Books - By George

With considerable work in the search, I found the heir to James Schmitz's literary rights and obtained the non-exclusive right to write novels in his Hub Universe, including his characters. My first Telzey Amberdon novel is now above 104,500 words.

I am advancing on several novels, and so far this year have published three scientific papers.

Based Book Sale 2024 is here!
Get excellent books at amazing prices!

And if any of you hear of a progressive book sale, please send me an item I can post, because book sales are good.

Bypass the cultural gatekeeping, support non-woke authors, and get yourself some great based books from both established and emerging talent for only $0.99 – many titles free – but only for one week! The sale starts today, and it runs through Tuesday September 10, 2024 to celebrate BasedCon, a gathering for authors and fans of science fiction and fantasy who are tired of woke propaganda.

What is a “based” book?

based [ beyst ] / beɪst / adjective

1. Well-grounded, resting upon a firm foundation.
2. Principled, devoted to fixed standards, especially in defiance of conventional wisdom.
3. Rejecting politically correct attitudes and celebrating nonconformity with woke opinion.
4. Committed to upholding and advancing the good, the beautiful, and the true.
antonyms: debased, cringe, woke

Visit the Based Book Sale!

It’s a limited time offer, available only for a week, featuring more than a hundred different titles, including a couple dozen new to the sale.

The sale includes books by Jordan Allen, Tony Andarian, J. M. Anjewierden, Daniel M. Bensen, M.D. Boncher, V.A. Boston, Henry Brown, Jacob Calta, Kit Sun Cheah, Paul Clayton, Travis J. I. Corcoran, J.D. Cowan, Vox Day, Jon del Arroz, Milo James Fowler, Karl K. Gallagher, Edward Gibbon, Roy M. Griffis, Frederick Gero Heimbach, Alexander Hellene, David Herod, Daniel Humphreys, L. Jagi Lamplighter, Michael F. Kane, M.R. Kayser, Frederick Key, L.S. King, Michael Kingswood, Robert Kroese, Michael Lacoy, N.R. LaPoint, Frank B. Luke, Michael P. Marpaung, T.J. Marquis, Richard Nichols, Ron Nielsen, Francis Porretto, M.S. Olney, Chance Paladin, George Phillies, Matthew W. Quinn, Hans G. Schantz, Denton Salle, Dale F. Saran, David Skinner, Jonathan Souza, Steve Stark, John Taloni, Michael Trust, S.C. Vincent, Henry Vogel, Erik Waag, John Walker, David Weber, and John C. Wright.

Cheap and free books

The Big BasedCon Based Book Sale Running Now Through Tuesday September 10

Return of the Sixth. It seems to happen every month.

In the last week, the N3F published issues of its fiction zine Eldritch Science and its book review zine The N3F Review of Books Incorporating Prose Bono. Tables of Contents follow.

Eldritch Science 11

Front Cover … Adventurer
by Tiffanie Gray

Short Stories

3 … Island of Avarice by Clint Stevenson
13 … The Last Denebolan Marathon
by Charles Walter
19 … Forged in Fire by J. L. Cook
30 … Welcome to Vulpye by Jeff Cassell

Poems

13 … Poem by Jean-Paul L. Garnier
19 … Poem by Jean-Paul L. Garnier
29 … Poem by Jean-Paul L. Garnier

Art

3 … The Staging Area by Jose Sanchez
9 … Curving Unicorn by Angela K. Scott
13 … Three Moon Night by Tiffanie Gray
19 … Shadow Kid by Artist Fish
28 … Robot One by Artist Fish
30 … Jungle Landing by Jose Sanchez
36 … Dragons Duo by Angela K. Scott

The N3F
Review of Books
Incorporating Prose Bono
Professor George Phillies, D.Sc., Editor
March 2024

Fiction
2 … A Star-Wheeled Sky by Brad R. Torgerson … Review by Heath Row
2 … Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree … Review by Tom Feller
3 … Chasing Freedom by Marina Fontaine … Review by Declan Finn
3 … Demons Are Forever by Declan Finn … Review by Caroline Furlong
7 … Disquiet Gods … Review by Christopher Ruocchio
9 … Doris Dances & Fires Rekindled by Julian Hawthorne, edited by P. Alexander,
Michael Tierney, and Robert A. Lupton … Review by Caroline Furlong
11 … Dragon Prince by Melanie Rawn … Review by Tom Feller
12 … Fae Wars: Futures Past by James Copley and J. F. Holmes … Review by Jim McCoy
13 … Fisherman’s Hope by David Feintuch … Review by Heath Row
14 … Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes … Review by Jean-Paul Garnier
15 … The Innocent Sleep by Seanan McGuire … Review by Tom Feller
15 … The Last Tale of the Flower Bride by Roshani Chokshi … Review by Bob Jennings
16 … Mortal Fear by Robin Cook … Review by Tom Feller
17 … The New Galveston Duology by Dale Cozort … Review by Christopher Nuttall
18 … The Other Time by Mack Reynolds and Dean Ing … Review by Chris Nuttall
20 … Pilgrimage by Zenna Henderson … Review by J.-P. Garnier
20 … Promises Stronger Than Darkness by Charlie Jane Anders … Review by Tom Feller
20 … Scamps & Scoundrels: The Bad Guys, Book One by Eric Ugland … Review by Jim McCoy
22 … Shock by Robin Cook … Review by Tom Feller
22 … Starship Found, Child Missing by Miles Rozak … Review by Jim McCoy
24 … The Survivors: Life After War by Angela White … Review by Jim McCoy
26 … Triplanetary by E.E. “Doc” Smith … Review by Heath Row
26 … The Unexpected Enlightenment of Rachel Griffin by L. Jagi Lamplighter
… Review by Declan Finn
28 … Wavelengths: Covering Sci Fi in Every Reality by Daniel Dickholtz
… Review by Jason P. Hunt

Literary Criticism
30 … Interview with Gary Phillips, author of The Unvarnished By Jean-Paul L. Garnier

Prose Bono
32… Asking for It Cedar Sanderson

Yesterday and the day before I had my new heat pump installed. The old central Air Conditioner was close to 20 years old, which is its life time, could not be repaired because it used a now-forbidden refrigerant, and was showing signs of age. The nice people at Brideau Energy installed the unit, overcame a technical issue not their fault, and more or less fixed several problems the old AC had had (air duct noise, excessive cold in my office.)

My paper on Gibbs went off to European Physical Journal Plus. We shall see what happens next.

My latest article on Third Party Watch, featuring the attorney's demand letter calling on the Chair of the Libertarian National Committee to resign or face a diversion lawsuit by the members, had a remarkable number of viewers.

Independent Political Report published a similar report and asked LNC Chair McArdle if she wished to comment. McArdle's response was "Give my regards to your Luciferian Masters."

The paperback is now out on Amazon.

Of Breaking Waves, the fourth and final book of the Eclipse cycle, has been completed and will be released in the immediate future.

The final reading pass of my next novel Of Breaking Waves, has occurred. It's more or less done. The first bits of it were written in 1992.

Final read of Of Breaking Waves is advancing.

Indian Summer next part

“And this will cost?” Rose Cohen asked.

“I have an estimated budget,” Bell answered. “The bright side is that this is an instant profit center, once the fusactors are restarted. Local utilities would be delighted to buy all of our spare power.”

“Why,” Lawrence Morningstar asked, “don’t they build their own? Not that I know anything about fusactors.”

“National steel shortage? National rare earth shortage? National skills shortage, but we’re better off than the folks to our north, no criticism of them intended,” Bell answered. The Elizavetsians, she recalled, in their drive to create a perfect society, had systematically massacred university faculties. It was unclear why they believed that engineering faculties were all hotbeds of revolutionary Xi Jinping-Chengdu thought, but they had still acted on their beliefs, beliefs that were more compatible with reciprocating wood-burning steam engines than with a modern society.

“Good points,” Morningstar answered. “Can the reactors be restarted? Where is this in the priority lists?”

“We’re working on that. I may have a reactor tech here in a few days,” Bell answered. “I’m still doing the facilities survey. I haven’t found anything missing. Yet. I’ve found a considerable number of extra buildings not in the settlement of debt files, hiding in the woods east of here.”

“Legal says we are good on that,” Chelan interjected. “The notes said ‘...all material property...’, and a building is quite material.”

Margaret Evans shook her head. “We seem to be in infinite regress. We start to fix one thing, and find we’ve uncovered another layer of things that need fixing first. When will it end? I represent debtors who want money, not repeated reports on extra needed funds.”

“If we don’t fix the fusactors,” Chelan said, “we can still buy electricity from Crescent Nova. That’s more expensive in the long run, not in the short run. But with power we get to release the chain of events that get our freighters back in working order, at which point the press gets off our backs and money starts rolling in. On a similar time scale, the fine-focus molecular spray units will be back up. I have a list of outside buyers for things that they make. That’s enough of an income stream to cover our projected payroll.”

“And the cash flow?” Benjamin Goldsmith asked. “Does it stay positive?”

“It can’t,” Chelan answered. “We need to spend money before we can make money. However, the cash on hand should stay solidly positive, meaning we will not need to call on any of our current lines of credit, a process that I believe we all would deprecate.” His final line drew applause from the committee.

“Let’s advance,” Rose Cohen said. “Your projected net income stream is above what we expected.” The remainder of the Executive Committee nodded agreement.

$$$$$

Victor Chelan sat at the corner table of his office facing Elaine Bell. The windows had autopolarized to screen him from the direct light of the lowering sun. Along the horizon, towering spires of cloud glowed orange and yellow. “In light of your contributions to our profitability, we are increasing your salary now rather than in two more months. Also, without changing the terms of your contract, we hope that you will be staying here for some time to come. Is that acceptable?”

“Yes.” Elaine smiled. “However, I do have a modest question. What is your long-term objective here? You said that you would use your cut of returned income to buy out other noteholders, starting with the smallest, so that by and by this will all be yours. I am supposed to be Boss of the Yard, you have been entirely supportive, but if I don’t know where you are going I may set things up poorly for you. ”

“Taking it,” Chelan answered. He tapped a button on his phone. “Hello?” he said.

“Victor. Elaine here.” She was speaking, Chelan thought, a mile a minute. “We have an emergency. Act or we lose all electrical power.”

“Yes?” What was this? he wondered.

“Cut the graving docks pumps. Turn off all vents and lighting, except the fine focus molecular sprays. Cut all outside lighting. Now!” She could, Chelan thought, be extremely emphatic.

You hired her, he thought, because she had the highest imaginable recommendations. “On it,” he said.

“Mrs. Brixton,” he called. “Is there an emergency enunciator system? Someplace I can speak, and everyone hears me?”

“On my desk,” she answered.

Mnutes later, with power to most of the yards cut, Chelan waited in the parking lot. Bell said she’d explain so soon as she returned.

$$$$$

Later that day, Chelan faced an emergency meeting of the Executive Committee.

“...in the end,” he said, “the local power company had cut us off some time ago because bills were not paid. Bills were being sent to an address we are trying to identify. Our own fusactors had been shut down. Our fusactors usually provided our power, but the yards were doing so little the prior owners decided to do without local generators.

“The system switched over to the backup, NorPowTec, to whom we usually sold power in large amounts. Now we were buying power from them. We were allowed to do that, with a power draw limit. When we turned on all the lights, all the vents, and the graving yard pumps, we went way over the limit. For some reason they didn’t notice; they’d been having other problems recently. When we asked about the bill, they noticed, and waxed wroth. So Elaine here cut everything, got us back well under the limit, and thanks to Charles paid off our bills, so we have power from Crescent Nova again. We’re again pumping out the graving dock. However, we need to bring up our fusactors pronto, meaning we need to hire twelve people with the right licenses. Testing and repairing can be done by the ex-Space Guard people we were going to hire to crew our ships, but they can’t ignite and power up civilian fusactors on the ground. Rigid legal limits, for good reasons. Lake Chicago is a beautiful circle, a work of art from the disruption, but one of them is enough.”