I'll See You In 2025

Hello from out here on the Thames Delta. This is my last letter of the year, barring surprise news or emergencies. But, honestly, this is the time of year when business goes to sleep, so I’m not expecting to have news. And, with a family Xmas on the cards for the first time in years, I want to make the most of these few weeks doing ordinary human things. Like panicking.

So I’ll be back around the first week of 2025, probably 5 Jan, assuming I survive the holiday season.

In this letter:

• this and that

• The News

• my books of the year

OPERATIONS

THIS AND THAT

Released this week, DESOLATION JONES: THE BIOHAZARD EDITION, reprinting the original six issues by myself and Mr Williams in a Williams-designed and remastered book. As I write this, my copies haven’t arrived yet, but Alex at Image assures me it’s a stunning-looking volume, and I’m happy it’s out there.

The crowdfund for the LIGHTS OUT horror anthology book containing a piece I did with Kody Chamberlain is entering its last few days. Go take a look.

Julian Simpson’s new audio drama, ALDRICH KEMP AND THE ROSE OF PANIR, is live

Here’s the original, if you never heard it: it’s eccentric spy drama in the way the original AVENGERS tv show was, witty and off-kilter.

Hey, t’s time to print off your own calendar to hang on the wall.

Now: THE DEPARTMENT OF MIDNIGHT audio drama podcast, DESOLATION JONES: THE BIOHZARD EDITION. Forthcoming 2024: FELL: FERAL CITY new printing. 2025: THE STORMWATCH COMPENDIUM, THE AUTHORITY Compact Edition.

And now:

This is available as a print from the lordess.io store. Go and have a look at the store and buy a holiday gift for the replicants in your life.

Thanks to my friend Lordess for providing The News this season. Doesn’t feel like Orbital Operations without The News. She’s cooking up all kinds of interesting stuff in 2025, so this is a good time to add her newsletter.

BOOKS

MY BOOKS OF 2024

In no particular order, these are some o the books I particularly loved this year:

THESE POSSIBLE LIVES, Fleur Jaeggy (my notes)

THE WHITE BOOK, Han Kang (my notes)

CONCLAVE, Robert Harris (my notes)

WALK THROUGH WALLS, Marina Abramovic (which apparently I haven’t written notes on? Damn.)

IMMEDIACY, OR THE STYLE OF TOO LATE CAPITALISM, Anna Kornbluh (my notes)

CAIRN, Kathleen Jamie (my notes)

NUCLEAR WAR, Annie Jacobsen (my notes)

BEYOND THE LIGHT HORIZON, Ken MacLeod (my notes on the first in the trilogy)

There’s your Xmas shopping done.

I have probably more than a dozen part-read books laying around, and probably finished around forty this year.

GOT MORE TIME?

LTD

WARRENELLIS.LTD is my notebook, and I tend to make entries between one and four times a day. If you like this newsletter, you’d like LTD, and I hope you’ll consider adding it to your daily reading list. It even has an RSS feed at https://warrenellis.ltd/feed/ for your RSS reader, and you should get a free RSS reader because it’s like handrolling a daily magazine for yourself.

Anyway. I like doing LTD and my notebook continues throughout the year, so come and read over my shoulder.

• after decades of using Moleskines, I’ve changed my notebook system

• The Dark Big Bang (most mornings, I save some links for myself)

• notes on the book of “exploded essays” THE VAST EXTENT by Lavinia Greenlaw

• skull whistles

• Ed James’s new British crime novel series. Being able to write a crime novel series remains a bit of a bucket-list thing for me, and I admire anyone who grabs the opportunity to do it.

• notes on Rob Chapman’s exhaustive book on psychedelic music

This letter has been zapped to you via Beehiiv , which I recommend as the best option for anyone wanting to start their own newsletter.

And that’s me done for 2024. Been a long year, right? But you and me are still here. So we’re probably unkillable and we can take joy in the little things and the wondrous things, and we should. We watch the seasons turn and find beauty and fun in all of them. A new year approaches, and it might be hard, but it will certainly also have beauty, wonder and joy. All we have to do is take five minutes for ourselves and look for the good. You take care of yourself. Thanks for being here with me.

Wishing you a peaceful holiday and the happiest of new years. See you in the year 2025.

W