+ My new novel, Veil, launches today +
Usually I send a monthly email recommending books I love, but this is a special edition. My new novel, Veil, comes out today and if you enjoy this newsletter, you're going to love it.
Veil is a character-driven science-fiction thriller set in a near-future shaped by geoengineering. Diplomats, hackers, scientists, spies, journalists, and billionaires grapple with the power and consequences of technology, life in the Anthropocene, and what it means to find a sense of agency in a world spinning out of control. August Cole, author of Ghost Fleet and Burn-In, calls it, "A brilliantly imagined eco-punk future filled with memorable characters locked in a life-or-death contest to control the direction of Earth's climate in the 21st century."
Get your copy of Veil right here.
I poured my heart and soul into this book and it's my best work yet. As with any creative project in which you've invested years of your life, I'm simultaneously nervous and thrilled to share it. May it offer you welcome refuge, wellspring, and adventure in these strange times. Writing Veil changed my life, and my greatest aspiration is that reading it might enrich yours.
Books thrive on word-of-mouth, so if you read and love Veil, the best way to support it and me is by helping the right people discover it. I started sending this newsletter six years ago because I believed that in the vast, churning wilderness of the internet, it was important to point to things I loved—to do my part, however small, to help them become signal in the noise. I soon discovered two surprising things: how big of a difference a simple book recommendation could make (enthusiasm is contagious!) and how much fun it was to champion stories that moved me. Culture is a collective project in which all of us have a stake and a voice.
Here are three things you can do to help:
Buy a copy right now. Early sales make a tremendous impact on a book's success. They catapult it up the bestseller rankings, contribute to it getting featured as a hot new release, and attract attention from press and booksellers. This matters. The ebook will appear instantly on your Kindle, the audiobook narration is A++, and both the hardcover and paperback have some gorgeous design touches.
Leave a review ASAP. Early positive reviews give books a critical boost in Amazon's algorithms, exposing it to new readers who depend on your good judgement. It only takes a few minutes and makes a huge difference.
Tell your friends about it. We discover our next favorite story thanks to someone we trust recommending it to us. I can't emphasize enough how important this is. Whisper about it in the shadows and shout about it from the rooftops. Publish a blog post, send a newsletter, post it on Reddit, review it on Goodreads, RT it on Twitter, mention it on a podcast, pick it for your book club, and jump into the comments on Facebook. Gift it to folks who might love it.
Thank you for being the best readers any writer could hope for. You are the people who inspire me to push through when I feel like quitting. You are the people who bring these stories to life. You are the people I write for.
Cheers, Eliot
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Eliot Peper is the author of Veil, Breach, Borderless, Bandwidth, Cumulus, Neon Fever Dream, True Blue, and the Uncommon Series. Subscribe to his blog here.
"Technologists are inventing the future—a future cut through with their own flaws and hubris as much as it is informed by their ingenuity. Veil imagines a world in which truth, politics, and nature itself are at the mercy of human engineering, for better and for worse. This is an adventure that will stick with you long after you reach the end."
-Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, on Veil
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