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It’s been a while since I’ve put one of these up here, so, here you go. It’s a doozy. I hope you have a fabulous weekend.
— JS
whatever_scalzi_feed
The Big Idea: Seamus Sullivan
Oct. 2nd, 2025 04:00 pmwhatever_scalzi_feed
Greek mythology is a mythos that is full of despair, anguish, and characters that can’t seem to a catch a break. Author Seamus Sullivan brings us some of these familiar ancient characters in his debut novel, Daedalus is Dead. Follow along to see how Sullivan’s relationship to his son contributed to the inspiration of this classic myth retelling.
SEAMUS SULLIVAN:
Years ago, when I first tried to write about Daedalus in the form of a ponderous and contraction-free short story, Maria Dahvana Headley gave me some characteristically thoughtful line edits, and one note in particular stayed with me. She had gone back into my draft and added contractions, explaining that a lot of writers instinctively reach for “I am” rather than “I’m” when writing something set in antiquity, but at the expense of distancing the story from the reader. Contractions allow for intimacy, and intimacy is what the story demands.
Years later, I tried to write about Daedalus again. I had become a parent, and the first year of my son’s life overlapped with the first year of the global COVID-19 pandemic, a brutal police crackdown on protests, the January 6th insurrection, and other delights. I was deeply angry with men, with a society built to accommodate the worst impulses of men, and with myself for being part of it. With Headley’s note at the back of my mind, I framed the story as Daedalus’s direct address to his late son, Icarus. I’d worked in this mode before, a parent directly addressing their child. There was an assumption in there somewhere that any kid born in the present day would, before long, start observing the world and demanding that the adults explain themselves.
For me, Greek mythology’s appeal has always had something to do with grandeur, with the glory and tragedy of an imagined past, sure, but also with scale and awe and durability. Maybe that’s just how it feels when you read the stuff as a kid. Writing in the Mary Renault style wouldn’t work for me – I didn’t have the skill or the eye for anthropological detail to pull that off, and anyway there was no point in pretending I wasn’t doing the literary equivalent of shaking my fist at the world immediately outside my window. So most of my narration’s intimacy came from my own day-to-day, which largely consisted of carrying an inquisitive baby around and explaining things to him, and for the grandeur I went back to Homer.
Emily Wilson’s Odyssey translation had been out for a few years by then, so I went over passages from that and from my older, Stanley Lombardo Iliad translation. Those helped with the details of how royal households worked (slave labor and all), what funeral rites were like, and a general idea of how to convey that sense of grandeur in vernacular-friendly language that would pull readers into this imagined version of a bronze age society. Wilson’s Odyssey introduction was a great resource for social context and for how composition and performance of Homeric verse might have worked. In the spring of last year I got to see Wilson perform the opening lines of The Iliad for a packed New York Public Library audience, in the original Greek, with enviable gusto; I came away with a deeper appreciation for the artistry and energy that kept these texts alive, in performance and print, for millennia.
Magpie-like, I accumulated images and ideas from other sources. Much of the opening chapter, describing the escape from Crete and the fall of Icarus, comes from Ovid. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter, an intensely affecting depiction of a mother’s search for her child, has a haunting image of an older woman seeking work at the village well as a nursemaid, and this influenced my back story for Naucrate, Daedalus’s wife and Icarus’s mother. (Naucrate has a name and a job description, household slave, in Pseudo-Apollodorus, but we don’t have much surviving information on her character beyond that.) I learned about an old tradition of reluctance to mention the king of the underworld by name, referring to him only through indirect titles, and worked that into the book as well. While Daedalus, the character, has an extremely dry sense of humor, I did my best to put some jokes in, because there are jokes and boasts and coarse insults in Homer, and because I find people do crack jokes when they’re under constant stress.
All this research made the book genuinely fun to write, even though it’s a book about things in the world that make me intensely sad and angry. I did my best to make the book fun to read as well. Only an egomaniac would seriously entertain the hope that his work will stick around as long as Homeric verse, but I do like to think about the comfort and collective enjoyment that audiences would have found in hearing very old myths performed and retold centuries ago, including the many, many versions of those myths that haven’t survived into the present day. If my own version can provide some of that enjoyment for you, if we can both shake our heads, together, at the terror and grotesquerie and grandeur of the world we inhabit right now, I’ll feel like I did my job.
Daedalus is Dead: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop|Books-a-Million|Powell’s
Read an excerpt.
Authors, Time to Get That (Anthropic) Bag
Oct. 2nd, 2025 01:20 pmwhatever_scalzi_feed
To begin, for those of you who do not follow such things with intense interest, a little context about the “AI” company Anthropic being sued for stealing authors’ works and reaching a settlement. Go read that and come back when you do.
The law firm representing authors in the suit has posted up a searchable database listing which works are included in the settlement. I went and looked and had 17 qualifying works, and filed claims for them; at $3,000 per title it adds up. Now, how much of that $3k/title I get after lawyer payout and other shenanigans will be another question entirely, but that’s for another time.
I will note that this settlement is not “free” money – my work, along with the work of thousands of other authors, was stolen to feed an LLM whose function is at the heart of Anthropic’s current $180 billion-plus market valuation. This settlement is, bluntly, the absolute minimum Anthropic could get away with paying.
It is also more than I expected. I had expected Anthropic to litigate this thing until the heat death of the universe. But the fact of the matter is that the damage, such as it is, has already been done. Anthropic has reaped the benefit of its theft and any additional training data for LLMs will have to come from other sources, and at this point someone in Anthropic’s legal department decided it’s better to throw a few (relative) coins to copyright holders than to have a legal liability outstanding. Authors qualified for the settlement can refuse it and pursue individual claims against Anthropic, but most authors can’t afford to do that and won’t (and wouldn’t necessarily get more even if they did). For most of us, this is it.
My suggestion to other authors, unless you genuinely have hundreds of thousands to burn to pursue an individual case, is to check that database above to see if you have a title in there that you can file a claim for. The settlement is not great! But it’s still something, and these days most authors — hell, most people — are not in a position to turn down something if they can get it.
On a slightly lighter note, having so many works used to train Anthropic’s Large Language Model (as well as most of the other ones; they all sifted through the same stock of stolen works) at answers the question about why sometimes the responses I get from them sound a little like me. It’s because more than a little of me is in there. I do a better version of me, though. I always will.
— JS
Emerging Service Issue - Cloud Manager and API
Oct. 2nd, 2025 11:36 amlinode_status_new_feedOct 2, 11:36 UTC
Resolved - We have mitigated the issues impacting the Cloud Manager and API services. If you continue to experience problems, please open a Support ticket for assistance.
Oct 2, 10:45 UTC
Investigating - Our team is investigating an additional emerging service issue affecting Cloud Manager and API in all regions. We will share additional updates as we have more information.
Scheduled Network Maintenance - US-MIA (Miami)
Oct. 2nd, 2025 01:00 pmlinode_status_new_feedOct 2, 13:00 UTC
Completed - The scheduled maintenance has been completed.
Oct 2, 09:00 UTC
In progress - Scheduled maintenance is currently in progress. We will provide updates as necessary.
Sep 10, 21:48 UTC
Scheduled - We will be performing network maintenance at US-MIA (Miami) on October 2nd from 09:00 UTC to 13:00 UTC. During this window, changes will be made to enhance routing stability, improve convergence performance, and enable additional support for advanced routing features. Individuals may experience short-lived packet loss or latency spikes while maintenance occurs.
Maintenance for Linode Cloud Manager, API, and CLI
Oct. 2nd, 2025 04:21 amlinode_status_new_feedOct 2, 04:21 UTC
Completed - The scheduled maintenance has been completed.
Oct 2, 03:54 UTC
Update - Scheduled maintenance is currently in progress and will be extended till 5:00 UTC.
Oct 2, 02:00 UTC
In progress - Scheduled maintenance is currently in progress. We will provide updates as necessary.
Sep 11, 19:20 UTC
Scheduled - The Linode Cloud Manager, API, and CLI will be offline for scheduled maintenance between 02:00 UTC and 04:00 UTC on October 2, 2025. During this window, running Linodes and related services will not be disrupted, but account management access and Support tickets will be unavailable.
Please ensure that you complete critical or important jobs in the Cloud Manager or API before the maintenance window. We will update this status page once this event is complete and Linode customers have full access to all Linode services.
Customers who need assistance from Linode Support during this time will need to call 855-454-6633 (+1-609-380-7100 outside of the United States) to contact our Support team. Please note that our Support team will not be able to assist with issues related to the Cloud Manager or API, authenticate users to their accounts, or respond to Support tickets for the duration of the maintenance window. As soon as our Support team regains access, we will answer tickets in the order they are received.
Impacts on Current Linode Customers:
Current Linode customers will not be able to log in to the Cloud Manager, interact with the API, or perform any administrative or management functions. This includes Create, Remove, Boot, Migrate, Back Up, Shut Down, etc.
The scheduled maintenance will impact the Kubernetes API. Dynamic aspects of LKE that rely on the Linode API will also be impacted, to include items such as autoscaling, recycling, rebooting, attaching/detaching PVCs, Node Balancer provisioning, as well as the ability to create new clusters. Cluster nodes and running workloads will not be affected.
Impacts on Users Trying to Create Linode Accounts / Awaiting Account Authentication:
While the Linode Cloud Manager is offline during the maintenance period, we are unable to accept requests for new accounts or authenticate accounts for users awaiting full account access.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Service Issue - Cloud Manager and API
Oct. 2nd, 2025 08:00 amlinode_status_new_feedOct 2, 08:00 UTC
Monitoring - A database maintenance was performed and we are currently monitoring the results. If you are still experiencing issues, please open a Support ticket for assistance.
Oct 2, 00:05 UTC
Update - We are continuing to investigate this issue.
Oct 1, 22:05 UTC
Investigating - Our team is investigating a service issue that intermittently triggers 5XX responses in the Cloud Manager (https://cloud.linode.com/) and API request failures for brief periods. We will share additional updates as we have more information.
The Big Idea: Beth Cato
Oct. 1st, 2025 05:58 pmwhatever_scalzi_feed
You can’t judge a house by its paint job. Or by the nefarious things that have gone on inside said house in the past. Author Beth Cato takes us for a tour in the Big Idea for her newest novel, A House Between Sea and Sky. Follow along to see what lore this house holds.
BETH CATO:
Murder houses have feelings, too.
In the case of the titular House of my new cozy-literary fantasy A House Between Sea and Sky, those feelings include loneliness, anxiety, and some undeniable obsessive-compulsive tendencies. After all, it’s not easy to be a witch’s hut for centuries. One’s oven gets used for all sorts of sordid things.
But House has now been abandoned. For years it has lingered, essentially dozing in its precarious position on a cliff at the edge of a strange continent. But on this stormy night, it stirs awake as it recognizes something: a woman flavored by a magic even older than its own. House’s curiosity is piqued. It doesn’t try to hide itself from the woman’s eyes. It lets her come close. Even more, when the woman returns, dragging along a man limp with despair, House lets them both inside to take shelter from the raging rain and lightning.
As House describes the scene:
I am not their home, but I can be a refuge. I can, maybe, know the warmth of bodies and voices again, my hollowness less hollow.
I open my entry to them in invitation.
The year is 1926. The place: Carmel-by-the-Sea in California. The human point of view is that of the woman flavored by magic, forty-five-year-old Fayette Wynne. She is a scenarist for silent films. She’s struggling to catch up on her script-writing after the recent death of her beloved Ma. Fayette’s siblings are dead, too. Her grief is a boulder she can’t budge, though she truly does have one other family member left–the sentient sourdough starter dubbed Mother that her family has tended for decades. Mother’s divine healing powers were not adequate to heal Ma, though, and Fayette bristles with resentment.
Then there is the man Fayette rescues from the storm. Rex Hallstrom is a rising star in Hollywood, handsome and charismatic. But Rex has been forced to act through most every moment of the day, and the falseness of his life is eating away at him like acid. He needs help. He needs hope.
All of my other fantasy novels have been about high stakes: the world is in danger, the kingdom is in danger, that kind of thing. This is a different kind of book. The stakes are low and intimate. These people–and House is definitely a living soul and a person–need each other if they are to survive.
I invite you to step inside this world, too. You’ll find House to be the most accommodating of hosts. There will be a warm fire. Good, fresh sourdough bread. An incredible view. Perhaps some surprise company will arrive as well–after all, this is a witch’s house, and the unexpected should be expected.
Just be sensitive about House’s feelings. It truly is striving to be more than a murder house of lore, but maaaaaybe it doesn’t always make the right choices. Just know that it is trying, just as we all attempt to get by, day to day. We all could use a little more care and compassion as we slog through this storm that we call life.
A House Between Sea and Sky: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop|Audible
2025.10: Undo, redo, and draw me too
Oct. 1st, 2025 12:00 amhomeassistant_feedBoo! 👻
We just celebrated our birthday 🥳, which means it is time for spooky season; get ready for Halloween! And, hello to the October release of Home Assistant 2025.10! 🎃
This release iterates on some of the features we introduced in the last couple of releases, but also introduces some brand-new ones!
The highlight of this release is definitely the iterations of the automation editor, which gained a sidebar last release, and now has gained undo/redo functionality, a resizable sidebar, improved copy/paste, and more! Thanks for all the feedback you provided on the previous release; it made a massive difference in this release.
Using multiple wake words for voice assistants is now possible, which opens up a lot of possibilities, especially for dual-language households (like mine 😉). Dashboards get more intelligent by suggesting entities based on your usage patterns, and the AI Task can now generate images, which I’m curious to see what the community will do with it!
Enjoy the release!
../Frenck
- Automation editor
- AI Task - Draw me a sheep
- Dashboards get smarter - let your home suggest what to show
- Voice
- Integrations
- Other noteworthy changes
- Patch releases
- Need help? Join the community
- Backward-incompatible changes
- All changes
A huge thank you to all the contributors who made this release possible! And a special shout-out to @JLo, @laupalombi, and @piitaya who helped write the release notes this release. Also, @googanhiem, @SeraphicRav, @tronikos, and @richardpolzer for putting effort into tweaking its contents. Thanks to them, these release notes are in great shape. ❤️
Automation editor
In the last release, we introduced a new layout for the automation editor, and your feedback has been invaluable in helping us refine it!
This release fixes a few of the most common issues we managed to gather from all of you. Thanks for all the feedback! ❤️
The sidebar is resizable
Working on an action that is too complex for a small sidebar? Maybe one with a few YAML fields? You can now resize the sidebar to adapt the layout to your current task!
CTRL+V
We previously introduced keyboard shortcuts to copy and cut.
Pasting was more complex to bring to life because you can paste a block (trigger, condition, action) in many different locations in your automation. In this release, we introduce a really simple pattern. If you previously copied a block, you can paste it below any block simply by selecting it and pressing CTRL+V.
Another very simple, but very welcome, quality-of-life improvement to the automation editor!
The overflow menu is back
We initially relocated the overflow menu (the menu that appears when you click the ⋮) with all the options related to a block on the sidebar, thinking this would make the flow cleaner.
Due to popular demand and helpful feedback that some actions were more difficult to reach (such as testing a condition or running an action), we decided to bring it back to the main section of the editor as well.
Undo/Redo
We’ve all been there: you’re building a complex automation, make a mistake, and want to revert it, only to find out that it’s really not simple. Up until now, the only way to revert some unsaved changes made to an automation was to close it and start over again… A very painful workflow.
This release introduces an Undo functionality (and its associated Redo). You can now undo up to 75 steps back in your automation editing history (and redo them if you want). Standard keyboard shortcuts (CTRL+Z and CTRL+Y) are also available! An amazing contribution from @jpbede, thanks!
Repeat repeat repeat repeat
Finally, we noticed some unwanted complexity in our “repeat” building block, which allows you to repeat one or multiple actions for as long as you need to.
This complexity stemmed from the fact that we were trying to cover four main use cases in a single block.
We decided to split this building block into four smaller ones, with simpler descriptions explaining each use case. Nice!
Here’s how they were separated:
- Repeat multiple times - Repeat a sequence of actions a fixed number of times.
- Repeat until - Repeat a sequence of actions until a condition is satisfied. The condition is checked after each run of the sequence.
- Repeat while - Repeat a sequence of actions as long as a condition is satisfied. The condition is checked before each run of the sequence.
- Repeat for each - Repeat a sequence for each element of a list.
For our advanced users: This evolution is only cosmetic. The YAML format of the repeat block does not change; this means your existing automations will not be affected by this change.
Automation editor feedback
One of Home Assistant’s greatest strengths is our community. We’re building this automation editor together, and your input will shape where it goes next. There are two ways to get involved:
AI Task - Draw me a sheep
In 2025.8, we introduced a way to generate data using the LLM of your choice, paving the way to more AI-driven automations, dashboards, and other smart home interactions.
In this release, we introduce a way to generate images!
Now every time someone rings your doorbell, you can receive a notification with a cartoon version of the doorbell snapshot. @JLo has made this example a reality, and here’s his demo with the associated automation!
Automation details
alias: Demo Doorbell
triggers:
- trigger: state
entity_id:
- binary_sensor.doorbell_demo
to: "on"
actions:
- action: notify.mobile_app_iphone
data:
title: "🔔 Doorbell "
message: Processing image ...
data:
tag: doorbell
- action: ai_task.generate_data
data:
task_name: Doorbell description
instructions: |-
Someone rang my doorbell.
Instructions:
- Describe the scene, describe every person on the scene
- Count People
- Count Animals
entity_id: ai_task.ai_task_gpt_4o
structure:
summary:
description: >-
Summary of the scene and the people inside it. Keep it under 180
characters
selector:
text: null
person_count:
description: Number of person in the scene
selector:
number: null
animal_count:
description: Number of animal in the scene
selector:
number: null
attachments:
media_content_id: media-source://media_source/local/doorbell_test.png
media_content_type: image/png
metadata:
title: doorbell_test.png
thumbnail: null
media_class: image
children_media_class: null
navigateIds:
- {}
- media_content_type: app
media_content_id: media-source://media_source
response_variable: ai
- action: notify.mobile_app_iphone
data:
title: >-
🔔 Doorbell ({{ai.data.person_count}} 🧑🏻🦱 / {{ai.data.animal_count}}
🐊)
message: "{{ai.data.summary}}"
data:
tag: doorbell
- action: ai_task.generate_image
data:
task_name: Manga
instructions: Transform this image into a super cute manga!
entity_id: ai_task.google_ai_task
attachments:
media_content_id: media-source://media_source/local/doorbell_test.png
media_content_type: image/png
metadata:
title: doorbell_test.png
thumbnail: null
media_class: image
children_media_class: null
navigateIds:
- {}
- media_content_type: app
media_content_id: media-source://media_source
response_variable: ai_image
enabled: true
- action: notify.mobile_app_iphone
data:
title: >-
🔔 Doorbell ({{ai.data.person_count}} 🧑🏻🦱 / {{ai.data.animal_count}}
🐊)
message: "{{ai.data.summary}}"
data:
tag: doorbell
image: http://homeassistant.local:8123{{ai_image.url}}
enabled: true
mode: single
Image generation is already working great, and we cannot wait to see what you will build with this!
Dashboards get smarter - let your home suggest what to show
In the last release, we introduced the Home dashboard, offering a simpler way to control and monitor your smart home if you don’t have the time, energy, or need to customize your own dashboard in detail.
Now we’ve added a new concept: sections of suggested entities. This follows a basic algorithm that suggests entities you have interacted with the most in the past. It then shows these entities based on the hour of the day, with only relevant controls being suggested.
Adding prediction entities to any dashboard
If you’re creating a manual dashboard with sections, you can integrate these prediction controls directly into it. The setup follows a section-based approach:
- Add a new section.
- Open and edit the YAML of that section.
- Replace the entire section YAML with the following snippet:
strategy:
type: common-controls
title: Common controls
One of Home Assistant’s greatest strengths is our community. We’re building this dashboard together, and your input will shape where it goes next. There are two ways to get involved:
Voice
Hello, hola
For a very long time, ESPHome-based voice assistants (even the tiny Atom Echo) secretly supported multiple wake words under the hood. With this release, we’re finally opening up this feature to you!
You can now define two wake words and two assistants for every voice assistant in your home!
This makes it straightforward to support dual-language households by assigning different wake words to different languages. For example, “Okay Nabu” could be used for French, while “Hey Jarvis” is used for English.
Multiple wake words and assistants can be used for other purposes as well. Want to keep your local and cloud-based voice assistants separate? Easy! “Okay Nabu” could be used for a cloud-based assistant while “Hey Jarvis” is used for a local one.
We’d love to hear feedback on how you plan to use multiple wake words in your home!
Beep boop
After a voice command, Assist responds with a short confirmation like “Turned on the lights” or “Brightness set”. This lets you know that it understood your command and took the appropriate actions. However, if you’re in the same room as the voice assistant, this confirmation can feel redundant since you can see or hear that the appropriate actions were taken.
Starting with this release, Assist will detect if your voice command’s actions all took place within the same area as the satellite device. If so, a short confirmation “beep” will be played instead of the full verbal response. Besides being less verbose, this also serves as a quick reminder that your voice command only affected the current area.
This feature does not work for AI-enabled Assistants, as they can generate a wide variety of responses that can’t be replaced with a simple beep.
Integrations
Thanks to our community for keeping pace with the new integrationsIntegrations connect and integrate Home Assistant with your devices, services, and more. [Learn more] and improvements to existing ones! You’re all awesome 🥰
New integrations
We welcome the following new integrations in this release:
- Compit, added by @Przemko92
The Compit integration allows you to integrate air conditioning, ventilation, and heating controllers with Home Assistant. - Cync, added by @Kinachi249
Connect your GE Lighting Cync smart devices—including smart lighting (formerly known as C by GE)—with Home Assistant. - Droplet, added by @sarahseidman
Connect your Droplet devices to Home Assistant. Droplet accurately monitors your home’s water usage in real time. - ekey bionyx, added by @richardpolzer
Integrate your ekey bionyx biometric access control systems to receive events for individual finger scans and digital inputs in your smart home. - IRM KMI, added by @jdejaegh
Get accurate weather data from Belgium’s Royal Meteorological Institute (IRM-KMI) for precise regional forecasting. - Libre Hardware Monitor, added by @Sab44
Monitor your computer’s hardware sensors, including CPU temperature, GPU usage, fan speeds, and system performance metrics. - Portainer, added by @erwindouna
Manage and monitor your Docker containers, keeping track of the status of your running containers. - Smart Meter B Route, added by @SeraphicRav
Connect your smart meter via the B Route protocol—designed for the Japanese market—to access real-time energy consumption data. - SFTP Storage, added by @maretodoric
Set up secure remote backup locations using SFTP/SSH protocols for your Home Assistant backups and data storage. - Usage Prediction, added by @balloob
An internal integration that provides predictions of what entities you are most likely to interact with. Used by our new Home dashboard. - Victron Remote Monitoring, added by @AndyTempel
The Victron Remote Monitoring (VRM) integration pulls site statistics and solar production and consumption forecasts from Victron Energy’s VRM portal.
Noteworthy improvements to existing integrations
It is not just new integrationsIntegrations connect and integrate Home Assistant with your devices, services, and more. [Learn more] that have been added; existing integrations are also being constantly improved. Here are some of the noteworthy changes to existing integrations:
- Philips Hue expanded with support for MotionAware sensors on the new Hue Bridge Pro! Thanks, @marcelveldt!
- LG added support to the LG ThinQ integration to now provide energy usage sensors for better energy monitoring of your devices! Nice!
- Amazing work from @natekspencer: Litter-Robot got several enhancements: last feeding sensors, food dispensed today tracking, next feeding sensors, gravity mode switch, and globe light settings for Litter-Robot 4!
- AccuWeather now provides hourly forecasts, giving you more detailed weather predictions throughout the day! Thanks, @bieniu!
- The Blue Current integration got a new start charge session action for managing your EV charging! Nice work, @NickKoepr!
- The Ecowitt integration now supports the LDS01 sensor! Great addition, @GSzabados!
- Reolink cameras got several new features including encoding select entity, Home Hub siren support, and color temperature support for light entities! Awesome work from @starkillerOG!
- Geocaching enthusiasts will love the new cache sensors added to the Geocaching integration by @marc7s! Nice if you have hidden one!
- Lutron Caseta now supports multi-tap actions for more advanced button control! Thanks, @rlopezdiez!
- Thanks to @alexqzd, SmartThings air conditioners can now control the AC display light!
- Shelly devices received massive updates including illuminance sensor for Plug US Gen4, presence component entities, virtual buttons support, object-based entities, presence zone component support, and cable unplugged sensor for Flood Gen4! Great work from @chemelli74, @bieniu, and @thecode!
- The SwitchBot integration expanded device support with Plug Mini EU, RelaySwitch 2PM, and K11+ Vacuum! Thanks, @zerzhang!
- The SwitchBot Cloud integration got several improvements including AC off support, humidifier platform, Plug-Mini-EU support, and Climate Panel support! Great work from @SeraphicRav and @XiaoLing-git!
- Thanks to @timmo001, the System Bridge integration now includes a power usage sensor for better system monitoring!
- Exciting to see that the Tasmota integration now supports camera functionality! Nice addition from @anishsane!
- Using the Tibber integration? It now provides 15-minute price data, which goes into effect on October 1st. Good timing, @Danielhiversen!
- The Tuya integration received extensive updates with support for various new device categories and sensors: energy sensors for TDQ devices, power sensors for ZNDB devices, energy sensors for DLQ devices, solar inverter support, energy consumption for several smart switches, PM10 air quality monitoring, motor rotation mode for curtains that support it, charge state for siren alarms, cooking thermometer support, cat toilet support, electric desk support, white noise machine support, and water quality sensor support! What an impressive list! Thanks, @zzysszzy, @rokam, and @mhalano!
- The Workday integration now has a calendar that you can view from the calendar sidebar! Thanks, @gjohansson-ST!
- The ntfy integration got a big upgrade! You can now send richer, customizable notifications with tags, icons, URLs, and attachments. Plus, with the new event platform, you can subscribe to topics and trigger automations from incoming messages. Thanks, @tr4nt0r!
Integration quality scale achievements
One thing we are incredibly proud of in Home Assistant is our integration quality scale. This scale helps us and our contributors to ensure integrations are of high quality, maintainable, and provide the best possible user experience.
This release, we celebrate several integrationsIntegrations connect and integrate Home Assistant with your devices, services, and more. [Learn more] that have improved their quality scale:
-
3 integrations reached platinum 🏆
- Android TV Remote, thanks to @tronikos
- Miele, thanks to @astrandb
- Sleep as Android, thanks to @tr4nt0r
-
2 integrations reached silver 🥈
- Samsung Smart TV, thanks to @chemelli74
- Whirlpool Appliances, thanks to @abmantis
-
3 integrations reached bronze 🥉
This is a huge achievement for these integrations and their maintainers. The effort and dedication required to reach these quality levels is significant, as it involves extensive testing, documentation, error handling, and often complete rewrites of parts of the integration.
A big thank you to all the contributors involved! 👏
Now available to set up from the UI
While most integrationsIntegrations connect and integrate Home Assistant with your devices, services, and more. [Learn more] can be set up directly from the Home Assistant user interface, some were only available using YAML configuration. We keep moving more integrations to the UI, making them more accessible for everyone to set up and use.
The following integrations are now available via the Home Assistant UI:
- Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS), done by @heindrichpaul
- Satel Integra, done by @Tommatheussen
Other noteworthy changes
There are many more improvements in this release; here are some of the other noteworthy changes:
- The “Logbook” has been renamed to “Activity” in the UI. This better reflects its purpose of showing a timeline of activities and events in your Home Assistant instance.
- Matter continues to expand with occupancy sensing hold time, climate running state for heat/cool fans, and thermostat outdoor temperature sensors! Great contributions from @lboue and @virtualbitzz!
- Lawn mower entities now support start mowing and dock intents for better voice control! Thanks, @piitaya!
- The analog clock we introduced last release got some more options! You can now enable a smooth motion for the seconds hand. Beautiful, @timmo001!
- Need the version of the Home Assistant Mobile Companion App you are using? If you have installed the latest versions of our apps, the version is now shown on the about page in the settings menu! Nice one, @TimoPtr!
- The thermostat card now supports water heater entities. Thanks, @karwosts!
- Thanks to @cr7pt0gr4ph7, the add-on configuration UI has gotten support for more complex configurations; this means you will get a better experience when configuring add-ons with more complex options (like lists or user accounts). Well done!
- Talking about add-ons, we now include switch entities for those, making it easier to control your add-ons. Thanks, @felipecrs!
- Using a webhook trigger in your automation? You can now make it even more dynamic by using a template for the
webhook_id. Thanks, @RoboMagus! - We now have support for
MCF(1000 Cubic Feet) as an alternate unit of measure for volume, thanks to @ekobres, @xtimmy86x addedm/minfor speed sensors, and @pioto addedinH₂Opressure unit support. Nice!
New more information dialog for media player entities
This one, we have @jpbede and @matthiasdebaat to thank for! The ‘more information’ dialogs for media players have a revamped design, offering a cleaner and more intuitive interface.
Sync zooming charts in the history panel
When you have multiple charts in the history panel, zooming in on one chart will now automatically zoom in on all other charts as well. This makes it easier to compare data across different entities. Well done, @birrejan!
Template & YAML editors get a toolbar
@TCWORLD has contributed a toolbar for the YAML and template code editors in our UI. This solves an issue where the previous floating button would float over the content of the editor and obscure it from view.
The new toolbar also includes undo and redo buttons, bringing the same convenient undo and redo functionality we introduced for the automation editor to these code editors as well. Plus, there’s a nice little copy button to quickly copy your code! Nice!
Patch releases
We will also release patch releases for Home Assistant 2025.10 in October. These patch releases only contain bug fixes. Our goal is to release a patch release once a week, aiming for Friday.
2025.10.1 - October 3
- Bump airOS dependency (@CoMPaTech - #153065)
- Bump airOS module for alternative login url (@CoMPaTech - #153317)
- Bump aiohasupervisor to 0.3.3 (@agners - #153344)
- Do not reset the adapter twice during ZHA options flow migration (@puddly - #153345)
- Fix Nord Pool 15 minute interval (@gjohansson-ST - #153350)
- Explicitly check for None in raw value processing of modbus (@alengwenus - #153352)
- Set config entry to None in ProxmoxVE (@mib1185 - #153357)
- Explicit pass in the config entry to coordinator in airtouch4 (@mib1185 - #153361)
- Add Roborock mop intensity translations (@starkillerOG - #153380)
- Correct blocking update in ToGrill with lack of notifications (@elupus - #153387)
- Bump python-roborock to 2.49.1 (@Lash-L - #153396)
- Pushover: Handle empty data section properly (@linuxkidd - #153397)
- Increase onedrive upload chunk size (@zweckj - #153406)
- Bump pyportainer 1.0.2 (@erwindouna - #153326)
- Bump pyportainer 1.0.3 (@erwindouna - #153413)
- Disable thinking for unsupported gemini models (@Shulyaka - #153415)
- Fix Satel Integra creating new binary sensors on YAML import (@Tommatheussen - #153419)
- Update
markdownfield description in ntfy integration (@tr4nt0r - #153421) - Fix Z-Wave RGB light turn on causing rare
ZeroDivisionError(@TheJulianJES - #153422) - Bump aiohomekit to 3.2.19 (@bdraco - #153423)
- Fix sentence-casing in user-facing strings of
slack(@NoRi2909 - #153427) - Add missing translation for media browser default title (@timmo001 - #153430)
- Fix missing powerconsumptionreport in Smartthings (@joostlek - #153438)
- Update Home Assistant base image to 2025.10.0 (@agners - #153441)
- Disable baudrate bootloader reset for ZBT-2 (@puddly - #153443)
- Add translation for turbo fan mode in SmartThings (@joostlek - #153445)
- Fix next event in workday calendar (@gjohansson-ST - #153465)
- Update OVOEnergy to 3.0.1 (@timmo001 - #153476)
- Fix missing parameter pass in onedrive (@zweckj - #153478)
- Bump pyTibber to 0.32.2 (@Danielhiversen - #153484)
- Bump reolink-aio to 0.16.1 (@starkillerOG - #153489)
- Fix VeSync zero fan speed handling (@cdnninja - #153493)
- Bump universal-silabs-flasher to 0.0.35 (@puddly - #153500)
- Debounce updates in Idasen Desk (@abmantis - #153503)
- Z-Wave to support migrating from USB to socket with same home ID (@balloob - #153522)
- When discovering a Z-Wave adapter, always configure add-on in config flow (@balloob - #153575)
Need help? Join the community
Home Assistant has a great community of users who are all more than willing to help each other out. So, join us!
Our very active Discord chat server is an excellent place to be, and don’t forget to join our amazing forums.
Found a bug or issue? Please report it in our issue tracker to get it fixed! Or check our help page for guidance on more places you can go.
Are you more into email? Sign up for the Open Home Foundation Newsletter to get the latest news about features, things happening in our community, and other projects that support the Open Home straight into your inbox.
Backward-incompatible changes
We do our best to avoid making changes to existing functionality that might unexpectedly impact your Home Assistant installation. Unfortunately, sometimes, it is inevitable.
We always make sure to document these changes to make the transition as easy as possible for you. This release has the following backward-incompatible changes:
Targeting labels in automations and scripts
Configuration and diagnostic entities with a label assigned to them will now be targeted/affected by service actions targeting that label. Previously, those entity categories were ignored on service action calls targeting labels.
If you have an automation or script with an action targeting a label, make sure that only entities that should be affected have that label assigned, even if they are config or diagnostic entities.
(@abmantis - #149309) (labels docs)
HERE Travel Time
HERE deprecated the previous free tier. The new Base Plan has 5000 free requests per month. The automatic update interval of the HERE Travel Time integration changed from 5 minutes to 30 minutes, so one route can be supported without costs.
Home Connect
The Home Connect Alarm clock entity has been removed from the time platform, please use the number entity instead.
Shelly
Removed previously deprecated extra attributes, please review your automations.
Shelly Gas:
- The Detected attribute of the Gas entity has been removed, the Gas detected entity should be used instead.
- The Self test attribute of the Operation entity has been removed, the Self test entity should be used instead.
Shelly Air:
- The Operational hours of the Lamp Life entity has been removed, if you still want that info please use a template entity.
(@chemelli74 - #140386) (shelly docs)
Slide Local
The effect of the property “invert position” is extended from the position itself to the status (open or closed). With this adjustment, it is no longer necessary to use cover templates to invert the position to correct the status. If you have covers with inverted position and are using the state in automations, you must adjust the automations accordingly.
SmartThings
The windFree preset mode for the air conditioner has been renamed to wind_free to allow translation to happen. Please adapt automations accordingly.
(@joostlek - #152833) (smartthings docs)
Tibber
Switch Tibber electricity pricing to 15-minute intervals.
- The
tibber.get_pricesaction now returns 15-minute data instead of hourly. - The
price_levelattribute is removed and no longer supported. - The
intraday_price_rankingattribute is now scaled to (0,1) to better support 15-minute prices.
Zabbix
We removed official support for Zabbix 5.0 from the integration. While this does not directly break connections to Zabbix 5.0, future updates will not check for compatibility with this version. Note that Zabbix 5 LTS left its support window in May of 2025.
(@nolsto - #149450) (zabbix docs)
ZhongHong
ZhongHong’s climate entities set_fan_mode action behavior has changed.
The fan mode values are now converted to lowercase instead of uppercase to ensure compliance with the standard convention.
If you have automations relying on uppercase fan mode values, you will need to update them to use lowercase values instead.
(@Blear - #151559) (zhong_hong docs)
If you are a custom integration developer and want to learn about changes and new features available for your integration: Be sure to follow our developer blog. The following changes are the most notable for this release:
All changes
Of course, there is a lot more in this release. You can find a list of all changes made here: Full changelog for Home Assistant Core 2025.10
“3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years” Part of the Amazon First Reads for October
Oct. 1st, 2025 02:32 pmwhatever_scalzi_feed
If you have Amazon Prime, then you have access to First Reads, Amazon’s program for giving their subscribers an early look at books that will be publishing soon. And starting today and for the rest of the month, that means you have access to “3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years,” the time-travel short story (more precisely a “novelette” as it clocks in at 10,000 words) I wrote as part of The Time Traveler’s Passport, an anthology of stories about time and/or travel, edited by John Joseph Adams, which will also stories by R.F. Kuang, Peng Shepard, Kaliane Bradley, Olivie Blake and P. Djèlí Clark, and be generally available in November. My story is a sneak preview of the sort of mind-bending stories that anthology will provide you, and I’m happy to represent my fellow authors as a sneak preview.
Here’s the link to the “3 Days” page on Amazon. If you’re eligible for the First Reads program, it’ll let you know in the sales widget. Otherwise you can pre-order the short story for $1.99 (or its equivalents wherever you might be).
Whenever you read this new story of mine, enjoy!
— JS
Scheduled Network Maintenance - IN-BOM-2 (Mumbai 2)
Oct. 1st, 2025 06:00 amlinode_status_new_feedOct 1, 06:00 UTC
Completed - The scheduled maintenance has been completed.
Oct 1, 02:00 UTC
In progress - Scheduled maintenance is currently in progress. We will provide updates as necessary.
Sep 10, 21:46 UTC
Scheduled - We will be performing network maintenance at IN-BOM-2 (Mumbai 2) on October 1st from 02:00 UTC to 06:00 UTC. During this window, changes will be made to enhance routing stability, improve convergence performance, and enable additional support for advanced routing features. Individuals may experience short-lived packet loss or latency spikes while maintenance occurs.
Brunching It Up At Alcove by MadTree Brewing
Sep. 30th, 2025 07:33 pmwhatever_scalzi_feed
Cincinnati is home to many breweries, and two of the most well-known are Rhinegeist and MadTree Brewing. I don’t drink beer, so I’ve never made it a point to visit any of these famed breweries. I always figured there was somewhere more in my wheelhouse to check out.
Two weeks ago, two of my friends from Wisconsin were coming to Cincinnati for a concert. Though it was a short trip for them, they had just enough time before they left to have brunch with me. While I definitely know a place or two for dinner and drinks in Cincy, I am much less versed in the ways of Cincy brunch locations. So, I had to ask one of my Cincy resident friends for a brunch recommendation, and she pointed me in the direction of Alcove.
I had never heard of Alcove before, and I never realized MadTree even had a restaurant at all. When I looked it up, I was immediately enticed by the well-lit, wide-open space, warm tones from all the wood furniture and flooring, and the wild amount of plants they had occupying the space. I loved the look of it, and after checking out their brunch menu, I was sold, and made us reservations.
Alcove is open every day of the week for lunch and dinner, as well as having their full brunch available from 10-3 on Saturday and Sunday. During the weekdays they still have their brunch but with a limited menu instead of the full version. Apparently this is a more recent change!
When my friends and I arrived, we were asked if we wanted to be seated in the main area, the patio, or the greenhouse. We were all intrigued by the sound of the greenhouse, so we picked that and were led to a room just off the main area that had floor-to-ceiling windows, vibrantly colored velvet furniture, even more plants, and its own bar. It was a really pretty space and we were glad we chose it.
After perusing the menu, we decided the best thing to start off with would be some of their spiked coffee options for a bit of a boozy brunch moment.
I opted the for the espresso martini, which consisted of vanilla vodka, cold brew, hazelnut liqueur, vanilla simple, cocoa bitters, and came with a brûléed top. My friend Austin got their spiked coffee which comes with vanilla, amaretto, salted maple cream, and your choice of spirit. He went with bourbon, specifically Buffalo Trace (which was an upcharge). Mattea started off with an iced coffee which is what you see in the photo, but then later tried their Double Dirty Chai which is just vanilla infused bourbon, chai, espresso, and your choice of milk. I didn’t get a photo of that one but she was kind enough to let me try it and I thought it was quite good even though I don’t care for bourbon. Austin’s hot bourbon coffee was definitely too bourbony for me, though. Mattea and I agreed my espresso martini was super yummy.
For something to share, we settled on their charcuterie board. If you aren’t feeling the meat, you can make it just a cheese board for nine dollars cheaper. Here’s what we got:
On the menu the description is basically just “artisan meats and cheeses,” and I kind of thought that when the server brought it out she would tell us what all came on the board, but that didn’t end up happening so my friends and I just placed our bets on what was what. While I did like everything on the board, I do think it was just a little sparse. I would say this is better if it’s just you and one other person, rather than trying to share between three or four people.
For our mains, Mattea and I ordered the exact same thing: the Crispy Tofu and Couscous, as well as the Potato Gnocchi as a side. Austin went for a true brunch classic: Chicken and Waffles.
When our food came, Mattea and I were presented with something definitely different than what we ordered. Before us sat the Crispy Tofu Sandwich. It was a simple mix-up, and we both debated whether or not to say something or just eat the sandwich. Finally, we mustered the courage to say something, and our server let us keep the sandwiches on the house and brought out our correct item soon after. Hooray for free sandwiches!
Here was our Crispy Tofu and Couscous with broccolini, sun dried tomatoes, and red pepper puree:
All of the red pepper puree is at the bottom, so you can just barely see it in the photo, but once I got everything all mixed together it was a lot more evenly distributed over the couscous and whatnot. I didn’t get a picture of the gnocchi, but it came with a roasted garlic cream sauce, sun-dried tomatoes, and asparagus. The gnocchi was really good, I ended up eating way more of that than my main dish, and had to get a box because I tore up my gnocchi.
And here was the chicken and waffles:
(Austin added an over-easy egg on top.)
We took this opportunity to order another round of drinks. Austin picked the mimosa flight, which came with orange juice, peach juice, cranberry juice, and pineapple juice.
Austin, Mattea, and I all agreed on a ranking of pineapple being the best, then cranberry, then orange, and finally peach.
And I got their Basil Rosé, which was gin, rosé, basil, lime, and simple:
This cocktail was so summery and light, very refreshing and perfectly sweetened.
While we were dining, a photographer came over and asked if he could take some pictures of us enjoying our meal and hanging out. We obliged, and in return he gave us each a ten dollar gift card to use towards our bill. That was so generous! He really did not have to do that, we were totally fine being a part of his photos for free, but that was really cool.
All in all, we really enjoyed our brunch at Alcove by MadTree Brewing. It’s an eclectic, beautiful space right in OTR, with tons of gluten-free and vegetarian options, good drinks, and good service. I definitely want to go back sometime, and I’m happy to now know of a good brunch place in Cincinnati.
After our experience at Alcove, I decided to look up MadTree and see what else I was missing out on. It turns out they have two other locations besides Alcove. They have a taproom over in Oakley, and a location they call “Parks & Rec” up in Blue Ash. All of their locations are open everyday of the week, and their Parks & Rec location even serves brunch all day, everyday!
Both the Oakley Taproom and Parks & Rec are dog-friendly and family-friendly, but the Parks & Rec location appears to really excel in the family-friendly aspect, with indoor and outdoor play areas for kids and recreation for all ages. Their Parks & Rec location is also designed with every type of family in mind, with their Branch Out initiative, which aims towards accessibility and inclusivity for all. You can read more about their efforts on that front here.
Aside from that, I was really interested to learn about MadTree’s commitment to the environment. I learned that they are the only certified B-Corp brewery in Ohio, and belong to a whopping 0.2% of B-Corp breweries overall. They are also a part of 1% For The Planet, 100% of their spent grain goes to feeding livestock, they plant or donate 5,000 trees a year, and even pay their employees for 16 volunteer hours a year. There’s even more to learn about their sustainability efforts and commitment to community if you want to check it out here and here.
Overall, MadTree seems like a super cool company with a lot to offer Cincinnati. I can’t believe I overlooked it before just because I don’t like beer! I would love to check out their other locations, and support them and their efforts towards making Cincinnati a healthier, happier place.
Do you like spiked coffee? Are you a brunch connoisseur? Have you tried MadTree Brewing before, or any of their locations? Let me know in the comments, be sure to check out MadTree Brewing, their Oakley Taproom, Parks & Rec, and Alcove on Instagram, and have a great day!
-AMS
The Big Idea: Becky Ferreira
Sep. 30th, 2025 04:58 pmwhatever_scalzi_feed
For as long as people have been looking up at the stars, there have been thoughts about aliens. Are they humanoid, or completely and utterly different from us? Are they benevolent or world-conquering? Author Becky Ferreira shines some light on the subject in the Big Idea for her newest book, First Contact: The Story of Our Obsession With Aliens. Follow along in her Big Idea to see if they come in peace.
BECKY FERREIRA:
Aliens will always be with us, even if we never find them.
Earth is awash in aliens.
They dominate our popular culture: In 2025 alone, aliens starred in blockbuster films from Superman to Predator: Badlands and streaming favorites from Alien: Earth to Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Whenever unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) are captured on film—like the recent firing of a Hellfire missile at a mystery object—aliens are top of mind for millions of people.
Meanwhile, the ancient dream of discovering extraterrestrial life is entering an exciting new phase. This year, potential biosignatures were found on Mars and in the skies of an exoplanet 124 light years from Earth. These are just the latest tantalizing hints that life might exist beyond our world—though none has remotely approached the high bar of an unambiguous alien detection.
I’ve covered the search for alien life as a science reporter for the past 15 years, and also written a great deal about our broader cultural fixation on aliens. In my new book First Contact: The Story of Our Obsession with Aliens—out from Workman Publishing on September 30—I aimed to provide a one-stop primer for all the diverse meanings that aliens hold to people.
The book traces the origins of our hunch that we are not alone in the universe deep into prehistory. It chronicles the massive pop culture footprint of aliens, and the thriving subcultures that believe they already walk among us. It spotlights the ingenious ways that humans have learned to search for life—from the shiny beryllium mirrors of space telescopes, to the dusty wheels of Martian rovers, to the algorithms that comb through sky surveys looking for any sign of intelligent beings out in the dark. It imagines what might happen if we one day confirm our ancient suspicion that “others” exist—and what it would mean if we really are alone.
First Contact was a joy to write, but it wasn’t an easy ride. I set out to cram as much pertinent material about aliens into the pages as possible, while keeping it short enough to be read in an afternoon sitting. I read dozens of books and countless studies, but there is simply no way to ever adequately keep pace with a topic that has inspired such immense creativity and diverse interpretation. I’m happy with how the book turned out; now I just need to churn out another 700 volumes.
The development of this book also coincided with some major life changes. I got to work on it as my son was rapidly morphing from a baby into a toddler with big opinions (and emotions to match). As I pondered how humans might communicate with an advanced alien species, I was often simultaneously trying to decipher the expressions of a tiny wild person—to interpret his gestures and muddled sentences, to make him laugh, to console him, to share his wonder.
During the writing process, I was also rebuilding my freelance reporting career from scratch after a decade on staff at a media company that flamboyantly self-destructed (many such cases). Fortunately, I have now found my footing, which I don’t take for granted. Still, this stressful and tiring experience often inspires daydreams about slipping into a Rip-Van-Winkle slumber that takes me straight through to 2050 when I wake up feeling refreshed at last.
That said, aliens turned out to be great company throughout all the trials and tribulations. They were with me during the midnights I spent coaxing the kid back to sleep; the 3am writing sessions in the serene pre-dawn dark; the hammocked summer afternoons reading the latest extraterrestrial saga; and evenings revisiting classic films about the moment we finally make contact with something—someone—beyond our home world.
The story of our obsession with aliens is ancient, but I truly believe it has never been more engrossing. We may be on the cusp of finally resolving this most elusive question, or we may face a future alone in a silent universe.
Regardless of the outcome, I hope that First Contact will be a reminder that the search for extraterrestrial life is a human odyssey, an heirloom passed down by our stargazing ancestors marked with the fingerprints of each successive generation that has inherited it. It is an effort that looks to the sky for alien life, sure, but it also embodies the cherished homegrown values that I am trying to instill in my own young Earthling: curiosity, imagination, resourcefulness, and appreciation for a cosmos that is awesome in every sense of the word, no matter who else might be sharing it with us.
FIRST CONTACT: The Story of Our Obsession With Aliens: Hachette|Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Powell’s
Author socials: Website|Newsletter|X|Instagram|Bluesky
On Blurb Hiatus Through the Rest of 2025
Sep. 30th, 2025 01:06 pmwhatever_scalzi_feedI have a lot of writing and other professional and personal projects to do before the end of the year, and a fair bit of travel in there as well, so I’m going to go ahead and call it: I’m on a blurb hiatus through the end of the year. I have several books already on my “TBR” list with respect to blurbing, and can’t responsibly add any more for the rest of 2025. I post this notice so that when I inform editors/publishers/publicists that I can’t consider blurbing a book for them, they know it isn’t about their book or author in particular. The problem here is me, and my very busy fourth quarter schedule, and my admittedly lackadaisical organizational skills.
If you have a 2026 book you’re interested in having me blurb, please wait until January to query me about it, at that point I will have turned in my novel and slept through most of December and will be ready to consider such stuff. Until then, however, I’m afraid the answer to blurb requests is “not now.” Thank you for understanding.
— JS
Review: Deep Black
Sep. 29th, 2025 09:12 pmeaglespath_feedReview: Deep Black, by Miles Cameron
| Series: | Arcana Imperii #2 |
| Publisher: | Gollancz |
| Copyright: | 2024 |
| ISBN: | 1-3996-1506-8 |
| Format: | Kindle |
| Pages: | 509 |
Deep Black is a far-future science fiction novel and the direct sequel to Artifact Space. You do not want to start here. I regretted not reading the novels closer together and had to refresh my memory of what happened in the first book.
The shorter fiction in Beyond the Fringe takes place between the two series novels and leads into some of the events in this book, although reading it is optional.
Artifact Space left Marca Nbaro at the farthest point of the voyage of the Greatship Athens, an unexpected heroine and now well-integrated into the crew. On a merchant ship, however, there's always more work to be done after a heroic performance. Deep Black opens with that work: repairs from the events of the first book, the never-ending litany of tasks required to keep the ship running smoothly, and of course the trade with aliens that drew them so far out into the Deep Black.
We knew early in the first book that this wouldn't be the simple, if long, trading voyage that most of the crew of the Athens was expecting, but now they have to worry about an unsettling second group of aliens on top of a potential major war between human factions. They don't yet have the cargo they came for, they have to reconstruct their trading post, and they're a very long way from home. Marca also knows, at this point in the story, that this voyage had additional goals from the start. She will slowly gain a more complete picture of those goals during this novel.
Artifact Space was built around one of the most satisfying plots in military science fiction (at least to me): a protagonist who benefits immensely from the leveling effect and institutional inclusiveness of the military slowly discovering that, when working at its best, the military can be a true meritocracy. (The merchant marine of the Athens is not military, precisely, since it's modeled on the trading ships of Venice, but it's close enough for the purposes of this plot.) That's not a plot that lasts into a sequel, though, so Cameron had to find a new spine for the second half of the story. He chose first contact (of a sort) and space battle.
The space battle parts are fine. I read a ton of children's World War II military fiction when I was a boy, and I always preferred the naval battles to the land battles. This part of Deep Black reminded me of those naval battles, particularly a book whose title escapes me about the Arctic convoys to the Soviet Union. I'm more interested in character than military adventure these days, but every once in a while I enjoy reading about a good space battle. This was not an exemplary specimen of the genre, but it delivered on all the required elements.
The first contact part was more original, in part because Cameron chose an interesting medium ground between total incomprehensibility and universal translators. He stuck with the frustrations of communication for considerably longer than most SF authors are willing to write, and it worked for me. This is the first book I've read in a while where superficial alien fluency with the mere words of a human language masks continuing profound mutual incomprehension. The communication difficulties are neither malicious nor a setup for catastrophic misunderstanding, but an intrinsic part of learning about a truly alien species. I liked this, even though it makes for slower and more frustrating progress. It felt more believable than a lot of first contact, and it forced the characters to take risks and act on hunches and then live with the consequences.
One of the other things that Cameron does well is maintain the steady rhythm of life on a working ship as a background anchor to the story. I've read a lot of science fiction that shows the day-to-day routine only until something more interesting and plot-focused starts happening and then seems to forget about it entirely. Not here. Marca goes through intense and adrenaline-filled moments requiring risk and fast reactions, and then has to handle promotion write-ups, routine watches, and studying for advancement. Cameron knows that real battles involve long periods of stressful waiting and incorporates them into the book without making them too boring, which requires a lot of writing skill.
I prefer the emotional magic of finding a place where one belongs, so I was not as taken with Deep Black as I was with Artifact Space, but that's the inevitable result of plot progression and not really a problem with this book. Marca is absurdly central to the story in ways that have a whiff of "chosen one" dynamics, but if one can suspend one's disbelief about that, the rest of the book is solid. This is, fundamentally, a book about large space battles, so save it when you're in the mood for that sort of story, but it was a satisfying continuation of the series. I will definitely keep reading.
Recommended if you enjoyed Artifact Space. If you didn't, Deep Black isn't going to change your mind.
Followed by Whalesong, which is not yet released (and is currently in some sort of limbo for pre-orders in the US, which I hope will clear up).
Rating: 7 out of 10
Network Maintenance - Washington (US-IAD)
Sep. 30th, 2025 10:00 amlinode_status_new_feedSep 30, 10:00 UTC
Completed - The scheduled maintenance has been completed.
Sep 30, 04:00 UTC
In progress - Scheduled maintenance is currently in progress. We will provide updates as necessary.
Sep 15, 18:40 UTC
Scheduled - On Tuesday, September 30th at approximately 04:00 UTC to 10:00 UTC, we will be performing maintenance on the border routers in our Washington (US-IAD) region to complete an upgrade. The benefit of this upgrade is that it will help reduce bottlenecks and allow for greater capacity across the region. During this maintenance, there may be brief periods of packet loss and latency.
An Hour of Me On Tour Blathering About Stuff
Sep. 29th, 2025 09:48 pmwhatever_scalzi_feedIf you missed me on tour (and won’t see me in the next couple of weeks in NYC, Iowa City, San Francisco or Burlington, VT), then here’s the next best thing: An hour-long interview of me, recorded at the first stop of my Tour in Scottsdale, AZ, at the poisoned pen. In this hour I talk about cats, writing, all the various projects I’m up to, and why it’s not a great idea to release a book on election day. I also answer questions from the audience. Enjoy!
— JS