Hey everyone! Andrew here.
I have a lot to share this week. This one’s a good one.
First up, some of you will already know that we have revamped (well, are in the process of revamping) the ZZ Adams website at zzadams.com. Please go and check it out and let us know what you think! There are still some gaps — Mindstorm isn’t in the books section yet, for example — but that doesn’t mean anything other than I haven’t gotten around to connecting it all up yet. The data is all there on the back end, I just need to spend the time wiring it together inside the new site. I’ll get there over the next few days and weeks. It’s a
big job. If there’s something you’d like to see on there (a reading order list, for example) let me know and I’ll make it happen.
Second, if you do visit the site and take a look at the Books section, you’ll notice something listed as “coming soon” that might raise an eyebrow. Anthropoid. Yes, this is real. No, you do not need to adjust your sets or send up a Bat Signal. I have Damian’s green light to “have at it,” and that is precisely what I am doing. What started out as a short series teaser — the kind that ends on a (probably annoying) cliffhanger — is now becoming a full novel. It’s a sci-fi adventure with plenty to discover. A coming-of-age story at its heart. I’m over 50 and I still love those, and I am not even slightly sorry about it. I’ve been working hard on the structure and writing new material. Anthropoid will be the next ZZ novel out the door. When we get close, I’ll be asking the First Readers team to take a look — watch this space for more on that. But we are still some
time away yet. I will definitely be announcing it here first.
Third, and this is the big one for those of you who have been patiently (or not so patiently!) waiting — I have finished the full outline for The Master’s Munificence. Actually, I did one better than that: I have outlined the entire main series arc across all three books. I’m now calling this the Bonesong Trilogy. I don’t have every detail nailed down for books two and three yet, but I know where the whole thing ends and I know the key beats for each volume. For me, that is enormous progress. My Scrivener file for this project has gotten so large it takes an age to save, which I suppose is a good problem to have. I’m thinking of moving things into Atticus (atticus.io — great tool, by the way) to get everything into the right order, and then I can write the missing scenes with a clear map in front of me. The great news is that I am finally in a place where I can do
that, rather than staring into the dark and complaining about how bafflingly complex all of this is. Which, if you’ve been reading this newsletter for a while, you’ll know has been something of a recurring theme. For those of you who have been asking about Muni — I think it’s only two of you, but I appreciate you both enormously — I will have a full draft ready soon. It feels genuinely good to say that.
All the best,
Andrew (ZZ)
Zero-Point Awakening – The Complete Series Books 1-8
“If you love a good SF story that might make you think, you’ll keep turning the pages.”
– Amazon 5 Star Review
Read this Box Set Promos
Check out these bargain and discounted reads from our fellow speculative fiction authors!
The crew of the USSC Icarus lands on Titan expecting ice and silence—until a mysterious signal appears beneath their landing site. With communications down, Captain Samantha Carter must continue the mission… on a moon that may not be lifeless.
Two thousand light-years from Earth, the survival game begins. The colony ship Dauntless carries four hundred settlers to a new world—but something aboard is already rotting.
David Reyes survived Kaledon’s collapse, but peace is a lie. Now Taryn Ellis launches the Chimera Protocol—melding biology with the digital abyss. The target isn’t data. It’s a child.
Ewan Scott is reborn by an ancient AI to save humanity from extinction—and reunite it with its true origin. As alien civilizations fall, Captain Velal faces rising horrors that now set their sights on Earth.
Check this out Imagine life 50 years from now. What futuristic tech will every home have?
A humanoid robot assistant
Medical nanobots that constantly repair your body
A flying car in the garage
A teleportation pod for instant travel
A home fusion reactor for unlimited energy
Other (let us know your view by replying)
Survey Result
And now, let’s take a look at last week’s poll results. We asked, “If a humanoid robot lived in your home, what would you most want it to do for you?”
Here are the results:
- Clean the house –> 48%
- Do chores I don’t like –> 27%
- Other –> 13%
- Care for elderly family members –> 11%
- Be someone to talk to –> 2%
YOUR THOUGHTS
Andrew: Well. I think we can all agree the results here were not exactly shocking. 75% of you, if we combine “clean the house” and “do chores I don’t like,” basically want a very expensive Roomba with hands. Which, honestly… same. A Winter put it perfectly: “I don’t have time to scrub the walk-in shower. I can’t reach the cobwebs.” Heh. I love that. Chuck Hall came in with probably the most honest answer of all: “Clean the litter box!” Chuck, yes. What we need is a tech solution for dirty jobs like this that we really don’t want to do.
Next up, Gail, thank you so much for your kind words about Muni. Gail told me she’d rather Muni take its time than rely on AI shortcuts, which, given what I shared in the opening this week, means a great deal to me. Thank you, Gail. The good news as I shared already is that I have it worked out AND written down now. So I’m already further ahead than ever before.
The “Be someone to talk to” crowd came in at just 2%. Duane took a firm and principled stand: he wouldn’t have a humanoid robot in his home under any circumstances, full stop. “I have done all those things listed most of my life. I have not grown too lazy to hand them over to a robot.” I respect that enormously, Duane, and I suspect you have better upper arms than the rest of us for it. I still would happily have a bot clean the kitty litter, but I’m probably a lesser man as a result.
Mark Tharp also had something important to say: “Robots do not LIVE! It is not human.” And Mark is technically correct, which as we all know is the best kind of correct. Though given how science fiction tends to go, I suspect the robots will have opinions about that particular distinction before too long.
David L. Davis went full I, Robot which I really enjoyed reading. I think the dystopian future is probably where we are heading, but I’d prefer to have functional robots (think diswashers rather than humanoids).
Detlev wrote a thoughtful note about recovering from knee surgery — hope you’re on the mend, Detlev! — and reflected on the AI question with real nuance: it has a place, but it’s being rolled out too quickly (yes! fully agree) and there’s a real risk that authors lean on it as a crutch instead of doing the hard imaginative work. Yes. And I’m seeing it too. I worry that we will be flooded with (excuse the language but) crap and it will be harder for real writers to get their work out.
And Tim G. — Tim, I want you to know that your response about nanobots from a couple of weeks back is still rattling around in my feeble brain. You have successfully given me a new thing to lie awake thinking about at 2am.
As always, thank you for writing in. These responses are genuinely the best part of putting this newsletter together every week. I really do love them.
**Please note: All links in this newsletter are affiliate links, and I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
ZZ ADAMS
Kyodo Setagaya City, Tokyo
Japan
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