iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by QuiteBrief

Michael Whelan @michaelwhelan.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Here's the newsletter sized answer to your excellent question: bsky.app/profile/mich...

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 📚⚔️ 📚⚡️ Fan of: - Fantasy worlds with modern problems - Frenemies - Corporate espionage - Chinatown 🎬 - Resource management Try @maxgladstone.bsky.social's Two Serpents Rise maxgladstone.com/writing/two-... A risk manager discovers problematic irregularities in a water company merger

Cover of Max Gladstone's Two Serpents Rise
A man wearing a tie and coat holds a deck of cards, performing an overhand shuffle with a face card of clubs exposed. He stands on a balcony lit from behind by sunlight through hazy air. A high tech pyramid building, not unlike Blade Runner's Tyrell Building, is visible in the background.
Cover text reads
Max Gladstone
Two Serpents Rise
A Novel Of The Craft Sequence
"This has so many of my favorite things: an intriguing world, fun characters, a puzzle of a story that manages to be both funky fantasy and legal thriller."
-Carrie Vaughn

1297

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 📚⚔️ Fan of: - Departing gifts - Round tables - Cyborgs - AIs understanding humans - Saying "I don't remember reading _that_" Try Roger Zelazny's The Last Defender of Camelot bookshop.org/p/books/the-... A collection of award winning stories full of sharp writing and on point plots.

190

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 📚⚡️ Fan of: - Biohacking - Trying to get an answer - Noir - Critters! - Nods to Blade Runner Try @aptshadow.bsky.social's Green City Wars adriantchaikovsky.com/books-novels... In a city of uplifted animals, a P.I. raccoon has to find a mouse that everyone wants to kill or protect.

5537

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Given the similarity of 'papal' and 'PayPal' I can't help but wonder how much accidental income the Vatican is getting, and how many papal bulls are processed by eBay.

040

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

One of the best indicators of good #software is that it can handle unexpected cases you just hit, as somebody already thought of it. That said, #duolingo can notify me that I preserved my streak with 3 min to spare, but there's no "Wait 'till the midnight owl" achievement? Time to file a ticket.

040

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

#booksky 📚💙 📚💬 A discussion with @wander-the-page.bsky.social brought up the idea of books I've read on title alone, so here are some and with my rationale (if any) Feel free to post any books that got you on the title alone. I'll start with:

1134

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 📚⚔️📚⚡️ Fan of: - Hard-boiled P.I. - Vampires - Low life & old money - Not exactly 📚🌃 - Dead men talking Try: Glen Cook's Sweet Silver Blues bookshop.org/p/books/swee... The MC has to find the beneficiary of a war buddy’s will while someone tries to make sure she never gets the money.

Cover of Glen Cook's Sweet Silver Blues.
A man with tousled short hair in a bathrobe, pajamas and slippers leans up against a desk while being passionately lectured by a gnome in a belted tunic holding an uzi while three other dwarves look on.
The background is a private investigator's office with a desk that sports a candlestick telephone. Light through a window projects the text
Garrett Investigator Confidential Agent on the door of the office behind them.
Cover text reads
Glen Cook
Author of Whispering Nickel Idols (ed: the 11th book in the Garrett P.I. series )
Sweet
Silver Blues
A Garrett P.I. Novel
Can a hard-boiled detective find a
damsel in distress in a warring land
of magic, elves and vampires?

181

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 📚🩸📚⚡️ Fan of: - Found footage - Affordable real estate - Strange items Try @punkahoy.bsky.social's The Supernatural Enhancements punkahoy.blogspot.com The MC inherits a probably haunted house from a relative who was possibly in a secret society that was definitely up to something.

Cover of Edgar Cantero's The Supernatural Enhancements.
A black and white fine line drawing of a mansion behind an elaborate, spiked, wrought iron fence with fancy gates. Lamp posts and leafless trees flank the house while a black dog is crossing the lawn.
A giant eyeball looks down on the house, and an arch with roman numerals from 1 to 20 written on it frames the eye.
Scrollwork decorates the top corners, and text around the border, from top right reads:
The Warrior
The Watcher
The Sage
The Genius
The Wizard
The Nobleman
The Mother
The Twins
The Lover
Soul.
Bones
The Phoenix
The Oracle
The Fortune
The King
The Monster
The Wolf
The Crab
The Juggernaut
The God

The style evokes the works of Edward Gorey
Cover text with the title written on the house reads
The
Supernatural
Enhancements
A Novel By
Edgar Cantero

2254

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 Fan of: - Cyberpunk - Bad MFs - Corporate malfeasance - Violence - Identity - Upgrading your sound system Try: @trnapper.bsky.social's The Escher Man nappertime.com/my-books/ A troubled hard boiled street samurai's memory loss has him asking questions that just lead to more trouble

Cover of T.R. Napper's The Escher Man
A futuristic, wet,city street with towering buildings is lit in blue and pink neon.
A figure in a trenchcoat and boots is walking away from the viewer.
What looks like a few neurons drawn in lightning cross the cover, with one lighting up the head of the figure.
Title text reads
The
Escher
Man
"An incisive and self-assured
voice in near-future fiction. One
of those writers with an effortless
grasp of the highs and lows
of human nature."
Adrian Tchaikovsky,
Author of Children of Time
T. R. Napper

1112

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Waiting on this spam labeling appeal, all I can think of is Dr. Venture. "Oh, so you _can_ see it?"

A screen shot from The Venture Brothers Season 2 Episode 10: I Know Why The Caged Bird Kills
In a living room, a bald man with a goatee wearing a pink short sleeved button down shirt (Dr. Venture) gestures to a serious looking man with streaks of gray in his black hair who is wearing a tie and red smoking jacket (Dr. Orpheus).
Orpheus is glaring at a transparent red Asian demon head with sharp teeth (an oni) that is floating over Dr. Venture's head.

010

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🏺 Fan of: - Trivia - Conversational writing Try Milo Rossi's The Encyclopedia of the Weird and Wonderful: Curious and Incredible Facts That Will Blow Your Mind bookshop.org/p/books/the-... A collection of archaeological facts remind us that we're the same people we've always been.

Cover of Milo Rossi's The Encyclopedia Of the Weird and Wonderful.

An orange background features line drawings of
A sandal
A knight fighting a snail
A pigeon with a medal
A dinosaur skeleton
A fish
A rope necklace
Cover text in white reads
The Encyclopedia
of the
Weird
and
Wonderful
Curious and incredible facts
that will blow your mind
Milo Rossi

290

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 Fan of: - Space opera! - Insurgencies - Big f'n spiders - Messages from space - Mindrot - Genius MCs - Tiny computers - Being roundly screwed Try: Vernor Vinge's A Deepness In the Sky bookshop.org/p/books/a-de... A three way first contact goes degrees of badly for all involved.

Cover of Vernor Vinge's A Deepness In the Sky
From cover top right, a blue, white and red rectangular spaceship approaches a rock planetoid with moutians and an antenna sticking off of it. The planetoid is lit from behind by a white glow fading to pink in the darkness of space, as if it were obscuring the core of a galaxy.

Cover text reads:
A Deepness
In the Sky
Hugo award winner
"Spellbinding"
-Kirkus Reviews
Vernor
Vinge
Five Time Hugo Award-Winning Author

181

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

There's nothing like working from home to make me realize that the massive pile of laundry I've been walking by all week is suddenly a massive distraction that must be dealt with first if I'm to get anything done.

040

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 Fan of: - OG Cyberpunk - Film noir - Criminals! - 2nd chances - Programmers as MCs - Books going to TV Try @greatdismal.bsky.social's Neuromancer williamgibsonbooks.com#books A burnt out hacker gets recruited as part of a team planning to steal something for a mysterious employer.

A picture of a copy of the deluxe edition book printing of William Gibson's Neuromancer.
A neon pink toned background shows a man in pants, boots and a jacket with wires coming out of his head, falling backwards against a background that blurs the lines between being a cityscape, or being chips printed on a wafer. To the title is vertically printed to the left, and the author info vertically to the right. Green and pink rectangular dots and dashes run up and down the cover, blurring the lines between being binary data and vehicles on a road. It's traffic either way.
Cover text reads
Neuromancer
New York Times Bestselling Author
William Gibson

Poster note - you know, the more I look at this cover, the more I like it, and I think this is probably my favorite.

180

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

So #booksky: just checking that any time someone posts a picture of a #bookshelf, I'm not the only one that stops to check it out faster than a car full of teenage boys spotting a bikini car wash*? *Was that a thing? I watched a lot of movies in the 80's but I'm sure Hollywood was 100% accurate. :)

470

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

I'm breaking out my Quite-Briefest of fan shirts for the con today. Fortunately the unexpectedly high humidity will have those wrinkles out right quick. :)

A black T shirt with five short, vertical, evenly spaced white lines on it. The lines on either end lean inward.
Fans may recognize it as a freeze frame of the movie title being slowly drawn at the beginning of ALIEN.

020

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

I don't know if the table talk sessions are new at Worldcon but being able to hang out with a favorite author and 8 other people for an hour is incredibly cool. Though it sucks when it collides with other authors signings and ya gotta make a choice.

191

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

The "you know it's gonna be a bummer" panel of authors & medical professionals panel at #worldcon, _could_ have ended on a down note, but @seananmcguire.bsky.social dropped some truly horrifying parasite facts with a glee reserved for taunting siblings.🦝 Well played, and a con highlight so far. :)

040

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

I do believe the con's badge label maker is making fun of my handle.

QuiteBrief's WorldCon badge,cropped to illustrate that it can commit to the bit even better by truncating QuiteBrief to QuiteBri

260

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 📚⚔️ Fan of: - Horticulture - Holmes & Watson - Used Kaiju - Total recall - A particular set of skills Try @robertjbennett.bsky.social's A Drop Of Corruption www.robertjacksonbennett.com/ana-and-din The murder of a tax collector leads two imperial investigators to a whole lot more.

Cover of Robert Jackson Bennett's A Drop Of Corruption.
Black and white art features a leafy plant whose root system is a human hand is centered with an elaborate patterned frame around it. In each corner there is an outline of (top left going clockwise) A woman in a dress, a man with a sword in a conical hat, a guard with a halberd, and a figure with a bow. The stenciled appearance of the drawings and text are offset by photo realistic leafy plants up the left side of the book, and a smaller one intruding from the right center.
Cover text reads
Nationally Bestselling Author
a
Drop
of
Corruption
An Ana and Din Mystery
"Immensely fun... a decidedly action-packed mystery in an inventive secondary world"
-Locus
Robert Jackson Bennett

3110

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Packing the important stuff first, for #lacon, #worldcon, 📚💙 📚🪐

A suitcase full of books to be signed, with @quitebrief.bsky.social's calling card.
Books are:
The Misenchanted Sword, by Lawrence Watt-Evans
The Will of the Many, by James Islington
All Systems Red, by Martha Wells
A Deadly Education, by Naomi Novik
Nine Goblins, by T. Kingfisher
Station Eternity,by Mur Lafferty
This Is How You Lose The Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
Cosmic Laughter, a short story collection edited by and featuring Joe Haldeman
Space Opera, by Catherynne Valente
Foundryside, by Robert Jackson Bennett

0100

Reposted by QuiteBrief

Los Angeles Worldcon @laworldcon.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

✨️ LAcon V Badge Pick Up Info ✨️ Your first stop is the Hilton Pacific B ballroom. Pick up your badge at the Registration Desk. You will need to show an ID (it does not need to be a photo ID). Warning! Lines can be long - particularly on Thursday.

A line of people at Worldcon waiting to get inside a room

1113

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 Fan of: - Dolphins - Space opera! - Being in Big Trouble - Swimming - Species uplift Try @davidbrin.bsky.social's Startide Rising www.davidbrin.com/startiderisi... A human/dolphin crew found something and are stranded on a water world with most of the galaxy trying to capture them.

Cover of David Brin's Startide Rising
Cover is done in monochrome blues and black
A dolphin with a circular implant that looks like a sand dollar on the right side of it's head smiles out at the viewer. Behind it is a night sky with stars and blue lines crossing it.
Cover text reads:
New York Times- Bestselling Author
David Brin
STAR
TIDE
Rising
Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards

150

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 📚🩸 Fan of: - MCs who have seen horror movies - Found object art - Compulsions - Hoarding Try @tkingfisher.com's The Twisted Ones redwombatstudio.com/horror/ A woman cleaning out her grandmother's house finds a journal about things in the woods. So you know how that's gonna go...

Cover of T. Kingfisher's The Twisted Ones
A shadowy house with one light on in a window is seen through dark woods. Repeating text of 'I twisted myself about like the twisted ones' repeats itself in faint text across the cover.
Cover text reads
Hugo and Nebula Award-Winning Author
T. Kingfisher
"Righteous, folkloric horror.
The devil is waiting in between these pages.
-Chuck Wendig
New York Times bestselling author
The
Twisted
Ones

1160

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 📚🩸 Fan of: - First contact - Found family with twists - Flora meeting fauna - Getting a heads up Try @seananmcguire.bsky.social (as Mira Grant)'s Overgrowth bookshop.org/p/books/over... A pod person has to figure out who she is and where she stands as an alien invasion approaches.

Cover of Mira Grant's Overgrowth

Earth floats in space while the red, thorned branches of a giant plant start to wrap themselves around the planet.

Cover text reads
You were warned
Over
Growth
Mira Grant

56117

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 📚⚔️ Fan of: - Alternate worlds - Secret societies - 1900s America Try @alixeharrow.bsky.social's The Ten Thousand Doors of January alixeharrow.wixsite.com/author/books A woman discovers a book that suggests there was _way_ more to her lost father’s expeditions than she'd been told.

Cover of Alix E. Harrow's The Ten Thousand Doors of January.
Colorful flowers and ornate metal keys border the top and sides of the black cover, while an ornate brass doorknob with a floral pattern in the middle of a brass framed base fills the center, with the second O in DoOrs being the knob.
Cover text reads:
National Bestseller
The
Ten
Thousand
Doors
of
January
"Unbearably beautiful."
-Amal El-Mohtar
Hugo Award-Winning Author
Alix E. Harrow

150

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 📚⚔️ Fan of: - Humor - FML energy - Really dark twists - The bear being in charge - Both kinds of Vets - Strange magic - Both kinds of Grunts Try @tkingfisher.com's Nine Goblins redwombatstudio.com/fantasy/ A squad of misfit goblins find an obstacle between them and their army.

The cover of the self published version of T. Kingfisher's Nine Goblins.
The cover, drawn by the author, features a rubenesque goblin with a brown loincloth and fancy red military coat with epaulettes. The goblin has a wide mouth and yellow eyes. Its hair is up in a ponytail, and its feet look like those of a rhinoceros.
The goblin has it's left hand on it's hip and the right holds a staff with a pennant on the end that spells out the book's title.
Cover text reads
Nine
Goblins
A Novella
T. Kingfisher.

160

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

If anyone else from #booksky 📚💙 📚🪐 📚⚔️ is going to be at @laworldcon.bsky.social and wants to say hi, I'll be bringing my ID :)

A business card for Bluesky user QuiteBrief.
It features a picture of Sesame Street's own Cookie Monster reading a book on one corner (which is probably a picture of the author's spirit animal) and the following text:
QuiteBrief
#booksky 📚💙 📚🪐 📚⚔️
Fan of:
- Book reviews
- Technical Comments
- Wry observations
- Cookies
Try
@quitebrief.bsky.social
A smartass on the Internet reviews books worth reading.

3111

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 📚⚔️ Fan of: - Animism - Charming con men - Fencing - Fighting - Revenge - Monsters - Escapes Try @rachel-aaron.bsky.social's The Spirit Thief rachelaaron.net/eli-monpress An audacious theft has unexpected consequences for a kingdom, the thieves and the wizard trying to stop them.

Cover of Rachel Aaron's The Spirit Thief
A blue/black monochrome cover has the left side of an unshaven man with tilted eyebrow and rougeish look. Behind him in the distance is a castle on a hill.
Cover text reads:
What He Gets Away With Is Criminal
The
Spirit
Thief
Rachel Aaron
"The Spirit Thief is a delightfully giddy romp of a novel."
Karen Miller

293

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Scenes from a Marriage: Turn Offs, Turn Ons Again edition. Me: What's that? Wife: A Tech Pouch. Me: ? W: It's a travel organizer for phone, earbuds, etc that folds & has lots of pockets. Me: Ah. W: *examining bag* Now...how does this work? Me: That definitely _sounds_ like a Tech pouch. W: Shut up.

030

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Given the amount of time it has taken me to remember how to say: "I speak a little Japanese", it has occurred to me that i now know how to lie in Japanese as well. :)

050

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 📚⚔️ Fan of: - Mysteries - Last thoughts - MCs in over their heads - Schemes! - Found family Try @rjbarker.bsky.social's Mortedant's Peril www.rjbarker.com/home.html After doing a job for a nobody, a wizard has to rethink his life quickly, as somebody just started trying to end it.

Cover of RJ Barker's Mortedant's Peril
Spiraling ramps of Greek columns circle either side of the cover. The center is a brazier with flames reaching the top of the cover, and crows flying in circles around (through?) the flames.
In the background is a wall with arcane symbols drawn on it.

Cover text reads
Death Is The Story Of His Life
Mortedant's
Peril
RJ Barker

1196

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 📚⚔️ Fan of: - Body hopping - Winning the peace - War heroes - Magic systems - Tricks up your sleeve - Mysteries Try @marthawells.com's Witch King www.marthawells.com/witchking.htm A demon has to rescue their companions while figuring out who keeps trying to get them out of the way.

Cover of Martha Wells' Witch King.
A man with black eyes (like, totally black) and long hair dressed in silken robes reminiscent of something out of The Arabian Nights twists away from the viewer.

Cover text reads:
"A wildly original and complex fantasy."
-N. K. Jemisin

Martha
Wells
From the New York TImes Bestselling Author of The Murderbot Diaries
Witch
King

28014

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

As a fan of saying everything in as few words as possible, this was masterful. youtube.com/shorts/eUM7Q...

youtube.com

This 1943 U.S. Army film warned about fascism in America

YouTube video by Dave Jorgenson

020

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 Fan of: - The singularity - Moving from problem to problem - Trade-ins & upgrades! - Robots finding their way in the world Try @edashtonwriting.bsky.social's Mal Goes To War www.edwardashton.com A stranded body-hopping AI has to learn about people while trying to escape a war zone.

Cover of Edward Ashton's Mal Goes To War
Cover is tones of blue green at the top darkening to purple at the bottom.
The head of a bald statue is superimposed on the cover. It is translucent with lit up circuit traces over it's left side. Through it we see silhouette of a child holding the hand of an adult, walking away from the viewer down a street with destroyed buildings on other side.
Cover text reads
Edward Ashton
Mal
Goes
To
War
A Novel
(With a medallion that reads:)
From the author of Mickey 7, The inspiration for the major motion picture Mickey 17

2144

Reposted by QuiteBrief

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

#bookreview 💙📚 📚🩸 📚🪐 Like: -Claustrophobia -Alien caves that aren't on Star Trek -Strong female protagonists -Survival stories Try: @caitlinstarling.com's www.caitlinstarling.com/books#Luminous The Luminous Dead A cave explorer on an alien planet realizes there's more to the job than she thought.

Cover of Caitlin Starling's The Luminous Dead, written in yellow. Above the title is written:
The Cave Will Swallow Them Whole
Image is of a blue, luminescent spacesuit right hand glove with a display on the back of the hand, clawing up over a ledge while the rest of the glove's owner is obscured.
So _something_ is clawing its way up, and really, it could be anything. At least it's got the right number of fingers and a thumb, so, yay?

2133

Reposted by QuiteBrief

Andrew Hungerford @luxtheatrum.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Perhaps you would be willing to contribute a few dollars to the @kickstarter.com in support of my stage adaptation of @caitlinstarling.com's The Luminous Dead at @voxel.org ? Making theatre is expensive, y'all! (Especially when you want to pay people!) www.kickstarter.com/projects/and...

kickstarter.com

The Luminous Dead - A Stage Adaptation

The Bram Stoker nominated novel by Caitlin Starling is adapted for the stage by Andrew Hungerford.

45951

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 03/05/2026

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🩸 Fan of: - The Stand - The vampire apocalypse - Unethical research - Unexpected side effects - Chonky books Try: Justin Cronin's The Passage justincroninbooks.com/the-passage-... A town of survivors find a special girl who may be the key to saving them and rebuilding civilization.

Cover of Justin Cronin's The Passage
A forest at dusk shows a starry sky in the background through sparsely spaced trees while the edge of the forest in the background is in light.
Cover text reads
New York Times Bestseller
Justin
Cronin
A Novel
The
Passage
"Magnificent" - Time

170

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

I like to think that language lessons teach something about the culture. For example, if you're learning French or Spanish, you know that absolutely everything is going down at the library. So I'm now discovering that Japan has a Heisenbergian level of uncertainty about all things umbrella.

250

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

It being April 1st I'll share the story of my favorite prank, starting with some details that become important later. Back in the mid 90's I was working in a typical cubicle farm and my boss had an office with a door. (1/13?)

130

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Well tomorrow is April 1st. Watch out for people that think they're funny but they're not. The rule in my house was: If you can't clean it up in 5 minutes like it never happened, it's not funny.

260

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 📚⚔️ Fan of: - D&D - Adventuring start ups - Redemption! - Economic satire - Funny & clever writing. Try: @jzacharypike.bsky.social's Orconomics jzacharypike.com/pages/orcono... A disgraced dwarf leads a team of misfits on a quest with low odds of success that is more than it seems.

Cover of J. Zachary Pike's Orconomics

A background that looks like a banded treasure chest with borders and a shield with crossed swords where the keyhole would be has a burning five Giltin note on top of it.
(And George Sellas deserves an award for this cover because there are so many clever references in it to both book events and actual currency that it really reflects the spirit of the book, as well as being awesome in it's own right)
The note looks like a United States 5 dollar bill, where all the elements have been replaced with look alike images and text.
There's
The Bearded orc portrait (Orc-raham Lincoln?)
the Five Gitlin across the bottom
ORCONOMICS printed as the bill's serial number
The Freedlands in top right
The watermark of the dragon holding a spellbook in it's right rear claw and a sword in it's left rear claw while holding a shield with a star on it and grasping a banner with Latin written on it in it's mouth.
it's stamped with a medallion that is Great Seal of The Heroes guild with a sword piercing something.
The signature is Weaver Ortson
Cover text reads
J. Zachary Pike
"One of my favorite fantasy
trilogies of all time."
-Nicholas Eames, author of
Kings of The Wyld
Orconomics
A Satire
Book 1
The Dark
Profit
Saga

3103

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 📚⚔️ Fan of: - Grimdark - Smartasses - All-wizard parties - MCs trying to do better - Holy wars Try @decastell.bsky.social's The Malevolent Seven decastell.com/book/the-mal... An MC with a history has to get a team of mercenary wizards together for a job that definitely has a catch.

Cover of Sebastien de Castell's The Malevolent Seven

Cover is drawn in shades of black and blue, with seven figures walking towards the reader, casting shadows as they are lit by a lightning storm behind them.
Left to right:
-A woman in a dress with shoulder length hair has her palms up as if about to cast a spell.
- A tall bald man with bracelets on his arms wearing a tight shirt, pants and boots
- A woman with shoulder length hair, blouse, leather pants and boots. Oh, and torso length bat wings.
- A man with a short beard, dress coat pants and boots
- A woman in an 18th century dress with long hair, raising both hands in front of her.
- A man wearing a shirt, vest, pants, boots and gloves carrying a longsword in his left hand.
- A jackal.

Cover text reads
The
Maleveolent
Seven
Think you know wizards? Think again.
Sebastien
de Castell

180

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 📚⚔️ Fan of: - Punchline logic - British humor - Egyptology - Silent Ps - Temporal anomalies Try: Terry Pratchett's Pyramids www.terrypratchettbooks.com/books/pyrami... A prince/assassin has to rule & build his father's tomb while dealing with a head priest who is way too assertive.

Cover of Terry Pratchett's Pyramids, drawn by Josh Kirby.

An assassin in black wearing a pointy hat with a dagger in his teeth desperately tries to stay on a disgruntled camel (that is spitting at a seagull) racing over dunes while a scantily clad, bejeweled, dressed for the harem woman hangs on to the camel as well.
To the right a sphinx on an outcropping stands over a horde of mummies breaking forth.
In the background stone blocks float toward a pyramid under construction
Bottom left has an alarmed turtle dodging an arrow.
(and really, this doesn't do justice to the insane colors and details in the painting, but that's the gist.)
Cover text (on a white background that blocks out most of the pyramid)

Pyramids
A Discworld novel
Terry Pratchett

1122

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 Fan of: - Must read military SF classics - Figuring out what's going on here. - The war not going well. Try @kameronhurley.com's The Light Brigade www.kameronhurley.com/writing/ligh... A new recruit discovers that the transporters they're using have some unexpected side effects.

Cover of Kameron Hurley's The Light Brigade
Color tones are blues whites and greens. A slim figure in tight fitting combat armor wearing a visored helmet stands sideways, looking to the viewer's left. Their right arm is upraised, barely visible in the glare of a vertical bright light that shines behind them, creating the impression of a doorway that illuminates the darkness they are standing in.
Cover text reads:
Kameron
Hurley
"Passionately brutal, fierce and furious in voice and pace." --The New York Times.
The
Light
"This is the real thing." - James S. A. Corey Author of the bestselling Expanse series.
Brigade

180

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 📚⚔️ Fan of: - Classic rock - Comebacks! - D&D - Owlbear? - Adventurers treated like rock stars - That f'n minotaur! Try: @nicholaseames.bsky.social's Kings of the Wyld nicholaseames.com A past-their-prime team of adventurers has to get the band back together for a rescue mission.

Cover of Nicholas Eames' Kings of the Wyld.
A band of adventurers is roughly painted in dark tones, bringing the mood of viking raiders.
One on the left wears a cloak, scale armor and holds two daggers.
Behind him is a man with a two handed sword over his shoulder
Front and center a man in plate armor from the waist up, holds a round shield and a sword pointed down in his left hand.
Behind him the only clean shaven man in lighter armor holds a double headed axe across his shoulders.
To the right of him a man with a chest length beard and white hair in light armor holds a long pole in his right hand horizontally.

Cover text reads
The boys are back in town
Kings of the Wyld
"Absolutely awesome.
Full of heroes, humor, and
heart." - Jon Hollins
Nicholas Eames

161

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

I'll be reposting some of my early book reviews to fit the format I eventually settled on, as every time I link to them it bugs me a bit that they don't look like what I'm doing now. Plus they're all excellent books that deserve a little more attention (FWTW). Quality, as they say, is job 1.01

030

QuiteBrief @quitebrief.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

#bookreview 📚💙 📚🪐 📚🩸 Fan of: - Working with negative space - Debugging - Amnesiators - Always being your best - Second first days - Weaponized hard drives Try: @qntm.org's There Is No Antimemetics Division qntm.org/antimemetics A secret agency tracks deadly things that don't want to be remembered.

Cover of Qntm's There Is no Antimemetics Division.
A skyscraper sized rectangular column of black brick dwarfs the misty hills and forests around it as the sun sets.

Cover text reads
There
Is No
Anti
Memetics
Division
A novel by QNTM

2162