Pat's Fantasy Hotlist WILDCARDS books giveaway

Pat's Fantasy Hotlist is giving away five sets of the first two volumes of the latest Wild Cards trilogy, in advance of the release of SUICIDE KINGS, the third volume, on the 22nd of this month.

The first volume, INSIDE STRAIGHT, starts up the triad with a set of stories about "American Hero" -- a reality show featuring a new crew of aces, though things rapidly go awry in the real world outside the show, and Our Heroes must deal with true sacrifice and death.

In BUSTED FLUSH, the second volume, Our Heroes have created a Committee sanctioned by U.N. to deal with crises around the world -- and they do, in three separate locations, and they must deal with their own internal conflicts as well.

Both INSIDE STRAIGHT and BUSTED FLUSH are 'threaded novels' -- individual stories held together by the 'mortar' of an interstitial story that contains the main narrative and thematic thread. SUICIDE KINGS will be -- as all the final books of the various WIld Cards triads have been -- a "full mosaic novel", with each writer writing scenes from the viewpoint of their character, and the entire narrative presented as one piece. Full mosaic novels require an incredible amount of work and cooperation between the writers (and lots of drafting and rewriting), and an incredible amount of work on the part of the editors (George RR Martin, with the able assistance of Melinda Snodgrass) to make certain that everything is consistent and flows naturally from one scene to the next.

But it's all worth it... as you'll see when SUICIDE KINGS comes out. In the meantime, here's a chance to get FREE copies of the first two volumes, so you're all prepared. Go enter Pat's contest, and I hope you win!

First Impressions on the Afghanistan Speech

I wish Obama had been president in 2001 when we first entered into the war with Afghanistan. He gives us objectives and goals, with a timeline for accomplishment, and a (somewhat murky) definition of what 'victory' would look like. He ties in the global situation and the need to ensure the cooperation of Pakistan so that their country can't be used as a refuge. He doesn't confuse al-Qaeda with the Taliban, but understands that they're two different organizations.

Too bad Obama wasn't Commander-in-Chief back then. We might already be out of Afghanistan, and 'Taliban' might be a term for history lessons. If we'd done then what Obama is proposing to do now, if we hadn't been lied into invading Iraq rather than focusing on Afghanistan, things might be different.

But... I don't agree with this decision. As Obama has said in the past, you can't successfully pursue a war in the USA without the backing of the American people, and too many people are already against this. Nor do I think that the goals that he wants to achieve are possible without far more troops than he's sending in, and far more money that anyone is willing to spend with an economy that's already reeling. He won't have the support of the Republicans -- they've already made that abundantly clear -- nor will he have support from many Democrats.

I think this is a mistake. I hope that I'm wrong. I hope that this doesn't lead into the quagmire and the further loss of American lives for very little. But I don't support this.

I'm not convinced, Mr. President.