#version zero

[dragonkid11]

Mobile Engagement Chassis: Steel Hearts [Vers. Zero] is a Kinetic Mecha Tactics Tabletop RPG by SandroAD, where you take the role of fragile Pilots destined to control heinous war machines, all in the name of defending humanity!

[richincolor]

New Releases

It's a new week and that means new releases out this Tuesday. Check them out:

Version Zero by David Yoon

Reboot the present. Save the future. Max, a data whiz at the Facebook-like social media company Wren, has gotten a firsthand glimpse of the dark side of big tech. When he starts asking questions about what his company is doing with the data they collect, he finds himself fired…and then blackballed across all of Silicon Valley.

With time on his hands and inside knowledge about the biggest tech companies, Max and his longtime friend—and sometime crush—Akiko, decide to get even by…essentially, rebooting the internet. After all, in order to fix things, sometimes you have to break them. But when Max and Akiko join forces with a reclusive tech baron, they learn that breaking things can have unintended—and disastrous—consequences. And those consequences will ripple across the world, effecting every level of society in ways no one could have imagined. — Cover image and summary via Goodreads

A Sitting in St. James by Rita Williams-Garcia An unmissable tour de force from three-time National Book Award finalist and Coretta Scott King Award–winning author Rita Williams-Garcia, who memorably tells the stories of one white family and the enslaved people who work for them. Essential reading for teens and adults who are grappling with our country’s history of racism.

This astonishing novel about the interwoven lives of those bound to a plantation in antebellum America is an epic masterwork—empathetic, brutal, and entirely human.

1860, Louisiana. After serving as mistress of Le Petit Cottage for more than six decades, Madame Sylvie Guilbert has decided, in spite of her family’s indifference, to sit for a portrait. But there are other important stories to be told on the Guilbert plantation. Stories that span generations, from the big house to out in the fields, of routine horrors, secrets buried as deep as the family fortune, and the tangled bonds of descendants and enslaved. — Cover image and summary via Goodreads

Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating by Adiba Jaigirdar  Everyone likes Humaira “Hani” Khan—she’s easy going and one of the most popular girls at school. But when she comes out to her friends as bisexual, they invalidate her identity, saying she can’t be bi if she’s only dated guys. Panicked, Hani blurts out that she’s in a relationship…with a girl her friends absolutely hate—Ishita “Ishu” Dey. Ishu is the complete opposite of Hani. She’s an academic overachiever who hopes that becoming head girl will set her on the right track for college. But Ishita agrees to help Hani, if Hani will help her become more popular so that she stands a chance of being elected head girl. Despite their mutually beneficial pact, they start developing real feelings for each other. But relationships are complicated, and some people will do anything to stop two Bengali girls from achieving happily ever after. — Cover image and summary via Goodreads

Sister of the Bollywood Bride by Nandini Bajpai Mini’s big sister, Vinnie, is getting married. Their mom passed away seven years ago and between Dad’s new start-up and Vinnie’s medical residency, there’s no one but Mini to plan the wedding. Dad raised her to know more about computers, calculus, and cars than desi weddings but from the moment Mini held the jewelry Mom left them, she wanted her sister to have the wedding Mom would’ve planned.

Now Mini has only two months to get it done and she’s not going to let anything distract her, not even the persistent, mysterious, and smoking-hot Vir Mirchandani. Flower garlands, decorations, music, even a white wedding horse—everything is in place. That is, until a monster hurricane heads for Boston that could ruin everything. Will Mini come through as sister of the bride and save the day? — Cover image and summary via Goodreads

Misfit in Love (Saints and Misfits #2) by S.K. Ali Janna Yusuf is so excited for the weekend: her brother Muhammad’s getting married, and she’s reuniting with her mom, whom she’s missed the whole summer.

And Nuah’s arriving for the weekend too. Sweet, constant Nuah. The last time she saw him, Janna wasn’t ready to reciprocate his feelings for her. But things are different now. She’s finished high school, ready for college…and ready for Nuah. It’s time for Janna’s (carefully planned) summer of love to begin—starting right at the wedding.

But it wouldn’t be a wedding if everything went according to plan. Muhammad’s party choices aren’t in line with his fiancée’s taste at all, Janna’s dad is acting strange, and her mom is spending more time with an old friend (and maybe love interest?) than Janna.

And Nuah’s treating her differently. Just when things couldn’t get more complicated, two newcomers—the dreamy Haytham and brooding Layth—have Janna more confused than ever about what her misfit heart really wants. Janna’s summer of love is turning out to be super crowded and painfully unpredictable. — Cover image and summary via Goodreads

[luxid-rambler]

I bought a ‘blind date book’. It basically means that you buy a wrapped book at a discounted price with a vague summarization of the themes written on the wrapping.

I got version zero and I hated it. Like I was legitimately mad after finishing it lmao

It just felt like nineteen eighty-four and the circle had a cursed love child.

[nevinslibrary]

Mystery/Thriller Monday

To be fair, I read this before certain tech things happened (Twitter, massive layoffs all over the place, etc.). And, even in the before times when I read this, I could see how/why it could happen, and, it was definitely chilling.

Max works for Wren, and, he’s seen ‘how the sausage is made’ (i.e. the dark side of tech). At one point he questions how Wren uses the data they collect and not only is he fired from his job, but, black balled in Silicon Valley as well. So, he decides, with the help of his friend Akiko, to sorta totally break the internet (technically they want to reboot it). Believe it or not it gets even more twisty after that as well, and, honestly, with every page I read I realized more and more just how intertwined the internet/social media and modern day life really is.

Log off people, I mean, not right now, finish reading this first, but, then… take a walk, read a book, this one, or Hop on Pop, or the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (something light and airy).

In all seriousness, this was an intense book, but, also, if I chanted fiction, fiction, fiction in my head for a few minutes, it was a really fun read too. Very twisty and turney, and, the word thriller pales in comparison to some of the parts of this book. Wow.

You may like this book If you Liked: Flashmob by Christopher Farnsworth, Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, or Terms of Use by Scott Allan Morrison

Version Zero by David Yoon

[lilyoffandoms]

Version Zero by David Yoon

[mindowe]

When your guardian angel fucks shit up markedly. Yey belongs to mismehellawes, Mirek is my own pigeon. I was thinking about them a lot as of late! :D

fallenann I am so sorry that I didn't include your own guardian pigeon, but he didn't look like I wanted him to look and I didn't finish him. :(