iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

And while we're opening all the Christmas presents, we've also got an official blurb for A Very Fermi Christmas. As some of you might have guessed, Liz Gordon is going to get a visit from some paranormal entities with strong opinions about her life choices. We'll see how that works out for them...

"I don’t have time for ghosts, time travel, class warfare or terrorist attacks that are actually heists."

It's Christmas onboard the fastest and deadliest ship in the universe.

Liz Gordon is running out of oxygen, and her spaceship is about to explode. She doesn't have time to learn compassion for her fellow man, and she doesn't trust anyone who would try to teach her.

But it's the night before Christmas, and she is humanity's last rich miser.

And this year, "Bah Humbug!" isn't going to cut it...

193

Reposted by Chris Farnell

Adrian M. Neville @amneville.bsky.social · 12h

COVER REVEAL! This is the cover of the Fermi's Progress Christmas Special - **A VERY FERMI CHRISTMAS**! It is the work of the amazing @chrisfenoglio.bsky.social, the artist behind @ryannorth.ca's Star Trek: Lower Decks comics! Preorder it from @scarletferret.com: scarletferret.com/books/a-very...

The cover of A Very Fermi Christmas - a side on view of the Fermi flying upwards, the wake of its Alcubierre drive obliterating the planet below. The spacewarping wake of the ship resembles a Christmas tree, and the planets and stars behind the wake look like tinsel and baubles.

21811

Reposted by Chris Farnell

"it's so festive!" -the people on that planet, probably.

011

Chris Farnell @thebrainofchris.bsky.social · 14h

This is the kind of humanising a machine I can get on board with.

Chris Farnell @thebrainofchris.bsky.social · 15h

True, but at their first try they went with, well....

Chris Farnell @thebrainofchris.bsky.social · 17h

I've never liked "Everything on the Internet you don't like is Russian" discourse, but I find it hard to believe that the big accounts are intended to work for even centre-right democrat purposes. There's got to be some sort of data gathering or intentional well-poisoning going on behind it.

000

Reposted by Chris Farnell

Scarlet Ferret - Special Edition Ebooks 🇵🇸 @scarletferret.com · 17h

Handy catch-up tip! 👍

021

Chris Farnell @thebrainofchris.bsky.social · 17h

You can tell we're on the same side politically because I just posted an AI generated image of Donald Trump kissing a dude!

Chris Farnell @thebrainofchris.bsky.social · 17h

Starter pack recruitment does seem to be the next mutation of BlueNoMatterWhoRebelAlliance engagement slop.

130

Reposted by Chris Farnell

Helle's Belle/Eleanor Hingley/Magpie_Elle @stardustandsigil.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I had such an amazing time chatting to these Good Friends! Definitely worth checking out this and their entire back catalogue of excellent topics.

051

Chris Farnell @thebrainofchris.bsky.social · 19h

This is a real fucking gut punch tbh. I do not get how reading a bedtime story isn't something you fucking *cherish*. Even on the bad days. Even when you're not in the mood. That is one of the experiences that all the other shit you do is *for* and you want to outsource it?

092

Chris Farnell @thebrainofchris.bsky.social · 19h

scarletferret.com

Fermi's Progress - Season Pass by Chris Farnell - Scarlet Ferret

The Fermi is Earth's first and last faster-than-light-spaceship. The last, because its engine vaporise entire star systems in its wake. And nobody knows how to turn it off.

012

193

As well as drawing the Star Trek Lower Decks comics and the graphic novel "Warp Your Own Way," Chris Fenoglio's work also includes art for Star Wars: Ghosts of Vader's Castle and X Files: Origins. So in doing a Fermi's Progress cover, he has now worked on *all* the Great Science Fiction Series.

150

21811

Black pudding pork sausage and apple sauce. Yeah.

I bet some of them don't even like Empires, or War.

It's a really nice sandwich by the way.

120

Chris Farnell @thebrainofchris.bsky.social · 22h

Gonna eat a big sandwich and do a cover reveal.

130

I do actually have a working definition of Blindleblarp, but unfortunately it includes a lot of people that I don't really think of as Blindleblarp, and somehow excludes a whole bunch of other people that I assumed were Blindleblarp based on vibes.

020

Chris Farnell @thebrainofchris.bsky.social · 22h

This has been a post about national identity. If you like, it can also be a post about gender.

190

Chris Farnell @thebrainofchris.bsky.social · 22h

Today on Radio 4 we will be discussing who is Blindleblarp, a word I just made up. What is the essence of Blindleblarp? Can you become Blindleblarp, or must you be born Blindleblarp? I have assigned the term "Blindleblarp" to this collection of people, but can other people be Blindleblarp too?

380

Chris Farnell @thebrainofchris.bsky.social · 23h

Nobody gives a shit if a 30 year old book doesn't sell as many copies these days. But unfortunately several corporations have built a multi-billion dollar multimedia and merchandising empire on the reputation of one mould huffing toxic shitposter, so that means we're all locked in now.

1193

Chris Farnell @thebrainofchris.bsky.social · 23h

A publisher is giving books away to encourage children to watch telly.

1258

Chris Farnell @thebrainofchris.bsky.social · 23h

So, when I reveal the cover for A Very Fermi Christmas later today, I will also be announcing our ***SPECIAL GUEST COVER ARTIST.***

static.klipy.com

Coca-Cola Holidays Are Coming

ALT: Coca-Cola Holidays Are Coming

000

Chris Farnell @thebrainofchris.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

So I was gutted that, this time, James was sadly not available to do a cover. He WILL be back for future instalments if I get any say in it. But with all the great work he's done, I didn't want to just get someone to do a MrJalco impression and hope nobody noticed. And this IS a Christmas Special.

Chris Farnell @thebrainofchris.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

But BEFORE we get to that, I want to talk about James Cooper AKA mrjalco.co.uk, the cover artist of every Fermi story so far. James has done amazing work on the covers for Fermi's Progress, Wake, and the *beautiful* cross section he did this year. When I imagine the Fermi, I see the one he drew.

Chris Farnell @thebrainofchris.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

This might be your toughest challenge yet:

020

Chris Farnell @thebrainofchris.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Basically what I learned is that storytelling is about capturing and communicating subjective experience rather than objectively recording a list of events. Which, TBF, is a lesson I could have easily learned from watching Community, or the early episodes of Rugrats.

140

Chris Farnell @thebrainofchris.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

But my takeaway from it is that that's why those heroic stories connect, that from the inside our subjective stories feel way closer to massive operatic melodramas than naturalistic Dogme45 stuff. What Pope's mocking is just being human.

120

Chris Farnell @thebrainofchris.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Well, the whole joke of it (which I remember coming across as extremely snide and not a little misogynist) is that the characters and narrator are interpeting their petty interpersonal drama as a heroic epic.

Film Stories @filmstories.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Reposted by Chris Farnell

The new, 168-page Film Stories magazine - an autumn horror special - is available now. Order yours here, with discounted bundle deals available too: store.filmstories.co.uk/products/iss...

store.filmstories.co.uk

Issue #61 (Horror Special): Magazine

Inside the Issue...You’ll find 1970s horror, Ghosts: the movie, Other Mommy and more in our autumn edition of Film Stories magazine. Here’s what’s inside issue 61:As the nights draw in, Film Stories…

063

Chris Farnell @thebrainofchris.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I feel like I'm going to really abuse the quantity of available Christmas-themed gifs while promoting this book. I feel good about it.

020

Chris Farnell @thebrainofchris.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Bit old to be auditioning for the Ed Sheeran biopic.

0153

Chris Farnell @thebrainofchris.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Also, more science fiction writers should get insanely ripped sculptures of themselves on their graves.

1110

Chris Farnell @thebrainofchris.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

He just heard you say that he and H.G. Wells were writing in the same genre.

171

Chris Farnell @thebrainofchris.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

You'd have to ask. Sounds reasonable though!

000

Chris Farnell @thebrainofchris.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

You don't have to give up on being a writer yet! If you google around there's some fantastic co-working spaces in vast, snowbound, out of season hotels or isolated woodland cabins to get your book finished.

100

Chris Farnell @thebrainofchris.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

The website that offers governess positions in Gothic mansions to tutor two creepy blond twins and their brooding but strangely compelling legal guardian? Yeah, I start browsing that every October too.