Dragons and cyborgs

The sample excerpt of Naomi Novik's fourth book, Victory of Eagles, is up on her website. Temeraire, alone and stoic, clearly needs a hug, and perhaps a few more cave decorations. I would very much like to give him both decorations and hug. (The first draft of that passage went, "perhaps a few more cave hangings... and I would like to give him more hangings." I decided, after some thought, that the phrasing was more than a bit infelicitous. No hangings for Temeraire or anyone he knows, please.)

Meanwhile, tor.com, a science fiction and fantasy discussion site that Patrick Nielsen Hayden and his fellow publishers are setting up, is collecting addresses of possible users by offering free e-books via e-mail. Next week's e-book is Kage Baker's In the Garden of Iden, the first book in Baker's gorgeous cyborgs-in-history Company series. If you'd like to see what Baker does with the Inquisition, Anabaptist heresy, pitch-perfect Tudor dialect, and some overeducated cyborgs, go sign up and Tor will send you a copy.

I'm about to post another locked entry, updating you all on the (excellent) state of my life at present. If you'd like to read it and you can't, leave a comment here.