The Sun and the Moon

Look at this. Just sit a while and look at it. It’s so good, it’s hypnotic! I cannot give it enough praise. Look at that phenomenal shade of blue on Strife, and the details on War’s decorations, his magnificent fur cloak and Strife’s smooth, gunslinger’s outfit. Look at how big and fuzzy and warm War is, and how sharp, detailed and cool Strife is. I love War’s fingerless glove and his sturdy hand with well-shaped nails. I love it that Strife has a third eye, a trait of his Riot form. Note the Horsemen symbol on War’s medallion and Strife’s belt, the frickin’ runes on the barrels of Strife’s pistols, and the sting-shaped ends of his scarf. Take a bit to appreciate how all War’s jewelry is round, and all Strife’s, angular. And the subtle inversion in the golden glow of Strife’s eyes and the chilly blue of War’s.

It’s a masterpiece. A thousand words would not suffice.

Fanart (!) for TTSS: Sniper Nihlus

My friend Sixtus drew this amazing, badass Nihlus sniping in the jungles of Invictus as an illustration for my Mass Effect novel Thinker Traitor Soldier Spectre. (Please view the picture in full size here!) This is incredibly inspiring and uplifting. I could not be happier and more grateful for all the support this story has lately got from my friends and other readers alike. ♥

Fanart (!) for TTSS, and Pre-Nano Ramblings

My friend, HeavenlyEros, made this fabulous poster for TTSS! Eros also helped me create the cover for it, and performed many other feats of great art and friendship, some of which I mentioned before. The Mass Effect fandom is truly blessed to inspire such talented, devoted and kind creators — and so am I, to have such friends. ♥

Heavenly Art from Heavenly Eros

Stepping back into the shrunken Mass Effect fandom, in which the Saren/Nihlus ship has always been a niche that is now kept afloat by literally a handful of unrelenting enthusiasts, I did not expect to find a new friend and creative ally (Sixtus), let alone two!

HeavenlyEros descended among us just as I came back from the summer hiatus and stirred the sleepy turian community into a state of cheerful excitement by showering us with art of unearthly beauty.

Ghostly & Hypnotic

I just can’t get over this image. It’s been sitting in one of my browser tabs for days and I’ve already showed it to all my friends (pardon me if you get this message more than once etc., etc.), yet I still haven’t had enough of it. So enter the records, it shall.

It’s weird, right? Like someone took a regular space photo and then painted that spiral over it — badly! Or like one of those mesmerizing examples of neural style transfer or creepy AI-generated art.

What it actually is, is a binary system where one of the stars has started to eject its envelopes at the end of its life, while the other still circles it, leaving a spiral trail in the outflowing gas. The regular gaps between the trails correspond to the 800-year orbital period of the binary.

This was an Astronomy Picture of the Day for 2018 July 8. You can read more about the image and the spiral in it there.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble, HLA; Processing & Copyright: Domingo Pestana & Raul Villaverde.

Fanart (!) for Ghost in the Machine, and Announcement

My friend Gladius created this phenomenal illustration for the Virmire chapters of Ghost in the Machine. The joy of seeing an offscreen moment such as this, that would otherwise exist only as a vague idea in my imagination, would be hard to overstate. Perhaps more importantly, this is hugely motivating and invigorating as a token of interest. I am honored and deeply grateful.