New Mexico was really lovely. Taos is a world away from the hustle and bustle of New York City, and it was a lovely place to spend Christmas. And yes, Santa found us just fine. Dude probably invented GPS. Tonight I’m in Flagstaff, Arizona, preparing to venture to this canyon thing they got up in these parts. They say it’s a “grand” canyon, but it’d have to be one impressive ditch to earn that name. We’ll see.
I did see a meteor crater though, and that was pretty grand in and of itself:
Meantime, while the family and I have been exploring the Southwest, I’ve seen a few cool book-related tidbits I wanted to share. So here we go:
I saw a really nice review of The Daedalus Incident today on the 50 Book Challenge blog, in which was written:
The Daedalus Incident is just plain fun. It mixes scifi with magic. The characters are fantastic. Lt. Jain is a tough cookie, using her wits to survive the improbable on Mars. Lt. Weatherby is definitely easier to relate to within his own perspective, because as a man of his time period, he certainly has particular ideas about the roles of women. That was okay by me, because he felt true to his time period. It was also a delight to see other historical figures such as Benjamin Franklin. I love a good alt history, and dropping the Revolutionary War into deep space is something I have not seen done before. I really enjoyed both parts of the book for very different reasons, and I’m impressed at how Martinez spaced out the events and tension.
That’s awesome, especially since the reviewer got one of the (thankfully rare) first-printing copies with pages missing. Sorry about that. She also mentioned wanting to nominate Daedalus for awards, which I wholly support. Perhaps there’s a “best SF/F with printing errors” Hugo or something. (Seriously, though, it’s really quite kind and very much appreciated.)
Reviewer Abhinav Jain, he of The Founding Fields and Shadowhawk’s Shade, called The Daedalus Incident one of the best debuts of 2013. He also named the upcoming sequel, The Enceladus Crisis, one of his most anticipated books of 2014. “Shadowhawk” was one of the first reviewers to notice Daedalus when it came out, and I definitely appreciate the support.
In addition, the Qwillery makes mention of The Enceladus Crisis in the blog’s “What’s up for the Debut Author Challenge authors in 2014” roundup. The Qwillery’s focus on debut authors is awesome; I know it helped get the word out on Daedalus, which was greatly appreciated.
And finally, for those not following me on Twitter, I’ll leave you with an image of the World’s Largest Kokopelli. Naturally, I spelled the dude’s name wrong in the tweet.
#SFWApro
, 
Michael J. Martinez 