BATTLE OF THE LINGUIST MAGESby Scotto MooreIt’s been nearly two years since I stepped out
BATTLE OF THE LINGUIST MAGESby Scotto MooreIt’s been nearly two years since I stepped out from behind the curtain to tell you about the publication of my sci-fi/horror novella, YOUR FAVORITE BAND CANNOT SAVE YOU.I hope you will indulge me once more, because I thought you should know that my debut novel arrives via Tor.com in January 2022. It’s a wild, intense, fast-paced, frequently humorous science-fantasy novel called BATTLE OF THE LINGUIST MAGES. It’s set in modern day Los Angeles, as a shadowy cabal led by the Governor of California develops the arcane art of combat linguistics, planting the seeds of a future totalitarian empire.Isobel Bailie is our protagonist. She’s the Queen of Sparkle Dungeon, a popular medieval rave-themed VR game. Her prowess in the game draws the shadowy cabal’s attention, as they realize she’s an ideal candidate to learn the secrets of “power morphemes” — unnaturally dense units of meaning that warp perception when skilfully pronounced.But Isobel’s reputation also makes her the target of a strange resistance movement led by spellcasting anarchists, who may be the only thing stopping the shadowy cabal from toppling California over the edge of a terrible transformation, with forty million lives at stake.Time is short for Isobel to level up and choose a side — because the cabal has attracted much bigger and weirder enemies than the anarchist resistance, emerging from dark and vicious dimensions of reality and heading straight for planet Earth.Anyway, I think there’s a nonzero chance you might like it. Some advance review copies escaped into the world, enabling me to share a few early reactions to the book:“It reads like Snow Crash had a dance-off with Gideon the Ninth, in a world where language isn’t a virus from outer space, it’s a goddamn alien invasion.” —Charles Stross“Sparklepunk meets Snow Crash! One of those books that hits you with an amazing new idea every couple of pages, and it makes for a wild ride.” —Django Wexler“Moore takes readers on a roller coaster of weird in this wildly entertaining gonzo adventure…. Moore’s tale, adapted from several of his earlier plays, is audacious, ambitious, and metatextual, packed with such wild concepts as sentient punctuation marks, musical weapons, and multilayered reality. While the story sprawls at times, Moore never loses sight of his characters’ humanity or the underlying sense of adventure and humor. Readers will love it as much for the outlandish ideas as for the narrative complexity and sense of fun.” - Publishers Weekly starred review“A madcap adventure of magic and mayhem…. glitter-bombed popcorn fiction at its finest.” - Kirkus starred review“The inventiveness and intensity of Moore’s storytelling perfectly blends Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash. Readers who enjoy gaming will find the novel accessible and appealing.” - Library JournalIf that sounds like your kind of jam, perhaps you’ll consider preordering BATTLE OF THE LINGUIST MAGES via your book proprietor of choice?Thank you for reading this far, and for sticking around CAMPAIGN AGAINST CLICHE. -- source link