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| [[File:Midnightsimulacra-cover-1024x768.png|right|thumb|Front and back covers, and spine]] | | [[File:Midnightsimulacracover.jpg|right|thumb|Front and back covers, and spine]] |
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| My first novel, coming 2024-01-09!
| | [https://midnightssimulacra.com My first novel] released 2024-01-11! You probably want [https://midnightssimulacra.com the book page]. |
| * A currentish draft of [https://nick-black.com/midnight-parti-2023-10-05.pdf Part I is available], containing the first four chapters
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| It's a romp featuring plenty of hacking, [[Ergot|clandestine chemistry]], and even a spot of at-home [[SILEX|uranium enrichment]]. Along the way, there's lots of science and philosophy of science, and some big questions. A partial bibliography is available at [https://midnightssimulacra.com https://midnightssimulacra.com].
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| ==Blurb==
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| The twenty-first century's primary path of socioeconomic mobility is engineering;
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| scientists took over from the priests no later than the twentieth.
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| America's most ambitious students these days compete for placement in STEM
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| programs, as do some of her wiliest rogues.
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| Michael Luis Bolaño is the scion of Mexican oil wealth gone to rut in Texas.
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| Sherman Spartacus Katz is the hyperliterate son of evangelical eccentrics from
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| the North Georgia mountains. One hopes to restore what's been lost, the other
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| to attain what never was. Together at an elite Institute of Technology they
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| train as engineers. Together in the dark they study forbidden teachings.
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| By graduation, they're formidably competent, audacious to a fault, and
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| wholly ungovernable.
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| <i>midnight's simulacra</i> is a hysterical, scientifically rigorous, and
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| fastpaced thriller, a twenty-first century picaresque, a portrait of
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| the autist as a young man, and unlike any other novel you've read.
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| ==Formats==
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| * Hardback ($40): the intended format. 9x6"
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| * Trade ($20): also good. Exact same text/paging as hardback. 8.5x5.5"
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| * PDF ($0): free. No cover. Not the best format for some ereaders. 9.25x6.125"
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| ** Should you like the book, it would be cool if you bought a copy, or at least spread the word.
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| * Epub ($20): least faithful version, but most flexible on ereaders
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| ** [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CMQH4SCB Available for preorder] on Amazon, shipping 2024-01-23
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| In the future, I might release an annotated edition. This would likely only be available in hardback, but who knows? I might annotate all formats simply to cut down on annoyances. The likelihood of me doing this is directly related to reader response as seen in sales and reviews.
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| ==Contents==
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| ===Part I===
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| # coming of age in confusion
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| # sherman katz gets himself expelled
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| # michael bolaño indulges in small pleasures
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| # elephant seals
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| ===Part II===
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| <ol start="5">
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| <li>devesh choudhary is all about physics and rolls</li>
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| <li>atrium vestae</li>
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| <li>y’all’ve any more of that vee-cee?</li>
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| <li>alexei orshanskiy thinks he can get you lemons</li>
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| <li>pavlov’s hierophant and schrödinger’s hæresiarch</li>
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| <li>vladimir cel tredat takes up a collection</li>
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| <li>ergot</li>
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| <li>welcome to my lab; we’ve got Taq polymerase</li>
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| </ol>
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| ===Part III===
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| <ol start="13">
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| <li>cloud wandered lonely like a daffodil</li>
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| <li>max-cashflow min-cut theorem</li>
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| <li>if you eat that i think it is going to kill you</li>
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| <li>misadventures in regulated capitalism</li>
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| <li>erica marelli knows her yeast</li>
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| <li>anarbek tursyn busts a move</li>
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| <li>the chemical history of an eightball</li>
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| <li>uranium</li>
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| </ol>
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| ===Part IV===
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| <ol start="21">
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| <li>a stamped-in network of paths</li>
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| <li>overall there is a smell of fried onions</li>
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| <li>greg moyer gives some bad advice</li>
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| <li>vancouver! vancouver! this is it! (necroplanetology)</li>
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| <li>the one about narcosubs</li>
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| <li>the south’s got something to say</li>
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| <li>it’ll really raise the tone of your trap</li>
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| <li>oriana marino speaks in riddles</li>
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| <li>feedback loops are Bad Shit, to be Avoided</li>
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| <li>my mistakes are many, but less terrible than god’s</li>
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| </ol>
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| ===Part V===
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| <ol start="31">
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| <li>usurper</li>
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| <li>prima luce</li>
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| </ol>
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| ==Illustrations== | | ==Illustrations== |
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| File:03-DC-Party-HC-300.jpg|without MSG i am nothing | | File:03-DC-Party-HC-300.jpg|without MSG i am nothing |
| File:06-SSKPostItGirl-HC-300.jpg|the yellow wallpaper | | File:06-SSKPostItGirl-HC-300.jpg|the yellow wallpaper |
| File:07-AO MLB-HC-300.jpg|a clockwork orange | | File:07-AO MLB-HC-300.jpg|unfair arguments with existence |
| File:05-SSK MLBVanLeer-HC-300.jpg|le rouge et le noir (the red and the black) | | File:05-SSK MLBVanLeer-HC-300.jpg|le rouge et le noir (the red and the black) |
| File:08-VCT-Gaming-HC-300.jpg|fanged noumena | | File:08-VCT-Gaming-HC-300.jpg|fanged noumena |
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| File:04-AT-CrossingStreet-HC-300.jpg|to the lighthouse | | File:04-AT-CrossingStreet-HC-300.jpg|to the lighthouse |
| File:16-ElevatorWarhead-HC-300.jpg|war in the age of intelligent machines | | File:16-ElevatorWarhead-HC-300.jpg|war in the age of intelligent machines |
| File:13-SSK MLBStressTable-HC-300.jpg|unfair arguments with existence
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| File:10-Greg-OwningIt-HC-300.jpg|auch zwerge haben klein angefangen (even dwarfs started small) | | File:10-Greg-OwningIt-HC-300.jpg|auch zwerge haben klein angefangen (even dwarfs started small) |
| File:02-MLB-Drinking-HC-300.jpg|angle of repose | | File:02-MLB-Drinking-HC-300.jpg|angle of repose |
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| File:07-SSKRunHighway-HC-300.jpg|the difference between me and you is that i am not on fire | | File:07-SSKRunHighway-HC-300.jpg|the difference between me and you is that i am not on fire |
| </gallery> | | </gallery> |
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| ==Dramatis Personae==
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| '''warning: these arguably contain spoilers'''
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| Major characters are introduced in prime-numbered chapters. Originally, I was going to do something inspired by [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serialism serialist music], and identify each character with a prime number, and then only have characters in a given chapter if they were in that chapter number's prime factorization. This idea sucked for several reasons, so I abandoned it.
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| * Sherman Spartacus Katz (b. 1980)
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| ** Also mother Eveline (Evy), and her husband Cassius James. Also Theodore Roosevelt and Jodie Foster, agents of an undetermined agency in a series of recurring dreams.
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| ** Enters GT 1998 CS+MATH BS, graduates 2005
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| * Michael Luis Bolaño (b. 1979)
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| ** Also great-great-grandfather Gustavo, and his wife Guadalupe; their son Antonio, and his wife Valentina; their three children: eldest son José Luis, and the twin daughters Xevera and Zita; Lillian, wife of José Luis; their son Luis, and his wife Rosemary; their son Diego (brother of MLB).
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| ** Enters GT 1998 IE+PHYS BS, graduates 2002
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| * Devesh Choudhary (b. 1977)
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| ** Also a pursuing alligator snapping turtle.
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| ** Enters GT 1997 PHYS BS, graduates 2003
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| ** Enters UCSB 2003 PHYS PhD, graduates 2008
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| * Alexei Orshanskiy (b. 1980)
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| ** Enters GT 1999 CS+MechE BS, graduates 2003
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| ** Enters GT 2003 MechE MS, graduates 2005
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| * Vladimir cel Tredat (b. 1982)
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| ** Enters GT 2002 CS, graduates 2005
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| * Anarbek Tursyn (b. 1977)
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| ** Enters MEPhI 1995 NucE BS, graduates 2000
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| ** Enters GT 2009 NucE MS, graduates 2011
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| * Cloud (b. ?)
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| * Erica Marelli (b. 1985)
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| ** Enters UC-Berkeley 2003 Chemistry BS, graduates 2006
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| ** Enters GT 2006 Bioinformatics MS, graduates 2009
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| ** Enters GT 2009 BME PhD, graduates 2013
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| * Greg Moyer (b. 1979)
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| ** Enters GT 1998 MGMT BS, graduates 2003
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| * Oriana Marino (b. 1988)
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| ** Enters GSU 2007 Phil+Journalism BS, graduates 2012
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