Before I get to the pair of ducks, are you ready for the stellar woman of space opera? I rarely start out with an ask but today is a special occasion. I’ve joined with a handful of authors offering a story bundle of sci-fi books featuring strong female characters — the Space Opera Sisterhood.
Story bundles let you stock up a bunch of books, paying what you think the bundle is worth while supporting authors at the same time. If you pay at least $20, you get all ten books (and some of them have two books in one!) — that should keep some people busy until September. Me, it’ll keep me in books until 2024.
Now to the pair of ducks … okay, there are no ducks. I’m sorry, that was just a tease. However, I recently finished reading The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart (loaned to me by my Armchair Alien co-conspirator).
Time travel and how it plays out in a block universe takes centre stage in this novel. The idea of time travel generally doesn’t do much for me, except as a student of history. I’m intrigued by the idea of potentially witnessing prehistory or how key events actually unfolded, rather than what was written by the victors. And what if we could save lost knowledge? Imagine if we could snatch up books from the Library of Alexandria as it’s burning, or rescue lost Aztec codices just before they’re destroyed. No changes to the timeline so no paradoxical ripples. Though that leads to a story idea … what happens if a temporal archaeological agent can’t help but help — they can’t just turn away from the people involved in history? Arg, I don’t need more story ideas.
Anyway, I enjoy the book and how it got me thinking — I need to learn more about the idea of a block universe, and how free fits in that, if it does at all.
I also finished up A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers — I loved A Psalm for the Wild-Built. Now I’m onto An Edible History, which is sort of the history of humanity via food … though I’m more interested in the history of food via humanity. Let me know if you have any suggestions.
Editing of book 3 in The Lyra Cycle continues apace. I’m in that “I hate it, it’s fine, I hate it” phase that happens with every book. Does every author go through that? But I should get back to that editing.
Happy reading!
— CR
Where to find my books
If you’d like to read any of my scifi or urban fantasy books, you can find them at your favourite online retailers. Or you can buy them direct from me on the Armchair Alien store.
If you liked this post from Curious Cat, Odd Duck and Author, subscribe to get future posts.