A Happy New Year from SciFiEmpire.net

A Happy New Year

I would like to wish all readers a Happy New Year. I am sure 2016 will be a wonderful year filled with family happiness, job promotions and of course exciting Science Fiction! To get a glimpse of what you can expect from the new year you can read my two previous posts. The first previews upcoming sci-fi games and the second upcoming movies. The start of 2016 is also very promising. This evening the BBC will air a one-off special episode of Sherlock starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. I will post a review tomorrow. The day after, on Sunday, I will have finished my write-up on the Star Citizen Alpha 2.0 release. It should give readers an idea of where the game is going.

Further into 2016

For me, the editor of this blog, things will get very exciting. After I managed to publish my first novel last year I have no less than two planned for this year. Well, one is a novel and the other is a Computer Science book aimed at novices. Both are almost completed and are scheduled for release sometime on the spring. I originally hoped to release them by the end of January, but editing, proof-reading and creating graphs takes time and should not be rushed. So, what are my new books about? Below there is a small preview of both.

Roland

The first book to be released in the new year is Roland, a sci-fi novel set a few decades in the future. Roland is set in a future World War 3 in which democracies have slowly evolved into Fascist governments. The story follows Roland, the titular character, as he deals with the governments oppressive presence, love of friends, death and loneliness. It is very much a coming of age story. At this moment I am also writing a novella set in the same Rolandverse, but it follows different characters. Roland is set for release on February 29th. I have almost concluded proof-reading it and organizing a cover. If everything proceeds smoothly you should be able to pre-order Roland by the end of January. Initially it will only be released for Amazon Kindle.

Linux Commands, Programming and Hacking for Beginners

Compared to Roland this is a very long title, but it truthfully states what it is. As a Computer Science PhD candidate I have had to endure some very bad classes, read a lot of bad computer books and received a lot of poor advice. Over the years I have accumulated a lot of lecture notes and written a number of small tutorials and primers on Linux, programming and penetration testing. I thought it would be a wonderful idea to collect everything in a book so I can share my knowledge. My own experience has shown that each of these topics are interconnected in a way that beginners are best taught each at the same time. This way knowledge gained will have more meaning and hopefully stick with the reader. The book is filled with small sidetracks, examples, anecdotes and even reviews of examples from popular culture. If you desire to get a better understanding of these topics and you have little experience with them, then this book is something for you. I have set a tentative release date of March 31st. Just like Roland it will be available for Kindle with pre-orders possible one month before release!

I wish you A Happy New Year.

From the editor.