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Month: September 2021

Review: The Chains of Ares, by Frank Schildiner

Review: The Chains of Ares, by Frank Schildiner

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The Chains of Ares by Frank Schildiner

Overall Rating: **** (4 stars)

The Chains of Ares is a collection of four short stories, all set in the time of the late Roman Republic, involving action-filled adventure and supernatural horror.

Marcus Fabius Maximus is a member of the Roman aristocracy, descended from a very old patrician family. He is the son-in-law of the Dictator, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, who appointed him to the position of rex sacrorum or “sacred king.” That isn’t just a political appointment. As one of the Republic’s foremost priests, Marcus is an expert on religious ritual and on the supernatural, and he is often sent to deal with paranormal threats to the growing Roman empire. He is accompanied on his missions by Kara Fabia, a formidable female warrior who was once a gladiator and now serves as his bodyguard.

Marcus and Kara are close friends and partners who (rather refreshingly) have no romantic interest in each another. They’re also far from a clichéd “brains and brawn” pair. Just as Marcus can handle himself in a scrap, Kara is by no means dumb muscle. The dynamic between these two characters is one of the most attractive elements of these stories.

Each of the stories in this collection involves one of Marcus and Kara’s missions, against ghosts, bizarre cults, or monsters out of ancient myth. The stories often involve puzzles that Marcus and Kara must solve, along with plenty of bloody action scenes. Each story is well embedded in the historical setting; I caught a couple of stumbles in the research, but by and large Mr. Schildiner has done his homework with careful attention to detail. If you’re familiar with the work of Robert Howard or H. P. Lovecraft, you may recognize some of the “ancient lore” that Marcus deals with.

The biggest weakness of The Chains of Ares is in its prose mechanics. The draft badly needs a copy-editor, with grammatical errors and odd word choices scattered throughout. It’s a testament to the fast pace, interesting characters, and clever world-building in these stories that I wasn’t pulled out of the narrative.

I quite enjoyed The Chains of Ares, and I found myself wishing for more about these characters and their world. Highly recommended if you enjoy pulp-style adventure, with intriguing characters and plenty of action, set in ancient times.

“In the House of War” Now Available

“In the House of War” Now Available

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My Human Destiny novella, “In the House of War,” is now available from several outlets, notably Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Apple Books, with more on the way. The cover blurb:

Two hundred years ago, humanity was conquered by the alien Khedai. The aliens brought peace and prosperity, at the cost of human freedom. Some of us embrace the alien empire, others resent it, but no one can escape from it. We are forced to live in a cage the size of the world, watching others travel to the stars while we are confined to the Earth.

Aminata Ndoye is one of the few humans who have ever earned a place as an officer aboard an alien starship. On her first deep-space assignment, she finds herself in the middle of a war, fighting to preserve Khedai sovereignty over the vassal species of their empire. Unfortunately, it may not be the enemy that brings her career to an abrupt and violent end . . .

“In the House of War” is a space-opera novella, about 19,200 words in length.

This is a new direction in self-publishing for me. Until now, I’ve published exclusively through Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited. For a number of reasons, that’s been less than satisfactory, so this novella was published using the Draft2Digital service for layout, ebook conversion, and publication. Doing it this way means I can’t claim the higher royalties and some of the promotion techniques available via Kindle Unlimited . . . but there are some advantages in return. We’ll see how it goes.

For now, here are the requisite links:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09H58KT86

Everywhere Else: https://books2read.com/u/4Dxz8r

“In the House of War” is only available as an ebook for now, but I have some hope that by working with Draft2Digital, I’ll be able to start releasing audiobooks and paperbacks before long.

My patrons saw a final draft of “In the House of War” in August, and as of today my patrons at the $2 level and up have received free copies of the ebook files.

A Test Image

A Test Image

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Just a quick experiment with DAZ Studio and Photoshop, to put together a test image along the way to producing a cover for “In the House of War.” Here’s Aminata Ndoye in a spaceship’s corridor, in front of a large viewport.

The last time we saw Aminata was on the cover of “Pilgrimage,” when she was sixteen years old and still Earth-bound. At this point she’s in her early twenties and is serving as one of the first human officers in the Hegemony’s interstellar service. “In the House of War” is the story of her first deep-space assignment.

Of course, almost nothing in this image (aside the character herself) is as I imagine it in the story, so the final cover for the e-book isn’t going to look anything like this. The problem with building images in DAZ Studio is that you’re stuck with the assets people have gotten around to releasing for you to use. If they don’t look like what you had in mind, too bad.

Still, I wanted to get back into practice with DAZ Studio by generating a simple bit of character art, and this answers the mail. I should have the actual cover image ready to go by the weekend – I have a design in mind already.

Status Report (19 September 2021)

Status Report (19 September 2021)

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Very little about this month has been going according to plan, least of all finding the time to get some solid creative work in. Still, the shape of what’s left of September is starting to become clear. So here’s the (more informal than usual) task list for the next couple of weeks:

  • Architect of Worlds: Produce a new minor-version release of the main body of the book, the Introduction and design sequence. I’ve already made a number of minor changes. I have in mind a extensive modification that should simplify and clarify a big section of the current design sequence. This should end up with a free update for my patrons by the end of September – a version 0.7 alpha release for that document.
  • Human Destiny: I plan to release “In the House of War” as a new self-published novella by the end of this month. That’s dependent on me being able to come up with a decent cover image and get the ebook formatted on time, of course, but I think that’s within reach. My patrons at the $2 level and above will be getting a free copy of the PDF, and hopefully a Kindle-compatible ebook as well.
  • Book Reviews: I still need to complete a self-published book for review for September. I have a couple of promising candidates here.

The critical fact is that there will be no charged release for my patrons for September. Hopefully October will be a bit more conducive to new work.

A side note: I’ve adjusted my social-media strategy a bit. I no longer maintain a “business page” on Facebook as a place for posts from this blog to appear. Instead, I’ll be simply posting links to new blog posts from my personal FB page. An extra step, but to be honest, the business page wasn’t getting picked up by very many people. So if you follow me on Facebook you’ll probably have a better chance of seeing these posts.

Photosynthesis on Red Dwarf Planets

Photosynthesis on Red Dwarf Planets

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Artist’s conception of a landscape on a planet in the nearby Gliese 667 star system (ESO/L. Calçada)

Here’s another interesting result that has a strong bearing on the Architect of Worlds project:

Super-Earths, M Dwarfs, and Photosynthetic Organisms: Habitability in the Lab

We’ve assumed for a while that the planets of red dwarf stars are poor candidates for habitability, for a couple of reasons.

The main problem is that any planet close enough to a small, cool red dwarf star to bear liquid water is going to find itself seriously sandblasted during the star’s energetic “flare star” era. Without a strong magnetic field – itself unlikely if the planet rotates slowly because it’s tide-locked – it’s going to have a hard time retaining any atmosphere. If there’s plenty of geological and volcanic activity, an atmosphere may reconstruct itself once the primary star settles down.

The more subtle problem is that red dwarf starlight is lacking in the shorter visible-light frequencies driving the kind of photosynthesis we’re familiar with. A red dwarf may produce most of its energy output in the near infrared, which doesn’t do much for green plants. If photosynthesis has a hard time taking off, you’re not likely to get a breathable atmosphere with plenty of free oxygen in it.

The current draft of Architect of Worlds addresses both of these factors, in such a way that it’s actually quite difficult to generate an Earthlike world circling any but the most massive red dwarf stars (maybe M0 V or M1 V, at most).

The paper linked above, though, seems to indicate that this is too conservative. The authors worked with certain kinds of extremophile photosynthetic bacteria found on Earth. They subjected them to simulated red dwarf sunlight . . . and found that the bacteria carried on photosynthesis quite well. Even some of the more common bacteria they tested were able to carry on some photosynthetic activity under simulated red dwarf starlight.

This may be one of those cases where we need to account for the possibility of “life not quite as we know it” being able to exploit a niche we wouldn’t expect. Assuming a planet can retain (or rebuild) its atmosphere after the primary’s flare-star era, photosynthesis that leaves it with plenty of free oxygen in the air may not be as unlikely as we thought. I think one thing I’m going to do this month is to adjust parts of the Architect of Worlds design sequence to allow for this possibility.

Review: Deathsworn, by H. K. Oby

Review: Deathsworn, by H. K. Oby

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Deathsworn by H. K. Oby

Overall Rating: *** (3 stars)

Deathsworn is the first novel in a planned series called The Mahasiddhi Chronicle, an urban fantasy drawing on the rich tapestry of Hindu legend.

Amin is a young man living on the streets of modern India. From youth, he has been forced to struggle for survival. This has driven him to become a superb thief and confidence artist, specializing in posing as a sadhu (a religious ascetic) in order to swindle valuables out of devout but gullible victims.

At the beginning of the story, Amin carries off one such scam, but before he can enjoy his gains he is double-crossed and apparently killed. At the very moment of his seeming death, he is snatched out of danger by a mysterious force called “the Pulse.” He learns that he is to serve as a “Deathsworn,” a holy warrior trained in the martial arts, pledged to defend the world against evil rakshasas (demons) who threaten it. He is sent to a school for new Deathsworn, where sages and figures out of Hindu lore will train him as a superhuman warrior with siddhis (superpowers) that will help him face the rakshasas.

Unfortunately, nothing goes as planned. Amin is rejected by his teachers and his fellow students. He fails to display any of the siddhis normally granted to all Deathsworn. Worst of all, it seems that the Hindu gods have it in for Amin, and they are doing their best to kill him before he can complete his training!

The story that follows is reminiscent of the Harry Potter or Percy Jackson novels: a modern character dropped into a fiercely demanding school that’s grounded in some flavor of the supernatural, forced to overcome obstacles that stand in the way of his success. It’s a familiar formula, but it works, and H. K. Oby applies the common tropes well.

Deathsworn is a debut novel, and it shows. Every character’s dialogue, and the author’s narrative voice, all use the same colloquial language even in moments where a different style might be more in keeping with the premise. It’s a little jarring to hear figures out of the Mahabharata using chatty, conversational English even at a point of high drama. The novel needs the attention of a copy editor as well; the basic prose mechanics (word choice, spelling, capitalization) are noticeably rough.

Despite those criticisms, I found the story worked well and kept me engaged. Amin was a charming protagonist; his supporting cast, less fully developed, were believable as his allies, friends, and rivals. The core of the story is about Amin’s growth as a person, and the discovery of honest virtue beneath his armor of cynicism. Watching his evolution through this fast-paced story kept me turning the pages.

The backdrop of Hindu myth, given a modern slant, was intriguing as well. I found myself recognizing elements from my own past reading, and l was driven to look up more details that I didn’t immediately recognize.

All in all, Deathsworn is a flawed first effort, but I found it a quick and enjoyable read. If you have any interest in a “school for heroes” story, set amid the complexities of Hindu myth, this novel and its sequels are worth watching.

Status Report (31 August 2021)

Status Report (31 August 2021)

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Quick update this evening, since this is the last day of the month and I’m still hanging fire on a couple of tasks.

Most of the delay is that I just acquired a new desktop computer a week or so ago, and I’ve slowly been adjusting my work-flows and creative routine to fit. The new machine is much more powerful than the laptop I’ve been using for the last few years. It’s probably going to become my primary machine for graphic design, art, and cartography (as well as my main gaming machine). Meanwhile, my laptop will probably continue to be my primary writing platform. Transferring files and tasks over, and adjusting to the split between the two devices, has been taking up more time than I expected.

I did manage to polish up a novella and release that to my patrons earlier this month. At the moment I’m working on a book review and putting together a new incremental release for the Human Destiny setting bible and sourcebook. Unfortunately those two items are close-but-not-quite-finished and I don’t think I’ll have either of them out before midnight tonight.

I’ll post a more extensive planning message for September later this week, but the immediate plan is to get that indie novel read and reviewed ASAP, after which the Human Destiny update will come as soon as I can put all the pieces of that in some semblance of order. Possibly this weekend for that. Then I’ll be able to get started on new tasks for September.