Breaking News & Random Musings on Space, Technology, Sci-Fi & the View From A Writer’s Window
A new header image went up on the social media profiles this week, and I thought you all might enjoy seeing it. The theme: “The people who will save the universe - if it can be saved.”
You can see high-res versions of the character art - and some additional characters - on my concept art page: https://www.gsjennsen.com/concept-art/. Click to expand a pic, then right click to download it if you like.
Archetype Entertainment dropped a ton of exciting updates this week for EXODUS, it’s upcoming action/RPG scifi game. If you’re a fan of Mass Effect, you want to be following this game! New key art is below. They also released a new set of screenshots, and the devs hosted a 12-minute Q&A. And you can now Wishlist the game at Steam and other retailers. See all the updates here: https://www.exodusgame.com/en-US/news/wishlist-exodus-now-watch-the-new-exodus-founders-qa-and-more
One for me, one for Mr. Jennsen. :)
I know, I know - wall calendars are so last century. But what if they have gorgeous space art on them....?
I just thought I'd briefly pimp 2 calendars from 3 amazing astrophotographers (2 are a married couple), Catherin Machin and Ian Lauer, and Andrew McCarthy. These are as beautiful as they come. I'm not an affiliate, and no perks come to me from sharing these. I just suspect that some of you, like me, are suckers for a collection of space art you can justify hanging on your wall.
Machin/Lauer: https://catmachin.com/products/2026-calendar
McCarthy: https://cosmicbackground.io/products/2026-cosmic-calendar?variant=46400264405161
Well, Nika is, anyway, as she should be. All the thanks to BookBub for featuring EXIN EX MACHINA on Wednesday! Well over 10K copies have been downloaded already; I hope this means we'll be welcoming a bunch of new people to the Amaranthe community soon.
MACHINA will remain free through the weekend, if you know anyone who needs it in their life. Info and retailers are HERE.
P.S.: I’ve switched to a new newsletter provider, so let me know if you have any problems or see any glitches with this email. Thanks!
Guys, "pulsing" is on the way, and much faster than I was expecting.
A startup called "Alter Ego" is releasing a product by the same name that detects what you want to say and transmits it. It picks up on the downstream subtle signals your brain sends to your speech system, before words are spoken aloud, and it captures only what you intend to say (not your random thoughts).
Now we just need to get the device inside our skull (though, honestly, a little dot behind the ear would be close enough).
Here's the full article: https://thedebrief.org/mit-linked-startup-unveils-near-telepathic-wearable-device-for-silent-communication/
Watch it in action here: https://x.com/alterego_io/status/1965113585299849535
Exponential shininess on display here. I swear, this art positively leaps off the cover.
Also, a photo can't begin to convey how thick it is! It's practically a Brandon Sanderson novel....
If you want one of your own (minus that hideous proof banner), get your preorder in today: https://www.gsjennsen.com/paperback-store
And boom, suddenly LIMINAL SPACE will be here in 2.5 weeks! All the edits are in, and I'm working on the print and ebook formatting now. And HERE is your first teaser excerpt. Are you ready for the most epic showdowns of epic showdowns?
Dragon Con Day 1. 10 am, as the Vendor Hall opens. I’ve got the books (and many, many more books under the table). I’ve got the banner. I’ve got the first of 4 geeky tshirts. I’m ready to sell some books.
Dragon Con Day 4. 45 minutes left in the convention. The table is clear, all books safely in the hands of new owners. And I get to rest. ;)
Many other, non-table adventures were had over the course of the long weekend. I spoke on 4 interesting panels, sold yet more books at a SFF gala party Friday night, and hung out with other authors in the Westin bar every night. I got to meet my narrator, Pyper Down, in person for the first time! She was simply fabulous. All in all a great, and exhausting, time.
The pic says it all. :D Well, except the fact that he was amazing. A genuine guitar genius.
Last year, we were finishing the house and getting ready to move and moving, and we missed a lot of the summer. This year, we are making up for lost time!
Last weekend, we went to see Mumford & Sons at The Gorge Amphitheatre in George, WA. 2 hours west of Spokane, 2.5 hours east of Seattle, it's in the middle of absolute nowhere - that happens to be on a ridge above the beautiful Columbia River.
The comparison to Red Rocks Park (in Colorado) is immediate and deserved. Is it a better or worse venue than Red Rocks? Oh, why judge! The important thing is, I used to get to go to concerts at Red Rocks, and now I get to go to concerts at The Gorge!
It bills itself as having the most beautiful sunsets of any concert venue in the world, and THAT may well be true, for the sunset was indeed breathtaking (the clouds cleared enough in time to be an accent rather than a hindrance).
Oh, right, the concert itself. Incredible. Easily Top 5 of shows I've seen, and I've seen *a lot* of shows. 9 band members, with a full horn section, an upright bass, and of course the omnipresent fiddle, and their sound was as crisp, clear and in sync as a studio recording. In person, they sounded better than their released live albums.
But let's be honest. While the show would've been a shadow of itself without the ensemble, Marcus Mumford is the indisputable star. He has a strongly charismatic stage presence that I wasn't expecting, and a perfect voice.
10/10, would recommend.*
*Except the exfiltration system. It was a disaster. Never build a venue that can hold 30,000 people at the end of a 3-mile 2-lane road.
It being summer, some friends took us rafting down the Spokane River this weekend! It was hot and sunny, and the water was cool and delightful (yes, we spent almost as much time swimming as we did rafting).
Since this was our first time, we used a cheap little raft we named “Rubber Ducky.” But we enjoyed ourselves enough that we’re thinking of upgrading to 2-person kayak, which is much, much more maneuverable.
I'm honestly not sure where the consensus has formed on this, but I *really* enjoyed Murderbot!
I was concerned about the slapstick, over-the-top comedic feel of the trailer, and yes, to some extent the humor was over the top (and definitely beyond the books). But I laughed A LOT while watching the show (and I'm not typically easily amused). Sometimes, that's enough. Not every show has to be "Capital M" Meaningful. It can just be fun.
Just an appreciation post for my new(ish) hometown, Coeur d’Alene. I’m so happy to have moved to a place this beautiful, where every Sunday brunch looks like this.*
*Okay, every Sunday 6 months out of the year; the other 6 months it's too cold for the patio.
The first trailer for the PROJECT HAIL MARY movie has dropped (and the official movie poster)! It's a surprisingly fullsome trailer, while also being mostly setup for the actual story.
I absolutely loved this book. The odds of any Hollywood adaptation of a scifi IP being worthy of the book are always low, but they managed to do it with The Martian, by the same author (Andy Weir). Accordingly, I'm optimistic! What do you all think?
SPOILERS FOR THE BOOK:
It’ll all come down to whether the movie nails Rocky. Gosling’s character may be the POV and main character, but Rocky is the star of the book.
See the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m08TxIsFTRI
I had a booth at Lilac City Comicon in Spokane for the first time this weekend. Doing a “hometown” convention was so nice! I got to sleep in my own bed at night, and I knew where everything was, and I didn’t have to worry about forgetting anything. The Spokane Convention Center is a lovely venue, and I had a terrific time with my booth-mate and BFF, Katie Cross.
One of the tools us indie authors use to help in marketing has added a reverse lookup feature. You input a book's Amazon ASIN number, and it tells you what searches the book ranks highest in.
For fun and research, I input Starshine. One of its highest searches?
“wild heroine space opera romance”
They've got Alex's number good, lol.
If any of you are gamers, you may be aware that a game called “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33” has taken the world by storm this last month. It came out of nowhere from an indie studio, Sandfall, employing only 30 or so developers, to drop AAA studio quality graphics, gameplay and story.
So obviously, not wanting to miss “the moment,” I had to play it. Here are my brief, off-the-cuff thoughts:
My opinion only, but I've got to go against the weight of public sentiment here. Clair Obscur is a unique, original story and world with gorgeous art and music...that is ultimately too clever by half.
The big story twist pulls the rug out from under all the emotional investment of the first 3/4 of the game, and the ending that arguably rewards that emotional investment is cast as the "bad" ending. Also, the combat gets very repetitive, but that's largely the nature of JRPGs and a small quibble against the story issues.
I LOVE that a small studio could craft such a beautiful, complex game with many interesting features and mechanics. All the props to Sandfall, and the AAA studios can learn a lot from them. But after engaging me for many hours, the story left me feeling empty and a touch annoyed.
Netflix's 3 Body Problem exceeded my expectations. It managed to stick fairly closely to the book's fascinating plot, while westernizing the story, crafting engaging characters and adding the kind of human drama TV viewers expect.
The novel makes for excellent science fiction, but like too many scifi novels, the characters are not its strength. The show fixed that weakness. Benedict Wong was a standout, and Liam Cunningham is always fantastic.
Book Two (The Dark Forest) features a significant time jump, and I'll be interested to see how well the show's creators handle the shift in setting and characters.
P.S.: I've heard that Netflix is throwing money at Seasons 2 and 3, which may be filmed together. Not sure that will entirely solve the challenges of adapting the books for TV, but it should make for some gorgeous space scifi visuals!
The website has gotten a glow-up!
All the information is still there, but the presentation is now much cleaner, more orderly, and less confusing for everyone who hasn't read the books 3 times and isn't steeped in Amaranthe lore.
Most importantly, it should look much, much better on mobile. While I usually interact with the internet on two lovely, giant widescreen monitors (because I'm sitting at my PC writing, obvy....), the fact is, most people come to my website on their phones - and it should be a pleasant experience that results in them easily finding what they're looking for (books!).
Note: I'm technically still working through the new design on all the book pages (OMG, there are so many, what was I thinking?). But it's live on the front page, Amaranthe page, the individual series pages and all the entry-point books.
P.S.: If you're someone who checks in on the WIP word count meter, you'll now find it on the book's page (currently https://www.gsjennsen.com/liminal-space).
Anyway, go check it out: https://www.gsjennsen.com/
