midnight's simulacra

a novel by nick black

read part i ⏣ musings
errata ⏣ bibliography
amazon hard ⏣ amazon soft ⏣ direct purchase

It was at first about the science. It became about the cash. Then it was about personal LSD supplies, and then the world's LSD supply. We didn't intend to become a nuclear power; doing so proved counterproductive.

But understand, please: it was always about the science.

Michael Luis Bolaño is the scion of Mexican oil wealth gone to rut in Texas. Sherman Spartacus Katz is the hyperliterate son of evangelical eccentrics from the North Georgia mountains. One hopes to restore what's been lost, the other to attain what never was. Together they train as engineers; together they study forbidden teachings. By graduation, they're formidably competent, audacious to a fault, ungovernable.

Need illicit precursors? Biosynthesize them in yeast. Need souped-up wheelchairs? Disarm the governors. Need enriched uranium? CO₂ TEA lasers in the garage. Where there's a black market, they disrupt it. Where there's no black market, they create one.

midnight's simulacra is a hysterical, scientifically rigorous, slow burn of a thriller, a modern picaresque, a portrait of autists as young men, and unlike any other novel you've read.

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code stoned. debug sober. document drunk.
and never trust the nuclear regulatory commission.

An autofiction of rogue engineering.

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direct purchase

Ebook ($10 + tax)

Of course there's no DRM. I'm currently distributing the ebook as PDF and EPUB3 (Amazon distributes a KF8, converted from my EPUB via black box). Buying the ebook gets you both formats, in perpetuity, including access to updates. You'll receive download links immediately following checkout.

Signed hardback ($40 + $8 shipping)
Signed trade paperback ($20 + $5 shipping)

I currently have both hardback and paperback stock. Orders will go out ASAP.

The hardback's cover is case printed. There is no dust jacket. I use local printer BookLogix. Their print quality is outstanding, better than most of what I've seen from the KDP/Ingram complex (print quality of both KDP and Ingram has been better than expected, though they show some variation from facility to facility). I cannot yet bill beyond the borders of the USA; hit me up and we can arrange something shady involving paypal.

I'll sign copies, and write whatever inscription you'd like. You can specify an inscription at checkout. If you do not specify anything, or you try to get cute (any "inscribe a complete and consistent formal system blah blah", "inscribe a sentence which cannot be inscribed", "inscribe the decimal value of π", "i invest NAME with power of attorney" type of Gödel/Chaitin/Kaufman horseshit), results are undefined, and I'll write what I damn well please.

If you don't want your print edition signed, I'd recommend purchasing from Amazon, as you're likely to get cheaper and faster shipping.

If you think the book costs too much, there are plenty of BitTorrent trackers where you can get it for free. I like myanonamouse. I'd hope in that case that you buy it if you like it, or perhaps bring me a warm meal, or at least cry out at the moment of your next orgasm "midnight's simulacra was the shiiiiiiiiit!" If you purchased a printed copy, please download the PDF with my blessings.

Books

• George Barger. Ergot and Ergotism. 1931.
• Albert Hofmann. Ergot Alkaloids. 1964. Jitka Nykodemová (translator). 2023. Transform Press.
• James Duderstadt, Louis Hamilton. Nuclear Reactor Analysis. 1976. Wiley.
• E. B. Sledge. With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa. 1981. Presidio Press.
• Donald Clayton. Principles of Stellar Evolution and Nucleosynthesis. 1984. University of Chicago Press.
• Stewart Tendler, David May. The Brotherhood of Eternal Love: From Flower Power to Hippie Mafia. 1984. Panther Publications.
• Anthony Siegman. Lasers. 1986. University Science Books.
• Hans Bethe. The Basic Bethe: Seminal Articles on Nuclear Physics, 1936–1937. 1986. Tomash Publishers.
• John Hart. Revolutionary Mexico. 1987. University of California Press.
• Bruce Alberts et al. Molecular Biology of the Cell. Third edition. 1994. Garland Science.
• Chunk Hansen. The Swords of Armageddon: U.S. Nuclear Weapons Development Since 1945. Second edition. 1995.
• Robert Friedman. Red Mafiya. 2000. Little, Brown and Co.
• Alexander Shulgin. TiHKAL: Tryptamines I Have Known and Loved. 2002. Transform Press.
• Kenton Moody et al. Nuclear Forensic Analysis. 2005. CRC Press.
• Gilmore Gordon. Practical Gamma Ray Spectroscopy. Second edition. 2008. Wiley.
• Nicholas Schou. Orange Sunshine. 2011. St. Martin's Griffin.
• Robert Weinberg et al. The Biology of Cancer. Second edition. 2013. Garland Science.
• Endocrinology: Adult and Pediatric. Seventh edition. 2016. Elsevier.
• Jesse Jarnow. Heads: A Biography of Psychedelic America. 2016. Da Capo Press.
• Adam Higginbontham. Midnight in Chernobyl. 2019. Simon & Schuster.
• Mike Guidry. Modern General Relativity. 2019. Cambridge University Press.
• Dennis McDougal. Operation White Rabbit. 2020. Skyhorse.
• Dalton E. Girão Barroso. The Physics of Nuclear Explosives. 2021.
• Key Blank Directory. Thirteenth Edition. 2023. ilco.
• Peter Webster. Kosmos: A Theory of Psychedelic Experience. Unreleased.

Articles

• William Garbrecht. "Synthesis of Amides of Lysergic Acid." 1959. J. Org. Chem.
• C. C. Wannop. "The Histopathology of Turkey 'X' Disease in Great Britain." 1961. Avian Diseases.
• Thomas Simmons et al. "Synthesis and Chemistry of Lysergic Acid Derivatives." 1964. Declassified 1976. Chemical Research Division, U.S. Army Edgewood Arsenal.
• Harold Brode. "Fireball Phenomenology." 1964. RAND Corporation P-3026.
• Mark Peterson. "Dante and the 3-sphere." 1979. Am. J. Phys.
• Julius Rebek, Youe-Kong Shue. "Total synthesis of rugulovasines." 1980. J. Am. Chem. Soc.
• Richard Baker, Siefried Hecker, Delbert Harbur. "Plutonium: A Wartime Nightmare but a Metallurgist's Deam." 1983. Los Alamos Science.
• Julius Rebek, D. F. Tai. "A new synthesis of lysergic acid." 1983. Tetrahedron Letters.
• Stanley Whitley. "Review of the gas centrifuge until 1962. Part I: Principles of separation physics." 1984. Reviews of Modern Physics.
• Stanley Whitley. "Review of the gas centrifuge until 1962. Part II: Principles of high-speed rotation." 1984. Reviews of Modern Physics.
• Defense Intelligence Agency. "Bibliography of Soviet Laser Developments." 1987.
• Lars-Erik De Geer. "The Radioactive Signature of the Hydrogen Bomb." 1991. Science and Global Security.
• Masabumi Minami, Masamichi Satoh. "Molecular biology of the opioid receptors." 1995. Neuroscience Research.
• E. T. Jaynes. "The Gibbs Paradox." 1996. Maximum Entropy and Bayesian Methods.
• Cyril Barrett. "The Aesthetic: James Joyce and Wittgenstein." 1998. New Blackfriars.
• Z. A. B. Zeman. "Czech Uranium and Stalin's Bomb." 2000. The Historian.
• National Institute of Justice. "Color Test Reagents/Kits for Preliminary Identification of Drugs of Abuse." 2000. NIJ Standard 0604.01.
• INTERPOL. "Detection of Radioactive Materials at Borders." 2002.
• Nuclear Energy Agency. "Chernobyl: Part I: The site and accident sequence." 2002.
• Dean Waters. "The American Gas Centrifuge: Past, Present, and Future." 2003. 6th Workshop on Separation Phenomena in Liquids and Gases.
• Vlaidimir Fonf, Libor Veselý. "Infinite-Dimensional Polyhedrality." 2004. Canad. J. Math.
• Bernd Lottermoser, Paul Ashley. "Environmental review of the Radium Hill mine site, South Australia." 2005. World of Mining—Surface & Underground.
• Susan Elmore. "Apoptosis: A Review of Programmed Cell Death." 2007. Toxicol Pathol.
• William Leonard Pickard. "International LSD Prevalence – Factors Affecting Proliferation and Control." 2007.
• Kevin Kakoschke. "Radium Hill: Bindi to Boom Town." 2007. Journal of Australasian Mining History.
• Carlo Parisi. "Nuclear Safety of RBMK Reactors." 2008. PhD dissertation.
• Alexander Glaser. "Characteristics of the Gas Centrifuge for Uranium Enrichment and Their Relevance for Nuclear Weapon Proliferation." 2008. Science and Global Security.
• H. M. Von Bergmann. "Design of High Power CO₂ TEA Lasers and Applications." 2008. First International Conference on Laser Plasma Applications in Materials Science.
• "Laser Enrichment Methods (AVLIS and MLIS)." 2008. USNRC Training Center Directed Self-Study.
• Brian Jackson, Rory Barnes, Richard Greenberg. "Observational Evidence for Tidal Destruction of Exoplanets." 2009. The Astrophysical Journal.
• Richard Kouzes. "Neutron and gamma ray detection for border security applications." 2010. 1st International Nuclear & Renewable Energy Conference.
• Jeff Eerkens, Jaewoo Kim. "Isotope Separation by Selective Laser-Assisted Repression of Condensation in Supersonic Free Jets." 2010. AIChE Journal.
• Antoine Levy. "Great misinterpretations: Umberto Eco on Joyce and Aquinas." 2010. Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture.
• GAO-11-753. "Technology Assessment: Neutron Detectors: Alternatives to Using Helium-3." 2011.
• Tim Scully. "A Sketch of the Early History of Underground LSD Manufacturing." 2013.
• Yu-An Zhang et al. "Total Synthesis of Rugulovasine A." 2013. Organic Letters.
• Christin Burd et al. "Mutation-specific RAS oncogenicity explains NRAS codon 61 selection in melanoma." 2013. Cancer Discov.
• Aaron Baldwin. "Optimization and Analysis of the Laser Isotope Separation Technique SILEX and Ensuing Proliferation Ramifications." 2014. MS thesis.
• Brian Appelbe, Jeremy Chittenden. "Relativistically correct DD and DT neutron spectra." 2014. High Energy Density Physics.
• Colin Crews. "Analysis of Ergot Alkaloids." 2015. Toxins.
• Ryan Snyder. "A Proliferation Assessment of Third Generation Laser Uranium Enrichment Technology." 2016. Science and Global Security.
• R. Scott Kemp. "Opening a proliferation Pandora's box: the spread of the Soviet-type gas centrifuge." 2017. The Nonproliferation Review.
• Leslie Hoffman, Joel Vilensky. "Encephalitis lethargica: 100 years after the epidemic." 2017. Brain.
• Thomas Ray. "Mental Organs and the Breadth & Depth of Consciousness." 2017.
• David Nichols. "Dark Classics in Chemical Neuroscience: Lysergic Acid Diethylamide." 2018. ACS Chem. Neurosci.
• Laura Orsolini et al. "Psychedelic Fauna for Psychonaut Hunters: A Mini-Review." 2018. Frontiers in Psychiatry.
• Sophie Eisner, Andreas Ebert, Matthias David. "Rare Ectopic Pregnancies—A Literature Review for the Period 2007–2019 on Locations Outside the Uterus and Fallopian Tubes." 2020. Geburtshilfe Frauenheilkd.
• B. Cameron Reed. "Composite cores and tamper yields: Lesser-known aspects of Manhattan Project fission bombs." 2020. Am. J. Phys.
• Maximilian Kuner et al. "Cleaving Ergot Alkaloids by Hydrazinolysis." 2021. Toxins.
• Garrett Wong et al. "Reconstituting the complete biosynthesis of D-lysergic acid in yeast." 2022. Nature Communications.
• Jay Nair et al. "Fully Validated, Multi-Kilogram cGMP Synthesis of MDMA." 2022. ACS Omega.
• Michał K. Jastrzębski, Agnieszka A. Kaczor, Tomasz M. Wróbel. "Methods of Lysergic Acid Synthesis—The Key Ergot Alkaloid." 2022. Molecules.
• Leila Dinle, Ya Zhang. "Skin cancer and DNA mutation due to ultraviolet radiation." 2022. International Journal of Research in Dermatology.
• IEEE Std N42.38™-2022. "IEEE Standard for Spectroscopy-Based Radiation Portal Monitors Used for Homeland Security." 2023.
• Brian Knight et al. "A Six-Step Synthesis of (±)-Lysergic Acid." 2023. J. Org. Chem.
• Mingzhe Hu et al. "Construction of an efficient Claviceps paspali cell factory for lysergic acid production." 2023. Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology.
• Li Lim et al. "Increasing lysergic acid levels for ergot alkaloid biosynthesis: Directing catalysis via the F-G loop of Clavine oxidases." 2023. Frontiers in Microbiology.

Personal communications

• David Nichols
• Tim Scully
• Ryan Snyder
• JB Crawford
• Graham Thomas
• Michael Evans
• Julian Hess
• [Name elided]
• [Name elided]

1. part i: verwirrung—chaos
   1. coming of age in confusion
   2. sherman katz gets himself expelled
   3. michael bolaño indulges in small pleasures
   4. elephant seals
   
   
2. part ii: zweitracht—discord
   5. devesh choudhary is all about physics and rolls
   6. atrium vestae
   7. y'all've any more of that vee-cee?
   8. alexei orshanskiy thinks he can get you lemons
   9. pavlov’s hierophant and schrödinger’s hæresiarch
   10. vladimir cel tredat takes up a collection
   11. ergot
   12. welcome to my lab; we’ve got Taq polymerase
   
   
3. part iii: unordnung—confusion
   13. cloud wandered lonely as a daffodil
   14. max-cashflow min-cut theorem
   15. if you eat that i think it is going to kill you
   16. erica marelli grows tired of bivalves
   17. anarbek tursyn busts a move
   18. the chemical history of an eightball
   19. uranium
   
   
4. part iv: beamtenherrschaft—bureaucracy
   20. greg moyer gives some bad advice
   21. a stamped-in network of paths
   22. overall there is a smell of fried onions
   23. vancouver! vancouver! this is it!
   24. it’ll raise the tone of your trap
   25. oriana marino speaks in riddles
   26. feedback loops are Bad Shit, to be Avoided
   27. my mistakes are many, but less terrible than god’s
   
   
5. part v: grummet—aftermath
   28. usurper
   29. prima luce
   
   
6. epilogue