REVIEW: Michael J. Martinez’ THE ENCELADUS CRISIS

On June 1, 2014June 1, 2014 By Luther M. SilerIn Reading, Reviews4 Comments

Unknown I read the first book in what is now called The Daedalus Series last year. I liked it well enough, but The Daedalus Incident spent the first third messing with my head and I never quite recovered from having to force my way through the first part of the book.

Here’s the thing about me and fictional narratives: for better or for worse, and maybe this makes me some sort of idiot, but I like my narratives straightforward. I don’t like it when authors deliberately confuse me. And The Daedalus Incident, which jumps between two separate dimensions, one a fairly hard-core science fictional future universe set in the 2100s and one a fricking alchemically-based alternate past set in the eighteenth century only there’s already life on all the planets in the solar system and aliens on Saturn and by the way they’re sailing in between the planets using galleons with sails, is kinda designed to mess with your head. And by the end of the book the two universes bash themselves into each other in interesting ways and there’s an ancient Martian warlord involved (because Mars has had intelligent life on it in the distant past, right?) and all sorts of hell breaks merrily loose.

I liked it. It didn’t stick in my head terribly well, but I liked it. It is possible that had the second book not been called The Enceladus Crisis, I might not have picked it up. Enceladus, after all, is my favorite moon.

(There is life on Enceladus. You wait.)

Holy crap am I glad he didn’t set this on one of the boring moons. Here’s how good The Enceladus Crisis is: it makes me feel like I need to go back and reread The Daedalus Incident now that I don’t have the immense problems with what the hell is going on here that I had the first time I read it. It took a while to get through Daedalus because the first part was such a slog (and, again, that’s a personal reaction: if you can deal with the what the hell without aggravation, you won’t be slogging).

I started The Enceladus Crisis yesterday and finished it this afternoon. That good.

The Enceladus Crisis contains Napoleon, ancient Martian warrior gods, alchemical galleons, Star Wars and Firefly references in the 22nd century, ancient Egypt, the Rosetta Stone, interplanetary exploration, zombies, and a handful of sequences that feel straight out of an Indiana Jones movie. It is awesome. It is action-packed and exciting and creative and fresh and original (no, seriously, space galleons powered by alchemy) and unlike the first one he’s clearly got a contract for another book now so it ends by nicely setting up the next book without feeling like it was written as the middle book of a trilogy. In fact, I’d say you don’t have to have read Daedalus to enjoy Enceladus; I read it nearly a year ago and I’ve literally read a hundred fifty or so books since then, so my recollection of finer details is not great.

Two thumbs up. Go check it out.

Another five-star review!

On May 29, 2014 By Luther M. SilerIn Writing5 Comments

Have I mentioned that I wrote a book? And that it just received its third five-star review? You should check it out. $2.99 cheap!

In which my wife writes good ad copy

On May 21, 2014 By Luther M. SilerIn Writing12 Comments

Troll evictions! Secret compartments! Dwarf pirates! Daring rescues! Angry gods! Unknown technology! Pissed-off ogres! The Benevolence Archives, Vol. 1 is currently– holy shit— #15 in its genre on Amazon, and #2952 among all free ebooks. Free, you say? Yes! Free today only, unless I decide to extend the sale an extra day, which… actually, I’m pretty sure I might do. You can take this as either good news for me in terms of exposure or bad news in terms of whether people are willing to pay me for my nonsense, but I’ve moved over twice as many free books today as I had books purchased during the entire time the book has been on Amazon.

And here’s the thing: this book was never gonna make me rich. That’s obvious, right? It wasn’t, and isn’t. I am pretty sure at this point (and I need to be, because I’m supposed to be starting in a few weeks) that this summer’s book is gonna be a full-blown BA novel. And I’m thinking once that’s down and available, Vol. 1 is going to become perma-free, as a way to give folks a quick and easy intro into the world I’m working in. I may even attach it to the end of the novel as backmatter; we’ll see. But I think the goal for this thing needs to be not making money, but getting eyeballs on my work and the name “Luther Siler” into the backs of people’s heads. And Skylights is gonna be up soon, at something more resembling a novel price; if people like BA and get it cheaply maybe they’ll be more likely to shell out the $5-7 I’m imagining pricing Skylights at once it’s available.

Then I can get rich, right? 🙂

One caveat, of course: I’ve gotten a half-decent number of people to download the thing today. It remains to be seen how many of them read it. Or, say, post reviews, or if they do post reviews, post reviews of the fine quality of the couple I’ve received and not, say, “HURR DURR I HATE SWEARS AND SCI FI IS DUM ONE STAR.” Because that’s what a lot of the gripes I’ve seen about the program have said– that the free days cause your book to get downloaded by a bunch of people who don’t read it, and then if they do they put up a low-quality bad review.

(Note: Not saying non-sci-fi people can’t or shouldn’t read or review my book. In fact, both of the reviews I’ve gotten are from non-sci-fi people, and I’m looking forward to the first read I get from an actual genre aficionado. I’m just repeating what I’ve heard from other writers here.)

Anyway. Yeah. This is fascinating. And, again, feel free to go forth and download. Tell your friends! (No. Really. Tell your friends.)

BA Vol. 1 in Amazon top 100 for its genre!

On May 21, 2014May 21, 2014 By Luther M. SilerIn Uncategorized, WritingLeave a comment

#88, to be precise.

Benevolence Archives, Vol. 1 is FREE TODAY! Go get your copy now if you haven’t already! It’s back to the extravagant price of $2.99 tomorrow!

(Top 100 is awesome. I want more. Go go go!)

Two early morning announcements

On May 21, 2014May 21, 2014 By Luther M. SilerIn Writing6 Comments

(Why am I not at work? Boy’s got a doctor’s appointment. Going in in the afternoon.)

ANNOUNCEMENT THE FIRST: Benevolence Archives, Vol. 1 picked up another review yesterday, and while it was a four-star instead of the previous five-star I am just about equally happy with it. The author– and I’m especially pleased that, at least for the moment, I have no idea who it is– discusses a couple of aspects of the story that I’m glad to see mentioned in a review; I feel like I’m seeing a sign that I’m doing something right here. Whee!

ANNOUNCEMENT THE SECOND: For one day only– just today– Benevolence Archives, Vol, 1 is free at Amazon. The Kindle Select program I’m enrolled in gives me five of these free days for every ninety days the book is on sale, and since I haven’t sold anything in a couple of days (boo!) I decided to give a free day a try to see if I could coax a few extra copies out into the ecosystem out there. So go forth and download!

(I am, if I’m being honest, more than a bit conflicted about this, and I almost didn’t mention it here at all. I’ve spent a fair amount of time since the book went on sale on indie book author forums, and there is, to put it mildly, some debate about whether these free days are actually a good idea in the long term for authors. Plus I sorta feel like I’m shitting on the people who already bought the thing. I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that none of the folks who did shell out some cash feel the same way. I may talk about this some more tonight– the boy’s doctor’s appointment is beckoning– but if you’ve been in a cash crunch lately or just been on the fence about buying, today might be a good day to jump. Back to regular price tomorrow, probably with some details about how well it did.)

MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT:

On May 2, 2014 By Luther M. SilerIn Geek, Writing3 Comments

I’m in the recliner again.

SECOND MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT: all story-writin’ for “The Benevolence Archives: Volume One” is finished, meaning that all that is left is an editing pass or two and also the (hopefully) not terribly complicated step of figuring out just how in the hell one turns a document file into a competent-looking ebook and then it’ll actually be available for sale! I will, obviously, be letting y’all know repeatedly well in advance of the actual release date, so keep your eyes peeled here.

(Want to like me on Facebook? You can do that here. I’m not sure why you would, because Fazbuk is the dumb, plus I am immensely unlikeable, but go ahead anyway!)

THIRD MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT: I have survived Standardized Testing Hell Week, and thus will do my damnedest to avoid mentioning it (other than announcing that I’m going to avoid mentioning it) for at least a few weeks.

FOURTH MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT: Holy crap the new Call of Duty trailer looks cool. I haven’t played a Call of Duty game in years and I haven’t liked a Call of Duty game since years before that, but dayum.

FIFTH MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT: “Dayum” and “datum” aren’t the same word, stupid autocorrect.

SIXTH MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT: I can’t remember what #6 was supposed to be, and my wife and son just got home, so maybe there will be another post tonight! Woo!

Word-makin’ talk

On April 28, 2014 By Luther M. SilerIn Writing10 Comments

Writerpeople: what software do y’all generally use? I know I’ve got some fans of Scrivener out there, which despite several tries I’ve never really been able to get into; anybody use anything else that I need to know about? I came across this article on Lifehacker the other day that led to me downloading a bunch of new programs to try out (including Fade In, a screenwriting program– I have a secret desire to write a screenplay for some reason; maybe that can be a side project this summer) and I have completely fallen in love with FocusWriter.

Dudes, I wrote four thousand words of fiction today, and it wasn’t even difficult. That’s not unprecedented– I did nearly twelve thousand during the closing days of NaNoWriMo several years ago while under deadline pressure, and once wrote a thirty-page paper in three hours flat in grad school– but to get four thousand words done in a single day when there is no pressure whatsoever to perform is so unlike me as to be faintly alarming. Other apps do the same main thing FocusWriter does; it blacks out the entire screen, letting you choose a theme (I have basic white text on a black background; you can choose other colors or even use an image as the background) and hides its entire UI so that all you can see is your text on the screen. Awesomely, it also has a setting to make freaking typewriter sounds when you hit keys, which– for me, at least, which may be a sign that I’m moderately nuts– is weirdly, insanely rewarding.

Anyway: point is, BA 7 is done, meaning that all I have to do is finish BA 6 and do one last edit/polish/clean-up run on the entire thing and then The Benevolence Archives, Volume 1 is ready to be unleashed unto the world. Which is awesome and terrifying all at the same time. Hell, I’m on such a roll I may see if I can finish 6 tonight. Why not, y’know?

I love productive days. ISTEP starts tomorrow so the rest of the week is going to be obnoxious and stressful; I’m glad today wasn’t. How are y’all?

Grab-baggery

On April 24, 2014April 25, 2014 By Luther M. SilerIn Geek, Teaching, Writing3 Comments

If you follow science fiction or fantasy literature at all, you may be aware of the current kerfluffle over the Hugo awards. Or perhaps kerfluffles, as there appear to be more than one.

“Kerfluffle” is a fun word, and I feel like it should have a more fun plural. I think I’ll nominate kerfluffen.

Anyway. I almost got a supporting membership to WorldCon, which allows you to vote in the current year and nominate in the next year, last year. The current unpleasantness oddly intensified my desire to be part of it– funny, that– and I shelled out my 25 euros yesterday (this year’s WorldCon is in London) to buy a supporting membership so that I can get the nomination packet and I can vote.

Note the price is in euros. My card was declined. “Oh, right,” I thought; “my silly little local bank probably doesn’t wanna buy shit what’s in Europe with my debit card.” So I switched cards and bought it with another card. No biggie.

Until I got the call this afternoon that they’d detected fraudulent activity on my card and were considering putting a hold on future transactions unless I called them and straightened shit out.

Which I just did, dutifully. I appreciate the service; I normally don’t buy shit from London in non-Americadollars and I’m good with my bank noticing and sending up a trial balloon when I do. So I called the number and got a computer asking me to verify certain recent transactions. I confirmed that the Europe charge was me and then they asked me about the (also online, but not in Europe) charge for the book cover, which I bought the same night.

And got the name of the company wrong. Which… huh. I was literally sitting in front of my computer looking at my bank website so I noticed it.

Is this, like, a gotcha or something? The name they gave me was close to the actual company name but it wasn’t exactly right. Am I supposed to say no right now?

I thought about it and said that, no, I hadn’t authorized that charge.

Hint: don’t do that.

They dumped me to a person who was not terribly convinced that I was who I said I was. And it took several more minutes of talking and cajoling before I managed to convince him that 1) Yes, I was me; 2) Yes, I’d authorized the charge in London; 3) yes, I’d also authorized the charge to the book cover folks, but that they’d fucked up the name of the company and that was why I’d said no, and not because a book-cover company representative was, like, holding a gun to my head for my seventy bucks or anything like that.

Sigh.

Yesterday’s fun was the ISTEP Practice Test. Which is nearly an hour of kids sitting in front of computers and having standardized instructions read at them, for stuff they’ve already done and know how to do. They have to have taken the practice test to be eligible for the actual ISTEP next week. Non-negotiable. And I had to be the asshole reading the instructions. I’ll let you imagine just how good seventh and eighth graders are at sitting quietly listening to an hour of instructions about something that is already insanely boring. I’ll also let you imagine how patient I was with their bullshit by, say, the third time I’d wasted an entire two-period block of class time (the week before ISTEP, mind you) on meaningless nonsense.

And then I’ll let you imagine the fucking internet going out for half an hour during the second test.

I’m expecting next week to be a horrorshow again, just like last year. But we’ll see.

On the writing end of things, I’m completing two stories right now and strongly considering massive revisions to BA #5, which you guys have already seen. The version on the website is admittedly first-draft (if you pay close attention, one character’s name changes partway through, and I think at least one temporally impossible thing happens) and wanted an editing pass anyway, but I’m thinking about some fairly major character-level revisions here. Most of it came from reading the piece Scalzi linked to above that referenced the “Diversity Era” of science fiction. The Benevolence Archives are basically a male buddy story, and are wanting for some gender diversity at the very least. (There has been only one human character in any of the stories, and his race wasn’t specified, so right now I’m not so concerned about racial diversity.) One of the stories you haven’t seen is entirely about Rhundi, but she doesn’t have quite the pull that the two main dudes have. So I want to work on that a little bit. Fun stuff. I like it when I’m actually writing.