Shameless Shillposting
In which I draw your attention to cool stuff other people did that you should spend your money on
Physicist and author
is best known on Substack for his ongoing project to rectify electromagnetism and quantum mechanics, which he’s publishing chapter by chapter at his blog Fields and Energy. Since this is not ambitious enough, he’s also made himself a pillar the independent literature scene, being the organizer of the Based Book Sale. This is a promotional sale that recurs a few times a year, in which participating authors let their Kindle editions go for a mere $0.99. Obviously, the authors don’t make much money from this. The idea is to get their work into more hands, get reviews onto those Amazon pages, and let the best rise to the top through the social percolation of word of mouth.The Black Friday Based Book Sale started yesterday, and will continue until December 3rd. There isn’t much time, so if you’re looking for something to read over Thanksgiving weekend, your search is over!
Since I’m Canadian, my Thanksgiving was a month ago (yes, yanks, it makes sense, our harvest season is earlier), but I’ve also got a long flight ahead of me soon so I’m stocking up while I can.
You can find a list of the available books, together with their descriptions, here:
I can personally recommend a few of the books on offer First is
’s phenomenal hard science-fiction space romance Theft of Fire, which I reviewed a year ago. Judging from the comments, a lot of you agreed that it was an excellent read – smart, poignant, edgy, and romantic.
A month ago I read Starquest: Space Pirates of Andromeda by grandmaster
. The title is a bit cheesy, but that’s sort of the point. It’s a call back to the high adventure space opera of yore – E. E. Doc Smith’s Lensmen, Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, and the rest of the forgotten literature that laid the foundation for Star Wars – with star princesses, space pirates, interstellar templars, dark empires, deadly monsters, mysterious alien ruins, and powerful ancient artifacts. Wright mixes together science and fantasy masterfully, his imagination deftly portraying an aristocratic society in which superscience blends into magic, honour clashes with ruthless ambition, and a vow taken upon a divine star is not to be made lightly.Wright adds a lot of clever touches to this wild ride that elevate it above the level of mere adventure fiction into the realm of the philosophical: why does this advanced civilization bother with droids, instead of just automating everything? What happens when an android is given free will? How do you really know an evil empire has been destroyed, in a galaxy with a trillion stars? Between that, the rich descriptive feast of his trademark prose, and the mile-a-minute plot, the only bad thing I had to say about it was that it ended too soon.
Finally, there’s Hans’ own first novel, The Hidden Truth. I read this years ago, and immediately bought the sequels. This is a scientific mystery, in which a precocious teenage boy finds a page in an old science textbook that shouldn’t exist, and begins to suspect that the history of science has been deliberately edited. Pulling on that thread, he starts to uncover a monstrous global conspiracy that reaches to the very heights of society ... a conspiracy which he then begins to infiltrate, in order to find out what’s really going on, and, naturally, to thwart it.
What makes The Hidden Truth something special isn’t just that Hans knows his physics, and can both make a scientific conspiracy entirely plausible, while working realistic descriptions of network security and electronic counterwarfare into the plot. It’s all the other things he throws into the mix: a sidekick who’s been learning pick up artistry, and appoints himself the protagonist’s romantic coach; a gun-nut special forces vet uncle who, shall we say, comes in very handy; a cogent treatment of the woke activist networks on and off campus, which play a prominent role in the conspirators’ plans.
If there were any justice, The Hidden Truth would have been in bookstores all over the world, pressed into the hands of smart 14-year-old boys with an interest in STEM. If you’ve got someone in your family that matches that description, this is a good one to pick up for them for Christmas ... although you might want to get the paperback or the hardcover in that case, which are finally in stock again (I was bugging Hans about this for a while).
If audiobooks are more your thing, the Aegeon Halloween Special may be just what you’re looking for. Aegeon is a magazine publishing weird fiction by our guys – sci-fi, noir, WW2 horror, cosmic horror, you name it, it’s got it. Yes, Halloween was a month ago ... but I didn’t find out about this until a week ago, when the voice actor reached out to me to let me know about the project. They went all out on the production: this isn’t just a guy reading some stories, it’s like a full radio play, with character acting, sound effects, and music. Get it here! And here’s the YouTube promo stream.
So long as we’re talking about books, I’d like to remind you all about
’s The Bushido of Bitcoin, which launched a couple of weeks ago. Here’s my own launch announcement and mini-review, Vibe Shift of Ages; Aleksandar made some excerpts available on this blog earlier in Hard Money and Hard Men. Since then it’s remained at the top of the Amazon rankings, and the reviews have been excellent:
If you haven’t read it yet, you’re clearly missing out.
Several months ago, Blake Masters reached out to me to ask if I’d be interested in contributing a story to a surveillance-themed cyberpunk anthology. The result became Hector Saves His Dad, which paid subscribers have already had the chance to read. I’m happy to announce that Panopticon: Volume 1 has now been released; you can get the Kindle edition for just $2.99. In addition to my story (well, an earlier version of my story ... I kept fiddling with it after I sent it to Blake...) there are 13 others by different authors. This is hot off the presses, so there are no reviews yet ... maybe you’ll be the first! I don’t have anything specific to say about this book yet, as I haven’t actually read it; I’m waiting for my author copy to come in the mail (hopefully it will have arrived by the time I get back to Canada).
Speaking of returning to Canada, on December 7th the Toronto Company of Adventurers has invited me to speak at a dinner event, where I’ll be appearing alongside
, , and Dave the Distributist. I believe a very small number of tickets may still be available. If you’re in the Toronto area, I’m looking forward to meeting you.
Finally, I’d like to mention a couple of recent podcast appearances that I’ve been waiting to share with you. First up is Will Tanner’s
. Will invited me on to discuss The Rebellion of the Helots Against Liberalism’s Zimbabwean Telos, which concerned the connection between the trajectory of gay race communism and the untimely murder of Rhodesia in the name of equality. Rhodesia is a topic close to Will’s heart, and he knows a whole lot more about it than I do; he’s been making a name for himself over on X by finding a remarkable number of insights into current events from studying the destruction of the Anglosphere’s last traditionalist landed gentry. This episode went live a few weeks ago (sorry, Will!) but it’s evergreen subject matter that is just as fresh now as it was when we recorded it back in the dark days before Trump won the presidency.
Next up is my second appearance on
’s How To Subvert Subversion, where Yuri and I chatted about a number of different topics: the heroic deaths of courageous squirrels; my impressions of Eastern Europe and the Balkans; where academia and the media are heading; why my Xitter posts keep going viral, and no, I have absolutely no idea, it’s very random, although it helps when the rocket king rexeets you...
... and how we’re going to meme sending my ass home to Mars into reality.
Hey, someone has to be the first Substacker on the red planet.
That’s all for today, dear friends, and it will probably be all for a few days after that, at least. I’ve a mere day left in the blessed Balkan city in which I’ve resided the last two months, which I plan to enjoy to the fullest, as after that I’ll be returning to the not-currently-very-Great, increasingly-less-White North, where I’ll be doing a lot of visiting kith and kin, shopping for Christmas presents, putting a talk together for the Scyldings event (I have no idea what I’ll be talking about), and ... well I’m expecting to be a bit busy, is the point.
But you know me, I’ll probably find time to write a few things here and there.
As always, I would like to express my limitless gratitude to all of my patrons. Your generosity enables me to spend my time sharing the things I think are cool with so many of you.
Thank you, John, for the recommendations.
Thanks for re-upping your recommendation for Theft of Fire! I still really love your review; you really "got" my husband's book :)
On top of it being selected as an 85% off Kindle Black Friday Deal, we are also doing a "hardback for the price of a paperback" sale via Ingram. Links to both that and the Kindle edition can be found at DevonEriksen.com/sale
(oh, and pssst! if anyone wants to buy extra e-book copies for their friends, YES Kindle books are giftable! You can either send them directly to someone's inbox, if you know their email, or generate redemption code links, if you are wanting to share them with your anon online friends!)