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GUEST POST/GIVEAWAY: Revenant, by Kristoffer Gair

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Revenant

Kristoffer Gair has a new MM paranormal thriller out in his Falling Awake series: Andrew O’Donnell’s childhood friend, Thomas, was murdered when they were ten years old. Nightmares and guilt have plagued Andrew ever since. And he believes himself responsible for delivering Thomas into the very hands of the men who committed the atrocity. Now, fourteen years later, Andrew is driven to uncover the mystery of what really happened to Thomas, the reason behind the brutal abduction, and whether the assailants—who were never caught—have set their sights on someone else. Even the help of an unlikely ally may not be … Read more

FOR READERS: Buying the Book

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bookstore - pixabay

FOR READERS Today’s reader topic comes from QSFer Ryane Chatman: Where do you buy your books, and why? eBooks or paperbacks. Writers: This is a reader chat – you are welcome to join it, but please do not reference your own works directly. Thanks! Join the chat

SCIENCE: Using a Rare Element to Redefine Time

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Time - Pixabay

A lot can happen in a second; you could meet a stranger, snap your fingers, fall in love, fall asleep, sneeze. But what is a second, really — and is it as precise as we think it is? Right now, the most-precise clocks used to tell global time have an error of about 1 second every 300 million years — so a clock that started ticking in the time of the dinosaurs wouldn’t be off by even a second today. But scientists think we can do better. So, they are looking to lutetium, a neglected rare-earth element that has been … Read more

ANNOUNCEMENT: The Last Child Part 2, by Sean Kerr

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The Last Child 2

QSFer Sean Kerr has a new queer horror book out: Thy will be done. The world is crumbling. Nation is set against Nation in a war that threatens to engulf the entire world. ‘I Tredici’ can only watch in horror as Jerusalem succumbs to constant bombardment, and they know that at any time the East Gate will fall, and they are powerless to stop it. Even in hospital, Samuel can’t escape the darkness that torments him. He thought the Universe was his friend, his one companion in his lonely existence. But now he is not so sure. It wants him…needs … Read more

SPACE: Live On a Heavy World? Slingshot Your Way Into Space!

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NASA planet

Woe be to alien civilizations on large planets. On rocky worlds more massive than our own, gravity’s powerful pull makes it nearly impossible for any life-forms that might exist there to launch satellites and explore the cosmos, previous research found. But one physicist has now come to extraterrestrials’ rescue and figured out how they could develop a multi-part system called a space tether, which would slingshot spacecraft to the farthest reaches using a rotating orbital cable. “My initial reaction when I first heard about [the space tether] was, ‘There was no way that would work,’” said Alex Howe, an astrophysicist … Read more

REVIEW: Autonomous, by Annalee Newitz

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Autonomous

Our friend Trevor Barton is stopping by with a guest review for Autonomous, by Annalee Newitz. Title: Autonomous* Author: Annalee Newitz Genre: Science Fiction / Cyberpunk LGBTQ+ Category: Several Publisher: Orbit Pages: 304 Blurb: Earth, 2144. Jack is an anti-patent scientist turned drug pirate, traversing the world in a submarine as a pharmaceutical Robin Hood, fabricating cheap medicines for those who can’t otherwise afford them. But her latest drug hack has left a trail of lethal overdoses as people become addicted to their work, doing repetitive tasks until they become unsafe or insane. Hot on her trail is an unlikely pair: … Read more

ANNOUNCEMENT/GIVEAWAY: Omen Operation, by Taylor Brooke

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Omen Operation

Taylor Brooke has a new queer sci fi book out: An epidemic hits the country, and Brooklyn Harper is stolen from the life she knew. Implanted in a rural camp, Brooklyn and her friends are severed from their families and the outside world. Each day is filled with combat training to assure their safety against a mysterious virus and the creatures it creates—violent humanoids with black blood. Two years later, Brooklyn’s cabin-mate, Dawson Winters, finds a letter that shatters the illusion they’ve been living in. There is a world outside Camp Eleven, and the virus that supposedly destroyed their country … Read more

TECH: Tiny Robot Arms Build World’s Tiniest House

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world's tiniest house - live science

Pushing the tiny-house movement to bizarre new limits, French scientists have constructed the “world’s smallest house” on the tip of an optical fiber. With each wall spanning about 0.0006 inches in length (15 micrometers, or 15 millionths of a meter), the humble chalet is too small to accommodate a dust mite, an amoeba or a sperm cell. It’s about 10,000 times too small to host a tardigrade; it’s even too small to hold a piece of tardigrade poop. So, why build a house so small that even a tardigrade can’t make use of it? Mainly just to prove it can … Read more