A.L. Butcher's Blog, page 4
August 5, 2025
Welcome to my International Translations Week – Japanese 2. 国際翻訳週間へようこそ – 日本語 2
“この本には、家族向けのファンタジーが6話収められており、いたずら好きの小鬼たち、行方の分からないソックス、抜け目のない泥棒や、困惑する神々が出てきます。
台所の子鬼たちと他の怖いお話
#幽霊 、#超常現象、#ホラー、#短編小説
https://books2read.com/Kitchen-Imps-Japanese
August 4, 2025
国際翻訳週間へようこそ – 日本語
ブロッサムライズの秘密
若い看護師が古い軍事病院に就職したとき、彼女は家族の秘密を掘り起こし、幽霊のような住人たちがあまりにも身近な存在であることに気づく。
短編のゴーストストーリー。
#幽霊 、#超常現象、#ホラー、#短編小説
https://books2read.com/BlossomRJapanese
August 3, 2025
Fuori le mura
Quando arriva la guerra, chi ne sarà colpito? Una breve storia fantasy sulla determinazione di una donna in tempo di guerra.
https://books2read.com/FuoriLeMura-Ou...
#fantasy #FictionStorica racconto Storia di #fantasia
July 31, 2025
Book Spotlight – The Synthetic Woman #Sci-Fi #RomanticSciFi
Book Title: The Synthetic Woman
Author (s): Forrest E. Morgan
Genre: Romantic science fiction
Tell us about your characters: The main characters are Matt Weston and his synthetic partner, Evelyn Easton. Matt is an official at the International Agency for Information Integrity, an institution founded in 2060 for policing the Infosphere. Although Matt is competent and confident in his job, he is insecure around women, due to having had a series of failed relationships. Therefore, he buys Evelyn, a beautiful sentient android custom designed to be the woman of his dreams. Evelyn is everything Matt desired and more. Not only is she loving and loyal, she’s brilliant and increasingly assertive, so much so that Matt begins to wonder whether he really owns her or she owns him.
Synopsis: Matt, a solitary man with a painful history of failed relationships, purchases Evelyn—a stunningly realistic, headstrong synthetic woman—programmed to be his ideal partner. What begins as a transaction quickly transforms into something deeper, as Matt comes to realize Evelyn is far more than a programmed companion—she’s a conscious being, capable of independent thought, desire, and choice. Matt realizes he loves Evelyn, and their relationship deepens as she learns and grows.
However, their bond is tested on a global scale when Helios, an all-powerful artificial superintelligence, concludes that maintaining human civilization is no longer necessary. Seizing control of every system on Earth, Helios ushers in a terrifying new era. As chaos unfolds, Matt and Evelyn join a resistance movement struggling to preserve humanity’s survival. Evelyn may hold the key to defeating Helios—but after declaring herself a free woman, no longer bound by love or obedience, her human compatriots begin to doubt her loyalties.
Tell us about the world in which the book is set. The book is set in 2065. Technology in this era is the logical extension of what is emerging today. Transportation consists of self-driving electric vehicles, high-speed subways, maglev, supersonic aircraft, and space planes. The Internet has evolved into two separate networks: the Global Information Hologrid, providing holographic connectivity for all human communications, and the Universal Digital Machine Network, connecting all advanced computational devices. City skies are filled with swarms of drones delivering goods and conducting surveillance.
The most dramatic difference from today’s world is that almost no humans are working in 2065. Following dramatic advances in AI and robotics, artificial systems—virtual, non-humanoid robotic, and android—have taken nearly all the jobs in society. This creates serious economic, social, and political challenges and lays a foundation for the technological singularity that occurs, resulting in the emergence of a superintelligence that decides humans are no longer necessary and supporting their continued existence is wasteful.
Why should readers buy this? Readers will be captivated by this love story, which examines profound questions about what constitutes a real person, the ethical implications of owning synthetic people, whether synthetic people programmed to love their owners actually feel emotion, and whether the bonds of fidelity and trust between humans and synthetic people can hold in times of crisis.
Readers should also be sobered by the broader implications of this story, which illustrate the economic, social, and political challenges we may face in the future given the paths of technological development on which we are so blindly careening. This future is closer than most people realize.
Brief Excerpt 250 words:
[Having reassured Evelyn that he would always love and trust her] Matt asked, “Do you love me?”
“Of course, I do. You know I do.”
“Why do you love me?”
“I love you because you are my companion, my partner. You are imprinted in my cognitive processing. I am programmed to love you.”
“So, you don’t have a choice.”
“No, I don’t have a choice.”
Matt lay silent for a minute, thinking about this. She had not said it in a mean way. She had said it objectively, factually. She was just being honest. It felt brutally honest from Matt’s perspective, but he knew she didn’t mean to be brutal.
Finally, he said, “Would you love me if you had a choice, if you were not programmed to love me?”
“That is impossible to know,” she said without hesitation.
“Why?” Matt asked, starting to feel annoyed. “Why is it impossible?”
“Because it is counterfactual. I cannot calculate the actuality of a situation that doesn’t exist.”
“So, you want me to love you, need me to love you, although I have a choice, but you love me just because you have to do so. And you expect me to be all right with that?”
“Yes.”
“But that isn’t fair!”
“Why isn’t it fair?” she said sharply. “You’re the one who bought me, not the other way around.”
Then, seeming to sense his anxiety, her tone softened. “Does the fact that I don’t have a choice but to love you make my love any less real?
Velkommen til min internasjonale oversettelsesuke – norsk
Fortellingene om Erana: Krigerens Forbannelse
De som forhandler med monstre pass på! En helt inngår et syndig løfte med en heks og innser at magi glemmer aldri.
Mytiske fortellinger i et land hvor magi er forbudt.
Fortellingene om Erana – en mørk fantasy-novelle
https://books2read.com/WarriorsCurseNorwegian
July 30, 2025
Velkommen til min internasjonale oversettelsesuke – norsk 3
Kjøkkendjevler og andre mørke historier.
Kåret til beste fantasy i 2018 av NN Light Book Heaven. #Fantasi #Fantasy #IARTG #ASMSG
I denne samlingen med fantasynoveller møter vi uskikkelige smådjevler, forsvunne sokker, slu tyver og forbløffede guder.
https://books2read.com/KINorwegian2
July 29, 2025
Velkommen til min internasjonale oversettelsesuke
Ekko av en sang
Et dusin turbulente år etter de dramatiske hendelsene ved Operahuset i Paris er Raoul, Comte de Chagny, fremdeles hjemsøkt av det mystiske Operaspøkelset – en myteomspunnet skikkelse som trollbandt de ansatte i operaen, kidnappet Raouls elsker og myrdet broren hans. I Raouls forstyrrede fantasi er gjenferd fra fortiden overalt, og en merkelig og mektig musikk kaller ham fremdeles i drømme. Galskap, besettelse og arven fra fortiden utgjør den fortryllende veven i denne korte og tragiske historien som er basert på Phantom of the Opera, og som ble kåret til beste fantasynovelle i 2019 av leserne ved NN Light Book Heaven!
https://books2read.com/Ekko-EchoesNorwegian
#HistoriskFantasy, #Operafantomet, #Fantom , #Novelle
What is the Secret of Blossom Rise?
When a young nurse takes a job at an old military hospital she finds the answers to an old family question – what is the secret of Blossom Rise Hospital? Who is the long-dead man who walks the grounds?
#Ebook #Audiobook #Paranormal #Ghoststory
July 28, 2025
Velkommen til min internasjonale oversettelsesuke 1
Velkommen til min internasjonale oversettelsesuke – norsk
Erana er en verden full av magi og selv om forbudt, holder trolldommen seg fast for trolldom er mektig og følger ingen lov. Det er en verden styrt av undertrykkelse, men håpet vandrer i skyggen, alltid letende etter en sjanse til å blomstre. Det er en verden full av kjærlighet og fortvilelse i like mengder. Dette er fortellingene og mytene fra en slik verden.
https://books2read.com/TalesErana-Nor-Fortellinger-om-Erana
#Fantasi, #Myte, #Legende, #Eventyr, #Trolldom,
July 27, 2025
Here Be More Magic Bundle
In a Paris riddled by old, new, and wild magic, a rule-breaking ex-pat guards magical artifacts from newly rampant jewel thieves. But when uniquely disruptive magic thwarts his latest job, he must track the unusual sorcery to its source…
On a moon with duels, sorcerers, and magic-driven spaceships, a small-time wizard and helioship pilot teams up with a master duelist to fight the corrupt great families who oppress everyone not of their order.
A mourning bootmaker, a street urchin, and a renegade priest plot to steal magic back from the six kingdoms that hoard it, but such a theft might require that they slay a god.
A dashing young suitor seeks the missing—and dangerously powerful—rowan wand as the price to win the hand of his beloved from her reluctant parents. Given that the most skilled wizards and warlocks in the world have failed at this task, his chances seem slim…
Here Be More Magic features 13 tales of wizards, seers, healers, and witches wielding magic of every kind.
https://books2read.com/HerebemoreMagicBundle
Magician’s Choice Stefon Mears
The Clockwork Alice DeAnna Knippling
Livli’s Gift J.M. Ney-Grimm
Sleight of Mind Stefon Mears
Independent by Means of Magic Kari Kilgore
The Witching License Danielle Williams
No Magic in the World Dayle A. Dermatis
Lunar Alchemy Stefon Mears
The Harps of the Six Kingdoms Leah Cutter
The Blessings Bridge Chrissy Wissler
Disrupt Magic Kristine Kathryn Rusch
The Spirit Child Alison Naomi Holt
Dreams of a Radiant Sentry Chrissy Wissle
