Some news and recommended reading

This is re-posted from my June newsletter:

Aloha,

I’m late again with this newsletter, though not so late as I’ve been in the past. The truth is, I’m in a fallow period when it comes to writing—even the writing of newsletters—and as I’ve confessed before, progress on the fifth and last book in the Inverted Frontier series has been slow. But it will get there!

In the meantime, I wanted to share a couple of small news items and some book recommendations.

“Ride” — a short story set in the fictional world of my novel Pacific Storm
I wrote “Ride” on commission, for publication at Slate magazine in 2021. This past spring it was republished at Issues.org, a joint publication of the National Academy of Sciences and Arizona State University. If you missed “Ride” the first time around, you can read it online now, here at Issues.org.

The Red Trilogy – Saga Press print editions
If you’re interested in a full set of the Saga Press print editions of the Red trilogy—either hard cover or mass-market paperback (and signed!), and you have a mailing address in the United States, please contact me at linda@mythicisland.com. I have two drawers of author copies that I am free to sell now that the Saga editions are out of print. Christmas presents, perhaps, for that reader in your life?

The cover art on these books is different from the Mythic Island Press editions, but the content is the same. Right now I’m charging $15 + $11 postage ($26 total) for the set of paperbacks, and $30 plus $20 postage ($50 total) for the hardcovers. (Edit: When postage goes up, these prices will go up too.)

Recommended Audiobooks
For me, audiobooks have served as a window onto history. I was never a dedicated reader of history, but since acquiring the audiobook habit, I’ve loved listening to such books. It’s a luxury to have someone read to me while I do a task in the garden or in the kitchen. With the best books, I even find myself thinking of more tasks to do, so I can keep on listening.

A recent favorite was The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook, written by Hampton Sides and narrated by Peter Noble. The title describes what the book is about. It begins with Cook in semi-retirement after his second great voyage, when he is persuaded to take on another venture, seemingly against his own best judgment, and the narrative follows that voyage in meticulous detail, through and beyond his death on the Big Island of Hawaii. I found the book fascinating, both for its portrayal of island cultures and for its author’s attempt to interpret Cook’s state of mind—which was evidently different and harsher than on his previous voyages.

Another audiobook I enjoyed immensely—fiction this time—was Heart of Darkness: A Signature Performance by Kenneth Branagh, written by Joseph Conrad and narrated by Kenneth Branagh. I’ve read Conrad’s novel several times, but this was better than reading. Branagh does such an excellent job performing the text that for me, at least, it’s easier to follow and understand, than by reading alone. Unfortunately, I think this one is only available from Audible.

Recommended Reading:
A few years ago I picked up a copy of Alastair Reynolds’s novel Inhibitor Phase and then promptly forgot about it. I’m glad that happened, because I re-discovered it at just the right moment to re-ignite my love of science fiction.

I don’t know if it’s because my own work has been going so slowly, or because of the dark times we are currently experiencing here in the USA, but I haven’t been enthusiastic about reading science fiction lately. Inhibitor Phase is the first science fiction novel in a long time that I’ve been eager to return to—that I’ve made extra time just to read—and that’s a great feeling.

The story is set in Reynold’s Revelation Space universe, but it’s written as a stand-alone, and it also includes a short and helpful stage-setting introduction. It begins with a small human colony hiding out from an ancient alien technology programmed to hunt down and destroy technological lifeforms. This setup is similar to that in my own novel, Vast, but the execution is altogether different. Inhibitor Phase is a long, complex novel of technology, self-discovery, self-sacrifice, and the struggle for survival in a hostile universe.

Comfort Reading
Forgive me if I push my own work here. I’ve long said that I write the kind of books I want to read. Early this year, as existential dread took over, I turned to a comfort read: my own fantasy trilogy, The Wild. It’s a story that took me years to write and re-write, but I’m satisfied with it now. The setting is a world of nature and nature spirits. And although the world has been corrupted by malevolence and hate, good still exists, personified by three young warriors. Together they take on a perilous quest to quell the corruption and to find their own place in the world.

You can read more about the Wild trilogy here, beginning with book 1, The Snow Chanter. I do hope you’ll check it out.

Take care, and Happy Reading!

— Linda