 It is already January 6 2016 I actually recorded this over New Year's weekend, but I did a lousy job decided I needed to do it again so here we are going to be doing my wrap up for the month of December 2015, but before I Get into these books. I want to do a little update about the the YouTube channel and about 30 second sci-fi In general on YouTube. I have more than 380 subscribers now more than 90% of my views however come from non-subscribers Almost 100% of my views my hits come from that video. I did last year about how to fix a problem with the OBS Streaming software those three videos. I did about unboxing and critiquing the cano computer I'm gonna keep the OBS video in fact I think I'll do an updated version of it so people will stop leaving comments asking me what to do the cano videos though I think I'll get rid of those. They're not bringing in useful traffic Speaking of traffic all of the Star Wars videos. I did during December were entirely intended to be clickbait They're not really getting any more views than my regular videos do but they're generating a lot more chatter from my regular viewers and Guys, I have to tell you I really don't care Like that's a video I posted about the Star Wars toys that I saw at the library yesterday That was entirely intended to be clickbait. I do not want help identifying Those various spaceships. I don't care It's just clickbait And it's not even working really so Just relax. Okay. I have two patrons for most of the time that I've had the patronage thing going I had one patron then for a while. I had two and then for a while. I had none but right now I have two and they are pledging a grand total of four dollars a month I Really did way too much work last month To be justified by that amount of patronage. I'll keep this up for a while I'm not going to do as much work as I did last month Seriously, the tumbler has grown to I think 70 followers But there's no activity on the tumbler at all if the posts get any likes at all they may get one and They don't generate any comments at all the Twitter account is not growing either and Neither is the Facebook page although there is one fan on Facebook that likes About half of everything I post there But really the tumbler is the headquarters and if you're not going to the tumbler and I know you're not because The traffic here on YouTube is a thousand times greater than the traffic on tumbler There's so much more stuff on the tumbler in addition to my videos and my book reviews. I post Pictures of the stuff that comes in I post links to other stuff. I post links to science fiction related news That's where everything is Visit the stupid tumbler. That's what it's for if you're interested in science fiction If you're interested in what you're seeing here on the YouTube channel, you will be interested in what's on the tumbler I know it's impossible on the internet to get people to go outside of their regular deer runs But anyway, the good stuff is at the tumbler. Go visit the tumbler All right, so Here's the stuff that I brought in and read during December December was a long month. It just dragged on it seemed like it would never end. I don't know why 2015 seemed like a very long year 2013 and 14 went by so fast. I don't know what happened to them. They were gone before I knew it 2015 Seemed like it would never end. It was a very difficult year financially personally. I Don't expect 2016 to be any better honestly. I expect it to stink. I Really do all of these books came in in December again as I always say it looks like I'm spending a lot of money on books I am not I am spending Pocket change on books usually no more than a dollar a book This was unusual. I paid ten dollars for this Lumberjanes graphic novel if you have daughters if you have nieces if you have friends who have daughters and nieces get them this They will enjoy it is a day. It is aimed particularly at little girls It is great fun the art is very loose and enjoyable The the dialogue is the same Just a lot of fun lumberjanes these three issues of fantasy and science fiction from The 1950s all of them from 1954 got these on eBay. I Saw them on a good deal snapped them up. I Showed you this book a while back when it came in. I finally got around to reading the The title story here the Two-handed engine by Henry Kutner and Seal Moore. It was okay I really should read more of their work their husband and wife science fiction writing team very unusual I should read more of their work so I can talk about them This book right here analog science fact and fiction December 1961 issue, this is a UK edition the reason I bring this up is because I listen to an Audio book on YouTube and I'll post a link to it in the description that audio book had the picture of this cover on it and the story this illustration fits that story and It solved kind of a mystery for me in that I've had this book for a couple of years and I for the life of me could not find a story in this book that matched this picture or this This phrase heavy planet design the story that I heard on YouTube that had this picture with it Perfectly matches this This cover painting went on this issue Without the story in it That belongs with this illustration. Maybe it's because it's the UK edition. I don't know anyway. I'll post a link It's a neat little story not a great story, but a neat little story some stuff that came in the mail Stephen King night shift collection of short stories After reading under the dome last year, I decided I wanted to read some more Stephen King But I don't want to read any more of his giant novels I'll start with some short stories the Martian child by David Gerald Apparently, this is his defining work for those of you who don't know David Gerald is the guy who Created tribbles on the original Star Trek and he was the guy who created the original land of the Lost television series in 1974 Edge Chronicles book one beyond the deep woods My Paul Stewart and illustrated by Chris Riddell I've been following Chris. Oh, it was a bookmark in here. I've been following Chris Riddell on tumbler for a couple of years seeing his illustration work and I had no idea he was involved in this book series I Suspect there are plenty of artists I follow on tumbler on Twitter Whose actual work I'm not actually familiar with Anyway, once I learned about this I ordered this first book The same shipment I got this across the wall short story collection by Garth Nix. I've seen this guy's name I'm not familiar with his work, but I guess I'm gonna find out This was sent to me by the author J. R. Hammond Teshin. It's his latest book. This one's self-published The full title is There it is With a voice that is often still confused but is becoming ever louder and clearer He has a habit of doing that making these Story titles that are full sentences. I reviewed his previous book Which he informed me was not self-published I said it was when I reviewed it and in during my horror month last October He contacted me and asked if he could send me a copy of this and I said sure of course I may save this until next October When I review some more horror books Speaking of authors sending me books I'm getting more and more Unsolicited messages from unpublished authors who ask me if I would like to review their first Science fiction novel or even I had one guy ask me if I wanted to beta read his unpublished science fiction novel The answer is no. I'm not going to do that ever so People please don't send me messages like that. The answer is always gonna be no I've never responded to those requests by the way. I'm not even saying no. I'm just not responding The rest of these books here came from The thrift store at the local library volume 2 of cowboy bebop manga. I've seen the anime Series of this not not a big deal. It's about bounty hunters in space in the distant future. I Read a few pages of this. It's no big deal. There's a Yu-Gi-Oh card stuck in it though This is probably worth more than the book and I I paid a dollar for this The Andalite Chronicles It says before the Animorphs there was El Fango or I Don't know anything about the Animorphs series. It's a Young readers science fiction series about teenagers who can turn into animals and stuff And according to the description on this book this alien here is Where their powers came from? Why did I pay even a dollar for this? I don't know and there was this this shiny Silvery-covered book Tracker's book one by Patrick Carmen. The reason I looked at this was because of the shiny cover But the reason I went ahead and paid a dollar for it is because it looks like the entirety of the text is written in a question-and-answer form Someone interviewing somebody It looks like the entire book is that way either that will be interesting or it'll be too painful to read This I bought This is kind of a lark Naked came the manatee a novel written by all of these authors And I recognized a good bit of them Carl Hyason Elmore Leonard Dave Barry and the Buchanan 10 and a Reeve do It's one of these things where one author writes the first chapter and then they all take turns writing a chapter Dave Barry wrote the first chapter here and And It's entitled booger That sounds exactly like something Dave Barry would do for those of you don't know Dave Barry is a humorist who is known for his Comedy editorials and newspapers back in the 80s and 90s He was extremely funny. This was my big find at the library bookstore this month a dollar for this giant Oxford book of fantasy stories apparently It is a companion piece to An Oxford book of science fiction stories, which they did not have But the list of authors is a who's who of science fiction authors I took a look at this and said I need to get this Lord Dunsaney a Merit HP Lovecraft Robert E Howard Clark Ashton Smith Fritz Liber Ray Bradbury Harry Cutter Jack Vance Manly Wade Wellman theater sturgeon Paul Anderson Avram Davidson it goes on and on Larry Niven John Brunner Peter S. Beagle James Siftry, Jr Tanneth Lee Lucius Shepherd Terry Pratchett It's an amazing selection of authors I'll get into that And let you know what it's like. I bought this book. You may be able to see what the problem is already I bought this as an example Of what not to do with a book cover. I looked at it on the shelf I looked at it and looked at it and had to ask myself What's the title of the book Gina show alter Maggie Shane? Susan Crenard is Gina show alter the title of the book or are those names of authors? I looked and looked and couldn't figure out and just as I was setting it back down I noticed down at the bottom in Dark letters that you that are hidden down in the background painting that you can't even see It says heart of darkness. That's the title of the book. It's a collection of three novellas each by these authors and It's an example of a really bad cover. I can see putting the author's name above the title When you're talking about an author whose name is a household word like Stephen King, but for people like this I mean, who are they and Then to hide the actual title of the book down at the bottom making it so dark. You can't even see it I don't know how this is showing up on camera But you sitting here with the naked eye just two feet in front of my eyes. I can hardly see it Bad cover speaking of bad covers. I posted this on the tumbler in the science fiction section of the library I found what has got to be the worst book cover. I've ever seen here. It is I don't know what the Publisher or the editor was going for maybe they were going for a video gaming crowd or the anime crowd But it's a fail. It doesn't capture any of that kind of atmosphere or attitude to it I made a video before where I talked about how you shouldn't blame the artist for bad covers like this And I'm still I'm still going to defend the artist here. This is a situation where the editor and The publisher should have looked at this art and said this is not usable This is not right for this cover It's not right for this project and perhaps the artist is not ready for a job like this the editor and the publisher should have nixed this Anyway, moving on The only other things I have to show here are audio books that I checked out from the library Seven eaves by Neil Stevenson. I've been reading an awful lot about this book a lot of my fellow Booktubers have talked about this I'll I'll give this a listen. There was something called The library at Mount Char Some kind of fantasy murder mystery or something and then some Science fiction for young readers space station rat Something I've never heard of I'll give it a listen and let you know Alright, that's it for this month's wrap up. I will do the first book review of 2016 And post that shortly. Bye You can support 30 seconds sci-fi and my other projects by becoming a patron There is a link in the description below and visit the 30 seconds sci-fi tumblr That's my headquarters in addition to my videos. I publish links and updates there every day