Happy Book Birthday to Duality

Happy 1st Book Birthday to DUALITY, the book that, among many other feats, changed our perception of the 18 books that came before it. (If you know, you know. On that note, armed with this capital-K Knowledge, have you started your reread yet?)

Were you all as exhausted as I was after finishing the epic saga that was Riven Worlds? My goodness! This is one reason why we're taking a fun little diversion with the Cosmic Shores stand-alones - everyone (you, me, the characters) needs a little break to catch their breath, lol.

Underrated

What a cool surprise: STARSHINE made The Review Geek’s list of “10 Great Books from Underrated Authors”! The list covers all genres, and Starshine is the only scifi novel.

The site looks to offer awesome coverage of all things geek entertainment, so after you peruse the list, check out the rest of their content.

https://www.thereviewgeek.com/10books-underratedauthors/

Holiday Festivities

This week's holiday festivities included ice skating with friends!

Have I ice skated before? Yes.

When did I last ice skate? In The Long Long Ago, when we fashioned our skates from materials dug out of the land.

But I didn't fall - not once! Mind you, this is pretty much the *only* accomplishment from my ice skating endeavors, but I get a gold star for it.

Tremendous fun was had by all. It really does make you feel like a kid again. Pretty damn magical.

Stunning Amateur Image of the Andromeda Galaxy

What life might be thriving here, one wonders?

The photograph comes from a group that calls itself the Association of Widefield Astrophotographers, and the photo was a 100-hour project by six participants in the United States, Poland, and the United Kingdom. They collected data over several months to produce the image.

According to the organization, "Our goal with this project was to prove that very expensive equipment and dark skies aren’t required to create unique images of faint objects. Since most of us are high schoolers and college students with a passion for astronomy, our summer jobs did not allow us to afford the expensive gear used by most astrophotographers."

Learn more here.

Webb's Incredible View of Cassiopeia A

Isn’t this just an astonishing image? We thought we knew Cassiopeia A, but we were wrong.

“Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) view of Cas A displays a very violent explosion at a resolution previously unreachable at these wavelengths. This high-resolution look unveils intricate details of the expanding shell of material slamming into the gas shed by the star before it exploded.” Learn much more about the image and the history of our study of Cas A, go here: https://esawebb.org/news/weic2330/

Gifts that Keep On Giving

The Christmas gifts that will keep on giving! First The Abyss, now these beauties, both remastered for BluRay at long last. Mr. Jennsen and I are going to spend the next several months re-experiencing some of the best scifi TV has ever offered up.

P.S.: Remastering is not a magic bullet that transforms the content into "just like new" visuals. We've started with Farscape and, like The Abyss, the core cinematography - interior shots focused on the characters - looks excellent. The colors are vibrant and the visuals are sharp. What it doesn't do that much for are the special effects (also true for The Abyss); I suspect modernizing those would be a much larger project. However, I imagine that if I were to go back and watch the original DVDs, I would be blown away at how much better these look.

P.P.S: Yes, the Farscape box includes The Peacekeeper Wars (and new special features)! But make sure you get the 25th Anniversary Edition, as there are several collections out there that do not.

The Abyss Remastered

Mr. Jennsen and I had a date night Wednesday! One of my favorite movies has FINALLY been remastered in 4K, and they released it to selected theaters for one night only. Don’t fret if you didn’t know - the new version will be available to stream later this month, and a BluRay will be released in March 2024.

It looked gorgeous! Yes, at times the special effects heavy scenes showed their age, but the rest of the cinematography looked incredible - they definitely did far more than just slap a new label on it.

A Note About Today's SMBH Email

Hi! My newsletter provider has done a massive upgrade to their system, which means I’ve had to re-set up some things. For one, this email might look ever-so-slightly different (but not much). Also, you might see some of the same stories from the last email reposted here - this should be a one-time-only event as the system reboots where things stand.

If you see anything else funky, give me a shout. Thanks!

Christmas Gifts?

Fancy gifting your favorite Amaranthe fan with a personalized, signed paperback for Christmas? Get your orders in early, before the postal service totally melts down!

https://www.gsjennsen.com/paperback-store?category=Signed+Paperbacks

P.S.: It's 100% okay if your favorite Amaranthe fan is yourself.

P.P.S.: I have paperbacks of Medusa Falling and the Short Stories Collection as well - I just don't have handy pics of them.

Starship Stacked For Flight

Starship gets stacked ahead of its second test flight on Saturday!

From SpaceX: “This is another chance to put Starship in a true flight environment, maximizing how much we learn. Rapid iterative development is essential as we work to build a fully reusable launch system capable of carrying satellites, payloads, crew, and cargo to a variety of orbits and Earth, lunar, and Martian landing sites.”

Source Tweet

The Rhapsody of Space

See what I did there? ;)

From NASA: “For millennia, musicians have looked to the heavens for inspiration. Now a new collaboration is enabling actual data from NASA telescopes to be used as the basis for original music that can be played by humans.

Since 2020, the “sonification” project at NASA’s Chandra X-ray Center has translated the digital data taken by telescopes into notes and sounds. This process allows the listener to experience the data through the sense of hearing instead of seeing it as images, a more common way to present astronomical data.

A new phase of the sonification project takes the data into different territory. Working with composer Sophie Kastner, the team has developed versions of the data that can be played by musicians.”

Listen and learn more here.

Spotify Audiobooks

Do you have a Spotify subscription? Well, as of today, you can use it to listen to audiobooks, including mine. Spotify Premium now comes with 15 hours a month of audiobook listening for no additional cost (you can also buy audiobooks a la carte). See all my audiobooks here: https://open.spotify.com/search/g.%20s.%20jennsen/audiobooks.

Noted: the Spotify interface for finding and browsing audiobooks is still really, really basic (you can't click an author or narrator name to see all their work, or sort by order in the series, for instance). It will improve, but until then, if you need a reminder, you can see my recommended reading/listening order here: https://www.gsjennsen.com/amaranthe-universe.

Does it seem like there's a lot of news about audiobooks lately? That's because there is! It's the hottest segment in the business, and the industry is undergoing rapid innovation (and a bit of turmoil). May you listen in interesting times.

Nostalgia Portal

Amen to this! I bought literally hundreds, if not a thousand or more, books at Waldenbooks from the ages of 5 to 17 (or rather my wonderfully indulgent and supportive parents did)! And when Waldenbooks didn't have what I wanted, I went downstairs to B. Dalton - because my local mall had BOTH OF THEM.

Those were truly the salad days...

Source Tweet

“Heading to the mall today with my wife and many daughters.

I know they won’t be there, but I’d like to imagine that if I searched hard enough, I just might find a portal, or a secret door that leads to an area in the mall that has stores like this:”
— @EpicSoloGames

Jupiter In Ultraviolet

This newly released image from the NASA Hubble Space Telescope shows the planet Jupiter in a color composite of ultraviolet wavelengths. Released in honor of Jupiter reaching opposition, which occurs when the planet and the Sun are in opposite sides of the sky, this view of the gas giant planet includes the iconic, massive storm called the “Great Red Spot.” Though the storm appears red to the human eye, in this ultraviolet image it appears darker because high altitude haze particles absorb light at these wavelengths. The reddish, wavy polar hazes are absorbing slightly less of this light due to differences in either particle size, composition, or altitude. 

For more, go here: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubble-provides-unique-ultraviolet-view-of-jupiter/

Webb's Stunning Infrared View of the Crab Nebula

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has gazed at the Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant located 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Taurus. Since the recording of this energetic event in 1054 CE by 11th-century astronomers, the Crab Nebula has continued to draw attention and additional study as scientists seek to understand the conditions, behavior, and after-effects of supernovae through thorough study of the Crab, a relatively nearby example.

Now exquisite, never-before-seen details help unravel the supernova remnant’s puzzling history. For more, go here: https://www.nasa.gov/missions/webb/the-crab-nebula-seen-in-new-light-by-nasas-webb/