have a daringly bizarre plan, and talk the government into putting them in charge of the Light Through starship voyage.
Amazon
When the experimental ship Clermont is urgently recalled from a long-range test flight, neither Dana McElwain nor Blake Westford, its captain and crew, imagines that they are about to embark on a much more urgent voyage — or that this new mission will determine the fate of the human race.
A gamma-ray burst — the deadly beam of radiation spawned seven thousand years earlier in the death throes of doomed neutron stars — is about to wipe the Solar System clean of all life. Only the Clermont’s prototype Dark Energy Drive might carry anyone, and any of humanity’s legacy, to safety before that extinction.
And then what? Where beyond the Solar System is safe? What if the price of survival is to become less … human?
Amazon * Kobo * BN * Apple
Tick tock…
The Die Back — the death of billions through war, famine, plague and infrastructure collapse — appears almost inevitable. Only good luck and constant interventions by the powerful AI-run Skellig Michael Institute are staving off a new dark age or even mass extinction.
In light of the deteriorating situation, the Skellig Michael is relocating its headquarters from high Earth orbit to Luna. The first wave of colonists will soon embark in the Marathon, the Institute’s skyscraper-sized spacecraft.
But at the heart of the Institute is a mole, a high-ranking traitor, dedicated to the failure of the mission and the destruction of the Institute’s greatest assets, its advanced AIs. The only clues to the mole’s identity are the dying words of a terrorist.
Edward Wolfe, senior Institute fellow, must track down the mole before he or she can strike. The task is impossible, the price of failure, unthinkable.
Amazon * Kobo * BN * Apple
Space Opera
Spotlight on Author Stephen Arseneault
Tell us a bit about your release this month – is it brand new or a backlist re-release?
New release
Is this release part of a series or a stand-alone?
First book in a new series
What’s the theme or core idea behind this story?
SF Action Adventure with Military angle. A centuries long war has ended. Two recently released Biomarines, Harris Gruberg and Tawnish Freely, find themselves struggling to find work. Genetically engineered and trained for war, most civilians don’t trust or like them. They turn to the illegal arms trade, running weapons to the outer colonies. The work is highly lucrative. Initially unknown to them, their actions may lead to the restart of the Great War. They are determined to prevent that from occurring.
What’s up next for you?
Second book in the series due out in October 2016.
What’s your favorite thing about being a SFWA member?
The good people and sharing of ideas.
Get more info about Stephen Arseneault’s latest release ARMS War for Eden below!
Cinch up that lap belt ’cause you’re goin’ for a ride!
Harris Gruberg and Tawn Freely, former Biomarines with the Domicile Defense Force, have been out of work since the centuries-old war with New Earth came to an end two years prior. Engineered and trained for war, they lack the skills and experiences necessary for living among a civilian population.
Getting involved in the illegal arms trade to the outer colonies offers the promise of working with something they know… weapons. Will their attempt at earning a living mean war for Eden? Find out as the action filled ARMS series gets underway!
Amazon * Kobo * BN * Apple
Speculative Fiction
ARACHNE, Lisa Mason’s first novel published in hardcover by William Morrow, trade paperback by Eos, and mass market paperback by AvoNova, is now an ebook.
High above the dangerous streets of post-quake San Francisco Island, mechanically modified professionals link minds in a cybernetic telespace to push through big deals and decisions at lightning speed. But unexplained telelink blackouts and bizarre hallucinations have marred mediator Carly Quester’s debut appearance before a computer-generated Venue—forcing her to consider delicate psychic surgery at the hands of a robot therapist, Prober Spinner. And suddenly the ambitious young mediator is at risk in a deadly Artificial Intelligence scheme to steal human souls—because the ghosts of Carly’s unconscious may be a prize well worth killing for.
“Powerful . . . Entertaining . . . Imaginative!” People Magazine. “A cyberpunk classic,” said The Boston Globe. On Kindle worldwide, Barnes and Noble, Apple, Kobo, and Smashwords. From the author of Summer of Love (a Philip K. Dick Award Finalist and San Francisco Chronicle Recommended Book), The Gilded Age (a New York Times Notable Book and New York Public Library Recommended Book), Celestial Girl (A Lily Modjeska Mystery), The Garden of Abracadabra, and Strange Ladies: 7 Stories.
Amazon * Kobo * BN * Apple
Four science fiction thrillers in one volume
The One Thousand: Book 1
It is the late 1960s…
What better place than prison to recruit psychopathic killers? So thinks Benny, possessed by a thousand alien entities which he intends to share around with the other inmates before unleashing hell on Earth in the form of a murderous rampage. Only William Stafford, a Vietnam War veteran unjustly convicted of killing a girlfriend, can stop him. But to do so he has to break back into the prison he has just escaped from…
The One Thousand: Book 2: Team of Seven
A team composed of humans and benevolent aliens based out of Haight/Ashbury hunt for murderous, alien-possessed convicts with enhanced powers who have escaped from prison. They discover that this fellowship of psychopaths is preparing an elaborate party for hippies and other street people in a remote mansion built to simulate a Medieval castle, and that they are planning to slaughter everyone who attends. Now the seven are faced with the task of locating the mansion and stopping the killers…
The One Thousand: Book 3: Black Magic Bus
To escape pursuit, the fellowship of psychopaths has fled to Europe. In the mountains of Italy they customize a psychedelically-colored tour bus, intending not only to pick up and murder unwary young travelers, but deliver a cargo of lethal pathogens to a major city in the East. Only the Team of Seven can find and stop them…
The One Thousand: Book 4: Deconstructing the Nightmare
Their hunt for a group of alien-possessed psychopaths intent on igniting a rampage of mass murder leads the Team of Seven to a prison in Turkey, war-ravaged Vietnam, a luxurious nuclear fallout shelter, and finally to direct confrontation with their enemies.
Amazon * Kobo * BN * Apple
When Stories Break, You Send in the Genrenauts!
Struggling stand-up comic Leah Tang is offered a once-in-a-lifetime chance to join the Genrenauts, a secret organization of dimensional travelers. Leah learns that our world is just one of many, and every other world is the home of a story genre — Science Fiction or Romance, Fantasy or Western — populated by archetypal characters and constantly playing out familiar stories.
The Genrenauts’ mission: find and fix broken stories. If they fail, the ripples from the story worlds will cause havoc and devastation on their home world.
Leah joins the team and dives head-first into the adventure. But the stories are breaking faster and worse than ever before. Will Leah rise to the occasion, or will she end up as just another broken story?
Amazon * Kobo
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RPGnet Newsletter #72
October 4, 2016
New Columns
Christopher Cecil drew up a new Fuzzy Thinking: “Armor Nerf!”
Brent Dedeaux told some more Tales from the Rocket House, this time discussing the playstyle changes caused by his reduced-combat approach to the OSR in: “Fleeting Thoughts.”
New Reviews
Edward Kabara kicked the week off with a look at “Torment: Tides of Numenera-The Explorer’s Guide,” the very well done “companion” book based on the video game for the Numenera tabletop RPG.
Endzeitgeist reviewed “Girls Gone Rogue,” a cool expansion for the Alpha Blue RPG with some rough spots.
After that, it was all Antonios S all the time. First up, he took a look at three expansions to the Thunderbirds board game: “Tracy Island,” a solid first expansion; “Above & Beyond,” which contains rules for a timed game and advancing characters, amongst other rules innovations; and, “The Hood,” a fantastic addition to the franchise.
Antonios S also reviewed three products related to the Mutant: Year Zero RPG: the “Starter Booklet,” a fine, free introduction to the world of M:YZ; the “Genlab Alpha Bundle,” an expansion to an existing game and a whole new game of its own in one go; and, the “Maps & Markers Pack,” a not indispensable, but very handy, accessory.
Lastly, Antonios S reviewed some “Mutant Chronicles Dice,” properly-themed and well-designed randomizers, and the “Mutant Chronicles Cartel Artefact Bag,” which may be the most luxurious geek bag ever produced.
Threads You Might Have Missed
Feel like reading a novel, but you’re just so tired of things like “quality writing” or “comprehensible plots” or “consistent world-building?” Check out “Bad Urban Fantasy reccs” for some options that may be up your alley.
Speaking of world-building…you know what, just go check out the thread: “Basing Fantasy Racing Off Animal Mating Habits?”
And we’ll close this week with a question for the ages: “Why Are Clowns Scary?”
Sign Off
Have a good week, everyone.
- Iustum
Newsletter Editor
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