Matt Weber's Blog, page 20
February 21, 2014
SATORI now available on Comixology!
My co-creator, Mike LaRiccia, has put our 2008 comic, SATORI, on Comixology for $1.99. Since he mentioned this to me, I’ve just joined Comixology—I can’t say much about the PC version of the app, since it seems my information hasn’t cross-pollinated from the mobile app to the website, but the mobile reader is beautiful and there are a ton of issue #1s of great comics for free. So, even if you don’t want to read SATORI, and even—especially!—if you don’t like reading comics, I would strongly recommend joining Comixology and perusing the free issues. Here, I’ll even help you out with a few pointers:
SAGA: Fantasy space opera family drama. Seriously, do not even consider clicking away from this post before you download it.
THE WALKING DEAD: The state of the art in zombie survival horror; inspiration for the AMC show of the same name.
BONE: Reasonably funny screwball comedy, evolving over the course of 1000 pages or so into beautifully drawn and written (yet still funny) epic fantasy.
PLANETARY: A superhero team of fantastic archaeologists, striving to keep the world strange.
RASL: Dimension-warping soap opera slash conspiracy thriller slash love letter to Nikola Tesla.
WANTED: The logical, horrible extension of superhero power fantasies; inspiration for the really pretty different James McAvoy/Angelina Jolie movie of the same name.
February 14, 2014
prelude to a sting
Do you remember the girls on the slave boat, up on the lake? When I think about what I have done, I think of the plan they sculpted from whispers out on the dark water. The slavers had bought the police, of course, and the girls themselves were part of the currency; but that meant the girls could whisper to the police as they did to one another, and if the police learned something valuable enough, they might do a favor even for a slave. We listened to them so long that we grew parched and drank muddy water from the lake shore, and watched the kiss they shared, and then crept back to camp, and a few weeks later the Dwarf Island sting was all over the papers and the entire Shore Force was bathing in gold and glory.
I like to think the wit and bravery of those whispering girls bought their freedom. But, even more than that, I like to think that freedom went to the dimmer, more timid children, who could not buy it but were owed it anyway.
To me, this explains what I have done. More likely, the turns of mind that bring someone so sharply up against her trade and country are not so cleanly drawn. But I am satisfied.
(From the story in progress, tentatively titled “Continents of Summer, Firmaments of Sun”)
February 13, 2014
how not to cook a wolf
Holy shit, THREE KINGDOMS is starting to go full Westeros on me. (Not pictured: The part where they talk about how losing wives and children is like losing clothes, but losing “brothers” [-in-arms] is like losing a limb.)
NB: Liu Xuande is the big damn hero of this story, as I understand it.
February 12, 2014
February 8, 2014
more lupinity
“It was decided to terminate the experiment.”
“Just forget about it?” Little Tib asked.
“The experimental material would be sacrificed to prevent the continuance and possible further development of the phenomena.”
“I don’t understand.”
“The brains and spinal cords of the boys and girls involved would be turned over to the biologists for examination.”
“Oh, I know this story,” Little Tib said. “The three Wise Men come and warn Joseph and Mary, and they take Baby Jesus to the Land of Egypt on a donkey.”
Gene Wolfe, “The Eyeflash Miracles”
February 7, 2014
one wolf anticipates another
Each year he came to Beech Hill by bus, with an overnight stop. The stop had, itself, become a ritual. In fact, the entire trip from the moment he carried his bag out of the apartment was marked with golden milestones, events that were—so strong was the anticipation of pleasure—pleasures themselves.
“Beech Hill,” Gene Wolfe (1972)
“A neural substrate of prediction and reward,” Wolfram Schultz, Peter Dayan, & P. Read Montague (1997)
February 2, 2014
the land across
One of these days I’m going to read a Gene Wolfe book properly–read it for the first time to appreciate the lines, then again, immediately, to see if I can figure out how the engine works. (I tried this once with PEACE, but got derailed.) Probably not this time, though, not because I didn’t enjoy THE LAND ACROSS but because reading time is precious, and there are so many books. So for now I’m just making a few notes on things to watch for again on reread.
Obviously ages are meant to be important clues to something or another. My main insight on this is unsolved but, I think, important: Wolfe is at pains to let us know that Grafton is in his mid-twenties max, in the age of iPhones, meaning he’s substantially younger than me. But, as several Goodreads reviews gripe about, his diction is archaic (“kept my yap shut,” “swell,” “bet the rent,” “dope them out,” “smart off,” &c.). For a prose stylist like Wolfe, this can’t possibly be unintentional. But I freely admit I don’t have any idea what it means. (Is the whole thing a translation from German, or one of Grafton’s other languages? What would that mean?)
Coming off thinking of PEACE, you can’t help but notice that the layout of Puraustays and the capital is an awful lot like a cemetery–no straight streets, a strip of trees and flowers around each building, &c. I’ll have to go back and pay attention to this. (The description of City Hall on p. 14 is notably weird.)
The (were?)wolves of Puraustays have a decent shot at being some sort of representative of Wolfe himself–he’s done this before, for sure in THE FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS and I think elsewhere as well. Again, though, I’d have to go back to figure out the significance of this.
How did he figure out the head of the Unholy Way? (This might be mentioned fairly explicitly in the text, I just don’t remember.)
What’s with Grafton’s dad/the third border guard? What about his mom? What does JAKA stand for?
Early in the book, Kleon beats up Grafton handily. Toward the end, the tables are turned. What changed?
Plenty more to think about, for sure. This is (one of the reasons) why I love Wolfe. One day, maybe I’ll be smart enough to read him.
If you’re not familiar with Wolfe and this has whetted your interest, maybe check out this NPR article on the book. For people not heavily into genre, I think this and most of his recent books–AN EVIL GUEST, THE SORCERER’S HOUSE, HOME FIRES–would be good introductions to Wolfe, as would PEACE; for people who are pretty comfortable getting thrown into deep water, just go straight for the Book of the New Sun (a four-book series starting with THE SHADOW OF THE TORTURER, sometimes collected in a two-volume series starting with SHADOW & CLAW).
January 27, 2014
January 23, 2014
by the power of greyskull
Where Skeletor failed, will Cao Hong succeed? Read on if you would know.
August 28, 2013
help me price-match “statler pulchrifex” and “wormwords”
“Statler pulchrifex” and “Wormwords” are now available on the Kindle Store for $0.99! But, as at least some of you know, they are also available, respectively, at NATURE and COSMOS—for free. There’s no reason to make anyone pay for them on Amazon, except that I can’t charge less than $0.99 unless Amazon is aware that there’s a free alternative.
I’d like to enlist your help in that project. I’ve published both stories on Kobo—here’s “Statler pulchrifex,” here’s “Wormwords.” It would be great if I could get just a couple of people to do the following for each story:
1. Find it on Amazon (the serene blue covers above link to Amazon),
2. Ctrl-F “tell us about a lower price,” then click on it,
3. Click the “Website” radio button,
4. Enter the corresponding Kobo URL (linked in the previous paragraph), with $0.00 for the price and shipping cost of the stories.
I’ve done this myself, of course, but reports seem to suggest that price matches from people other than the author get quicker responses from Amazon.
Why go to all that trouble to make my work free? Same reason anyone gives out free samples—I want to give people a taste. I’d very much like to earn some money at this, of course, but I have a fair bit written and plenty more ideas. I don’t need to earn on every word.
In case anyone’s curious about the covers, incidentally, I wanted an easy way for free stories to stand out. As I add stories and collections, the system will become clearer, but the basic way it works is this: Collections have full-color covers, collected stories have sepia covers, free stand-alones have blue covers. The idea is that any short story that costs money will be collected, and therefore available at a discount; any short story that isn’t also presented in a collection should be free. Especially those available elsewhere on the Web for free.
Thanks for your help! I’ll post an update when the price-match goes through.
