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$2.99 eBook Sale: September 2021

It’s the start of a new month and you know what that means…EBOOK SALES! Check out what you can grab for the entire month of September here!

Image Place holder  of - 94Imager by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.

The Imager Porfolio is a bestselling and innovative epic fantasy series from L. E. Modesitt, Jr. that RT Book Reviews says “shines with engrossing characters, terrific plotting, and realistic world-building.” Begin the journey with Imager. Rhennthyl, son of a leading wool merchant in L’Excelsis, the capital of Solidar, has his entire life transformed when his master patron is killed in a flash fire, and Rhenn discovers he is an imager–-one of the few in the entire world of Terahnar who can visualize things and make them real.

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Image Placeholder of - 38Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer

The world into which Mycroft and Carlyle have been born is as strange to our 21st-century eyes as ours would be to a native of the 1500s. It is a hard-won utopia built on technologically-generated abundance, and also on complex and mandatory systems of labelling all public writing and speech. What seem to us normal gender distinctions are now distinctly taboo in most social situations. And most of the world’s population is affiliated with globe-girdling clans of the like-minded. To us it seems like a mad combination of heaven and hell. To them, it seems like normal life.

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Placeholder of  -34The Road to Dune by Frank Herbert, Brian Herbert, and Kevin J. Anderson

Frank Herbert’s Dune is widely known as the science fiction equivalent of The Lord of the Rings, and The Road to Dune is a companion work comparable to The Silmarillion, shedding light on and following the remarkable development of the bestselling science fiction novel of all time. Herein, the world’s millions of Dune fans can now read—at long last—the unpublished chapters and scenes from Dune and Dune MessiahThe Road to Dune also includes the original correspondence between Frank Herbert and famed editor John W. Campbell, Jr.

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Poster Placeholder of - 48The Redemption of Time by Baoshu, Translated by Ken Liu

In the midst of an interstellar war, Yun Tianming found himself on the front lines. Riddled with cancer, he chose to end his life, only to find himself flash frozen and launched into space where the Trisolaran First Fleet awaited. Captured and tortured beyond endurance for decades, Yun eventually succumbed to helping the aliens subjugate humanity in order to save Earth from complete destruction. Granted a healthy clone body by the Trisolarans, Yun has spent his very long life in exile as a traitor to the human race. Nearing the end of his existence at last, he suddenly receives another reprieve—and another regeneration.

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Place holder  of - 63The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz

1992: After a confrontation at a riot grrl concert, seventeen-year-old Beth finds herself in a car with her friend’s abusive boyfriend dead in the backseat, agreeing to help her friends hide the body. This murder sets Beth and her friends on a path of escalating violence and vengeance as they realize many other young women in the world need protecting too. 2022: Determined to use time travel to create a safer future, Tess has dedicated her life to visiting key moments in history and fighting for change. But rewriting the timeline isn’t as simple as editing one person or event. And just when Tess believes she’s found a way to make an edit that actually sticks, she encounters a group of dangerous travelers bent on stopping her at any cost.

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SF Author Life in the Time of Coronavirus: Featuring Cixin Liu and Baoshu

Recently, the French magazine Le Nouvel Observateur interviewed authors Cixin Liu (The Three-Body Problem) and Baoshu (The Redemption of Time) about COVID-19, how their lives have changed during a time of social distancing, and more. Translated selections of these interviews are published below.


“The pandemic and its future … seen by the greatest authors of SF”

A selection from BIBLIOBS:

Place holder  of - 86Q: Can you describe your secluded life right now?

Cixin Liu: Last month I went to the only place on earth that is currently free of COVID-19: Antarctica. It was the Chinese New Year when I left China, and everything was basically normal. I was surprised to find that the virus had reached such severity when I came back. I had to stay home afterwards, of course. But as a writer, I stay at home most of the time, even during normal periods before. So the pandemic didn’t change my life significantly. I live in a small city where there are few infected people, so the quarantine is not very strict. We can still go out as long as we want. At the same time, due to the stagnation of a great number of industries, there is less interference from the outside world, which makes it more possible for me to focus on writing. Staying in this small city, it is a very strange feeling to observe the outside world in the midst of the pandemic on the news every day.

Q: If the pandemic was the theme of a book of yours, how would you write the ending?

Cixin Liu: If I were writing a science fiction about this pandemic, I would have such a bizarre and extreme idea – compared with the past, modern people have more powerful anti-virus technologies, which are far more efficient and powerful than ever before, maybe even beyond our ancestors’ imagination. This can effectively stop the spread of virus and greatly reduce the casualties caused by infectious diseases on the one hand, but it also pushes the virus to undergo more complex evolution to adapt to the new living environment on the other. Could such evolution at some point lead to the emergence of intelligence? Individual viruses are unlikely to create intelligence, but large groups of viruses as a whole may exhibit some kind of self-organizing ability, like ant colonies, bee colonies, and large flocks of birds. Polymers of a variety of bacteria have been found to respond intelligently to changes in the environment, and the same effect is likely to occur with viral polymers.

In fact, the novel coronavirus hitting the whole world today is so adaptable to immune measures that the word “cunning” is used by some to describe it. What science fiction needs to show is how viruses, which are distributed among different people, can communicate in a certain way that allows them to form a large polymer that further generates intelligence. One scientist once described how one day researchers looked at viral communities in the culture medium through a microscope and saw them forming a line: “Take us to meet your boss.” This is a tongue-in-cheek vision. But if the virus does evolve some kind of intelligence, it will be a nightmarish experience for humanity. Of course, this is only the imagination of science fiction, and the chances of it becoming reality are very small. Science fiction loves to describe the small possibilities. However, it should also be seen from real history that the small possibilities were often the ones that turned out to be real.


Image Place holder  of - 41Q: Can you describe your secluded life right now?

Baoshu: Nothing special, I stayed at home since the end of January. I and my family didn’t get the virus, and my city’s situation is not very severe, relatively. I can watch TV, use internet or read books for fun. But my family are all with me in the same house, sometimes in the same room. And I have to take care of my little daughter from time to time, because she cannot go to the kindergarten. So unlike many writers, I have little time or convenient conditions for writing.

Still I understand that it’s a very difficult time, and my situation is much better than many others. Actually, I had lived in Wuhan for many years until 2015, when I left Wuhan just because of an accidental job offer. I could have still lived there, just like many friends of mine, and been trapped in the centre of this global storm. When I read online that someone died or suffered in Wuhan, I cannot help thinking that they could have been I or my family. It’s a very special and painful feeling. I feel that I have to do something, but I don’t know what I can do, except for some trivial donations.

And this is no doubt a very science fictional, even apocalyptic moment. Sometime I went out to the streets, which not long ago still held thousands of people and hundreds of cars but now is empty and almost all shops are closed. It’s a very shocking scene. I guess I’ll remember these things forever and they will influence me deeply, but I still don’t know in which way.

Q: If the pandemic was the theme of a book of yours, how would you write the ending?

Baoshu: It’s hard to answer. We must understand that stories are not real life. If this is a novel, you can write at the end of this novel the extinction of mankind, or WWIII, for a pandemic might cause everything. But you surely don’t want it to happen in reality. On the other hand, we urgently hope the virus will disappear in a few months for natural reasons, or we invent the vaccine finally and save many lives. But that’s not the kind of SF story you want to read. You want something overwhelming, beyond your imagination.

But perhaps there is something we can both hope and write into the novel. Something that is probably to happen but also very mind-blowing. Some changes that can change our life forever might come into being because of this pandemic. For example, an online education or working system, you can do everything online, without going out. It seems like SF, but it happens now in reality. My wife is a professor in a local college, she now lectures online, while all her students stay at home. This method works, though not perfect. And the online order, payment and delivery system also makes it possible that we get everything we need without going out. These inventions are pivotal for the war with the pandemic. But they also change the ways we interact with each other, and might also change some fundamental social relationships accordingly. If I write a novel about, or inspired by this pandemic, I would like to focus more on these aspects, and discuss their potential influence on society in the future.

For the full article, including interviews with Christopher Priest, Nina Allan, Vladimir Sorokin, Pierre Bordage, Catherine Dufour, and William Gibson, please see here. This article was originally published by BIBLIOBS on 04/11/2020.

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New Releases: 7/16

New Releases

Happy New Releases Day! Here’s what went on sale today.

Earth by Ben Bova

Image Placeholder of - 13A wave of lethal gamma radiation is expanding from the core of the Milky Way galaxy at the speed of light, killing everything in its path. The countdown to when the death wave will reach Earth and the rest of the solar system is at two thousand years.

Humans were helped by the Predecessors, who provided shielding generators that can protect the solar system. In return, the Predecessors asked humankind’s help to save other intelligent species that are in danger of being annihilated.

But what of Earth? With the Death Wave no longer a threat to humanity, humans have spread out and colonized all the worlds of the solar system. The technology of the Predecessors has made Earth a paradise, at least on the surface. But a policy of exiling discontented young people to the outer planets and asteroid mines has led to a deep divide between the new worlds and the homeworld, and those tensions are about to explode into open war.

In the Woods by Carrie Jones & Steven E. Wedel

Image Place holder  of - 69It should have been just another quiet night on the farm when Logan witnessed the attack, but it wasn’t.

Something is in the woods.
Something unexplainable.
Something deadly.

Hundreds of miles away, Chrystal’s plans for summer in Manhattan are abruptly upended when her dad reads tabloid coverage of some kind of grisly incident in Oklahoma. When they arrive to investigate, they find a witness: a surprisingly good-looking farm boy.

As townsfolk start disappearing and the attacks get ever closer, Logan and Chrystal will have to find out the truth about whatever’s hiding in the woods…before they become targets themselves.

Midnight at the Blackbird Café by Heather Webber

Poster Placeholder of - 5Nestled in the mountain shadows of Alabama lies the little town of Wicklow. It is here that Anna Kate has returned to bury her beloved Granny Zee, owner of the Blackbird Café.

It was supposed to be a quick trip to close the café and settle her grandmother’s estate, but despite her best intentions to avoid forming ties or even getting to know her father’s side of the family, Anna Kate finds herself inexplicably drawn to the quirky Southern town her mother ran away from so many years ago, and the mysterious blackbird pie everybody can’t stop talking about.

As the truth about her past slowly becomes clear, Anna Kate will need to decide if this lone blackbird will finally be able to take her broken wings and fly.

The Redemption of Time by Baoshu

Placeholder of  -23In the midst of an interstellar war, Yun Tianming found himself on the front lines. Riddled with cancer, he chose to end his life, only to find himself flash frozen and launched into space where the Trisolaran First Fleet awaited. Captured and tortured beyond endurance for decades, Yun eventually succumbed to helping the aliens subjugate humanity in order to save Earth from complete destruction.

Granted a healthy clone body by the Trisolarans, Yun has spent his very long life in exile as a traitor to the human race. Nearing the end of his existence at last, he suddenly receives another reprieve—and another regeneration. A consciousness calling itself The Spirit has recruited him to wage battle against an entity that threatens the existence of the entire universe. But Yun refuses to be a pawn again and makes his own plans to save humanity’s future…

NEW IN PAPERBACK

The Darkest Star by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Place holder  of - 58In the world of the Lux, secrets thrive, lies shatter, and love is undeniable.

Evie Dasher knows firsthand the devastating consequences of humanity’s war with the Luxen. She was just a kid when it tore her world, and family, apart. Now seventeen, Evie is thrown back into a conflict she wants no part of—and into the path of Luc, an unnaturally beautiful guy she assumes is a Luxen, but is in fact something much more secret—and much more dangerous.

Her growing attraction to Luc will lead her deeper and deeper into a world she’d only heard about, revealing secrets long buried, a life-shattering betrayal, and a romance that just might make it all worth it.

Low Chicago by George R. R. Martin

The stakes were already high enough at Giovanni Galante’s poker table that night in Chicago. Poker. Dealer’s choice. Seven players. A million-dollar cash buy-in.

But after a superpowered mishap, the most high-profile criminals in the city are scattered throughout the past and their schemes across time threaten the stability of the world.

Perfect for current fans and new readers alike, Low Chicago is an all-new time travel adventure that highlights the criminal underworld of 1920s Chicago, featuring a fresh cast of characters from the Wild Cards universe.

Co-edited by #1 New York Times bestselling author George R. R. Martin and Melinda M. Snodgrass (screenwriter, Star Trek), Low Chicago features the writing talents of Saladin Ahmed (author of the bestselling comic Black Bolt), Paul Cornell (screenwriter, Doctor Who), Marko Kloos (author of the bestselling Frontlines series), John Jos. Miller, Mary Anne Mohanraj (Bodies in Motion, The Stars Change), Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy and Theodore Sturgeon Award finalist Christopher Rowe, Kevin Andrew Murphy, and Melinda M. Snodgrass.

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Catch Up on the Remembrance of Earth’s Past Series With This GIF Recap

Catch Up on the Remembrance of Earth’s Past Series With This GIF Recap

The release of The Redemption of Time, a new Three-Body Problem novel by Baoshu, is almost here! However, it has been a little while since the last Remembrance of Earth’s Past novel was released so it’s totally understandable if you need a refresher. And what better way to get caught up than with GIFs?

Please enjoy the following GIF recap and make sure to pick up your copy of The Redemption of Time when it hits shelves on July 16!


The Three-Body Problem

Set against the backdrop of China’s Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens.

An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth.

Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming…

…planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt…

…or to fight against the invasion.

The Dark Forest

In The Dark Forest, Earth is reeling from the revelation of a coming alien invasion in just four centuries’ time.

The aliens’ human collaborators may have been defeated, but the presence of the sophons, the subatomic particles that allow Trisolaris instant access to all human information, means that Earth’s defense plans are totally exposed to the enemy.

Only the human mind remains a secret.

This is the motivation for the Wallfacer Project a daring plan that grants four men enormous resources to design secret strategies, hidden through deceit and misdirection from Earth and Trisolaris alike.

Three of the Wallfacers are influential statesmen and scientists, but the fourth, Luo Ji, is a total unknown.

Luo, an unambitious Chinese astronomer and sociologist, is baffled by his new status.

All he knows is that he’s the one Wallfacer that Trisolaris wants dead.

Death’s End

Half a century after the Doomsday Battle, the uneasy balance of Dark Forest Deterrence keeps the Trisolaran invaders at bay.

Earth enjoys unprecedented prosperity due to the infusion of Trisolaran knowledge.

With human science advancing daily and the Trisolarans adopting Earth culture…

…it seems that the two civilizations will soon be able to co-exist peacefully as equals without the terrible threat of mutually assured annihilation.

But the peace has also made humanity complacent.

Cheng Xin, an aerospace engineer from the early twenty-first century, awakens from hibernation in this new age.

She brings with her knowledge of a long-forgotten program dating from the beginning of the Trisolar Crisis, and her very presence may upset the delicate balance between two worlds.

Will humanity reach for the stars or die in its cradle?

And that’s where we are headed into The Redemption of Time!

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