Real Life Fantasy: Black FIRE!

You ever notice that fire doesn’t cast a shadow? I mean, it seems obvious that a light source wouldn’t specifically have its own shadow, right?

Well, guess what?

This guy at The Action Lab shows you how to reveal the true nature of that fickle plasma. Yeah, we see you, fire–and your charred, malevolent heart. Fire can, in fact, absorb certain wavelengths of light (under the right conditions).

Without further ado:

Kinda makes me wonder if

Show Spoilers

lightsickness (especially after drafting black) is due to a lack of electrolytes. Like, here, Gavin, drink some of this Gatorade and everything will be A-OK, you devil.

Posted on in Real Life Fantasy

Throwback Thursday: Night Angel Edition VIII

Here it is, folks: our last look back at NIGHT ANGEL in its nascence.

Now we move on to THE BURNING WHITE.

I’m currently standing RIGHT NEXT next to Brent, staring him down while he tries to type, muttering something about the meaninglessness of life in a soft monotone, in kind of a homage to Persona/Animaniacs. 

Since I’m 5’2″, I’m also standing on a box of copies of THE BLACK PRISM.

Uh-oh.

*runs for her life*

Posted on in Midcyru, Throwback Thursday

Fan Art Tuesday: Paul Reinwand

Hi friends!

We’ve been talking about Night Angel quite a bit lately, but now that the 10th Anniversary omnibus is out, it’s time to switch back to Lightbringer!

Check out this fantastic (and creepy!) depiction of The Color Prince by Paul Reinwand. We’ve been hanging onto this one for a while, and I’m pretty sure he drew it a while before we found it. But here he is, in all his burned glory:

A man's burned head with pieces of blue, red, yellow, and superviolet luxin infused in the scars

You can find more of Paul’s spectacular work online at his website, Instagram, and Twitter.

Posted on in Art

Deal on the Night Angel Omnibus at The Signed Page

Hello fellow Night Angel enthusiasts!

I see you.

Yeah, YOU.

You’re laying on your couch, still in your jammies. A plate of leftovers is on the end table next to you. Uncle Fred is visiting, and he has taken over the recliner and the remote, and is shouting at the television while college students run around on a field tossing a ball to each other. Your Grandma is in the kitchen, talking Mom’s ear off, micromanaging her baking and blasting Mannheim Steamroller. You’re lurking on Reddit and sipping a hot toddie.

You opted out of Black Friday, in a silent protest of conspicuous consumption.

You’re so smart, friend.

You’re also cursing a bit of bad luck you’ve run into, where you missed out on a chance to buy a signed copy of the Astonishing, Spectacular, Resplendent, Death-Defying, Super Special, Blacker-Than-Black, 10th Anniversary Hardcover Night Angel Omnibus.

YOUR LUCK HAS TURNED, YOU LITTLE DICKENS!

The Signed Page is having a weekend sale on signed copies of the omnibus–Friday through Monday. The guys over at The Signed Page package every order with care, ensuring your book arrives in pristine condition. Quantities are limited, so jump on this deal while you can!

Also, a little heads up: Brent is facing the Mother of All Deadlines in the next two weeks, so you’ll have to put up with me here on the website for a bit. Once he has cleared that hurdle, we have some fun things to share with everyone.

Posted on in Bargains, Midcyru

Real Life Fantasy: Physicists Are Drafters!

The first ever photograph of light as both a particle and a wave

Light, or visible electromagnetic radiation, is a fascinating and tricksy type of energy (not as tricksy as dark matter, but that’s another story and shall be told another time). It exists as photons (a type of particle) that resonates in a wide range of frequencies–which is why it is sometimes referred to as both a particle and a wave. While direction, wavelength, and polarity can very greatly (and in turn have a host of effects on life on Earth), its speed is constant, and the fastest in the known universe.

If you’ve read Lightbringer, some of this will at least sound familiar. Likewise, you’ll remember that the magic system in Lightbringer is light-based, wherein drafters can turn light into matter–specifically, a wondrous, spectacular substance called luxin.

But it’s all fantasy, right? Mined from the deep well of curiosity in Brent’s cerebrum?

Well, as it turns out….

Experiments Underway to Turn Light Into Matter

I always thought physicists were the most badass among scientists.

The theory that drives these experiments is the Breit-Wheeler process. It’s not new; Gregory Breit and John A. Wheeler devised the theory in 1934. It’s kind of a riff on what is arguably the most famous (and perhaps famously misunderstood by the general population) equation discovered by the big guy himself, Einstein: E=mc². From the article: “The theory of the Breit-Wheeler process says it should be possible to turn light into matter by smashing two particles of light (photons) together to create an electron and a positron.”

So it’s not exactly sucking light in through your eyes and propelling solid matter out of your body. But a journey of 1,000 miles and all.

Further reading:

The first model for capturing and condensing light under realistic conditions

New particle might make quantum condensation at room temperature possible

 

Posted on in Real Life Fantasy

The 10th Anniversary Night Angel Hardcover Omnibus

INT. OFFICE – DAY

DPC: Hey, Jefe?

JEFE: (typing intently, not looking away from computer screen) Yeah.

DPC: The omnibus.

JEFE: What about it?

DPC: (beat) It comes out tomorrow.

JEFE: (blinks at DPC, because this is terribly obvious) I know that, CAPS.

DPC: Ten years!

JEFE: Yep.

DPC: (imitating Jeremy Piven in Grosse Pointe Blank) TEN YEARS! TEN!

JEFE: Uh-huh.

(DPC slumps at her desk, scrolls through BRENT WEEKS website)

DPC: We’ve been talking about it a LOT. Like, A LOT A LOT. For months.

JEFE: Your profundity knows no bounds, CAPSLOCK.

DPC: So, um, I just realized something.

(JEFE stops typing and sighs.)

DPC: Like two weeks ago I scheduled a post to go live, thinking we would say, you know, OMG THE NAT OMNI IS HERE Y’ALL IT’S RAINING CONFETTI IN THE STREETS AAAHHHH (CAPSLOCK shakes her head and waggles her arms in a pitiful imitation of Kermit the Frog).

JEFE: I mean, that’s one way to go.

DPC: And then we opened the webstore.

JEFE: I remember… Listen, are you going somewhere with this? Because I have characters to kill off, here.  (gestures to his computer screen)

DPC: I got really busy, Jefe.

(JEFE raises an eyebrow and stares at CAPSLOCK for a moment.)

DPC: Soooooo busy.

JEFE: There’s no post, is there?

DPC: There’s a post! There’s TOTALLY a post! (beat) There’s just… no words in the post.

JEFE: Just write the post, CAPS. (JEFE mutters something about why he pays for an assistant)

[scene]

HAPPY BOOK RELEASE DAY, EVERYBODY!

We’ve waited TEN YEARS (and two months) for this beauty to be unleashed upon the world, and it’s here! Check your mailboxes today for that pre-ordered copy printed and bound just for you!

Wait, what?

You didn’t pre-order a copy?

Shame on you.

Go buy one now!

The Signed Page

Amazon

Books-A-Million

Indiebound

Powell’s Books

Barnes & Noble

 

Posted on in Midcyru, Release Dates

BattleWorn Books 2018 Winners

The time has come!

We are about 15 HOURS away from the official release (in the US; UK fans have ~32 hours… And I suppose if you live in a different time zone in the US, 12-14 hours. You get the idea) of the Astonishing, Spectacular, Resplendent, Death-Defying, Super Special, Blacker-Than-Black, 10th Anniversary Hardcover Night Angel Omnibus. *cue [REDACTED] music* (that we didn’t license)

The entries have been examined, contemplated, and discussed. You all have sent your beleaguered books into battle, and not all of them have returned from the fray. They have been well-loved and well read. They have been covered in blood, sweat, and tears (literally, as you’ll see).

Fans the world over have been anxiously anticipating this moment.

Drum roll, please!

 

The five runners-up are below, in no particular order–

Kevin Jones, who posted on Twitter:

“My copies of the Night Angel Trilogy were bought used at my local bookstore and through many rereads and their eventual passing down to my oldest daughter they’ve been through a lot.

Tried to depict Kylar with some of the ka’kari.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jared Stonecypher, who emailed us:

“I wanted to introduce some friends to the Lightbringer Series and Night Angel Trilogy. My Night Angel omnibus made it home safely, but my Black Prism hardback was far from unscathed when it came home. Their dog is a huge bookworm I guess!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blayne McGuire, who posted on Facebook:

Here is my #BattleWornBooks story for the last book in the Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks. This book has survived at least 7 moves, 1 rainstorm in a car with open windows when I was carrying it around while reading it, being loaned out once, and generally being abused during the 5+ times I’ve personally read it while owning it. The 2nd novel gets an honorable mention since it is MIA after being loaned out to an old coworker. So now I just have the 1st and 3rd of the series.

 

 

 

 

 

Aereal McQu, who posted on Facebook:

When your dog gets a hold of book 2 and 3, you only buy a new Shadow’s Edge because you’ve memorized the destroyed bits of Beyond the Shadows.
#BattleWornBooks

 

 

 

 

 

Daryl Duda, who emailed us:

In 2015, 2 friends and myself quit our jobs to set out into the Canadian wilderness to do some survival camping with nothing but around 70 lbs of “things we would take into the apocalypse”.  The only reading material we had were the Night Angel series, and we continually speed read the hell out of them nightly in our hammocks; almost in a competition to finish whichever book you had first so you could berate the guy who had the following novel to hurry the hell up.  There were never more than 2 days between finishes as we were hungry for our entertainment. Not sure to this day what happened to book 1 and I contrasted the old with the new.

 

P.S.  The paperbacks also make a pretty decent pillow if you’re wrapped up tight in a hammock…

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now, the Grand Prize Winner of the 2018 BattleWorn Books Contest:

 

Kellie Speedy, whose book was in a car crash!

A few years ago, I let a good friend borrow a series of books that I love. Not the Wheel of Time, but instead The Night Angel by Brent Weeks. The weekend after I lent the books, he and his girlfriend were in a horrific accident that thankfully both survived. But my books did not. This is my entry to #BattleWornBooks.

(Kellie also mentioned that her friends are both doing spectacularly well, and are expecting their second child in a few months. I have some name ideas, if you’re interested…)

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you all for your fantastic, creative entries this year. I couldn’t ask for a better group of fans!

Posted on in Contests, Giveaways, Midcyru