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Book Review: CARBON by Andrew Vachss
Cyberpunk. Fantasy. Noir. Blend them together and you get Carbon. Late noir grandmaster Andrew Vachss wrote his Burke novels to expose the horrific reality of child abuse in America. With Carbon, he opened a new front in his crusade against abusers and predators, stepping into the world of science fiction and fantasy. Carbon begins with…
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Reclaim Your Face
Last week, the Singapore government lifted the outdoor mask mandate. It still ‘encourages’ people to wear masks when outside. Nonetheless, as Mothership reports, most Singaporeans still wear masks outdoors. This matches with my own experience. Out on the street, less than one in a hundred people do not wear masks—myself among them. For those of…
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Angel of Blades Part 5
Angel A perfect darkness engulfed Sabaia’s arena. Striding through the stairwell door, Luisa saw nothing but pitch blackness, heard nothing but total silence, sensed nothing but complete emptiness. Her mental map spanned the entirety of the circular hall. The walls were smooth, the floor level, all traces of the previous battle completely erased. The fissures…
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Angel of Blades Part 4
Flight after flight, floor after floor, she climbed the stairs. She thought of nothing, she felt nothing, she focused solely on putting one boot in front of the other, over and over and over. Round and round and round she went, forever turning clockwise. She kept her hand on the handle of her sword, ready…
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Angel of Blades Part 3
Crimson Twilight She burned. She Leveled. She burned again. Over and over and over again, so many times she had lost count. Her muscles ached, her bones throbbed, her nerves smoldered, and still she continued. Sweat poured off her in great sheets. Her eyes, temples and great veins throbbed in time with her heart. Her…
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Angel of Blades Part 2
Burn She fell. The wind whistled past her ears. War cries and furious howls carried from above. Cannon fire and blasts passed through the gash in the ceiling. She fell. By the dimming light of the dying flares, she saw nothing but darkness. Darkness yawned before her. Darkness encircled her. Darkness embraced her. She fell.…