Review: What Moves the Dead

Posted on by Leland Lydecker

The first thing about What Moves the Dead that caught my eye was the cover. A wild hare, partially consumed by eye-catching red and pink fungi, stares at the reader from a black background. It’s one of those definitely hand-illustrated covers that are perfectly proportioned and beautifully detailed. It also fits the story to a T.

The second thing I noticed was the title, which grabs your attention and piques your interest. I was immediately struck with admiration and just a bit of jealousy, because naming books is hard and finding a cover artist that good is even harder.

“I’m going to be really disappointed if this is one of those books that fall short of the promise made by the cover,” I thought. Fortunately, What Moves the Dead did not disappoint.

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Why I’ve Gone AI-Free, And You Should Too

Posted on by Leland Lydecker

Over the last few years, I’ve heard a wide variety of pro-AI arguments. These generally have a few general themes:

  • “My work isn’t selling and I’m willing to try anything.”
  • “I’m broke and AI tools are free.”
  • “AI looks and sounds just as good as the real thing, so who’s going to know?”
  • “Everyone’s using it. If you aren’t, you’re getting left behind!”
  • “What can it hurt to try?”

AI tools have been marketed as the Easy Button to overcome every challenge and shortcoming. It’s a hack to get ahead that doesn’t have a downside. It might even be a real-life version of God Mode.

Unfortunately, you’re being lied to. Here’s why I’ve chosen to go AI-free, and why I think you’ll want to be join me.

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2025 Year In Review

Posted on by Leland Lydecker

2025 was a rough year in pretty much every way that wasn’t writing-related. On a national scale, things were (and continue to be) a giant dumpster fire. There are bright spots here and there across the country, but largely things are going about as badly as could be expected given the administration in power.

On a personal scale, this year felt like I was careening from one emergency to another. Nevertheless, I managed to do more writing than I have in any one year prior to this, and I’m very happy with the stories I produced. Here’s a recap of 2025’s personal challenges and successes.

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All Systems Red Review

Posted on by Leland Lydecker

The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells are based on the concept that part-human, part-machine constructs will probably be just as self-aware as we full humans are. They’ll have their own wants and desires, and they probably won’t enjoy being ordered around by idiots any more than we do. Yet they are essentially a slave class, designated as property and without rights in most jurisdictions. If fitted with a functional governor module, the androids in this series only have limited free will and must follow most commands.

In All Systems Red, we meet an android that secretly refers to itself as Murderbot. Murderbot is a security-purposed construct, aka a SecUnit. All of the SecUnits in this story are property of the Company, a business that sells security and insurance packages, and which will, like most insurance companies, cut almost any corner to keep from spending money. (The more things change, the more they stay the same.)

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Death Engine Protocol Review

Posted on by Leland Lydecker

Death Engine Protocol by Margret A. Treiber is dystopian science fiction with a liberal sprinkling of body horror. Captain Eris, aka the Death Engine, is a tweak, a human genetically modified to have superpowers. Her superpower is 1) that she’s unable to stay dead, and 2) when she comes back and her body regenerates, she gains temporary powers that protect her from whatever killed her. Gunshot wounds equal diamond-plated skin, drowning equals being able to breathe water. You get the idea.

As a remnant of a US superweapon project, Eris has been through a lot. She’s sarcastic, angry, and completely done with it all. I can’t really blame her. At the start of the book she’s enjoying retirement and hoping for a peaceful (and permanent) death of old age when a mercenary tweak bludgeons her to death, regenerating her to her former youthful self and giving her cyborg-frying electrical powers.

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A Shadow Of Devastation

Posted on by Leland Lydecker

Something has gotten into the habitat. The spaceport had always had its strange inhabitants, but this was a new, more aggressive form of invasion.

A Shadow of Devastation follows Bradley Radco, a not-so-ordinary cargo handler,  and shows a less Baron Cargo-centric (and less human-centric) side of KEL Port. It is the forth installment of the Shadow sub-series, following A Shadow Among Shadows, A Shadow of a Rumor, and A Shadow of a Presence.

The whispers were beginning to get to him. Radco paced the confines of his tiny living space: four steps to the far wall. Turn. Five steps back if he cut the last one short. He wanted to go for a walk, but KEL Port and its collection of habitats were under a lockdown order.

The whispers had started out as a sibilant rustling in the walls, a murmur in the heating ducts. Shadows moved in dim corners in ways that defied the laws of gravity. At first they had been few and far between; now they were a common sight. They were not in his living quarters yet, but he thought they would be soon.

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2024 Year In Review

Posted on by Leland Lydecker

2024 was a big year. In some ways it was a tremendously groundbreaking and exciting year for me, and in other ways (particularly on the national scale,) it was a pretty dark year. Here I’m going to focus on the stuff that’s closer to home.

Moving Forward

One of the things I accomplished in 2024 that I’m most excited about: getting over my burnout and starting to write again. It felt great to get back into the swing of things. The stories and creativity that I thought I’d lost turned out to still be there, and that was a massive relief. I have a ton of story ideas waiting to be written, but right now I’m focusing on cleaning up and finishing those that were already in progress. Needless to say, I’d be writing a lot more if I wasn’t also working a traditional job– but that’s the society we live in today.

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An Open Letter To A Coworker

Posted on by Leland Lydecker

This is a letter they’ll probably never read. But in light of national events earlier this month, there are a lot of people who need to hear this.

In the wake of November 5th, I have been checking in with friends and coworkers I know or suspect will be affected. Just a quick, “Hey, how are you holding up? I’m here if you need anything.”

These are people who shared their hopes and dreams, fears and concerns with me. They’re people who’re in groups who will be most heavily impacted.

This letter is not for them.

This letter is for the longtime work friend who, after I asked how she was holding up, expressed confusion about what that had to do with the election. “It won’t affect me,” she said. “It was going to be bad either way.”

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Part II – How Do You Fix Burnout?

Posted on by Leland Lydecker

If you’re struggling with the kind of burnout I experienced, or think you might be headed there, this post may help. Here are a couple of things you’re probably going to have to come to terms with, and some helpful tips to avoid winding up where I did and to help heal the damage if you’re already there.

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Burnout Part I

Posted on by Leland Lydecker

Shortly after publishing Necrotic City, I returned to traditional employment to rebuild my savings. At the same time, I continued creating content for this blog and working on longer stories. It was sometimes a struggle to find time for all of it, but I still had a dream of fully supporting myself by writing, and I didn’t want to lose the progress I’d made.

Fast forward a year, and it had become apparent that the new job wasn’t much better than the last one. It was a miserable (and miserably unsafe) place to work, and I wanted out– the sooner the better. To that end, I gave Patreon a shot. I hoped that by increasing my workload for a time, I could build up enough of a following to replace the day job– or least get close enough to stage an escape.

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