The Cosmic Codex
The Cosmic Codex
Club Codex (August 2024): "The Hieros Gamos of Sam and An Smith" by Josephine Saxton
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Club Codex (August 2024): "The Hieros Gamos of Sam and An Smith" by Josephine Saxton

Read and discuss the novel by the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award-winning author
“The last of them?” by Brian S. Pauls, 2024; Digital illustration created using Midjourney

My novelette, An Illicit Mercy, is part of a new promotion in August: Worlds Beyond Imagination.
Nearly 50 science fiction and fantasy books, available at no cost.

Book Cover
Get your FREE copy of Ketil and Yitzy's Adventure in the Xura Dream House!
The fate of the Cosmos rests in the hands of an unlikely team of unusual friends. Will an exiled member of an ancient extraterrestrial race, a human ghost, and two ghouls be able to outfox an ancient evil and beat Nyarlathotep at his game before time runs out?
This buddy story is the first in a series of New Cthulhu Mythos cliffhangers.

Club Codex is discussing The Hieros Gamos of Sam and An Smith by Josephine Saxton in August. Due to my work demands, we’re starting this book later than expected.

In 2023, Saxton won the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award “to honour notable sf and fantasy authors who in the view of the judging panel either did not receive or no longer receive as much attention as they deserve.”

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From the Amazon website:

During the day a blazing and merciless sun beat down on "the boy" and at night a friendless and cold darkness enveloped him. It was a bleak and lonely countryside over which he had been wandering for ten years. A rare tree, bird or wild animal was the only life he encountered during his desolate trek through his young years of roaming. Infrequently, he was fortunate enough to find shelter and food in the shops of deserted villages; otherwise he foraged what he could from the nearly barren land. Contact with other humans was his innermost and greatest fear.

But the day came when his curiosity overcame his sensibilities of self-preservation and he was drawn to the sound of a great wailing not far from a place where he had come to rest.

Form [sic] that moment on his whole existence took on a radical change. His wanderings became a kaleidoscope of adventures, emotions, and responsibilities - never static, forever mobile, and potentially dangerous. There were moments when it would have been easier to turn his back, return to old ways, but somehow he knew this was an impossibility. He accepted his new fate, but still feared the greatest of all commitments until it was too late for him.

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We’ll be reading The Hieros Gamos of Sam and An Smith through August 15.

I plan to post my thoughts to Club Codex as I read. Join me! All you need is a free subscription to The Cosmic Codex.

Discussion Thread

I look forward to sharing ideas with each of you.

The next Club Codex selection will be The Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

Questions or comments? Please share your thoughts!

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My latest novelette, “Long Night On the Endless City,” appears in Boundary Shock Quarterly 26: Tomorrow’s Crimes:
On the vast ring habitat Ouroboros, Jel and her synthetic companion Marcus search for Arja, the third member of their triad. This quest leads them to a cryptic technology cult with questionable motives. When they suffer a vicious attack, Marcus and Jel join forces with one of Ouroboros’most renowned computer and robotics experts to get to the bottom of the mystery.
This thought-provoking sf tale explores artificial intelligence, religion, and the ties that bind families together in a fast-paced story full of action, intrigue, and heart.


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