Congratulations! Is the online version updated as well?
Also, unless you've made some deeply surprising life choices when we weren't looking, the "About the Author" Scott Alexander on the Amazon listing definitely isn't you.
The online version isn't updated, and won't be. I wanted to keep some incentive to get the book, and not destroy the original version in case some people liked it better.
My guess is Amazon aggregates all works by people with the same name and other Scott Alexanders wrote the vampire novels.
Aha, you're right. Thanks. How silly of Amazon to suggest that I ”choose a different delivery location” instead of linking to the appropriate affiliated store.
Yeah, when I look at the US store I get a prompt alerting me that my shipping address is in the UK, but they still show international shipping details instead of just telling me "you can buy this from the UK store and get it next day".
Seconding the direct question to Scott. Is there a plan to put this in kindle? I prefer kindle but will still buy it if it's paperback, but I don't want to buy the paperback and regret it if the kindle version is released a few days later.
I don't even need reduced costs besides shipping for my choice, I genuinely read faster in a screen and without flipping pages.
Agreed, I'm print-disabled and not from the US, so reading a physical book is out of the question for me. I definitely enjoyed the original, so I'm really disappointed that I can't read the new version.
Releasing a book where the main protagonist fights what's essentially DRM, on a platform famous for its DRM, would be an interesting an ironic twist of fate though.
Is this still the case? I was under the impression that they finally dropped support for some ancient versions of Kindle for Windows, which broke the deDRM plugins. I know some people who had to switch to running an Android emulator with some fake patched and sideloaded Kindle app that let you break DRM. Is this no longer required?
I'm not really in the loop about how this stuff works any more. I avoid Amazon like the plague unless I have no other option. although modern Kindle is technically screen reader accessible and can be used, it's not what I'd call a pleasant or comfortable experience, and that's ignoring the ethical issues and assuming Amazon doesn't ban my account for no apparent reason, like they did a few years ago.
I'd prefer not to discuss the technical details here, since I don't want any trouble for our host. It's been a while since I... last circumvented those pesky problems of my library. But AFAIK the noDRM fork is still working and in good health.
One more point for an ebook release, I would buy it as an ebook but not as a paper version. I particularly like qntm's release model where you can buy DRM-free ebooks on Gumroad as well as paperbacks on Amazon: https://qntm.org/fiction
When I try to create a profile on Author Central, it asks me to choose the book I wrote. When I choose Unsong, it auto-links it to the vampire books, asks me to confirm I wrote all of them, refuses to create an account for me if I say no, and tells me I'm lying if I say yes.
Amazon got back to me within ten minutes (it's 2:30 AM in California right now) and said they're going to solve the problem. I guess this kind of thing is why Jeff Bezos is so rich.
Clearly they are attempting to expiate their sins for what they are doing with "The Rings of Power" and hoping to avert the just wrath of an enraged God.
Or at least, Tolkien nerds like me. I reserve judgement until August and seeing how badly they mucked it up.
I was able to create my profile and claim my books using Amazon Author Central at author.amazon.com. Not quite sure how they verify your identity, though.
I guess I'm not cool enough for the vampire novel Scott Alexander, since the link only takes me to plain "Unsong by Scott Alexander" and no other works.
I no longer remember _how_, but I have a (quite nice) paperback version of the older edition. At some point (I think a little over three years ago) it was possible to buy them online. Glad to see it's possible again, and looking forward to the new version.
Is it an almost entirely yellow copy from Lulu? I posted a link to buy one-offs because I really wanted one, and got a ton of interest. Glad there's an official copy now to replace it, it was always a weird hack
No. The cover is "the night of enitharmon's joy" (see here: https://blakearchive.org/copy/cpd?descId=but316.1.cprint.01). An email address for questions begins "pachyderminator@", and "The Pachyderminator" was a commenter on SSC, so I guess that's who put the thing together.
I can't find anything about how it was printed. IIRC it was some custom print website, to which I uploaded some files I found somewhere (presumably from Pachyderminator).
Congrats! But here comes the natural consequence of change: people saying "but I don't like change". I liked Malia!
Or at least I liked the version I remember, which probably has as much resemblance to the on-text version as Saber does to King Arthur. I guess I'll have to re-read and figure out whether the "I am evil, but..." scene is as I recall it, and whether this Ash lad (lass?) keeps it. (I hope this is vague enough that it doesn't count as a spoiler).
Hmm. Japanese for ash is toneriko, which inspired the name of the popular series Ar Tonelico (incidentally also about language being able to affect the world), so clearly I'm going to imagine him (her?) dressed up as a Reyvateil. This is sure to improve my reading - now to figure out who's going to get the cat ears...
I also liked Malia, and my initial reaction is skepticism that her replacement would be an improvement. But I have to remind myself that the person who thinks her replacement is an improvement is the person who originally wrote her in the first place. It's not enough to bring me up to a state of confidence in the change, but enough at least to instill a state of vaguely optimistic curiosity.
I too liked her, and in my mind the difficulty with character development is that the end of her arc was a backstory reveal that fit the known facts beautifully but also felt like a _fun_ reveal, and it seems like more character development could reveal stuff too early. However, as someone who's read the original, an early reveal isn't really going to hurt my experience reading the update. Therefore, I'm curious what the update will feel like for people who've never read the original.
Definitely if any commenters like Scott's short stories but haven't yet read Unsong for some reason, they should try reading the update without reading the original. This may prove interesting for future comment discussions.
"Bentham" has to be a reference to Jeremy Bentham, the original Utilitarian.
So not alone an opportunity to see a Dark Utilitarian in the person of Ash (as a replacement for Malia), but also to work in the Auto-Icon somehow:
"Bentham died on 6 June 1832, aged 84, at his residence in Queen Square Place in Westminster, London. He had continued to write up to a month before his death, and had made careful preparations for the dissection of his body after death and its preservation as an auto-icon.
...Afterward, the skeleton and head were preserved and stored in a wooden cabinet called the "auto-icon", with the skeleton padded out with hay and dressed in Bentham's clothes.
It is currently kept on public display at the main entrance of the UCL Student Centre. It was previously displayed at the end of the South Cloisters in the main building of the college until it was moved in 2020. Upon the retirement of Sir Malcolm Grant as provost of the college in 2013, however, the body was present at Grant's final council meeting. As of 2013, this was the only time that the body of Bentham has been taken to a UCL council meeting. (There is a persistent myth that the body of Bentham is present at all council meetings.)
Bentham had intended the auto-icon to incorporate his actual head, mummified to resemble its appearance in life. Southwood Smith's experimental efforts at mummification, based on practices of the indigenous peoples of New Zealand and involving placing the head under an air pump over sulfuric acid and drawing off the fluids, although technically successful, left the head looking distastefully macabre, with dried and darkened skin stretched tautly over the skull.
The auto-icon was therefore given a wax head, fitted with some of Bentham's own hair. The real head was displayed in the same case as the auto-icon for many years, but became the target of repeated student pranks. It was later locked away."
"Distastefully macabre" sounds right up the street of the head of UNSONG; maybe they have acquired the head of their revered family member and are using it to communicate with the spirit of Bentham (as in Lewis' "That Hideous Strength", which is itself riffing on Bacon's Brazen Head):
“I thought I saw a face floating in front of me. A face, not a head, if you understand what I mean. That is, there was a beard and nose and eyes — at least, you couldn’t see the eyes because it had coloured glasses on, but there didn’t seem to be anything above the eyes. …What it really was, was a head (the rest of a head) which had had the top part of the skull taken off and then… then — as if something inside had boiled over. A great big mass which bulged out from inside what was left of the skull. Wrapped in some kind of composition stuff, but very thin stuff. You could see it twitch. Even in my fright I remember thinking, ‘Oh kill it, kill it Put it out of its pain.’ But only for a second because I thought the thing was real, really. It was green looking and the mouth was wide open and quite dry.
…It was fixed up on some kind of bracket, or shelf, or pedestal — I don’t know quite what, and there were things hanging from it. From the neck, I mean. Yes, it had a neck and a sort of collar thing round it, but nothing below the collar; no shoulders or body. Only these hanging things.…But presently — I don’t quite know how, I saw that they were artificial. Little rubber tubes and bulbs and little metal things too. I couldn’t understand them. All the tubes went into the wall. Then at last something happened.
…Well, quite suddenly, like when an engine is started, there came a puff of air out of its mouth, with a hard dry rasping sound. And then there came another, and it settled down into a sort of rhythm — huff, huff, huff — like an imitation of breathing. Then came a most horrible thing: the mouth began to dribble. …Then it began working its mouth about and even licking its lips. It was like someone getting a machine into working order. To see it doing that just as if it was alive, and at the same time dribbling over the beard which was all stiff and dead looking… Then three people came into the room, all dressed up in white, with masks on, walking as carefully as cats on the top of a wall.
…“And then,” said Jane, “all three of them came round and stood in front of the Head. They bowed to it. You couldn’t tell if it was looking at them because of its dark glasses. It kept on with that rhythmical huffing noise. Then it spoke. It spoke in a queer way. In starts — like a man who’s out of breath. With no proper expression. And of course it couldn’t turn itself this way or that way as a — a real person — does."
Ash: gotta catch 'em all. What is left after a fire has burned. The Norse world tree which connects the 9 worlds, and where humans hid to survive the destruction of the world at Ragnarok; also the wood from which the first man was made. Sets up a potential contrast between West and North.
(1) "Ash" the name of the tree is also related to "spear" in Latin and Old English, as the wood is good for the spear shafts. Ash is also the favoured wood to make hurleys in the Irish sport of hurling, hence it is connected to both war and sport (which some say is war by other means)
(2) The Norse name of the first man was "Ash", so relating the character both to Adam the first human being, and Adam Kadmon, the Universal Man who is the emanation of the Divine Light
(3) In Celtic mythology in general, and Irish mythology in particular, ash is one of the sacred trees. It is associated with holy wells and with protection and strength. Ash trees are associated with May Day (Beltáine), the start of summer. Ash, oak and thorn (hawthorn) are plants associated magical powers and the fairies
(4) Perhaps due to its association with the Otherworld/fairies, in his novel "Phantastes", George MacDonald says the Ash is evil:
"“Trust the Oak,” said she; “trust the Oak, and the Elm, and the great Beech. Take care of the Birch, for though she is honest, she is too young not to be changeable. But shun the Ash and the Alder; for the Ash is an ogre,—you will know him by his thick fingers; and the Alder will smother you with her web of hair, if you let her near you at night.”
I liked the idea of Malia but felt the details could use more work (for such a major character to the theme she only ever showed up twice, so the reveals about her weren't as impactful as they should have been). I haven't read the new version but expect it to be an improvement
The only thing I remember about Malia is the “nightjar eyes” — I hope this image was kept.
I came across a nightjar ground nest in the Sierra a while back and got a big diversionary display: freaky! Those birds can open their mouths wide and scream.
Oh man, then you're missing out. Read The Wicked Eye Flies to the Full Moon for the fundamental nightjar experience! Well, Minerva's technically an owl-slash-American military experiment-slash-1960s movie monster, but there's no mistaking the eyes here.
As an aside, 2ch looked at that thing, said "but what if it was also a maid", and created a once-beloved but now-forgotten character called Yabai-san. These "X but as a maid" posts, alongside OS-tans and Idolmaster, would eventually become the progenitors to Virtual Youtubers.
...and huh, I never made the connection with Unsong until now. A color-swapped Yabai will be my mental image of Malia moving forward.
The author blurb says: "Welcome! Thanks for stopping by and looking at my page. I absolutely love literature and great stories. The quote above is from my novel The Dracula Illusion: a gothic, bloody tale that spans centuries of vampiric richness! It will excite all lovers of vampire and horror fiction. Please check out the blurb to see if you would like to walk with Xander Farold along the dark path of manipulation and death.
My new book 'I Like You Too, Adam Strange' is out now!!
As for me, I am working on completing my MA in English Literature and exploring new literary avenues."
I assume this isn't you, right? Probably want to get that fixed if so
Congrats! There’s a lot more effort involved in making the jump to a fully edited and published book than most people realize, so kudos for putting in the work. I’ll definitely be getting a copy.
It’s too bad you don’t offer the new version on kindle. I’d happily buy it if you did. And today is a double points day, so I’d be missing out on getting my extra points even if you flipped the switch tmro. Huge bummer! Pls do that?
According to my friend who is a publisher, you need to format the text as a *reflowable* epub file using whatever tool you made the PDF with. Don't try to convert the PDF to epub directly as that can cause Problems. Calibre is apparently a good tool for this kind of thing.
Use a word doc and upload it. Amazon is very good about auto-formatting now. I can’t imagine it taking someone who has done it before more than about two hours. (I used to publish on Amazon but stoped when I became a people manager, never did big numbers or anything but it’s an easy flow)
Congrats on all the hard work and the Amazon release! Very exciting! And pls forgive my grumbling about no kindle version - as soon as it’s available I’ll be buying. I just can’t buy old school print books anymore, for various reasons
I want to read the new version of the book, but I don't like reading paper books instead of things I can keep in my pocket on my phone. Is there a way for me to do that?
I'm just glad the Unsong rewrite actually happened. I wonder how the prediction for this year (if there is one) is going to be resolved, given that it wasn't, strictly speaking, Scott who did the messy publishing work.
>the Caliph of California
What a suspiciously familiar guy. If he doesn't drone strike a kabbalistic sweatshop at least once in the story, I'll be disappointed.
Reminds me of the After the End setting for CK2, where the grip of the mighty house of Yudkow over California was finally slacking thanks to the collapse of the Empire.
I would also very much like to have a Kindle version. Besides my physical shelves overflowing, it's quite inconvenient to have it shipped to Spain. Maybe we could beg @Pycea to go *another* extra mile, pretty please with sugar on top?
Thank you, I found the option downthread. Still, the overflowing shelves are a concern. I will do if there is no other option (there is no way I'm going to miss a re-read of a re-edit), but for the moment, it can wait.
The biggest shame is Unsong needed to get shorter, remove some interludes maybe, to fix the pacing around the middle. Instead, it sounds like it was made even longer? Did anyone ever complain that the names weren't kabbalistically appropriate?
Like, don't get me wrong, I doubt the novel I like has been made significantly worse, and I'm glad the novel is finally published and Scott can move on, but I wanted the opportunity to not be wasted. Oh well.
I think that insultingness depends on how you frame your disagreement. I happen to think that Unsong would have seriously benefited from participation of a good editor, but I don't presume to tell Scott that he's wrong in his approach, because there's no reasonable standard of objective literary quality.
I kind of like it big and sprawling. It reminds me of Neal Stephenson - the ideas are too big to be contained neatly in the book without cutting interesting parts.
Ordered! Been wanting to re-read it, this seems like the perfect way and the shipping cost to the UK isn't too terrible...
Was as surprised as others to read the author bio, and honestly I would have been happy to read vampire/gothic books written by you if that had actually been the case, haha :P
I have got into the habit of editing amazon.com URLs to the amazon.co.uk version to see if they work. Amazon could really do a better job of letting you know that a book is available through your local version if they see you're browsing from outside the US.
Kinda sad to hear about the disappearance of Malia Ngo, I liked that character. But I'm curious to see who she's been replaced with. I'm glad this finally exists in true book form.
haha I can't decide whether it is racist because he replaced an Asian character with a white character, or woke because Malia Ngo was problematic from the beginning anyway
I was half asleep this morning when I ordered the paperback, and I almost bought the vampire novels "by the same author" because I thought "if Scott wrote it it must be good, even if it is about vampires"
This reportedly also works for other non-US Amazon stores - just change the domain name in the URL to your local version. This is probably a print-on-demand edition so it will be available quickly even if you live far away from the US.
I can confirm this from Spain (though here the delivery time is 1 week, probably some issue with print-on-demand). And it's covered with Prime. Still, as I said above, a Kindle option would be preferable.
Why wouldn't an ebook be kabalistically appropriate? I read it on my Kindle paperwhite before and would very much like to read the updated version on same if possible
Ordered! And there's a decent chance I'll order it again when there's a Kindle version. I did the same for John Dies at the End, and I look forward to the Unsong movie adaptation
I was trawling Tvtropes last night and came across an Unsong reference, made me think I really ought to finally read this, so yeah something something not a coincidence
I get the Archon of Arkansas and the Caliph of California. I don't, however, understand the Shogun of Michigan. The "gun" "gan" almost-rhyme doesn't seem like what it's going for, but I can't place anything else that makes any sense. I would better understand the Michigan Matriarch or something.
Vowels are a lie and don't actually exist in either Japanese (see msgk, kwsk, ggrks, wwwwww being actual words) or Hebrew (triconsonantal roots), so you get (m)-sh-g-n and sh-g-n.
The (m-) prefix obviously is the ism-i fail (what do you call it in Hebrew? I'm only familiar with the Ottoman Turkish terms, which are derived from Arabic), denoting a person who possesses, does, or is the master of the modified verb. Hence a person who exercises the rights of a shoguniyye is a (m)u-(sh)o-(g)u-(n), or (M)i-(sh)i-(g)a-(n). The Shogun of Michigan is clearly displaying his power by naming the entire state after himself.
Thanks! This was very informative, if not as entertaining as the other nations with their leaders. It certainly seems correct, but even after reading it out still seems like quite a stretch.
Also worth noting that if you have a Kindle version, you can fairly easily make an Audible version through an Amazon program called ACX where they pair you with a "Producer" who narrates the book and produces Audible-ready files: https://www.acx.com/mp/how-it-works/authors
Really? The program is called ACX!? I'd be tempted to say that's just too kabbalistically appropriate, but... I don't want to tempt our host too much. A full-length book, narrated by a human, sounds expensive. Not that I'm suggesting a Kickstarter or something. That sounds like too much work. Not that I'm trying to reverse-psychology anybody. That sounds like too much depth of recursion.
The cost of doing can be funded by the Producer taking a cut of sales I think - you don't need to put money up front. Admittedly with Unsong it would be a lot of work to read, but I imagine the audiobook version would get decent sales just through exposure from this blog.
I listened to a podcast version of Unsong. I think that guy did it for free, and he did a good job. Maybe get him to narrate the Audible book? And pay him this time?
I've never read it, but this is an immediate purchase as it allows me to support you without subscribing. Notwithstanding that it seems entertaining and I don't care to read on screens.
Are you interested in doing an audiobook version? It would be somewhat technically challenging to do justice, but would make the story significantly more accessible. The independent audiobook narration scene is thriving right now.
I would recommend Soundbooth Theater (https://soundbooththeater.com/), an indie audiobook producer that specializes in high production values, often with technical effects. I know somebody there, and they've picked up several web serials before. If you have good popularity metrics (which you must) then they'd likely be willing to do it as royalty share.
This space is much more open than it was a decade ago - and seeing a good Unsong audiobook would make my day! It deserves it.
Amazon seems to think there is a podcast version available through Audible, read by Matt Arnold. I presume that’s the old version, and I can’t vouch for its quality.
The narration was just fine. I had weird problems with volume on all my devices, where I had to crank the volume all the way up and still needed a volume increasing app.
It's now being described by Amazon as a bestseller in the "Kabbalah and mysticism" category, which has me imagining somebody sincerely into those buying it and not knowing it's a fantasy novel.
"Best Sellers Rank: #347 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
#1 in Kabbalah & Mysticism
#3 in Alternate History Science Fiction (Books)
#6 in Humorous Science Fiction (Books)"
Seems pretty decent. I assume the top five in humorous science fiction are all various iterations of HHGTTG.
edit, turns out I was wrong. Hitchhikers is number three and Unsong is number two when I view the category directly. Number one is, wait for it, Gone Fishing.
Woohoo! Unfortunately I boycott Amazon, but I may partially break this by paying a friend to buy it for me. I'd love this on my shelf narrowly more than I hate that company.
By the way, Scott, I have an Unsong tattoo. I hope you don't mind. If you do, too late!
I received the book yesterday and read 200-some pages.
The book is normal in all respects for a paperback that is large due its word count. The physical information on Amazon seems accurate (6" by 9" and slightly over 1.5" thick).
The looks of the book are a minimalist style: the cover images on Amazon are accurate. The spine has the title and author and the UNSONG logo.
The type is comfortably spaced but not large, at roughly 5.2 lines per inch and probably 12 point. In my experience, this is typical for a "doorstopper", where at 6"x9" you can't be as tightly spaced as a small paperback or it will look terrible, but you can't make the font large or it defeats the point.
The quality looks good for a paperback, but not exceptional, as I think is typical of large paperbacks. (That is, I've never seen a paperback this size that was pulp-tier, probably because publishers know it would fall apart.)
The book is "perfect bound" (normal paperback binding).
Let's have a thread for typos to be corrected in future edtitions. Found one: page 9, line 2 from the bottom: "which meant he probably didn't catch me myself" instead of "himself".
I'm sure you got plenty of notes, and maybe you've gotten to this one already, but if not, here's my suggestion for the VR version or whatever medium prompts the next set of George Lucas style tinkering. :)
IMHO, the plot of Sarah's desperate affection for Aaron could stand to be resolved a little more before the end, and also IMHO, the obvious resolution is she's Aaron's *child.* He's responsible for her, and loves her, and it's not even unusual that she has some misplaced romantic affection for him. A Tempest-style acknowledgement and offer of parental love would be a nice bow on the relationship.
Thank you so much for keeping the original version up! Personally had a lot of moments where I preferred the original text - Erica=America, President Cheney, Obama, etc.
But of course this is still the best book of all time! I bought a physical copy and will buy another whenever one of my friends needs a present. Good stuff.
My copy arrived and I just wanted to express how happy it makes me to hold it in my hands, randomly open a page and be reminded of the story. Ive read your book twice and I love it for so many reasons. Definitely sits on my "best books ever" bookshelf. Much appreciated that you published it. And that you wrote it in first place!!
Now I only wish I had some friends living locally, around me, who I could force the book on, to read it, so we can share the joy. Cant think of one!! hahaha
Hey Scott, I just finished the paperback version yesterday and absolutely loved it. Question: where did your clearly extremely deep knowledge of kabbalah come from? Was this a pre-existing interest you hadn't blogged about, or did you deep dive kabbalah just for the book specifically?
Why is the new Mortal Name I--a? IMHO it makes the assassinations oddly unconvincing -- the phrases they read seem to spell I--a on first inspection and you'd think in universe people'd be even more subconsciously attuned to the name of the Des Moines Entity than readers are
Congratulations! Is the online version updated as well?
Also, unless you've made some deeply surprising life choices when we weren't looking, the "About the Author" Scott Alexander on the Amazon listing definitely isn't you.
The online version isn't updated, and won't be. I wanted to keep some incentive to get the book, and not destroy the original version in case some people liked it better.
My guess is Amazon aggregates all works by people with the same name and other Scott Alexanders wrote the vampire novels.
It would be cool if the updated version was also available for purchase as an ebook.
Agreed.
Yes. It's like a five minute process on KDP to publish a paperback also as a kindle. They walk you through and you just need a smaller cover.
Especially since the paperback does not ship internationally.
You can order it from local Amazon stores e.g. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Unsong-Scott-Alexander/dp/B0D57BYS3Y
Aha, you're right. Thanks. How silly of Amazon to suggest that I ”choose a different delivery location” instead of linking to the appropriate affiliated store.
Yeah, when I look at the US store I get a prompt alerting me that my shipping address is in the UK, but they still show international shipping details instead of just telling me "you can buy this from the UK store and get it next day".
Seconding the direct question to Scott. Is there a plan to put this in kindle? I prefer kindle but will still buy it if it's paperback, but I don't want to buy the paperback and regret it if the kindle version is released a few days later.
I don't even need reduced costs besides shipping for my choice, I genuinely read faster in a screen and without flipping pages.
Agreed, I'm print-disabled and not from the US, so reading a physical book is out of the question for me. I definitely enjoyed the original, so I'm really disappointed that I can't read the new version.
Releasing a book where the main protagonist fights what's essentially DRM, on a platform famous for its DRM, would be an interesting an ironic twist of fate though.
I think when you publish to Kindle, you can opt out of applying DRM.
With some legwork, and the help of Apprentice Alf and Calibre (Google is your friend) you can opt out of DRM by yourself.
Is this still the case? I was under the impression that they finally dropped support for some ancient versions of Kindle for Windows, which broke the deDRM plugins. I know some people who had to switch to running an Android emulator with some fake patched and sideloaded Kindle app that let you break DRM. Is this no longer required?
I'm not really in the loop about how this stuff works any more. I avoid Amazon like the plague unless I have no other option. although modern Kindle is technically screen reader accessible and can be used, it's not what I'd call a pleasant or comfortable experience, and that's ignoring the ethical issues and assuming Amazon doesn't ban my account for no apparent reason, like they did a few years ago.
I'd prefer not to discuss the technical details here, since I don't want any trouble for our host. It's been a while since I... last circumvented those pesky problems of my library. But AFAIK the noDRM fork is still working and in good health.
I agree, I would buy an ebook (despite having put the online version on my Kindle already).
One more point for an ebook release, I would buy it as an ebook but not as a paper version. I particularly like qntm's release model where you can buy DRM-free ebooks on Gumroad as well as paperbacks on Amazon: https://qntm.org/fiction
I would also like to buy it as an ebook so I can read on my Kindle. (Just chiming in in case Scott is trying to gauge interest in an ebook)
The issue with the author can be fixed, I think: https://www.kdpcommunity.com/s/question/0D52T000053fhq3SAA/amazon-has-linked-the-wrong-author-to-my-book?language=en_US
When I try to create a profile on Author Central, it asks me to choose the book I wrote. When I choose Unsong, it auto-links it to the vampire books, asks me to confirm I wrote all of them, refuses to create an account for me if I say no, and tells me I'm lying if I say yes.
I've contacted Amazon asking them for a solution.
Amazon got back to me within ten minutes (it's 2:30 AM in California right now) and said they're going to solve the problem. I guess this kind of thing is why Jeff Bezos is so rich.
Clearly they are attempting to expiate their sins for what they are doing with "The Rings of Power" and hoping to avert the just wrath of an enraged God.
Or at least, Tolkien nerds like me. I reserve judgement until August and seeing how badly they mucked it up.
I was able to create my profile and claim my books using Amazon Author Central at author.amazon.com. Not quite sure how they verify your identity, though.
Let me guess: Rhinoceros Success? Every Amway kid did a fifth grade book report on that one
I guess I'm not cool enough for the vampire novel Scott Alexander, since the link only takes me to plain "Unsong by Scott Alexander" and no other works.
Well congratulations!
I no longer remember _how_, but I have a (quite nice) paperback version of the older edition. At some point (I think a little over three years ago) it was possible to buy them online. Glad to see it's possible again, and looking forward to the new version.
Is it an almost entirely yellow copy from Lulu? I posted a link to buy one-offs because I really wanted one, and got a ton of interest. Glad there's an official copy now to replace it, it was always a weird hack
No. The cover is "the night of enitharmon's joy" (see here: https://blakearchive.org/copy/cpd?descId=but316.1.cprint.01). An email address for questions begins "pachyderminator@", and "The Pachyderminator" was a commenter on SSC, so I guess that's who put the thing together.
I can't find anything about how it was printed. IIRC it was some custom print website, to which I uploaded some files I found somewhere (presumably from Pachyderminator).
Congrats! But here comes the natural consequence of change: people saying "but I don't like change". I liked Malia!
Or at least I liked the version I remember, which probably has as much resemblance to the on-text version as Saber does to King Arthur. I guess I'll have to re-read and figure out whether the "I am evil, but..." scene is as I recall it, and whether this Ash lad (lass?) keeps it. (I hope this is vague enough that it doesn't count as a spoiler).
Hmm. Japanese for ash is toneriko, which inspired the name of the popular series Ar Tonelico (incidentally also about language being able to affect the world), so clearly I'm going to imagine him (her?) dressed up as a Reyvateil. This is sure to improve my reading - now to figure out who's going to get the cat ears...
I also liked Malia, and my initial reaction is skepticism that her replacement would be an improvement. But I have to remind myself that the person who thinks her replacement is an improvement is the person who originally wrote her in the first place. It's not enough to bring me up to a state of confidence in the change, but enough at least to instill a state of vaguely optimistic curiosity.
I too liked her, and in my mind the difficulty with character development is that the end of her arc was a backstory reveal that fit the known facts beautifully but also felt like a _fun_ reveal, and it seems like more character development could reveal stuff too early. However, as someone who's read the original, an early reveal isn't really going to hurt my experience reading the update. Therefore, I'm curious what the update will feel like for people who've never read the original.
Definitely if any commenters like Scott's short stories but haven't yet read Unsong for some reason, they should try reading the update without reading the original. This may prove interesting for future comment discussions.
Yeah, I really liked her name. Maybe "Ash Bentham" is a Pokemon reference. Gotta catch 'em all! (Bend them all? Sounds more like a Mexican robot...)
"Bentham" has to be a reference to Jeremy Bentham, the original Utilitarian.
So not alone an opportunity to see a Dark Utilitarian in the person of Ash (as a replacement for Malia), but also to work in the Auto-Icon somehow:
"Bentham died on 6 June 1832, aged 84, at his residence in Queen Square Place in Westminster, London. He had continued to write up to a month before his death, and had made careful preparations for the dissection of his body after death and its preservation as an auto-icon.
...Afterward, the skeleton and head were preserved and stored in a wooden cabinet called the "auto-icon", with the skeleton padded out with hay and dressed in Bentham's clothes.
It is currently kept on public display at the main entrance of the UCL Student Centre. It was previously displayed at the end of the South Cloisters in the main building of the college until it was moved in 2020. Upon the retirement of Sir Malcolm Grant as provost of the college in 2013, however, the body was present at Grant's final council meeting. As of 2013, this was the only time that the body of Bentham has been taken to a UCL council meeting. (There is a persistent myth that the body of Bentham is present at all council meetings.)
Bentham had intended the auto-icon to incorporate his actual head, mummified to resemble its appearance in life. Southwood Smith's experimental efforts at mummification, based on practices of the indigenous peoples of New Zealand and involving placing the head under an air pump over sulfuric acid and drawing off the fluids, although technically successful, left the head looking distastefully macabre, with dried and darkened skin stretched tautly over the skull.
The auto-icon was therefore given a wax head, fitted with some of Bentham's own hair. The real head was displayed in the same case as the auto-icon for many years, but became the target of repeated student pranks. It was later locked away."
"Distastefully macabre" sounds right up the street of the head of UNSONG; maybe they have acquired the head of their revered family member and are using it to communicate with the spirit of Bentham (as in Lewis' "That Hideous Strength", which is itself riffing on Bacon's Brazen Head):
“I thought I saw a face floating in front of me. A face, not a head, if you understand what I mean. That is, there was a beard and nose and eyes — at least, you couldn’t see the eyes because it had coloured glasses on, but there didn’t seem to be anything above the eyes. …What it really was, was a head (the rest of a head) which had had the top part of the skull taken off and then… then — as if something inside had boiled over. A great big mass which bulged out from inside what was left of the skull. Wrapped in some kind of composition stuff, but very thin stuff. You could see it twitch. Even in my fright I remember thinking, ‘Oh kill it, kill it Put it out of its pain.’ But only for a second because I thought the thing was real, really. It was green looking and the mouth was wide open and quite dry.
…It was fixed up on some kind of bracket, or shelf, or pedestal — I don’t know quite what, and there were things hanging from it. From the neck, I mean. Yes, it had a neck and a sort of collar thing round it, but nothing below the collar; no shoulders or body. Only these hanging things.…But presently — I don’t quite know how, I saw that they were artificial. Little rubber tubes and bulbs and little metal things too. I couldn’t understand them. All the tubes went into the wall. Then at last something happened.
…Well, quite suddenly, like when an engine is started, there came a puff of air out of its mouth, with a hard dry rasping sound. And then there came another, and it settled down into a sort of rhythm — huff, huff, huff — like an imitation of breathing. Then came a most horrible thing: the mouth began to dribble. …Then it began working its mouth about and even licking its lips. It was like someone getting a machine into working order. To see it doing that just as if it was alive, and at the same time dribbling over the beard which was all stiff and dead looking… Then three people came into the room, all dressed up in white, with masks on, walking as carefully as cats on the top of a wall.
…“And then,” said Jane, “all three of them came round and stood in front of the Head. They bowed to it. You couldn’t tell if it was looking at them because of its dark glasses. It kept on with that rhythmical huffing noise. Then it spoke. It spoke in a queer way. In starts — like a man who’s out of breath. With no proper expression. And of course it couldn’t turn itself this way or that way as a — a real person — does."
Yeah, it's definitely a reference to Jeremy Bentham, but whence "Ash"?
Ash: gotta catch 'em all. What is left after a fire has burned. The Norse world tree which connects the 9 worlds, and where humans hid to survive the destruction of the world at Ragnarok; also the wood from which the first man was made. Sets up a potential contrast between West and North.
More on the ash tree:
(1) "Ash" the name of the tree is also related to "spear" in Latin and Old English, as the wood is good for the spear shafts. Ash is also the favoured wood to make hurleys in the Irish sport of hurling, hence it is connected to both war and sport (which some say is war by other means)
(2) The Norse name of the first man was "Ash", so relating the character both to Adam the first human being, and Adam Kadmon, the Universal Man who is the emanation of the Divine Light
(3) In Celtic mythology in general, and Irish mythology in particular, ash is one of the sacred trees. It is associated with holy wells and with protection and strength. Ash trees are associated with May Day (Beltáine), the start of summer. Ash, oak and thorn (hawthorn) are plants associated magical powers and the fairies
(4) Perhaps due to its association with the Otherworld/fairies, in his novel "Phantastes", George MacDonald says the Ash is evil:
"“Trust the Oak,” said she; “trust the Oak, and the Elm, and the great Beech. Take care of the Birch, for though she is honest, she is too young not to be changeable. But shun the Ash and the Alder; for the Ash is an ogre,—you will know him by his thick fingers; and the Alder will smother you with her web of hair, if you let her near you at night.”
Read the book and all shall be revealed.
I have read the paperback version and Bentham is much better than this.
People have been telling him this even since he teased his change many years ago. He's doing it against reader feedback, not out of ignorance.
I liked the idea of Malia but felt the details could use more work (for such a major character to the theme she only ever showed up twice, so the reveals about her weren't as impactful as they should have been). I haven't read the new version but expect it to be an improvement
I think she suffered from the book's general shift away from "kabbalahpunk" to high fantasy
High fantasy? It's an EPIC!
The only thing I remember about Malia is the “nightjar eyes” — I hope this image was kept.
I came across a nightjar ground nest in the Sierra a while back and got a big diversionary display: freaky! Those birds can open their mouths wide and scream.
Every time I see a picture of a nightjar I think of Unsong.
Oh man, then you're missing out. Read The Wicked Eye Flies to the Full Moon for the fundamental nightjar experience! Well, Minerva's technically an owl-slash-American military experiment-slash-1960s movie monster, but there's no mistaking the eyes here.
As an aside, 2ch looked at that thing, said "but what if it was also a maid", and created a once-beloved but now-forgotten character called Yabai-san. These "X but as a maid" posts, alongside OS-tans and Idolmaster, would eventually become the progenitors to Virtual Youtubers.
...and huh, I never made the connection with Unsong until now. A color-swapped Yabai will be my mental image of Malia moving forward.
This image was kept.
Worth a Kindle edition?
The author blurb says: "Welcome! Thanks for stopping by and looking at my page. I absolutely love literature and great stories. The quote above is from my novel The Dracula Illusion: a gothic, bloody tale that spans centuries of vampiric richness! It will excite all lovers of vampire and horror fiction. Please check out the blurb to see if you would like to walk with Xander Farold along the dark path of manipulation and death.
My new book 'I Like You Too, Adam Strange' is out now!!
As for me, I am working on completing my MA in English Literature and exploring new literary avenues."
I assume this isn't you, right? Probably want to get that fixed if so
How can this NOT be available electronically (kindle, epub, . . . )?
This is a smart move
Ordered! And in case anyone's on the fence, here's Scott Aaronson's review:
https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=3259
Well euphemism, that makes some of my Christmas shopping very easy this year. Excellent.
Ash Bentham...no relation to Jeremy? Nah, probably just a coincidence...
Congrats! There’s a lot more effort involved in making the jump to a fully edited and published book than most people realize, so kudos for putting in the work. I’ll definitely be getting a copy.
It’s too bad you don’t offer the new version on kindle. I’d happily buy it if you did. And today is a double points day, so I’d be missing out on getting my extra points even if you flipped the switch tmro. Huge bummer! Pls do that?
Is there a trivial way for me to make that happen?
Not trivial, no. It's a small amount of work to make a Kindle, unless you know someone who you can delegate to.
According to my friend who is a publisher, you need to format the text as a *reflowable* epub file using whatever tool you made the PDF with. Don't try to convert the PDF to epub directly as that can cause Problems. Calibre is apparently a good tool for this kind of thing.
Use a word doc and upload it. Amazon is very good about auto-formatting now. I can’t imagine it taking someone who has done it before more than about two hours. (I used to publish on Amazon but stoped when I became a people manager, never did big numbers or anything but it’s an easy flow)
Congrats on all the hard work and the Amazon release! Very exciting! And pls forgive my grumbling about no kindle version - as soon as it’s available I’ll be buying. I just can’t buy old school print books anymore, for various reasons
I want to read the new version of the book, but I don't like reading paper books instead of things I can keep in my pocket on my phone. Is there a way for me to do that?
I'm just glad the Unsong rewrite actually happened. I wonder how the prediction for this year (if there is one) is going to be resolved, given that it wasn't, strictly speaking, Scott who did the messy publishing work.
>the Caliph of California
What a suspiciously familiar guy. If he doesn't drone strike a kabbalistic sweatshop at least once in the story, I'll be disappointed.
Reminds me of the After the End setting for CK2, where the grip of the mighty house of Yudkow over California was finally slacking thanks to the collapse of the Empire.
Strictly speaking, Scott was the one who did the publishing, as in submitting the manuscript to Amazon and pressing the Publish button.
I would also very much like to have a Kindle version. Besides my physical shelves overflowing, it's quite inconvenient to have it shipped to Spain. Maybe we could beg @Pycea to go *another* extra mile, pretty please with sugar on top?
I'll look into it.
Thanks. No glib irony, just delurking for long enough to express appreciation for you taking the time to look into it.
FWIW you can also buy it from amazon.es
https://www.amazon.es/-/pt/gp/product/B0D57BYS3Y/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A1AT7YVPFBWXBL&psc=1
Thank you, I found the option downthread. Still, the overflowing shelves are a concern. I will do if there is no other option (there is no way I'm going to miss a re-read of a re-edit), but for the moment, it can wait.
The biggest shame is Unsong needed to get shorter, remove some interludes maybe, to fix the pacing around the middle. Instead, it sounds like it was made even longer? Did anyone ever complain that the names weren't kabbalistically appropriate?
Like, don't get me wrong, I doubt the novel I like has been made significantly worse, and I'm glad the novel is finally published and Scott can move on, but I wanted the opportunity to not be wasted. Oh well.
Clearly Scott doesn't consider the opportunity wasted, so are you attempting to insult him by suggesting that he's wrong?
I don't consider it an insult to disagree with someone. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity to tighten up the pacing, yes.
I think that insultingness depends on how you frame your disagreement. I happen to think that Unsong would have seriously benefited from participation of a good editor, but I don't presume to tell Scott that he's wrong in his approach, because there's no reasonable standard of objective literary quality.
Why once in a lifetime?
Obviously I can't make it shorter, otherwise it would have a kabbalistically inappropriate number of chapters.
You could trim it down from 652 pages to 613.
Is this a place for rationalist or Kabbalists. I know the trite answer would be “both”, but I doubt it.
I was sad when it was over and wished it was longer
I kind of like it big and sprawling. It reminds me of Neal Stephenson - the ideas are too big to be contained neatly in the book without cutting interesting parts.
Ordered! Been wanting to re-read it, this seems like the perfect way and the shipping cost to the UK isn't too terrible...
Was as surprised as others to read the author bio, and honestly I would have been happy to read vampire/gothic books written by you if that had actually been the case, haha :P
You don't need to have it shipped to the UK, order it from Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Unsong-Scott-Alexander/dp/B0D57BYS3Y
It's available the next day in the UK, presumably they're using Amazon's print on demand service.
Ah, thanks! I feel pretty dumb for missing this.
I have got into the habit of editing amazon.com URLs to the amazon.co.uk version to see if they work. Amazon could really do a better job of letting you know that a book is available through your local version if they see you're browsing from outside the US.
Works for Poland as well! Thank you for the hint!
Kinda sad to hear about the disappearance of Malia Ngo, I liked that character. But I'm curious to see who she's been replaced with. I'm glad this finally exists in true book form.
haha I can't decide whether it is racist because he replaced an Asian character with a white character, or woke because Malia Ngo was problematic from the beginning anyway
I was half asleep this morning when I ordered the paperback, and I almost bought the vampire novels "by the same author" because I thought "if Scott wrote it it must be good, even if it is about vampires"
PS
I like Malia, curious to see the changes but glad you haven't updated the online version
Important note for UK and other non-US readers: you don't need to ship it from the US, go to the UK Amazon store and order it from there: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Unsong-Scott-Alexander/dp/B0D57BYS3Y
This reportedly also works for other non-US Amazon stores - just change the domain name in the URL to your local version. This is probably a print-on-demand edition so it will be available quickly even if you live far away from the US.
I can confirm this from Spain (though here the delivery time is 1 week, probably some issue with print-on-demand). And it's covered with Prime. Still, as I said above, a Kindle option would be preferable.
I would also like a Kindle edition!
A couple things about the book:
1. As others have noted, it's print on demand, so if you're not in the US then check your local Amazon store to see if it's there.
2. For kabbalistic reasons, it isn't published as an ebook right now. However, without making any promises, I'll look into starting the process.
Without holding you to a promise you didn't make, thank you very much!
If there's a wish list, can we get a hard cover too?
My wish would be a diff for the two versions.
A beautifully bound, hardback diff.
Why wouldn't an ebook be kabalistically appropriate? I read it on my Kindle paperwhite before and would very much like to read the updated version on same if possible
"Kabbalistic reasons" is shorthand, in anything related to UNSONG, to either "there are deep reasons behind this" and "I don't care to explain".
Thank you for *yet another* contribution to making Scott's writings easy to read. :-)
Ebook version coming soon™
Let me guess, it is about The Holy land?
Well, San Francisco is featured, but only plays a small part.
> And the sinister Malia Ngo has been replaced by the equally sinister, but actual-character-development-having, Ash Bentham.
A month ago, I wrote an Unsong-style interlude using kabbalah on the name Bentham.
The interlude: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-OPaiERstmOD_rmqomGF2flCFG8utu1WtT9aLzhGTr8/edit?usp=sharing
Context: https://x.com/austinc3301/status/1782474227301425612
None of this was a coincidence because nothing was ever a coincidence.
I've never ordered a book so fast in my life.
Ordered! And there's a decent chance I'll order it again when there's a Kindle version. I did the same for John Dies at the End, and I look forward to the Unsong movie adaptation
I was trawling Tvtropes last night and came across an Unsong reference, made me think I really ought to finally read this, so yeah something something not a coincidence
Very pleased to see a printed book is available!
I get the Archon of Arkansas and the Caliph of California. I don't, however, understand the Shogun of Michigan. The "gun" "gan" almost-rhyme doesn't seem like what it's going for, but I can't place anything else that makes any sense. I would better understand the Michigan Matriarch or something.
Vowels are a lie and don't actually exist in either Japanese (see msgk, kwsk, ggrks, wwwwww being actual words) or Hebrew (triconsonantal roots), so you get (m)-sh-g-n and sh-g-n.
The (m-) prefix obviously is the ism-i fail (what do you call it in Hebrew? I'm only familiar with the Ottoman Turkish terms, which are derived from Arabic), denoting a person who possesses, does, or is the master of the modified verb. Hence a person who exercises the rights of a shoguniyye is a (m)u-(sh)o-(g)u-(n), or (M)i-(sh)i-(g)a-(n). The Shogun of Michigan is clearly displaying his power by naming the entire state after himself.
Thanks! This was very informative, if not as entertaining as the other nations with their leaders. It certainly seems correct, but even after reading it out still seems like quite a stretch.
This is very cool! Any chance for a Kindle and ideally Audible versions?
The commendable Pycea has not-promised downthread to take a look at the Kindle version, for which at least a few of us profusely express our thanks.
Also worth noting that if you have a Kindle version, you can fairly easily make an Audible version through an Amazon program called ACX where they pair you with a "Producer" who narrates the book and produces Audible-ready files: https://www.acx.com/mp/how-it-works/authors
TINACBNIAC.
Really? The program is called ACX!? I'd be tempted to say that's just too kabbalistically appropriate, but... I don't want to tempt our host too much. A full-length book, narrated by a human, sounds expensive. Not that I'm suggesting a Kickstarter or something. That sounds like too much work. Not that I'm trying to reverse-psychology anybody. That sounds like too much depth of recursion.
I hadn't even clocked the name!
The cost of doing can be funded by the Producer taking a cut of sales I think - you don't need to put money up front. Admittedly with Unsong it would be a lot of work to read, but I imagine the audiobook version would get decent sales just through exposure from this blog.
I listened to a podcast version of Unsong. I think that guy did it for free, and he did a good job. Maybe get him to narrate the Audible book? And pay him this time?
I've never read it, but this is an immediate purchase as it allows me to support you without subscribing. Notwithstanding that it seems entertaining and I don't care to read on screens.
Cheers
Are you interested in doing an audiobook version? It would be somewhat technically challenging to do justice, but would make the story significantly more accessible. The independent audiobook narration scene is thriving right now.
I would recommend Soundbooth Theater (https://soundbooththeater.com/), an indie audiobook producer that specializes in high production values, often with technical effects. I know somebody there, and they've picked up several web serials before. If you have good popularity metrics (which you must) then they'd likely be willing to do it as royalty share.
This space is much more open than it was a decade ago - and seeing a good Unsong audiobook would make my day! It deserves it.
Amazon seems to think there is a podcast version available through Audible, read by Matt Arnold. I presume that’s the old version, and I can’t vouch for its quality.
The narration was just fine. I had weird problems with volume on all my devices, where I had to crank the volume all the way up and still needed a volume increasing app.
Huh, the one time I tried kabbalistic analysis ;)
https://manifold.markets/whybyfire/will-unsong-be-published-by-2025#RaS6ZKjLkQDRJ756DxMs
Awesome.
Am I the only one who saw this headline in their inbox and misread it as "Song Unavailable in Paperback"?
The message was meant for your Unbox, where it would have read 'Unsung available in paperback.'
That's marvelous.
Thanks Scott and Pycea! My copy is on the way.
It's now being described by Amazon as a bestseller in the "Kabbalah and mysticism" category, which has me imagining somebody sincerely into those buying it and not knowing it's a fantasy novel.
Literally yesterday I was thinking about Unsong and wondering if you'd ever make a hard copy available. Gonna go order a copy!
An immediate purchase! I read the web version years ago, eager to do a reread and share it with my wife. Thanks for making this happen.
Cool. BTW have you seen your best sellers rank?
"Best Sellers Rank: #347 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
#1 in Kabbalah & Mysticism
#3 in Alternate History Science Fiction (Books)
#6 in Humorous Science Fiction (Books)"
Seems pretty decent. I assume the top five in humorous science fiction are all various iterations of HHGTTG.
edit, turns out I was wrong. Hitchhikers is number three and Unsong is number two when I view the category directly. Number one is, wait for it, Gone Fishing.
Woohoo! Unfortunately I boycott Amazon, but I may partially break this by paying a friend to buy it for me. I'd love this on my shelf narrowly more than I hate that company.
By the way, Scott, I have an Unsong tattoo. I hope you don't mind. If you do, too late!
https://i.imgur.com/77Dttdc.jpeg (The shading isn't so bad irl - lighting/camera doesn't do well with this one.)
No comment on its kabbalistic appropriateness, but it's definitely Judaically inappropriate. So be it.
It's listed on Amazon as $20.99 for me, and not $19.99. Is that normal?
That doesn't seem right, are you on the US store?
I am, yeah
Is this still an issue? Does it persist if you log out, or alternatively log in?
Has anyone held the book in their hand and can comment on its looks/feel/quality?
I received the book yesterday and read 200-some pages.
The book is normal in all respects for a paperback that is large due its word count. The physical information on Amazon seems accurate (6" by 9" and slightly over 1.5" thick).
The looks of the book are a minimalist style: the cover images on Amazon are accurate. The spine has the title and author and the UNSONG logo.
The type is comfortably spaced but not large, at roughly 5.2 lines per inch and probably 12 point. In my experience, this is typical for a "doorstopper", where at 6"x9" you can't be as tightly spaced as a small paperback or it will look terrible, but you can't make the font large or it defeats the point.
The quality looks good for a paperback, but not exceptional, as I think is typical of large paperbacks. (That is, I've never seen a paperback this size that was pulp-tier, probably because publishers know it would fall apart.)
The book is "perfect bound" (normal paperback binding).
Let's have a thread for typos to be corrected in future edtitions. Found one: page 9, line 2 from the bottom: "which meant he probably didn't catch me myself" instead of "himself".
page 435: "a heptagram made up sparking purple Beanie Babie dragons" is missing an "of". Also present in https://unsongbook.com/chapter-45-in-the-remotest-bottoms-of-the-caves/
page 306: "Outside the his window"
Scott,
I'm sure you got plenty of notes, and maybe you've gotten to this one already, but if not, here's my suggestion for the VR version or whatever medium prompts the next set of George Lucas style tinkering. :)
IMHO, the plot of Sarah's desperate affection for Aaron could stand to be resolved a little more before the end, and also IMHO, the obvious resolution is she's Aaron's *child.* He's responsible for her, and loves her, and it's not even unusual that she has some misplaced romantic affection for him. A Tempest-style acknowledgement and offer of parental love would be a nice bow on the relationship.
Of course a sinister character isn't named NGO anymore, NGOs are what brings us the unlimited migrants, can't have that association.
... have you read the book?
I haven't. Is it not anti-White propaganda like any other book published in the last ten years?
I don't think it ventures any opinion about the Whites
Do you know if there’s going to be a Kindle version?
Thank you so much for keeping the original version up! Personally had a lot of moments where I preferred the original text - Erica=America, President Cheney, Obama, etc.
But of course this is still the best book of all time! I bought a physical copy and will buy another whenever one of my friends needs a present. Good stuff.
Also, typo on page 435: "a heptagram made up sparking purple Beanie Babie dragons" is missing an "of". Also present in https://unsongbook.com/chapter-45-in-the-remotest-bottoms-of-the-caves/
My copy arrived and I just wanted to express how happy it makes me to hold it in my hands, randomly open a page and be reminded of the story. Ive read your book twice and I love it for so many reasons. Definitely sits on my "best books ever" bookshelf. Much appreciated that you published it. And that you wrote it in first place!!
Now I only wish I had some friends living locally, around me, who I could force the book on, to read it, so we can share the joy. Cant think of one!! hahaha
You "think" this is an improvement? It is MUCH better, even though the original was already amazing.
Any plans for this to made into a Kindle publication? The paperback looks great on the shelf, but it's a chonker when it come to travel!
Hey Scott, I just finished the paperback version yesterday and absolutely loved it. Question: where did your clearly extremely deep knowledge of kabbalah come from? Was this a pre-existing interest you hadn't blogged about, or did you deep dive kabbalah just for the book specifically?
Why is the new Mortal Name I--a? IMHO it makes the assassinations oddly unconvincing -- the phrases they read seem to spell I--a on first inspection and you'd think in universe people'd be even more subconsciously attuned to the name of the Des Moines Entity than readers are