DocoftheDarkArts | The Photonic Effect

The Photonic Effect

Mike Chen

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“What space opera is meant to be. A brilliantly complex novel about love, loss, and war.” —K.B. Wagers A starship captain and her crew face conspiracies and betrayals as they clash with various factions of a galactic civil war in a thrilling space adventure by New York Times bestselling author Mike Chen.The starship Horizon’s crew spent ten years trapped across the expanse of space. Now they’re finally home—only it’s not the home they knew. The Cluster, once a peaceful coalition of planets, has fractured in the wake of civil war. Captain Demora Kim wants nothing more than to protect her surviving crew. It’s what she owes them after years of instability and terror. But in times of war, no one is allowed neutrality. After an attack on a mining station leaves thousands dead, Demi’s efforts become almost impossible. Every ship is needed on the frontline. Thrust deeper into a conflict she barely understands, Demi considers a bold choice—one that might keep her promises but tip the galaxy further into chaos. “Mike Chen has done it again. The Photonic Effect is bursting with unexpected twists and wild rides, but most of all, it's full of heart.” —Annalee Newitz “One of the strongest space operas I’ve read in recent years. A thrilling, emotionally grounded story about survival, leadership, and the true cost of command.” —Karen Osborne

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Posts about this title from DocoftheDarkArts

DocoftheDarkArts\ \ Bob Stuntz\ \ • Jul 1

Member Exclusive: Weekly Reading Update: 6/13/26 - 6/26/26

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DocoftheDarkArts\ \ Bob Stuntz\ \ • Jun 28

Poll:\ \ Where do you get most of your books?\ \ The Sunday Prescription \ \ One reading topic, one week of plans, and plenty of books administered weekly for chronic readers.\ \ Symptoms: Tribalism in Bookish Spaces \ \ I have been thinking a lot recently about how we, as people, have a natural tendency towards tribalism. From an evolutionary sense, it is a highly logical reaction - often in our ancient history, finding a group of people and sticking with them meant safety and access to resources. It's a fascinating phenomenon from a neuroscience standpoint as well. Research has shown that feeling like you are part of a group activates circuits in our brains that have to do with rewards and positive associations, and even activates empathy (at least within our tribe). And of course, as with all things, there are positive and negative aspects of tribalism. \ \ Over the last year in the online book space, I have seen a lot of the positive aspects of this - the support that people who feel some sort of connection with the content I put out there has been overwhelming and amazing. But of course, there are downsides as well, and one of the times where I see this the most is anytime I talk about where I get my books. \ \ I love books in all forms - I love a good special edition of a book that I adore. I love buying used, and I like buying new. I consume stories in all forms, including hardbacks, paperbacks, e-books, and audiobooks, and use a library when possible. And inevitably, when I post about a specific kind of purchase, I hear from the opposite tribe. If I post about being a Broken Binding rep, I can count on a comment about special editions ruining books and gatekeeping reading. If I talk about a used purchase, I will get someone telling me I should support the author and buy new. Team Kindle is always lurking, and of course, team library is always there as well. \ \ I personally think that having a plethora of options is good for reading. As more and more studies come out showing how, all around the world, the percentage of people who read for pleasure is declining, and literacy rates are dropping, giving people options is a good thing. If you have disposable income and love buying a big fancy expensive special edition, that's awesome - you're supporting a publishing company, the author, and the artists involved. If you have a great library near you and you never buy books, that's awesome - you're supporting a great thing, and supporting the author with your rentals. Used books support other book buyers and allow stories to perpetuate, and I've encouraged a lot of people to buy a new book because of my review of a used one. E books are accessible for lots of folks, and audiobooks have made reading stories easier and more accessible for a myriad of people (busy parents, people with reading disorders, folks with long commutes and busy lives, etc.). And while I am always a big supporter of shopping local, and using resources like Libro.fm for audiobooks and Bookshop.org for purchasing online and supporting independent booksellers, I understand that for some folks, financial and logistical pressures make Amazon the best route for purchasing. It's easy to judge, but reality is messy, and we all have different and unknown circumstances. \ \ The same can be said for toxic fandoms - as a Lord of the Rings fan, I would never criticize someone for mispronouncing a word (I do it all the time), but it happens everywhere. If someone doesn't like my favorite books, why would I criticize them? It wasn't their thing, and I can't force you to like something. However, we see it all the time in the book world. At all levels, tribalism can turn into gatekeeping, and put people off from reading. \ \ So my hope for the book world, and something I encourage highly, is to make our tribe the tribe of people who love books and stories, and who encourage and support people who read, no matter what that looks like (as long as you're not stealing of course)! Offer people options, but don't criticize their choices in how they interact with or consume books. Talk about the books you love, but don't get mad when they don't like your favorite book - talk to them about the why! Let's encourage more reading, even if that reading doesn't look like your reading. \ \ What do you think about tribalism in the book space, and have you encountered it in any way? Let's chat down below!\ \ The Rx: What I'm Reading and Doing \ \ My new Fable Book Club starts this Wednesday, July 1 with Our Sister's Keeper by Jasmine Holmes. The book club is called Dr. Bob's Literary Apothecary, and our goal is to read diverse authors, diverse genres, and try to find diverse books that aren't popping up on your algorithm! I'd love to have you join, we'll do a book a month, and no changes to our usual book club. I'm really excited to kick this off, and would love to see you there!\ \ In terms of reading, I was on vacation last week and, being at the beach, had loads of great reading time! I finished our Dark Travelers June book, Stoner by John Williams, Songs of the Dead by Brandon Sanderson and Peter Orullian, The Dungeon Crawler Carl Graphic Novel, and The Photonic Effect by Mike Chen. Be on the lookout for my reviews on IG and TikTok, as well as some here, in the coming weeks!\ \ I am currently all over the place with reading! I should be finishing up What Blood Remembers by C William Phillips this weekend, and am loving the Audiobook of Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove. I started our July Doc of the Dark Arts Book Club pick Jade City by Fonda Lee, and am enjoying it so far - if you want to be part of that book club, make sure to join us on Discord! And I also started a deep dive reread of the Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien with the Celebreabird read along. A second read there has been amazing so far!\ \ Given I was off, I didn't;t do a weekly reading update or a YouTube video last week, but I will be back this week. One of the YouTube videos I'm working on is a Q&A Video, so if you have any bookish/book content/personal questions you'd like to ask, let me know!\ \ July is going to be a great month - as I said we are doing Jade City for the main bookclub, Our Sister's Keeper for the Fable book club, and the Dark Travelers book for July is going to be Headlights by CJ Leede. \ \ It is also time for our July reading challenge! Participants are eligible for a $25 bookshop.org gift card. To be eligible, you have to either complete the challenge on StoryGraph, or share what you read on the challenge channel in our Discord server. If you are outside of the US, we can figure out a website/gift card/prize for you if Bookshop is not available to you. The theme for July is "Choose a book by its cover." The goal here it to pick a book just based on whatever is on the cover (so the cover, the description on the back/inside the dust jacket). No looking up reviews, no advanced information, just finding something that looks and sounds cool. I am going to be reading A Palace Near the Wind by Ai Jiang. \ \ Want More In-Depth Access? \ \ If you enjoy getting into the details with me about reading, then consider upgrading to The Dark Travelers tier! My Dark Travelers get an exclusive Discord role and channels, a weekly deep dive reading update video, early access to YouTube videos, and each month they get to pick a book for me to read. This can be a book they want to read with me, or something they want me to try for them. It's super fun and a great tight knit group that I really enjoy talking books with, and I'd love to have you part of it!\ \ Thank you as always for being here, and I hope you all have a great week of reading!

The Sunday Prescription: June 28, 2026

10 books

DocoftheDarkArts\ \ Bob Stuntz\ \ • Jun 21

[Poll:\ \ Do your reading habits change in the summer?\ \ The Sunday Prescription \ \ One reading topic, one week of plans, and plenty of books administered weekly for chronic readers.\ \ Symptoms: Reading in the Summer \ \ Happy Sunday gang, and Happy Father's Day to any of the bookish dads out there! I hope everyone is doing well, and welcome back to my Sunday Newsletter. This week, I've been thinking a lot about summer reading patterns. \ \ As someone who yaps a lot about books online, I hear a lot of feedback about what other people do for reading, and it always fascinates me how different we all are! I have two beach trips coming up this summer, and for me, summer is always a time when I read more. I work from home these days, and the school year means driving kids all over the place, and having a lot of my free time taken up by activities during the school year. So when I get to go on a trip, and during the summer especially, I always wind up reading more. Having less time in the car and less time at teenage kid activities gives me more time to read. In addition, I'm outside working more, so I'm listening to more audiobooks, and generally just consuming more written and spoken stories. \ \ Now when it comes to packing for a trip, I always over do it when it comes to books. For a typical week long beach trip, you will usually find me packing 4-5 books along with my e-reader. As a certified feral mood reader, this gives me plenty of variety. On top of that, I usually find a local beach bookstore and make my way there as well. In terms of what I like to read, this is definitely when I'm going for shorter/less intense stuff. Cozy fantasies like the House in the Cerulean Sea and Tress of the Emerald Sea come to mind (which we're reading right now for our book club!). I of course love it when a book leans into the water, piracy, or hot/desert climates. Which reminds me, I need to start Children of Dune here soon!\ \ However, I hear from other people that when they head into the long, hot days of summer, and go on vacations, they read less. They cite more time in summer/outdoor activities as barriers, and say when they go on vacation they don't want to read more, or are too busy. It does seem an increase in audiobook consumption is pretty well agreed upon, given more time outside, and time spent on road trips in the car. So I'm interested to hear from you all - how does summer change your reading habits? Do you read more or less? Do you read more on vacation? Do you pack a ton of books like some sort of book goblin like me?\ \ The Rx: What I'm Reading and Doing \ \ I did announce this week that I was starting a new Fable Book Club! We will be starting July 1 with Our Sister's Keeper by Jasmine Holmes. The book club is called Dr. Bob's Literary Apothecary, and our goal is to read diverse authors, diverse genres, and try to find diverse books that aren't popping up on your algorithm! I'd love to have you join, we'll do a book a month, and no changes to our usual book club. \ \ In terms of reading, I finished off my reread of Tress of the Emerald Sea, and I just enjoyed it so much. I listened to the Michael Kramer version for the reread as I read it physical last year, and I'm not a graphic audio fan usually, especially abridged versions. I also finished an Arc of Songs of the Dead by Brandon Sanderson and Peter Orullian. More to come on that in a future review. And Today, I'll be finishing up Stoner by John Williams, which is our Dark Travelers monthly pick a book. That has met spellbound at the moment! If you want to read with us you should join up as a Dark Traveler!\ \ I also released this week's YouTube video, which is all about ARC's - what they are and why they exist, what you can do to start becoming an ARC reader, and the major Do's and Don't of reading ARCs. \ \ In terms of what's next, I have a bunch of options and I'm not sure where I'll go for sure!\ \

A Darker Shade of Magic by VE Schwab - probably next\ \
Jade City by Fonda Lee - researching for next month's book club!\ \
The Photonic Effect by Mike Chen - sent to me by the publisher, and sounds cool.\ \
Valor by John Gwynne - Really want to continue, and my TBB versions should show up soon. \ \
What Blood Remembers by C William Phillips - probably next on my e-reader. \ \
Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove - Up next on audio!\ \ \ I also picked up an Assassin's Creed game for the Nintendo Switch, which I'm interested to give a try, and I heard a rumor that I might be getting a sweet Lego set for Father's Day!\ \ Like Discounts and Helping Me out? \ \ Did you know I have a bunch of different affiliate codes? I you head to the link in my bio, you'll see a bunch of affiliate codes. Some of these, like the Flowers and fantasy 10% off, the 15% off TBB regular publishing website, or the Pango books $5 off your first order codes, will save you money! Others, like the Broken Binding special edition code, my Bookshop.org Affiliate, and my wishlist are more just support for me. I also have links to all of my social sites if you're looking to follow elsewhere as well!](https://docofthedarkarts.binderybooks.com/item/RSKW1H0xzYOUFRxqBpH1/)

The Sunday Prescription: June 21, 2026

10 books

Posts about this book from across Bindery

DocoftheDarkArts\ \ Bob Stuntz\ \ • Jul 1

\ \ Upgrade for $5 or login](https://docofthedarkarts.binderybooks.com/item/OJDt8jOdKlp7WRgGRTgE/)

Member Exclusive: Weekly Reading Update: 6/13/26 - 6/26/26

Check Out My Full Written Reviews: - StoryGraph: https://bit.ly/3MzSdKn - Goodreads: https://bit.ly/48VzNvb

Buy Me a Book: https://bit.ly/3MrX3JE

5 books

DocoftheDarkArts\ \ Bob Stuntz\ \ • Jun 28

The Sunday Prescription: June 28, 2026

10 books

DocoftheDarkArts\ \ Bob Stuntz\ \ • Jun 21

The Sunday Prescription: June 21, 2026

10 books

Jana’s Book Recs\ \ Jana\ \ • May 6

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Happy AAPI month friends! (Asian American Pacific Islander)\ \ Here are some book recommendations for the month, more to come!\ \ Burn the Sea by Mona Tewari\ \ My first book by this author, not my last. I was blown away by this historical Indian fantasy that reimagines the 16th century Portuguese attacks on South India. \ \ Sword of Kaigen by M. L. Wang\ \ Feminine rage at its best, this standalone fantasy was my favorite read of last year!\ \ Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis\ \ Debut novel that follows Nadia, a British academic who takes a UN job in Iraq.\ \ Julie Chan is Dead by Liann Zhang\ \ A satirical thriller about a supermarket cashier who assumes the identity of her deceased influencer twin sister Chloe to escape her own life.\ \ We Dance upon Demons by Vaishnavi Patel\ \ Contemporary fantasy novel with an iconic cover. A burnt out reproductive health worker gains supernatural powers.\ \ If we cannot go at the speed of light by Kim Choyeop\ \ A collection of Korean sci-fi stories that will take you on such an amazing journey.\ \ Cleo Dang would rather be dead by Mai Nguyen\ \ Dark humor explores a grieving mother who deals with the loss of her daughter and struggles to heal.\ \ The Photonic Effect by Mike Chen\ \ \ \ Space opera? Say less

AAPI Month

8 books

Tattooed Bibliophiles\ \ Zee\ \ • Apr 21

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\ \ Welcome to New Release Tuesday, where I round up the sci-fi releases dropping this week that I think you should know about. I'm Zee, I'm a Tattooed Bibliophile, and if you are here I you probably are too, and my whole thing is diversity in sci-fi — meaning if it's queer, BIPOC-authored, indie, or just something the Big 5 didn't bother to tell you about, it belongs here. While sci-fi isn't the "it girl" right now, it's far from a dying genre. It may make it hard to find new releases, but that's what I'm here for, because I don't want you to miss a thing! So what's new?\ \ Well, not much this week. Do publishers release more books at the beginning of the month? Since I just started doing this I don't know! If I see a pattern you KNOW this autistic girlie (and rare mathy bisexual) is gonna make you aware.\ \ \ \ The Language of Liars by S.L. Huang (Macmillan) — Tordotcom aka my fav scifi publisher (am I allowed to say that as a Bindery influencer?) standalone. I checked out Huang's social media and found a ton of recs for some of my favorite books, so we share reading taste... always a good sign when the author likes what you like! The ADHD MC is a spy who jumps into alien minds of the only species physiologically capable of mining the element needed for lightyear-spanning space travel. And starts forgetting which side he's on. Sounds like Babel crossed with Some Desperate Glory. I'm in.\ \ \ \ The Photonic Effect by Mike Chen (Simon & Schuster) — Space opera standalone. Starship crew returns home after an entire effing DECADE lost in space... to a galactic civil war. It has a blurb by one of my favorite sci-fi writers, Annalee Newitz. AND Mike has a photo of a protester holding a sign that says "Pull your head out of your Fox hole" with the Fox News logo, so...I'm probably going to read his book. Yes, this is how I make my reading decisions. If someone can make a teeny short story on an IG page interesting, what can they do with an entire book? What? How do you pick your books...\ \ See you next week. You know, if I haven't been deported for saying FUCK ICE in public.\ \ — Zee\ \

- *\ \ If you liked this and want more of whatever THIS is (unhinged book analysis, barely contained rage at the state of the world, and occasional Tamsyn Muir references and em dashes that I will never apologize for) consider subscribing for $5/month. Every cent goes to people who actually need it, because I have a day job and a cause, not a brand deal. This is my middle finger to Big 5 publishing, dressed up as a book blog. Come hold it up with me.](https://tattooedbibliophile.binderybooks.com/item/D0QIcEcY5Ss4JaHkqshx/)

4/21/26 - New Sci-fi Titles This Week

2 books

Ronnica Reads\ \ Ronnica Fatt\ \ • Apr 20

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Here are some April 21st new book releases on my radar (and should be on yours!). First, the one I had a chance to read already:\ \ Permanence by Sophie Mackintosh 5/5 stars\ \ Put this on your TBR if you love literary speculative fiction. I was thrilled to get an ARC of one of my most anticipated releases, and as much as I've appreciated Sophie's other works, this has been my favorite. Our main character wake up in an alternate world where she gets to live openly with her affair partner. Themes of “what ifs”, regret, and longing are strong, as well as an exploration when each partner has different desires. \ \ Last Night in Brooklyn by Xochitl Gonzalez 4.25/5 stars\ \ Put this on your TBR if you want to read a love letter to Brooklyn and a time capsule of 2007 (Which does not make this historical fiction...fight me). Our characters are young and MESSY, but there is still a lot of heart.\ \ Odessa by Gabrielle Sher 4.25/5 stars\ \ Put this on your TBR if you appreciate historical folk horror. This one has deep roots in Jewish folklore, and reminds us that European antisemitism was a problem long before the Holocaust.\ \ Honor & Heresy by Max Francis 3/5 stars\ \ Put this on your TBR if you like nerdy fantasy. Unfortunately for me, fantasy hasn't been hitting lately. I heard this billed as dark academia, but it's more dark library than academia (if that makes any sense).\ \ And the one I'm still waiting to get my hands on:\ \ The Photonic Effect by Mike Chen\ \ Why it interests me: a space opera features a galactic civil war...I've been hankering for science fiction.

April 21st Release to Add to Your (Too Long) TBR

5 books