#Alien Space Bats

[arthurdrakoni]

The Peshawar Lancers has some of the best world building I’ve seen in any alternate history novel. This is my review.

There are plenty of books I want to listen to, but they just aren't available in audio form. It frustrating, but it is what it is. Sometimes, however, my patience is rewarded in a big way. Case in point, The Peshawar Lancers by S.M. Stirling.

The Peshawar Lancers by SM Stirling is set in a world where Earth was struck by a series of asteroids in 1878. It wasn’t enough to wipe-out humanity, but it did screw up the climate. For example, it lead to five years of non-stop winter. As such, the various Europeans empires evacuated to their colonies in the southern hemisphere. For the British Empire this meant South Africa, Australia, and especially India. By 2020, the climate has stabilized, but the world is forever changed. The world is stuck in the Victorian era, but with some slight steampunk elements. More importantly, the British Empire, now called the Angrezi Raj, is home to an Anglo-Indian hybrid culture. The story follows a wide verity of characters, including the titular Peshawar Lancers, the Raj’s first line of defense on the frontier.

Interesting that Peshawar is where the Lancers are based. In ancient times, it was part of the Bactrian Kingdoms, a place of great culture exchange between Greeks and Indians. In fact, many of these Greek Indians eventually converted to Hinduism and Buddhism, eventually lead to a very unique culture and art style. I’m very tempted to thing that this was deliberate on Stirling’s part.

There are airships, Babbage Engines, and a couple steam-powered cars, but not really anything too fantastical in terms of technology. This is explains somewhat in-universe. Humanity had to focus on rebuilding after The Fall, so that stunted technological progress. Moreover, India doesn’t have access to a lot of mineral fuels, and there isn’t much need when wood is so plentiful. It is mentioned that steamships only recently surpassed wooden sailing ships in terms of capabilities.

Like I said, I utterly adore the world building that went into this novel. There’s even an index at the end containing certain details that didn’t make it into the novel proper. I loved the Anglo-Indian hybrid cultures of the Raj, France-outre-Mer in North Africa (which actually retained its French culture), andd the balls to walls insanity of how Russia is now an empire of Satanic cannibals.

The writing is also quite good. It reminds me very much of Victorian adventure novels by people such as H. Rider Haggard and Rudyard Kipling. I went on a kick of those in many younger days, so I was all onboard for that aspect.

Stirling has stated that he very much would like to write a sequel, but the sales weren’t good enough for his publisher to greenlight one. Oh well, I guess we can always hope that one day a sequel will come. Also, the man himself was nice enough to personally leave a comment on my blog saying that he appreciates my review.

The audiobook version is, of course, the whole reason we're having this review. It is narrated by Shaun Grindell, who perfectly captures the story. I'm very happy that this amazing work of alternate history is available in audiobook form at long last.

Have you read The Peshawar Lancers? If so, what did you think?

Link to the full review on my blog is here: https://drakoniandgriffalco.blogspot.com/2018/09/book-review-peshawar-lancers-by-sm.html?m=1

[ninfamusa]

En el vídeo de hoy desentrañamos en qué consiste uno de los trucos más comúnmente utilizados en la escritura de ciencia ficción. Hablamos de los murciélagos espaciales alienígenas (Alien Space Bats para los amigos y M.E.A.s para los muy amigos xD). Este neologismo que se originó en tono sarcástico, se ha convertido en la definición de uno de los métodos más típicos de creación de historias alternativas o What If. ¿Conocías este método creativo? ¿Conoces alguna ficción en que se haya hecho uso de murciélagos espaciales alienígenas. Suscríbete a nuestro canal para encontrar más vídeos como este. Entra en nuestra web para descubrir los cursos que impartimos: ninfamusa.com Encuéntranos también en redes: Instagram: ninfamusa Tik Tok: ninfamusa

[kizzer55555]

DPxDC: Jarro Adopts an Alien

Ok, so Danny has a space obsession and a protection obsession (I headcanon that as a halfa, Danny has two obsessions like all Halfas do which makes them unique to other ghosts.) and so while he can get his fill protecting people in Amity, he struggles with his space obsession. Sure, he can look up everything he can about space and the stars on the internet. He can stay up until 2 am looking at the stars (who needs sleep? He’s a ghost, he can go days, or even weeks without sleep if he wants, same with a lack of air or food.) but it’s just not enough. He craves to learn more, see more. Just as Dani gets that itch to travel, Danny wonders. What would it be like to see the stars up close? Are they really as hot as a dragons fire breath? Hotter!? Or maybe they are so hot they are cold. What does it look like to see plasma dancing across the surface, or touch the gasses of Jupiter? Does Pluto have ice caves like the far frozen? How many planets are actually out there? What about Mars. There’s a whole species living there with a language and culture Danny can’t even fathom! Oh what he wouldn’t give to talk with martian manhunter or Superman. 

And what’s stopping him from exploring this? He can fly. He doesn’t need air. He can go intangible if it gets too hot and he’s practically immune to the cold. He wants to touch a space rock! See if they are smooth because there is no wind or earth to rub against them and erode the surface. He wants to see what planets they come from. What minerals they might have. He wants to know if there are currents in space. All of these things are right there just above the atmosphere. Surely it couldn’t hurt to take a quick peek. So he does. During a particularly bad day Danny flies as fast as he can until the earth’s gravity looses its effects. Until his hair is floating as of it’s in water even more than normal. Until he can feel when breathing no longer became a choice (still not necessary though). And it…was beautiful. To be surrounded by space. To see the earth like this. Pictures just didn’t do it Justice. He flew across the solar system and as he passed planets, he longed to fly through them. To search every crevice and learn their secrets. But he had a bigger prize in mind at the moment. The crown jewel of their universe. The closest star he could find. The sun. 

Danny was mesmerized. The plasma really did dance across the surface. Like a never ending performance of science and beauty. There were sparks that few in arcs. Danny flew down and played in them, making a game to see how many he could fly under. His ghost core purred in delight. His obsession had never been more satisfied. He spent hours out there. Just exploring what his solar system had to offer. So when he returned? He couldn’t just forget. Pictures and online science theories had nothing on the real thing. He wanted to explore some more. So he did. Every night he would go out and explore the cosmos. Flying from planet to planet. (Either the Martians were still around and Danny made friends with them, even learning their language, or he just looks at their ruins to learn as much as he can). And with both obsessions now being filled, Danny is more settled. More confident. And he can focus better. Everyone notices the change, even his teachers. They just think that he’s paying more attention to his education now. He’s even better during his ghost fights. 

But Danny can fly awfully fast. And he soaks up information even faster. Soon his trips take longer and longer as he flies further out. Sometimes he can barely make it back in time for school. And he can't go every night. Sometimes the ghosts won’t wait for daytime so he has to make sure the town will be safe in his absence. Although he’s been able to take more trips ever since Valerie joined the vigilante ranks. But still, he’s getting farther and farther from earth each night. Until one day he’s visited every planet, every star, every comet or debris in their solar system. Which would be fine. He could deal with that if that was all there was. But it wasn’t. Danny saw the stars just out of reach. He saw places the Milky Way was leaning towards. He saw just the barest hints of new solar systems with new planets and stars. And he knew of legends from lanterns that they had posted online. Heard tales from some scientists that have made better telescopes. And his core itches. It aches to know more. See more. Yet he can't go further. And this puts him in a sort of depression. Suddenly he’s back to his old self. Lagging behind. Distracted. Zoning out. Crashing into a few more buildings during ghost attacks. Yet he tries so hard to be satisfied with what he has. He can still fulfill his obsession…it’s just more like chewing on a granola bar rather than eating a decent meal. He’s almost becoming lethargic. 

So one day he goes to Frostbite to see if there’s anything he can do to lessen the effects. But the yeti just takes one look at him and gives him the infimap. And suddenly Danny is in a whole new universe in seconds. The planets are purple. The stars are blue. He’s pretty sure there are furry blob-like creatures living on one of those planets. And suddenly he gets that itch, but holding the infimap, he knows he had time, so he lets himself go. 

And for a while it’s good. great even. Since he can’t keep asking the yetis for the infimap, he goes over to Wulf to see if he’s up for an adventure. Most of the time he is and they go exploring the galaxies together. And then Wulf had the genius idea of teaching Danny how to make portals. It took a long time but soon, he could concentrate the surrounding ectoplasm enough to weaken it and pull. It took a while since Danny didn’t have ecto claws and would have to use his pure will. But this would allow him to follow his obsession anytime, anywhere. So it was only a matter of time. And once he figured it out? It was like something was unlocked. Danny had never before understood how Ellie could travel so much. But now he did. That feeling when you discover something new. When you add to your reservoir of knowledge. When the patterns in the universe just click. There is nothing Danny could compare it to. And to explore that whenever he wanted? It was so freeing. While Wulf sometimes still joined Danny’s adventures, Danny did most of his explorations by himself. 

He meets various planets and aliens. So many different cultures. He learns thousands of languages. Tries all kinds of foods (and it’s a good thing his ghost self has an iron stomach and he’s basically poison resistant.) even found a whole comet where blood blossoms grew. (Which he most definitely avoided). And wasn’t that fascinating? To find out they were from space. 

And then during his travels one day he met a space alien starfish. 

It was actually a funny story. A meteor shower was about to attack a planet of talking blue monkey creatures with 4 arms. Danny immediately started diverting them and was soon joined by some lantern corps (which his inner fanboy wanted to talk to so bad.). And a tiny starfish in a…Robin uniform? Oh and the starfish could apparently do martial arts which was interesting to watch him karate chop a meteor. He could also talk directly into Danny’s head which the halfa found more interesting. So they got to talking and apparently his name was Jarro. He seemed to be helping the lantern corps as a ‘proxy from earth’ to make better use of his skills. 

Danny would run into Jarro a few more times. Sometimes he was with Lanterns and sometimes he would just be exploring the galaxies. They started forming a pretty strong friendship and Danny would start seeking out the starfish alien to travel with him. He knew all kinds of space facts. Apparently he had an eidetic memory. When they explored, sometimes Jarro would just stick to part of Danny. Wrapped around his arm, his waist, sometimes just sticking to his back like a strange backpack. But they always had fun.

So Danny was happy. He could fulfill both obsessions and got a space pal. Everything was great!

Until the GIW caught him. 

It would probably be the worst day of his life.  There was an explosion in the lab. Something set up by them after they realized Danny frequented that place often. So they set a trap and blew it up. Thankfully, Jazz was at college during this but both his parents were home. When the explosion went off, Danny had tried putting a Barrier around them all. It took everything he had to maintain it. That’s how they found out he was phantom. Danny had a few moments where his parents said they accepted him but he couldn’t hold the barrier for long. His parents said that they loved him and then everything went green. He woke up in a lab, tired and injured. His only saving grace being that he remained in phantom form. And he was determined to remain so. 

Danny’s time at the GIW was a haze but eventually, he managed to escape. Bleeding, and tired, and still recovering from the burns in the explosion, Danny made a portal straight to Amity. Only when he got there, it was a ghost town. Streets were empty, buildings were boarded up. Even the Nasty Burger was deserted. As for his house, there was nothing but a crater left and some scattered debris. Danny looked everywhere but there was no one. No Jazz. No Sam. No Tucker. No one. and he was tired. And everything hurt, and he needed a friend. Someone he could trust. So in a daze he made a portal and tried to just project safe. Safe safe safe. Somewhere he knew he would be protected. And so Jarro got a surprise when his space buddy suddenly popped out of a green portal, bleeding green and clearly passed out. He didn't know what to do. He didn’t know how to help him. But Jarro knew someone who would. 

So with a speed never before seen from a tiny starfish, he flew to earth. Bringing his friend straight to his father. Because surely batman could help!

And with his appearance, the green blood, the knowledge of space facts. The lack of wanting to talk about where he came from (and the nightmares crying out for his parents). This is how the bats became convinced that Jarro brought them an injured alien. 

[plusie]

[whoreraccoon]

Dp x dc au

Where Danny starts hanging around the batfam and just straight up doesn’t explain shit. Like he’ll say shit like “yeah my parents made a portal to hell in my basement and since then I’ve been fighting ghosts” and not elaborate at all

Like he does some wacky shit with his powers and they’ll be like “how does ur flying work?” And he’ll b like 🤷🏻‍♂️ “idk man I just do it lmao”

And then he’ll switch forms and they’re like “u shapeshift?” And he’s like “sure!”

Like, no context, no trauma dump, no explanations, just danny fucking around with some superhero’s who are greatly confused and concerned

[julymarte]

✨Adoptables for sale🦇

✨What do you get?✨ the watermark-less picture and with a transparent background, the character is yours to use but please don't claim the design as yours

✨Additional perks✨

-Commercial use available for 30 euros in case you want to use them for streaming purposes

-If you get the commercial use you can get a 50% discount on a basic set of pngtuber assets (4 sprites for 50 euros instead of 100)

✨ToS✨

-Resell is available as long as they are not sold at a higher price, trade and gift are permitted

-as i said before don't claim the design as yours, crediting is appreciated💖

-slight modifications are allowed but not extreme ones

-if you don't purchase the commercial use the adoptable will be for personal use only

-rp and personal no-profit projects are ok

payment through ko-fi

[chocolatechipkraken]

ARTFIGHT 2024 FINALE!

@nuclearboi256's character the Nustalkir!

1trenchcoat3sheep's character Ripley!

@ieattoothpasteveevo's character Veevo!

@gyribright's character Toast!

Moss_Starz's character Sludge!

BlackBerryHoppity's character Goja and Robertoadder's character Sawzer!

liinkbizkit's character Dexter!

@kaisumisucreations' character Serpent!

Skellidog's character Score!

Shriff-Arty's character Jason Purr-hees!

@wurdulart's character Orfea!

@curus-creations' character DRLZ and @green-torsos' character Cruncher!

Coastalmars' character Ocean!

@0ystersaucedrawsthings' character Percival!

@dimetrodone's character Chuck and my character Stinky!

@garblegarden's character Frank!

@afuzzykitten's character Nebula and UnknownSpy's character Bim, with cameos from spraykit's character ufo and Artzy_Kid's character Aztron!

@inarille's character Viorica, @meatteeth's character Halloween Worm, and Amayonaise's character Pumkin Patch!

AnimalArtist19's character Targite!

@michidrawing's character Echo!

AleppyPeppy's Luppy 2.0, GinGearity's Gobble, and @raynavan's Blossoguile!

[beachbearblr]

Ah I keep forgetting to post

[newfrontierbackstage]

Howdy pardners! Coming back once more today to share some incredible art done by @joosiewiththeboof regarding a new type of New Frontier animal/species: A Cactus Bat!

This is so creative and cool, thank you so much for your contribution!

[spacetyrant-arts]

New main sona drop <33

[foxboxuniverse]

More artfight stuff!

Like my art? Support me on Ko-fi

Artists and owners:

Gemstone Bones - RevlisFox Widget - Cuali Mimi Twinkie - ASTEROOYD Astra - @kndkid96

[arthurdrakoni]

A Different Flesh is an alternate history novel that asks what it means to be human. This is my review.

A Different Flesh by Harry Turtledove is an alternate history novel that imagines a world where Ice Age megafauna, and Homo Erectus, never died out. This is my review.

So, I’ve got a review of an alternate history novel I think people around here might enjoy. It does include some, albeit a bit might, speculative evolution elements.

A Different Flesh by Harry Turtledove is a collection of short stories set in the same universe. In the world of A Different Flesh, the ancestors of the Native Americans never crossed the Bering land bridge during the Ice Age. However, Homo Erectus did cross into the Americas. Thus, when the Europeans discover the Americas, they don't find any Native American civilizations, but they do find tribes of Homo Erectus, whom they refer to as sims. Also, the Ice Age megafauna of the Americas never went extinct, so the Europeans also discover a land full of woolly mammoths, sabertooth cats, giant ground sloths, and giant armadillos among other things.

The stories follow the history of the Federated Commonwealths of America, this world's equivalent of the United States of America. Before the start of each story, the mood is set with an excerpt from a book about the history of the FCA. It also provides great details about the history of this world that don't quite make it into the stories. The excerpts also chronicle the relationship between humans and sims.

Harry Turtledove says that he got the idea for this series when he read an article by the late great paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould. Gould pondered what might have happened if John Smith and the Jamestown colonists had discovered Australopithecus rather than Native Americans in Virginia. Gould concluded that it would not have ended well for Australopithecus. Turtledove certainly seems to have come to the same conclusion. One thing I think he did well was that, though he wrote the sims as sympathetic, he never made them too anthropomorphized. You can definitely see similarities between humans and sims, as is to be expected, but at the same time sims clearly act and think differently than humans.

I can safely say that this book was worth the wait. I loved the structure of this book being seven short story set in different eras of this alternate worlds. I wish there were more books that employed that sort of structure. I’m a sucker for prehistoric animals, and I’m a sucker for books about alternate colonizations of the Americas. As such, A Different Flesh was like a match made in heaven for me.

In terms of speculative evolution, things are a bit light admittedly. The Ice Age megafauna aren’t too dissimilar to the ones in our world. Although, the presence of an obvious “missing link” does lead to the theory of evolution being developed in the 1660s rather than the 1860s.

The depiction of Homo Erectus also shows some age. They’re shown as incapable to human speech, but they are capable of learning sign language. At the time the book was written, 1988, this was the prevailing view among paleontologists, but I believe subsequent findings suggest that Homo Erectus was indeed capable or verbal speech of a sort.

Still, it is a very entertaining novel exploring the history of an alternate America, and the relationship between humans and sims. It also asks the question what does it mean to be human? What does it mean to be sentient? The sims represent a moral grey area; more intelligent than an animal, but not quite at human levels. So, where do they fit in human society? What rights should they have? All very interesting and thought provoking stuff.

Have you read A Different Flesh? If so, what did you think?

Link to the full review on my blog: https://drakoniandgriffalco.blogspot.com/2019/04/book-review-different-flesh-by-harry.html?m=0

[evilweasel-cosplay]

Friendly fire for Sleepyinky98 on artfight!

[bat-hoax]

Alien babe sketchbook doodle with acryla gouache and gel pen

[ravensroleplays]

Creepy Child--Open AHIT RP

Another day, another person entering Subcon Forest. Entering the forest, the person would be able to hear a humming sound, and soon enough come across Hatty in a clearing, her back to them, and it became clear that she was the one humming happily as she tended to some animals.

Which would have been like a scene straight out of a fairy tale...except for the fact that the animals in this case were the large spiders that called Subcon home, along with a raven and a bat.

[n1ghtpers0n15]

Sketched a funny (Y’all probably recognize the meme)

Kinda feel bad for Bones tho, this is basically how they are at first, a couple of pains in ass, well at least one of them is (unintentionally) being chaotic while the other is, going through it… :[

Hehe

Might color this or maybe just do lineart and color a lil