Hello!
I'm looking for more books that speak about generational cycles/trauma or explores deep-rooted sociological issues in cultures.
For example, I loved A Dream Called Home by Reyna Grande and I LOVEDD Las Malas by Camila Sosa Villada. Books that explore being a Latina women in general are so interesting to me I love autobiographies and stories that can be felt collectively.
I also really like anthropological books like The Kissing Bug by Daisy Hernández.
Thank you :D

1 THE PSYCHOPATHOLOGY OF THE OTAKU
Given the topic of this book we cannot avoid a detailed inquiry into the nature of the otaku. They are, after all, the largest consumers of the beautiful fighting girls. What are the otaku thinking? What do they want and how do they get it? Are we right to speak of a “psychopathology of the otaku”? Or is that a bogus question? Or rather, don’t we know the answer already?
Otaku are immature human beings who have grown up without being able to let go of infantile transitional objects such as anime and monsters. They avoid contact with reality for fear that it will harm them and instead take refuge in a world of fiction. They are afraid of adult relationships, particularly sexual relationships, and find sexual stimulation only in fictional constructs. In psychiatric terms they would be classified as “schizothymic.”
These are a few of the most common stereotypical assumptions about otaku. Of course, being stereotypes does not mean they are necessarily incorrect. They may be accurate but still meaningless. These sorts of interpretations inevitably miss what is truly of interest about the otaku community.
The otaku are a strange and unique community that has come into existence as a result of the interactions between the modern media environment and the adolescent psyche in Japan. To my knowledge, however, sufficient thought has yet to be given to the otaku as a community. In this chapter I consider, sometimes from the perspective of a psychiatrist, and sometimes not, the psychopathology of the otaku.
Of course, when I say the “psychopathology of the otaku,” this does not mean that being an otaku in and of itself is a pathological phenomenon. Like the “psychopathology of adolescence” or the “psychopathology of high-school girls,” it is a provisional designation for the particular psychic disposition that might be imagined to be prevalent in a given group. It is also a convenient way to avoid expressions like psychology or psychic structure. This may be difficult to understand, but to put it in the most rigorous terms possible, I would say that psychopathology as I am using it here refers to the intentionality of “that which mediates the subject.” The problem, in other words, has to do with media.
I do not think that being an otaku in and of itself is a form of sickness, nor do I consider myself an otaku (otaku is not a self-designation in any case). It is from this standpoint that I propose to speak about the psychopathology of the otaku. This involves giving equal consideration to the degree to which the otaku community is well adapted and the degree to which it exhibits pathologies.
First, I want to say a few things about the particular challenges involved in speaking about the otaku. Otaku culture is by all accounts still in a state of immaturity (if one can expect “maturity” from it in the first place). Because it is still coming into being, one runs into fundamental difficulties in trying to view it in its entirety. For this reason, we have only a limited number of ways to discuss it. One way is to establish oneself as an otaku and speak as a complete insider, which is to say in a strategically uncritical manner (this is the stance taken by Okada Toshio). Alternatively, one can choose to take oneself out of the equation altogether and face the otaku with an attitude of revulsion and rejection. These two approaches may seem quite at odds, but in fact they are both versions of self-love and often amount to confessions of otakuphilia. When speaking of the otaku, it is crucial to begin by recognizing that these are only two approaches currently available to us.
But I am trying for a third way. Namely, to become an “otaku of otaku,” that is, an otaku whose love is directed toward otaku culture itself. This is not far from the kind of position that Okada advocates, although he calls himself an otaku of special effects and figurines. As for myself, I suppose I am a fan of special effects and monsters, although I have left my passion for Godzilla behind. (Not because I grew out of it but because Godzilla has regressed). I do not find any moe in most beautiful girl anime. I could not live without manga, but I hardly ever watch anime because I cannot stand the images and voice-overs. Even Miyazaki Hayao’s anime come close to the limit of what I can stand in terms of anime images. Yet despite all that, I remain riveted by the activities of the otaku themselves. For better or for worse, since finishing graduate school, I have been fortunate enough to have several extremely serious otaku among my circle. From an outsider’s perspective I found their activities utterly fascinating. And while I was thrilled to be able to observe them from close-up, I cannot deny that I was also sometimes perplexed by what can only be called their immaturity as members of society. Despite this, I believe I was able to maintain friendly relations with them. They all happened to be psychiatrists, psychiatry being the profession with perhaps the highest proportion of otaku among its members. I spare the reader the details of the endless conversations among the members of a certain psychiatry department during the Evangelion boom of 1997.
So what kind of person am I? At the moment I don’t have a good answer to this question. Psychoanalysis is after all premised on the impossibility of self-analysis (which is why analysts must undergo analysis themselves during their training). So allow me to refrain from useless navel-gazing and describe the contours of this unique community from a psychiatrist’s perspective.
Otaku and Maniacs
Nos that have made clear the limitations, and even the absurdity in some cases, of trying to understand otaku in terms of personality type, we can nonetheless abstract a few characteristics of the otaku. An otaku is

• a person with a strong affinity for fictional contexts.
• a person who makes use of fictionalization as a way to “possess” the object of his or her love.
• a person who inhabits not just two but multiple orientations.
• a person capable of finding sexual objects in fiction itself.

Before I try to explain each of these in turn, there are a few points I need to clarify. First, I defer all value judgments about otaku. Problems of adaption such as “fleeing from reality,” “taking refuge in fiction,” and “lacking common sense” may seem easy to spot in otaku, but they are not essential aspects. When value judgments become mixed up in the description they only create more confusion. If my descriptions are to be of any use at all, it will be because they are free of value judgments.
When describing a given type, it is often easier to grasp if one compares it with another similar type. The closest type to the otaku is surely the maniac.
Although they are still often confused with each other, the otaku and the maniac are clearly different in subtle but important ways. If the two were in fact synonymous, there would be no point in theorizing the meaning for us today of the “psychopathology of the otaku.” This is because the maniac is a universal type, while the otaku is historically specific. Understood as a kind of fetishism, mania has a history that may stretch back to the beginning of civilization.
Even if there are many areas of overlap, let us begin by discussing the differences between the two. To state my conclusion partly at the outset, I believe that today’s otaku derive from a group of maniacs who have reacted to the changes in the media environment by a proliferating set of adaptions. Just as the marsupials on the Australian continent mimicked the specialization of the mammals as a whole, the otaku mimicked the specialization of the class of maniacs within the isolation of the media environment.
The difference between these two communities is made clear through the kinds of objects to which they become attached. The following is a provisional list of the types of object each group might choose:
Otaku Objects:

• Anime, video games (mostly so-called girl games), young adult novels, voice actor idols, special effects, C-class idols, fan magazines (dojinshi), yaoi (see note 19), fighting girls.

Potential Crossover Objects:

• Trains, personal computers, film, manga, B-class idols, science fiction, American comics, the occult, amateur radio, police dramas, plastic models, figurines.

Maniac Objects:

• Philately, bibliomania, audio, cameras, astronomy, birdwatching, insect collecting, all forms of music, and all other forms of collecting.

These classifications are based on my personal impressions rather than any empirical data. So there may well be many exceptions and disagreements. If I were asked whether collectors of “anime figurines” were otaku or maniacs, for example, I would be hard-pressed to come up with a satisfying answer. But I do still believe these classifications accurately reflect the tendencies of each group. And they provide the starting point for the discussion of the difference between the otaku and the maniac that follows.
What strikes us most about these objects is what I call the “difference in level of fictional context.” Here we might think of the “fictional” as an abstraction of reality on the basis of some sort of bias. Of course, it is more complicated than that, but let us assume it is the case for now.
On the basis of this assumption, then, we can rank objects according to “degree of fictionality.” Documentaries based on interviews and primary sources, for example, would have a low level of fictionality. Through techniques such as citation and parody, “fiction” itself can be limitlessly abstracted and further fictionalized. Thus metafiction can be understood as having a higher level of fictionality than fiction. To put it a different way, the more forms of media that mediate the original information, the higher the level of fictionality. This is what we call the “difference in the level of fictional context.”
The term context here, following the work of Gregory Bateson and Edward T. Hall, is used in the general sense of the term, as that which determines the meaning of a given stimulus. It is important to keep in mind here that we cannot assume a straightforward ratio whereby the higher the level of “fictional context” is, the higher the level of fictionality will be. I return to this point again later.
The term maniac referred originally to a kind of person who is obsessed with something that yields no practical advantage. But compared with the otaku, the objects of maniacs can look quite concrete (not practical perhaps, but concrete). Looking back at the list of objects, we can see that those preferred by maniacs, such as audio equipment, stamps, antiques, and insect collections, are certainly for amusement and serve no practical function. But compared with those of the otaku, the objects of the maniac do have a concrete materiality. By concrete materiality I mean simply that one can pick them up in one’s hands and that they can be measured.
Generally speaking, maniacs compete with each other in terms of how effectively their hobbies translate into materiality. Collectors pride themselves on the size of their collections. And of course, this involves speculations about their value and rarity. Audio maniacs want faithful playback of sound with as little noise as possible. For insect collectors, it is not enough merely to know about rare bugs; their reputations as collectors depend on actually owning specimens of them. The unspoken rule of a naive “orientation toward material objects” is still very much in force here.
Otaku are lacking in this orientation toward the material and the practical. They know that the objects of their attachment have no material reality, that their vast knowledge has no use for other people in the world, and that this useless knowledge may even (especially after the Miyazaki Tsutomu incident) be viewed with contempt and suspicion. And knowing all of that, they still enjoy the gam of performing for each other their passion. The expression, “having a strong affinity for fictional contexts” is meant to clarify this sort of difference.
I just used the expression “performing their passion,” which requires a bit more explanation. The passion of the otaku is more performative than that of the maniac. Otaku are in communication with other otaku through code of “passion.” They are certainly not cool or disinterested, but neither do they completely lose themselves when indulging in their passion. This sort of slightly “canted stance toward passion” is very closely related to the essence of the otaku’s “affinity for fictional constructs.” Later we will see how perfectly the expression “X-moe” describes this.
Of course, we should consider the possibility that this has to do with how otaku deal with the society around them. Most of the objects to which otaku find themselves attracted are “embarrassing” in one way or another. They can be very easily ridiculed for their infatuation with anime at an age when most people have moved on. As a defense against this, it is perhaps inevitable that they might want to give the appearance to others that they are “only pretending to be obsessed.”
If we were to borrow a Benjaminian metaphor for what I have said so far, we could say that maniacs are enchanted by the aura of the original object, while the otaku fashion an original aura for their (fictional) reproductions.
The Problem of Possession
The next characteristic of the otaku is the way they go about possessing the objects of their attachment. We know that they enjoy animation. And they like special effects. But unlike stamps or audio systems, these are hard to collect. The fact is, moreover, that not all otaku are collectors in the first place. One might assume that anime fans are all interested in collecting actual cels from their favorite shows, but in fact this is surprisingly rare. Of course, such otaku do exist in fairly significant numbers, but this is not a necessary qualification for otaku identity. Part of this has to do with the fact that cels are not necessarily the material object-form of an anime. This may sound paradoxical, but cels are actually more like a by-product of an anime and occupy the same position as spin-off merchandise. So even if you owned every cel of an anime, this would not mean that you owned the anime itself. So how do the otaku make their objects their own?
Simply put, they do so through fictionalization.
What otaku enjoy is not making fiction into material form. Nor, as is often claimed, do they derive enjoyment from confusing reality and fiction. Their goal is simply to take fictions that are out there and promote them to fictions that are theirs alone. It is no coincidence that otaku like parodies. It may be that cosplay (kosupure) and fan magazines are best understood as examples of this process of fictionalization. Popular anime always attract so-called SS (“short” or “side” story) writers, who borrow the setting and characters from these works, write novels and scenarios in different versions, and then upload them to online forums. What is the motivation behind this form of expression that does not earn them a penny? Is it self-promotion? A service to other fans? If it were just that, surely parody or criticism would be more effective. I believe that “SS” is precisely how otaku manage to possess these works. They let the work “possess” them, weave a different story out of the same materials, and share it with the community. This process is a kind of “ritual of possession” practiced within the otaku community.
Even if they are not that serious, otaku are generally critics. All otaku have something that should probably be called a critical drive, including even cases like Miyazaki Tsutome. In fact, a fan who has forgotten his or her critical perspective is not an otaku. Otaku feel compelled to talk endlessly about a work and its creator. Their talk does not stop at the work itself but also extends to include their own relationship to it. When otaku engage in critique, their passion also merges with their enthusiasm for possession through the creation of new fictions. To put it very dramatically, the only way that otaku have of acquiring the objects they love is by fictionalizing them and turning them into their own works. This inevitably leads to the creation of new fictional contexts.
It was not his extraordinary intelligence or the accuracy of his information that made possible Okada Toshio’s status as the Otaku King. More than anything it was his production of a legendary animated film called Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise (oritsu uchugun: Oneamisu no tsubasa, 1987) as a rank amateur. He was also involved in producing the masterpiece of the OVA, Gunbuster (Toppu o nerae!). The careful and deliberate way in which he marketed these anime drew from his own experiences as an otaku and was itself a brilliant form of critique. The otaku business is one of those rare fields in which superb critical acumen can translate directly into highly creative work. If Okada is respected among otaku, it is because of his astounding ability to create fictions. For otaku, the kind of accuracy of information required by maniacs is nice, but not essential. And the fact is that Okada sometimes gets things wrong because of his own preoccupations. But this is tolerated as an aspect of his idiosyncratic style. This is a context in which even a mistake can be forgivable as long as it provides interesting fodder for fictionalization.
What is Fiction?
The concept of fiction as I have been using it thus far is also probably in need of some elucidation. As I mentioned earlier, a high level of fictional context does not necessarily imply a high level of fictionality. One can easily imagine a paradoxical situation in which an autobiography overflowing with empty rhetorical flourishes might seem less realistic than a piece of honest metafiction. But the problem is more complex even than that. It may be, for example, that the rhetorical flourishes of that autobiography actually say something very real about the desires of its author.
There is really no objective set of standards to measure the fictionality of a given work. This is why I have introduced the neutral concept of the “fictional context.” As I explained earlier, this is an “imaginary concept” determined by the number of forms of media necessary to mediate the creation of a work. I insist on the term imaginary for the following reason. We are not actually able to count the number of types of media involved. Only the recipient has the right to determine what is citation and what is parody. If a given citation is to be interpreted as the original, the fictional context for the recipient will be low. This involvement of the receiver’s subjective viewpoint makes things even more complicated.
Of course, it is easy to understand fictionality as long as one does not insist on too much rigor in the definition. One could simply say something along the lines of “What seems like a lie is fiction and what seems real is the thing itself.” Faced with such a clear statement, the rigorous examination of fictionality seems like a meaningless detour. But is it really? Let’s take a closer look. The statement “what seems like a lie is fiction and what seems real is the thing itself” is nothing more than a tautology. It is true enough, but it means nothing.
The discussion gets confusing because of the intervention of the adjective “real” (riaru). “Fictional” and “Real” are not opposites. If they were, an expression like “Real fiction” (riaru na kyoko) would be meaningless. Instead, it is fiction and reality that are opposites, which leaves us with the problem of how to define reality.
What is reality? A raw, unmediated experience? Is that what reality is? Since the Aum Shinrikyo incident this kind of simplistic equation no longer holds. Raw, real experiences are the most deceptive of all . The mystical experiences and altered states of consciousness that Aum members experienced during their training have made us all too aware of the fundamental fallacy in the idea that “actual experiences” equal reality. So we ask again: What is reality?
Indeed, it should go without saying that reality is itself a form of fiction. At least the word reality as we use it in general refers to the fiction that is “the everyday world we live in.” It is the fiction that is shared most widely. Some people might attach conditions to their belief in it, but our degree of adaption to society is judged according to whether or not we have accepted it. In this sense it is perhaps the most powerful of all fictions.
Psychoanalysis teaches us that we can never touch reality in its raw form. “Reality” is another name for the impossible, at least for Lacan. Let us review Lacan’s triad: the Real, the Symbolic, the Imaginary. These constitute a topological division of the human psyche, where, in my understanding, the emphasis falls on how people experience things. The Real, as I just mentioned, is “the realm of the impossible”: a paradoxical realm that exists because it is impossible to experience. The Symbolic is for the most part synonymous with the system of language. It is external to the subject and referred to as the “Other.” That language is other to us means that it is a transcendental entity positioned outside the subject. When we speak we experience its existence, but we cannot be completely conscious of that experience itself. The Imaginary is the realm of images and representations, and also of narcissism, since it is located inside the subject (*14). It is here that “meaning” and “experiences” are possible.
What does it mean for us to experience “fiction”? Experience, we have seen, becomes possible in the Imaginary. Whenever we have a conscious experience of anything, that experience happens in the Imaginary. In this sense there can be no essential distinction between “everyday reality” and “fiction.” (*15)
But, needless to say, that would be a mistake. It is a misreading of Lacan to suggest that one can grasp the Symbolic through the Imaginary. But this misreading is everywhere. Hiroki Azuma, for example, has claimed that in today’s society “the Symbolic stopped functioning.” He points to the deterioration of popular song lyrics as an example.
This is an interesting argument in itself, but it is based on the same misunderstanding.
Lacan’s tripartite model would be just a tool for meaningless speculation if we did not accept its universality. And psychoanalysis would be impossible without the assumption that we are and always will be “neurotics” from the moment that we attain language. And as long as we are neurotics, this tripartite division of the world, or at least the topological relations among its parts, will hold.
Let me make my own position clear. From this point on I will keep the focus on the interactions between media and the Imaginary, and I will not postulate any transformations or shifts in the Symbolic or the Real. This means that otaku can be discussed only in imaginary terms. In other words, we can postulate no structural difference between the non-otaku subject and the otaku subject, because both are neurotics and both stand in the same relation to the Symbolic. Therefore we can now reject completely the claim made by Osawa quoted above. Similarly, it is impossible to identify anything psychoanalytically unique about the otaku as a community. In fact, it is not uncommon to find certain pathologies among those who insist on the uniqueness of the otaku. I have abandoned the attempt to speak of the psychopathology of the otaku in structural terms. Instead, I will stick with descriptions on the level of the Imaginary. This is unavoidable as long as psychoanalysis is my primary method.
I never answered the question I posed earlier: How is it that we experience “everyday reality”? Distinguishing it from fiction is always a function of the Imaginary. In concrete terms, this has to do with our image of the degree to which experiences are mediated. Fiction can arise only out of the consciousness - and not the “fact” - that is experience is a mediated one(*17).
Thus the media have no other function vis-a-vis experience than to provide this kind of consciousness of being mediated. Or to put it the other way around, “everyday reality” is nothing more than a set of experiences that emerge from a consciousness of not being mediated. This difference between a consciousness of being and not being mediated, moreover, is only an imaginary one. Let me emphasize this once more. For us neurotics “everyday reality” has no essential privilege. This is also evident from the fact that patients suffering from dissociative disorder (a neurotic pathology) experience everyday reality as if it were fiction(*18).
[*14. The distinction I am making here between the inside and the outside of the subject is a provisional one meant only to aid the reader’s understanding. In strict psychoanalytic terms the distinction would be untenable.
*15. When I use the word “reality” in this book without any further specification I am referring to this kind of imaginary or everyday reality. When I mean reality in the psychoanalytic sense - that material realm that is impossible for us to experience - I use Lacan’s term “the Real,” with a capital “R.” That said, I have little occasion from here on to use the latter term. The focus in this book is on the relationship between the Imaginary and the Symbolic. Fighting girls are the product of neurotic desire and have nothing to do with psychosis, which of course makes it impossible to postulate the incursion of the Real when describing them. I am including this proviso because I realize that my earlier statement that “Reality is a form of fiction” might be misunderstood as a profession of belief in metaphysics or idealism.
*17. There are “media” (baikai) everywhere, starting with television, film, manga, and the Internet. And of course there are also more individualized media like the telephone, letters, and email. But these are not all. All relations with other people in daily life rely on some sort of media. This kind of media might be called “role consciousness.” Thus every individual takes on multiple interpersonal situations. For example, when I interview a patient as a psychiatrist, that experience is mediated by “doctor-role consciousness.” As a result, the treatment relation becomes fictionalized in a way. This provides a defense against the interview experience exercising too great an influence on the doctor’s daily life.
*18. Symptoms of dissociative illness cause people to complain of pain because of losing the sense of reality with regard to self and the external world, feeling that they are no longer themselves, or feeling that other people and landscapes are somehow unreal, as if seen through a membrane. These are seen often in cases of neurosis, depression, and schizophrenia. While in recent years it has been used to refer to cases in which patients feel as if another self is watching their body and movements from the outside, I use the term here in the former meaning.]
Otaku and Fiction
People who have an otaku mentality, with a high affinity for fiction, are likely to have a latent discomfort with reality whether or not they have actually been able to adapt to it. But this is not a serious issue; for them, it is more on the scale of, “Everyday reality is a drag!” At the very least we can say that this refusal to adapt does not lead in any simple way to the flight from reality and thence to refuge in a fictional world.
Hard-core otaku have their own unique stance toward fiction and are able to enjoy anime, for example, on multiple levels. To put this in the terms I used earlier, they are able to switch freely between levels of fictional context. As I mentioned earlier, they see reality as a kind of fiction. Since this means they do not necessarily privilege reality, it can easily be mistaken for an avoidance of reality. So while otaku do not in any way “confuse fiction with reality,” they are uninterested in setting fiction and reality up against each other. If anything they are able to find reality (riariti <lol>) equally in both fiction and reality (genjitsu).
In fact, otaku discover a multilayered reality (riariti) even in the fictionality of fiction. They see and enjoy reality (riariti) in terms of every standard by which fiction can be judged, including not just the quality of anime characters but also the script and character design, visual direction, marketing, criticism, and particular points of appreciation. This is the otaku’s special ability . When this is developed sufficiently, it becomes the three abilities that Okada describes as the “eye of the aesthete,” the “eye of the master,” and the “eye of the connoisseur.” Otaku do not just command a great deal of information, they must also be able to identify instantaneously these different standards of fictionality and shift to the appropriate level on which to appreciate them. This means not just falling in love and losing oneself in the world of a single work, but somehow staying sober while still indulging one’s feverish enthusiasm .
Total immersion in the world of the work on the object level has nothing to do with the essence of the otaku. Stephen King’s novel Misery, which was also made into a film, depicts a fan like this. She is in love with a certain series of novels and cannot tolerate its ending in a way that she does not like. So she makes the author a prisoner in her home and threatens him so that he will write the ending she wants. If such a woman actually existed, I would be happy to award her with the prize for confusing fiction and reality. But otaku try to stay as far away as possible from this kind of violence and crazed enthusiasm.
What would an otaku do if a story he liked ended badly? In fact, we have an excellent example of just such a case. Neon Genesis Evangelion (Sin seiki Evangerion), which I discuss in more detail later, created a whole social phenomenon as a result of its ending. Until the last half of the series it was a giant robot anime of unprecedented sophistication. But the problem came with the last episode, when the protagonist suddenly started to talk at great length about his own inner strugglers, leading to an ending in which he experienced inner salvation. Most of the fans were furious with this ending.
But did they criticize the creator Anno Hideaki directly? Of course, there were many who did. But at the same time huge numbers of fans began to write their own “eva” stories. And this was certainly the proper otaku response. They did not see the author as absolute. They were not just fans, but connoisseurs, critics, and authors themselves. This blurring of the distinction between producer and consumer is another characteristic of the otaku. In that sense, if we limit the discussion to how they relate to fiction, Osawa’s point is right after all. For otaku the place that is supposed to be taken by the transcendent author is extremely close to his or her own internal other.
The Psychopathology of the Otaku
Of course, the otaku do exist in reality, and it is important to recognize that. The Comic Market, which I mentioned earlier, for example, is a space in which the logic of the otaku predominates over “everyday reality.” But one cannot say it is not reality. It is a world in which fan magazines produced by serious otaku can generate revenues in the millions of yen. It is, in other words, a space in which the ability to produce enjoyable fictions is privileged above all else. And there we see on display only a small portion of the otaku’s ability to modify reality. Their ability to see reality as a kind of fiction is certainly a strength. The elite of the otaku are capable of changing reality to fit their tastes, just as Bill Gates and Michael Jackson did.
But while multiple orientation has the advantage of allowing people to shift perspectives flexibly, it also has a sort of pathological limitation. The more accurately the otaku shifts from one perspective to another, the more the framework of the experience as a whole cannot help but shift toward the fictional. And when multiple orientations are given equal weight, we lose the singularity that is the essential quality of reality. This is probably why otaku often complain of dissociative episodes and seem lost in the ordinary world. Thus multiple orientation can sometimes be viewed as an escape from reality. Yet even the expression “escape from reality” may be only a provisional one.
What provides the impetus for people to become otaku? To an outside observer it may appear to be caused by an episode of adaptational failure of some sort. But is it not possible for someone to become an otaku without that sort of trauma? Could it be that the more fundamental cause that makes people into otaku is to be found in the excessive immersion in the multiple orientations that we have been discussing? If so, why is it that otaku engage in this kind of immersion?
<…>
“The destining of revealing is in itself not just any danger, but danger as such.” from The Question Concerning Technology by Martin Heidegger.
For the great Persian scholar Avicenna, sensory phantasms were processed through five virtues or powers corresponding to five cavities in the cranium; phantasy or common sense, imagination, cogitative virtue, the estimative virtue, and finally the reminiscent virtue. According to Georgio Agamben in his work Stanzas: Word and Phantasm in Western Culture, Avicenna conceives of this gradation through the inner senses as a "progressive 'disrobing' (denudatio) of the phantasm from its material accidents."
<..>
I believe that this is where sexuality comes to have a very close relationship to all of this. We must recognize the fictionality and multilayered quality of sexuality. When people are sexually excited by the image of a woman in an anime, they may be taken aback at first, but they are already infected by the otaku bug. This is the crucial dividing point. How is it possible for a drawing of a woman to become a sexual object?
“What is it about this impossible object, this woman that I cannot even touch, that could possibly attract me?” This sort of question reverberates in the back of the otaku’s mind. A kind of analytic perspective on his or her own sexuality yields not an answer to this question but a determination of the fictionality and the communal nature of sex itself. “Sex” is broken down within the framework of fiction and then put back together again. In this respect one could say that the otaku undergoes hystericization: the otaku’s acts of narrative take the form of eternally unanswerable questions posed toward his or her own sexuality. And the narratives of hysterics cannot help but induce from us all manner of interpretations. This is of course what has led me to the present analysis.

This is from a book review of a book analyzing the Soka Gakkai presence in the USA between 1960 and 1975 - I've ordered a copy and should be able to post some more in-depth analysis when it gets here. For clarity, here is the reviewer's explanation of what "NSA" stands for:

At various stages in the organization’s history, the acronym NSA has stood for Nichiren Shoshu of America, Nichiren Shoshu Academy, and Nichiren-shoshu Soka-gakkai of America. The acronym SGI-USA (for Soka Gakkai International, USA) was adopted in 1991. This review will use “NSA” except when referring only to the organization at present. (Footnote, p. 352)

Only "adopted in 1991" AFTER Ikeda's humiliating excommunication. I'm sure he was notified that if NSA didn't change its name forthwith, his organization was going to be sued. The reviewer is a former higher-up in NSA (now SGI-USA), one of the PAID editors of its monthly magazine Seikyo Times, now renamed Living Buddhism (so a real inner-circle insider). She rarely strays into territory that could be identified as criticism of her former cult besties.
Starting on p. 353:

The performance of shakubuku—proselytizing—is accordingly seen as both a powerful cause for transforming one’s own karma and a compassionate action leading to the happiness of all. Snow suggests that the sense of personal mission, responsibility, and special status acquired through internalizing this vision motivates NSA members every bit as much as the promise of material and spiritual benefits to be gained from chanting. NSA’s goal

is not—as it might appear at first glance to the casual observer—the development of a cult of selfish, egoistic, happy chanters, unmindful of the problems and conditions of the rest of the world. Rather, it is the realization of something far more ambitious and global—the construction of...a civilization that not only transcends the limitations of the major philosophies and international powers in the world today, but one in which peace, prosperity, happiness, and creative spontaneity are enjoyed by all. (pp. 63-64)

Except that the rank selfishness and self-centeredness of SGI-USA members has been abundantly documented, of course...

In analyzing NSA as a proselytizing movement, Snow asks: How are potential recruits initially contacted and their nominal conversion secured? While NSA makes use of publications, large-scale cultural events, and college seminars to reach out to potential converts, Snow finds that recruitment is done chiefly through members’ existing family and social networks. He sees this as a function of NSA being a non-communal, “open” movement that does not demand the severing of extra-movement ties; in contrast, groups that are communal and relatively “closed” (such as the Krishna movement or the Unification Church) must make greater efforts to win recruits from among strangers. Of 330 people in Snow’s statistical sampling who joined NSA between 1966 and 1974, only 18% were recruited by strangers. This comes as a surprise, in that the popular perception of NSA during the 1970s was shaped by members’ assertive “street shakubuku”—going to sidewalks, parking lots, shopping malls, or other public places to invite passersby to introductory discussion meetings. Snow argues, however, that the value to NSA of street shakubuku lies chiefly in its function as a “commitment-building mechanism that serves to strengthen members’ identification with the organization, rather than in the numbers of converts it produces.

THIS, in other words.

The local NSA discussion meeting itself, typically held in members’ homes, constitutes the chief forum for introducing newcomers to the practice and winning nominal conversions of guests. Shakubuku closely examines the dynamics and strategies of such meetings.
In discussing “who joined and why,” Snow argues that “structural strain” explanations attributing the rise of new religious movements to deprivation, inequity, or other stresses in the social order do not fully explain why some individuals join such movements while others do not. He suggests that the dramatic growth of NSA—and of other movements—was fueled by the emergence in the late 60s and 70s of a large demographic constituency of young, single adults, many of whom were students or people lacking permanent positions of employment.

That was the Baby Boom generation. Note that in the USA, the Christian proselytizing religious movement "Jesus People" (aka "Jesus Freaks") was WAY bigger than any silly little weirdo Japanese cult could ever hope to be here in the US - estimates of the "Jesus Movement" membership ranged from 30,000 to 300,000 to 20 million! The SGI-USA's claimed membership remains officially at upwards of 300,000 while the estimates of active membership are between 3,000 and 30,000 (a generous upper limit).

As further “microdeterminants” of who joined NSA, Snow found the most important factors to be the possession of preexisting ties with NSA members, ample discretionary time, and absence of strong, countervailing commitments.

As described here as well:

In other words, they were not greatly encumbered by work, marital, or kinship ties. While we have only the 'ever-divorced' comparison with the general population, it seems safe to say that converts were in a good position to take on new religious commitments because they were structurally free of many social ties.

That's a really nice way of saying "lacking social connections and a social circle." It also explains nicely why those who join SGI-USA would be so susceptible to the cultish "love bombing" - INSTANT FRIENDS! INSTANT COMMUNITY!! I FINALLY BELONG!!! Source

When a family moves to a new town, one of the first things they do to set up a new set of social connections is to join a religious organization, typically the neighborhood church. We're social animals; having a community is important to us.

Snow is also critical of theories that seek to explain why people join new religious movements in terms of mental predispositions such as alienation, search for meaning, personal crisis, or hunger for community. Strong affective bonds with someone inside the movement and intense interaction with the group are presented as more important factors. Moreover, as Snow acutely observes,

psychological/motivational theories of conversion face a serious methodological difficulty in that they rely on members’ testimonials, which may well reflect the individual's unconscious restructuring of his or her past history in light of a newly acquired worldview.

And we've ALL seen how SGI leaders routinely change SGI members' "experiences" to punch up the drama (to the point of coaching the SGI member on how to appear more sincere - "You should cry as you tell it to make it more emotional"), or to make sure they include enough Ikeda Sensei worshipfulness, or adequately reflect whatever "campaign" the current SGI "rhythm" is emphasizing. Remember, an "experience" is a form of indoctrination, so it had better have all the indoctrination elements, right?
This is really important:

Members' own accounts of “why I joined” may thus be artifacts of the conversion process as much as they are explanations of why the conversion took place. Snow suggests that movements such as NSA serve not only to express preexisting needs and stresses but as “important agitational, problem-defining, need-arousal, and motive-producing agencies” and that “the latter function may oftentimes have primacy over the former” (p. 237). His discussion of “the convert as social type” suggests that conversion not be defined in terms of subjective personal transformation, which is hard to assess, but of outwardly identifiable changes in the members’ universe of discourse. Such changes include reconstruction of autobiography in line with a newly adopted worldview, and embracement of a “master attribution scheme" or unitary explanation of why things are as they are, such as NSA’s attribution of suffering to individual karma.

"Mappo, the Eeeeevil Latter Day of the Law!" "Fundamental darkness!" "EVERYBODY needs to 'do human revolution' because they're inherently flawed, hopeless, sinful, and LOST!" "EVERYBODY NEEDS A 'MENTOR'!!!!!" I'm sure you can think of other excuses for causes of suffering that SGI members randomly spurt out in fits of arrogance and pompousness.

Here's a list of 120+ book summaries that have been added since the launch of booksummary.pro about a month back.
Hopefully these serve as a useful reference:
Atomic Habits - http://www.booksummary.pro/Atomic_Habits_summary.html The Psychology of Money - http://www.booksummary.pro/The_Psychology_of_Money_summary.html Elon Musk - http://www.booksummary.pro/Elon_Musk_summary.html The 48 Laws of Power - http://www.booksummary.pro/The_48_Laws_of_Power_summary.html Sapiens - http://www.booksummary.pro/Sapiens_summary.html 12 Rules for Life - http://www.booksummary.pro/12_Rules_for_Life_summary.html The Little Book of Common Sense Investing - http://www.booksummary.pro/The_Little_Book_of_Common_Sense_Investing_summary.html The Intelligent Investor - http://www.booksummary.pro/The_Intelligent_Investor_summary.html Outlive - http://www.booksummary.pro/Outlive_summary.html Slow Productivity - http://www.booksummary.pro/Slow_Productivity_summary.html Never Split the Difference - http://www.booksummary.pro/Never_Split_the_Difference_summary.html Thinking Fast and Slow - http://www.booksummary.pro/Thinking_Fast_and_Slow_summary.html The Anxious Generation - http://www.booksummary.pro/The_Anxious_Generation_summary.html Nuclear War: A Scenario - http://www.booksummary.pro/Nuclear_War:A_Scenario\summary.html Supercommunicators http://www.booksummary.pro/Supercommunicators_summary.html Why Everyone (Else) Is a Hypocrite - http://www.booksummary.pro/Why_Everyone*(Else)_Is_a_Hypocrite_summary.html_Is_a_Hypocrite_summary.html) Influence - http://www.booksummary.pro/Influence_summary.html The Design Of Everyday Things - http://www.booksummary.pro/The_Design_Of_Everyday_Things_summary.html On Writing Well - http://www.booksummary.pro/On_Writing_Well_summary.html Inspired - http://www.booksummary.pro/Inspired_summary.html Zero to One - http://www.booksummary.pro/Zero_to_One_summary.html How AI Works - http://www.booksummary.pro/How_AI_Works_summary.html The Coming Wave - http://www.booksummary.pro/The_Coming_Wave_summary.html Age Of Revolutions - http://www.booksummary.pro/Age_Of_Revolutions_summary.html Chip War - http://www.booksummary.pro/Chip_War_summary.html AI For Good - http://www.booksummary.pro/AI_For_Good_summary.html Co-Intelligence - http://www.booksummary.pro/Co-Intelligence_summary.html Autobiography of a Yogi - http://www.booksummary.pro/Autobiography_of_a_Yogi_summary.html Crucial Accountability - http://www.booksummary.pro/Crucial_Accountability_summary.html Contact - http://www.booksummary.pro/Contact_summary.html The Power Of Habit - http://www.booksummary.pro/The_Power_Of_Habit_summary.html The Body Keeps The Score - http://www.booksummary.pro/The_Body_Keeps_The_Score_summary.html A Brief History Of Time - http://www.booksummary.pro/A_Brief_History_Of_Time_summary.html Factfulness - http://www.booksummary.pro/Factfulness_summary.html The Big Short - http://www.booksummary.pro/The_Big_Short_summary.html The 4-Hour Workweek - http://www.booksummary.pro/The_4-Hour_Workweek_summary.html The Black Swan - http://www.booksummary.pro/The_Black_Swan_summary.html How to Win Friends and Influence People - http://www.booksummary.pro/How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influence_People_summary.html Deep Work - http://www.booksummary.pro/Deep_Work_summary.html The Structure of Scientific Revolutions - http://www.booksummary.pro/The_Structure_of_Scientific_Revolutions_summary.html Don't Make Me Think - http://www.booksummary.pro/Don't_Make_Me_Think_summary.html The Happiness Project - http://www.booksummary.pro/The_Happiness_Project_summary.html Man’s Search For Meaning - http://www.booksummary.pro/Man’s_Search_For_Meaning_summary.html Guns, Germs, and Steel - http://www.booksummary.pro/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel_summary.html Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - http://www.booksummary.pro/Harry_Potter_and_the_Prisoner_of_Azkaban_summary.html Absolute Power - http://www.booksummary.pro/Absolute_Power_summary.html Getting To Yes - http://www.booksummary.pro/Getting_To_Yes_summary.html Rocket Surgery Made Easy -http://www.booksummary.pro/Rocket\_Surgery\_Made\_Easy\_summary.html Easy - http://www.booksummary.pro/Rocket_Surgery_Made_Easy_summary.html The Worlds I See - http://www.booksummary.pro/The_Worlds_I_See_summary.html Hidden Potential - 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http://www.booksummary.pro/The_Power_of_Now_summary.html Shoe Dog - http://www.booksummary.pro/Shoe_Dog_summary.html The Fifth Discipline - http://www.booksummary.pro/The_Fifth_Discipline_summary.html Range - http://www.booksummary.pro/Range_summary.html The Everything Store - http://www.booksummary.pro/The_Everything_Store_summary.html Homo Deus - http://www.booksummary.pro/Homo_Deus_summary Principles - http://www.booksummary.pro/Principles_summary.html The Checklist Manifesto - http://www.booksummary.pro/The_Checklist_Manifesto_summary.html Lean In - http://www.booksummary.pro/Lean_In_summary.html The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing - http://www.booksummary.pro/The_22_Immutable_Laws_of_Marketing_summary.html Atomic Adventures - http://www.booksummary.pro/Atomic_Adventures_summary.html The Color of Law - http://www.booksummary.pro/The_Color_of_Law_summary.html Grit - http://www.booksummary.pro/Grit_summary.html The Emperor of All Maladies - http://www.booksummary.pro/The_Emperor_of_All_Maladies_summary.html The Vital Question - http://www.booksummary.pro/The_Vital_Question_summary.html Why We Sleep - http://www.booksummary.pro/Why_We_Sleep_summary.html Life 3.0 - http://www.booksummary.pro/Life_3.0_summary.html Clean Code - http://www.booksummary.pro/Clean_Code_summary.html The Blind Watchmaker - http://www.booksummary.pro/The_Blind_Watchmaker_summary.html Cosmos - http://www.booksummary.pro/Cosmos_summary.html Nonviolent Communication - http://www.booksummary.pro/Nonviolent_Communication_summary.html The Courage to Be Disliked - http://www.booksummary.pro/The_Courage_to_Be_Disliked_summary.html The Origins of Political Order - http://www.booksummary.pro/The_Origins_of_Political_Order_summary.html Political Order and Political Decay - http://www.booksummary.pro/Political_Order_and_Political_Decay_summary.html Be Useful - http://www.booksummary.pro/Be_Useful_summary.html The Almanack of Naval Ravikant - http://www.booksummary.pro/The_Almanack_of_Naval_Ravikant_summary.html Rich Dad Poor Dad - http://www.booksummary.pro/Rich_Dad_Poor_Dad_summary.html 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - 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Please don't confuse mechanics and material with each other.
What is thinking?
- There is no thinking, it's only about thinking. You don't self-generate thoughts to think, you only react to environmental stimuli. This is very easy to see because in a primitive environment you wouldn't know 95% of what you know right now. You are DNA + what you have been exposed to in your life.
What is mind?
- A mind is a simple mechanical functioning. The body is responding to stimuli. It is only a stimulus-responding mechanism. Reaction to enviromental stimulus. The sensory activity of the living organism is all that exists. Concepts such as "feelings" and "dreams" are inherently linked to basic biological, pre-programmed drives, and it seems plausible that an AI could eventually develop similar mechanisms.
Are we mechanical?
We are human biological robots. What you consider your mind is in fact just a collection of experiences and sensations that have taken place since you were born, which some call an ego. You are "the programming" inisde "a program".
Nikola Tesla in his autobiography firmly states we are all automata. Gurdjieff said that we are "machines." U.G krishnamurti statement is that we are 100% machines. People who have been deeply hypnotized state this as a fact very clearly. The evidence for this goes on and on. Do your own research.
From a purely philosophical point of view, if everything is one, of course reality will be mechanical. This is not just the ordinary solid, material-mechanical world that we know, metals and robots, but biomechanical and beyond. Again, from a purely philosophical point of view, you are not god, but an essential part of it is within. Because "i" doesn't exist, "i: collection of dust, an illusion.
Consciousness
Consciousness is awareness of internal and external existence. That's definition.
Without memory you cannot be conscious. If there is a lion behind you, you say I am aware of that lion, i am conscious, but it has become part of your knowledge. A memory system. because you saw or felt or smelled or someone told you about this lion. Not because you are using something else, other than your senses and memory
You are looking at a tree. how you know it's not flat? This is because you have seen trees before and you know that trees are not flat. It is your memory that makes life accessible to you.
You cannot see certain lights due to internal memory (DNA). You can infinitely argue with the owl which one is day and which one is night, because the owl perceives light differently. So whatever limited world you perceive, you are only conscious of that.
I no longer believe that there is such a thing as awareness, because you cannot separate awareness from the activity of the brain and memory. and to talk about it without having brain activity is nonsence. i might be wrong, of course.

1. First you are created from DNA. This DNA decides that you have a human body and not the body of a dog or other animal. What kind of male or female body you will have, how tall, how strong, what nose, eyes, etc. This is all "the programming". The fact that some people are born with less vision, blind, deaf, etc. is due to DNA and not external influences. Unless something happens after birth, or in the process of birth.

Your experience depends on what software (DNA) you have. If you were born blind, you cannot be aware of light or have mental images of a world you have never seen or have memories of. Some animals have deeper vision, deeper hearing, etc. Thier software is very different.
There is a world outside of you, no matter what you believe. If you die, life will continue (the program). It is an indisputable fact that life exists outside of your perception and how much you repeat “cogito, ergo sum”.
This is only about "I", if you look deeper, you understand that "I" don’t exist at all, it only seems to exist. "I" have no independent existence. If you were independent rather than interdependent, you would at least know where you were coming from and who you were.
We use the laws of this reality to apply assumptions such as simulation, Boltzmann brain and many others.
Not to mention the development of our understanding based on the development of civilization and technology.

A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it ...
An important scientific innovation rarely makes its way by gradually winning over and converting its opponents: it rarely happens that Saul becomes Paul. What does happen is that its opponents gradually die out, and that the growing generation is familiarized with the ideas from the beginning: another instance of the fact that the future lies with the youth.
— Max Planck, Scientific autobiography, 1950, p. 33, 97

Encontrado aqui.

SFF here means all speculative fiction (fantasy, science fiction, horror, alternate history, magical realism etc).
The following SFF books will be published in the U.S. in May 2024. Other countries may differ.
If you know of others, please add them as comments below. If I've made any mistakes, just let me know, and I'll fix them up.
The published book formats are included with each entry (mostly hardcover and/or trade paperback with the occasional ebook). This information is obtained from the isfdb website which lists one format type for each entry but mostly omits ebook entries. If it's a new hardcover and/or trade paperback book, it's very likely that an ebook is also coming out at the same time.
If you are using the Chrome browser, you might find the Goodreads Right Click extension useful, to find out more information on books that you are interested in:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/goodreads-right-click/fbicpmopjallgdpklipffmihodimmcbe?hl=en
​
Key
(A) - Anthology
(C) - Collection
(CB) - Chapbook
(GN) - Graphic Novel
(N) - Novel
(NF) - Nonfiction
(O) - Omnibus
(R) - Reprint
(YA) - Young Adult and Juvenile
[eb] - eBook
[hc] - Hardcover
[tp] - Trade Paperback
​
May 1

• Chaotic Aperitifs (Hidden Dishes 2) - Tao Wong (N) [eb] tp
  
• Primal Hunt (Midnight Hunters 9) - L. L. Raand (N) [tp]
  
• Rocking into the Night (Wartime Druid 4) - Shawn McGee (N) [eb] [hc] tp
  
• The End of Time (The Cruel Gods 3) - Trudie Skies (N) eb
  
• The Ghostlands of Natalie Glasgow - Hailey Piper (CB) hc
  
• Undead Folk - Katherine Silva (CB) [eb] [hc] tp
  
• Voyage of the Wanderlust (Spaceship Initiative / Tri-Galactic Trek) - Mary E. Lowd (N) [tp]
  
• Whispers of Apple Blossoms - Brett Mitchell Kent (N) eb
  

May 3

• The Ill-Fitting Skin - Shannon Robinson (N) tp
  
• Marked for Sorrow - Y.M. Miller (CB) eb
  

May 5

• Thorns of War (The Smokesmiths 2) - Joao F. Silva (N) eb

May 6

• The Harvest - Diego Rauda (N) [eb] tp

May 7

• A Glitch in the Protocols (Terminate the Other World! 2) - Icalos (N) [tp]
  
• An Intrigue of Witches (Secret Society Mysteries 1) - Esme Addison (N) [hc]
  
• Archangels of Funk - Andrea Hairston (N) [hc]
  
• Barbarian Incursion (Sapiens 1) - Persimmon (N) [tp]
  
• Beastly Beauty - Jennifer Donnelly (N) (YA) [hc]
  
• Beyond the Isle of the Lost (The Isle of the Lost 5) - Melissa de la Cruz (N) (YA) [hc]
  
• Beyond the Ranges - James Aidee, John Ringo (N) [hc]
  
• Black Shield Maiden - Willow Smith and Jess Hendel (N) [eb] [hc] tp
  
• Blood at the Root - LaDarrion Williams (N) (YA) [eb] hc
  
• Burning Crowns (Twin Crowns 3) - Catherine Doyle, Katherine Webber (N) (YA) [hc]
  
• Can't Spell Treason Without Tea (Tomes & Tea 1) - Rebecca Thorne (N) [tp]
  
• Chromatic (Color Theory 3) - Ashley Bustamante (N) [hc]
  
• City of the Undead (Zombicide: Black Plague) - C. L. Werner (N) [tp]
  
• Coco Twinkles - Maddy Mara (CB) (YA) [tp]
  
• Dawn of the Last Dragon Rider (The Last Dragon Rider 1) - Shawn Wilson (N) [tp]
  
• Death's Country - R. M. Romero (N) [hc]
  
• Dungeons Just Wanna Have Fun (Dungeons Just Wanna Have Fun 1) - Maxlex (N) [tp]
  
• Dusty in the Outwilds - Rhiannon Williams (N) (YA) [hc]
  
• Elevation of Mana (Elevation of Mana 1) - Wandering Agent (N) [tp]
  
• Fimbulwinter (Stranger Than Fiction 3) - T. B. Mare (N) [tp]
  
• Five Broken Blades - Mai Corland (N) [hc] [hc]
  
• For Eternity (Filthy Rich Vampires 4) - Geneva Lee (N) [tp]
  
• For a Lifetime (Timeless 3) - Gabrielle Meyer (N) [hc] [tp]
  
• Fortune's Envoy (Cyber Dreams 3) - Plum Parrot (N) [tp]
  
• Ghostroots - 'Pemi Aguda (C) [hc]
  
• Henry Heckelbeck Does Not Need a Sitter - Wanda Coven (CB) (YA) [tp] [hc]
  
• Hyde & Seek (Jekyll & Hyde Inc. 2) - Simon R. Green (N) [hc]
  
• I Ran Away to Evil (I Ran Away to Evil 1) - Mystic Neptune (N) [tp]
  
• Into the Sideways World - Ross Welford (N) (YA) [tp]
  
• Jerry, Let Me See the Moon - Jeffrey Ebbeler (N) (YA) [hc]
  
• Loneliness & Company - Charlee Dyroff (N) [hc]
  
• Mother Knows Best: Tales of Homemade Horror - Lindy Ryan (Editor) (A) eb
  
• No Malto Left Behind! - Ryder Windham (CB) (YA) [tp] [hc]
  
• People in Glass Houses (Harmony) - Jayne Castle (N) [hc]
  
• Perfect Little Monsters - Cindy R. X. He (N) [eb] tp
  
• Queens of Themiscyra - Hannah Lynn (N) [tp]
  
• Quest for the Wishing Stone (Dungeoneer Adventures 3) - Ben Costa, James Parks (N) (YA) [hc]
  
• Red Side Story (Shades of Grey 2) - Jasper Fforde (N) [eb] [hc] [tp]
  
• Rooster and the Dancing Diablo (Los Monstruos 2) - Diana López (N) (YA) [hc]
  
• Seize the Day (Empress 1) - J. V. Simms (N) [tp]
  
• Shock the Monkey (The N.O.A.H Files 2) - Eric Elfman, Neal Shusterman (N) (YA) [hc]
  
• Skandar and the Chaos Trials (Skandar 3) - A. F. Steadman (N) (YA) [hc]
  
• Spin of Fate (The Fifth Realm 1) - A. A. Vora (N) (YA) [hc]
  
• Supplication - Nour Abi-Nakhoul (N) [eb] tp
  
• Sweet Nightmare (The Calder Academy 1) - Tracy Wolff (N) (YA) [hc]
  
• The Brides of High Hill (The Singing Hills Cycle 5) - Nghi Vo (CB) [hc]
  
• The Daily Grind 4 (The Daily Grind 4) - Argus (I) (N) [tp]
  
• The Dark Side of the Sky - Francesco Dimitri (N) [tp]
  
• The Deer and the Dragon (No Other Gods 1) - Piper CJ (N) [eb] tp
  
• The Demon of the Absurd - Rachilde (C) [tp]
  
• The Downloaded - Robert J. Sawyer (N) [eb] tp
  
• The Eccentrics (Knight Watch 3) - Tim Akers (N) [tp]
  
• The Games of Olympus (Theos 2) - Arthur Wordsmith (N) [tp]
  
• The Hunting Dark (The Enlightenment Project 2) - Lynn Hightower (N) [hc]
  
• The Ministry of Time - Kaliane Bradley (N) [eb] [hc]
  
• The Silver Curse (The Silver Curse 1) - Anna Orr (N) [tp]
  
• The Silverblood Promise (The Last Legacy 1) - James Logan (N) [tp] [hc]
  
• The Sins on Their Bones - Laura R. Samotin (N) [eb] [tp]
  
• The Skandar Collection (Skandar 1-3) - A. F. Steadman (O) (YA) [hc]
  
• The Sky King (Skyriders 2) - Polly Holyoke (N) (YA) [tp]
  
• The Sword Unbound (Lands of the Firstborn 2) - Gareth Hanrahan (N) [tp]
  
• The Things We Miss - Leah Stecher (N) (YA) [hc]
  
• The Traitor's Son - Dave Duncan (N) [tp]
  
• The Z Word - Lindsay King-Miller (N) [eb] tp
  
• Thelma the Unicorn - Kate Howard (CB) (YA) [tp]
  
• True Colors - Abby Cooper (N) (YA) [hc]
  
• When the Devil - Emma E. Murray (CB) tp
  
• World of Wreckage (Torth 3) - Abby Goldsmith (N) [tp]
  

May 8

• Forest of Swords (The Three Kingdoms Chronicles 4) - Baptiste Pinson Wu (CB) eb

May 9

• Flooded Secrets (The Chronicles of Nerezia 2) - Claudie Arsenault (N) [eb] [tp]

May 11

• Sundering (The Keepers of Midgate 2) - R.M. Krogman (N) eb

May 12

• 41: An Autobiography - J.D. Buffington (NF) [eb] tp

May 14

• A Battle Between Blood (Legend of Tal 5) - J.D.L. Rosell (CB) [eb] tp
  
• As the Sparrow Flies (Sojourners' Saga 1) - Chad Corrie (N) [tp]
  
• Blood & Fury - Tessa Gratton, Justina Ireland (N) (YA) [hc]
  
• Blood on the Tide (Crimson Sails 2) - Katee Robert (N) [tp]
  
• Burning Sky - John Darnton (N) [hc]
  
• By Blood, By Salt (Land of Exile 1) - J.L. Odom (N) [eb] hc
  
• Cinderwich - Cherie Priest (N) [tp]
  
• Clairboyance - Kristiana Kahakauwila (N) (YA) [hc]
  
• Cloaked Deception - Timothy Zahn (N) [hc]
  
• Dry Lands - Elizabeth Anne Martins (N) [tp]
  
• Finn and Ezra's Bar Mitzvah Time Loop - Joshua S. Levy (N) (YA) [hc]
  
• Fleet Champions (Titan Hoppers 3) - Rob J. Hayes (N) eb
  
• Flyboy - Kasey LeBlanc (N) (YA) [hc]
  
• High Priestess and Empress (Arcana Oracle 2) - Susan Wands (N) [eb] tp
  
• Horizon of War (Horizon of War 1) - Hanne (I) (N) [tp]
  
• Howls from the Scene of the Crime: An Anthology of Crime Horror - Jessica Peter & Timaeus Bloom (Editors) (A) [hc] tp
  
• I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons - Peter S. Beagle (N) [hc]
  
• It Waits in the Forest - Sarah Dass (N) [hc]
  
• Moon Madness (Camp Sylvania 2) - Crystal Maldonado, Julie Murphy (N) (YA) [hc]
  
• My Darling Dreadful Thing - Johanna van Veen (N) [tp]
  
• Onyeka and the Heroes of the Dawn (Onyeka 3) - Tọlá Okogwu? (N) (YA) [hc]
  
• Player Manager 3 (Player Manager 3) - Ted Steel (N) [tp]
  
• Puzzleheart - Jenn Reese (N) (YA) [hc]
  
• Rise of the Strongest Sovereign 2 (Rise of the Strongest Sovereign 2) - Kaz Hunter (N) [tp]
  
• Road to Ruin (Magebike Courier 1) - Hana Lee (N) [tp]
  
• The Amethyst Kingdom (The Five Crowns of Okrith 5) - A. K. Mulford (N) [tp] [hc]
  
• The Boo Hag Flex - Justina Ireland (CB) (YA) [hc]
  
• The City Beyond the Stars (The Kingdom Over the Sea 2) - Zohra Nabi (N) (YA) [hc]
  
• The Dangerous Ones - Lauren Blackwood (N) (YA) [hc]
  
• The Dragon Legion (The Sunborn 1) - Isaac Hill (N) eb
  
• The Garden of Delights - Amal Singh (N) [tp]
  
• The Gift of Guthix (RuneScape) - Erin M. Evans (N) [tp]
  
• The Haunting of Lake Lucy (Ghost Writers 1) - Sandy Deutscher Green (N) (YA) [tp] [hc]
  
• The Honey Witch - Sydney J. Shields (N) [tp]
  
• The House That Horror Built - Christina Henry (N) [eb] tp
  
• The Last Rhee Witch - Jenna Lee-Yun (N) (YA) [hc]
  
• The Many Faces of Ista Flit (Tidemagic 1) - Clare Harlow (N) (YA) [hc]
  
• The Red Grove - Tessa Fontaine (N) [eb] hc
  
• The Witches of Bellinas - J. Nicole Jones [eb] hc
  
• The Wolf's Eye (The Order of the Seven Stars 2) - Luanne G. Smith (N) [tp]
  
• The Worst Perfect Moment - Shivaun Plozza (N) (YA) [hc]
  
• Thornbane the Demon Witch (Thornbane Trilogy the Hexed Heroes Saga 2) - Paul Sating (N) eb
  
• Tomorrowing - Terry Bisson (C) [hc] [tp]
  
• Truth or Wolf - Anne Marsh (N) [tp]
  
• When Among Crows - Veronica Roth (N) [eb] hc
  
• Woodworm - Layla Martinez, trans. Sophie Hughes & Annie McDermott (CB) [eb] tp
  

May 16

• Lost in the Garden - Adam S. Leslie (N) [eb] tp

May 17

• Bloodfeather Heartsong (Bloodsong 2) - Amber L. Werner (N) eb
  
• Kosa - John Durgin (N) [eb] tp
  
• Religion and Science Fiction: An Introduction - James H. Thrall (NF) [tp] [hc]
  

May 20

• The Lamplighter - Crystal J. Bell (N) (YA) [tp]
  
• The Switchboard (Connections 1) - Christina K. Glover (N) eb
  

May 21

• A House Like an Accordion - Audrey Burges (N) [tp]
  
• Battlemaster (Victor of Tucson 5) - Plum Parrot (N) [tp]
  
• Blood Torn (The Immortals (Shelley Wilson) 2) - Shelley Wilson (N) [hc] [tp]
  
• Chained Destinies - D. Jordan Redhawk (N) [tp]
  
• Cruel Nights - Jason Nahrung (N) [tp]
  
• Escape Velocity - Victor Manibo (N) [hc]
  
• Final Strike (The Dresden Codex 3) - Jeff Wheeler (N) [tp]
  
• Freeset (Four Cities 2) - Sarina Dahlan (N) [tp]
  
• Goddess of the River - Vaishnavi Patel (N) [hc]
  
• Head Full of Lies (Harlan Winter 2) - Jordan Farmer (N) [tp]
  
• Heavenbreaker - Sara Wolf (N) [hc]
  
• Hidden Fury - Bjorn Hasseler (CB) [tp]
  
• How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying (Dark Lord Davi 1) - Django Wexler (N) [tp]
  
• In Midnight’s Shadow (Tales of Isyr 2) - C.M. Debell (N) eb
  
• In Our Stars (The Doomed Earth 1) - Jack Campbell (N) [hc]
  
• In the Shallows - Tanya Byrne (N) [hc]
  
• Journey's Revenge (1544 2) - Simone Kelly (N) [tp]
  
• Keepers of the Stones and Stars - Michael Barakiva (N) (YA) [hc]
  
• Liar's Test - Ambelin Kwaymullina (N) (YA) [hc] [hc]
  
• Little Sisters and Other Stories - Vonda N. McIntyre (C) [tp]
  
• Looking for Love in All the Haunted Places - Claire Kann (N) [tp]
  
• Lost Ark Dreaming - Suyi Davies Okungbowa (N) [hc]
  
• Mazi - Koji A. Dae (CB) [eb] tp
  
• Mind Games - Nora Roberts (N) [hc]
  
• Pliable Truths (Star Trek: The Next Generation) - Dayton Ward (N) [tp]
  
• Relight My Fire (The Stranger Times 4) - C. K. McDonnell (N) [hc] [tp]
  
• Reverberations (Manabound 2) - Travis Albrecht (N) [tp]
  
• The Charmed Friends of Trove Isle - Annie Rains (N) [tp]
  
• The Dead Spot: Stories of Lost Girls - Angela Sylvaine (C) [eb] tp
  
• The Lamplighter - Crystal J. Bell (N) [eb] tp
  
• The Last Murder at the End of the World - Stuart Turton (N) [eb] [hc] tp
  
• The Magic Paintbrush - Eric Darnell, Kat Zhang (N) (YA) [hc]
  
• The Menace at the Mall - Steve Behling (CB) (YA) [hc]
  
• The North Wind (The Four Winds 1) - Alexandria Warwick (n) [eb] [hc] tp
  
• The Road Trip Rewind - Danny Tamberelli, Kate Tamberelli (N) [tp]
  
• The Shabti - Mageara C Lorenz (N) [eb] [hc] [tp]
  
• Vainglorious (Ciaphas Cain) - Sandy Mitchell (N) [tp]
  
• Way of the Wizard 1 - Michael Michel (N) eb
  
• We Mostly Come Out at Night: 15 Queer Tales of Monsters, Angels & Other Creatures - Rob Costello (A) [hc]
  
• You Like It Darker - Stephen King (C) [hc]
  

May 23

• Find Him and Kill Him - Cody J. Thompson (N) [eb] tp
  
• Cursed Shards: Tales of Dark Folklore - Leanbh Pearson (Editor) (A) [eb] tp
  

May 24

• Blood Covenant - Alan Baxter (N) eb
  
• Enchanted Skies (Enchanted Series 4) - Various Authors (A) eb
  
• Memories of Forgotten Waves - Niranjan K (N) eb
  

May 28

• Bespelled (Bewitched 2) - Laura Thalassa (N) [eb] tp
  
• Beyond the Aetherial Veil (Odyssey of the Ethereal 2) - Jamie Kojola (N) [tp]
  
• Dreadful - Caitlin Rozakis (N) [tp]
  
• Evan Miller Is Waking Down (Dreambending) - Jerel Law (N) (YA) [tp]
  
• Evocation (The Summoner's Circle 1) - S.T. Gibson (N) [eb] [hc]
  
• Flawless Girls - Anna-Marie McLemore (N) (YA) [hc]
  
• Ghostdrift (The Finder Chronicles 4) - Suzanne Palmer (N) [hc]
  
• NecroTek (NecroTek 1) - Jonathan Maberry (N) [hc]
  
• Ninetails: Nine Tales - Sally Wen Mao (C) [eb] tp
  
• Shadows in the Stacks: A Horror Anthology - Vincent V. Cava, James Sabata, & Jared Sage (Editors) (A) tp
  
• Song of the Mysteries (The Wars of Light and Shadow Arc IV: Sword of the Canon 3) - Janny Wurts (N) [hc]
  
• Soul Cage (Soulbreaker 1) - L.R. Schulz (N) eb
  
• The Burning Witch 3 (The Burning Witch 3) - Delemhach (N) [tp]
  
• The Fireborne Blade (The Fireborne Blade 1) - Charlotte Bond (N) [hc]
  
• The Only Light Left Burning (All That's Left in the World 2) - Erik J. Brown (N) (YA) [hc]
  
• The Rictus Grin and Other Tales of Insanity - Erica Summers (C) [eb] tp
  
• Waking the Dead and Other Fun Activities - Casey Lyall (N) (YA) [hc]
  

May 29

• A Memory of Song: First Verse of the Last Ballad - Scott Palmer (N) eb
  
• Feral - Bryan Alaspa (N) eb
  

May 30

• A Melody of Death (Isles of Bright and Shadow 2) - C.E. Page (N) eb
  
• Dark City Rising (The Edinburgh Doctrines) - CL Jarvis (N) eb
  
• Die Young (Runeborn 1) - Morgan Shank (N) eb
  
• From the Belly - Emmett Nahil (N) [eb] tp (#ehh)
  

​
Edit1: Added in horror books listed on Emily C. Hughes' blog that I didn't already have (tag #ehh)
Edit2: Added in books from the May io9 SF/Fantasy list that I'd missed (tag #io9)
Edit3: Added in books from Rob J. Hayes' May 2024 list of self-published fantasy books, that I didn't already have (tag #rjhspb)
​
Archive
Previous "SFF books coming ..." posts have been collected here. (Thank you mods).
​
Main Sources

• ISFDB forthcoming books at https://www.isfdb.org/fc.cgi
  
• Rob J Hayes' monthly blog posting on new self-published books: https://www.robjhayes.co.uk/blog/
  
• io9's monthly list of new sci-fi and fantasy books.
  
• Horror books mentioned on Emily C. Hughes' blog: https://readjumpscares.com/
  
• Upcoming Sci-Fi & Fantasy Books listed at Risingshadow: https://www.risingshadow.net/library/comingbooks
  
• Locus Forthcoming Books https://locusmag.com/forthcomingbooks/
  
• Publisher "new" and "Coming Soon" web pages such as: https://publishing.tor.com/coming-soon/ and https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/imprint/orbit/
  
• Reviews of ARC books by various users in this sub.
  
• Other occasional posts to this sub announcing up-n-coming books.
  

THE LUGGAGE OF LIFE LIFE is largely a matter of luggage. So soon as a child can toddle he displays an insatiable passion for carrying things. He is never so happy as when he is loaded. His face beams with delight when his back is burdened to the point of breaking. A few months later he cries for a wooden horse and cart, that he may further gratify his inordinate longing for luggage. And, if these appetites be not humoured, he will exhaust his unconsecrated energies in pushing the chairs, tugging at tables, and carrying the cat. The instinct is there. You can no more deny him his load than you can deny him his lunch. The craving for both is born in him.
In his autobiography, Thomas Guthrie tells how the blood of the Scottish lads in his native village was stirred as the echoes of Waterloo reached that remote hamlet. ‘Many a time,’ he says, ‘did we boys tramp a mile or two out of town to meet troops marching to the war, and proud we were to be allowed to carry a soldier’s musket, which the poor fellows, burdened with all the heavy accoutrements of those days, and wearied with a twelve-hour march on a hot summer’s day, were glad enough to resign to us.’ Here is the same subtle law in operation, Man often loves without knowing that he loves ; and, little as he suspects it, he is deeply in love with his load. He groans beneath it, as a man grumbles at the wife of his bosom, but, if it were taken from him, he would be almost as disconsolate as if she were taken from him. When we were boys at school we learned ludicrous lessons about the weight of the air. How we laughed as we listened to the doctrines of Torricelli, and heard that every square inch of surface has to sustain a weight of fifteen pounds ! How we roared in our rollicking scepticism when our school masters assured us that we were each of us being subjected to a fearful atmospheric pressure of no less than fourteen tons !
But Mr. H. G. Wells has drawn for us a picture of men unladen. His heroes Mr. Cavor and Mr. Bedford have found their way to the moon. The fourteen tons of air are no longer on their shoulders. The atmospheric pressure is removed; they have lost their load, and they nearly lose their lives in consequence. They cannot control themselves. They can scarcely keep their feet on the soil. The slightest spring of the foot, and they bound like a ball into mid-air. If they attempt to leap over an obstructing boulder, they soar into space like larks, and land on a distant cliff or alight on an extinct volcano. Life becomes weird, ungovernable, terrible. They are lost without their load.
Which things are symbolic. It is part of the pathos of mortality that we only discover how dearly we love things after we have lost them. We behold with surprise our affections, like torn and bleeding tendrils, hanging desolate, lamenting mutely the com- monplace object about which they had entwined themselves. So is it with the lading and luggage of life. We never wake up to the delicious luxury of being heavily burdened until our shoulders miss the load that galled them. If we grasped the deepest philosophy of life a little more clearly we might perhaps fall in love with our luggage. The baby instinct is perfectly true. Our load is as essential to us as our lunch. Very few people have been actually crushed in this old world of many burdens. And those who have were not the most miserable of men. It will not be at all astonishing if the naturalists of to-morrow assure us that the animal world knows no transport comparable to the fierce and delirious ecstasy of the worm beneath the heel. It would only be a natural, and perfectly logical, advance upon our knowledge of Livingstone’s sensations beneath the paw of the lion. At any rate, it is clear that man owes as much to his luggage as a ship owes to her keel.
It seems absurd to build her delicately, and then burden her dreadfully. But the sailor loves the heavy keel and the full freight. It is the light keel and the empty hold that have most reason to dread the storm. Blessed be ballast ! is a beatitude of the forecastle.
Such is the law of life’s luggage. But the New Testament gives us a still loftier and lovelier word : ‘Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.’ And these laws the law of nature and the law of Christ are not conflicting, but concordant. The one is the bud, the other is the blossom. For Christ came, not to remove life’s luggage, but to multiply our burdens. It is true, of course, that He said : ‘Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden,’ but He only invited them that He might offer them His yoke and His burden. Here is something worth thinking about. Christ gives rest to the heart by giving burdens to the shoulders. And, as a matter of fact, it is in being burdened that we usually find rest.
The Old Testament records the sage words of an old woman in addressing two younger ones: ‘The Lord grant,” said Naomi, ‘that ye may find rest, each of you, in the house of her husband!’ Whoever heard of a woman finding rest in the house of her husband? And yet, and yet ! The restless hearts are not the hearts of wives and of mothers, as many a lonely woman knows. There is no more crushing load than the load of a loveless life. It is a burden that is often beautifully and graciously borne, but its weight is a very real one. The mother may have a bent form, a furrowed brow, and worn, thin hands ; but her heart found its rest for all that. Naomi was an old woman; she knew the world very well, and her words are worth weighing. Heavy luggage is Christ’s strange cure for weary hearts.
The law of life’s luggage the ‘law of Christ’ has a racial application. It is notorious that a Christian people is not physically more robust than a savage people. Readers of Alfred Russel Wallace’s Travels on the Amazon will remember that, the farther the intrepid voyager proceeded up the great waterway, the finer became the physique of the natives. And at last, when Dr. Wallace reached a point to which no white man had ever before penetrated, he discovered men and women any of whom might have posed as models for Grecian sculptors. The reason is obvious. The savage knows nothing of ‘the law of Christ.’ He will bear no other’s burden. The sick must die; the wounded must perish; the feeble must go to the wall. Only the mightiest and most muscular survive and produce another generation. ‘The law of Christ’ ends all that. The luggage of life must be distributed. The sick must be nursed ; the wounded must be tended ; the frail must be cherished. These, too, must be permitted to play their part in the shaping of human destiny. They also may love and wed, and become fathers and mothers. The weaknesses of each are taken back into the blood of the race. The frailty of each becomes part of the common heritage. And, in the last result, if our men are not all Apollos, and if our women do not all resemble Venus de Medici, it is largely because we have millions with us who, but for ‘the law of Christ’ operating on rational ideals, would have had no existence at all. In a Christian land, under Christian laws, we bear each other’s burdens, we carry each other’s luggage. It is the law of Christ, the law of the cross, a sacrificial law. The difference between savagery and civilization is simply this, that we have learned, in our very flesh and blood, to bear each other’s burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ.
We set out with Dr. Guthrie. Let us return to him. He is excellent company. He is describing, with a glow of satisfaction, one of the ragged- schools he established in Edinburgh. ‘I remember’, he says, ‘going down the High Street early one morning and seeing a number of our children coming up. One of them was borne on the shoulders of another, and, on my asking the reason, he said that the little fellow had burned his foot the night before, and he was carrying him to school. ‘That,’ said the doctor emphatically, ‘would not have happened in any other school in Edinburgh.’ It is a parable. It is the law of life’s luggage. It is the law of Christ.
F.W. Boreham

"Scar Tissue" is the frank autobiography of Anthony Kiedis, the leader of the iconic rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers. Co-written with Larry Sloman, the book takes readers on a whirlwind rollercoaster through Kiedis' chaotic childhood, tracing his journey from dysfunctional youth to international rock celebrity.
Kiedis bares his soul in "Scar Tissue," offering readers a real and unedited insight at his problems with drugs, stardom, and relationships. He recounts his unorthodox upbringing in Los Angeles, his early encounters with drugs, and his rocky relationship with his father. As he navigates the highs and lows of life in the fast lane, Kiedis muses on the sorrow and ecstasy of his journey, exposing intimate aspects of his personal and professional life.
One of the strengths of "Scar Tissue" is Kiedis' genuine and introspective voice. His writing is vibrant and descriptive, presenting a vivid picture of the hedonistic world of rock 'n' roll and the toll it took on his mind. From his early days as a struggling artist to his rise to fame with the Chili Peppers, Kiedis lays bare the highs and lows of life in the spotlight with harsh honesty and self-awareness.
In addition to his personal challenges, Kiedis also focuses on the creative process behind the Chili Peppers' songs and the camaraderie he shares with his bandmates. He shares insights into the development of their famous albums and the growth of their style, offering fans a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the inner workings of one of the most influential bands of their generation.
Overall, "Scar Tissue" is a riveting and highly intimate biography that offers a fascinating peek into the life of one of rock music's most enigmatic individuals. Whether you're a fan of the Red Hot Chili Peppers or simply interested in the human side of fame and addiction, this book is bound to leave a lasting effect.
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葉隠入門 Hagakure Nyūmon The Old Man Epilogue: Japan

^{January 1999, Chiyoda, Tokyo}
“When I was twenty years old Japan was less than the shell of a nation, it is more accurate to say it was less than the shell of a clam. Now I am seventy-five and Japan is the finest nation on earth; a leader in bioscience and technology, with a robust economy and a deep respect for human rights. Now at last I feel I can rest easy, alongside the Emeritus Emperor, and let a new generation lead us into the 21st century. Thank you Japan, thank you all the people of Japan. Now I can proudly announce I am stepping down from the Office of Prime Minister and leaving the Diet.” Prime Minister Mishima Yukio, Resignation Speech
Theme Music: 1980's Japanese City Pop Playlist
----

Contents

1. The Old Man: Mishima Yukio's Resignation
2. Kuril Islands Dispute, 1964
3. Computing Technology, 1970
4. Defence Rearmament, 1976
5. Emperor Akihito Abdication, 1983
6. The Economy Collapses, 1993
7. Post-Cold War, 1999 onwards: Inluding, Bharat, South Korea, Anime, HSR, Latin America

----

The Old Man

Mishima Yukio had been young when the bomb had brought hell on earth to Hiroshima and Nagaski. He was not young any more. He had held his father's seat, the Tokyo 3rd District, since the early 80’s, the same year as his father’s passing. He knew at nearly seventy-five he could no longer keep ruling Japan, he had been her Prime Minister for nearly twelve years. There was a time and place for all men, and it was his time to step down. The opening of the new Imperial Museum of Japan had been the perfect opportunity. Now in front of a class of eager eyed under graduates from the Emperor’s College Gakushuin, he was being asked to reflect on his years.
He stood at the podium, Minister for Foreign Affairs Koike Yuriko and new Prime Minister Koizumi Ichiro sitting in the crowd before him. Mishima’s determined eyes looked at the young graduates behind his friends. He had never been a shy man, he had demanded obedience from all those who worked for him. Now he commanded the room just by standing at a podium, even as a retired old man he had this power. It started when he was Prosecutor-General, staring down Yakuza leaders like Omori Shogen and his Black Dragon society in the wake of the failure in the Korean War. It continued when he was the deputy for Prime Minister Nakasone Yasuhiro, The Shogun, and the liaison between Nakasone and Reagan.
Prime Minister Mishima had been a hard man, with hard eyes, but now he was also an old man, with old eyes. Once he had seen people his own age, now he saw a new generation sprouting through the ground, and ready to take their place in the sun.
His hands gripped the podium in front of the old Tokyo Station. It was a beautiful building, black scallop-tile roof, crimson brick facade, and white detailing on the columns, and accents. It served the city well as the Marunouchi-side train station. It had seen just about everything from post-war recovery, to mid-year boom. The Government had elected to make it a museum, and open a new station directly opposite. It was a trillion yen project, but it would ensure smooth operation of the train lines beneath Tokyo for decades to come. It was the site of his resignation.
Mishima cleared his throat and returned to the great lecture hall of Gakushuin. Koike started the applause, she had been the youngest Foreign Minister in Japanese history, and first woman. Prime Minister Koizumi joined her, his silver mane of hair catching the light and reminding Japan why he was called Lionheart. The applause caught on like a gust of wind and Mishima raised his hand to thank them and quiet the room down. He smiled and tapped the mic.
“Thank you, it has been some time since my resignation, and I am surprised that anyone cares what I have to say. Thank you to Gakushuin, thank you to the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, and thank you to all the freshmen of the class of 2008 who are just starting their university degrees. Today I am proud to give my special lecture on the History of Japan. As many of you know, I have been involved with the Government since the early 50s, and today will be a highlight reel of sorts. I encourage you to be critical, to view my moments with an analytical mind and a poetic heart. I am an old man with an old man’s memories and fondness.”
He smiled and pressed the clicker in his hand, the slide behind him flicking off the title screen and onto his first moment.

Kuril Islands, 1964

Yoshida looked down at the islands from aboard the Prime Ministerial plane, smoke billowing from several areas of the city even as the plane began to descend.
“Is this a good idea?”
He turned to his advisor.
“It is not an idea, it is a plan.”
He replied coolly.
The local population had risen up in riots against the Soviet forces, a dozen Soviet soldiers were dead, many more had fled the four islands that Japan had once called its own. Self governance had been the objective of the rioters, Japan had been forced to respond, the Soviet Union had massed a police force in response. Yoshida had called on the Self Defence Force mobilised in Hokkaido. Escalation after escalation was occurring, a spiral of chaos Japan and the Soviet Union were on the brink of war.
The plan landed with a jarring thud and Yoshida re-read through his speech once again. It made no reference to the referendum that Japan had stoked on the islands. It made no mention of the census Japan had conducted with the support of the coast guard. It was silent on the old treaties which referenced the islands.
Yoshida’s mouth was a thin line, they were playing a dangerous game. Behind him Omori Shogen, the Architect, sat with his high collared black suit, his mouth a smirk.
Hours later Omori sniffed and breathed out a blast of frosty air, his smirk turned into a smile. The trap had been laid, set, and then sprung perfectly. The Black Dragon Society had weaved Japanese flags through the crowd gathered to hear the Prime Minister speak.
The critical line of the speech had sent the crowd into a roar of support - The Kurils are Japan, Japan is the Kurils, and Japan will not leave her sons and daughters of the north alone any more.
The Soviet call had come not an hour later, the police force had withdrawn, and an American aircraft carrier force had sailed through the straits.
Omori had moved his pieces, entraping the Soviets and the Americans. Japan would gain the Kurils back, America beholden to the San Francisco Treaty, and the Soviets forced to back down else risk American involvement in North-Asian Atlantic affairs. History would record this day as the day that Prime Minister Yoshida started the path of Japan back to full territorial integrity.

Computing, 1970

As the Japanese economy surged in the 1960s and 70s, it leapt ahead in technological advancement on the back of Sony's groundbreaking development of transistors. If Sony was the leading goose, then Hitachi, NEC, and Sharp were closely following. Together the four companies competed against one another and their US competitors. The result was the formation of the eight-bit gosanke personal computers. They were the formation of the Japanese second wave technological revolution, and the mass transition away from old style business and by the late 70’s Japan was on the cutting edge of global innovation. The widespread adoption of Sony computers, particularly by the elite in India and Latin America, not only strengthened Japan's economic ties with these regions but also positioned the nation as a technological powerhouse with a profound impact on global markets.
The personal computer uptake in Japan was miraculous and in large part led by the forge-ahead doctrine of the Sato Administration. Sato with his fascination for all things technologically advanced pushed all government agencies, at great cost, to transition off paper based reporting and onto modern computers. Computing power became the overriding objective of the newly formed Ministry of Technology which was headed up by Ohga Norio. Computer programming was added into the national curriculum, and computer engineers were brought in from the United States and Europe to deliver university courses. Technology literacy across the country soared and with it a demand for computer based mass entertainment. Enter the video game. Nintendo and Sony entered the home entertainment market with colour TV connected consoles in the late 1970s and kicked off the great console wars. By early 1980 the NES had taken over as the dominant video game console, and by mid 1980 Sony had released their Playstation to roaring success.
The age of the computer had arrived and for Japan there was no going back. As home computing took primacy for most Japanese, the Soviet Union and America took to the stars and the Space race of the 1970s kicked off properly. Not to be left behind, Japan was the fourth country to put a satellite into orbit, and with American help the third nationality into space. As the Americans put the space race front of mind, their minds reaching for a lunar landing ahead of the soviets, Japan turned to more earthly affairs and the pursuit of smaller more powerful computing. A dream was born in Japan amongst this surge in technological innovation, a series of interconnected computers, a web of sorts between the universities of the country, to share research and academic papers.

Defence, 1976

Admiral Uruhara stood on the deck of the JSDN Fuji, the first aircraft carrier to be put to sea by the country since the early 1940’s. In front of him sat the heads of state from a collection of nations calling themselves ASEAN. The American Ambassador had joined them, along with Australia, India, and a handful of South American partners. Japanese ship building was back at full capacity after a decade of rebuilding, the Kure Naval Arsenal leading the way for construction of ship building facilities from Sapporo down to Chishima Rettou. Japan was now the largest ship builder in the world, her naval self defence force rebuilding the hights of the Japanese navy.
The Americans had been forced to accede to rearmament demands following Chinese nuclear tests in 1964. The Kuril Islands affair spurred Soviet Support for North Korea’s and Communist China’s development risk taking.
Admiral Uruhara in his maiden speech declared that Japan would support all free and independent south east Asian countries to construct complementary navies. ASEAN would be free, fair, and independent. Japanese naval capacity would ensure that the region never felt the pressure of the Communists. Japanese manufacturing would elevate Indonesian, Thai, and Singaporean manufacturing through complementary programs, to new heights. Japan as the leading goose would ensure South Korea was supported in its struggle against the dangerous north, and the Republic of China would forever resist the cross-strait tension.
Japan in rearmament would ensure East Asian and Southeast Asian security from the forces best upon them. Japan in rearmament would be the single most important partner for the United States in weighing the scales of world peace in democratic favour.
The media afterwards had been dramatic, the Soviet Union and China had lodged a protest in the UN. The Admiral was called to speak before the Security Council, and the Japanese ambassador to the United Nations had been called on to explain Japanese civilian control to a body of democratic nations styling themselves as the Democracy-10. The frost had formed and the world had held its breath while the JSDF had recovered its strength. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Nishikawa Motors, and others came online, Japanese manufacturing roared to life.
Across the Pacific Australia under the fear of communism embraced this new Japan, and a free trade agreement set the stage for a North-South channel of trade in raw materials from the southern continent. Democratic ASEAN with the same fear embraced the supply of easy to manufacture parts in exchange for economic uplift. As the US and Japan turned their engines towards the high end, ASEAN took up the slack in cheap and easy manufacturing, and the motorcycle entered Southeast Asia. The Pacific under the fear of Chinese military potential, and Soviet expansion of the Pacific Fleet coalesced into an economic machine. Fears of a renewed Japanese military were eclipsed by economic growth through the early 80’s and into the 90’s. Japan surged upwards into the highest echelons of GDP growth, democratic ASEAN empowered by the US Washington consensus followed suit.
Years later the Admiral would reflect that perhaps his speech went too far, that he had forced a wedge wider which had been opened by the Chinese. But he had been unapologetic, the crisis spawned from that day were the result of chain events no reasonable man would have foreseen. His tomb bears the phrase “From the Kurils to Bangkok, from Tokyo to Canberra, Japan will ensure peace across the sea.”

Emperor Akihito, 1983

The Emperor was not all that old, but he wasn’t young, he had three sons who he loved, and a country he had seen returned to prosperity from destitution. He had seen the world, studied at Harvard, and Cambridge, visited more countries than any Japanese monarch before him. He had delivered speeches in Wellington, Sydney, Washington, Paris, and Delhi. Akihito had become affectionately called The Boy. He had guided a half dozen Prime Ministers through their challenges, and befriended world monarchs from Brunei to England. He had a particular affection for Elizabeth II. They were not that different in age, and royals had a tendency to find comfort with one another.
Akihito sat and listened to the Imperial Household doctor, a man he had graduated from college with. The diagnosis was bleak, not dangerous, but bleak, the cancer was spreading.
Beside and around him sat more than two dozen advisors and half his close family. His wife, and his lover looked at one another. The shadowy back rooms of the Imperial Palace had reconciled the Emperor’s sexuality long ago. The Empress had managed the daily affairs for months ahead of this diagnosis. The Imperial Lawyer was the official title, but in truth the handsome man had been close to the Emperor well before then. The Empress has ascended only on ground that she be given control of the affairs of the children.
The decisions had been considered and then decided after that meeting. Akihito would, like his father, abdicate for his son. Ahead of the word of his cancer, and his lover spread into the public, because no secret could hold forever in the age of modern communications.
The abdication was announced on 1 April 1983, the 35th anniversary of Akihito’s ascent, it would take effect on 1 April 1988 the 40th anniversary. It would preserve the dignity of the Imperial office, the Emperor would take up his late father’s title Emperor Emeritus. Akihito would then retreat to a life out of sight of the public on the Izu Peninsula and the so-called Blue Palace where the last Korean King had lived out his days. Empress Yume would take to life behind her son, the incoming Emperor Naruhito, as an expert advisor on media matters, and women’s affairs. There she would ensure continuity of the Imperial line in the search for a wife of suitable stature.
In his retirement Akihito was visited by many former friends, the closest of which, the Kennedys and Kissingers came more than once. He published more than two dozen journal articles on medical research in his retirement. He is most famous for his pioneering new ideas in mental health for Japanese businessmen including paternity leave, and yearly mandatory cancer tests for men over forty. At the time of his death in the mid nineties Akihito held the highest approval rating of any leader in Japan, save his wife. His scandals had leaked of course; his male lover, his escapades at Harvard, and these had hurt his image, but in the end it was hard to hate a man who stepped in at the right time, and stepped out before his welcome had expired.
The Emperor had an autobiography published under the moniker Momotaro. In it he covered geopolitical struggles, Imperial Household operations, his time abroad, and his hopes for the future including same-sex marriage. It was published after his death, and public sentiment on his scandals turned around soon afterwards. The second print was retitled to his name, and a forward was added by his wife expressing her deep love of him, and his love for the new Japan that was coming into its own.

The Economy, 1993

The early 1990s brought an unprecedented milestone for Japan's economy when, for a brief period, it surpassed the United States as the world's largest economy. This moment of economic triumph, however, proved ephemeral as Japan witnessed the burst of its economic bubble. The subsequent three-year recession tested the resilience of the Japanese economy, ultimately leading to a return to limited growth. The Japanese miracle of annual 10% growth through the 70’s and 80’s was floated on the back of speculation, anti-competitive mergers, outrageous land valuations and unregulated banking practices. So hilariously out of touch had Japanese firms become before the burst that at one stage the land valuation of just the Imperial Palace in Tokyo alone was more than that of the entirety of California. The Emperor of Japan was the richest man in the world for all of 3 minutes before the markets corrected.
The bubble burst was spectacular. It started with a failed bank in Hokkaido, over leveraged to high risk ventures in Northern Pacific tuna, Hokkaido dairy, and grain. A drought crippled the entire northern agricultural market, and warmed sea water halved the amount of tuna caught in a single season. The bank collapsed overnight, and under the weight of its debts brought a dozen large firms with it. The market was spooked, and across Japan people went to withdraw their yen. A bank run formed, markets reevaluated their debt, and realised the entire structure was over leveraged both domestically and internationally.
In 1993 at the height of the economic period Japan had some 300+ banks, by 1994 it was 230, at the end of 1995 it had shrunk to just 70. The recession was severe, and a total contraction of 20% forced many of Japan’s best and brightest out of work. International reputation was their only saving grace and across the Pacific Japanese talent found new employment. Into Southeast Asia, Bharat, Australia, and the Pacific they went. What precious little work remained in the Home Islands was swallowed up quickly. Major firms consolidated and a return to Zaibatsu was on the cards, the Government stepped in to force large banks to keep companies separate, selling instead to preferred international firms. The Japanese market was at last broken open and with Microsoft, JP Morgan, Shell, and the European majors came English and French language skills. Despite the setback, Japan retained its position as the second-largest economy globally, solidifying its reputation as an economic powerhouse if also a warning sign of hubris and unregulated behaviour.
English became the second most spoken language in the country, with over 50% of Japanese citizens speaking limited English and 30% speaking confident conversational English. The French took a romantic third place. On account of the high school language programs set up in schools the Japanese English accent is heavily skewed to Australian English. Japanese-English as it came to be known follows British spelling traditions much to the chagrin of the American companies who entered the country. By the turn of the 20th century almost all university courses had made English a compulsory language for completion.

Post-Cold War, 1999 onwards

In 1999, Japan celebrated its 20th anniversary as a key development partner for ASEAN, marking two decades of collaborative efforts and shared growth. As the leading force in the region, Japan's commitment to ASEAN strengthened diplomatic ties and positioned the nation as a vital contributor to the bloc's economic and strategic development. Beyond ASEAN, Japan's role as a moderating voice within Western alliances' strategic thinking against the Soviet Union garnered international recognition, establishing the nation as a pivotal player in global diplomacy.

Latin America

Japanese relations with South America were a tumultuous affair. Privately, Washington had warned Japan against further investments on the continent. These warnings were countered by the free trade bloc Japan had formed at the start of the cold war. What South America gained in access to Japanese markets though, was tempered by Japanese revulsion for Latin Socialism. As the continent went through cyclical embraces of left wing socialism, Japan went through cyclical distance making. This included refusal to allow defence contracts to empower the regimes that came and went. The South Americans once again started looking north for their economic future. All except Peru that is, and today the largest proportion of overseas Japanese live and work in the country.

Bharat

The subcontinent became to Japan the closest of possible friends, it was Bharat who moved the UN to allow Japan entry. A geopolitical melting pot of issues, Bharat faced concerns both neighbourly and trans-oceanic that it could not tackle alone. The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and International Cooperation Agency put Bharat in the highest of engagement echelons. From Mumbai and Delhi to Gujarat and Sri Lanka, Japanese firms found cheap land, and labour to mass produce for the booming population. Across Bharat Yamaha, Suzuki, and Toyota sold their cars and motorcycles. Along with this came the great road network, and the engineering power of Japanese rail.
Indians with all their creativity, and culture were the first group to be given longer term VISA status in Japan. Ethnic tensions followed, Japanese xenophobia was a constant complaint, but it did not stop the migration. Shibuya 3rd ward became India town, and like the China towns found across the world in the 80s and 90s, Japan helped Bharat export this cultural phenomena. In time Japan embarrassed certain elements of the sub continental culture, Japanese Golden Curry foremost amongst this, but so too fashion, and art. Across Japan desi-culture found its niche, and colour exploded through women's fashion in a vibrancy not seen ever before.

The High Speed Rail

Japanese development through the Cold War was miraculous, but infrastructure was where things made the developed world stop and take note. The Japanese rail network from Tokyo north to Sendai and onto Hokkaido, and south to Osaka and then down to Shimonoseki was the envy of the world by the late 1970’s. The establishment of a unified rail gauge worked miracles in streamlining development costs and planning. The crowning jewel was truly the Type-0 shinkansen, the fastest train in the world when it launched in 1963, travelling from Tokyo to Osaka at 220km/h. Built specifically for the Tokyo 1964 Olympics the shinkansen took the rail world by storm.
As Japan electrified its rail network during the rebuild of the 1950s so did it progress the expansion of it. If the Pacific coast was the original rebuild and the planned construction path of the shinkansen, the Sea of Japan coast was the luxury line. The so-called Blue trains and their sleeper cars took on new meaning and the eponymous ‘blue’ name came to reflect the floor to ceiling views of the Sea of Japan possible on the carriages.
These trains through the 1990s were taken up by developed countries, first in Australia, and then Canada. It was on the back of rail technology that Japan escaped her economic conundrum, and the export of this technology saved manufacturing and industry jobs in the millions. Eventually Japan came to fully dominate the high speed rail network until France entered the foray and then China afterwards. By the time of the early 2000s while she was head and shoulders above the competition, competitors had commenced the catch up in Europe and Eurasia.

Anime

In the late 1980s Japanese animation took a leap forward that launched it from a local domestic production of Mega-man and Sailor moon, to global prominence. Dragon Ball burst onto the TV scene in 1986 and captured the hearts and minds of a generation of young men across Japan and the English version across America, UK and Australia. Its sequel series Dragon Ball Z in 1992 was a cultural touchstone and translated into some 38 different languages for broadcast around the globe. This success though was just the precursor, these were Japanese manga transformed into tv cartoons for children. April 1 1997 changed the world forever when across Japan, the United States, Europe and Australia a new anime captured such a vast swath of children it sparked security concerns inside the CIA and MI5, it was called Pocket Monsters, or Pokemon.
In the original airing wake came the portable handheld gaming device explosion, the Gameboy and the headline games, Pokemon Red and Pokemon Blue. Catch ‘em All Fever consumed children across the planet, Nintendo was forced to front Senate hearings and submit technical specifications of the Gameboy to security agencies. Perhaps one of the most ludicrous moments of the late 90’s though was during the 1998 election in Australia where Mr John Howard dressed up as the character Pikachu. It was an effort to sell his vision of new investments in children’s programming, early childhood education, and regional relations. Unfortunately technical issues with his suit caused a power malfunction, and he was electrocuted to death. Kim Beazley went on to win the election, Paulin Hanson’s One Nation Party stealing away for the first time the balance of power in the federal House of Representatives. Until she too was felled by a pokemon scandal, an illegal trading card ring smuggling drugs in so called “booster packs”.

South Korea

The peninsula and the failure of the Korean War haunted Japan well after the cessation of hostilities. It bubbled away problematically between South and North for 50 years, the South moving its capital to Busan, a bastion of Japanese culture in the new nation. From military dictatorship to democracy, the Miracle of the Floating Port, and the formation of chaebols by the late 2000’s South Korea was well ahead of its languishing partner in the North. Japan’s role was the signature and leading trade partner, the older brother, and until the exposure of Japanese interventions in the Korean war, the former colonial master.
Tensions were never resolved between the two, but Mishima’s overtures and compensation to comfort women, and the ethnic Koreans who had called Japan home helped. The death spiral of post Cold-War Peace was on the peninsula though, a series of miscalculations, miscommunications, and accidents leading to the resumption of hostilities between South and North; Japan was quick to send aid, the Japan Self Defence Force learning the lessons of the First Korean War, joining only second behind the United States.

The Beating Heart of Asia

By the turn of the century Japan had retained its position as the second largest economy, become the central trade hub for Asia, and occupied a pivotal position in regional affairs. Following the bust of the mid 90’s the economy buckled but it did not break. France, Germany, and most impressively China were all on the surge towards Japan’s lofty second place. Storm clouds on the horizon though in the US debt market and Russia’s view on Georgia threatened the global economy though. Action on the Korean peninsula had put nerves to just about every major market across the globe. The Nikkei however was in recovery mode as the countdown ticked over to the year 2000 and in classic Japanese fashion, there was no issue to talk about, until the house was on fire.
Regionally Japan was the lead development partner for ASEAN and partnered with New Zealand and Australia for the Pacific. The US had retreated inward during the term of President Weinstein, made in America had brought manufacturing back to the mid-west. The cost had been ASEAN cooperation with the regional power to start up their own manufacturing and progression towards advanced production lines. The durability of these programs was unclear but incoming President Jobs had made strong commitments to return to free market economics. ASEAN, and the Pacific, looked to Japan to negotiate new deals.
The trading giants of PO-TEPCO, Nippon Yusen, and Port Authority Terminal set the standard for Asian trade. Together they controlled more than 60% of all incoming shipping containers in Japan, and a combined 15% of all global shipping trade. The ports of South Korea, China, Taiwan, and southeast Asia all adhered to Japanese monopolistic demands. Japan had once again become the beating heart of Asia.

Dear Agent:
(add personalization)
Whispers in the Wilderness is my debut novel with a 50k word appropriate for YA/subcategory: historical fiction with magical realism. The narration is omnipresent and first-person POV.
Comps: Dread Nation, Ring Shout (add details)
Janelle, a 17-year-old Creole woman, is on a perilous journey to freedom with the mysterious and powerful Big Momma as her guide. Though they are unrelated, Big Momma is a powerful Conjure woman who rescued Janelle as a small child, raised her, and continues to have predictions for her future. Headed North by horse and wagon, Big Momma's Conjure magic keeps Janelle safe – rescuing her from an attack by settlers and curing her from a deadly snake bite. The road to liberty in the pre-civil war US is dangerous but also contains allies, rivals, new friends, and radical ideas about freedom.
Janelle’s survival from the snake bite unleashes her Conjure, now she and Big Momma both have the power to hear the whispers of the spirits. Instead of bringing the two closer, the whispers start to reveal the true nature of Big Momma. Despite the hints of duplicity, Janelle follows the spirit’s instructions to make a home in one of the newly formed all-Black towns in Indian Territory, which is modern-day Oklahoma. The women survive the worst winter in recent history, floods destroying property, and condemnation of Conjure from the local clergy.
Janelle learns to protect the land and maintain the natural order with the fierce Big Momma as her mentor. The balance is upset when a wealthy, entitled family from the East settles in the area insisting, then demanding, and finally using deception to obtain the land for oil speculation. Their greed incites the spirits and Big Momma, putting both women in danger as they fight to protect what is rightfully theirs.
(information about myself)
First 300 words:
Prolog
In the shadowy depths of the Louisiana woods, a body swung ominously from a noose, the creaking rope echoing a haunting melody. Big Momma's eyes met Janelle’s in a solemn silence.
"Cut ‘em down, child," she commanded, her voice like the rustling leaves, carrying the weight of generations. The spirits guiding their journey from the bayou had led them to this clearing.
Janelle hesitated. Her fingers tightened around the stock of the rifle; her gaze fixated on the swinging figure. "What did he do?" she asked her innocence a stark contrast to the grim tableau before her.
"You know readin’ is forbidden,” Big Momma replied, the words heavy with meaning.
Janelle questioned, “How do you know?" as her eyes darted to the wagon, where her folded and tattered autobiography of a former slave lay nestled among their belongings.
With steady hands and quick feet, Janelle climbed the tree that held the man, pulled and hatchet from her pants, and quickly cut the branch that held the man. He fell to the ground with a thud. The moon, a silent witness high above in the ink-black canvas of the night, bathed the women in its ethereal glow. As Big Momma and Janelle toiled the earth, the moon's light, though tender, carried a weight of solemnity, accentuating the gravity of the moment.
Despite their petite frames, they quickly dug a hole in the ground, working in tandem. When she answered Janelle’s question of what the man did, Big Momma’s voice morphed into a chorus, an overlay of multiple voices creating a harmonizing mix of sorrow and resignation, answering back - the man's only crime was being born with dark skin.

Hey all- I’ve recently reread Wild Swans by Jung Chang. It’s a biography/autobiography about three generations of her family growing up in 20th century China. Has anyone got any suggestions for other books of a similar genre (not necessarily China!)? Thank you in advance!

A couple days ago, I posted a screenshot of Crystal's old blog (www.crystal harris.com), and people seemed interested in seeing more of it, so I'm posting links to her old blog (archived by the Wayback Machine).
https://web.archive.org/web/20090828102351/http://www.crystalharris.com/
https://web.archive.org/web/20100407090545/http://www.crystalharris.com:80/
https://web.archive.org/web/20100418130842/http://www.crystalharris.com:80/
https://web.archive.org/web/20100515180000/http://www.crystalharris.com:80/
https://web.archive.org/web/20100701185656/http://www.crystalharris.com:80/
https://web.archive.org/web/20100726100631/http://www.crystalharris.com:80/
https://web.archive.org/web/20110128161459/http://www.crystalharris.com/
https://web.archive.org/web/20110223131122/http://crystalharris.com/
https://web.archive.org/web/20110429231554/http://www.crystalharris.com/
https://web.archive.org/web/20110708210646/http://www.crystalharris.com/ (includes Crystal's note on ending her engagement to Hef)
https://web.archive.org/web/20111007203840/http://www.crystalharris.com/
https://web.archive.org/web/20111115173906/http://www.crystalharris.com:80/ (Includes an article that mentions the $90K engagement ring Crystal sold by auction. In recent interviews she's adamantly denied it was a $90K ring, which is a lie. Hef *did* buy the ring for $90K; Crystal sold it for half that at auction.)
https://web.archive.org/web/20111211211121/http://www.crystalharris.com:80/
https://web.archive.org/web/20120105165438/http://www.crystalharris.com/ (includes photos of Crystal with Jordan and friends, making Gingerbread houses)
Some notes on Crystal's blog

• In a New Yorker article linked on the blog (https://web.archive.org/web/20110225031318/http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2011/02/28/110228ta\_talk\_aguirre), Crystal discusses her engagement to Hef. She knew it was coming, contrary to the story she tells in her autobiography. From the article:
  • The marriage proposal was not wholly a surprise. The subject had been discussed the previous summer. “He asked me, ‘If I were to ask you to marry me, would you say yes?’ And I said, ‘Of course,’ ” she said. “So then Hef’s secretaries measured my ring finger.”
• Crystal started advertising her mom's real estate brokerage firm ("Symbolic Realty") on her blog back in 2009. Crystal got her real estate license before she started living at the mansion, so if she wanted to leave the mansion and needed a job right away, she could have easily worked at her mom's brokerage firm.
• In addition to her first Playmate pictorial (2009), Crystal had numerous paid gigs and endeavors. These are some of the gigs/endeavors noted in her blog:
  • Paid appearance at the Girls of Golf tournament (2009)
  • A self-titled makeup line,"Crystal Harris Cosmetics,"intended for June 2010 release
  • Recording contract with Organica Music Group
    • "A long time dream has been fulfilled, as Crystal is excited to announce she has signed a recording contract with Organica Music Group. Her debut album with Organica, part of the Universal Music Group, is underway with Crystal working alongside award winning producer Michael Blakey."
    • Notes on a photo of Crystal and producer Michael Blakey on Crystal's blog: "Crystal and producer Michael Blakey take a break from recording to consider where Crystal will hang all of her Platinum records after her single is released!"
    • On the Hef's generous allowance of logo use for Crystal's record: "Notably, Harris' debut will feature the Playboy Bunny logo as part of the single's artwork, a privilege usually reserved exclusively for Playboy-owned music, products, and merchandise. Playboy Enterprises allowed Crystal and OMG to license the iconic Bunny, despite the independent release of her single from the company."
  • Guitar World modelling job (2011)
  • Girls and Guitars modelling job (2011)
  • Graphic novel, starring... Crystal Harris! (2011)
  • "Runaway Bride" Playmate pictorial (2011)
  • Benchwarmer modelling job (2011)

On the topic of "financial abuse"
Crystal states in numerous interviews that she was being financially abused by Hef. While I believe that Crystal, like many other women, was emotionally and sexually abused by Hef, she was in no way financially abused, and it is frankly ridiculous that she would claim to be a victim of financial abuse.
Crystal wanted a lavish lifestyle, but was not willing to spend the time developing skills that would allow her to finance a lavish lifestyle herself. So, she took a shortcut and cashed in on the only assets she possessed that could quickly get her the lifestyle and fame she wanted: youth, and generic beauty.
In case anyone here still wonders whether she may have been financially abused, I've detailed below the approximate value of the salary and benefits she was paid by Hef, in trade for her time and sexual services. As detailed above, she also pursued numerous opportunities -- arranged with Hef's help -- that generated income and would have granted her the financial means to leave the mansion.
Finally, one could argue that Crystal would no longer have access to many of the benefits listed, were she to leave the mansion. While that is true, all other benefits aside, with a pre-tax annual income of $75K(~$110K in today's dollars), she would have had *plenty* of money to leave the mansion and live comfortably; she wouldn't have been able to live in a mansion with round the clock chefs and unlimited Jose Eber services, but she would have been fine. Crystal was not financially abused, and I'm sick of hearing her compare herself to women in domestic abuse situations who truly have no financial reasons, and are trapped, due to real financial abuse.

Benefit	Estimated annual value in 2009 dollars (post-tax)	Estimated annual value in 2009 dollars (pre-tax, assuming 1.5 multiplier on post-tax value)
Salary	$50K	$75K
Housing	$120K	$180K
Full medical/dental and plastic surgery	$50K	$75K
On-site chef and made services	$150K (*low estimate)	$225K
Misc. gifts and extra money for awards shows	$20K	$30K
Unlimited salon services at Jose Eber	$25K (~500 per week)	$37.5K
TOTAL	$415K	$622.5K

In today's dollars, $622.5K is ~$900K

After a very short stint at the corporate, I was on a career break for some time. I landed in Bangalore last month to rejoin the corporate workforce. I thought that I should meet a few of my ex-colleagues and college and school friends to get some advice. I met a few of them and sought their advice. I was appalled at some of them's outlook towards life. They are doing pretty good by any standards but the unhappiness and the general bitterness towards life shook me.
I take a keen interest in listening to people and people how much trying to be professional express their feelings in the office. One of my team lead had the baggage of his childhood where his elder brother overlooked his roll number in engineering entrance result in the newspaper and scolded him. Later, it was found that he did qualify. He had that complaint well into his 30s and this Sunday I heard that that guy had a stroke. I was deeply saddened. The colleague whom I met told me that he's now having memory issues in his 20s.
On my previous post, a few people here posted negatively and downvoted about my hindi comment. Someone commented slapping some person. My bend was neutral towards the people mentioned and intent was to share something good that happened. When I went through the comments and posts of those people, I found that they were generally unhappy towards life and they had some bad experiences in their lives and some of these people are well into their 30s and doing fairly good in their lives. Many as a coping mechanism have completely shelved themselves from public interaction and some resort to pets.
A guy commented "thuuu" ( I spit) and later deleted the comment. That person had commented "thuuu" on multiple posts. I don't value-judge them and really sympathize with all those people.
It isn't surprising too. I had read Andre Agassi's autobiography where he mentioned that even after being world's No. 1 tennis player, he felt tormented, had bad relationships due to his childhood experiences and upbringing.
I just wonder if this issue is a systematic one. The recent awareness and access to mental-therapy is a great step to address this issue. Our greater concern should be the children born through this generation and conditioned by the parents who are themselves troubled, popular media, and influencers.
A college friend of mine brought up by an army employee in a conversation said "Apne bachche ko daant ke rakhunga"(will scold my child and discipline him). Besides, children today are exposed to internet and content which won't be in the best interests of their personality and self-esteem development. Just imagine that a movie like "Animal" is just a tap away. Even worse, content like porn is easily accessible and the damage it can do to a child's mind is unimaginable.
I think there is an urgent need to address the young children. The best way would be that the parents themselves listen and take time to groom them into happy and confident adults. This might not be possible as we are increasingly nuclear and with great responsibilities on the shoulders of parents. So, here is the opportunity of technological intervention to build something of the sorts of Panchatantra or a game. Vishnu Sharma through fables trained dumb princes to become a ruler. Similarly, something can be built to give a structured personality development of the growing kids.
Many of us had moral science as a subject in our schools but imo that was unstructured and pulled us in various directions. "Time is money"(protestant ethic) would gravitate the person towards the modern US outcomes. Gandhi's "Ahinsa Parmo Dharmah..." would make one into the non-violent of Gandhi's kind. I watched an interview of a person in Bangalore who conceptualized a game for couples going through pregnancies and post-partum issues, but then shelved the idea and now runs a casual category puzzle-gaming company probably for the lack of financial viability the concept. Probably, somebody running a gaming company thinks in this direction.
TL,DR :
Our generation Doing financially well which our parents wanted, but mentally not as good. Possible cause Raised in hyper-competitive env and unknowingly pressurized by parents who were pressurized in their childhoods by their parents. Possible solution Therapy which is the curative step.
Future gen Preventive step to raise confident and happy kids by some structured games and stories.
I acknowledge that the post wasn't coherent and will try to improve in future. I just have sympathy for people who others deem rude or troubled, for I can see where it is coming from and I wish everybody to be happy. Comments are funny.

Star Trek: 3 The Klingon Gambit by Robert E. Vardeman on 1981-10-01
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THE KLINGONS ARE HUNGRY FOR WAR...THEIR TARGET: THE ENTERPRISE! When Captain Kirk and his crew are ordered to Alnath II to challenge the deadliest Klingon starship Terror, they're ready for anything -- or so they think. But the defenseless Vulcan crew of a Federation science ship has been wiped out. The remaining members of the Alnath II mission have discovered a fabulous ancient city -- but their report doesn't make sense. The Klingon battle cruiser has the Enterprise in it sights, and is ready to destroy it. Read reviews and buying options here

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Legends Of The Ferengi by Ira Steven Behr Quark Robert Hewitt Wolfe on 1997-08-01
(Amazon) (Apple) (B&N) (BAM) (Google) (Rakuten)

"Once you have their money, never give it back." -- #1 "Anything worth doing is worth doing for money." -- #13 For centuries these and the other famous Ferengi "Rules of Acquisition" have been the guiding principles of the galaxy's most successful entrepreneurs. But the wisdom behind them was not won without a high cost in lives and latnium. Now at last these inspiring tales of avaricious Ferengi wresting monetary gain from the jaws of poverty are available to the profit-hungry across the galaxy! Read reviews and buying options here

Star Trek: Enterprise: Rise of the Federation: A Choice of Futures by Christopher L. Bennett on 2013-06-25
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A new nation has arisen from the ashes of the Romulan War: the United Federation of Planets, an unprecedented union of diverse species cooperating for the good of all. Admiral Jonathan Archer—the former captain of the Earth starship Enterprise, whose efforts made this union possible—envisions a vibrant Federation promoting galactic peace and a multispecies Starfleet dedicated to exploring strange new worlds. Archer’s former crewmates, including Captain T’Pol of the U.S.S. Endeavour and Captain Malcolm Reed of the U.S.S. Pioneer, work with him to secure that bright future. Yet others within the Federation see its purpose as chiefly military, a united defense against a dangerous galaxy, while some of its neighbors view that military might with suspicion and fear. And getting the member nations, their space fleets, and even their technologies to work together as a unified whole is an ongoing challenge. When a new threat emerges from a force so alien and hostile that negotiation seems impossible, a group of unaligned worlds asks Starfleet to come to its defense, and the Federation’s leaders seize the opportunity to build their reputation as an interstellar power. But Archer fears the conflict is building toward an unnecessary war, potentially taking the young nation down a path it was never meant to follow. Archer and his allies strive to find a better solution . . . but old foes are working secretly to sabotage their efforts and ensure that the great experiment called the Federation comes to a quick and bloody end. Read reviews and buying options here

Star Trek: Enterprise: Rise of the Federation: Live by the Code by Christopher L. Bennett on 2016-03-29
(Amazon) (Apple) (B&N) (BAM) (Google) (Rakuten)

Admiral Jonathan Archer has barely settled in as Starfleet Chief of Staff when new crises demand his attention. The Starfleet task force commanded by Captain Malcolm Reed continues its fight against the deadly Ware technology, but one of the task force ships is captured, its Andorian crew imprisoned by an interstellar Partnership that depends on the Ware for its prosperity. Worse, the Partnership has allied with a renegade Klingon faction, providing it with Ware drone fleets to mount an insurrection against the Klingon Empire. Archer sends Captain T’Pol and Endeavour to assist Reed in his efforts to free the captured officers. But he must also keep his eye on the Klingon border, for factions within the Empire blame Starfleet for provoking the Ware threat and seek to take revenge. Even the skill and dedication of the captains under Archer’s command may not be enough to prevent the outbreak of the Federation’s first war. Read reviews and buying options here

Star Trek: The Face of the Unknown by Christopher L. Bennett on 2016-12-27
(Amazon) (Apple) (B&N) (BAM) (Google) (Rakuten)

Continuing the milestone 50th anniversary celebration of Star Trek—a brand-new novel of The Original Series featuring James T. Kirk, Spock, and the crew of the USS Enterprise! Investigating a series of violent raids by a mysterious predatory species, Captain James T. Kirk discovers that these events share a startling connection with the First Federation, a friendly but secretive civilization contacted early in the USS Enterprise’s five-year mission. Traveling to the First Federation in search of answers, the Enterprise suddenly comes under attack from these strange marauders. Seeking refuge, the starship finds its way to the true home of the First Federation, an astonishing collection of worlds hidden from the galaxy beyond. The inhabitants of this isolated realm are wary of outsiders, and some accuse Kirk and his crew for bringing the wrath of their ancient enemy down upon them. When an attempt to stave off disaster goes tragically wrong, Kirk is held fully accountable, and Commander Spock learns there are even deeper forces that threaten this civilization. If Kirk and Spock cannot convince the First Federation's leaders to overcome their fears, the resulting catastrophe could doom them all! Read reviews and buying options here

Star Trek: The Next Generation: A Hard Rain by Dean Wesley Smith on 2001-02-26
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A clever, page-turning thriller in which the world of the Starship Enterprise and the holodeck world of 1940s San Francisco entertwine. "It was raining in the city by the bay. A hard rain. Hard enough to wash the slime out of the streets and back into the holes they crawled out of..." In the hardboiled style of a classic West Coast crime novel, HARD RAIN seamlessly blends the real world of the USS Enterprise with the fictional version of San Francisco 1941, as seen by Captain Jean-Luc Picard's own holodeck creation, detective Dixon Hill. The story begins with the Enterprise stuck in an anomaly, warping both space and time so that for every minute the ship is trapped, a month goes by in normal time. The only piece of equipment that can get the ship safely home has been stolen by gangsters in the Dixon Hill holodeck program. Captain Picard, as Dixon Hill, ventures into this San Francisco world to confront the ruthless crime boss and retrieve the crucial item. Soon after, the first of a series of murders on the Enterprise occurs and the murder weapon is found to be a revolver...from 1941 Earth. Who is behind the murders? All the clues are given. All the suspects are given. Readers will be engrossed in trying to figure out the answer...but only the very clever will guess the murderer's true identity before the final chapter. Read reviews and buying options here

Star Trek: The Next Generation: First Contact by J.M. Dillard on 1996-12-01
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Picard and his comrades launch a journey through time to discover the Borg's deadliest secret when the deadly alien race threatens to assimilate the entire Federation. Movie tie-in. Read reviews and buying options here

Star Trek: The Original Series: Elusive Salvation by Dayton Ward on 2016-04-26
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The Arctic Circle, 1845: Escaping the tyranny under which their people have lived for generations, aliens from a distant planet crash land on Earth’s inhospitable frozen wastes. Surviving the harsh conditions will pose a challenge, but over time the aliens will migrate to more populated areas, with decades passing as they work to conceal their presence from their former oppressors, who continue to hunt them at any cost. San Francisco, 2283: When a mysterious craft is detected entering the solar system, Admiral James Kirk is dispatched by Starfleet to confront the vessel. He meets with an emissary from the Iramahl, a previously unknown alien race who have come in search of their brothers and sisters thought to have gone missing in this area of space centuries earlier. Having recently thrown off the last chains of subjugation by another species, the Ptaen, they now believe their lost people hold the key to saving their entire race from eventual extinction. New York, 1970: Roberta Lincoln, young protégé of the mysterious agent Gary Seven, is shocked when she receives the oddest request for help—from the future… Read reviews and buying options here

Star Trek: The Q Continuum by Greg Cox on 2003-10-07
(Amazon) (Apple) (B&N) (BAM) (Google) (Rakuten)

The unpredictable cosmic entity known only as Q has plagued Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the Starship Enterprise since their very first voyage together. But little was known of Q's mysterious past or of the unearthly realm from which he hails. Until now. A brilliant scientist may have found a way to breach the energy barrier surrounding the Milky Way galaxy, and the Enterprise is going to put it to the test. The last thing Captain Picard needs is a surprise visit from Q, but the omnipotent trickster has more in mind than his usual pranks. Kidnapping Picard, he takes the captain back through time to the moment the Q Continuum faced its greatest threat. Now Picard must learn Q's secrets -- or all of reality may perish! Read reviews and buying options here

Star Trek: Voyager: 12 Chrysalis by David Niall Wilson on 1997-03-01
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When the sensors of the U.S.S. Voyager detect abundant plant life on an unexplored planet, Captain Janeway leads an Away Team in search of fresh food supplies. They find lavish gardens inhabited by an enigmatic alien race that holds the gardens sacred. The fragrent blossoms are beautiful, enticing -- and far more dangerous than they appear. One by one, the Away Team begins to fall into deep comas from which they cannot be revived. Unwilling to spread the affliction to Voyager, the Away Team is trapped on the planet until a cure can be found, but their investigation is perceived as desecration by the devout worshippers of the gardens. Pursued by a fanactical mob, slowly succumbing to the insidious effect of the blossoms, Janeway faces either a violent death -- or an endless sleep. Read reviews and buying options here

To the Stars: The Autobiography of George Takei, Star Trek’s Mr. Sulu by George Takei on 1994-10-01
(Amazon) (Apple) (B&N) (BAM) (Google) (Rakuten)

Asian-American actor Takei attributes his success to his role as Mr. Sulu on the Star Trek TV series and in six full-length motion pictures (1966-1991). Starting with his Japanese-American family's internment in a WWII high-security camp in northern California, this lively memoir reveals the author's upbeat but pragmatic nature. The boy's early fascination with the theater, abetted by supportive parents and a B.A. and M.A. in theater from UCLA, led to his discovery when he was 27 by Gene Roddenberry, creatoproducer of Star Trek. While Takei's film credits include Ice Palace, Green Berets and [Return from the River Kwai], most of the book, of major interest to Star Trek fans, deals with behind-the-scenes accounts of the series' filming and production. Read reviews and buying options here

Star Trek: 3 The Klingon Gambit by Robert E. Vardeman on 1981-10-01
(Amazon) (Apple) (B&N) (BAM) (Google) (Rakuten)

THE KLINGONS ARE HUNGRY FOR WAR...THEIR TARGET: THE ENTERPRISE! When Captain Kirk and his crew are ordered to Alnath II to challenge the deadliest Klingon starship Terror, they're ready for anything -- or so they think. But the defenseless Vulcan crew of a Federation science ship has been wiped out. The remaining members of the Alnath II mission have discovered a fabulous ancient city -- but their report doesn't make sense. The Klingon battle cruiser has the Enterprise in it sights, and is ready to destroy it. Read reviews and buying options here

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Legends Of The Ferengi by Ira Steven Behr Quark Robert Hewitt Wolfe on 1997-08-01
(Amazon) (Apple) (B&N) (BAM) (Google) (Rakuten)

"Once you have their money, never give it back." -- #1 "Anything worth doing is worth doing for money." -- #13 For centuries these and the other famous Ferengi "Rules of Acquisition" have been the guiding principles of the galaxy's most successful entrepreneurs. But the wisdom behind them was not won without a high cost in lives and latnium. Now at last these inspiring tales of avaricious Ferengi wresting monetary gain from the jaws of poverty are available to the profit-hungry across the galaxy! Read reviews and buying options here

Star Trek: Enterprise: Rise of the Federation: A Choice of Futures by Christopher L. Bennett on 2013-06-25
(Amazon) (Apple) (B&N) (BAM) (Google) (Rakuten)

A new nation has arisen from the ashes of the Romulan War: the United Federation of Planets, an unprecedented union of diverse species cooperating for the good of all. Admiral Jonathan Archer—the former captain of the Earth starship Enterprise, whose efforts made this union possible—envisions a vibrant Federation promoting galactic peace and a multispecies Starfleet dedicated to exploring strange new worlds. Archer’s former crewmates, including Captain T’Pol of the U.S.S. Endeavour and Captain Malcolm Reed of the U.S.S. Pioneer, work with him to secure that bright future. Yet others within the Federation see its purpose as chiefly military, a united defense against a dangerous galaxy, while some of its neighbors view that military might with suspicion and fear. And getting the member nations, their space fleets, and even their technologies to work together as a unified whole is an ongoing challenge. When a new threat emerges from a force so alien and hostile that negotiation seems impossible, a group of unaligned worlds asks Starfleet to come to its defense, and the Federation’s leaders seize the opportunity to build their reputation as an interstellar power. But Archer fears the conflict is building toward an unnecessary war, potentially taking the young nation down a path it was never meant to follow. Archer and his allies strive to find a better solution . . . but old foes are working secretly to sabotage their efforts and ensure that the great experiment called the Federation comes to a quick and bloody end. Read reviews and buying options here

Star Trek: Enterprise: Rise of the Federation: Live by the Code by Christopher L. Bennett on 2016-03-29
(Amazon) (Apple) (B&N) (BAM) (Google) (Rakuten)

Admiral Jonathan Archer has barely settled in as Starfleet Chief of Staff when new crises demand his attention. The Starfleet task force commanded by Captain Malcolm Reed continues its fight against the deadly Ware technology, but one of the task force ships is captured, its Andorian crew imprisoned by an interstellar Partnership that depends on the Ware for its prosperity. Worse, the Partnership has allied with a renegade Klingon faction, providing it with Ware drone fleets to mount an insurrection against the Klingon Empire. Archer sends Captain T’Pol and Endeavour to assist Reed in his efforts to free the captured officers. But he must also keep his eye on the Klingon border, for factions within the Empire blame Starfleet for provoking the Ware threat and seek to take revenge. Even the skill and dedication of the captains under Archer’s command may not be enough to prevent the outbreak of the Federation’s first war. Read reviews and buying options here

Star Trek: The Face of the Unknown by Christopher L. Bennett on 2016-12-27
(Amazon) (Apple) (B&N) (BAM) (Google) (Rakuten)

Continuing the milestone 50th anniversary celebration of Star Trek—a brand-new novel of The Original Series featuring James T. Kirk, Spock, and the crew of the USS Enterprise! Investigating a series of violent raids by a mysterious predatory species, Captain James T. Kirk discovers that these events share a startling connection with the First Federation, a friendly but secretive civilization contacted early in the USS Enterprise’s five-year mission. Traveling to the First Federation in search of answers, the Enterprise suddenly comes under attack from these strange marauders. Seeking refuge, the starship finds its way to the true home of the First Federation, an astonishing collection of worlds hidden from the galaxy beyond. The inhabitants of this isolated realm are wary of outsiders, and some accuse Kirk and his crew for bringing the wrath of their ancient enemy down upon them. When an attempt to stave off disaster goes tragically wrong, Kirk is held fully accountable, and Commander Spock learns there are even deeper forces that threaten this civilization. If Kirk and Spock cannot convince the First Federation's leaders to overcome their fears, the resulting catastrophe could doom them all! Read reviews and buying options here

Star Trek: The Next Generation: A Hard Rain by Dean Wesley Smith on 2001-02-26
(Amazon) (Apple) (B&N) (BAM) (Google) (Rakuten)

A clever, page-turning thriller in which the world of the Starship Enterprise and the holodeck world of 1940s San Francisco entertwine. "It was raining in the city by the bay. A hard rain. Hard enough to wash the slime out of the streets and back into the holes they crawled out of..." In the hardboiled style of a classic West Coast crime novel, HARD RAIN seamlessly blends the real world of the USS Enterprise with the fictional version of San Francisco 1941, as seen by Captain Jean-Luc Picard's own holodeck creation, detective Dixon Hill. The story begins with the Enterprise stuck in an anomaly, warping both space and time so that for every minute the ship is trapped, a month goes by in normal time. The only piece of equipment that can get the ship safely home has been stolen by gangsters in the Dixon Hill holodeck program. Captain Picard, as Dixon Hill, ventures into this San Francisco world to confront the ruthless crime boss and retrieve the crucial item. Soon after, the first of a series of murders on the Enterprise occurs and the murder weapon is found to be a revolver...from 1941 Earth. Who is behind the murders? All the clues are given. All the suspects are given. Readers will be engrossed in trying to figure out the answer...but only the very clever will guess the murderer's true identity before the final chapter. Read reviews and buying options here

Star Trek: The Next Generation: First Contact by J.M. Dillard on 1996-12-01
(Amazon) (Apple) (B&N) (BAM) (Google) (Rakuten)

Picard and his comrades launch a journey through time to discover the Borg's deadliest secret when the deadly alien race threatens to assimilate the entire Federation. Movie tie-in. Read reviews and buying options here

Star Trek: The Original Series: Elusive Salvation by Dayton Ward on 2016-04-26
(Amazon) (Apple) (B&N) (BAM) (Google) (Rakuten)

The Arctic Circle, 1845: Escaping the tyranny under which their people have lived for generations, aliens from a distant planet crash land on Earth’s inhospitable frozen wastes. Surviving the harsh conditions will pose a challenge, but over time the aliens will migrate to more populated areas, with decades passing as they work to conceal their presence from their former oppressors, who continue to hunt them at any cost. San Francisco, 2283: When a mysterious craft is detected entering the solar system, Admiral James Kirk is dispatched by Starfleet to confront the vessel. He meets with an emissary from the Iramahl, a previously unknown alien race who have come in search of their brothers and sisters thought to have gone missing in this area of space centuries earlier. Having recently thrown off the last chains of subjugation by another species, the Ptaen, they now believe their lost people hold the key to saving their entire race from eventual extinction. New York, 1970: Roberta Lincoln, young protégé of the mysterious agent Gary Seven, is shocked when she receives the oddest request for help—from the future… Read reviews and buying options here

Star Trek: The Q Continuum by Greg Cox on 2003-10-07
(Amazon) (Apple) (B&N) (BAM) (Google) (Rakuten)

The unpredictable cosmic entity known only as Q has plagued Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the Starship Enterprise since their very first voyage together. But little was known of Q's mysterious past or of the unearthly realm from which he hails. Until now. A brilliant scientist may have found a way to breach the energy barrier surrounding the Milky Way galaxy, and the Enterprise is going to put it to the test. The last thing Captain Picard needs is a surprise visit from Q, but the omnipotent trickster has more in mind than his usual pranks. Kidnapping Picard, he takes the captain back through time to the moment the Q Continuum faced its greatest threat. Now Picard must learn Q's secrets -- or all of reality may perish! Read reviews and buying options here

Star Trek: Voyager: 12 Chrysalis by David Niall Wilson on 1997-03-01
(Amazon) (Apple) (B&N) (BAM) (Google) (Rakuten)

When the sensors of the U.S.S. Voyager detect abundant plant life on an unexplored planet, Captain Janeway leads an Away Team in search of fresh food supplies. They find lavish gardens inhabited by an enigmatic alien race that holds the gardens sacred. The fragrent blossoms are beautiful, enticing -- and far more dangerous than they appear. One by one, the Away Team begins to fall into deep comas from which they cannot be revived. Unwilling to spread the affliction to Voyager, the Away Team is trapped on the planet until a cure can be found, but their investigation is perceived as desecration by the devout worshippers of the gardens. Pursued by a fanactical mob, slowly succumbing to the insidious effect of the blossoms, Janeway faces either a violent death -- or an endless sleep. Read reviews and buying options here

To the Stars: The Autobiography of George Takei, Star Trek’s Mr. Sulu by George Takei on 1994-10-01
(Amazon) (Apple) (B&N) (BAM) (Google) (Rakuten)

Asian-American actor Takei attributes his success to his role as Mr. Sulu on the Star Trek TV series and in six full-length motion pictures (1966-1991). Starting with his Japanese-American family's internment in a WWII high-security camp in northern California, this lively memoir reveals the author's upbeat but pragmatic nature. The boy's early fascination with the theater, abetted by supportive parents and a B.A. and M.A. in theater from UCLA, led to his discovery when he was 27 by Gene Roddenberry, creatoproducer of Star Trek. While Takei's film credits include Ice Palace, Green Berets and [Return from the River Kwai], most of the book, of major interest to Star Trek fans, deals with behind-the-scenes accounts of the series' filming and production. Read reviews and buying options here

Feels like it was a missed opportunity to not have them all be "Q" related since we're so close to April Fool's day here. All of these have been on sale in the last few years and be sure you need it if you're buying the one Q book here, as it's a collection of two other stories.
Star Trek: 3 The Klingon Gambit by Robert E. Vardeman on 1981-10-01
(Amazon) (Apple) (B&N) (BAM) (Google) (Rakuten)

THE KLINGONS ARE HUNGRY FOR WAR...THEIR TARGET: THE ENTERPRISE! When Captain Kirk and his crew are ordered to Alnath II to challenge the deadliest Klingon starship Terror, they're ready for anything -- or so they think. But the defenseless Vulcan crew of a Federation science ship has been wiped out. The remaining members of the Alnath II mission have discovered a fabulous ancient city -- but their report doesn't make sense. The Klingon battle cruiser has the Enterprise in it sights, and is ready to destroy it. Read reviews and buying options here

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Legends Of The Ferengi by Ira Steven Behr Quark Robert Hewitt Wolfe on 1997-08-01
(Amazon) (Apple) (B&N) (BAM) (Google) (Rakuten)

"Once you have their money, never give it back." -- #1 "Anything worth doing is worth doing for money." -- #13 For centuries these and the other famous Ferengi "Rules of Acquisition" have been the guiding principles of the galaxy's most successful entrepreneurs. But the wisdom behind them was not won without a high cost in lives and latnium. Now at last these inspiring tales of avaricious Ferengi wresting monetary gain from the jaws of poverty are available to the profit-hungry across the galaxy! Read reviews and buying options here

Star Trek: Enterprise: Rise of the Federation: A Choice of Futures by Christopher L. Bennett on 2013-06-25
(Amazon) (Apple) (B&N) (BAM) (Google) (Rakuten)

A new nation has arisen from the ashes of the Romulan War: the United Federation of Planets, an unprecedented union of diverse species cooperating for the good of all. Admiral Jonathan Archer—the former captain of the Earth starship Enterprise, whose efforts made this union possible—envisions a vibrant Federation promoting galactic peace and a multispecies Starfleet dedicated to exploring strange new worlds. Archer’s former crewmates, including Captain T’Pol of the U.S.S. Endeavour and Captain Malcolm Reed of the U.S.S. Pioneer, work with him to secure that bright future. Yet others within the Federation see its purpose as chiefly military, a united defense against a dangerous galaxy, while some of its neighbors view that military might with suspicion and fear. And getting the member nations, their space fleets, and even their technologies to work together as a unified whole is an ongoing challenge. When a new threat emerges from a force so alien and hostile that negotiation seems impossible, a group of unaligned worlds asks Starfleet to come to its defense, and the Federation’s leaders seize the opportunity to build their reputation as an interstellar power. But Archer fears the conflict is building toward an unnecessary war, potentially taking the young nation down a path it was never meant to follow. Archer and his allies strive to find a better solution . . . but old foes are working secretly to sabotage their efforts and ensure that the great experiment called the Federation comes to a quick and bloody end. Read reviews and buying options here

Star Trek: Enterprise: Rise of the Federation: Live by the Code by Christopher L. Bennett on 2016-03-29
(Amazon) (Apple) (B&N) (BAM) (Google) (Rakuten)

Admiral Jonathan Archer has barely settled in as Starfleet Chief of Staff when new crises demand his attention. The Starfleet task force commanded by Captain Malcolm Reed continues its fight against the deadly Ware technology, but one of the task force ships is captured, its Andorian crew imprisoned by an interstellar Partnership that depends on the Ware for its prosperity. Worse, the Partnership has allied with a renegade Klingon faction, providing it with Ware drone fleets to mount an insurrection against the Klingon Empire. Archer sends Captain T’Pol and Endeavour to assist Reed in his efforts to free the captured officers. But he must also keep his eye on the Klingon border, for factions within the Empire blame Starfleet for provoking the Ware threat and seek to take revenge. Even the skill and dedication of the captains under Archer’s command may not be enough to prevent the outbreak of the Federation’s first war. Read reviews and buying options here

Star Trek: The Face of the Unknown by Christopher L. Bennett on 2016-12-27
(Amazon) (Apple) (B&N) (BAM) (Google) (Rakuten)

Continuing the milestone 50th anniversary celebration of Star Trek—a brand-new novel of The Original Series featuring James T. Kirk, Spock, and the crew of the USS Enterprise! Investigating a series of violent raids by a mysterious predatory species, Captain James T. Kirk discovers that these events share a startling connection with the First Federation, a friendly but secretive civilization contacted early in the USS Enterprise’s five-year mission. Traveling to the First Federation in search of answers, the Enterprise suddenly comes under attack from these strange marauders. Seeking refuge, the starship finds its way to the true home of the First Federation, an astonishing collection of worlds hidden from the galaxy beyond. The inhabitants of this isolated realm are wary of outsiders, and some accuse Kirk and his crew for bringing the wrath of their ancient enemy down upon them. When an attempt to stave off disaster goes tragically wrong, Kirk is held fully accountable, and Commander Spock learns there are even deeper forces that threaten this civilization. If Kirk and Spock cannot convince the First Federation's leaders to overcome their fears, the resulting catastrophe could doom them all! Read reviews and buying options here

Star Trek: The Next Generation: A Hard Rain by Dean Wesley Smith on 2001-02-26
(Amazon) (Apple) (B&N) (BAM) (Google) (Rakuten)

A clever, page-turning thriller in which the world of the Starship Enterprise and the holodeck world of 1940s San Francisco entertwine. "It was raining in the city by the bay. A hard rain. Hard enough to wash the slime out of the streets and back into the holes they crawled out of..." In the hardboiled style of a classic West Coast crime novel, HARD RAIN seamlessly blends the real world of the USS Enterprise with the fictional version of San Francisco 1941, as seen by Captain Jean-Luc Picard's own holodeck creation, detective Dixon Hill. The story begins with the Enterprise stuck in an anomaly, warping both space and time so that for every minute the ship is trapped, a month goes by in normal time. The only piece of equipment that can get the ship safely home has been stolen by gangsters in the Dixon Hill holodeck program. Captain Picard, as Dixon Hill, ventures into this San Francisco world to confront the ruthless crime boss and retrieve the crucial item. Soon after, the first of a series of murders on the Enterprise occurs and the murder weapon is found to be a revolver...from 1941 Earth. Who is behind the murders? All the clues are given. All the suspects are given. Readers will be engrossed in trying to figure out the answer...but only the very clever will guess the murderer's true identity before the final chapter. Read reviews and buying options here

Star Trek: The Next Generation: First Contact by J.M. Dillard on 1996-12-01
(Amazon) (Apple) (B&N) (BAM) (Google) (Rakuten)

Picard and his comrades launch a journey through time to discover the Borg's deadliest secret when the deadly alien race threatens to assimilate the entire Federation. Movie tie-in. Read reviews and buying options here

Star Trek: The Original Series: Elusive Salvation by Dayton Ward on 2016-04-26
(Amazon) (Apple) (B&N) (BAM) (Google) (Rakuten)

The Arctic Circle, 1845: Escaping the tyranny under which their people have lived for generations, aliens from a distant planet crash land on Earth’s inhospitable frozen wastes. Surviving the harsh conditions will pose a challenge, but over time the aliens will migrate to more populated areas, with decades passing as they work to conceal their presence from their former oppressors, who continue to hunt them at any cost. San Francisco, 2283: When a mysterious craft is detected entering the solar system, Admiral James Kirk is dispatched by Starfleet to confront the vessel. He meets with an emissary from the Iramahl, a previously unknown alien race who have come in search of their brothers and sisters thought to have gone missing in this area of space centuries earlier. Having recently thrown off the last chains of subjugation by another species, the Ptaen, they now believe their lost people hold the key to saving their entire race from eventual extinction. New York, 1970: Roberta Lincoln, young protégé of the mysterious agent Gary Seven, is shocked when she receives the oddest request for help—from the future… Read reviews and buying options here

Star Trek: The Q Continuum by Greg Cox on 2003-10-07
(Amazon) (Apple) (B&N) (BAM) (Google) (Rakuten)

The unpredictable cosmic entity known only as Q has plagued Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the Starship Enterprise since their very first voyage together. But little was known of Q's mysterious past or of the unearthly realm from which he hails. Until now. A brilliant scientist may have found a way to breach the energy barrier surrounding the Milky Way galaxy, and the Enterprise is going to put it to the test. The last thing Captain Picard needs is a surprise visit from Q, but the omnipotent trickster has more in mind than his usual pranks. Kidnapping Picard, he takes the captain back through time to the moment the Q Continuum faced its greatest threat. Now Picard must learn Q's secrets -- or all of reality may perish! Read reviews and buying options here

Star Trek: Voyager: 12 Chrysalis by David Niall Wilson on 1997-03-01
(Amazon) (Apple) (B&N) (BAM) (Google) (Rakuten)

When the sensors of the U.S.S. Voyager detect abundant plant life on an unexplored planet, Captain Janeway leads an Away Team in search of fresh food supplies. They find lavish gardens inhabited by an enigmatic alien race that holds the gardens sacred. The fragrent blossoms are beautiful, enticing -- and far more dangerous than they appear. One by one, the Away Team begins to fall into deep comas from which they cannot be revived. Unwilling to spread the affliction to Voyager, the Away Team is trapped on the planet until a cure can be found, but their investigation is perceived as desecration by the devout worshippers of the gardens. Pursued by a fanactical mob, slowly succumbing to the insidious effect of the blossoms, Janeway faces either a violent death -- or an endless sleep. Read reviews and buying options here

To the Stars: The Autobiography of George Takei, Star Trek’s Mr. Sulu by George Takei on 1994-10-01
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Asian-American actor Takei attributes his success to his role as Mr. Sulu on the Star Trek TV series and in six full-length motion pictures (1966-1991). Starting with his Japanese-American family's internment in a WWII high-security camp in northern California, this lively memoir reveals the author's upbeat but pragmatic nature. The boy's early fascination with the theater, abetted by supportive parents and a B.A. and M.A. in theater from UCLA, led to his discovery when he was 27 by Gene Roddenberry, creatoproducer of Star Trek. While Takei's film credits include Ice Palace, Green Berets and [Return from the River Kwai], most of the book, of major interest to Star Trek fans, deals with behind-the-scenes accounts of the series' filming and production. Read reviews and buying options here