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Cytonic by Brandon Sanderson

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Disclosure – links to bookshop.org on this blog are affiliate links. Other booksellers are available.
Cytonic blog tour poster

Today I’m really pleased to be taking part in the Cytonic blog tour for the latest instalment in the Skyward series by Brandon Sanderson.

Spensa’s life as a Defiant Defense Force pilot has been far from ordinary.

She proved herself one of the best starfighters in the human enclave of Detritus and she saved her people from extermination at the hands of the Krell – the enigmatic alien species that has been holding them captive for decades. What’s more, she travelled light-years from home as a spy to infiltrate the Superiority, where she learned of the galaxy beyond her small, desolate planet home. Now, the Superiority – the governing galactic alliance bent on dominating all human life – has started a galaxy-wide war. And Spensa has seen the weapons they plan to use to end it: the Delvers. Ancient, mysterious alien forces that can wipe out entire planetary systems in an instant.

Spensa knows that no matter how many pilots the DDF has, there is no defeating this predator.

Except that Spensa is Cytonic. She faced down a Delver and saw something eerily familiar about it. And maybe, if she’s able to figure out what she is, she could be more than just another pilot in this unfolding war. She could save the galaxy. The only way she can discover what she really is, though, is to leave behind all she knows and enter the Nowhere. A place from which few ever return.

To have courage means facing fear. And this mission is terrifying.

I’m not quite sure how I’d managed to go so long without reading Brandon Sanderson books – but somehow they’d passed me by. Until I was sent the first in this series, Skyward which I absolutely loved. It’s a real ripping SF adventure yarn which absolutely rockets along, and I thoroughly enjoyed. In fact, if you’re looking for Christmas gifts for teen SF readers, you really can’t go far wrong with this set, and they’re also really good looking books too.

The only problem I have with them now is the same that I have with all hefty books, and that’s holding them for any length of time, as my poor hands just can’t really cope with weight. Just as well I’m a fast reader and these are fast reads, so I don’t tend to end up hanging on to them for too long.

I’m really enjoying keeping up with Spensa’s adventures, and the development of this world, and I definitely recommend taking a look!

Don’t forget to check out the other bloggers mentioned on the tour poster above to see what they’ve got to say about it all.

Minecraft for good

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Have set up a tiltify so that I can fundraise for Battersea while figuring out minecraft (which I keep typing as micecraft) and streaming.

There’s not much there yet, but coming soon…

donate to Minecraft for the confused

First things first, you have to buy minecraft. Beware, there are multiple versions. I’m reliably told that the java edition is what I needed so I headed to minecraft.net to buy that.

(And then I had to fight with the website, which presented itself in Korean for no apparent reason, but I was successful, and now I own minecraft. You’ll need a microsoft account to buy it, and there is more weirdness if you’re under 18, but I’m not, so we’ll sail past that for now.)

Once you’ve bought minecraft you have to download and install the launcher. Panic not if everything seems to vanish – there’s probably a little block somewhere down in your taskbar, go find it and click.

You will then have to login with your microsoft account, and click play, and download a whole bunch more stuff.

(I probably should have advised tea before you started all of this. I got tea, but then I’m used to setting up computer software.)

***

A small interlude follows while I run around a minecraft world trying to work out what (NotSo)SmallTeen is doing, and doing it all badly and more slowly than him….

(we should have been streaming. I think it would have been hilarious for anyone and everyone.)

***

And now, dinner.

Saturday snippets 31 July 2021

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Trying – to build a blogging habit. I have two draft posts from this week that I haven’t managed to complete. Sigh.

Ignoring – last week’s todo list. I can roll it over. That’s a bujo thing, right?

Struggling – with a feeling of extreme deja vu with this home education inquiry /review stuff. What is it about families just getting on with life that gives some politicians such a problem?

Continuing – decluttering.

Planning – activities for the next 5 weeks.

Worrying – about sewing.

Wondering – where to buy a trackball.

Finishing – criminal minds. I feel slightly bereft. Also I have some questions about the finale. There seemed to me to be some serious plot inconsistencies.

Reading – another Shannon Hale, this time the book of a thousand days. Find it at Abe (not currently an affiliate link) also (yes this one is affiliate)

Stopping – writing now, because I want to finish testing the crochet pattern I wrote, and my hand is tingling from writing on my phone.

Goals /to do this week (25/7)

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Volunteer x 2.
Book dentist appts.
Finances. (shudder)
Read (and review) a book.
Continue #MinsGame (work on living room)
Blog post x 3
Pitch collaborations x 2
Exercise x 3
Kentwell costume check.
Move email subscribers to new provider and write up process.
Whiteboard plan next 5 weeks.
Look at book progress so far, brush up pitch.
App development.

(yes, I’m trying to keep myself busy why do you ask?)

Posting for accountability, will post update next weekend.

Saturday Snippets 24 July 2021

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{pondering} getting back to blogging. Partly for me, partly for reasons, partly to see if I can make a living out of if, but should that be here and if not where and round and round in circles I go…

{playing} State of Survival, a zombie game on my phone. With people all round the world. I use discord now. It’s been an odd year.

{feeling} more pain in more places than I care to think about, but can’t stop thinking about, because that’s kind of how pain works. The latest new area to get in on the action is my left foot, which feels oddly bruised in much the way my hands do, and makes getting up and getting going in the morning even more unpleasant than it was before. I don’t know if that’s still indicative of generalised osteoarthritis, it feels very much as though the NHS has ducked out of this whole conversation, and I don’t really know how to pick it up and where to take it from here.

{also feeling} dissatisfied and out of place and slightly frantic about the whole no job situation. My brain is going 19 to the dozen with plans and schemes and I can’t settle on anything. Which is partly why I’ve decided starting blogging again might help. It’s kind of like journalling, but easier on my hands, and I’d rather save hand activity for art stuff if you see what I mean.

{reading} at bedtime, Forest Born by Shannon Hale. It’s the 4th in the Books of Bayern, which we’ve been reading for a while now, because they are so so good. This one has sparked of lots of discussion about right and wrong, and parenting, and personal responsibility, and relationships and all sorts. I highly recommend them, and might write up a separate post on the series. Weirdly only one of them is available on bookshop, so here’s your handy affiliate link.

I’ve looked for them in bookshops too, and haven’t found them, I really don’t know why they aren’t well known. So happy I came across the first in a charity shop though!

{bookpost} this morning I got A different sort of Normal by Abigail Balfe in the post. It looks utterly fascinating. Don’t believe me? Here you go….

This is for the SOULS Who never quite fit in, The odd ones out, The misfits - Told to grow a rhivker skin.

That’s the first page. How could I resist? I was gifted it by a stranger on twitter, as a result of BigGreenBookshop #BuyAStrangerABookDay

I know I’m going to write a full post on this. I’ve a few books that deserve their own posts in fact, so that might be most of what I write about for a little while. Affiliate link for this book

{plans} I need to start scheduling myself. I’m going to try out a digital download planner I’ve been gifted by EGMDigital on Etsy – I’ll share pictures tomorrow, but here’s your affiliate link if you’d care to explore EGM Digital

{decluttering} currently having some success by playing #MinsGame, though it will surprise no one to hear that I’m not completely following the rules. I haven’t taken a picture every day, and some days I’ve got rid of a lot more than the items suggested for that day, and other days it’s been maybe a little less. But I’m sure I’m on track for the total for the month, which is 1+2+3 and so on, increasing by one each day, through to the end of the month. I’ve been chucking out, recycling, charity shop donating, using Ziffit, Ebay, FB marketplace… so there’s a little money coming in as well as a lot of stuff going out.

{exercising} trying to build a habit of doing a minimal workout, using the interval training concept as discussed in The one minute workout, another charity shop bargain. Today’s workout was actually via the 7 minute workout app, and it offends me greatly that the workout takes 8 minutes something. (Why did you call it a 7 minute workout then??) I found the app again (I’d installed it a little while ago) from this article about the concept, although it also offended me that the workout described in the article isn’t in the app. Or if it is, I didn’t find it. But anyway, I did a workout, go me.

And now I’m aware I’m waffling rather, so I think it’s time to wrap this up.

fake stomach in a bowl

Snapshots
We have a Big mostly home from university for the summer, although she’s actually away this weekend. It’s been rather lovely having her back. (NotSo)SmallTeen is waiting for results, and seeking employment, Smallest is focussing mainly on art, and Tigerboy is focusing mainly on computers, with the occasional foray into educational resources he is finding as I’m reorganising. And so the days go by.