What I’m Playing: Ant Smasher (iOS)

People buy crap for their kids. I mean that both ways. Ant Smasher is a stupid game pointed squarely at children. No, scratch that. It is an app with game-like features aimed directly at impatient parents’ wallets.

Ants cross the screen at varying speeds and you tap them to squash them. Bees are scattered in, and your game ends if you squash those. That’s fine. That even sounds like a game.

But the programmers apparently heard that lots of gamers call EA the least ethical company in gaming and decided that was a challenge.

In a game for children, they made the menus deliberately confusing, and the only reason I could guess is that it must be in order to coerce parents to pay for kid modes. To start the app there are six buttons. Okay, fine, you gotta have a menu. You can teach your kid to press the Big Red “Play Button”. They do. An ad plays. (If they touch the ad, it opens a download of some other game.) Ugh. Okay, fine. You gotta generate revenue somehow. Daddy can tap through the ad for you.

But do you now play? No. Now, you’re confronted with more buttons. “Baby”? Locked. “Kids”? Locked.  “Fun”? I thought this was all supposed to be fun? Okay, that’s locked too. Uh… maybe I went to the wrong screen. I should back out to the menu again… Press menu? An ad plays. Again. No, your child needs to press the blue button in order to play.

Oh, they died because they missed two whole ants? (C’mon, dad, you didn’t buy Baby mode?) Okay, well, they can just play again. Kids don’t really mind dying in video games. Now they need to press yet a differently colored button (out of six choices). This time they’re looking for the light green button.

Those other game modes I’m complaining about? I should drop a buck or two to support game development, right? Yeah. Each one is $10. Ten dollars.

But there was “SPECIAL PROMOTION! $1 TO DISABLE ADS!” I finally knuckled under (it was a bad parenting day), and I decided to do this. Button pops up: “Approve $4.99?” Huh?

Oh, dammit, I already decided to do this to gain five minutes of sanity so I can finish a conversation with my wife, fine!

And… the ads still play. Or… maybe I get 10 second ads instead of 30 second ads. Or maybe that’s only because they’ve shown me so many ads today, they’ve run out. I can’t tell. I can tell that the ads are NOT disabled.

But hey, for just another $10, I MIGHT be able to get some peace. Or not. This app is like a box of poop chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get:  Deer poop, parakeet poop, lemur poop… It’s a mystery!

Go juggle landmines, guys. I hope your piles of money bring you persistent venereal diseases and the leisure to never defile the App Store again.

Posted on in What I'm Playing

Just a Few Copies Left: Perfect Shadow (signed)

UPDATE: The Signed Page has sold out of all their regular signed copies, but the store has a few copies with minor damage available — for a discount!

Barnes & Noble has sold out of all their signed copies of Perfect Shadow, but over at The Signed Page, there are a few copies left! Go HERE to pick up yours.

Posted on in Midcyru

BIG CYBER MONDAY SALE!

15% off your entire order — TODAY (November 27) only.

What’s that you say? You haven’t yet purchased a Night Angel T-Shirt for your loved one for the holidays?


You still long for a hardcover copy of The Black Prism… signed?… with new dust jacket?

 

In case you missed it above — I’m here to help you out. Need a present for those tricky friends who “have everything?”

Not yet they don’t.

Order on Cyber Monday, get 15% off your entire order.

CLICK HERE to get  the discount automatically when you check out — or use NIGHTANGEL as your discount code when you click through to the web store.

And CLICK HERE to see some of the other great Cyber Monday (or Cyber Week!) deals from some big-name fantasy authors!

 

Posted on in Web Store

#BattleWornBooks: Winners!

Behold: some of the (many awesome) submissions we received for our #BattleWornBooks contest!

We’ve tried to include as many as possible for you all to enjoy. (Note that if you submitted more than one photo, we chose one to put up on the site here; and we may have edited your caption for length as well.)

Thanks to all who participated!

Oh… you want to know who the winners are?

The GRAND PRIZE Winner… who will receive the Subterranean Press edition (the very, very limited edition!) of Perfect Shadow… is Shadow Neconish!

Shadow edges all others by (1) having carried this book through legitimately super hard places (2) claiming to have the name “Shadow” and (3) by showing an appreciation for the fine art of leaving his readers begging for more. “Wait, what? What happened? And you came back? When? Why?”

Hi! My name is Shadow Neconish. I’ve had this book since I was 19. I went homeless a few years later. My favorite book is one of the few things I held on to. It’s been through hell and back with me. – Shadow N.


Here are the Top 5 Winners — who will each receive a Brand-New Author-Signed Set of The Night Angel Trilogy:

I have read the Night Angel Trilogy 19 times, with this particular book being at least a dozen of those. A well-loved book that’s been brought on many trips and adventures. – Daniel C.

19 times is… a lot of times. Plus, this picture is just so darn Christmas-y!

Me and my girlfriend used to sit down together and read books, it’s our little ritual. One day during such time I just pulled out a ring and bent on one knee, asking her to keep me company for the rest of my life. Thank God, she said “yes”! Can you guess which book she was reading back then? (Tip, it’s in the photo) #InLove #ToBeMarriedSoon #BeyondTheShadows #HappyEnding #BattleWornBooks – Krzysztof K.

Aw, I’m just a sucker for a love story. Right, you guys? (But, how did you not kill each other if one of you is a faster reader and had to wait at every page?)

My #battlewornbook is “The way of the Shadows”. It was the one I was reading when my family home burned down in 2010 and since it was the one closest to my bed, where the fire started, so it was pretty much unreadable. I did not get to read the series since then. – Ruben K.

To me that book looks suspicious. It’s paper… it’s paper, and yet standing there like it had nothing to do with what happened here. (But seriously, sorry. Fires suck.)

So this is my kind of entry: we won a battle with this book against fever and crabbiness and crying. Little girl on my back was sick so I put her on my back, started to read up from the book and walking in circles in the room. She got calm and fell asleep…

This one almost won Grand Prize. This is what I call Playing the Man, not the Game. I’ve been a parent, so I know how that feels. Also, well done!

Submitted by Lisabeth C.

It’s just… so darn pretty.

And here are (many) of the rest for your viewing pleasure!

Fell in love with these on the first page and have read them three times since. They’ve got through high school and work and have gotten three other people to read them as well. – Glenn D.
My books are in fairly good shape as I value them dearly, but they have traveled the country with me. I met someone on a bus in San Jose who loved your work and befriended a couple in Tucson who named their son after Kylar. – Ricky W.
My entire trilogy is battle worn, because Peter v Brett’s books keep picking fights with them. It gets messy and I have to keep splitting them up. No torn pages yet, but it’s only a matter of time! – Bronwyn P.
Got this from New York Comic Con about four or five years ago, and on its way home, it got bent right at the neck below the cowl! I’m sad it got ruined, but it also seems more fitting.​ – Russell S.
These books have been between home, college, and even once out of the country. My brother and I have each reread the Night Angel Trilogy as least once a year. – Dylan B.
Actually my book is not that batlle worn, because i always try to keep care about my loved books. My most worn book (the german version of the way of shadows) is at the moment by a friend I lent it to. Thats also the reason why its a bit worn out, because I forced all my friends to read it. – Melanie B.
A total cover buy of course. This is my favourite one because it’s the start of one of my favourite series ever. I take great care not to get my books all scruffy, but if you just could get a sniff of this book you’d realise it has ‘persona’ as I love to read it in front of a small bonfire…and the smell is notorious. – Joccelyn L.
“You’ve never read Brent Weeks!? Here, you can borrow my copies!” -Me, to all 13 of my cousins at the same time while we’re staying in a cabin without cell service or internet. – Salazar S.
Long story short: I found it left by some patient in the waiting room, took it home, forgot about it, read it, loved it, read again, then read other two books, loved them all. Now I display the whole series in the same waiting room for others to read, only in a local language. – M. K.
This book originally belonged to my brother who passed it on to me as I left for college. Although I’ve yet to finish Beyond the Shadows, this book has kept me extremely entertained and I’m eager to finish it soon. – Zachary R.
I fetched this out of the box in the garage, and I was expecting some really bad wear. But, it seems all three books are in pretty good condition considering it has come all the way from the UK to Perth, Australia(6 years ago), survived two house relocations, being in storage for over a year, not to mention the amount of shelf rearranging and dusting. I think they maybe more battle hardened than battle worn! – Aaron
#BattleWornBooks, we’ll I scored this box set second hand so who knows how many hands it passed through before coming to rest in mine. These books have endured several rereads and survived multiple earthquakes and aftershocks just since they came into my possession and yet still they’ve retained their shape, impressive I’d say!
I lend my favorite book once to my biology teacher. It came back as one of many #BattleWornBooks
#BattleWornBooks This is one of the first books I bought myself. And it has been through alot of misuse during it’s years. It was held hostage by an ex-girlfriend, for over a year. Left on a ship during rain. And it caught fire once when I reread it and brought it to close to my a forge where i worked. Still one of my most treasured books.
Submitted by Jobee C.
Submitted by Elyse R.
Submitted by Monika R. J.

 

Posted on in Contests

Web Store Re-Opening!

 

 

Merry (early) Christmas!

For a limited time only:

If you’d like to get that special someone a copy of The Black Prism (with Brent’s signature) or one of these SWEET Night Angel T-shirts, you’re once again in luck!






Today (November 7) until December 1, you can order Night Angel T-Shirts and signed first edition copies of The Black Prism (which include the new dust jacket) from our web store!

You can order any listed size t-shirt until November 20th, after which you’ll only be able to order t-shirts that are in-stock (until December 1).

This will allow us to put in a fresh order with our t-shirt vendor and (hopefully) get you the shirts in time for Christmas. (Well, at least in the U.S. Shipping times are longer outside the States!)

If you’re inside OR outside the U.S., you can order! If you don’t see your country listed, please contact Brent’s assistant at elisa_at_brentweeks_dot_com.

NOTE 1: Shipping is once-a-week due to our limited web store staff.

NOTE 2: The Black Prism is signed, not personalized, by Brent.

Posted on in Web Store

Contest: #BattleWornBooks

To celebrate the launch of Perfect Shadow in hardcover, we’re giving fans a chance to win 5 brand-new, author-signed sets of The Night Angel Trilogy. The contest is open to U.S. and international fans. One grand prize winner will receive a special signed book from Brent’s personal collection. (Hint: It’ll be one of Brent’s books, not his cherished old Calvin and Hobbes Treasury. Probably. He lies to CAPSLOCK, too.)

Via Twitter or Facebook, post a photo of your favorite, most-loved, battle-worn Night Angel book (or set of books) using the hashtag #BattleWornBooks and a line or two about how the book got that way. We’d love to see some creative scenery or settings (though no digital enhancement, please).

If you’re that one person, who brought in that super bloody book that I signed? You should totally submit that. Also, I’m never signing an actually bloody book again. I was young and foolish then.

Oh, and don’t beat up your book just to win this contest…. I mean, unless you’re going to go out and buy new copies afterward. Then you should DEFINITELY beat up your book just to win this contest.

More details.

Loot: 

1 Person will receive a signed REDACTED… Secret thing. But it’s good. Seriously. You trust me, right? All plot twists are happy plot twists in Weeks-world, right?

5 People Will Win Brand-New Author-Signed Sets of The Night Angel Trilogy.

Rules:

1. Entries may be submitted starting today until Tuesday, November 14th at 3pm Pacific Standard Time

2. Entry must include:

a) a picture of your favorite Night Angel book

b) a one or two sentence description, maybe why it looks like this, or where it’s been.

c) #BattleWornBooks

3. International entries are allowed and encouraged!

4. Some photo editing is fine:  think enhancement, not special effects.

5. You can only win once–but three books, so it’s like winning three times. Three times is enough.

6. If you email rather than post to Twitter or Facebook, the subject line of the email should read: #battlewornbooks

7. If you choose to use email, address the email to elisa at brentweeks dot com. (no spaces; and as in previous years, Brent will be selecting the winners).

8. Other: Brent will judge the photos and will select the six winners in no particular order of awesomeness. You must be 18 or older to win (younger participants are welcome, but by law I can’t give you a prize). No purchase is necessary. Odds of winning are based on the number of entries, but definitely higher if you submit. We will notify winners via Twitter, Facebook or email depending on how you submitted the photo. You must respond within 7 days, or another winner will be chosen. That would be sad. For you. They’d be happy. So maybe the net happiness would be neither increased nor decreased. We could try it out if you win.

9. Winners will be announced on Monday, November 20th.

Posted on in Contests