Continuum Update

Told ya. 😎

And I'm not *quite* done adding words yet, which means so long as not too many end up on the cutting-room floor, CONTINUUM will in fact be the longest book since Starshine. 🎉🎉🍻

I just thought you'd like to know.😋

[EDITORIAL NOTE]: This is the reason for the sparse posting on Supermassive Black Holes of late. I’m eating, sleeping and breathing Continuum, and everything else has fallen by the wayside - including but definitely not limited to social media posts. Regular posting will resume soon…ish.

[EDITIORIAL NOTE #2]: The word count is now 136,210.

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Originally posted on Facebook.

Aurora Rising - No, Not That One

When Random House released a YA sci-fi book titled "Aurora Rising" a few months ago to great fanfare and many press releases, I didn't make a big deal about it - I don't think I even mentioned it on social media. Titles are not copyrightable, so there was zero I could have done about it from a legal or public relations perspective. It wasn't even the first book titled "Aurora Rising" to come out in sci-fi since I completed the trilogy (that honor goes, I believe, to the renaming of Alastair Reynolds' "The Prefect" to "Aurora Rising" about 2 years ago).

I received the 1-star review posted on below on Vertigo a few days ago (just saw it this morning): https://www.amazon.com/…/R2IVQJYX…/ref=cm_cr_othr_d_rvw_ttl…. Now, authors are NOT supposed to publicly respond to reviews, negative or otherwise (as a matter of custom and propriety - there's no Amazon rule against it). But I did it anyway.

I Just. Couldn't. Help. Myself.

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Note: since posting this on Facebook, the outpouring of support has been tremendous. In addition to people commenting on the review chiding the poster, readers have reported it for abuse dozens of times. I don’t know if Amazon will eventually will remove it, but the support everyone has shown has been worth so much more.

The Size of Space

Take 30 seconds and right-click until you feel suitably insignificant and overawed: https://neal.fun/size-of-space/

"A new website called “The Size of Space” illustrates how incomprehensibly vast the cosmos are.

As you scroll to the side, the site takes you on a journey from the size of an astronaut all the way up to the entire observable universe. As the scale ramps up, from spacecraft to moons to planets and onward, the smaller objects become tiny dots before vanishing altogether." Via Futurism.

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Originally posted on Facebook.

Moons of Saturn

On July 29, 2011 the Cassini spacecraft's narrow-angle camera took this snapshot and captured 5 of Saturn's moons, from just above the ringplane. Left to right are small moons Janus and Pandora respectively 179 and 81 kilometers across, shiny 504 kilometer diameter Enceladus, and Mimas, 396 kilometers across, seen just next to Rhea.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap191017.html

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Originally posted on Twitter.

Brand New Again

I'm finally getting to updating the paperbacks with the Amaranthe rebranding (albeit slowly, because Continuum). I was working on Transcendence today, and since there were a few minor interior updates, I was flipping through the PDF proof to make sure everything looked good.

I accidentally started reading at the point where Matei Uttara attacks Caleb. Two hours later I'm still reading, utterly transfixed. And I might have teared up twice.

I know every "thing" that happens in this book like the back of my hand, but 4.5 years later, the words are brand new all over again.🥰

Oh, how I adore these guys.

Oh, how I adore these guys.

Originally posted on Facebook.

Arcalasers On The Way?

“Bendy laser beams fired through the air”: https://www.nature.com/news/2009/090409/full/news.2009.360.html

Yet another example of technology in one highly specific area progressing FAR faster than I had anticipated. We're barely starting to get laser weapons, and already we're bending them!

Though 'arcalaser' is a much cooler name than 'Airy beam,' IMHO....

Granted, the article closes with the following: "Bendy laser beams that can pass through obstacles might, at first sight, also seem ideal for military applications, but that's unlikely, says Kasparian. That's because only beams with small diameters — carrying relatively little energy — can be manipulated to curve significantly. "You are not going to be able to shoot people behind walls with this," says Kasparian."

Well, not YET.😎

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Originally posted on Facebook.

Revisiting A Big Decision

Wow. It's been 2 years since I made STARSHINE free for everyone. I'm thrilled (and more than a little relieved) to be able to look back at this blog post, all full of hope and belief and dice rolls and a twinge of fear as it was, and be able to say that I was right about it all.😎

Making Starshine free was the best thing I've ever done in this career (other than writing 11 more books to follow it, obviously). It's brought tens of thousands of readers to Aurora Rhapsody, many of whom might never have found or taken a chance on it. Readers who are now invested in this amazing journey through Amaranthe as we head into Riven Worlds. I am so glad all of you are here.✨

“Starshine Is Free & Other Outlandish Notions” (10/9/17): https://www.gsjennsen.com/news/2017/10/9/starshine-is-free-other-outlandish-notions

Originally posted on Facebook.

Starship

Say what you will, but the man has panache, and a keen sense of the moment. https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1178014342031298561

This is the just-assembled Starship Mk1 Prototype, which will make its first test flight (to 20 km) next month. It's intended to be a reusable spacecraft that will go to the moon and Mars.

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Posted on Facebook and Twitter.

The Shadow of Io

During a recent perijove pass, Juno caught an absolutely incredible image of Io's shadow cast upon Jupiter.😲😍

Unless it's actually millions of monoliths devouring Jupiter's atmosphere. Which is, frankly, equally as likely.

Hi-res quality: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinmgill/48745739051/
Source and credit: https://twitter.com/kevinmgill/status/1173741101515079680

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Originally posted on Facebook.

Space Is Hard, Once Again

For the second time this year, a lunar lander has experienced an error and crashed in the final meters of its descent to the surface.

SPACE IS HARD, guys. I know I make it look easy in my books (as well as cool, fun and exciting 😋), but it's hard. And it's going to continue being hard for a while yet.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/6/20853462/india-chandrayaan-2-lunar-landing-moon-vikram-crash-communication-failure

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Originally posted on Facebook.