Hey, all!

LOTS of news this month, so I'm going to jump right in with the style of a 90s-era Marvel Bullpen Bulletin that they'd use as in-house newsletters.

I loved seeing the all-caps ITEM subheadings in the middle of a random Spider-Man or New Warriors comic, so I shall shamelessly copy that format now.

That's right!

The Breakers is releasing on Thursday, September 4, 2025.  And if you're so inclined, you can pre-order it on Kindle now with the button below.

Do you prefer paperbacks or another ebook service besides Amazon?

Fear not!

The Breakers will be available for paperback purchase on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Bookshop.org.  And other ebook versions will be available on Apple, BN, Kobo, and many others.  They will go live on the actual 9/4/2025 date.

But if you are a Kindle reader, go right ahead and use the button below to get in line.

Here's a proof copy of The Breakers.  It clocks in at 586 pages.  

It.  Is.  Epic.

You should totally grab a copy of your own in a month.

All the Players of the Game goodness!  None of the "Not for Resale" stripes.

"An electrifying blend of high fantasy and futuristic warfare..."

-The Prairies Book Review

I hope to have more editorial reviews to share with you in the coming months.

In the meantime, check out the full review with the button below:

In the past, I had a paltry presence on Goodreads, as I found its user interface too annoying.

I've changed my stance.  Its UI is... fine.  

And more importantly, it's one of the best places to learn what actual readers think about their favorite books.

I've also linked my blog from Stelfire.com to it, so it already has a robust selection of entries.  Many of which will be familiar to long-time reader group members.

So, if Goodreads is your bag, please follow me on that platform with the button below or the Goodreads logo at the very bottom of this email.

New to the Players of the Game Saga or need a refresh before you jump into The Breakers?  I've got you covered!

Check out the Recaps tab on Stelfire.com with the button below.

Want to know the score fast?  Select Quick Recap, and Corsis will detail all his jerky skullduggery in just a few minutes.

Want to know the nitty gritty?  Select Detailed Recaps to jump in with both feet and learn all the big events and character moments of the Players of the Game saga.

Well, that's not true at all, as the rest of the email below will confirm.

But we shall now return to the typical topics I cover in these reader group emails.  

Translation: I gots ta share my usual artwork, WIP status reports, and geeky things I like.

Starting with an image of Ashe Stelfire that many of you have seen, but I wanted to share anew.

It all started with the man called Repenter.

Ashe Stelfire started out as a selfish and cruel person.  The worst person for the job of helping Avril Enzali, his long-lost daughter, to save her goddess from eternal imprisonment in an extra-dimensional dungeon of unbreakable ice.

Things did not go as planned.

Avril and Ashe both suffered great harm.  The daughter far worse than the father.  All at the whims of Corsis, who toyed with them from the periphery of a dark empire's rise to power.  Before he could embark on the quest to free his daughter's goddess, Ashe had to fight through a hellish world war to reclaim the means to heal Avril's wounds.

Ashe changed along the way.  

He lost his innate pyromancy, transformed himself with a transfusion of silver blood, and claimed the legendary Retributor axe.  And he donned the monstrous bronze mask fashioned from the face of his old mentor.  Of far greater significance, he put aside his greed for fortune hunting as he learned of the magnitude of Corsis's threat.  He strove to be better.

To repent.

He and his allies achieved a bitter victory in the final battle, where the means to heal Avril was at last recovered.  Although they triumphed in that smaller goal, they still lost the war against the dark empire backed by Corsis.  Ashe, Avril, and several of their friends fled to another world in the aftermath.  A brighter world.

A world with the entrance to a certain ice maze.

Ashe and Avril will at last embark on the quest to break out the imprisoned goddess.  One they had originally intended to perform by themselves.  But the past hard years have imparted another hard lesson.

When it comes to the Game and all the things it touches, going it alone is folly.

They will need help.

Find out how they get it in The Breakers.

I can't remember if I've mentioned this earlier.  But The Breakers is available on September 4th, 2025.  I could have sworn I had talked about that topic somewhere.

Kidding aside, I'm excited to get it out in the world.  But I shan't be resting on my laurels.

I'm creeping toward the end of the first drafts for Book 5.5: Unseen Scars and Book 5.7: Secret Fronts.  The initial combined draft sits at 137,600 words with 482 pages.  That's 14,000 words with 46 pages this time around.  It didn't feel like I did better this month, but that's double last month's so-so output, so I take the W.

Once I'm done with the combined draft, I'll take a look at The Game War's edits from my editor, and run it through ProWritingAid again.  Then on to slicing and dicing books 5.5 and 5.7.

And maybe make use of Eleven Labs to see how AI narration sounds.  I've been kicking around using that where I'd direct the performance of a virtual voice.  Sadly, I cannot afford a voice actor for an audio book.  So it's either AI-narrated audio or no audio.  I'm still determining what I want to do there.

A quandary for a later time.

Players of the Game Out of Context Quote of the Month

Corsis and Frulgrath:

Corsis considered Frulgrath, maybe with an eyebrow raised from behind his mask, maybe not. Finally, he said, “Self-delusion sneaks up on the best of us.”

Frulgrath stood away from the wall, still unsure if Corsis leveraged only intuition or something more invasive. He supposed it didn’t matter either way. “Hrh. You gotta be you. And I gotta be me.”

Superman (2025)

I adored this movie.  

Superman is so easy to get wrong.  But this felt like picking up a random issue and jumping in with both feet.  Some folks won't like the "toss into the deep end" approach to reintroducing him.

I am not among them.

It's the best comic book movie I've seen in years.  

The pacing is fantastic. There was no part of this movie that felt slow. Luckily I had an empty bladder, as there were no slow-pace expository/transitional scenes where it felt like a good time to step out.  I've seen it twice, and I remained impressed by its story structure.

Mr. Terrific, Lex, Lois, and of course, Krypto, were the other standouts. I teared up at the father-son scene between Clark and Pa Kent. 

Its take on the original John Williams score was very hummable, which is job one of any movie score in my reckoning.

A very positive and earnest movie.  Highest possible recommendation.

Fantastic Four: First Steps

The best cinematic adaptation of Fantastic Four.  Not as good as Superman.  But the more I pondered the movie, the more I liked it.

I was initially on the fence with whether I'd be on board (pun partially intended) with the Silver Surfer swap from Norrin Radd to Shalla Bal.  But the angle they took with it worked for me.  This interpretation of the Surfer made her and Johnny Storm sort of love interests.  They sort of flirted with tentative curiosity about each other.  It turned tragic as Johnny figured out a cipher for her language while Reed, Sue, and Ben were busy with figuring out a way to beat Galactus.

Speaking of which, I love how they leveraged Reed's brains and Sue and Ben's hearts as part of their drive to not sacrifice Franklin to Galactus's designs.  Dare I say it?  I thought it worked better than the comics' Ultimate Nullifier macguffin in the original story.

Sue's drive to keep Franklin safe was very relatable.  Vanessa Kirby really excelled in showing her strength when she confronted a crowd of haters.  The Invisible Woman is rightly up there with Storm and Wonder Woman as an exemplar of a female super hero.

And Pedro Pascal did a good portrayal of Reed Richards, but (nerd quibble alert) he wasn't stretchy enough. All the others' powers were spot on.

Some people had an issue with Ben Grimm not having a gravelly voice. But I liked his soft-spoken, understated, pensive demeanor. I also like that they dialed into his Jewish background.

Herbie and the Fantasticar were also spot on with the retro-future aesthetic.

And this score is up there with Superman and the Avengers.  Especially the verbal part.  I've been singing "FANTASTIC FOUR!!!!" to my wife for days. It's a fun earworm and I get to tease her. A true double threat.

Also recommended.  Like I said earlier, Superman is better.  But FF: FS is totally worth seeing in the theater too.

Check out these fantastic fantasy tales on the house. Including Repenter! 

High Stakes Magic Where Death Is On The Line. Also including Repenter!

That's all for this time.

Stay smart.  Stay safe.

Jim