Lord of Fate Labor Day Limited Offer

Brian: “Tbh, I’ll be impressed if anyone finishes all of these in four days.”
Me in Anakin Skywalker voice: “You underestimate my power!”

I’ve backed the project on Kickstarter with the Labor Day special for two reasons. One reason is that I’ve read most of the Soul Cycle books, and I’m obviously interested in having this new Arkwright Cycle and your good work in general continued. If I want more good art from skilled artists in the world, I have to fund it somehow, because basic economics will tell us all there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

Notice that I said “most” though. I’ve never read Ophian Rising or The Burned Book yet, and that leads into the second reason I’ve backed the project: to acquire copies of the ebook format free from DRM malware or tracking built-in to the ebook file, which I can actually use on my devices.

Let me explain: my desktop and laptop run Fedora Linux, and my phone runs GrapheneOS. Neither are supported by Amazon’s official Kindle software and apps, which are the only approved way to download and read ebooks bought on Amazon. Since you doesn’t offer your ebooks outside of Amazon except for time-limited crowdfunding campaigns, this means that before today I had an ugly choice if I wanted to read your ebooks. Either I had to (1) not read them at all and thus obviously not buy them, (2) use operating systems and software I consider inferior and unsuitable because of who they are provided by and how they are provided, or (3) acquire unauthorized copies via “unorthodox” free sources, which comes with the caveat that it doesn’t help support you or contribute to getting more of the good writing I am seeking (making it a short-term, dead-end “solution”).

If you guessed that I’ve already read the first three Soul Cycle books by using option 3, well, uh, I can neither confirm nor deny. And the reason I never read Ophian Rising or The Burned Book until now is simply because those ebooks have yet to appear on those unorthodox sources. And if I want to read the Combat Frame Xseed series, yep, you guessed it; I’m back to those same ugly choices unless you run a crowdfunding campaign for a new entry in that series. And I think you ended that series, so most likely I’m just forever left out at this point.

If you’re asking why I’m being so stubborn about using niche and open-source operating systems instead of using Windows, normal Android, or Apple like everyone else, that reason is simple: “Don’t Give Money to People Who Hate You.” Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Apple, Netflix, etc…all of these “big tech” corporations (which at the end of the day are just a particular group of people) have some combination of immorality, technological stagnation and incompetence, and corporate culture of hostility to Christ (all of which I strongly suspect you would largely agree with me on). For over 20 years, their actions have demonstrated time and again that on the majority, they care more about pleasing the demands of the State, oldpub, Hollywood, record labels, etc more than us. That’s true whether someone is a Christian, an average middle-class customer, or an average computer user. And some of us computer nerds are old enough to remember when computers weren’t by and large the trojan tools of faceless Silicon Valley oligarchs in league with the decrepit gatekeepers of culture who wish to dominate culture.

So, a sincere plea from someone who is trying to recover and build a new and better computing culture and tech just like you’re here building a better literature/art and entertainment culture: offer a way to give you money for your ebooks, DRM-free and independent of some requirement for specific operating systems or software unlike Amazon. Help people like me be able to participate with your art more easily so we can help you achieve literary world dominance. I’m not going to make ridiculous claims that you’ll experience a windfall in customers or sales outside of Amazon in the near future barring some incredible unforeseen change of matters, but I can say that if you do, you’ll never have to worry about being the victim of an Amazon Kindle algorithm or ban. Being the computer nerd friend of an aspiring author (who is the person that introduced me to the existence of your books), I’ve put some theoretical thought into the tech aspect of selling ebooks in an environment that is and can be more unfriendly to Christian authors. And, at the very least, I hope I’ve demonstrated that I put my money where my mouth is.

TL;DR: I want to throw (more) money at you, but Jeff Bezos hates my independent computers.