Keith Stevenson's Blog, page 3

The Marvels

A lot of negativity has been directed toward this movie and the women in it for months – years even – before it opened. As far as I can tell that negativity comes from boy-men who are terrified of people with vaginas or angry that they don’t have a girlfriend, or both. It’s the same hatred we’ve seen displayed against Scarlett Johansson, Daisy Ridley, The Matildas Soccer Team and basically any woman or group of women who have the temerity to take the lead in a space that some men feel should be ...

Traitor’s Bargain cover reveal

Jeff Brown has created another amazing cover for The Lenticular Series Book 2 and you can see it right now! Learn more about Traitor’s Bargain below.

Who can a traitor trust?
Earth’s Hegemony controls the surrounding alien civilisations with ruthless force. Their aim: dominate the galaxy to protect humanity.
Horribly mutilated during the invasion of Homeworld, Udun escapes to seek help from the rest of the Lenticular. Instead he becomes a fugitive and hatches a desperate plan to travel to ...

Glossary Generator Test Drive

If you’ve ever read a huge fantasy series of a multi-book space opera you’ll know that those glossary lists at the back of the book are indispensable for helping you remember that – for example – Neg Dendra is a member of the Rem’Jaha Faction, as well as reminding you what the Rem’Jaha Faction is and what the Ris-natar that Neg is holding to Evon’s throat will do (and whether Evon should be worried).

If you’ve ever written a big fantasy or sci-fi epic, you’ll also know how difficult it is to ...

36 Streets – TR Napper

36 Streets by T.R. Napper
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

TR Napper paints a vivid picture of a cyberpunk future Vietnam in 36 Streets.

In TR Napper’s 36 Streets, part of Vietnam is again under occupation, this time by the Chinese military, but a protracted battle still rages in the south of the country, proving once again that the Vietnamese are difficult if not impossible to conquer. The 36 Streets in question is a ‘neutral area’ in downtown Han Noi ruled over by several street gangs. The Chinese gover...

Dream Casting The Lenticular Series

When Holywood comes knocking, I’ve already done the hard yards for them in casting the key characters in The Lenticular Series. Learn more about who these characters are and let me know via social media if you have a better casting suggestion.

Fleet Cadet Pilot Rhees Lowrans (Florence Pugh) was on track to graduate at the top of her class and have her pick of assignments before the tragic occurrence during her final training mission near the rings of Neptune [see audio extract – “Training Mi...

The Hidden Keystone – Nathan Burrage

The Hidden Keystone by Nathan Burrage
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A marvelous blend of the historical and the fantastic.
In the Holy Land at the end of the 11th Century, Crusader Godefroi de Bouillon prepares to wrest the holy city of Jerusalem from the Saracens. In France in 1307, Bertrand de Chatillon-sur-Seine is about to be inducted into the chevaliers of Christ when his vigil is interrupted by an offer to join the secretive society of the Salt Lines. Both these story strands are connected across...

Aliens of The Lenticular Series

The part of space known as The Lenticular is home to twelve sentient species, but The Lenticular Series of books also focuses on other non-Lenticular aliens, including those within the Hegemony’s borders (and in particular in Cygnus Sector), as well as aliens beyond the Hegemony’s sphere of influence.

Lenticular Space sentient species

Aphsans – The Aphsans are one of the most powerful and technologically advanced of Lenticular species. Along with the Telsans, Svestans and Jantri-va they ar...

Plutoshine – Lucy Kissick

Plutoshine by Lucy Kissick
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I tried hard to finish this book. I got to eighty per cent. But in the end I gave up because I just didn’t care about how it ended. Plutoshine defies expectations, but not in a good way.

Which is a shame, because on paper the story sounded really interesting: a project to commence terraforming Pluto by building a giant space mirror that focuses the energy of the distant sun, and the possibility of finding indigenous life beneath the frozen oceans.

T...

How to read Traitor’s Run on Netgalley

Traitor’s Run is now available as an Advanced Review Copy on Netgalley. I’ve had a couple of friends query how to access and read the book. It’s fairly easy but there are a couple of tricks if you’re unfamiliar with ebooks or Netgalley. So this guide explains how to get reading as quickly as possible.

First you need a free Netgalley account. It only takes a few moments to sign up. Go to netgalley.com and click the orange ‘become a member’ button. You’ll need to select a member type as part o...

Knowing the alien

This is Udun. He’s a Kresz from a part of space called The Lenticular, which holds many alien civilisations. He stands 2.4m tall (normal for his caste, but shorter than most Kresz females and certainly shorter than Defender caste Kresz) and has both an endoskeleton and a chitinous exoskeleton like laminate armour. His body plan is typical for a member of the scholar caste. He has three claws on each hand, and as a result the Kresz have a base six numbering system. In fact six is a very important...