Skip to content →

Tag: books

moonbase: 25mar26

Published March 25, 2026 by Warren Ellis

I noticed yesterday that NASA announced “President Trump’s Moon Base” will be commenced before the end of 2028, therefore the end of the President’s term. Given that the delayed Artemis 2 mission is a lunar flyby and Artemis 3 was reconfigured from a lunar landing to a low earth orbit test of new spacesuits and the dock/undock of a lander – and note that Apollo did those missions the other way around, Apollo 7 crew-rated the boat and lander configuration in LEO, Apollo 8 was the lunar flyby – this may get a little scary/deathy. Twenty-five launches between now and the end of 2028, ten lunar launches next year alone, is a hell of a swing.

I took this ten minutes before the HAIL started.

Absolutely dismal day out there, with a “feels like” of -4 C and 40mph winds. The mancub has made it clear that he blames me – he hates the wind, and is punishing me for taking the sun away. For some reason, he made the very specific decision, not long after we got him, that the weather is always my fault.

Accessions:

OPERATION PAPERCLIP: NAZI SCIENTISTS IN AMERICA, Annie Jacobsen (UK) (US+)

BIOLOGICAL WAR: A SCENARIO, Annie Jacobsen (UK) (US+) – PRE-ORDER

OPERATIONS: Zoom call later, and I need to ship out eight pages, review some story documents and get 500 words down on another thing, as well as start Sunday’s newsletter.
STATUS: 7hrs sleep.
READING: NETTLES AND PETALS, Jamie Walton (UK) (US+), which I got given for Xmas and I’m opening now because food growing season has begun. THE VISIONARIES, Wolfram Eilenberger (UK) (US+), re-reading REALITY HUNGER, David Shields (UK) (US+)

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.

Comments closed

sky opens up: 14mar26

Published March 14, 2026 by Warren Ellis

I need to get clearing up and planting in the garden, but there’s still too much to do in the office.

So coders who use AI heavily are having their brains fried, apparently. Meta’s next AI environment doesn’t work properly – apparently X’s Grok is going to need to be rebuilt from the ground up too – but Meta still plans to lay off 20% of its staff precisely because one coder who’s all in on Claude can do the work of ten coders – and get their brains fried.

Last night I read WRITING, Marguerite Duras (UK) (US+) cover to cover: the author was clearly mad as snakes by the time she wrote it, but she was still brilliant and the main section of the book is jaggedly true and coldly luminous.

A writer is an odd thing. He’s a contradiction, and he makes no sense. Writing also means not speaking. Keeping silent. Screaming without sound. A writer is often quite restful; she listens a lot. She doesn’t speak much because it’s impossible to speak to someone about a book one has written, and especially about a book one is writing. It’s impossible. It’s the opposite of the cinema, the theater, and other performances. It’s the opposite of any kind of reading. It’s the hardest of all. It’s the worst. Because a book is the unknown, it’s night, it’s closed off, and that’s that.

Accessions:

Madeline Cash’s LOST LAMBS was on Kindle sale for 99p. I also read this interview with her, where she talked about wanting to write a systems/maximalist novel, which is a form I’ve been thinking about on and off of late. It’s gotten a lot of press, so I thought I’d give it a go.

LOST LAMBS, Madeline Cash (UK) (US+)

STATUS: moving more music to SD cards, to power the non-networked digital audio player.

READING: THE BOOK OF COMMENTARY / UNQUIET GARDEN OF THE SOUL, Alexander Kluge (UK) (US+)

For me, reading and writing mean COLLECTING. That remains true even today. It stands in contrast to the postulate that an author creates what they write from within themselves. Following the author’s inner voice, I write sentences that come from me. What truly inflames me, however, is my discovery of THE ALREADY SAID. Amazing finds. For me, what I think inside would be too ‘repetitive’.


LISTENING: Dream Time: All Queens Day – Celebrating Alice Coltrane

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.

Comments closed

ghost of a useful computer: 13mar26

Published March 13, 2026 by Warren Ellis

Leipzig, Germany-based artist Alexander Endrullat has traded traditional Intaglio printing plates for discarded laptops. His ongoing series titled Off the Grid emerged from a familiar yet annoying scenario: owning an older device that can no longer be updated, rendering it practically unusable. Endrullat’s frustration led him to a moment of impulsivity as he pushed his device through a printing press, coincidentally discovering the distinctive technique.

I’m fascinated by the Eleusinian Mysteries, and have followed for years various theories about what was in the drink that was consumed there. Ergot has often been floated as the active ingredient, but ergotism fucks people up and can easily be fatal:

The Eleusinian Mysteries were secret religious rites in ancient Greece honoring the goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone, and aimed to remove the fear of death. The ceremonies included days of fasting, rituals and the drinking of kykeon, a concoction associated with profound mystical experiences.

While written records list ingredients such as barley, mint and water, some scholars have proposed that the potion also contained hallucinogenic substances derived from ergot (Claviceps purpurea). Now, scientists have new experimental evidence that priestesses may have used this highly toxic fungus to create psychedelic hallucinations.

Briefly opened IG and decided that’s a bad idea. If IG is a drug, it’s a crap one. Rediscovering following the brush to some extent. From the Kluge book I’m currently reading:

Commentaries are not linear narratives. They work vertically. They are mines, catacombs. The working form of commentary is closer to the idea of collecting than to that of shaping. Closer to the poetics of the Brothers Grimm than the dramatic or novelistic form. Putting this particular form of narration to the test excites me.

Not least respect for the principle of FRAGMENTATION, respect for the particular and for the individual (and its defence against the merely generally available), speaks for attempting something like this over and over. Observing our ‘torn reality’ grants permission to the incomplete message.

To keep up with the algorithmic behemoths of the Big Five in Silicon Valley, any modest means will do.

A combat-unit commander told non-commissioned officers at a briefing Monday that the Iran war is part of God’s plan and that Pres. Donald Trump was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth,” according to a complaint by a non-commissioned officer.

From Saturday morning through Monday night, more than 110 similar complaints about commanders in every branch of the military had been logged by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF).

The complaints came from more than 40 different units spread across at least 30 military installations, the MRFF told me Monday night.

Accessions:

This has been sitting in my wishlist for a while, and last night I decided to pull the trigger, because sometimes you’re just in the mood for a great writer writing about writing.

WRITING, Marguerite Duras (UK) (US+)

OPERATIONS: across several things today
STATUS: Today’s watch is the Dan Henry, which is a strong signal that I’m going to be pretty disconnected
READING: THE BOOK OF COMMENTARY / UNQUIET GARDEN OF THE SOUL, Alexander Kluge (UK) (US+)
LISTENING: great episode of Night Tracks

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.

Comments closed

sleep warm: 27feb26

Published February 27, 2026 by Warren Ellis

Mary Maka

It was 15C yesterday and 17C the day before that. My winter clothes hang unloved. I’m in a thin viscose base layer and a chambray snap-front in grey like it’s May.

TODAY:

New Stephen O’Malley record, not on CD ffs:

PREVIOUSLY:

New Jolanda Moletta record announced, also not on CD ffs:

PREVIOUSLY:

Accessions:

It was on sale for 99p, not certain how current it is but Jacobsen is a good writer.

PHENOMENA: US GOVERNMENT INVESTIGATIONS INTO ESP AND PSYCHOKINESIS, Annie Jacobsen (UK) (US+)

Previously: NUCLEAR WAR: A SCENARIO, Annie Jacobsen

OPERATIONS: scripting, newsletter, processed an option offer
STATUS: Frazzled by schedule but generally pretty good. Really wanted to move the office to the deli today but I have too much typing to do. Printing off visa shit for herself, for the grand trip I’m sending her on for her birthday. Inbox 116.
READING: THE BIG THREE: SOCRATES, PLATO, ARISTOTLE, Neel Burton (UK) (US+) and THE VISIONARIES, Wolfram Eilenberger (UK) (US+)

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.

Comments closed

rewarded by a return to the earth: 22feb26

Published February 22, 2026 by Warren Ellis

Sky Hopinka

Yesterday I reduced a viburnum by half, hacked back salvia and holly, raked a bed, dug a trench in it, mixed a hundred litres of compost into the trench, and planted three cherry trees. Today I am actually less achy and knackered than I expected, especially bearing in mind that I still have this plague in my system. Once I have some charge in my phone, I’m going to check the weather and see if I’m going to have the space to plant some apple trees today.

Today it’s the Swatch Metropolis, yesterday it was the G-Shock G-Rescue because it was a day of working with saws and chainsaws and other implements of destruction.

New newsletter is out.

And my fourth leather notebook cover arrived, so now I have a system that can contain everything I’m working on with space to accommodate more.

TODAY:

“Kiyoshi Awazu［KIYOSHI AWAZU SCPAP BOOK］.published by Tabata Shobo.1970.”

Accessions: The complete works of Plato


READING: THE BIG THREE: SOCRATES, PLATO, ARISTOTLE, Neel Burton (UK) (US+)

When asked why he had made death the penalty for most offences, Draco replied that he considered the lesser offences to deserve it and had no harsher punishment for the greater ones.


LISTENING: Monument Podcast (MNMT 506 : Síoda Rua) – listened to a lot of it yesterday while working in the garden and it’s an amazing mix

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.

Comments closed

fish weather: 15feb26

Published February 15, 2026 by Warren Ellis

Hieu Chau

It is pissing down outside and the garden, waterlogged by weeks of rain, is starting to flood. I still have to plant and re-plant dormant trees and am fast running out of time.

I decided to get the Substack app and poke around in it last night, and fuck me did I underestimate the number of newsletters out there right now. It seems to me to be roughly equivalent of those days when most people seemed to be on blogspot. I’m going to need to delete that app immediately, because I was reading on my phone for three or four hours.

And it was on one of those newsletters that I discovered that Maya Deren wrote a short book on filmmaking. And there’s a PDF linked at the bottom of that page.

OPERATIONS: finishing touches on a script, then rewrite the newsletter template
STATUS: rrrreally just want to curl up somewhere with a book for ten hours
READING: Picked up a sample of BLANK SPACE by W David Marx

Related:

If artists can only make art while standing in the middle of the town square, you’re going to get more boring art.

https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/book-review-blank-space

That feels flat-out brilliant.

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.

Comments closed

reaching into fog: 13feb26

Published February 13, 2026 by Warren Ellis

Emi Mizukami

Yesterday I wrote my newsletter and then the Beehiiv editor deleted half of it, never to be seen again, which will teach me to write directly into a web page. Everything is so fucking broken these days that even writing into a web-based word processor is like reaching into fog and fooling yourself that there’s something solid in there.

I’m not on Bluesky, I glance at X once in a blue moon, I never bothered with Threads and I can go days without even thinking about IG, but this piece by Sean Bonner made me wonder what the hell is going on out there in the fog:

…a lot of conversations on BlueSky are still about how they aren’t using X. This is a pretty common thing in the beginning of any social site, but I admit I was surprised that this far long that’s still such a common theme there. And it isn’t just X, but posting about not using a whole collection of other apps and services, and also guilting/shaming others for using any of those apps and services. People are even making block lists (more on that next) of people who use other services.

Yesterday evening I made blood orange mimosas.

TODAY:

We are living in a time of great change and great boredom and at the intersection of chaotic change and mind-numbing boredom lies insanity.

I really need to get around to buying a full subscription to 8ball one of these days.

I got given a digital copy of this and am looking forward immensely:

OPERATIONS: really need to crack a broken ten-page section of script today
STATUS: 💀💀💀
READING: THE QUEEN’S AGENT: FRANCIS WALSINGHAM AT THE COURT OF ELIZABETH I (UK) (US+)
LISTENING:


THINKING ABOUT: adding to the notebook system. Also the systems novel.

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.

Comments closed

melt: 7feb26

Published February 7, 2026 by Warren Ellis

Ragnar Axelsson

Day… 9? 10? 35? Of this appalling plague. Managed to summon the energy this morning to do the newsletter, and that’s tapped me out.

TODAY:

You know what? That on its own has convinced me to turn the internet off, open a bottle of Fraoch and read a book.

Accessions:

I read a sample of this last year, and yesterday I got a ping to tell me it was on sale. Fits right into winter reading.

THE GANG OF THREE: SOCRATES, PLATO, ARISTOTLE, Neel Burton (UK) (US+)

READING: THE ART OF WAR, Sun Tzu (UK) (US+)
LISTENING:

LAST WATCHED: lots and lots of news

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.

Comments closed

Orbits: 28jan26

Published January 28, 2026 by Warren Ellis

Hugo Canoilas

I’ve been reading newsletters. Lots of different kinds. I did that awful thing last night where I disappeared into my phone for four hours, just reading and studying and appraising. I’ve been having to rejig my own newsletter a bit this month, due to a dose of Best Laid Plans being laughed at by the universe. Because the universe is mostly dark matter.

I have a feeling I’ve seen a few people comment that there is more writing out in the world than at any time in human history. And, of course, print literature now has to jostle for money with paid Substacks and the like, just as broadcast TV now has to wrestle with streamers for every eyeball. Lots of launches, lots of decaying orbits. Space is weird right now and I’m wondering what it looks like and what’s next.

TODAY:

I did a show about dark matter once and all that still fascinates me.

Accessions:

I have a feeling I briefly met Aleks Krotoski in Brighton once, when having coffee with Ben Hammersley? Anyway, this book seems to tie into some work I’m doing right now (which I am dreadfully late on).

What was once a wild west of experimentation has wormed its way into Washington’s corridors of power. Award-winning broadcaster and academic Aleks Krotoski journeys from cult fringes to the heartlands of government to meet the moguls, effective altruists, geroscientists and entrepreneurs who are disrupting death. Along the way she encounters radical life extensionists transfusing their teenage son’s blood, transhumanists who want to upload consciousness to the cloud, biohackers flogging AI-powered wellness apps and billionaire kingmakers building brand-new nations.

THE IMMORTALISTS: THE DEATH OF DEATH AND THE RACE FOR ETERNAL LIFE, Aleks Krotoski (UK) (US+)

OPERATIONS: yesterday was a clusterfuck so today I am all in until midnight
STATUS: I am well aware that I am behind on a hundred emails
READING: SPIES: THE EPIC INTELLIGENCE WAR BETWEEN EAST AND WEST, Calder Walton (UK) (US+)
LISTENING:

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.

Comments closed

20jan26

Published January 20, 2026 by Warren Ellis

I found a weird little object online – a USB reader for floppy discs. I still have a few boxes of floppy discs from way back when that I didn’t throw out. There’s a fair chance they’re all as corrupted and rotted as shit now, but I picked up said weird little object and I’m going to see if any of those disks are recoverable. Chances are they have a lot of old Marvel, DC and Wildstorm stuff on, and while it’s not crucial to have copies of those old scripts, and they would be painful to look at, I feel like it would be kind of nice to possess them again. I’ve had so many hard drive and storage issues over the years, so many lost scripts and documents and emails, that I’ve gotten used to considering it all volatile and ephemeral and have learned not to be upset at losing things and to let go of things. To be able to recover just a handful of old pieces would have its pleasures.

In retrospect, I should have printed off literally everything and gotten filing cabinets and, I dunno, a full library system or a zettelkasten index or something, and stayed analogue. I have this memory of a bit in the old MAX HEADROOM show where Blank Reg tries to sell a cyberpunk kid a book on the grounds that it’s a “non-volatile storage medium.” Oh, bugger me, the clip’s on YouTube-

TODAY:

Accessions:

CUTS BOTH WAYS, Ed James (UK) (US+)

The 9th Rob Marshall book. I have a great fondness for these less than cosy Scottish crime novels. This one seems to be in the nature of a put pilot for a new series, so it’s probably not the one to start with.

OPERATIONS: script, foreword, prose series development, outline, newsletter
STATUS: what is this outside world you speak of
READING: SPIES: THE EPIC INTELLIGENCE WAR BETWEEN EAST AND WEST, Calder Walton (UK) (US+)
LISTENING: Night Tracks
LAST WATCHED: GERHARD RICHTER PAINTING

MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.

Comments closed