Lorina Stephens's Blog, page 51

Successful launch at Q for 88 and Type

Yesterday, despite a deluge, the launch of 88, by Michael R. Fletcher, and Type, by Alicia Hendley was a great success. Hosted at Toronto's College Street bistro/salon, Q Space, the launch was highlighted by readings, anecdotes, and signings.



Special thanks to author Nate Hendley for being such a great Master of Ceremonies, and to Luciano Iacobelli at Q, for helping to make the afternoon so memorable.





Michael R. Fletcher reading from his debut novel, 88



The attentive audience







Alicia Hendley (right) with her father-in-law





Nate Hendley and Alicia Hendley





Michael R. Fletcher (centre) with wife (left) and Alicia Hendley (right)



Nate Hendley doing the Master of Ceremonies thing

Duo Launch for 88 and Type at Q

This Saturday, June 22, 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. don't forget to join authors Michael R. Fletcher and Alicia Hendley, along with some of Five Rivers Publishing's crew for the duo-launch of 88, by Michael R. Fletcher, and Type, by Alicia Hendley. Fun, food, beverages, readings, signings, and yes -- even purchasing your very own copy of either or both of these fabulous novels.



















The event is being hosted by the good folks at Q Space, 382 College Street, Toronto, Ontario, June 22, 2013, 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. It's an amazing bistro/gallery/bookshop very much in the tradition of some of the finest coffee houses of the 17th and 18th centuries where discussion of art, literature and philosophy were the bill of fare. 






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Nate Hendley, one of Five Rivers' prolific authors, will be the Master of Ceremonies for the event, and will be signing copies of his own books as well.







Should be a memorable afternoon. We hope you will be able to join us.

Michell Plested to appear at Ponoka Jubilee Library

books will be available for purchase



Saturday, July 13, 2013 Michell Plested will appear at the Ponoka Jubilee Library at 2:00 p.m. as part of their summer reading program.





Michell Plested



David Tremblay, Library Manager is keen to have Plested as part of the program. He says, "One of our patrons took out [Michell Plested's] book for her son. The son read it as well as the father.... Apparently, the father loved [the book] and thought most men could relate to the character. I told the patron [Michell Plested] was coming to the library and she was exicted and would be watching for posters and ads in the community."







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So, if you love adventures that channel something between Spiderman and W.O. Mitchell, and live in the Ponoka area, be sure to attend what is going to be a fun and memorable event. Don't forget: Saturday, July 13, 2013, 2:00 p.m.

Michell Plested reviews Michael R. Fletcher's 88

 
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My rating:

1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars[ 5 of 5 stars ]




88 
by Michael R. Fletcher 





Michell Plested's review 
Jun 11, 13






Read in June, 2013



There is a certain amount of risk to writing about the near-future. Do the events, setting and technologies ring true? Could society have gone down the paths to get to that point in time? Are there still enough familiar elements to allow the reader to bridge the gap in time in his or her mind?

In case my introduction wasn't enough of a hint, let me be clear, 88 is a near future, dystopian science fiction novel. Set in the ravaged world of 2034, 88 is the story of a technology that has been horribly corrupted.

The human mind has been established as being the most effective computing device in existence. Technology has been developed to allow the human mind to be scanned into hardware. Once in hardware, the scanned personality is virtually immortal, able to control and process the technology it is connected to. Truly revolutionary.

The downside is, the invasive scanning process leaves the original brain a scrambled, vegetative mass. In other words, a person can only exist in one state - flesh or virtual.

The power of the human brain is such that there is huge demand for scanned brains. The demand far outstrips the supply. That, as you might guess, leads to the growth of an underground market of scanned brains.

And that is really where the story lies.

Griffin Dickinson is an agent of the North American Trade Union (NATU) whose job is to find the sources of the black market scans. As the story unfolds, he learns of the depth and evil of the underworld organizations as well as the far reaching corruption that traffick scanned human minds.

The setting is understandably dark - for a dystopian story like this to work it has to be. The world is in crisis, polluted beyond belief. Corporations wield immense power and the phrase 'Corporate Warfare' has become more literal than ever.

The technology is, as one would expect, more advanced than our own. Air travel has advanced to where sub-orbital flights are the norm. The NATUnet is invasive and core to our everyday lives.

The characters, both flesh and virtual, are human and relatable. Michael Fletcher does a great job allowing the readers to get into the heads of the characters. You actually get a sense of what it means to be a scan, something I wasn't expecting.

The gritty realism comes at a price - my thoughts and dreams were plagued by scenes from the book. If this is our future, I truly hope that there are oasis for my generation to retire to. Still, I couldn't put the book down. I cared about the protagonists. I felt empathy for the scans and I loathed the unbridled selfishness and evil of the villains.
The story ends at an appropriate point leaving many plot threads dangling. Was it a satisfying ending? Hardly, but a book of this nature, one that deals in the darkness of a corrupted future could hardly be expected to.

Would I read it again or recommend it to others? Absolutely! In fact, I hope for a sequel one day. Maybe not today; my emotions are still a bit raw from the experience, but soon.

88 is written by Michael R. Fletcher and published by 5 Rivers [Publishing].

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5 Stars for Shadow Song on Goodreads

 
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My rating:

1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars[ 5 of 5 stars ]




Shadow Song 
by Lorina Stephens (Goodreads Author) 





Gretchen's review 
Jun 10, 13






Read from June 06 to 10, 2013



This is a novel set in the 1800s in which a young English girl is sent to live with her uncle in the wilds of Canada after the death of her parents. Danielle knows her uncle to be revengeful and bad man since he had bankrupted her parents before their deaths. When Danielle arrives to live with him, her worst fears are confirmed. She befriends an Indian shaman named Shadow Song. After witnessing an act of evil by her uncle, she runs away and becomes Shadow Song's apprentice. She learns and lives with the native people, learning about how to respect nature and the way of the land. However, her uncle does not give up hunting for her and eventually Danielle and Shadow Song realize they must confront their hunters.

This is a very interesting novel as it very much goes into the culture and way of life of the Indians living in the Canadian forests. I found it very fascinating. Danielle is also a sympathetic and yet strong character. It is quite a lot that she had to live through.

I won this copy in one of the Goodreads giveaways.

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4 stars for Type on LibraryThing

This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.Fast forward some 50-60 years from today. It is now two generations since the collapse of the Social Media Era and governments have been replaced by The Association of Psychologists, who have taken control of social order through scientific means. Their solution to the sky-rocketing rates of divorce, crime and mental illness that reached their heights during the Social Media Era is to engage in widespread personality profiling of every citizen when they reach the age of twelve, at which point they are then sent off to schools to be educated with their personality 'Type'. Internet access is banned for anyone under the age of 18 and even adults have to apply for a special permit before they can access the internet. All dystopian novels that were prevalent in the pre-Type era - The Hunger Games, The Uglies, The Long Walk, 1984 and Neuromancer - have been banned by the Association as being harmful to the vulnerable, developing minds of children.

When Sophie Jenkins, youngest daughter of one of the Association's leading Psychologists, discovers that her best friend Arron has been assessed as an 'ISTJ', she decides to fudge her own assessment, even though she is an Extra, so that she will be assigned to the same Home School as Arron. When Arron wants nothing to do with Sophie, she decides to make the best of a bad situation and makes some new friends. In the process, Sophie discovers that this Association controlled social order is not as altruistic as the public believes it to be and that Harmony, the facility where children with genetic mental illnesses and non-genetic personality disorders are sent to for treatment, engages in activities that for some of its residents, are fatal. The Association is not quite as in control of every facet of life as the Umbrella Corporation in the Resident Evil franchise is, but you get my drift.

Hendley, a Canadian author and a practicing clinical psychologist, has taken the rather well known personality test, the Myers Brigg Type Indicator, or MBTI, and has used it as the basis on which to build her near future YA dystopian novel. This was a good page-turning read for me. Hendley has done a great job capturing the personality and spirit of young twelve year old Sophie and her struggles to find who she can trust in the sinister world she finds herself getting involved in. Her use of the MBTI in the story is nicely balanced with the story and the plot. You don't have to know about the MBTI to appreciate the sinister twist Hendley has given to the Association, or to understand the story. The dystopian elements are well represented here in a believable context. I liked how Hendley brings the concept of death to the story but leave them as events that occur in the background or 'off stage', relying on emotional attachments of the characters to communicate the horror instead of graphic details. My only quibble with this one is the book just sort of.... stops. The ending left me saying "..... And.....?" while looking for the next part to start. It is an okay ending if a second book is planned but for a stand alone novel, the ending was a bit of a problem for me.

Overall, a good, dystopian story that was easy for me to visualize and relate to... which is a little scary in itself!

This book was courtesy of Librarything's Early Reviewer Program. ( )
| flaglkernagh | Jun 9, 2013 |

5 star review for 88 on Goodreads

Glowing praise for Michael R. Fletcher's 88 on Goodreads:






Rich Height's review


May 19, 13





5 of 5 stars

Read in May, 2013




when a good friend of mine suggested this book, I was a little skeptical as I tend to read more fantasy than SF by a larger margin. But I am thankful that I wasn't steered wrong on this fast-paced, engrossing read. 88 captivated me like not many other books I have read and I was sad to come to the ending so quickly. The only good thing about finishing this book so quickly is that I now can get to bed before the wee hours of the morning! I cannot wait for the sequel and see where the future lies for both this book and great author!

Susan MacGregor to publish with Five Rivers

Susan MacGregor

We're pleased to welcome Susan MacGregor to the good ship Five Rivers. We've agreed to publish MacGregor's fascinating Tattooed Witch Trilogy, and hope to see the first novel, The Tattooed Witch, release in August 2013. The trilogy is a paranormal romance/fantasy set in Spain during the Inquisition and colonial expansion into the New World.



The first novel unfolds as Miriam Medina and her father are accused by the Inquisition of murdering a high priest; Miriam knows justice is impossible. Their accuser, the Grand Inquisitor, is in fact, the real murderer. Miriam's only hope is to resort to her long dead mother's magical legacy: the resurrection of the dead through a magical tattoo.

Currently, she's revising a non-fiction book, The ABC's of How NOT to Write Speculative Fiction (Third Printing) and working on the third book in her Tattooed Witch Trilogy: The Tattooed Rose. The second novel in the trilogy, The Tattooed Seer, is now being edited by Robert Runte.




Susan MacGregor is an editor with On Spec magazine and edited the anthologies Tesseracts Fifteen: A Case of Quite Curious Tales, (Edge Books) and Divine Realms (Ravenstone Press). Her short fiction has appeared in a number of periodicals and anthologies, including A Method to the Madness, (Five Rivers) and Urban Green Man (Edge Books).



Susan keeps a blog at Suzenyms, and can be found on Facebook.

Yet to come in 2013 from Five Rivers

We've been very busy around Five Rivers. So far this year we've launched four new titles:




88, by Michael R. Fletcher, a riveting debut SF novel.
Type, by Alicia Hendley, a second novel from Hendley, travelling into YA SF.
A Method to the Madness: A Guide to the Super Evil, edited by Jeffrey Hite & Michell Plested, a collection of dastardly essays by the world's villains.
Western King: Book 2, The Rune Blades of Celi, by Ann Marston. A revised reprint of Marston's much-beloved series.

There's more yet to come this year. Late this summer we should see the release of:




Terriers of Scotland and Ireland, by Bryan Cummins. An updated and revised reprint of Cummins original, informative and comprehensive look at the Earth Dogs of Scotland and Ireland.
Black Wine, by Candas Jane Dorsey. This is a revised reprint of Dorsey's acclaimed speculative novel.
Indigo Time, by Sally McBride. A debut YA SF novel we think will be a memorable read.

By the close of the year we expect to offer:




Old Growth: A Sid Rafferty Thriller, by Matt Hughes. This is the much-awaited sequel to Downshift.
Out of Time, by David Laderoute. A debut YA SF novel about friendship, honour and doing the right thing against all odds and despite all barriers.
A Touch of Poison, by Aaron Kite. A Wattie Award Winner, and debut fantasy novel with twists and surprises and princesses who defy convention.
Broken Blade: Book 3, The Rune Blades of Celi, by Ann Marston. A revised reprint of Marston's much-beloved series.
Wasps at the Speed of Sound, by Derryl Murphy. A revised reprint of Murphy's edgy and visionary short speculative fiction.
A Quiet Place, by J.W. Schnarr. A second collection of horror shorts from this risk-taking author.
The Invisible Ape, by John Steckley. A YA nonfiction book about golden gibbons.

A Method to the Madness gets 5-stars at Goodreads

A Method to the Madness: A Guide to the Super Evil 
by Jeffrey a Hite (Editor), Michell Plested (Editor) 






Sarah Reinhard's review 
May 31, 13





bookshelves: 2013-list

Read from May 10 to 30, 2013



Are you aiming for world domination? Looking for tips on minions and henchpeople? Need a boost to your moral in a world that just doesn't appreciate evil the way it should?

Look no further, because I have the book for you!

A Method to the Madness: A Guide to the Super Evil is a collection of papers for aspiring ne'er-do-wells, written by those who have succeeded in the world of evil.

And if you're not aspiring to a life of evil, you might pick this up to see what the junior high kids down the road are really up to...

On a more serious, less tongue-in-cheek note, I chuckled and howled my way through this book. I mean, see if you don't grin a bit just looking at these chapter titles:

Being Evil in Normal Ways, by Dr. Evil-n-Carnate, Frequent Flyer, Grocery Shopper and Overlord of Cubical Block 3257J
Lairs: A Conversational Tirade on Functionality, by Minion's Employer
The Genius of Being Fashionably Evil, by Dr. Markus Mefistofoleez
The Importance of Date Night to the Married Super Villian, by The Dark Lord
Public Relations Tactics for Supervillains, by Jack Dickerson
Human Resources in the Evil Organization, by Dr. Ignatius Duplicitous

This is an entertaining read, and if you even remotely enjoy essays, you have it here. I thought at first one person had written all of them, and I marveled at how very different the voices were. Come to find out (at the end) that it was in fact written by a host of different writers, all assuming a personality.

If you're looking for good beach reading, here you go. If you're ambitious, you might notice themes throughout that are slightly troubling...like, wait a minute, are certain government officials taking this advice?

All too often, I get really stuck in being serious and finding the deeper meanings. It's not bad to have a fun book like this to fall back on.

Unless, of course, it's true. :)

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