Category: Entertainment News

New music release: Moon and Aries’ Break The Matrix – Episode Two

Break The Matrix – Episode Two is the second EP of a planned three in the Break The Matrix concept series. Photo: Moon and Aries, used with permission.

German composer and producer Tom Aries and Canadian writer / singer Jordana Moon team up as Moon and Aries to bring warmth and assurance for a brighter future. The dynamic duo is back with a new EP: Episode Two of Breaking the Matrix. At first they arrived. Then they activated Paradise. Now they “BREAK THE MATRIX.” Moon and Aries is back with a big and bold statement. They will overcome the old World and build the new World with a fusion of nostalgic and futuristic celestial sounds, like nothing you have heard before. The self proclaimed, Synth Pop Opera Duo have a deep driving desire to raise the vibrations and activate a higher version of reality with their music. Break The Matrix – Episode Two is out now. (Moon and Aries, 2022)

With Tom Aries’ memorable, seductive melodies and captivating instrumentals, blending with Jordana Moon’s thought provoking and poetic lyrics and emotionally intimate vocals, they are back with a new Trilogy of music. A three-part music series, broken up into different episodes, Moon and Aries hope to hook you into their sensual, uplifting and spiritually charged Universe of sound. Episode 1 was released September 8 and Episode 3 will come out in the first quarter of 2023. All these 3 x 3 songs are part of a concept/connected story.

BREAK THE MATRIX (Episode 1-3):

3 x 3 songs with a fusion of Electro Pop, Trip Hop, cinematic Synth Pop – the dynamic duo has brought a slightly new vibe to their classic Synth Pop Opera sound. Expect music that is a little more confidential and closer to their chest. As they release, you will release and relax as you receive the upgrades. Riding off the success of The Arrival album and Paradise EP, Moon and Aries keep striving to bring the most relevant music and stay at the forefront of the movement. So, it is. Moon and Aries proudly present:  Break The Matrix – Episode Two with three new songs.

Three new videos will be out on YouTube:

  1. Rescued – lyric video on November 3
  2. The Butterfly Effect – lyric video on November 4
  3. Codes and Circles – full video on November 5

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Jordana Moon is a singer songwriter from Western Canada who composes and creates lyrics and melody with the goal to inspire and empower her listeners. Her approach to music is to mix a higher level of consciousness and concepts and bring these more philosophical ideas to modern music. Jordana composes her music with a wide variety of instruments, playing the piano, acoustic guitar, Bass guitar, electric guitar, mandolin, ukulele, and violin. Jordana studied creative writing at Vancouver film school, and she enjoys writing music with themes of high consciousness, sexual healing, and empowerment. Jordana finds inspiration from old jazz, 70s and 80s soul / pop / RnB music, trip hop and current neo soul and artists like Portishead, Shivaree, Eliza, Tori Amos, Joni Mitchell, Lauryn Hill, Massive Attack and composers like Cole Porter and Steven Sondheim.

Tom Aries is an electronic synthesizer musician, songwriter, and producer from Western Germany. He is a composer of mostly instrumental tracks, analog and digital synthesizer sequences. Tom’s music fuses his classical piano education with influences stemming from synthesizer sounds of the 80s. He produced songs and sounds for computer games and soundtracks for short videos and films. Influenced by bands and artists like Depeche Mode, Kraftwerk, Jean-Michel Jarre, Massive Attack, Portishead, Röyksopp – and the sound of the 80s, he created more and more songs, instrumental ideas, and music. The combination of pictures, films and art with music has been Tom’s first creative base. Tom composes his songs mainly on the piano. After this first acoustic piano melody version he is producing the songs within his little home studio.

Jordana and Tom started the cooperation officially as Moon and Aries on March 1, 2021 – only working together via file sharing and communication across the ocean. (With 9hrs time distance between Canada & Germany = Jordana still living in Canada and Tom still living in Germany). Since then, they have released 14 songs to date: one concept album The Arrival with 9 original songs and one EP Paradise with 5 songs. Played on more than 100 radio stations in Australia, Europe, Africa and America, including New York City Radio station in 2021 and 2022.

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New album release: Adeem The Artist’s White Trash Revelry

Highly- anticipated White Trash Revelry will be out December 2 via Adeem The Artists’ own Four Quarters Records. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Growing up, Eastern Tennessee-based songwriter Adeem the Artist quickly realized that with the right delivery, dark jokes could offer a socially acceptable way to open up about the tough stuff. “My parents are both from a lot of generational trauma, and I was born right at the heart of it,” Adeem says. “Humor is just how we survived.” Of course, since before 2021’s Cast-Iron Pansexual—the album that earned Adeem the Artist praise from Rolling Stone and American Songwriter, Adeem the Artist has continued to build a dedicated following by blending Appalachian musical influences and poetic flair with their healthy dose of comedic instinct, and recently, they announced an upcoming album on their own Four Quarters Records label, White Trash Revelry. (Adeem the Artist, 2022)

Out on December 2, White Trash Revelry delivers a fresh batch of Adeem’s beloved comedic sensibilities, tempered with vulnerable moments and highly specific personal details. Tender strings and clear vocals give way to nuanced storytelling about small-town rites of passage and mixed messages about love, violence, and honor. Songs like “Heritage of Arrogance” tackle larger societal issues, struggling to reconcile open-minded intentions with the deeply flawed and historical narratives too often peddled by white Southerners. But the album’s namesake revelry is around every corner, too.

Adeem the Artist shared “Middle of a Heart” from White Trash Revelry. “I wrote this song for my friend Bob in many ways,” they say. “Bob was a retired Knoxville Police Officer who I’d make bacon and eggs for every morning and we’d watch the news and watch the birds and he’d tell me stories about Carlene and the boys. I miss him, still.” At times sweet and sad, “Middle of a Heart” is a shining example of Adeem’s skillful storytelling, with a plot turn leaving listeners awestruck. “It hits like a bullet in the middle of a heart.”

Fans can watch Adeem’s previously-released “Going To Hell” video now and pre-order or pre-save White Trash Revelry ahead of its December 2 release. Check out upcoming Adeem the Artist tour dates below.

White Trash Revelry track list: 

  1. Carolina
  2. For Judas
  3. Heritage of Arrogance
  4. Painkillers & Magic
  5. Run This Town
  6. Baptized In Well Spirits
  7. Middle Of A Heart
  8. Going To Hell
  9. Rednecks & Unread Hicks
  10. Books & Records
  11. My America

Adeem’s twang-studded gospel represents a worldview too often excluded from modern country music, one that converts shame into celebration. It turns out, folks like the sound of embracing the parts of ourselves we are told to bury—so much so that when Adeem turned to fans to support the follow-up album to Cast-Iron Pansexual, thousands obliged. Dubbing it a “redneck fundraiser,” the seventh-generation Carolinian raised the money to release White Trash Revelry by asking for one dollar at a time through social media. “With four quarters and a Venmo,” they joked, “baby, you can make this dream come true.” Adeem emerged from the fundraiser $15,000 later with a name for their new record label—Four Quarters Records—and the resolve to write an unapologetic next chapter.

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Book of the week: ‘Ferret’ by C.C. Wyatt

‘Ferret’ is book one in The Ferret Books series by C.C. Wyatt. Photo: Amazon

C.C. Wyatt, the author of “Ferret” and its sequel, “Perseaus,” lives in Arizona. She has a degree in business and previously worked as a financial advisor. Her inspiration for writing the series came as a notion to entertain young readers with something fresh and rare. Critics have attested to her unique style of writing, so let us say mission accomplished. Being a self-learner and one who fancies crafts—art, music, movies—helped in shaping her style in storytelling. Florida is one of her favorite places to travel. No wonder the backdrop of The Ferret Books series is in Florida. The series is about a young girl whose life arcanely changed after once upon a night disappearing in her sleep. (C.C. Wyatt, 2022)

“Ferret” – Pia Wade’s life is a book with torn-out pages, she sees things no one else can, and she has weird dreams. It all started four years ago when she mysteriously vanished in the night. One problem though, she has no memory of the incident whatsoever, yet claims she was kidnapped. But as Pia embarks on a trip back to where her nightmare began, she wishes all her troubles would just—Poof!—disappear. What Pia does not know is that a new world of Pandora’s box is about to open with clues to finding the answers she so desperately seeks. For Pia, it is either now or never. One week is all she has to tackle the mission. Just one week. Tick tock.

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Upcoming album release: 1992 by Justin Hiltner

Banjoist, songwriter, and activist Justin Hiltner announces solo album 1992, available December 9, 2022. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Justin Hiltner is a queer, disabled banjo player, songwriter, and music writer known from the Peabody Award-winning podcast Dolly Parton’s America and currently playing banjo with the Broadway national tour of the 2019 Tony Award-winning revival of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! Past releases include Watch it Burn (2018) and Room at the Table (2022) with Jon Weisberger, Silver Dagger (2021), “Hold Each Other Up” (2020) with Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer, and “Live and Let Live” (2019) with Bluegrass Pride, Laurie Lewis, Melody Walker, and more. The critically acclaimed instrumentalist and songwriter has announced his debut solo album, 1992 available December 9, 2022. The project’s lead single and title track is a heartbreaking and singular exploration of survivor’s guilt, disability, and embodiment and is available now via streaming platforms, download, and Bandcamp. (Justin Hiltner, 2022)

Premiering on The Bluegrass Situation, Hiltner described the single: “At the time I began writing [‘1992’], I was reading [Randy Shilts’] And the Band Played On and spending a good amount of time studying the movement for queer rights in the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s. It dawned on me that I was not born after the HIV/AIDS epidemic, I was born into it. And almost certainly there were gay men and queer folks dying of HIV in the very same hospital where I was born.” Accompanied simply by stark, low-tuned banjo, the story within “1992” is entrancing and solemn, a truly original message – especially within the genres and regions Hiltner has called home.

1992 was recorded in September 2020 with Grammy Award winning producers and bluegrass, folk, and children’s music stalwarts Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer engineering and co-producing at their studio in Lansing, North Carolina – the hometown of bluegrass and old-time forebear Ola Belle Reed. The collection’s twelve original songs, each recorded live and the majority tracked in single takes, were captured atop the idyllic and gorgeous Blue Ridge Mountains with a panoramic view of Pond Mountain, White Top, and New Pinnacle from Ashe County, NC, a setting that complicates and unspools narratives around where queer folks belong while upending stereotypes of “ownership,” “authenticity,” and placemaking in bluegrass, Appalachia, and the South.

Other songs on the album deal with class issues and social justice, love, loss, and longing, and Hiltner’s journey through cancer – his treatment, recovery, disability, and the traumas of surviving cancer only to land in the COVID-19 pandemic. The banjo playing throughout is technically impressive and challenging, but serves each song tastefully and, often, subtly, reminding of solo pickers and performers like John Hartford and Darrell Scott. “Pieces,” a song about the slow drip of losing oneself in love, was co-written with Rounder recording artist Caroline Spence, a longtime friend of Hiltner’s. “Benson Street,” which was written with flat picker and songwriter Molly Tuttle, is full of pining and the imagery of southern summers.

Hiltner’s highly anticipated solo debut feels strikingly mature and sharp, with a point of view rare even in the fast growing queer country movement, a reminder of why NPR Music called him “A leader in the burgeoning movement to welcome and highlight queer voices in bluegrass.”

1992 will be available wherever you download, stream, or purchase music on December 9, 2022. Pre-order open now.

1992 Track List:
Dark Side
U R the HWY 1 (APT 2)
Everglades
Benson Street
1992
Hannah
Oligarchs
10 Years (Gotta Get Out)
Pieces
I Wanted More
I Cry Every Day Now
Another Way

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Sips and Sounds series returns with Norteño Night at the Briscoe

Briscoe Western Art Museum’s Sips & Sounds of the West series celebrates Hispanic influence on the West with a night of Norteño music featuring Los Callejeros de San Anto. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Let music take you to Northern Mexico as you enjoy a night of music under the stars on the River Walk at the Briscoe’s “Sips and Sounds of the West” Norteño Night on Friday October 28, 2022. With band Los Callejeros De San Anto in the museum’s McNutt Sculpture Garden, the museum will celebrate the Hispanic influence on the America West with a night of tunes perfect for a date night or a night out with friends in the heart of San Antonio. The ticketed event begins at 6:30p.m. (Briscoe Western Art Museum, 2022)

Launched by Pinata Protest front man Alvaro Del Norte with bandmates Jose Morales on bajo sexto, bassist Richie Brown, and Chris Ramirez on drums, Los Callejeros De San Anto blends well known influences of Conjunto and Norteño into the perfect Tex-Mex street band and is “abuela approved.” Sips and Sounds of the West tickets are $10 for museum members and $20 for non-members. The event is for ages 18+ and includes student tickets at $10 each. Food truck fare is available for purchase from Dona Kika’s Tacos & Gorditas and a cash bar will be available.

The Briscoe’s Sips and Sounds of the West series highlights the soundtrack of the West through live music while surrounded by the beauty of the garden’s fantastic bronze sculptures and lush greenery. The museum’s McNutt Sculpture Garden is an oasis featuring a beautiful courtyard surrounded by bronze sculptures depicting iconic figures of the American West. With the lights of downtown in the background and stars overhead, the garden becomes magical at night, making it the perfect spot for a date night or a night out with friends.

From its McNutt Sculpture Garden to the museum’s beautifully restored historic home inside the former San Antonio Public Library building, the Briscoe’s collection spans 14 galleries, with special exhibitions, events and a fantastic Museum Store, providing art, culture, history and entertainment. Museum hours, parking and admission details are available online.

Preserving and presenting the art, history and culture of the American West through engaging exhibitions, educational programs and public events reflective of the region’s rich traditions and shared heritage, the Briscoe Western Art Museum is located on the San Antonio River Walk at 210 W. Market Street in the beautifully restored 1930s former San Antonio Public Library building. Named in honor of the late Texas Gov. Dolph Briscoe Jr. and his wife, Janey Slaughter Briscoe, the museum includes the three-story Jack Guenther Pavilion, used for event rentals and programs, and the outdoor McNutt Sculpture Garden.

Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Television adaptation: ‘Shantaram’ by Gregory David Roberts

The television adaptation of ‘Shantaram’ is available on Apple TV +. Photo: Amazon

Gregory David Roberts, the author of “Shantaram” and its sequel, “The Mountain Shadow,” was born in Melbourne, Australia. Sentenced to nineteen years in prison for a series of armed robberies, he escaped and spent ten of his fugitive years in Bombay―where he established a free medical clinic for slum-dwellers, and worked as a counterfeiter, smuggler, gunrunner, and street soldier for a branch of the Bombay mafia. Recaptured, he served out his sentence, and established a successful multimedia company upon his release. Roberts is now a full time writer and lives in Bombay. “Shantaram” is the story of a convicted Australian bank robber and heroin addict who escapes from Pentridge Prison and flees to India. The novel is reportedly influenced by real events in the life of the author, though some claims made by Roberts are contested by others involved in the story. It was adapted into a major television series from Apple TV+ starring Charlie Hunnam. (Amazon, 2022)

“Shantaram” –  An escaped convict with a false passport, Lin flees maximum security prison in Australia for the teeming streets of Bombay, where he can disappear. Accompanied by his guide and faithful friend, Prabaker, the two enter the city’s hidden society of beggars and gangsters, prostitutes and holy men, soldiers and actors, and Indians and exiles from other countries, who seek in this remarkable place what they cannot find elsewhere. As a hunted man without a home, family, or identity, Lin searches for love and meaning while running a clinic in one of the city’s poorest slums, and serving his apprenticeship in the dark arts of the Bombay mafia. The search leads him to war, prison torture, murder, and a series of enigmatic and bloody betrayals. Two people hold the keys to unlock the mysteries and intrigues that bind Lin. The first is Khader Khan: mafia godfather, criminal-philosopher-saint, and mentor to Lin in the underworld of the Golden City. The second is Karla: elusive, dangerous, and beautiful, whose passions are driven by secrets that torment her and yet give her a terrible power. Burning slums and five-star hotels, romantic love and prison agonies, criminal wars and Bollywood films, spiritual gurus and mujaheddin guerrillas―this huge novel has the world of human experience in its reach, and a passionate love for India at its heart.

PechaKucha San Antonio presents Vol. 41 at the Tobin Center

PechaKucha San Antonio Vol. 41 will take place at the Tobin Center on October 26, 2022. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

PechaKucha San Antonio – the global arts and culture series that hosts speakers who share their passions in a unique format – is excited to announce its Volume 41 to wrap up the series for 2022, coming back with two other events in 2023. The event is scheduled for Wednesday, October 26, 2022, at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts (100 Auditorium Cir, San Antonio, TX 78205). The night begins with a welcome reception at 6:30 .m., followed by presentations starting at 7:30p.m. (PechaKucha San Antonio, 2022)

Vol. 41 will feature a talented group of locals.

  • Alejandro DeHoyos, Filmmaker
  • Payton G. Kane, Extrovert (also the Emcee for the evening)
  • Mike Long, Builder 
  • Madalyn Mendoza, Reporter
  • Carlos Perez, Small Business Corridor Meme Activator
  • Laura Terrill, President & CEO
  • Bria Woods, Photojournalist

The welcome reception will feature music by local artist Juliet McConkey and complimentary bites curated by local chefs and restaurants including Naco 210 Mexican Eatery & Patio, Howdy Kuya!, Cajun con Arroz, and Sierra Diablo. The event will also feature alcoholic beverages available for purchase. Tickets are $7 in advance or $10 at the door. Advance tickets are available here. 

PechaKucha San Antonio would not be possible without the support of annual sponsors, including Centro Properties, San Antonio Food Bank, Schroeder Art, Lake Flato Architects, San Antonio River Foundation, Zurich International Properties, Southwest School of Art, RYNO General Contractors, and 500 Sixth.

In-Kind sponsors for the event include Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, Naco 210 Mexican Eatery & Patio, Howdy Kuya!, Cajun con Arroz, Sierra Diablo, Josh Huskin Photography, Libby Morris, Giant Noise, Sprocket Productions, Gary Sweeney, and Alejandro Dehoyos.

PechaKucha San Antonio is presented in partnership with the Las Casas Foundation. More information about PechaKucha is available here. 

Pronounced “PEH-chuh KOO-chuh,” PechaKucha is a 20 image x 20 second arts and cultures series. We host speakers who share their passions in a unique format: Each presenter gets exactly 20 images, and each slide advances automatically every 20 seconds (for a total time of 6:40). San Antonio’s first quarterly PechaKucha Night was held in February 2011 and now attracts hundreds of attendees to venues throughout San Antonio. It showcases a broad range of individuals, including architects, artists, makers, academics, community leaders and more. PechaKucha (Japanese for “chit chat”) is an event format developed by Tokyo’s Klein Dytham Architecture to encourage creative professionals to share projects and ideas that they are passionate about. Since it began in 2003, PechaKucha has expanded to more than 1200 cities around the world. 

Documentary film The Computer Accent opens in selected theaters nationwide

The Computer Accent opens this week nationwide. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

The Computer Accent is a documentary following the boundary-pushing pop group Yacht as they try something terrifying and new: handing over the reins of their entire creative process to Artificial Intelligence. Working with technologists and leading AI researchers, Yacht uses cutting-edge data analysis tools, machine learning, neural networks, sci-fi instruments, and generative composition strategies to create a new kind of human-machine album—music, lyrics, artwork, videos, and all. Putting AI to the test in the name of art, Yacht is a guide through the brave new world of machine intelligence. Along the way, they will question their own roles in a future where software anticipates, generates, and synthesizes human work. (The Computer Accent, 2022)

The Computer Accent opens theatrically:

October 21 – New York (Metrograph) (With Live Performance) 

November 17- San Francisco (Roxie Theater)

November 17- Los Angeles (Laemmle Theaters)
Including Laemmle Noho, Laemmle Glendale, Laemmle Newhall, Laemmle Monica. Film screenings and performances throughout October and November in major cities including Portland, Bellingham, Austin, Minneapolis, and more.

Documentary, Running time: 83 minutes, USA

Sebastian Pardo and Riel Roch-Decter founded Memory at the start of 2014 and together have produced and distributed award-winning fiction and non-fiction films. They have collaborated with multi-hyphenate filmmakers and artists to bring their debut films to fruition, such as: Celia Rowlson-Hall’s MA, Carson Mell’s Another Evil, Dean Fleischer-Camp’s Fraud, Theo Anthony’s Rat Film, Marnie Ellen Hertzler’s Crestone, and Zia Anger’s My First Film project. In 2016, Memory was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film, and in 2020 Memory was awarded the Cinereach Producing Award for their work in “shaping new ways of filmmaking.” Memory’s latest production, Theo Anthony’s All Light, Everywhere won a Special Jury Prize for Non-Fiction Experimentation at Sundance 2021. The Computer Accent, which world premiered at CPH:DOX 2022, is their debut feature film as a directing team. 

Yacht began in 2002, as the design studio Young Americans Challenging High Technology, but the group is neither young nor American. For 20 years, Jona Bechtolt, Claire L. Evans, and Robert Kieswetter have shape-shifted through multiple lineups and musical styles, releasing albums internationally on DFA Records and Downtown Records. YACHT has created and sold unplayable compact discs, published a philosophical handbook, built a 62-foot video installation for Dolby, designed an eyewear collection, created a fragrance, campaigned against NSA surveillance, programmed large- scale public art activations, and has been commissioned to speak, curate, and perform by organizations including The Getty Center, Adobe, TEDx, Wired, Moma Lacma, Rhizome, Vice, and more. Their seventh album, Chain Tripping, was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Immersive Audio Album.

Also featuring: 
Kenric Allado McDowell, founder of Artists in Machine Intelligence
Research scientists Douglas Eck, Jesse Engel, Adam Roberts of Google Magenta 
AI music experimentalists Dadabots
Algorithmic music pioneer Dr. David Cope
Creative technologist and poet Ross Goodwin 
AI art curators Luba Elliott and Josette Melchor
Creative Computing researcher Dr. Rebecca Fiebrink 

Eddy Lee Ryder’s new single Smoke and Mirrors

Eddy Lee Ryder’s new single finds a home with multiple audiences; it is featured in cult slasher film Terrifier 2, out now. Courtesy photo, used with permission.

Singer, songwriter, and free spirit Eddy Lee Ryder creates haunting songs that tell dramatic stories through a slightly warped lens. Eddy’s unconventional, theatrical approach to songwriting explodes and sparkles with ‘70s good-time rock riffs, spiced with complex poetry. Proclaimed “demented pop,” her music is propelled by her charismatic voice and lyrics inspired by an intense bizarre world. “My songs are about a quest for utopia on the open road. Wandering through the world, writing and singing songs about the people I meet.” Her uproarious performances invite audiences to dance with her through the apocalypse. Self-confessed demented-pop artist Eddy Lee Ryder has been writing songs and performing them in quite the nomadic way since she was a teenager, but her new single “Smoke and Mirrors” ended up in a place even she could not have imagined; a hardcore slasher horror film. (Eddy Lee Ryder, 2022)

Through a series of informal introductions to Ryder’s music through mutual friends, Damien Leone—creator, director, and writer of Terrifier 2—ended up using “Smoke and Mirrors” in his film after a search for something that sounded like Fleetwood Mac and Kate Bush. “It was actually my friend Jeff Harris, who also was brought into the Terrifier family as a photographer, who messaged me one morning. ‘Can you email Damien? I don’t know why but they are looking for music in your genre, I don’t know how it fits with a slasher flick but that’s what they want!’” remembers Ryder. 

The upbeat song itself has a much different backstory. “It’s about friends of mine, amazing independent awesome women, who started doubting themselves or losing themselves after getting married to men who didn’t treat them very well,” says Ryder. “One of the husbands I reference in this song would text other girls but the messages would pop up on my friend’s synced iPad. He once said, ‘Sometimes I wait for her plane to burn in flames.’ That line made it into the song. And this was coming from a guy who would judge me for not being married!”

Fans can hear “Smoke and Mirrors” here. Terrifier 2 is out in theaters and on streaming services including Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video.

Television adaptation: ‘The Peripheral’ by William Gibson

The series adaptation of ‘The Peripheral’ will be available on Amazon Prime Video starting October 21, 2022. Photo: Amazon

William Gibson is credited with having coined the term “cyberspace” and having envisioned both the Internet and virtual reality before either existed. His first novel, “Neuromancer,” won the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, and the Philip K. Dick Award. He is also the New York Times bestselling author of “Count Zero,” “Burning Chrome,” “Mona Lisa Overdrive,” “Virtual Light,” “Idoru,” “All Tomorrow’s Parties,” “Pattern Recognition,” “Spook Country,” “Zero History,” “Distrust That Particular Flavor,” “The Peripheral,” and “Agency.” “The Peripheral,” a fast-paced sci-fi thriller that takes a terrifying look into the future, has been adapted into a series and will air on Amazon Prime Video beginning on October 21, 2022. The first season consists of eight episodes and stars Chloë Grace Moretz, Gary Carr, and Jack Reynor. (Amazon, 2022)

“The Peripheral” – Flynne Fisher lives down a country road, in a rural America where jobs are scarce, unless you count illegal drug manufacture, which she is trying to avoid. Her brother Burton lives on money from the Veterans Administration, for neurological damage suffered in the Marines’ elite Haptic Recon unit. Flynne earns what she can by assembling product at the local 3D printshop. She made more as a combat scout in an online game, playing for a rich man, but she has had to let the shooter games go.

Wilf Netherton lives in London, seventy-some years later, on the far side of decades of slow-motion apocalypse. Things are pretty good now, for the haves, and there are a few have-nots left. Wilf, a high-powered publicist and celebrity-minder, fancies himself a romantic misfit, in a society where reaching into the past is just another hobby. 

Burton’s been moonlighting online, secretly working security in some game prototype, a virtual world that looks vaguely like London, but a lot weirder. He has got Flynne taking over shifts, promised her the game is not a shooter. Still, the crime she witnesses there is plenty bad. Flynne and Wilf are about to meet one another. Her world will be altered utterly, irrevocably, and Wilf’s, for all its decadence and power, will learn that some of these third-world types from the past can be badass.

Excerpt available.

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