Cora Buhlert's Blog, page 85

And another new release announcement: Steaks, Walls and Dossiers: The Best Trump Anthology Ever

Yes, I have another new release to announce, this time another anthology in which I have a story. This release rather snuck up on me, since I only heard today that the anthology was out. Otherwise, the announcement would have gone into yesterday’s big announcement post.

This is anthology has been almost a year in the making. For last year, shortly after the US presidential elections, editor George Donnelly sent out a call for submissions for a Donald Trump themed flash fiction anthology. I initially intended to sit this one out – not my president, not my problem. But then I had an idea, so I wrote a little flash fiction story, sent it out and had it accepted. And then the waiting began. However, as we say in Germany, what takes a long time, will eventually be good.

So here it is: Steaks, Walls and Dossiers, an anthology of not quite serious flash fiction stories about Donald Trump. And it’s not just any old Trump anthology either – no, this is the very best Trump anthology ever. Okay, so I only know of one other Trump anthology, but based on the sample for that one, I’d say that ours is definitely better.

Steaks, Walls and Dossiers: The Best Trump Anthology Ever

[image error]Time assassins. The entire nation of Scotland. Satan himself.

You thought President Donald J. Trump was outrageous? See 13 fictional Trumps combat absurd enemies in these amazing 16 short stories — the BEST ever.

Some classy but most downright ludicrous, these tremendously winning stories are going to take care of your need for entertainment, Little Reader Man. Believe me!

We’re making fiction great again for billions and trillions of incredible readers just like you. You know it, I know it, everybody knows it. Grab your copy now!

These stories are imploding, and soon will explode. To miss out would cause an absolute and total catastrophe. Buy the book now before the price goes up!

WARNING: Not suitable for low-energy types, weak men, losers, lightweights, zeros, Crazy Megyn, Crooked Hillary or Lyin’ Ted!

What are you waiting for? Do your thing, Little Reader Man!

List price: 0.99 USD, EUR or GBP

Buy it at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon France, Amazon Netherlands, Amazon Spain, Amazon Italy, Amazon Canada, Amazon Australia, Amazon Brazil, Amazon Japan, Amazon India and Amazon Mexico.

***

My story in this anthology is called “The Trump That Ate the Solar System”. In this story, Trump goes Galactus/Dark Phoenix on the solar system. Other shocking developments include Mike Pence accidentally getting electrocuted into gayness and Melania breaking a fingernail. So really, what are you waiting for? Grab your copy today!

The story was inspired by this cover of the German political magazine Der Spiegel, which is only one of several marvellous Trump covers Der Spiegel ran over the past year. Honestly, you could fill a whole anthology just with stories inspired by those covers.

Coincidentally, “The Trump That Ate the Solar System” is not the first time that the current president of the US has made an appearance in my fiction (and it probably won’t be the last time either). For almost a year ago, I published the Silencer holiday novella St. Nicholas of Hell’s Kitchen, in which the Silencer tangles with a crooked real estate magnate named Reginald Rumpus atop Rumpus’ dark tower on 5th Avenue. At the time, I described Reginald Rumpus and his wife Melody as “Donald and Melania Trump as portrayed by Wallace Beery and Jean Harlow”. So if you’re not satisfied with reading 16 flash fiction stories about Donald Trump in various guises or if you’re looking for a thrilling and heart-warming holiday novella, St. Nicholas of Hell’s Kitchen is the story for you.

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A Milestone, Two Sales and a New Science Fiction Story: A Mess of Arms and Legs and Limbs

Well, I told you there would be more new release announcements in the run-up to the holidays, so here is another.

But before we get to the story, I also have a couple of other announcements to make. For starters, I just crossed the 3000 lifetime sales threshold a few days ago and blogged about it, including a detailed breakdown of vendors and books, over at the Pegasus Pulp blog.

What is more, there are also a couple of seasonal book sales going on at the moment. For starters, there is the Magic Winter Book sale, which offers plenty of holiday and winter-themed science fiction and fantasy books for 99 cents all December long.

If romance is more your thing, author C.B. Maurice has organised a holiday romance cross promo, which will also run all December long. The promo is divided into sweet holiday romances and spicy holiday romances, so there’s something for every heat level. Oh yes, and you can also find some books by me in both promos.

If your reading needs still aren’t satisfied by all the low cost holiday book on offer, I also have a new release of my own to announce. It’s an action-packed science fiction story called A Mess of Arms and Legs and Limbs and it’s another story to come out of the 2017 July short story challenge.

The inspiration for this story was a thread at KBoards about the genre expectations of space opera and military SF audiences. Now if you’ve taken a look at the space opera and military science fiction bestseller lists at Amazon recently, you’ll have noticed that about 95 percent of them consist of stories about humanity locked in a mortal struggle with evil aliens (who are of course either insectoid or reptilian or – if we’re going to be really original – a Cthulhu knock-off) and only Captain Manly McMannerson and his ragtag crew of misfits and outcasts can save humanity. A lot of the time, the blurbs read like something that might have appeared in Astounding Stories or Amazing Stories in the 1930s to 1950s. My reaction to such stories is usually “Meh. Been there, read that and besides, Heinlein did it better”.

However, these stories undoubtedly popular. And then during that discussion on KBoards, someone posted, “Well, who doesn’t love the description of alien blood splattering across a bulkhead?” and I thought, “Uhm, me. Cause the evil aliens and the splattering alien blood are just a big, huge cliché.”

Since I was just doing the July short story challenge at the time, I thought, “Hey, why don’t I just try to ‘write to market’ for once and write a story about heroic humans fighting evil aliens, complete with alien blood splattering onto bulkheads. So I started writing a scene told from the POV of someone crouching behind a barricade waiting to blast away some invading aliens. I followed my at that point still nameless protagonist through the aliens’ initial attack and the immediate aftermath. Then I wondered, along with Matt (who’d gained a name by now) and Cally just what to do next and how to defeat the aliens. And this is how A Mess of Arms and Legs and Limbs was born. And yes, alien blood does splatter onto a bulkhead in the course of the story.

In the end, A Mess of Arms and Legs and Limbs doesn’t quite perfectly hit what the market for military science fiction and space opera apparently wants after all. For starters, Matt and Cally aren’t manly space marines, just two underpaid and underequipped security guards at a mining outpost. There is a genuine manly space marine in the story (well, ex-space marine), Security Chief Burnett, but he has three lines before the aliens kill him.

As for the aliens, I heroically resisted making them insectoid and reptiloid and instead opted for Cthulhu types, but they’re still very much aliens who are evil for the sake of being evil and an enemy that it’s okay to shoot without reservations. Though we do find out about their (rather prosaic) motivation for attacking human outposts at the end. What is more, I also managed to sneak in some references to the 1981 science fiction movie Outland, which is also set in a mining colony. Though ironically, Outland is not a movie about aliens, evil or otherwise. Indeed, the conflict is purely human.

Now that I had a nice little science fiction action tale, I of course also needed a cover. And that’s when I came across the perfect image, courtesy of the talented Luca Oleastri. Okay, so the Barbie type silvery space suit doesn’t quite match what I envision, but the multi-tentacles aliens are perfect.

So what are you waiting for? Kick some alien butt with…

A Mess of Arms and Legs and Limbs

[image error]

Humanity thought they were alone in the universe. They were wrong.

When aliens attack Hyams II, a small mining colony on the galactic rim, all that stands between the attackers and the terrified civilian population are a handful of underpaid and underequipped security guards.

However, two of those guards, Cally and Matt, use all their skills and their knowledge of the colony’s layout to fight back and hold the invaders at bay. And in the process, they also manage to uncover the biggest secret of all: Why are the aliens attacking human outposts at all?

More information.

Length: 6500 words

List price: 0.99 USD, EUR or GBP

Buy it at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon France, Amazon Netherlands, Amazon Spain, Amazon Italy, Amazon Canada, Amazon Australia, Amazon Brazil, Amazon Japan, Amazon India, Amazon Mexico, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple iTunes, Scribd, Smashwords, Inktera, Playster, Thalia, Weltbild, Hugendubel, Buecher.de, DriveThruFiction, Casa del Libro, e-Sentral, 24symbols and XinXii.

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Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month for November 2017

It’s that time of the month again, time for “Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month”.

So what is “Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month”? It’s a round-up of speculative fiction by indie authors newly published this month, though some October books I missed the last time around snuck in as well. The books are arranged in alphabetical order by author. So far, most links only go to Amazon.com, though I may add other retailers for future editions.

Once again, we have new releases covering the whole broad spectrum of speculative fiction. This month, we have epic fantasy, urban fantasy, paranormal mystery, paranormal romance, science fiction romance, space opera, military science fiction, dystopian fiction, Steampunk, alternate history, time travel, horror, witches, warlocks, a whole lot of werewolves, psychics, mindreaders, mermaids, catastrophic chupacabras, magic schools, genderneutral fairytales, void wyrms, alien invasions, clockwork boys, clockwork samurai, possessive tigerlords, zombies, space pirates, guardians, empowered outlaws and much more.

Don’t forget that Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month is also crossposted to the Speculative Fiction Showcase, a group blog run by Jessica Rydill and myself, which features new release spotlights, guest posts, interviews and link round-ups regarding all things speculative fiction several times per week.

As always, I know the authors at least vaguely, but I haven’t read all of the books, so Caveat emptor.

And now on to the books without further ado:

Aspiria Rising by Douglas Barton:

Persecuted and Forced to Rebel against the Meritocracy

Like most people on his world, Dominy worships the ground scientists walk on. He can’t wait to work with the brightest minds in the galaxy at Aspiria, the intellectual capital of civilization. Unfortunately, many of them are disappearing.

Desperate to solve the mystery, Dominy recruits a band of fellow academic trainees. Together they set out on a manic journey through deserted basements, forgotten particle accelerators, and jam-packed futuristic stadiums.

When they uncover a shocking conspiracy, Dominy realizes he may hold the key to keeping civilization alive. With time ticking away, he confronts the capital’s leadership only to discover a madman is involved in an unimaginable galactic plot.

Aspiria Rising is a utopian sci-fi thriller for the ages. If you like mystery, heart-pounding suspense, and a touch of quirky romance, then you’ll love Douglas Barton’s debut novel.

Forgotten Relics by Cianien Bloodstone:

Rei had lost it all: her family, a safe home, and, most important, her freedom.

Despite all odds, she managed to escape and make her life among the stars. It’s not easy to be a fugitive of the largest galactic power ever known. Making a living requires being flexible, and not particularly caring for things like laws or rights of property.

Even in her new life the ghosts of Rei’s past refuse to leave her in peace. She’s been changed by her captivity in more ways than one and the mysteries abound. There are untold questions that demand answers, but the only way she can find out the truth is to start back at the beginning

To complicate matters, she is approached to stop her old enemies from retrieving priceless artifacts of untold knowledge. The idea is as murky as they come but they have to take the chance. Even if it might cost her crew dearly.

A Mess of Arms and Legs and Limbs by Cora Buhlert:

Humanity thought they were alone in the universe. They were wrong.

When aliens attack Hyams II, a small mining colony on the galactic rim, all that stands between the attackers and the terrified civilian population are a handful of underpaid and underequipped security guards.

However, two of those guards, Cally and Matt, use all their skills and their knowledge of the colony’s layout to fight back and hold the invaders at bay. And in the process, they also manage to uncover the biggest secret of all: Why are the aliens attacking human outposts at all?

This is a short science fiction story of 6500 words or approximately 25 print pages.

Walking on Knives by Maya Chhabra:

The little mermaid has no idea that as she makes her way on land, she’s being watched over by the sister of the very witch with whom she made her bargain. She has no idea that the witch’s sister is falling in love with her.

When the prince decides to marry another woman, the little mermaid’s secret helper offers her a chance to live. But the price may be too high…

Content warning: Walking on Knives contains some explicit content and opens with a disturbing scene of dubious sexual consent.

The Flying Glass by E.M. Cooper:

Marnie Speck arrives at her new foster home in Downfell, Northern England with her crusty social worker, Miss Baxter. Marnie guards a rose-covered case with hidden secrets and the only link to her past and future. A telescope, old glass and a strange librarian unleash the potential of a new and extraordinary life far away at the Fanglewick School of Magic in the Old World. But first Marnie must find a way to cross the demonic halo like aspiring young wizards, witches and elves have for centuries.

In a strange but beautiful landscape inhabited by haughty wizards, ratbag witches and ambitious elves, Marnie fights for a place in Fanglewick, where magic begins and ends. The school sits on the repository of magic and flows through Shining Lake and beyond to the multiverse. Over time, Fanglewick has lured heroes, kings, queens and dark beasts. Wizards, goblins and their dragon-riding armies have waged terrible wars to possess and control its treasure. For now there is peace, yet there are rumblings in the Imporium where scheming wizards and elves work in the magical government and a new presence is lurking in the forests and grounds of Fanglewick.

Out of Fire – Hummingbird, Book 1 by Jonathan Crocker:

At sixteen years old, Deacon Barnes had spent his entire life on the dusty moon of Ophelia, on the outskirts of Republic territory. The son of a farmer, Deacon’s lazy days are spent dreaming of adventure, of escaping his dreary life and visiting distant stars. That dream becomes reality, but hardly in the way he expected. It comes in the dark of night, in the form of fire. Flames bathe his home, his moon attacked by a powerful and mysterious alien race known only as the Ethereals. He’s left for dead, the lone survivor of a brutal massacre.

A chance encounter with the entrancing Diera Hawk, notorious smuggler and captain of the Hummingbird, gives Deacon a second chance at life – and the adventure he’s always dreamed of. But is Deacon cut out for the life of a rogue? And when Diera turns her focus to chasing rumours of the Ethereals across the galaxy – and beyond – can the crew of the Hummingbird stand against the might of the powerful aliens?

The Neptune Contingency by Benjamin Douglas:

You can take the man out of the war, but not the war out of the man.

Gavin Dolridge has a problem. And no matter how long he lays low farming potatoes on his family farm hab on Pluto, his knowledge of the Council’s secrets isn’t going away. He’s got a target on his back, and his only choice may be to run or die.

The enemy of my enemy…

Ada Xander is in over her head. After leaving the Colonies to track down her father, she’s fallen in with pirates, a massive organized crime syndicate, and a rogue Colonial battleship whose captain and crew have their own ideas when it comes to diplomatic solutions. But when a massive force of AI-controlled drones begins leaving a trail of death in its wake, all bets are off, and all the chips are on the table.

Can Dolridge stay alive long enough to make amends for his silence? Will Ada survive the battle-torn inner system and come any closer to finding what she seeks?

The Neptune Contingency is the third book in the Starship Fairfax series, and picks up where The Hidden Prophet left off.

[image error] Void Wyrm by Chris Fox:

A Suicidal Quest Into the Umbral Depths

Major Voria stands ready to accept the cost for her actions at Marid. Stripped of command and resources, Voria must find a ship and rally a crew. Somewhere within the Umbral Depths lays a hidden world, a world that the dead god Marid intended her to find.

Aran faces a choice. Halt his war mage training, and in the process give up clues to his past, or abandon Voria. Aran sacrifices everything to follow Voria on a suicidal quest into the one place where even gods fear to tread.

On a bleak world in the deepest darkness lays an object of enormous power, one that could turn the tide of the war against Krox. But Voria isn’t the only one seeking the weapon. The great Void Wyrm Khalahk has vowed to hunt Voria, and will see her dead even if it means following her into the Umbral Depths themselves.

All while the dreadlord Nebiat makes herself at home on Shaya, binding the souls of its leaders.

Blade and Rose by Miranda Honfleur

A kingdom in turmoil or the love of her life. Which one will she save?

Elemental mage Rielle hasn’t heard from her best friend in far too long. Yet no one at the Tower of Magic seems to care about Olivia’s silence, or the curtain of secrecy surrounding the distant capital. Before Rielle can investigate, she’s assigned a strange new mission: escort a knight named Jon across the kingdom.

When whispers reveal mercenaries have killed the king, taken the capital, and that no one is coming to help, Rielle can’t leave Olivia in peril. But as infamous mages and deadly assassins hunt Jon, she can’t leave him unprotected either–especially as she finds herself falling for his strength, his passion, and his uncompromising goodness. Her past returns to haunt her, a werewolf stalks their steps, and an ancient evil is gathering, yet the restraints forbidding their love strain and snap one by one.

Saving Olivia and the kingdom means defying orders and sacrificing her every ambition, and could mean losing the man who’s become so much more to her than a mission. Which will she choose: her best friend and the kingdom, or the love of her life?

Clockwork Boys by T. Kingfisher:

A paladin, an assassin, a forger, and a scholar ride out of town. It’s not the start of a joke, but rather an espionage mission with deadly serious stakes. T. Kingfisher’s new novel begins the tale of a murderous band of criminals (and a scholar), thrown together in an attempt to unravel the secret of the Clockwork Boys, mechanical soldiers from a neighboring kingdom that promise ruin to the Dowager’s city.

If they succeed, rewards and pardons await, but that requires a long journey through enemy territory, directly into the capital. It also requires them to refrain from killing each other along the way! At turns darkly comic and touching, Clockwork Boys puts together a broken group of people trying to make the most of the rest of their lives as they drive forward on their suicide mission.

A Fire in the Heavens by Mary Robinette Kowal:

On a tidally locked world, Katin is aboard a ship fleeing from religious persecution in her homeland. Her people worship the seven-sisters, a group of dieties that resides in the night sky and are visible as a tight cluster of stars. This exploration ship has sailed farther West than anyone has sailed before. Some think that they will sail off the edge of the world, but she is confident that the ancient stories of a land far to the West are true. She dismisses the tales that accompany the stories of light in the night sky called “the moon” as exaggerated superstition.

Until they sail over the over the curve of the world and sees the moon for the first time.

The Chupacabra Catastrophe by Amanda M. Lee:

Charlie Rhodes has a new life and it’s not exactly what she thought it would be.

She’s psychic, telekinetic and eager to learn from her knowledgeable co-workers at The Legacy Foundation. She’s also nervous, frightened and on edge … mostly because she’s exactly the sort of oddity the group is looking to study and she’s desperate to keep her secret from the very people who are searching for her.

When word comes down that a chupacabra may have been sighted in Texas – perhaps even killing a man in an old abandoned mining town – Charlie is eager to show her worth. She’s part of the first team that descends on Hooper’s Mill, and there’s definitely an air of danger lingering over the town.

Charlie can feel it. She can sense … something. It’s lurking in the town and watching. Unfortunately for Charlie, she can’t get a handle on whether she’s looking for a human or animal. She just knows that it’s dangerous … and it wants to kill anyone who crosses its path.

When one member of the team goes missing, Charlie realizes she’s running out of time to solve a mystery in the present that has ties to the past. All the while she’s trying to ensure her own future as the jaws of death – in the form of a mythical creature – snap at her heels.

It’s all hands on deck for another adventure, and this time the stakes might be so high not everyone survives.

Clockwork Samurai by Jeannie Lin:

The Gunpowder Chronicles continue as a woman left adrift by a dynasty in decline attempts to reclaim her family’s honor…

Appointed to the Court of Physicians, Jin Soling can see that the newly-crowned Emperor is cracking, relying on opium to drown his troubles. The Qing Empire is failing, and war with the British is imminent, but the man to whom Soling was once engaged has a bold idea to save it.

A leader within the Ministry of Engineering, Chen Chang-wei suggests an alliance with the isolated island empire of Japan, whose scientists claim to have technical advancements that could turn the tide of the war.

Seeking to escape the politics of the imperial court, Soling arranges her own passage on the airship to Japan. But once they land, Chang-wei and Soling become targets of the shogunate’s armored samurai assassins. Caught in an age-old battle between feudal tradition and innovation, and stranded in a land distrustful of foreigners, Soling and Chang-wei must find a way to fight back against the Western invaders—with the survival of both Qing Empire and the island nation of Japan at stake.

Taken by the Tigerlord by Kara Lockharte:

He loved, lied, then left her.

Now she’s supposed to marry him?!

Newly disowned princess Seria is tired of shifters trying to control her destiny. All Seria wants is to return to the orderly librarian life she had before scheming royals got involved in her future. But when she inadvertently becomes a political pawn trapped in marriage to the handsome oversexed tigershifter who betrayed her, it will take all of her resourcefulness to fight her true desires…

Destiny says she’s his.

And that he will cause her death.

Tigerlord Kai of the House of Stargazer has always known he was destined to die a hero. But when a power play for his position drops his luscious fated mate into his inner sanctum, Kai realizes Seria’s crucial role in his doomed destiny. Saving the universe will require sacrificing not only his life, but also hers. It’s a fate he’ll do anything to change, even if it costs him her love…

You can’t fight fate…unless you’re a Tigerlord…..

A Mind Reader’s Christmas by Al Macy:

Eric Beckman, a mind-reading private investigator, is spending Christmas in snowy Vermont with his wife and daughter. He needs a break from solving cases, but the townspeople convince him to look into the village mystery: Every holiday season, someone switches the baby Jesus with one of the other figures in the town’s Nativity scene.

With the help of his ten-year-old daughter, also a mind reader, he soon learns that some of the residents of the small town are not who–or even what–they seem to be. There’s something supernatural going on in Newburn, Vermont.

His investigation causes an escalation of strange happenings, and soon, swapped manger figures are the least of the town’s worries. If Beckman can’t adjust his view of the world–force himself to believe in things he never thought possible–the Christmas vacation could turn out to be his family’s last.

A Mind Reader’s Christmas may be read as a standalone book or as Book Four in the Eric Beckman series.

Forget the Alamo! by Drew McGunn:

After the explosion, Will didn’t expect to wake up again, especially in the past. Alive is good. Except he finds himself at the Alamo in 1836 in the body of another man doomed to die. If history repeats itself, Santa Anna is coming soon and the Alamo will fall, along with himself and 189 others.

In a race against time itself, Will uses his knowledge of the future to change the past. He will use every means necessary, even if it means abandoning the fort.

He is determined to forget the Alamo!

[image error] Magically Bound by Rachel Medhurst:

Witch, Warlock, Whatever…

My name’s Devon Jinx, and, yes, I’m half warlock, half witch. But I couldn’t care less about which kind of magic is better. All I want to do is keep my head down and get on with my new job as an investigator at the Hunted Witch Agency.

A recent, shall we say, mistake, has put me in place to inherit the leadership of the warlocks. Which means only one thing. I have a choice to make: Leave behind my life of witchery to become a warlock, or lose my warlock magic forever.

Complicating my choice is the fact that someone is trying to destroy the warlock coven. If I don’t stop them, the warlocks will be annihilated. The task seems impossible until Gerard Freshwater, a distractingly handsome witch, explodes into my life. He’s determined to make me see that being a witch isn’t just the best option, but the only option.

Robin and Jamie by Lorri Moulton:

Action, adventure, magic and romance. An ancient curse has returned to the lands and Robin and Jamie must help a fractured group of heroes reunite. Only by working together to solve an age-old prophecy, can they stop an evil sorceress and Lord of the North.

I started writing Robin and Jamie as an experiment. What can we do in a book that would not be possible in a TV show or movie? Never tell the reader if the main characters are men or women. I wanted to make the two main characters (and one of the water fairies) known for what they believed in, what class they came from, why they were fighting, how they fought, what their alliances might be…everything except whether they were the guy or the gal. I’ve always loved fairytales (alright, and the dresses) but it seems very impractical to be running around in the forest wearing one. I hope you enjoy the story!

Where Nightmares Come From: The Art of Storytelling in the Horror Genre, edited by Joe Mynhardt and Eugene Johnson:

WHERE NIGHTMARES COME FROM

THE ART OF STORYTELLING IN THE HORROR GENRE

Book one in Crystal Lake Publishing’s The Dream Weaver series, Where Nightmares Come From focuses on the art of storytelling in the Horror genre, taking an idea from conception to reality—whether you prefer short stories, novels, films, or comics.

Featuring in-depth articles and interviews by Joe R. Lansdale (Hap & Leonard series), Clive Barker (Books of Blood), John Connolly (Charlie Parker series), Ramsey Campbell, Stephen King (IT), Christopher Golden (Ararat), Charlaine Harris (Midnight, Texas), Jonathan Maberry (Joe Ledger series), Kevin J. Anderson (Tales of Dune), Craig Engler (Z Nation), and many more.

The full non-fiction anthology lineup includes:

Introduction by William F. Nolan

IT’S THE STORY TELLER by Joe R. Lansdale

A-Z OF HORROR of Clive Barker

WHY HORROR? by Mark Alan Miller

PIXELATED SHADOWS by Michael Paul Gonzalez

LIKE CURSES by Ray Garton

HOW TO GET YOUR SCARE ON by S.G. Browne

STORYTELLING TECHNIQUES by Richard Thomas

HORROR IS A STATE OF MIND by Tim Waggoner

BRINGING AN IDEA TO LIFE by Mercedes M. Yardley

THE PROCESS OF A TALE by Ramsey Campbell

GREAT HORROR IS SOMETHING ALIEN by Michael Bailey

A HORRIFICALLY HAPPY MEDIUM by Taylor Grant

INTERVIEW WITH JOHN CONNOLLY by Marie O’Regan

THE STORY OF A STORY by Mort Castle

WRITING ROUNDTABLE INTERVIEW with Christopher Golden, Kevin J. Anderson, and Silvia Moreno-Garcia

HOW I SPENT MY CHILDHOOD LOOKING FOR MONSTERS AND FOUND POETRY INSTEAD by Stephanie M. Wytovich

BITS AND PIECES INTERVIEW WITH JONATHAN MABERRY by Eugene Johnson

THE REEL CREEPS by Lisa Morton

THE MONSTER SQUAD by Jess Landry

WHAT SCARES YOU by Marv Wolfman

PLAYING IN SOMEONE ELSE’S HAUNTED HOUSE by Elizabeth Massie

CREATING MAGIC FROM A BLANK PIECE OF PAPER: Del Howison interviews Tom Holland, Amber Benson, Fred Dekker, and Kevin Tenney

Z NATION: HOW SYFY’S HIT SHOW CAME TO LIFE by Craig Engler

LIFE IMITATING ART IMITATING LIFE: FILM AND ITS INFLUENCE ON REALITY by Jason V Brock

WHERE NIGHTMARES COME FROM by Paul Moore

STEPHEN KING AND RICHARD CHIZMAR DISCUSS COLLABORATING by Bev Vincent

CHARLAINE HARRIS DISCUSSES STORYTELLING by Eugene Johnson

WHAT NOW? by John Palisano

Enslaved by D. Robert Pease:

A mother’s secret. A son’s destiny.

Can humanity be delivered from certain extinction?

Cosette Sinclair, pregnant with an illegal second child, makes a discovery that will change the course of humanity. While on assignment to find a habitable planet for mankind’s first colony, she witnesses a tear in space—a gateway for a devastating alien invasion. Now she’s faced with the heart-wrenching choice between saving her unborn child and saving the world.

Moshie lives in a culture that prizes competition above all else. His mother raises him to dominate every creature he encounters. As Moshie trains for the day when he will rule an ancient alien civilization, a whisper in the young man’s mind calls him to something greater. Can he put aside a lifetime of striving for power and heed the cry to save those he despises the most?

She has one chance to save the human race. He has one chance to save himself. Both learn that trusting their long-hated enemies might be their only chance of survival.

Enslaved is the first book in the “Exodus Chronicles,” a captivating saga of humanity’s final struggle. If you like action-packed adventure, complex characters, and alien worlds, then you’ll love D. Robert Pease’s imaginative interstellar homage to the Book of Exodus.

The Year of the Knife by G.D. Penman:

Agent “Sully” Sullivan is one of the top cops in the Imperial Bureau of Investigation. A veteran witch of the British Empire who isn’t afraid to use her magical skills to crack a case. But Sully might need more than a good education and raw power to stop the string of grisly murders that have been springing up across the American Colonies. Every one of them marked by the same chilling calling card, a warning in the form of a legion of voices screaming out through the killers’ mouths: “It IS tHe YEAr oF the KNife.”

Sully’s investigation will drag her away from the comforts of home in New Amsterdam, the beautiful but useless hyacinth macaw that used to be her boss, and the loving arms of her undead girlfriend, in a thrilling race against time, demonic forces and a shadowy conspiracy that will do anything to keep its hold on power and ensure that Sully takes their secrets to her grave, as soon as possible.

G.D. Penman’s imaginative The Year of the Knife is a fun, fast-paced urban fantasy mystery with an engaging set of characters, most notably Agent Sully of the Imperial Bureau of Investigation.

Evolution’s Child by Dean Rencraft:

The government is playing a dangerous game. Using human and animal genomes to force evolutionary changes, they expand their project into the real world, unleashing a pathogen containing an entirely new set of complications for the world.

Seventeen year old Wren Shaffer is disenchanted with the world’s decreasing values and the utterly fake nature of high society. Having reaped the consequences of speaking out once before, now she hides behind a pretty mask of lies, counting the days until her eighteenth birthday.

Coming back from vacation with her disinterested and self-involved mother, Wren is one of the 1% severely affected by the pathogen. Now, alone and increasingly afraid of the odd new feelings and abilities she can’t ignore, she bonds with two of the lab’s original subjects, who are determined to save her not only from her first evolution, but from her life of fake smiles and pretty pictures as well.

But the scientists are still watching and not all of the subjects are fit for society. It’s a race against time and a fight for survival and if Wren or one of her new soul-mates die, the other two won’t be far behind.

Content Warning: Some explicit language and graphic violence.

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Indie Crime Fiction of the Month for November 2017

Welcome to the latest edition of “Indie Crime Fiction of the Month”.

So what is “Indie Crime Fiction of the Month”? It’s a round-up of speculative fiction by indie authors newly published this month, though some October books I missed the last time around snuck in as well. The books are arranged in alphabetical order by author. So far, most links only go to Amazon.com, though I may add other retailers for future editions.

Our new releases cover the broad spectrum of crime fiction. We have cozy mysteries, small town mysteries, paranormal mysteries, historical mysteries, holiday mysteries, police procedurals, legal thrillers, crime thrillers, private eyes, vigilante angels, cops in free fall, evolving serial killers, dangerous women, missing children, troubled foster kids, telepathic detectives, lawyers, security guards, search and rescue teams, chupacabra catastrophes, murder on Times Square and much more.

Don’t forget that Indie Crime Fiction of the Month is also crossposted to the Indie Crime Scene, a group blog which features new release spotlights, guest posts, interviews and link round-ups regarding all things crime fiction several times per week.

As always, I know the authors at least vaguely, but I haven’t read all of the books, so Caveat emptor.

And now on to the books without further ado:

[image error] Hell to Pay by Rachel Amphlett:

When a road traffic accident on a dark autumn night uncovers a disturbing conspiracy, Detective Sergeant Kay Hunter’s investigation exposes a ruthless serial killer exploiting vulnerable young women.

With her enemies unmasked and her career spiralling out of control, Kay’s determination to seek vengeance for the victims brings her dangerously close to those who want to silence her.

Undeterred, she uncovers the real reason behind a plot to destroy her career and sets in motion a terrifying chain of events.

Could Kay’s need for revenge be her undoing, or will she survive to see justice served?

Hell to Pay is a gripping fast paced crime thriller, and the fourth in the Detective Kay Hunter series:

Rose City Free Fall by D.L. Barbur:

Detective Dent Miller hunts killers on the rain soaked streets of Portland. Sometimes he puts them in prison. Sometimes he puts them in the ground.

Dent doesn’t have faith in much, but he believes in justice. One night he is called to investigate another tragic, but routine homicide. Soon, he realizes everything he believed was a lie.

Framed for trying to kill his partner, he isn’t sure who to trust as he confronts a shadowy human trafficking ring that is willing to kill to hide the truth.

Dent Miller is a man in free fall. He must identify and close with his enemy before they destroy him

This thriller from debut novelist DL Barbur is chock full of gritty, realistic action. The tension builds non-stop until the final, explosive ending.

The Evolution of a Serial Killer by Daniel and Sean Campbell:

Sidelined and alone, DCI David Morton is relegated to the role of teacher. His task is to train the bright young things that will one day put him out of a job.

But hiding among the eager faces of the next generation is a talented student with murder in mind.

When Morton sets his class the challenge of showing how they would commit the perfect murder, the exercise results in his hardest case yet as he has to hunt the killer he helped to create.

The Evolution of a Serial Killer is the sixth stand-alone DCI Morton crime novel.

[image error] Finding Justice by Kathi Daley:

Rescue Alaska is the eighth series by USA Today Bestselling Author Kathi Daley. It is a warm yet fast moving mystery series with a light paranormal twist.

Rescue Alaska is a small town in northern Alaska where visitors come to hike and ski. Harmony Carson is a lifelong resident who volunteers as a member of the local search and rescue team. Harmony has a unique gift which she often considers a curse. She is able to ‘see’ the individuals she is meant to help rescue, and more often than not she can feel their fear and their pain as well. When she isn’t aiding in a rescue, Harmony works at Neverland – the bar owned by her brother in law Jake, and volunteers at the local animal shelter. Harmony lives in a rustic cabin with six dogs, four cats, six kittens, eight rabbits, and a blind mule named Homer.

In this first book in the series, a longtime local, Tim Maverick, sends his old friend, Harley Medford, a letter with a photo stating that if he should turn up dead at some point in the near future, the man in the photo is the one who killed him. When Tim is found dead only two weeks later, Harley comes to Rescue to find the man he is convinced killed Tim. He hears that Harmony has a reputation for finding people so he enlists her help. The journey to find the truth behind Tim’s untimely death, will take Harmony on a journey of discovery she never saw coming.

[image error] Vigilante Angels Trilogy: The Complete Boxed Set by Billy DeCarlo:

A hateful, divisive presidential candidate, a pedophile priest, and a corrupt cop cross paths with a vigilante former Marine who has nothing to lose.

It’s said the wheels of justice turn slowly. Screw that. He enlists the help of an unlikely cast of fellow cancer patients to target his hit list.

It’s said that in the end, everyone gets what they deserve. Who will die and who will live?

This is a boxed set of the complete Vigilante Angels trilogy. A dark, gritty, noir crime novel series, available in paperback, Kindle ebook, and audiobook. Read for free on Kindle Unlimited!

Tommy, a retired cop and former Marine, has cancer. He realizes he can kill without consequences, and he’s got a list.

Pedophile priest, corrupt cop, fascist political candidate–where to start? He enlists the help of an unlikely cast of unusual fellow patients to target his hit list.

The hardest battles, the ones he hadn’t counted on, are right in his own home: an alcoholic, unfaithful wife and bringing himself to accept his son’s sexuality.

In book one of this trilogy, Tommy befriends a black ex-con who is a fellow patient. As both seek redemption for their past misdeeds, and with nothing to lose, they set their sights on a priest who is accused of molesting children.

Will his fight for good come closer to home than he imagined?

In book two of this trilogy, Tommy finds himself under investigation by a racist, corrupt cop who torments Tommy and his family until the unthinkable happens. Tommy partners with a one-eyed Korean martial-arts expert and a black motorcycle gang to seek revenge.

Will justice be served?

In the exciting conclusion of the Vigilante Angels trilogy, Tommy finds himself on the run and hiding in the Florida Keys. He’s prepared to let his disease claim him and die in peace.

That is until he finds love and a mysterious rejuvenation. He begins to follow the meteoric rise of a politician that stands for everything he despises and sees one last chance to make the world a better place before dies.

He battles alcoholism, love, cancer, FBI investigators, neo-Nazis, and many unexpected obstacles to complete one last mission.

In the race against time, which will prevail?

The Girl Before by Cassandra Jamison

Miley has only one year left in the foster system and is sent to finish it in the home of an older couple, Anne and Clive Winchester, who are still coping with the death of their sixteen-year-old daughter. Miley is soon drawn into deadly mind games and deception that make it clear that they have their sights set on more than just replacing their deceased daughter. Hidden secrets within the home and chilling revelations about their past bring Miley’s worst nightmare to life.

 

[image error] Morbid Curiosity by Nick Keller:

BOOK 3 IN THE ERTER & DOBBS SERIES

William Erter’s true nature has reared its nasty head and the world has turned against him. His partnership with Bernie Dobbs is over. He’s lost his standing in society. And Dr. Oaks has him committed to the Napa State Institute for the criminally insane. Getting out will require help from a mysterious friend.

Bernie Dobbs has hit rock bottom. Dismissed from the L.A.P.D. and caught in a web of depression and hopelessness, he needs a change… bad.

And then William Erter disappears.

Having been on the trail of a missing cop, William finds himself abducted by his most demented adversary yet. Now, trapped in “the monster’s lair,” he is forced to undergo a sadistic style of torture, forcing him to confront the secrets of his past that have molded him into the man he is today.

Meanwhile, a familiar face coerces Bernie Dobbs into picking up William’s trail. Reunited with the spastic Jacky Lee Hobar, Bernie’s investigation culminates into a desperate manhunt for his old partner that could bring them back together… or spell the end of William Erter forever. Thus, the race for William’s life begins.

The Chupacabra Catastrophe by Amanda M. Lee:

Charlie Rhodes has a new life and it’s not exactly what she thought it would be.

She’s psychic, telekinetic and eager to learn from her knowledgeable co-workers at The Legacy Foundation. She’s also nervous, frightened and on edge … mostly because she’s exactly the sort of oddity the group is looking to study and she’s desperate to keep her secret from the very people who are searching for her.

When word comes down that a chupacabra may have been sighted in Texas – perhaps even killing a man in an old abandoned mining town – Charlie is eager to show her worth. She’s part of the first team that descends on Hooper’s Mill, and there’s definitely an air of danger lingering over the town.

Charlie can feel it. She can sense … something. It’s lurking in the town and watching. Unfortunately for Charlie, she can’t get a handle on whether she’s looking for a human or animal. She just knows that it’s dangerous … and it wants to kill anyone who crosses its path.

When one member of the team goes missing, Charlie realizes she’s running out of time to solve a mystery in the present that has ties to the past. All the while she’s trying to ensure her own future as the jaws of death – in the form of a mythical creature – snap at her heels.

It’s all hands on deck for another adventure, and this time the stakes might be so high not everyone survives.

The Seasons of the EmmaLee by Michael Lindley:

A classic story of historical fiction and suspense, The Seasons of the EmmaLee takes the reader back to the idyllic resort town of Charlevoix, Michigan in the years before and after World War II. It was the summer of 1941, and when Jonathan McKendry first saw the beautiful new “summer girl”, Emily Compton on the deck of her father’s magnificent yacht, the EmmaLee, he could never imagine the betrayal, heartbreak, death and destruction that was about to come into his life and those he loves.

Jonathan is the son of a local boatyard owner. His small-town life seems in fine order with good friends, a local girl who loves him and college on the horizon to fulfill his dream of becoming an engineer and designing boats. When he finds himself suddenly caught up in the elite summer enclave of the wealthy families who come to this northern resort town every year, and he’s accused of a brutal murder that he’s not even sure he didn’t commit, his dreams and relationships will be shattered.

In a parallel story in present day, Sally Thomason is a descendant of the Compton family who first owned the great ship, EmmaLee. When a new owner returns with the ship decades later, Sally is caught up again in the overwhelming emotions of a past family tragedy, and torn between her love for her current partner and her attraction to the boat’s new owner, Alex Clark.

The Seasons of the EmmaLee plays out against a beautiful scenic backdrop and enduring historical context. It explores the deep and complex emotions of class differences, family betrayal, unexpected love and shattered dreams.

A Mind Reader’s Christmas by Al Macy:

Eric Beckman, a mind-reading private investigator, is spending Christmas in snowy Vermont with his wife and daughter. He needs a break from solving cases, but the townspeople convince him to look into the village mystery: Every holiday season, someone switches the baby Jesus with one of the other figures in the town’s Nativity scene.

With the help of his ten-year-old daughter, also a mind reader, he soon learns that some of the residents of the small town are not who–or even what–they seem to be. There’s something supernatural going on in Newburn, Vermont.

His investigation causes an escalation of strange happenings, and soon, swapped manger figures are the least of the town’s worries. If Beckman can’t adjust his view of the world–force himself to believe in things he never thought possible–the Christmas vacation could turn out to be his family’s last.

A Mind Reader’s Christmas may be read as a standalone book or as Book Four in the Eric Beckman series.

Footfall at Follies by C.D. Noir:

On a sizzling July night on a side street in Times Square, private investigator Mac Moynahan is tracking his usual quarry of cheating spouses when a chance encounter in a doorway plunges him into a grotesque and baffling murder case.

As dead end trails spiral off in every direction, Mac pushes his way deep inside the treacherous world of Broadway dancers. He reconnects with the colorful characters from his former life as a homicide detective, takes on a flamboyant genius hacker with the worst set of pipes in Gotham, and experiments with doing a little cheating of his own.

Tainted drugs, prime real estate, double-dealing, fabulous bodies, fragile egos, fancy bar drinks, vicious thugs and shattered dreams confound Mac’s legendary sleuthing skills. The tragedy he uncovers exposes the cracks in his own careful facade and puts his love and his life at risk.

Knock Knock by Debra Purdy Kong:

The latest attack in a string of violent Vancouver home invasions kills senior Elsie Englehart. Security officer Casey Holland is devastated. She is supposed to be watching over elderly bus riders in an affluent, high-risk area, but she’s let Elsie down.

Determined to keep others safe, Casey escorts an elderly man home, but an armed intruder attacks them both. Hospitalized and angry, Casey struggles to regain control of her life, despite interference from family and colleagues—and the postponement of her long-awaited wedding.

Yet another home invasion compels Casey to take action, but at what cost to her health and her relationships? In Knock Knock, Debra Purdy Kong’s fifth installment of the Casey Holland series, the risks have never been higher and the consequences more deadly.

The Alibi by Rachel Sinclair:

Damien Harrington is fresh off his come from behind victory when he’s thrust into yet another harrowing scenario. Gina Degrazio, wife to Vittorio Degrazio, notorious gangster, stands accused of Vittorio’s murder. Gina’s a tough-talking native New Yorker who was transplanted to Kansas City. She swears she didn’t do it. She was with her boyfriend, Enzo Degrazio, Vittorio’s twin brother, at the time of the murder. Or so she says. However, bit by bit, her story falls apart. Damien doubts that Gina was anywhere near Enzo at the time of the murder, yet he must use that alibi excuse if he is to win Gina’s case.

In the meantime, Damien and Harper together work several wrongful death suits that were the result of toxic mold in various homes on the East Side. The plaintiffs are all poor and minority, the landlords are all slumlords and scummy, and Damien works these cases with a passion that he has not felt for the law in many years.

With all the hairpin curves and twists you’ve come to expect from a Rachel Sinclair legal thriller, this first installment featuring Damien Harrington in the lead is not to be missed!

Deadly Tide by Brian Spangler:

A Murder. A Kidnapping. The tragic loss of his wife. Jericho Quinn is in the fight of his life to save a missing child and prove his son’s innocence.

Sheriff Jericho Quinn’s life in the Outer Banks of North Carolina is shattered following the mysterious death of his wife. A broken man, Jericho is forced to emerge from the depths of his despair when his only son is suddenly accused of an unspeakable crime. Murder.

With his son shrouded beneath a cloud of suspicion, Jericho finds himself deeply immersed in the investigation and connects the murder with the recent disappearance of a child. A crab pot and a sunken duffle bag lead Jericho to the gruesome discovery of a second missing child. He soon untangles a string of kidnappings and murder, revealing a chilling timeline–a deadly tide, a cycle that is set to repeat.

Peeling back the layers of deception and cruel betrayal, his wife’s mysterious secrets begin to surface and have a disturbing connection to the case. Time is running out, and Jericho is in the fight of his life to prove his son’s innocence and to unmask the killer before another child dies.

Dangerous Women – Stories of Crime, Mystery and Mayhem by Robb T. White:

Violence, they often say, is a male prerogative. But someone forgot to tell women like “Baby” Frontanetta in the first story of the collection, or Francie, for whom robbing an armored car isn’t that big a deal, if only her lover will “man up” to assist her. Even parricide isn’t beyond the pale for her. There are the twins Bella and Donna, aptly named, as the narrator of “the Birthmark” will discover. There’s semi-literate Bobbie from West Virginia, a gorgeous lap dancer in a sleazy club in Cleveland, who knows what price men will put on owning beauty like hers. Come meet them all—the hustlers, con artists, thieves, and all-around trouble-makers; you’ll see what the women in these pages are capable of—but beware: they are not your mother’s “ladies.”

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New science fiction anthology with a new “In Love and War” story available: The Guardian, edited by Alasdair Shaw

I will have a new release announcement of my own soon, but for now I’d like to point you to a brand-new science fiction anthology in which I have a story. The anthology is called The Guardian and was edited by Alasdair Shaw.

The Guardian includes eleven science fiction stories by international authors, all featuring guardians of some kind. My own story in the anthology, “Baptism of Fire” is a prequel story to my In Love and War space opera romance series, so all you fans of Anjali and Mikhail (come on, I know there are some of you out there) rejoice.

“Baptism of Fire” features Anjali at the age of seventeen as a young cadet on her first mission with the Shakyri Corps. Her assignment is guarding a vital mountain pass. Anjali, who’s always been something of an adrenaline junkie, isn’t happy that she’s been put on guard duty. She’d rather be out there with the rest of her squad, fighting. But then things go wrong very fast.

With “Baptism of Fire”, there now are three prequel stories to the In Love and War, because I like showing who Anjali and Mikhail were before they became the people they are today. In Dreaming of the Stars, we meet them both as teenagers and learn what caused them both to join their respective militaries. The next two stories focus on their respective military careers. We’ve already briefly seen Mikhail as an operative of the Republican Special Commando Forces in Graveyard Shift. In “Baptism of Fire”, we now see Anjali as a cadet with the Shakyri Corps. We also meet her commanding officer Captain Vikram as well as fellow recruit and later Anjali’s good friend (and he’s really just that, no matter how much Mikhail might suspect otherwise), Anil Golkhari. Both characters will appear again in future In Love and War stories.

“Baptism of Fire” is one of the stories to come out of the 2017 July Short Story Challenge by the way. It will eventually be available as a standalone e-book, but for now The Guardian anthology is the only place to read it. What is more, you don’t just get a brand-new In Love and War story, but you also get ten other science fiction stories by talented authors from around the world. So what are you waiting for? Get your copy of The Guardian today.

[image error]Guardians are defenders, carers and guides. Some look after individual people, others whole planets or universes, but all share a strong belief in their responsibility to protect their charges.

The Guardian is an anthology of eleven science fiction short stories by writers from across the globe. It is part of the Newcomer series of scifi anthologies.

The stories are:-

Awakening – Alasdair Shaw

The Lattice – Jeff Tanyard

Biting Shadow – C Gold

Gate of Dreams – Rick Partlow

The Following Star – Elizabeth Baxter

The Renewal – Zen DiPietro

Stowaway – Benjamin Douglas

Baptism of Fire – Cora Buhlert

Sleeping Giant – Andrew Vaillencourt

We Have the Stars – JJ Green

Warning Signs – Edward M Grant

List price: 0.99 USD, EUR or GBP

Buy it at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon France, Amazon Netherlands, Amazon Spain, Amazon Italy, Amazon Canada, Amazon Australia, Amazon Brazil, Amazon Japan, Amazon India, Amazon Mexico, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple iTunes, Google Play, Scribd, Smashwords, Thalia, Buecher.de, BOL.de, Buch.de, DriveThruFiction, Angus & Robertson and 24symbols.

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Star Trek Discovery – Of Rubberheads and Rushed Romances

It seems that last week’s episode of Star Trek Discovery (which was actually good) was an outlier, because this week Star Trek Discovery is back on form and it sucks. If you’re interested in reading me detailing all the many ways in which Star Trek Discovery sucks, go here. For another take, check out Camestros Felapton who remarks on the inconsistency of Star Trek Discovery here. Or listen to Anita Sarkeesian and Ebony Aster dissecting the show and its many problems at the Feminist Frequency podcast. Or read Bridget McKinney’s take at SF Bluestocking, which quite often mirrors mine.

In fact, this episode made me so angry that I’m pretty close to stopping watching this show altogether, because it’s not good for my health. Though I’ll probably watch next week’s episode, which is the last one before the winter break. And why does a streaming video show need to take a winter break anyway? Christmas/winter breaks make sense for broadcast television, but not for streaming videos.

Warning: Spoilers behind the cut!

Episode 8 of Star Trek Discovery once more mashes several different plots together rather than focus on telling one story at a time with maybe a B-plot. It also once again steals part of its plot from previous Star Trek episodes, this time the original series episode “Errand of Mercy” with a bit of the original series episode “This Side of Paradise” thrown in for good measure. “This Side of Paradise” is actually a pretty good episode, but I’ve never particularly cared for “Errand of Mercy” and having just read a recap, I realise that my memories of it are rather hazy. Coincidentally, I also didn’t know that John Colicos, best remembered by SFF fans as Count Baltar in the original Battlestar Galactica, plays a Klingon in that episode. “Errand of Mercy” is a very 1960s episode that hasn’t aged well with its focus on thinly veiled political issues of the day. Though at least it’s not as bad as “And Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” (a.k.a. the one with the black and white faces) and its message of pacifism sadly still needs to be heard today. But even though “Errand of Mercy” is one of the weaker episodes of the original series, it still makes sense for Star Trek Discovery to riff on this episode. For “Errand of Mercy” was the episode that introduced the Klingons to the Star Trek universe and a war with the Klingons is the main focus of Star Trek Discovery.

And indeed a large part of episode 8 of Star Trek Discovery takes part aboard a Klingon ship. The female Klingon who tortured Lorca and sexually abused Ash Tyler a few episodes ago shows up again, this time sporting a new facial scar courtesy of Ash. She tries to ingratiate herself to the current Klingon head honcho (actually the third Klingon head honcho we’ve seen in the show so far) by helping him to interrogate (i.e. torture) a difficult prisoner. This difficult prisoner turns out to be none other than Admiral Cornwell, Captain Lorca’s sometime lover who was captured by Klingons two episodes ago and then sort of forgotten. During the interrogation, the female Klingon (apparently, the character’s name is L’Rell, but I honestly can’t tell these Klingons apart or remember their names) tells Admiral Cornwell that she wants to defect, because all her friends are dead and she hates the new Klingon head honcho. She also promises to help the Admiral escape. The Admiral accepts and they make an escape attempt, only to be intercepted by Klingons loyal to the new head honcho. The Admiral is supposedly killed (or is she?), while L’Rell is arrested (or is she?). Honestly, this whole bit didn’t make a whole lot of sense and the outcome is unclear.

Now I normally like the Klingons a lot and was always happy to see a Klingon focussed episode in Next Generation and the Star Trek series that followed. However, the Klingon scenes in Star Trek Discovery are just dull. I honestly don’t give a fuck about Voq and L’Rell and Kol and Kor and T’Kuvma and the umpteen Klingon houses. I can’t even tell them apart most of the time (honestly, the new Klingon make-up is awful) and I certainly don’t care about their political infighting. I also don’t care if L’Rell really wants to defect or if she is just lying again, cause lying seems to be something she does a lot. Nor do I care what happens to the Admiral – she’s an unpleasant character, even though I do like the fact that Lorca’s lover is a woman of his own age rather than someone who could be his daughter. And no, the problem is not that the Klingons speak Klingon among themselves, because I actually like that bit. Though it doesn’t help that the actors don’t speak Klingon very well, which makes their scenes feel stilted. But the whole Klingon subplot is just dull and I don’t know why a show with an already limited number of episodes needs to spend so much time among the Klingons, especially since these are the least interesting and least likeable Klingons we’ve seen in a long time. And let’s not even mention the flat out racist way they’re portrayed, which is even more troubling considering that Star Trek Discovery already has a bad record on race. If you want to have Klingon subplots to show the other side, so to say, then at least make them interesting and make the Klingons recognisably Klingon rather than runaway orcs pretending to be Klingons.

Oh yes and all of the Klingon ships have cloaking technology now (which is apparently still a new thing at this point in time), which is demonstrated in a big space battle with the Discovery and another Starfleet ship, which is destroyed. Starfleet ships are destroyed with alarming frequency in Star Trek Discovery, which confirms my suspicions that this incarnation of Starfleet is not just the military arm of a nasty, prisoner-exploiting dystopia, but also fucking incompetent. Which makes them seem even more hypocritical for blaming Michael Burnham for the fact that they lost 8000 people in the first two days of the war (and why do they need such huge crews anyway, when they have a high degree of automation? But that’s a topic for another day). Cause the real reason that Starfleet lost 8000 people in the first two days of their war with the Klingons is that they’re fucking incompetent.

Apart from establishing once again that Starfleet is incompetent, the only purpose of the big space battle is to introduce what is apparently supposed to be this episode’s main plot. Because the widespread use of cloaking technology has apparently turned the tide of the war yet again. A few episodes ago, Starfleet was winning, but now the Klingons are winning. And coincidentally, I also can’t muster much of an interest in how this war goes. For starters, we already know that no side scores a total victory, since conflict between the Federation and the Klingons will continue to simmer for several decades yet. What is more, both the Klingons and the Federation as depicted in Star Trek Discovery are so awful that “A plague on both your houses” is the only appropriate response to their conflict.

However, luckily for the Federation, a potential solution to Starfleet’s problem with the Klingon’s cloaking devices is found on the planet of Pahvo. Pahvo is a supposedly uninhabited planet (but this is Starfleet and we know they’re not very good at detecting lifeforms, unless they jump up and down and shout “here”), where all nature lives in harmony. The planet also broadcasts music via a giant crystal transmitter. But there’s no sentient life there, no not at all, the music is a total coincidence. The Federation now has the brilliant idea to send someone to Pahvo to retune the crystal transmitter, so it can be used to decloak Klingon ships. Of course, this makes no sense at all – if Klingon or Romulan ships could be decloaked by blasting music or noise at them, every Starfleet ship would be equipped with giant sonic emitters. But then, Star Trek Discovery is the show which came up with the brilliant idea to have the titular starship jump through space via a network of magic mushroom spores navigated first by a space critter and then by a somewhat zoned out human.

Nonetheless, the Discovery is sent to the totally uninhabited planet of Pahvo to retune the transmitter. We’ve all seen Star Trek, so we know how this is going to go. The team sent down to deal with the transmitter consists of Michael Burnham, Ash Tyler and Saru a.k.a. Commander Rubberhead. No redshirt, which means that the intelligent life which totally doesn’t exist on this planet at least won’t be overly hostile. Though unfortunately, this also means that the life which totally doesn’t exist on this planet also fails to eat Saru.

Coincidentally, this is the first time beyond the desert planet at the very start of the first episode and some flashbacks set on Vulcan that Star Trek Discovery has actually visited an alien planet. So far, all of the episodes took place almost entirely aboard one starship or another. Which yet again shows how unlike any Star Trek show with the possible exception of Deep Space Nine Discovery is. Because visiting alien planets has always been the lifeblood of Star Trek. Not that there’s anything wrong with the occasional shipbound episode and indeed some of my favourite Star Trek episodes have been shipbound. But too many of them can get claustrophobic fast and seven shipbound episodes in a row is highly unusual for Star Trek. So it’s a relief to finally get to visit a planet, even if this planet looks just like a forest in Canada dressed up with some CGI touches. But then, it’s a well known fact that 40% of all planets in the galaxy look like somewhere in Canada, another 40% look like somewhere in Southern California, 15% look like random quarries in Britain and 5% look like Photoshop.

Michael and Ash use the excursion to spend some quality time together (more on that later), while Saru continues to be a pain in the butt as usual. First of all, the music generated and broadcast by the flora and fauna on Pahvo bothers Saru terribly. But then, I wonder why of all the people aboard the Discovery, you’d send the guy who’s afraid of everything down to the unexplored alien planet. Never mind that as first officer, Saru is probably needed aboard the ship, even though he never actually does much except stand around and snipe at Michael. Honestly, if you rewatch the clip from last week’s episode, where Harry Mudd kills Lorca 54 times in a row, Saru and the rest of the bridge crew just stand around and watch Lorca getting killed. None of them even try to intervene. Now imagine if someone had strolled or beamed onto the bridge of either Enterprise or the Voyager and attacked the captain. The entire bridge crew would have jumped on the intruder before they even had a chance to fire the first shot. Meanwhile, the Discovery‘s bridge crew just stands there and watches Lorca get killed, almost as if they’re secretly glad to be rid of him. And in fact, they probably are.

Talking about the Discovery‘s bridge crew, what precisely is the purpose of those people? I mean, these characters look really interesting – crashtest dummy woman (whose name apparently is Airiam), cyborg woman, black woman, rubberhead II – but they have barely any lines and zero personality. They only exist, so Lorca has someone to yell at. They could put actual crashtest dummies there and it wouldn’t make much of a difference. In all previous Star Trek versions (and in The Orville as well), the bridge is where the main cast (with the exception of the doctor and chief engineer) hangs out. But in Discovery, Lorca and occasionally Saru and Ash Tyler (and very occasionally Michael) hang out on the bridge, but the real action happens elsewhere. In fact, even Lorca is more frequently seen in his office or his secret lab of death than on the bridge. Meanwhile, the actual bridge crew are basically redshirts, but they’re probably the most expensive redshirts we’ve ever seen in Star Trek. Why create a cool looking character like Airiam, the sentient crashtest dummy, and have the actress spent two hours in make-up, only to give her nothing to do?

To absolutely no one’s surprise except the cast’s, the planet Pahvo turns out to be not uninhabited after all. For the blue glowy sparkles floating around everywhere that just happen to lead Saru, Michael and Ash to a hut in the forest (and of course, a hut on an uninhabited planet makes complete sense) are not fungus spores that escaped from the magic mushroom drive (I guess the special effects folks were feeling lazy that day and reused an effect), but the native sentient life of Pahvo. Once Michael, Ash and Saru discover that the glowy blue sparkles are actually lifeforms as well as sentient and intelligent, some debate breaks out about how to proceed now. Everybody agrees that since the planet is inhabited, they cannot simply reprogramm the crystal transmitter for their purposes without asking for permission first. However, the glowy blue sparks of Pahvo are also clearly a pre-warp civilization, so the Prime Directive forbids any intervention, regardless for what higher purpose, as the characters explain to each other for the sake of Trek newbies among the audience (since I’m pretty sure that three Starfleet officers – and yes, I’m including Michael here – already know all about the Prime Directive and don’t need it explained). Except that the inhabitants of Pahvo are clearly already aware of the Discovery team, so the damage has been done anyway. So it’s decided to initiate first contact procedures and nicely ask the inhabitants of Pahvo if the Federation may borrow their crystal transmitter to aid the war effort.

The task of initiating first contact falls to Saru, probably because he has the highest rank. And since the glowy blue things are telepathic and linked among themselves, they promptly forge a mental connection with Saru, which happens to look as if a blue glitter bomb went off in his face. Being telepathic, the aliens sense Saru’s anxiety (because Saru is always afraid) and also that the music broadcast by their planet is making him uncomfortable. So they telepathically assure Saru that every living being on the planet of Pahvo lives in total harmony with each other and that Saru has absolutely no reason to be afraid of anything, because Pahvo is completely safe. Meanwhile, they also get the gist of what has been going on in the wider universe from Saru.

The effect of the communion with the glowy blue spark on Saru is remarkable, because Saru immediately takes on a strange, zoned out look (well, stranger than usual). And what is it with Star Trek Discovery characters appearing as if they’re on drugs anyway? For a subplot of this episode reveals that Stamets’ reaction to the magic mushroom drive and the tardigrade DNA he injected himself with is getting worse. At first, it only seemed to turn Stamets into a more pleasant person with the tendency to hug random people and attempt to play matchmaker for Michael and Ash Tyler. But in this episode, we see more negative effects, when Stamets staggers out of the drive, clearly confused, and addresses Tilly as Captain, which is a big deal, considering how hierarchical and authoritarian Starfleet is in this incarnation of Star Trek. There are some fan theories whether Stamets addressing Tilly as Captain means that he has become unstuck in time and can see the future and/or parallel universes, especially since it has been established that Tilly wants to be a Starfleet captain one day. But whatever is really going on, it’s clear that the magic mushroom drive and the tardigrade DNA are affecting Stamets in unpredictable ways. The sensible thing would be to inform the Discovery‘s doctor, but Stamets is unwilling to do this, because as soon as he reports problems resulting from his interfacing with the magic mushroom drive, he will be relieved from duty, the magic mushroom drive will rendered unusable and the Federation will lose the war. Stamets can’t even talk about his problems with his partner/husband, the cute doctor, because the cute doctor is obliged to report Stamets’ problems to his superior, the Discovery‘s head doctor (honestly, what is it with this huge crew where we don’t even see the people in charge of the various departments at all?), who will then relieve Stamets of his duty. And if the cute doctor keeps Stamets’ condition to himself, he’ll be endangering his own career, because Starfleet is ultra-hierarchical and authoritarian now. Apparently, they no longer respect doctor-patient confidentiality nor the privacy of intimate relationships either. But then, the Federation is a dystopia now. As for Stamets, since Tilly accidentally became aware of his condition, he confides in her, since she is apparently not obliged to report him to anybody (yet more inconsistencies). And so Stamets and Tilly agree to monitor his condition. We all know how well this will turn out. I mean, what could go wrong?

As for things going wrong, Saru’s mental connection with the inhabitants of Pahvo is clearly affecting him adversely as well. For Saru is so blissed out in his anxiety-free state that he completely forgets about the mission and instead wants to stay on Pahvo in perpetual bliss forever. However, Michael and Ash are not on board with that idea, so Saru decides to force them to stay on Pahvo by destroying their communicators. Saru crushes the communicators with his bare hands BTW, so his alleged prey species has superstrength? Superspeed I can accept – and Saru is shown to have superspeed not much later – because a prey species would need it to run away from those who’d prey on them. See antelopes and gazelles in the real world. However, superstrength (by human standards) makes no sense for a prey species, unless whoever preys on them is Godzilla or Cthulhu. Which would actually be interesting, though it’s not really the sort of story Star Trek normally tells. But then, Star Trek Discovery is not Star Trek anyway.

Ash and Michael pretend to go along with Saru’s plan for now. But then Ash tells Michael to retune the transmitter, while he distracts Saru. Unfortunately, Saru and his glowy glitter pals uncover Ash’s ruse, whereupon Saru tells Ash that he is being deceitful. Which he absolutely is, in this situation, though it’s also another big honking hint that Ash is a Klingon spy. Honestly, by now the only surprise would be if Ash turned out to be nothing more than exactly what he claims to be, a Starfleet officer from the Pacific Northwest US.

Once Saru figures out that Ash and Michael have tricked him, he’s seriously pissed and uses his superspeed to set off after Michael who’s just about to retune the transmitter. Saru attacks Michael and – since he has superstrength – proceeds to beat the shit out of her. Okay, so Michael gets to shoot him as well, but Saru is clearly the aggressor here. Now I suspect we’re supposed to be shocked at such a display of violence from the normally reserved and constantly anxious Saru. However, it’s also been established from the very first episode on that Saru really does not like Michael (no matter what actor Doug Jones says – what’s actually on screen is saying something else). So the scene comes across as Saru, finally freed from his anxiety, promptly attacks the woman he resents and blames for all his problems. He even says as much to Michael. As he’s beating her up, Saru says to Michael that she’s taken everything else from him (basically she got the job as Captain Georgiou’s first officer that Saru wanted), but that she won’t take his newfound peace away, too. So in short, everything that is bad about Saru’s life is inevitably Michael’s fault.

Before Saru and Michael can permanently maim or kill each other, Ash shows up, having convinced the glowy blue sparkles that the Discovery‘s mission is important. So the sparkles retune the transmitter themselves, much to Saru’s horror. However – surprise – the glowy blue sparkles haven’t retuned the transmitter to make cloaked Klingon ships visible, after all. Instead, they’ve sent out a signal to both Starfleet and the Klingons to lure them to the planet, where the glowy blue sparks will persuade them to stop the war immediately and instead live in the same blissful harmony the glowy blue things enjoy. Now I actually like the idea of the supposedly primitive aliens, who turn out to be a) not primitive and b) react to the Federation’s non-intervention policy with “Well, it’s nice you have those principles, but we actually believe intervention is just fine and by the way, we can save you from yourself and your warlike impulses.” That idea was used to great effect in the original series episode “Errand of Mercy” which this episode is clearly patterned after. And in “Errand of Mercy”, the Organians’ ploy to end or at least defuse hostilities between humans and Klingons actually works out, sort of. But this is not the optimistic Star Trek of old, but Star Trek Discovery, the modern, grimdark take on Star Trek. And therefore, we all know that things won’t work out the way the inhabitants of Pahvo hope they will.

So the Discovery hangs around to defend Pahvo from the Klingons, while Michael, Ash and Saru are beamed back on board. Once there, Saru admits that he was not acting under the influence of the aliens, but that his actions were of his own free will, because he was so thrilled to be finally not afraid anymore. Whereupon he is court-martialled for refusing to follow orders, endangering the mission and the war effort and for attacking his crewmates and given a life sentence in the nastiest prison labour camp the Federation has to offer, where he will finally have a reason to be afraid of each and everything. Because that’s what the Federation is now, a nasty dystopia with a massive prison industrial complex.

But consistency is too much to expect from Star Trek Discovery and while it’s not clear what will happen to Saru after what he did, it’s pretty obvious that Saru will no more end up relieved off his duties, let alone in prison, than Lorca did for blowing up his own ship and killing his own crew and Harry Mudd did for trying to sell the Discovery to Klingons and killing Lorca as well as plenty of random Discovery crewmembers 54 times in a row. Mind you, while I don’t like Saru, I don’t actually want to see him in prison. I just want him transferred to a quiet outpost where he can’t do any harm and won’t have to suffer any excessive anxiety either. But the fact that Michael gets a hugely excessive sentence and is literally used as a scapegoat for Starfleet’s complete and utter incompetence, while Saru likely won’t get more than a slap on the wrist and Lorca and Harry Mudd both got off with far worse crimes than anything Michael ever did shows that white male privilege is alive and well in the 23rd century. And it’s interesting that Saru, though an alien, apparently counts as white and male as far as Star Trek Discovery is concerned, while Doug Jones’ other major role in 2017 in Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water groups his character with in with the women, people of colour and disabled people. Indeed, going by the trailers, it looks as if a disabled woman and a woman of colour rescue Doug Jones’ character from white men intent on torturing and dissecting him.

I strongly suspect that this episode was supposed to make us sympathise with Saru and the plight of being afraid all the time. And indeed, it seems to have done just that for some people. However, it doesn’t work for me at all, because – in emotional pain due to being constantly afraid or not – Saru is still a highly unlikeable character. And while this episode tried to show us how Saru sees the world and how deep the stress from being afraid all the time really is for him, it also managed to highlight the unpleasant aspects of his character, namely his resentment of Michael Burnham and his tendency to blame her for everything that is wrong with his life. I also wonder whether the writers are aware of the implications of having an anxious and unqualified white man (well, an anxious and unqualified white rubberhead, to be exact, but Saru counts as an honourary white man for the purposes of Discovery) resent a more qualified woman of colour for having gotten the job he felt entitled to. Because that’s the vibe I’m getting from Saru and this episode did nothing to change that. Constantly afraid or not, Saru is a jerk.

Saru briefly experiencing life without fear clearly mirrors Spock finally being able to acknowledge his emotions under the influence of alien spores in the original series episode “This Side of Paradise”. “This Side of Paradise” works, because we’ve come to know and like Spock by then. And because we care about Spock, we want him to be happy. Not necessarily with Jill Ireland, but happy. And the fact that we’re invested in Spock also means that his devastation at the end when he realises that he’d found happiness for the first time in his life only to lose it again feels true. However, Star Trek Discovery hasn’t given us any reason to care about Saru. All we know about him is that he’s constantly afraid of everything, that he resents Michael and that he’s a jerk. Another problem with Saru is that he is a very one note character. Now alien race in Star Trek tend to be very one note anyway. Vulcans are logical, Ferengi are greedy, Romulans are devious and warlike, Klingons are aggressive, warlike and care about honour, Cardassians are aggressive and warlike and don’t care about honour, Barjorans are religious. Nonetheless, characters like Spock, Quark, Worff, Gul Dukat, Kira, Ro Laren, etc… overcame those limitations and became fully rounded. Saru, on the other hand, has only two modes, afraid and sniping at Michael. So far, he’s not a multidimensional character, which is a pity, because Doug Jones is a very fine actor who knows how to make you care about a rubbery alien. However, at this point, I no more care what happens to Saru than I care what happens to Airiam, the living crashtest dummy from the bridge. That is, I actually care more about what happens to Airiam, because at least I don’t actively dislike her, unlike Saru.

Worse, once more a few tweaks could have made this episode work. After all, Saru has been driven by his impulses to commit to same “crime” that Michael has committed. This could have made him more sympathetic to her situation (which is even worse than I thought), while understanding what life is like for Saru every day could have made Michael more sympathetic towards him. This episode could have provided a basis for the mutual respect that Doug Jones believes Michael and Saru feel for each other. But once more, the writer (supposedly, an author of Star Trek tie-in novels, i.e. someone who knows what Star Trek is supposed to be like) blew that opportunity.

But even though Saru was the focus of this episode, the show does not forget Michael and Ash and their budding romance, which is notable, considering they did forget the captured Admiral Cornwell for a whole episode. Because while Saru is busy being scared and communing with the glowy blue glitter aliens, Michael and Ash have the chance to share some quality time together. They also kiss – this time for real and without any time rewinds.

Now I’ve seen quite a few complaints about the budding romance between Michael and Ash, but I really like them together. Ditto for Stamets and the cute doctor. For starters, I do like romance (or indeed any strong interpersonal connection) in my science fiction. I do agree that the romance between Michael and Ash feels a bit rushed, they’ve only known each other for three episodes and have already danced and kissed. Now I don’t think Discovery should emulate the positively glacial pace at which romances between series regulars developed in previous Star Trek incarnations, but Star Trek Discovery really does err on the side of speed here.

Still, Michael and Ash make a cute couple and besides, Michael really deserves something good in her life. I also like the fact that Ash is probably the person aboard the Discovery with the most reason to be angry at Michael (cause Saru’s reasons boil down to “I’m a jealous of her”), considering he spent six months as a POW, getting tortured and raped by Klingons. However, Ash is the only person who treats Michael as a human being from the first time he meets her on. Even Tilly didn’t want Michael to sit at her desk at first, but the man who spent six months as a POW due to the war everybody believes Michael started is nice to her from the start. Ash Tyler is really a ray of light in the generally grimdark world of Discovery. In fact, the improvement of Star Trek Discovery started at around the same time he showed up.

In short, Ash is a genuinely nice guy (and I for one can understand his desire to hurt the Klingons, given what he’s been through) who enters into a whirlwind romance with Michael. So of course he will turn out to be a Klingon spy, probably even in the very next episode. Because nothing good can happen to Michael Burnham ever.

Case in point: While Ash and Michael spend some quality time in the romantically glowing forest of Pahvo, they start talking about what they will do after the war. Or rather Ash starts talking about what he wants to do after the war (trout fishing in a cabin in the woods – and why do Star Trek characters always go for such low-tech back-to-nature vacations anyway?). Ash clearly wouldn’t be averse to going trout fishing with Michael. However, Michael bursts his bubble by telling him that once the war is over, she’ll have to go back to prison and do slave labour for the Federation, because she still has a life sentence to serve.

At this point, I literally screamed at the TV, “What?! You mean Michael hasn’t even been pardoned by now. Then why is she even trying to help Starfleet? Why doesn’t she sabotage the hell out of them and try to escape?”

Now I like Michael Burnham as a character. I’m also very much on her side. First of all, because the narrative is very much focussed on her, much more than previous Star Trek shows ever focussed on a single character. Besides, Michael is the underdog who has been treated badly and I always have a tendency to side with underdogs. I’ve even been known to side with villains, if I feel they have been treated badly. Cause if you only ever see people like yourself as villains in the media you consume, guess what? You’ll start to identify with the villains, because that’s the only place you’ll ever have in a story like this.

But even though I like Michael, I don’t get her. Yes, she feels guilty about the death of Captain Georgiou and the destruction of the Shenzhou and she even seems to believe the Starfleet propaganda lie that she started the war. But Michael’s martyrdom complex is really grating by now. Come on, Michael, what really happened is that Starfleet and the Federation royally screwed you over and used you as a convenient scapegoat to hide their own incompetence. You owe these people nothing, so why are you helping them? Why not bide your time and try to escape? Cause you’ll never serve out that sentence of yours. You’ll be the Federation’s slave worker for life.

As a matter of fact, I wonder why Michael wasn’t at least tempted by Saru’s plan for them to stay on Pahvo forever. Okay, so Saru is a jerk, but it’s a big planet and surely there’s a nice little spot somewhere where she can build a cabin in the woods and go fishing with Ash. For that matter, why didn’t Michael at least consider grasping any of the opportunities to escape she’s had before? Why not let the tardigrade maul the away team aboard the Discovery‘s destroyed sister ship and try to steal a shuttle to escape? Why not help Harry Mudd in exchange for her freedom? Okay, so letting the tardigrade kill the away team would be somewhat mean, but at this point Stamets and the security chief who later died of terminal stupidity have treated her abominably (and the redshirt actually does get killed by the tardigrade). And Harry Mudd is a double-crossing scumbag and besides, he’s just killed Ash, the only person on board who’s been unequivocally nice to Michael. Still, why isn’t Michael at least tempted by these possibilities of escape? Why does she risk her life over and over again (and even kills herself at one point) for the sake of people who treat her like dirt and who’ll just throw her back into prison at the first opportunity anyway?

Coincidentally, Ash reacts to Michael’s revelation by suggesting that they simply let the mission fail then, so the war will last a little bit longer. And since I value personal loyalty higher than loyalty to a system, I found this moment very sweet. Ash really is a keeper. This leads to a very nice riff on the famous line of “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few”, which of course was uttered by Michael’s foster brother Spock. And talking of Spock, I recently discussed with another Star Trek fan appalled by the new series how Star Trek Discovery diminishes Spock’s character, though he isn’t even in the show. Cause Spock is the guy who was willing to commit mutiny, violate the Talos IV taboo and put his own life on the line, all for the sake of giving the severely disabled Captain Pike a chance to live out his days in happiness. And Spock was the guy who walked into a radiation soaked chamber and laid down his life (okay, he got better) to save his friends and the Enterprise. Spock will do literally anything to help the people he cares about. So are we honestly supposed to believe that someone like Spock would let his own sister languish in prison? Nope, Spock would probably hijack the Enterprise (still commanded by Captain Pike at this point) and break her out and then at his court martial, he’d tell everybody that what he did was perfectly logical. And he’s get away with it, too, because Spock is awesome.

So I like Michael and hate how Starfleet is treating her. And for that matter, why are there no #JusticeforMichaelBurnham campaigns like there were for Barb from Stranger Things? Yes, I know that Michael is undergoing a redemption arc and that redemption arcs are supposed to involve suffering to satisfy the cult of guilt and punishment that seems to be so popular in the US and that I flat out hate. I go a bit more into my problems with redemption arcs in this post and I will probably do a more general post on redemption arcs in the future.

However, there are some redemption arcs that work for me. The examples I give in the other post are the Marvel superhero movies, which have redemption arcs that work. IMO, the key to a succesful redemption arc is that no matter how perfect the protagonist’s life seems to be before it is plunged into chaos, there must be something missing. Quite often, this is a purpose or an interpersonal connection of some kind. Basically all the Marvel movie characters are missing these two things. And once they’ve overcome their ordeal in the wilderness, they will get not only superpowers, but also a new purpose in life as well as the best friends in the universe and possibly true love.

Since last episode, we know what Michael has been missing in her life, namely love. Okay, it’s a bit cliched, but it makes sense given her repressed Vulcan upbringing. But much as I like Ash Tyler, true love shouldn’t be the only thing Michael gains during her redemption arc.

So let’s tweak Michael’s story a little bit: Maybe her Starfleet career to date wasn’t quite so perfect. After all, Starfleet was never Michael’s first choice anyway. So maybe her relationship with her first captain isn’t the lovely mentor-mentee relationship she had with Philippa Georgiou. Maybe Michael isn’t that happy aboard the Shenzhou. Maybe the captain merely tolerates her, but neither likes nor trusts her. Maybe she frequently clashes with the captain. Maybe she is isolated aboard the Shenzhou. The crew respects her, but she has no real friends, no connections, because since she was raised as a Vulcan, she has problems connecting to humans. And then there is the jealous and incompetent science officer who flat out hates her (cause Saru is a jerk and would probably work better as a villain of sorts).

They encounter the Klingons, Michael turns against the captain, the Shenzhou is destroyed, the captain killed, Michael ends up in prison and hits rock bottom. Eventually, she is rescued by the Discovery, Starfleet’s latest cutting edge research vessel and conscripted by its captain. However, the captain is not the disturbed and borderline psychotic Lorca, but more like Captain Georgiou, someone who recognises Michael’s potential, treats her kindly and mentors her. In short, swap Lorca and Georgiou, either personalities or – better yet – actors. Hell, keep Admiral Cornwall, for that matter, and make her Philippa Georgiou’s occasional lover, who then gets captured and escapes with the aid of a Klingon woman, to whom she becomes attracted.

Still, due to her situation, Michael is initially isolated aboard the Discovery. Jerky Saru is there and lords over her and she doesn’t get along with her immediate superior Stamets either. However, then she befriends her roommate Tilly, Stamets eventually comes around as well (keep the tardigrade DNA angle) and his partner, the cute doctor, is always nice to Michael. And then there is the new security officer Ash Tyler with whom Michael is beginning to fall in love…

Hell, let’s tweak it even further and make Michael a little less guilt-ridden. Maybe Michael recognises exactly that Starfleet and the Federation have screwed her over, because they needed a scapecoat to cover up their own incompetence. Maybe her time in prison has shown her the dark side of the Federation, that its post-scarcity society is built on slave labour. So when Michael comes aboard the Discovery, she is justifiably angry and determined to find a way to escape and to hell with Starfleet and the Federation.

Except that she lets chance after chance pass by. Sure, Stamets might be a jerk, but he and his partner make such a cute couple, so Michael doesn’t want him to die. And besides, she suspects that the tardigrade is not the monster it appears to be at first glance. And yes, it would probably be better for Michael, if the captain were never rescued from the Klingons, but the captain has been good to her, dammit. And while Harry Mudd may be a doublecrossing scumbag, siding with him would be Michael’s ticket to freedom. Except that Harry Mudd has just killed a whole lot of people and seems to enjoy it. And besides, he’s killed the captain who’s been good to Michael. And he’s killed Ash whom Michael really doesn’t want to die. And while staying forever on Pahvo with Ash is certainly tempting, Saru really isn’t acting like himself (hey, maybe give Saru a mini redemption arc, too, and let him recognise Michael not as a rival, but as a teammate). Hell, raise the stakes even further, so retuning that crystal transmitter will save the Discovery or the Enterprise with her brother Spock on board or her adopted homeworld Vulcan which is being besieged by Klingons.

As for Ash Tyler, why not give him a redemption arc, too? Maybe he really is a Klingon spy or surgically altered Klingon or whatever. He only wants to subvert and destroy the Federation, but then he meets this young human woman who doesn’t quite fit in, but to whom he’s immediately attracted. Maybe he knows that she is the one who killed the Klingon head honcho or maybe he only finds out later. But though Ash is supposed to uncover the Discovery‘s secrets and destroy her, he finds himself drawn to her crew, particularly Michael. He likes these people and doesn’t want to destroy them. And besides, the Klingons have been lying about humans and the Federation anyway. Hell, maybe the Klingons – at least the ultra-xenophobic Klingons he serves – are wrong about this whole war.

So you see. Just a few little tweaks and Star Trek Discovery could tell the story it’s apparently trying to tell (though it’s hard to be sure, considering how muddled the show is) and yet be so much better. And indeed, this is the most frustrating thing about Star Trek Discovery, namely that you occasionally get glimpses of the much better show that it could be.

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More than just a Bond Girl – Remembering Karin Dor

German actress Karin Dor died Monday aged 79. Most international obituaries, such as they are, mainly focus on her turn as a Bond villainess in the 1967 James Bond movie You Only Live Twice and on her appearance in Alfred Hitchcock’s spy thriller Topaz in 1969. Depressingly, she dies in both movies, by piranha tank in You Only Live Twice and by falling from a great height in a beautiful billowing dress in Topaz. Now Karin Dor was threatened with grotesque death in plenty of films. She was nearly drowned, strangled, guillotined, shot, thrown into a snake pit, etc… But it’s telling that she dies in her two best known international parts, but was rescued in most of the others.

Now I have to admit that Karin Dor’s turn as a Bond girl is probably my least favourite of her many roles, not counting some late career appearances in very bad German TV melodramas. For starters, she looks awful with her hair bleached and dyed red, since Karin Dor was really a brunette. The Karin Dor I remember doesn’t look like the bad dye job from You Only Live Twice, she looks like she does in this still from the 1961 Edgar Wallace movie The Green Archer.

Worse, at least the German advertising materials for You Only Live Twice billed Karin Dor as the female star opposite Sean Connery’s Bond, but once you watch the actual movie, it turns out that Karin Dor plays a villainess and henchwoman of Blofeld, whereas the actual heroine is Akiko Wakabayashi, who is then replaced with Mie Hama halfway through the movie. To add insult to injury, Karin Dor’s character is then thrown into a fish pond and fed to Blofeld’s pet piranhas. Yes, You Only Live Twice is the movie that not just wasted Karin Dor, but also fed her to piranhas. Okay, Blofeld’s vulcano lair cum spaceport is still the most fabulous set Ken Adam ever built for the Bond movies, so fabulous that my reaction upon first seeing it was “I want to live there. With the rocket, but without the piranhas.” Pity the movie is one of Sean Connery’s weakest.

German obituaries of Karin Dor like this one and this one paint a slightly different image, even though they cannot resist focussing on that Bond movie either. But here in Germany, Karin Dor was one of the most iconic stars of the 1960s. She specialised in damsel in distress roles, quite often directed by her then-husband Harald Reinl, one of the best German directors of the postwar era.

Karin Dor appeared in several Edgar_Wallace movies, most notably in Der Grüne Bogenschütze (The Green Archer) in 1961 (trailer here and a neat clip of Karin Dor being chased by Gert Fröbe here – interestingly, the director this time around was Jürgen Roland and not Dor’s husband Harald Reinl) and Der Unheimliche Mönch (The Sinister Monk) in 1965 (full film available on YouTube here). Interestingly, Karin Dor plays the daughter of a man framed for murder and wrongfully sent to prison in both movies. And in both movies, a masked avenger sets out to avenge the injustice done to Karin Dor and her family. Okay, so many of the Edgar Wallace movies are kind of similar and tend to follow a certain formula (which they then rejoice in breaking), but the parallels is still notable. Part of the Edgar Wallace formula of the 1960s was that all films had certain stock characters, often played by the same actors. The main female stock characters were the good girl damsel-in-distress, the bad girl femme fatale, the sinister old lady and the eccentric, but harmless old lady. Plenty of actresses played the “good girl” role in the Edgar Wallace movies, but Karin Dor was the most iconic and memorable of them all to the point that you think she appeared even in those Edgar Wallace movies she wasn’t in. And just because the Edgar Wallace movies really liked subverting their formula on occasion, in the 1964 movie Zimmer 13 (Room 13 – trailer here) Karin Dor still plays the doe-eyed damsel-in-distress, who eventually turns out to be a psychopathic serial killer who has been murdering a succession of Wallace bad girls all along.

Karin Dor also played damsels-in-distress in other German thrillers of the 1960s, such as Die unsichtbaren Krallen des Dr. Mabuse (The Invisible Doctor Mabuse) in 1962 (full film here), where she is almost guillotined by Germany’s most resilient supervillain, the body-jumping Dr_Mabuse. In 1967, she dealt with snake pits and razor-sharp pendulums as well as with Christopher Lee and Lex Barker in a (loose) German adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Pit and the Pendulum (trailer here). In 1965, Karin Dor was kidnapped and menaced by Christopher Lee as Fu Manchu in Ich, Dr. Fu Manchu (The Face of Fu Manchu – trailer here, trigger warning for yellow face). Coincidentally, Fu Manchu’s equally villainous daughter who threatens to whip Karin Dor at one point was played by actress Tsai Chin, who also had a small part in You Only Live Twice and more recently appeared as Melinda May’s mother in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. So does this make Melinda May Fu Manchu’s granddaughter? Cause that’s my headcanon now.

Karin Dor also was a frequent presence in the Winnetou movies of the 1960s, also directed by Harald Reinl. In 1962 she played Ellen Patterson in Der Schatz im Silbersee (The Treasure of the Silver Lake – full movie here, trigger warning for red face), where she wound up in the arms of a very young Götz George. Then in 1964 she played the Karl May role for which she is best remembered, when she played Winnetou’s great love, the Native American maiden Ribanna, in Winnetou II (full movie here – trigger warning for red face). As Ribanna, she wound up marrying someone else as well, Terrence Hill in this case (Karin Dor’s Winnetou heroines sure had a good taste in men). But then we know that there was only one true love in the lives of Winnetou and Old Shatterhand, namely each other.

But though Karin Dor is best remembered for her roles in thrillers, westerns, adventure and horror movies, she also appeared in more wholesome fare such as the 1960 adaptation of Ralph Benatzky’s operetta Im Weißen Rößl (The White Horse Inn – trailer here), where she was involved in one of the many romantic entanglements in the story and finally winds up with Adrian Hoven.

Though the peak of her career was in the 1960s, Karin Dor continued to appear in movies, TV and theatre roles almost up to her death. Most of her later roles were in bad German TV shows, but occasionally she appeared in good stuff as well such as Margaretha von Trotta’s 2006 drama Ich bin die Andere (The Other Woman – trailer here). And because the Edgar Wallace movies, the Winnetou movies, the Dr. Mabuse movies, the Fu Manchu movies and the rest of the marvelously entertaining German thrillers of the 1960s were a staple on TV in the 1980s and 1990s and even show up on TV occasionally today, Karin Dor is still the iconic face of 1960s German cinema to a generation born long after these movies first appeared. She was definitely an important part of my childhood. Looking up these movies for this post, I’m shocked to realise that almost the entire casts of these movies is dead by now – Karin Dor was the last survivor in many cases. Tsai Chin and Wolfgang Völz who appears in The Green Archer are the only ones who are still alive.

I knew Karin Dor was ill, because I saw a headline to that effect in one of the celebrity gossip mags my Mom reads (only for the crosswords, of course). However, everybody knows that the headlines of those mags are largely made up and over the years they have reported a lot of celebrities near death (the current issue places Patrick Duffy of Dallas and Man from Atlantis fame near death’s door) who are still alive years later. So I took that headline as seriously as I always take the headlines in these mags, namely not at all. However, in this case, the mag was sadly right.

So let us remember Karin Dor, who was much more than just a Bond girl with a bad dye job. She was also Valerie Howard and Gwendoline and Maria Müller and Lilian von Brabant and Ellen Patterson and Ribanna and Liane Martin and Brigitte Giesecke and Denise, the psychopathic murderess, and above all, one of the last great stars from the glory days of West German postwar cinema.

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Star Trek – Into Grimdarkness

Since I seem to be doing an episode by episode dissection of Star Trek Discovery anyway (previous posts may be found here), I might just as well do the last two episodes of the first half-season as well. Besides, the title pun was too good not to use.

So the seventh episode of Star Trek Discovery was made available (you can’t really use “air”, since it’s on one of these bloody streaming video services) a few days ago. It actually manages to look and feel like a Star Trek episode for much of the time, which is a big step forward. The plot also feels like a Star Trek plot, probably because it is. Now it’s something of a tradition for the various Star Trek series to recycle ideas and whole plots from other Star Trek series or even episodes of the same series. And for this episode, Star Trek Discovery borrowed one of the most venerable science fiction trops of them all, the time loop. Star Trek has used the time loop concept plenty of times, starting with the 1992 Next Generation episode “Cause and Effect”, which actually predated what is probably the best known implementation of the time loop concept, the 1993 movie Groundhog Day, by a year. In fact, “Cause and Effect” may be the earliest filmic treatment of the time loop idea in general, though someone claimed that there is an episode of the original 1950s Twilight Zone (which I’ve never seen) that also featured a time loop.

Warning! Spoilers underneath the cut.

The time loop in Star Trek Discovery is courtesy of Harry Mudd, last seen abandoned by Captain Lorca in a Klingon torture prison. Somehow, Mudd got out (via making a deal with the Klingons, it is implied) and is understandably pissed as hell at Starfleet in general and at Lorca, Ash Tyler and the rest of the Discovery crew in particular. Somehow, Mudd got his hands also on a crystal that allows him to rewind time by thirty minutes. So he infiltrates the Discovery via an endangered space whale creature he uses as a Trojan horse – because why settle for one SF cliché, when you can have two? And yes, I know that I have written a space whale story myself, but space whales are still a cliché. Once aboard, Mudd uses his time rewinding crystal to find out as much as possible about the magic mushroom drive and how it works and sell that knowledge and preferably the entire ship to the Klingons. And since he’s already there, Mudd also has some “fun” aboard the Discovery, mostly via killing Lorca 54 times in a row, while trying out Lorca’s own weapon collection (which was extremely satisfying to watch, a lot more satisfying then it should be). Mudd also kills several random Discovery crewmembers, when they get in his way, and also destroys the Discovery a couple of times. Though unfortunately, he fails to kill Saru a.k.a. Commander Rubberhead.

Talking of Saru, I recently came across this interview with Doug Jones, the actor who plays him. Turns out that Doug Jones not only had a lengthy career, mostly hidden under tons of prosthetic make-up, but that he also had another notable part this year, for Doug Jones plays the imprisoned underwater creature in Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water, which won the Golden Lion at this year’s Venice film festival. So yes, Doug Jones played two rubberheaded alien creatures this year, one in a critically acclaimed and award winning movie and the other in Star Trek Discovery. The disconnect must be quite stunning. Coincidentally, Doug Jones claims that there is rivalry between Saru and Michael Burnham, but also a deep love and respect. Too bad we see none of that on screen. Jones also says that he is a long time Star Trek fan like several other members of the cast. Which means that the cast is probably aware how much Star Trek Discovery is not Star Trek.

Every time loop story requires its Bill Murray, the lone character who knows what’s going on and tries to find a way to break out of the loop, so everybody can get on with their lives. In this episode of Star Trek Discovery, that character is science officer Paul Stamets. Stamets is not only the guy who developed the magic mushroom drive, a few episodes ago he also injected himself with the DNA of the tardigrade creature and now serves as the navigator that persuades the magic mushroom drive to take the Discovery where it needs to go. Ever since injecting himself with tardigrade DNA, Stamets has been acting erratically, which in his case means that he actually became a likeable character. Pre-tardigrade Stamets was largely a jerk, to the point that I didn’t bother remembering the character’s name, but just referred to him as “jerky scientist guy”. However, in this episode I actually liked the mellower new Stamets. Of course, the fact that actor Anthony Rapp who plays Stamets talked about being sexually assaulted by Kevin Spacey at the age of fourteen just before this episode became available may also have influenced the way I view the character. Nonetheless, Stamets’ relationship with his partner, the cute doctor (who runs after Stamets and apologises, when Stamets randomly hugs people in the corridors), is very sweet. I also liked his interaction with Michael Burnham in this episode, which actually made them seem like people who like each other.

Injecting himself with tardigrade DNA has not just given Stamets a much needed personality upgrade, but it has also made him the only person aboard the Discovery who is aware that they are caught in a timeloop. Stamets is also aware that he has to stop Mudd, but since he’s not actually the fighting type, he needs to help. The obvious course of action would be to inform Captain Lorca of the problem. However, Lorca doesn’t listen to Stamets or indeed anybody else. So Stamets needs to find help elsewhere. The next logical choice is Ash Tyler, former Klingon prisoner-of-war turned the Discovery‘s new security chief, after the last one died of terminal stupidity. Tyler is not only responsible for security aboard the Discovery, he also knows Harry Mudd from spending several months locked up in a cell with him. There is only one problem. Tyler isn’t particularly interested in talking to Stamets and listening to his story about time loops. However, Tyler is very interested in Michael Burnham.

So Stamets devises the plan of persuading Michael, who will then help him to persuade Ash Tyler, who in turn will either stop Mudd himself or persuade Lorca. However, there is another problem. For though Tyler is clearly interested in Michael, which is obvious to Stamets, Michael’s roommate Tilly and probably everybody else aboard the Discovery, Michael is not only oblivious to Tyler’s interest in her, she also has no idea how to react, since a Vulcan upbringing doesn’t include any lessons in flirting and dating.

The first time Stamets manages to persuade Michael that his story is true, he asks her to tell him a secret about her nobody else knows, so he can use it to shorten the persuasion phase on the next loop. Michael’s secret is that she’s never been in love. As secrets go, this one honestly isn’t that surprising, given Michael’s background and upbringing. In one of my previous posts about Star Trek Discovery, I even mentioned that the only thing that seems to be missing from Michael’s life by the start of the series is a romantic relationship (and as I said at the time, it’s not clear if she even wants one). In this episode, we learn that Michael indeed wants a romantic relationship, but has no idea how to go about it, since growing up among Vulcans didn’t actually offer her many positive role models along those lines. So Stamets takes it upon himself to fill these gaps in her education. He tells her about how he met and fell in love with the cute doctor and advises her to just be herself. He also teaches Michael to dance, since much of this episode takes place during a party aboard the Discovery, where Michael not just looks distinctly uncomfortable, but is also the only person in uniform, while everybody else is wearing civilian clothes. Considering Michael came aboard the Discovery straight from prison, she probably doesn’t have any civilian clothes. And come to think of it, the only time we have seen Michael not in uniform or prison clothes, she was wearing Vulcan robes, so she may not have any human civilian clothes at all. But couldn’t her roommate Tilly have lent her something, especially since Tilly is shown wearing a nice party dress?

The scenes where Stamets opens up and where he and to a lesser degree Tilly try to play matchmaker and push Michael and Tyler together are genuinely enjoyable. This was probably the first time I actually had fun watching Star Trek Discovery that did not involve bad things happening to Lorca or Saru (though Lorca did get killed 54 times in this episode). Coincidentally, this was also the first episode where I actually felt a sense of cameraderie among the Discovery crew as if these people actually like each other. Okay, so I still can’t stand Lorca (but then I don’t think we’re supposed to like him) and Saru (where I’m apparently in the minority for disliking him), but I actually like Michael, Tyler, Tilly, Stamets and the doctor now.

Stamets’ flirting and dancing lessons pay off, because Michael and Tyler dance and even share a kiss (which they won’t remember, because time is reset again not long thereafter). Now I’ve heard some complaints that the Michael/Tyler romance happens way too quickly and pretty much comes out of nowhere. And considering that romances between regular cast members in previous Star Trek incarnations were not just slow-burn, but developed at a positively glacial pace, two characters falling for each other by the seventh episode of the first season, two characters who have only known each other for two episodes at that, truly is a whirlwind romance by Star Trek standards.

Now I like my science fiction (and indeed any genre) with a side order of romance. And one thing that I really like about the new golden age of quality television is that characters are no longer insolated loners (which the Star Trek casts of the 1990s still were – even the people who had kids still didn’t have partners, but were all widowed), but that they actually get to have relationships, families and friends. So I do like the relationship between Stamets and the doctor (and it’s great to see an established relationship in Star Trek, let alone an established gay relationship) and I also like the blossoming romance between Michael and Tyler, because if there is one character in Star Trek Discovery who deserves something good in her life after all the shit that happened to her, it’s Michael. And after spending months in prison being tortured and sexually abused by Klingons, Ash Tyler also deserves something good. And watching these two wounded and traumatised people help each other heal would indeed be lovely. However, that’s not going to happen, because this is still Star Trek Discovery, the modern gritty and grimdark take on Star Trek.

I’ve already mentioned the fan theory that Ash Tyler is really a Klingon spy or even the Klingon leader Voq surgically altered to appear human. There is some evidence supporting that theory, much of it hinging on the fact that the main cast of Star Trek Discovery includes two actors of Pakistani origin, one of whom has no previous credits. However, I wasn’t convinced of that theory, at least not until I saw this episode. For now I’m certain that the theory is true and that Ash Tyler really is a Klingon spy. After all, Michael is about to fall in love with Tyler and if there is one rule in Star Trek Discovery, it’s that Michael Burnham must suffer and that nothing good can happen to her ever. Hell, she’ll probably have to kill him in the end, just to twist the knife further.

Of course, it’s also possible that even if Tyler is revelaed to be a Klingon spy, Michael finds that she loves him anyway and forgives him and they run off together. But that’s not going to happen. Not because this is Star Trek Discovery, which is all gritty and grimdark and doesn’t allow its characters to be happy, but because two characters who love each other, but cannot be together never just elope, no matter how much sense that might make. Because running away from the plot to be happy together elsewhere is not something that happens in Anglo-American storytelling ever. Coincidentally, the In Love and War series was born out of my frustration with another space opera (and not the first one either, I’d read a couple of books with the same dynamic in fairly quick succession), where two people who loved each other and couldn’t be together because of reasons did not run off together, even when given the opportunity, because whatever threatened the fate of the galaxy this time was more important. However, I cared a lot more about the couple than about whatever galaxy-threatening obstacle kept them apart. So I thought, “Okay, none of these people ever do the logical thing and run off together, so why don’t I write a space opera story where two characters who fall in love do just that?” And this is how Anjali Patel and Mikhail Grikov were born.

But I’m not writing Star Trek Discovery and so Ash Tyler will probably turn out to be a Klingon spy and he’ll probably die, especially given this show’s track record with actors of colour. Of course, Ash Tyler is one of the most likeable and most human characters in Star Trek Discovery, so if he turns out to be a Klingon in disguise, he is the most well adjusted (by human standards) Klingon ever. I mean, Tyler is charming, he flirts, he dances, he jokes. Even Worf and Belanna Torres weren’t that well adjusted and they were both raised by humans. But then, it’s not as if Star Trek Discovery makes a whole lot of sense.

Case in point: Once Stamets manages to successfully convince Michael and via her Tyler that the time loop is real, they set out to stop Mudd. However, Mudd kills Tyler, which upsets Michael. So she decides to persuade Mudd to reset time once more. She reveals to Mudd that she is much more valuable to the Klingons than the Discovery and her magic mushroom drive, because Michael was after all the one who killed the leader of the Klingon fanatics. And therefore the Klingons would certainly be willing to pay a lot for getting their hands on her. However, Mudd isn’t going to collect that bounty, for once Michael has dropped that bombshell, she kills herself. It’s a risky gamble, after all Mudd could have simply decided to take the money the Klingons are paying for the Discovery and run. But Mudd, being the greedy scumbag that he is, resets time once more, determined to nab both Michael and the Discovery this time around. So eager is Mudd to collect his paycheck that he even forgets to kill Lorca or anybody else on the final loop. Instead he simply makes his way to the bridge, takes over the ship and hails the Klingons, trusting them to finish the job. However, Michael and friends have manipulated the communication system, so instead of calling the Klingons, Mudd actually calls in his bride Stella (wearing a purple gown that looks very much like a party dress my Mom had in the 1980s) and Stella’s very angry father (who seems to have gotten his franchises confused and plundered the wardrobe of Commander Adama from the original Battlestar Galactica).

So Mudd has destroyed the Discovery, killed Lorca 54 times and also killed plenty of other Discovery crew members including Ash Tyler, he has uncovered the secret of the magic mushroom drive, was collaborating with Klingons while the Federation is at war with the Klingon Empire and was willing to sell not just information but Starfleet’s most important ship to them and his punishment is a shotgun wedding to a woman he loathes? Sorry, but Mudd’s fate would have been harsher even in the Original Series, had he tried to pull off something like this back then. And in the dystopian Federation of Star Trek Discovery, which uses prisoners as slave labour and hands out life sentences for non-lethally nerve-pinching a superior officer, Mudd should find himself in the slave prison mines for the rest of his miserable life at the very least, if not on the wrong end of a firing squad. Okay, so he doesn’t actually kill anybody during the final loop, but he still infiltrated the ship and tried to sell vital information to the enemy and in this new dystopian Federation that is probably a capital crime. Not to mention that the Harry Mudd we saw in the original series was a slimeball and scumbag, but not actually a psychopathic murderer.

Mudd’s punishment or lack thereof is just one more in an ever increasing list of examples that show how completely inconsistent Star Trek Discovery is. We get another example earlier in the episode, when Michael and Stamets try to convince Lorca not to beam the space whale, which Mudd is using as a Trojan horse, aboard, whereupon Saru points out in his insufferable way that if Lorca fails to follow Federation law and doesn’t beam the endangered space whale aboard, he will be court-martialled. So blowing up your whole ship and killing your crew gets you handed another command, but not saving a space whale in order to protect your ship, now that is a serious crime. Honestly, the Federation’s justice system is not just backwards and downright barbaric for such a supposedly enlightened society, it’s also inconsistent as hell. Though I have no problem believing that the Federation would indeed value a bloody space whale higher than a spaceship crew, because the Federation always had a touch of the holier than thou attitude of certain cliché Greens who value an endangered species higher than human lives.

It’s this massive inconsistency that infuriates me more than anything. Because Mudd gets away scot-free with murder, espionage and treason. Lorca gets away scot-free with blowing up his ship and murdering his crew, torturing tribbles and tardigrades, abandoning Federation citizens to certain death and threatening to shoot Starfleet admirals, while having sex with them, but is threatened with court martial over not beaming aboard a space whale that he knows is boobytrapped and is threatened with being stripped of command for conscripting Michael Burnham into his crew. Saru is not just completely incompetent, but also orders a sentient creature tortured and possibly killed for the greater good. But Michael Burnham gets a life sentence in the prison mines for nerve-pinching Captain Georgiou and for failing to prevent the war with the Klingons. Yeah, that makes absolutely no sense at all.

Though some of the problems with Star Trek Discovery, also show up in some of the other TV shows producer Alex Kurtzman has worked on, most notably Scorpion and Hawaii Five-O. I gave up on Scorpion after two seasons or so, largely because it was completely inconsistent, but I’ve seen quite a bit of the new Hawaii Five-O, because my Mom watches it. Now Hawaii Five-O is better than Star Trek Discovery (and actually a lot more enjoyable than a show like that has any right to be), but it shares many of the same problems. In Hawaii Five-O, some characters, most notably Steve and to a lesser degree Danny, can literally get away with anything, up to and including murder. Steve McGarrett tortures and kills people, he gets involved in all sorts of illegal operations and nothing ever happens to him. There have been episodes where Steve arrested other people for crimes he himself has committed plenty of times. Meanwhile, Chin and Kono are punished for much lesser sins. Kono’s lover and later husband Adam Noshimuri even spends a whole season or so in prison for killing two Yakuza assassins who were trying to kill him, even though that was clearly self-defence. But Adam started out as an antagonist who had the misfortune of having the wrong father, so of course he has to suffer. The way different characters are treated in Hawaii Five-O makes about as much sense as in Star Trek Discovery, though I cannot help but notice that in both shows, a character’s chances of doing something awful and getting away with it rise proportionally to that character’s whiteness and maleness.

In spite of my complaints, this was the first episode of Star Trek Discovery I actually enjoyed (okay, last week’s wasn’t bad either), even if I gritted my teeth at the ending and the general inconsistency of it all. But Lorca and Saru were largely sidelined (plus we got the satisfaction of seeing Lorca get killed a whole lot of times), Stamets actually grew a likeable personality, the interplay between the characters was nice and the story packed a bit of an emotional punch as well. I even liked the mass murdering Mudd. Okay, so this version of Harry Mudd is not at all consistent with the Harry Mudd we saw in the original series, but he is deliciously evil and makes for a memorable villain, a lot more memorable than the various Klingons, in fact.

So is it possible that Star Trek Discovery is actually improving? At the moment, it certainly seems that way. Okay, so the show is still inconsistent as hell and a lot of things don’t fit with anything we’ve ever seen in Star Trek, but this episode actually felt like Star Trek for much of the time. This also fits in with the rumours that there was some retooling done after the show was already in production.

On File 770, I came across a link to this report about a Star Trek Discovery panel at New York Comic Con, where producers Alex Kurtzman and Akiva Goldsman begged audiences to give Discovery a chance, because the show is canon, it will get lighter and more optimitic and that no, they haven’t forgotten what Star Trek is supposed to be about. And indeed the show seems to be getting better. However, I’m wondering if it’s not too little too late. For while, Kurtzman and Goldsman ask viewers to be patient, I find that I’m a lot less patient these days than I used to be. The reason I’m still watching Star Trek Discovery is largely because it’s like gawking at a train wreck – you watch and wonder how much worse it’s going to get and are pleasantly surprised when it’s actually decent. But hate-watching doesn’t get you loyal audiences. And in fact, I suspect I would have stopped watching already, if the last two episodes hadn’t been a notable improvement.

Now Star Trek is notorious for wobbly starts and inconsistent first seasons. Every Star Trek show needed a while to find its feet and indeed it took three or four seasons for Next Generation to go from a show I watched when there was nothing better on, but where I didn’t mind missing an episode, to must watch. However, adult me is no longer as patient as I was as a teenager and is no longer willing to continue watching in the hope that it will get better. Adult me also has a lot less time to waste on bad TV. I stopped watching Deep Space Nine when it took a turn into grimdarkness. And though I stuck with Enterprise through the awful third season with its lame war on terror analogy, because I’d been promised that season 4 was better, I stopped watching once the first episode of season 4 was yet more of the same, only with added Nazis. And while Star Trek: The Next Generation or Deep Space Nine or indeed most later Star Trek series weren’t exactly good in the first two seasons or so, they were also rarely as infuriating as the first few episodes of Star Trek Discovery.

I also think this is where the serialized structure, which is apparently de rigeur in modern “quality television” really hurts Star Trek Discovery. Because with the old Star Trek shows and indeed any non-serialized show it was perfectly possible to skip the bad or dull early episodes and only start watching once the show got good without really missing anything. But Star Trek Discovery pretty much requires you to sit through the infuriating first three or four episodes to get to the later ones which are decent. Okay, I guess you could make do with recaps and summaries. A dedicated Star Trek fan might be willing to do so, but how many casual viewers watch several bad episodes of a show hoping that it will get better?

So I guess I should hold off my final verdict on Star Trek Discovery till the end of the first season, provided the show continues to improve and I don’t give up in frustration beforehand.

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New Steampunk Story Available: Tea and Treachery

And now it’s time for a commercial break, because I have another new release to announce today.

Today’s new release is another story to come out of the 2017 July short story challenge, where the idea was to write a short story per day in July 2017. The inspiration in this case was one of Chuck Wendig‘s flash fiction writing prompts. The prompt in this case was a list of several five word titles. One of the titles, “Time for Tea and Treachery”, jumped out at me. And since I was doing the July short story challenge anyway, I decided to borrow the title, though I lobbed the first two words off.

The associations “Tea and Treachery” evoked were of civility with dark undercurrents, of two people sharing a civilised cup of tea in a situation where nothing is quite as it seems. It also has a certain Victorian feel about it. The Victorian era suggests Steampunk. And since I’ve always loved Steampunk, even if I don’t write it all that often, I thought, “Okay, I’ll write a Steampunk story about two people having a cup of tea in a situation where nothing is quite as it seems.”

So I got two characters, Lady Violetta Chesterfield and Count Danilo Danilovich Ostrowsky, together in a room over a cup of tea to see what happened. And what happened was that the two quickly engaged in a high stakes game of cat and mouse.

I initially intended Violetta only as a one-off character, but I quickly became fond of her. And I’d certainly love to see more of Captain Nicholas Blackstone and his airship, the Renegade. After all, who doesn’t love airship pirates? What is more, I’m pretty sure Ostrowsky will want revenge eventually.

So what was intended as a one-off adventure might well have series potential (yeah, because I need another series).

But for now, get yourself a nice cup of tea and some biscuits (Violetta recommends shortbread fingers, ginger nuts or spiced tea biscuits – just don’t let her make the tea) and enjoy…

Tea and Treachery

[image error]Lady Violetta Chesterfield travels to the Kingdom of Dragomir on a mission. For her fiancé, Nicholas Blackstone, Captain of the airship Renegade, has been captured and sentenced to death as a pirate and spy.

Violetta is determined to save her beloved from the gallows. Therefore, she arranges a meeting with Count Ostrowsky, prime minister of Dragomir, to beg for her fiancé’s life. The Count agrees to meet with Violetta, even though he has no intention of letting Blackstone walk free. However, he has no idea to what lengths Violetta is willing to go to save the man she loves…

 

More information.

Length: 4650 words

List price: 0.99 USD, EUR or GBP

Buy it at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon France, Amazon Netherlands, Amazon Spain, Amazon Italy, Amazon Canada, Amazon Australia, Amazon Brazil, Amazon Japan, Amazon India, Amazon Mexico, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple iTunes, Scribd, Smashwords, Inktera, Playster, Thalia, Weltbild, Hugendubel, Buecher.de, DriveThruFiction, Casa del Libro, e-Sentral, 24symbols and XinXii.

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Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month for October 2017

[image error]It’s that time of the month again, time for “Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month”.

So what is “Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month”? It’s a round-up of speculative fiction by indie authors newly published this month, though some September books I missed the last time around snuck in as well. The books are arranged in alphabetical order by author. So far, most links only go to Amazon.com, though I may add other retailers for future editions.

Once again, we have new releases covering the whole broad spectrum of speculative fiction. This month, we have epic fantasy, Arthurian fantasy, urban fantasy, paranormal romance, science fiction romance, post-apocalyptic romance, science fantasy, space opera, military science fiction, hard science fiction, Steampunk, dystopian fiction, horror, werewolves, psychics, zombies, space pirates, hostile planets, intergalactic mages, renegades, treasure-hunting alchemists, haunted amusement parks, grim reapers. King Arthur in the past and the future and much more.

Don’t forget that Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month is also crossposted to the Speculative Fiction Showcase, a group blog run by Jessica Rydill and myself, which features new release spotlights, guest posts, interviews and link round-ups regarding all things speculative fiction several times per week.

As always, I know the authors at least vaguely, but I haven’t read all of the books, so Caveat emptor.

And now on to the books without further ado:

Apollo Burn by Ken Britz:

King Arthur lives. Now, he’s up against a threat that can destroy what he’s built. But he must trust her, so she can kill him.

Brilliant scientist and Binary A.I. CEO Anora Myrrdin has lost her only brother. She’s out for revenge and everyone is going to pay–including Arthur, her brother’s final experiment and killer.

Arthur’s Avallach Team is fractured and half are dead or missing, yet Arthur drives toward his vision of the future. The Paladins grow in power, ability and doubt.

Sergeant Percival ‘Percy’ Jones is Arthur’s most loyal Paladin, but months after the destruction of Tintagel and the death of Indiana, he questions Arthur’s leadership and the uneasy partnership with the shadowy group known as the Sisterhood. Percy has a future of his own in mind, and he turns to the most unlikely of mentors – Anora.

Owen LaFayette in every way is Arthur’s equal and now he has Arthur’s technology and powers. The Chevaliers are growing fast in numbers. Yet Owen doesn’t have all that Arthur has–Caliburn and his charisma. Owen wants what Arthur has and he’s going to do whatever he must to be Arthur. Anora may be the link that takes it all away.

What will Anora be–the Betrayer or the Savior of Avallach?

Read where Fall to Earth left off–a blend of science fiction, thrill, and mythology–Arthur himself heralds fundamental changes in humanity for generations to come.

[image error] Red Sky in the Morning by Elana Brooks:

Psychics battle aliens for the future of Earth—and love will determine the victor.

Adrian Marshall is a recruiter for the Covenant of the Rainbow, a millennia-old secret society dedicated to defending Earth against hostile aliens. He runs covert screening sessions, seeking people with psychic abilities. They’ll be trained to use their gifts of telepathy, telekinesis, and astral projection to repel the coming invasion. Though his own gifts are modest, he’s deeply committed to the Covenant’s cause and determined to contribute to the best of his ability.

Life has taught Beverly Jones not to believe in anything she can’t see, or to depend on anyone besides herself. When a simple exercise class takes a bizarre turn and the handsome instructor tells her she’s the most powerful psychic he’s ever discovered, she knows it’s only a dream. Why should she heed his warnings when the danger isn’t real? But when she recklessly courts death, the dream becomes a nightmare. To save her life and Earth’s best hope of salvation, Adrian links their souls in a bond breakable only by death.

Trapped in a union neither of them wanted, Adrain and Beverly cautiously get acquainted. Despite their profound differences, growing attraction draws them together. If they can learn to love and trust each other, the soul bond can make both of them far more powerful than either alone. If not, it might kill them.

As the alien ship approaches, Adrian and Beverly struggle to overcome the fears and prejudices that keep them apart. Only by uniting hearts and bodies as well as souls can they hope to survive and save Earth from destruction.

Red Sky in the Morning is the first book in THE COVENANT OF THE RAINBOW, a seven-book series featuring a diverse array of protagonists. It contains adult content and is intended for readers 18 and older.

[image error] Tea and Treachery by Cora Buhlert

How far would you go to save the one you love?

Lady Violetta Chesterfield travels to the Kingdom of Dragomir on a mission. For her fiancé, Nicholas Blackstone, Captain of the airship Renegade, has been captured and sentenced to death as a pirate and spy.

Violetta is determined to save her beloved from the gallows. Therefore, she arranges a meeting with Count Ostrowsky, prime minister of Dragomir, to beg for her fiancé’s life. The Count agrees to meet with Violetta, even though he has no intention of letting Blackstone walk free. However, he has no idea to what lengths Violetta is willing to go to save the man she loves…

This is a short Steampunk adventure of 4650 words or approx. 16 print pages

[image error] Renegade Atlas by J.N. Chaney

The search for Earth has begun.

After barely escaping the Union’s grasp, The Renegade Star is off to parts unknown. Every member of its crew is a wanted fugitive. None of them can ever return home.

But all is not lost.

Thanks to Lex, a strange girl with a remarkable gift, the path to Earth has been revealed. According to ancient myth, Earth holds valuable treasures, lost technology, and endless secrets, ripe for the taking. Jace and his new friends have a chance to discover it all, but only if they can keep Lex out of the Union’s control.

Doing so won’t be easy.

With enemies on all sides, the deck is stacked against them, but nothing in this universe comes easy when you’re a Renegade.

Experience the beginning of a sprawling galactic tale in this second entry to The Renegade Star series. If you’re a fan of Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, or Leviathan Wakes, you’ll love this epic, space opera thriller.

Warning: This book contains action, cussing, thieving, a flagrant disregard for the law, hard candy, a bobblehead, an albino, a lack of manners, murder, lasers, a nun, and general badassery. Read at your own risk.

[image error] Dex by Stacy Claflin:

A world of mindless zombies. A lone traveler kills to stay alive. To survive a new threat, his only choices are trust or death…

Dex fears humans more than the hordes of wandering undead. After 11 years in survival mode, he’s learned how to fight the wandering killers. But humans are unpredictable, and in the chaotic ruins of civilization, one unplanned move can get you killed.

After an attack by the zombified version of a beloved family member, Dex resolves to travel back to his hometown. As he searches for surviving friends and family, he encounters a new breed of wanderer… less grotesque, but just as hungry for flesh.

To combat the new enemy, Dex must re-learn how to trust his fellow travelers. If he fails, he has no chance of reaching his hometown alive.

Dex is a post-apocalyptic zombie adventure with both thrills and heart. If you like tales of undead survival, compelling characters, and new twists on classic horror, then you’ll love USA Today bestselling author Stacy Claflin’s edge-of-your-seat thriller.

[image error] The Corsair’s Captive by Ruby Dixon:

A pirate doesn’t ask for permission – he takes.

When I see the delicate human female collared and enslaved by the smuggler I’m about to swindle, I do what any male would do.

I take her from him. It’s what I do best, after all.

Now Fran’s mine, and I’m never giving her up. On board my spaceship, she’ll be safe. She’ll wear my clothes, eat my food, and sleep in my bed. I’ll keep her safe from a galaxy that wishes her harm. But my sweet Fran wants nothing more than to return to Earth. How can I take her home when she holds my heart in her dainty, five-fingered hands?

This story stands completely alone and is only marginally connected to the Ice Planet Barbarians series and Prison Planet Barbarian. You do not need to read those books in order to follow this one.

[image error] Tales From The Lake, Vol. 4, edited by Ben Eads:

The Legend Continues…

Twenty-four heart-rending tales with elements of terror, mystery, and a nightmarish darkness that knows no end.

Welcome to my lake. Welcome to where dreams and hope are illusions…and pain is God.

This anthology begins with Joe R. Lansdale’s The Folding Man, one of his darkest stories ever written.

Kealan Patrick Burke’s Go Warily After Dark pulls us into a desolated world, and reminds us of the price of survival: a guilt that seeps into the marrow.

Damien Angelica Walter’s Everything Hurts, Until it Doesn’t places us in the middle of a family whose secrets and traditions are thicker than blood.

Jennifer Loring’s When the Dead Come Home explores a loss so dark, that even the stars are sucked into its melancholic vacuum.

In the spirit of popular Dark Fiction and Horror anthologies such as Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories and Behold: Oddities, Curiosities and Undefinable Wonders, and the best of Stephen King’s short fiction, comes Crystal Lake Publishing’s Tales from The Lake anthologies.

[image error] Seers Stone by Holly Evans:

My name’s Kaitlyn Felis, and I’m a treasure-hunting alchemist.

I was given the opportunity of a lifetime to work for a mysterious elf called Fein Thyrin. Not only did he give me my dream alchemy lab, one that came with a beautiful part-nymph assistant (she’ll be the end of me, in the best possible way) he’s also hired me as his personal treasure-hunter. To say I was excited is a drastic understatement.

First on my treasure-hunting list? The Seers Stone – it’s a thing of legends, and I’m going to be the first hunter to get my hands on it.

The Hidden Alchemy series is set in the same magic-packed world as the popular Ink Born series.

[image error] Magical Compass by Jaymin Eve

Tyson Compass, as one of the famed Compass quads, is not a wizard used to living with regrets. Except for one: Grace Carter.

Grace is a healer witch he rejected many years ago. After completely disappearing from his life, she has returned, and turned his world upside down. The attraction between them flares strongly, but she has not forgotten or forgiven his callous rebuff when they were teens.

Tyson does everything he can to prove he will never hurt her again, and just when he thinks there might be a chance for them, she has to leave again. She makes him promise not to follow her – a promise he honors for as long as he can. But after almost two months with no word, he’s done waiting. He’s going to find his girl.

With a little help from his brothers, he tracks her down, only to find Grace betrayed by her family … tortured … hurt. His rage knows no bounds. He will do everything he can to bring her family to justice, to find out why they turned on her.

By unlocking these secrets, though, he will discover that Grace is so much more than just a healer witch. She holds a secret that could save the world of Faerie. Or destroy it.

** Magical Compass is a spinoff set within the Supernatural Prison World. It’s full length at 90,000 words, and is standalone with HEA. You do not need to read the Supernatural Prison trilogy first, but it will help your understanding of this world if you do.

[image error] The Sorcerer by Ann Fisher:

He’s an imperial sorcerer.

Janek Lanari has devoted his life to the service of the Ghadrian Empire. When a plot to murder the imperial family is uncovered, Janek is charged with protecting the crown prince while the emperor hunts down the traitors inside the palace. Janek hides the boy on wild and remote Erys, determined to see to it that both prince and empire survive the attempted coup.

She’s a rebel spy.

Lorel’s brother is rotting away in a Ghadrian dungeon on Erys, and she’ll do whatever it takes to get him out—join the rebellion, enter the Keep as a spy, even sleep with the enemy if necessary. Whatever the cost, she’ll set her brother free, and then she’ll watch the empire burn.

[image error] The Summoner and the Seer by C. Gold:

He murdered her family, she sentenced him to eternal torture. Now they have to work together to save the world from the coming darkness.

Radcliff was widely known as the most ruthless wizard of all time. Nicknamed Destroyer, his brutal actions forced even the most recalcitrant kingdoms to surrender. When the west defied him, he immolated their entire city and thousands died. But this action was the last straw for many. Betrayed by his lover, stripped of power and memory by his mentor, he was locked up and tortured for one thousand years.

Amira’s seer talent has always been unpredictable but accurate. So when it shows her the wizard responsible for slaughtering her friends and family is the key to saving the world, she has no choice but to rescue him. But Radcliff is no longer who he was and certainly not what she expected. It isn’t long before she regrets her part in his sentencing.

Radcliff doesn’t know he’s the most reviled person in history. In fact, he doesn’t know anything because when he wakes up each morning, he forgets his past. A journal lets him relearn basic spells, but it can’t help him build a relationship, and he’d really like one with his beautiful traveling companion.

Together, they must evade their enemies and restore Radcliff’s memory before the world is consumed in darkness. But bringing back the Destroyer may not be wise. It may also break Amira’s heart.

[image error] Heir of Tanaris by Kyra Halland:

As a young boy, Davian was sold into slavery at Source Makarsk, a corrupted magical wellspring. Over the years, he has risen in the ranks of the slaves; still, he knows he will never be anything but a slave until an elderly wizard, a prisoner at Makarsk, tells him he can be something more and gives him an astonishing gift. Desperate to find the destiny the wizard promised him, Davian risks his life to escape from Makarsk.

Isamina, a talented young healer at Sharan, a Source of healing magic, loves caring for patients and has a special gift for soothing their fears and pain. But her parents, the Master and Matron of the Source, and her betrothed, her former teacher, doubt her abilities and have their own plans for the path her life should follow. And the kind of healing Isamina most wants to do, mending broken minds and spirits, is strictly forbidden at Source Sharan.

When a badly-injured runaway slave is brought to Sharan, Isamina is captivated by the man she senses deep inside and risks everything to try to heal his tormented spirit, damaged by the evil Source that still holds him prisoner. And Davian, hunted by Makarsk’s fearsome Guardian, must find a way to defeat the powerful magic that binds him to Source Makarsk so that he can become the great man he longs to be and win the love he yearns for, the love of his healing angel, Isamina.

Romantic high fantasy for adults. Contains violence, mild to moderate sensual content, and disturbing themes.

[image error] Stranded Justice by Steven L. Hawk:

Captain Eli Justice is a Shiale Ranger. His training, instincts, and experience set him apart from other soldiers, and enable him to succeed where most fail.

When his ship gets shot down during a scouting mission, Eli finds himself stranded on a dangerous, untamed world. Reports of the planet being uninhabited were wrong, and the need to alert the alliance of the hostile presence is critical.

To alert the alliance, though, the ranger first has to survive the planet. Welcome to the jungle.

 

[image error] Brimstone Blues by James A. Hunter:

A Demon King. An Infernal city. The whole world hangs in the balance.

Yancy Lazarus—mage, bluesman, and demon-souled—is having the worst hangover of his life.

He just woke up in a dingy hotel in literal Hell with one eye missing, an arm covered in swirling golden tattoos, and no recollection of the past six months.

All he wants is to figure out how he ended up in the Great Below and whether there’s a way home. But getting out of Hell is no easy feat. Yancy is the most wanted man in the Infernal city of Pandæmonium, and he’s being hunted by demonic cutthroats for a series of high-profile murders he can’t remember committing.

Now, Lazarus will have to rely on the help of a shapeshifting stranger with a dark past to battle his way past a legion of freakish Hellions and the murderous Derby-Girl Nation to reclaim a weapon capable of killing even immortals. And to escape Hell? Well, he’ll need to pull off the greatest coup the Abyss has seen since the Morning Star took on Heaven. If he fails, not only will the King of Pandæmonium roast his soul for eternity, but his friends will be left to the mercies of the Savage Prophet and the Morrigan, goddess of death.

[image error] Dark Ride by P.G. Kassel:

Some criminals have all the luck, but Marty’s is about to run out…

Marty Wedlow needs one last score before he can skip town. It’s only a matter of time before two thugs he swindled point a finger… and their guns in his direction. But even when Marty is brought to the police station for his latest crime, he’s not worried. Marty is incredibly lucky.

After dodging the long arm of the law yet again, Marty looks for another illicit payday at a local amusement park. What he finds instead is a mysterious stranger who prophesies that his lucky days are running out. He ignores the warnings as he pursues a vicious conquest. But good fortune is a wheel, and Marty is about to find out what happens when it spins in the other direction.

Dark Ride is a supernatural thriller in the vein of The Twilight Zone. If you like eerie amusement parks, pulse-pounding page-turners, and a touch of the paranormal, then you’ll love P.G. Kassel’s electrifying story.

[image error] Melokai by Rosalyn Kelly

She thinks it’s the end, but it’s just the beginning.

“Trouble will come from the east. A wolf will claim the throne.”

Legendary warrior Ramya has successfully reigned over Peqkya as Melokai for twelve years. Prosperous, peaceful, and happy, her people love her… or so she thinks.

But Ramya’s time is up. Bracing herself for the gruesome sentence imposed on all Melokais who have served their purpose, she hears instead a shocking prophecy.

Is the sudden appearance of a mysterious cave creature from the east the trouble the prophecy speaks of? Or is the threat something darker, more evil? And what of the wolves… does the ferocious war with their kind mark the end for Peqkya?

Before Ramya can answer, she and her fearless warriors must first crush a catastrophic rebellion that threatens to destroy her and devastate her beloved nation.

[image error] Spectre of War by Kin S. Law:

A third Victoria has ascended the throne of a steam-driven country where enormous clockwork giants walk the streets and airships carry news of the Ottoman threat in the East.

In the wake of a calamity that engulfed all of Europe, Inspector Vanessa Hargreaves of Scotland Yard is given the dubious task of policing steamcraft crime. Along with flamboyant detective Arturo C. Adler, she stumbles upon a conspiracy to use a horrific plague in an effort to prevent war.

But even as dastardly forces converge upon her, our high-heeled detective struggles with her devotion to Queen and Country, and the shadows under the Union Flag grow ever deeper.

Can she put a stop to this new disaster before her country is devoured by a Spectre of War?

SPECTRE OF WAR is at once detective story, political intrigue and giant robot fantasy in a fabulous, international, and multicultural steampunk riot!

[image error] Grim Rising by Amanda M. Lee:

Aisling Grimlock should be happy.

She’s living with and engaged to the man of her dreams, her mother isn’t eating people … at least out in the open, her best friend is distracted by wedding details … mostly, and there are zombies running around Detroit.

Yeah, it’s that last one that’s driving her crazy … especially because no one in her family believes her when she spouts the tall tale.

Aisling Grimlock is a reaper in trouble. She’s got big decisions in front of her and nonstop trouble chasing behind. The dead appear to be rising … and they’ve got their eyes (and teeth, for that matter) trained on Aisling and her family.

Even though the rest of the family thinks she’s exaggerating – or even lying because she’s looking for attention – they’re determined to help before Aisling goes over the edge. It seems there might be a little something going on, and Aisling might have been right all along.

You know what that means, right? Yes, she’s doing her “I’m right” dance … and then ducking for cover.

It’s going to take every Grimlock to fight this enemy, and even then, Aisling will be isolated in the end. The question is: Can she win the day or is she destined to join the creatures stalking her?

[image error] Wanted by the Werewolf Prince by Kara Lockharte:

The toughest pilot in the universe…and the werewolf prince who will claim her.

She’s bold, fearless and disobedient–which always gets her in trouble.

He’s controlling, demanding, and superior–which always gets him what he wants.

Captain Skye Daring is a space fighter pilot without equal. Rescuing a foreign werewolf prince and his sister from behind enemy lines should be a breeze.

Prince Ral doesn’t take orders from impudent humans. He’s determined to save not only his sister and but his people they left behind. The only thing in his way is a sexy pilot too stubborn to acknowledge his authority.

Stuck in a crippled ship and hunted by tiger shifters, Skye and Ral must stop fighting each other and battle the enemy — together. Will the prince and pilot drop their guards long enough to conquer their dislike…and desire?

READER NOTE: This story features sizzling hot emotions (and physical actions) with an awesome HEA. Only for readers who like their sexy times action to be explicit! Please also note that in this book the laws of quantum astro-physics have been modified for your story-telling pleasure (as in the use of faster than light travel via portals made by ancient space leviathans).

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