Author Archives: Noelmcoughlan

Cover Reveal: The Unconquered Sun

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I just received a round of edits of The Unconquered Sun, resulting in the usual array of vowel sounds (ooh, eh? ah, aha, etc), followed by cracking knuckles and feverish typing. The release date will be confirmed when the book is more advanced through the editing process. In the meantime, to wet your appetites, below is the cover, again by Marek Purzychi. It matches pretty well with the cover for A Bright Power Rising. I was a bit queasy about moving my name further up the cover, Frankly, if the Golden Rule was a trilogy, I wouldn’t have agreed to it. But I think it captures the Sol Invictus motif spectacularly.  Hopefully, what will be behind the cover will be as good.

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In other news, the short story which will hopefully be released before The Unconquered Sun has also been submitted for editing. More details on it shortly.

Progress Update

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The Unconquered Sun is currently in editing. I finished my last pre-edit draft a bit later than I expected. The release date will not be finalized until the editing process is sufficiently advanced. However, I will reveal the book’s cover next month. I also have written a short story set in the Photocosm. It takes place before the main story in A Bright Power Rising/The Unconquered Sun.

A Bright Power Rising is now available on Kindle Unlimited. It will be free on Amazon from 23rd-25th April. Do check it out!

The Knowledge By Lewis Dartnell

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This is a very informative book with a lot of fascinating detail. It is basically a thought experiment. If most of humanity was wiped out in the morning and a handful of people remained, could they survive and rebuild modern technology? To determine this, Dartnell looks how these technologies were originally developed and any possible short cuts which the survivors could take.

The ‘apocalypse’ itself described in book was very clinical but this book is not meant to be a blow-by-blow instruction manual. I couldn’t see survivors sitting around it deciding what to do on Day 24. However, it does contain a lot of high level technological insight that a post-apocalyptic Edison or Pasteur might find useful and could spend years of their lives trying to leverage.

The book is apolitical. Its focus is the technology. If you need advice on how to hang on to your post-apocalyptic fiefdom, consult Machiavelli, Sun Tzu and other experts in such matters. Oh, the book doesn’t cover killing zombies either.

Some readers might find the advanced chemistry section a bit of a drudge, but I can’t see how Dartnell could avoid that, given leaving it out would undermine the book’s purpose. On the flip side, it provides useful context for any fledgling chemistry students.

The footnotes throughout the book are consistently very interesting. I think any writer interested in world building would find the book very useful.

One thing to note is that the book is shorter than it appears. About the last 20% is filled with references, including a useful list of relevant fiction.

One final word of advice. If you want to tuck this away for the apocalypse, so you can amaze the other survivors with your scientific knowhow, remember to buy the paperback, not the ebook. Unless you’re really sure you can get those generators up and running.

Emergence By Nick M. Lloyd

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The Gadium Emergence Committee ‘manages’ the transformation of other planets to a higher evolutionary state. When a group inspired by a survivor of a car crash threatens to discover this process too early, the team assigned to manage the Earth’s ‘emergence’ has to try to stop them. To further complicate things, another faction on Gadium is bent on perverting the process.

It took a few chapters to grip me, but once it did, I couldn’t put it down.

The book is reminiscent of the Culture Novels in that it involves a clash between the Earth and a far more advanced Alien society. At the start, some of the early conversations on Gadium were a bit opaque, but as the story unfurls, its society and its political shenanigans flesh out in a satisfying way. In the meantime the antics of Louise, Jeff and Mike kept my interest. They were engaging, believable characters.

The names of the some of the aliens were peculiarly human. Some terms like beta, alpha and triple alpha were never explained fully though their general meaning are relatively easy to infer. However, these minor quibbles didn’t diminish my enjoyment of the book.

Review of Jupiter Ascending

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I have a confession to make. I really enjoyed Jupiter Ascending. So much, I actually went to see it twice.  About half an hour into the second viewing I thought “Oh Oh. This is too soon to watch it again.” But, then I got into it again, and a lot of subtleties I missed the first time kept me entertained.

The visuals are epic, and, at least, the film tries to explore serious themes. It isn’t simply another case of “chase the mysterious mcguffin that could blow up the universe” (not that I don’t enjoy that sort of stuff). The concepts in it are no more outlandish than human-powered civilization of machines or a mysterious force manipulated by a chosen few or a spice being key to interstellar travel.

Some reviews dismissed the idea of genetically spliced individuals. I find that strange when, for example, spider goats are already a real thing.

I loved the way so many alien conspiracy theories are worked into the story such as the grays, crop circles, etc. It added an extra layer to the film. I also enjoyed the references to other films such as Flash Gordon. However, beneath this is another more philosophical layer which is well worth exploring.

Jupiter is an interesting character in that, except for her genetic make-up, she is simply a normal human being. She has no special superpowers. In fact, she is quite naive. I thought the implications for the god-like Abrasax family were interesting.

All in all, I think if you watch this film with an open mind, you will find some interesting stuff here.

Oh, and the soundtrack is excellent.

Updated Cover For A Bright Power Rising.

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A Bright Power Rising has a new cover! The image remains the same but the titling has been updated to better fit with the cover of The Unconquered Sun.

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The cover is already up on Amazon.  The paperback will be available from Createspace by the end of the week, hopefully.

I know that having a series matching is important to many people so anybody who purchased/received the paperback/ebook with the old cover please feel free to contact me at noelcoughlan@photocosm.org.

Twitter For Writers By Rayne Hall

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This book must have written for me because it chimes so  much with my experience on Twitter. The writer, Rayne Hall, has about sixty thousand followers on Twitter. Really, to sum up her message in two words-be authentic. She describes the techniques that work best for her on Twitter, the pitfalls to avoid, and the mistakes she has made. She has tried out a lot of strategies/applications, which will save you a lot of bother and frustration if you listen to her. Her focus is on gaining real followers. She encourages conversation instead of automated spamming. I learned a few useful tidbits like about bookshow.me and booklinker.  If you are new to twitter, this book is essential reading.

By the way, if you are interested in following her, her twitter account is @RayneHall.