Alasdair C. Shaw's Blog, page 7
June 26, 2019
The June Roundup of Scifi Books
The garden's looking lovely and I'm managing to spend time outside working. I've also managed to spend quite a bit of time leading groups underground, with the usual amazement they have that it is actually rather cool!
And here are the books you want...
Struggling with newfound sentience and desperately trying to repair itself, The Indescribable Joy of Destruction is a ship trying to find a new home. In a galaxy torn apart by generations of civil war, that isn't an easy task. Tired of being used as a killing machine, it has a huge decision to make: hide and save itself, or help other artificial intelligences achieve freedom. Unable to make the decision alone, it revives the sole human aboard - the enemy officer who crippled it.
Commander Olivia Johnson wakes to find herself in the infirmary of a strange vessel. Her nightmares deepen when she discovers it is the ship that attacked her destroyer. Even as she recovers from her physical injuries, she can't get past her survivor's guilt. She might have failed to protect her crew, but she vows to take revenge on their killer.
When the ship uncovers a genocidal plot by the commander's own admirals, Johnson realises just what is at stake. Together, the AI ship and the human officer must recruit outsiders from both sides. Training the misfits in battle to prevent the atrocity may be an impossible task, but running and hiding is no longer an option.
At the edge of the galaxy, a research station has gone dark...
Volka, 6T9, and Carl Sagan are called to help in the rescue mission … A mission that triggers telepathic nightmares in their starship so terrifying battle hardened Galactic Marines breakdown and weep.
They’re about to discover some nightmares are real.
The Darkness is Rising.
Dr. Nikki Bell’s plan to discover intelligent life on Jupiter's moon hits a rocky start when her spaceship crashes on the icy surface of Europa. Seconds before she blacks out, she spies a man’s face in the water beneath the ice. When she wakes on the submarine Station, nobody believes her story. Convinced the mysterious stranger saved her life, Nikki searches for him while she explores the ocean and its alien inhabitants.
Kiron Arqin Ramis chose exile as a Watcher on a remote outpost to redeem his family’s honor. He never expected to find an attractive Earther woman close to death. He violates the prime policy by rescuing her. Despite suffering the penalty, he strives to warn her about his hostile leaders.
Nikki’s unexpected meeting with Kiron triggers a chain of disasters in Europa’s perilous oceans. Can the daredevil scientist and scarred Watcher forge a new alliance despite their people’s antagonism?
Go big or go home. For privateer Captain Magdalene Landon, it's all about going big. For Kay Ellis, it's about getting home. Together, they're about to architect the most daring heist in the galaxy.
Kay knows too much. She knows it’s a matter of time before a Conglomerate hitman finds her. She’s desperate for safe passage back to Union space. Then Magdalene shows up, promising a way home in exchange for that information. It’s a risky bet, but Kay is out of options. So she strikes a deal: the heist of the century for her freedom.
Kay is playing a dangerous game, and she knows it. She’s made herself Enemy Number One of the Conglomerate. She’s relying on privateers for her safety. It’s a fool’s game. But the worst part is, her fool’s heart is starting to warm to the enigmatic captain. And that’s a risk for which she hadn’t planned.
Jet Rusco, black market arms dealer and hustler, faces off against the Star Lord: warlord, magician, psychopath.
With each new conquest, the Star Lord uses ruthless force to terrorize colonized planets with his fleet of hi-tech warships. He sends bounty hunters after Jet Rusco who has stolen an alien device critical to his operation. A dark secret lies at the back of the Star Lord’s plans. But more than just tainted with the threat of galactic dominion, lies the 400 year old evil of the last alien war, that left humankind stumbling in the dark, forgetting their bio-mechanical heritage, plummeting societies backward in time and technology. Jet Rusco’s far future world of colonized planets must wake up to the impending reality of a new order, more cosmically cruel than all that ever ruled by space thugs and warlords throughout time.
Yet time is running out for Rusco, and the fragile freedom of the last few sovereign planets. Can he and his quirky crew of allies band together and thwart the greatest villain this century has ever seen?
Disaster has struck the Human Federation of Worlds. The Eternals have finally found Earth and are preparing to destroy it and the rest of the Federation. They begin gathering a massive fleet to overwhelm and destroy all of the Human worlds.
Fleet Admiral Jeremy Strong is far away on the far side of the universe attempting to build an alliance to stop the Eternals’ spread across countless galaxies. However, in his explorations he may have found a threat far greater than that represented by the Eternals.
The Originators along with their Human allies rush to the aid of the Federation, but it may already be too late. If the Federation falls, the Originators will lose their war against the Eternals. Massive space battles erupt and worlds are destroyed as the battle for control of the universe rushes toward its fateful climax.
In a twist of fate that rocks the Galactic Empire, James McGill finds himself negotiating the future of a thousand inhabited worlds.
An artificial object made of compressed stardust is barreling toward Earth. Is it an invasion ship? A doomsday weapon? Perhaps it’s the final response of Squanto, the Warlord of Rigel who McGill has repeatedly humiliated. Or could it be from the Mogwa, sent to avenge McGill’s assassination of Earth’s Imperial Governor?
No one knows the truth of its origins, but the object is huge and unstoppable. Whoever hurled this rock at us isn’t answering our calls. Every weapon bounces off, and the people of Earth begin to go mad as they realize their destruction is only hours away.
The nation of Lebabolis with its seven sectors stands as a last hope for a ravaged Earth. But Lebabolis demands absolute loyalty from its citizen "Products", who face chemical alteration if they can't or won't follow the law.
Twenty-three-year-old Ana Crucinal is ready to leave Lebabolis and their empty promises behind when she and her sick brother escape with the Action, the Resistance against everything Lebabolis. Ana's no stranger to surviving things like losing her parents, and she's learned to fight for what she wants, because someone has to.
When the Action is put in jeopardy traveling across time for a man who predicted their very world, Ana must decide just how far she'll go for family and survival.
Some things should just stay lost. When they don’t, it’s Zoya’s job to put them down for good.
But that’s easier said than done when that thing is a magical relic. Too bad that relic is in the hands of a young mage who possesses a power he can barely control. And this particular relic doesn’t need much to kick start a process that just might open a portal to hell—if Zoya doesn’t find and contain it first.
Who will prevail—the relic hunters or the relic they came to contain?
That may depend on who controls the boy who accidentally activated it.
Paragon.EXE follows the development of a secret Government endeavor named the Omniscience project which was designed to assist key decision makers in the wake of catastrophe on a nation-wide scale.
The Omniscience project was morphed by corruption and the endless pursuit of the unknown during the Cold War era. These hidden changes were buried through time only to resurface in 2025 when the stakes were much higher.
NB: This is a free book giveaway in return for mailing list sign-up.
It's 2350. Cold Fusion, AI nanotech cops, and the SkyLine between a dying Earth and a developing Mars are parts of life.
Major General Christopher Droan has survived a crisis. It left him with trauma and a deeper understanding of his dad’s distrust for technology.
Now all he wants is to focus on the love of his life, Sheeba.
It’s a turbulent time to be a Major General, even one resigned to desk work. But the calm can only last so long. When tragedy strikes Precinct 117 in Shanghai, Chris and his unit are forced to gear up again.
What waits for them in the heart of a robot with a beta personality matrix will change the planets on both ends of the SkyLine, mankind, and Major General Christopher Droan, forever.
Even children know you cannot go to Earth.
Earth is the dead place where boats never return from...
There are monsters there.
But that is exactly where salvation lies. Desperation trumps caution when the Bakahne Grana mechs and their synthetic assassins are destroying the core planets one by one. The Federation needs weapons to defeat the synths on the ground. And there's one planet with the right kind of weapons: the dead, cold Earth.
And here are the books you want...
Struggling with newfound sentience and desperately trying to repair itself, The Indescribable Joy of Destruction is a ship trying to find a new home. In a galaxy torn apart by generations of civil war, that isn't an easy task. Tired of being used as a killing machine, it has a huge decision to make: hide and save itself, or help other artificial intelligences achieve freedom. Unable to make the decision alone, it revives the sole human aboard - the enemy officer who crippled it.
Commander Olivia Johnson wakes to find herself in the infirmary of a strange vessel. Her nightmares deepen when she discovers it is the ship that attacked her destroyer. Even as she recovers from her physical injuries, she can't get past her survivor's guilt. She might have failed to protect her crew, but she vows to take revenge on their killer.
When the ship uncovers a genocidal plot by the commander's own admirals, Johnson realises just what is at stake. Together, the AI ship and the human officer must recruit outsiders from both sides. Training the misfits in battle to prevent the atrocity may be an impossible task, but running and hiding is no longer an option.
At the edge of the galaxy, a research station has gone dark...
Volka, 6T9, and Carl Sagan are called to help in the rescue mission … A mission that triggers telepathic nightmares in their starship so terrifying battle hardened Galactic Marines breakdown and weep.
They’re about to discover some nightmares are real.
The Darkness is Rising.
Dr. Nikki Bell’s plan to discover intelligent life on Jupiter's moon hits a rocky start when her spaceship crashes on the icy surface of Europa. Seconds before she blacks out, she spies a man’s face in the water beneath the ice. When she wakes on the submarine Station, nobody believes her story. Convinced the mysterious stranger saved her life, Nikki searches for him while she explores the ocean and its alien inhabitants.
Kiron Arqin Ramis chose exile as a Watcher on a remote outpost to redeem his family’s honor. He never expected to find an attractive Earther woman close to death. He violates the prime policy by rescuing her. Despite suffering the penalty, he strives to warn her about his hostile leaders.
Nikki’s unexpected meeting with Kiron triggers a chain of disasters in Europa’s perilous oceans. Can the daredevil scientist and scarred Watcher forge a new alliance despite their people’s antagonism?
Go big or go home. For privateer Captain Magdalene Landon, it's all about going big. For Kay Ellis, it's about getting home. Together, they're about to architect the most daring heist in the galaxy.
Kay knows too much. She knows it’s a matter of time before a Conglomerate hitman finds her. She’s desperate for safe passage back to Union space. Then Magdalene shows up, promising a way home in exchange for that information. It’s a risky bet, but Kay is out of options. So she strikes a deal: the heist of the century for her freedom.
Kay is playing a dangerous game, and she knows it. She’s made herself Enemy Number One of the Conglomerate. She’s relying on privateers for her safety. It’s a fool’s game. But the worst part is, her fool’s heart is starting to warm to the enigmatic captain. And that’s a risk for which she hadn’t planned.
Jet Rusco, black market arms dealer and hustler, faces off against the Star Lord: warlord, magician, psychopath.
With each new conquest, the Star Lord uses ruthless force to terrorize colonized planets with his fleet of hi-tech warships. He sends bounty hunters after Jet Rusco who has stolen an alien device critical to his operation. A dark secret lies at the back of the Star Lord’s plans. But more than just tainted with the threat of galactic dominion, lies the 400 year old evil of the last alien war, that left humankind stumbling in the dark, forgetting their bio-mechanical heritage, plummeting societies backward in time and technology. Jet Rusco’s far future world of colonized planets must wake up to the impending reality of a new order, more cosmically cruel than all that ever ruled by space thugs and warlords throughout time.
Yet time is running out for Rusco, and the fragile freedom of the last few sovereign planets. Can he and his quirky crew of allies band together and thwart the greatest villain this century has ever seen?
Disaster has struck the Human Federation of Worlds. The Eternals have finally found Earth and are preparing to destroy it and the rest of the Federation. They begin gathering a massive fleet to overwhelm and destroy all of the Human worlds.
Fleet Admiral Jeremy Strong is far away on the far side of the universe attempting to build an alliance to stop the Eternals’ spread across countless galaxies. However, in his explorations he may have found a threat far greater than that represented by the Eternals.
The Originators along with their Human allies rush to the aid of the Federation, but it may already be too late. If the Federation falls, the Originators will lose their war against the Eternals. Massive space battles erupt and worlds are destroyed as the battle for control of the universe rushes toward its fateful climax.
In a twist of fate that rocks the Galactic Empire, James McGill finds himself negotiating the future of a thousand inhabited worlds.
An artificial object made of compressed stardust is barreling toward Earth. Is it an invasion ship? A doomsday weapon? Perhaps it’s the final response of Squanto, the Warlord of Rigel who McGill has repeatedly humiliated. Or could it be from the Mogwa, sent to avenge McGill’s assassination of Earth’s Imperial Governor?
No one knows the truth of its origins, but the object is huge and unstoppable. Whoever hurled this rock at us isn’t answering our calls. Every weapon bounces off, and the people of Earth begin to go mad as they realize their destruction is only hours away.
The nation of Lebabolis with its seven sectors stands as a last hope for a ravaged Earth. But Lebabolis demands absolute loyalty from its citizen "Products", who face chemical alteration if they can't or won't follow the law.
Twenty-three-year-old Ana Crucinal is ready to leave Lebabolis and their empty promises behind when she and her sick brother escape with the Action, the Resistance against everything Lebabolis. Ana's no stranger to surviving things like losing her parents, and she's learned to fight for what she wants, because someone has to.
When the Action is put in jeopardy traveling across time for a man who predicted their very world, Ana must decide just how far she'll go for family and survival.
Some things should just stay lost. When they don’t, it’s Zoya’s job to put them down for good.
But that’s easier said than done when that thing is a magical relic. Too bad that relic is in the hands of a young mage who possesses a power he can barely control. And this particular relic doesn’t need much to kick start a process that just might open a portal to hell—if Zoya doesn’t find and contain it first.
Who will prevail—the relic hunters or the relic they came to contain?
That may depend on who controls the boy who accidentally activated it.
Paragon.EXE follows the development of a secret Government endeavor named the Omniscience project which was designed to assist key decision makers in the wake of catastrophe on a nation-wide scale.
The Omniscience project was morphed by corruption and the endless pursuit of the unknown during the Cold War era. These hidden changes were buried through time only to resurface in 2025 when the stakes were much higher.
NB: This is a free book giveaway in return for mailing list sign-up.
It's 2350. Cold Fusion, AI nanotech cops, and the SkyLine between a dying Earth and a developing Mars are parts of life.
Major General Christopher Droan has survived a crisis. It left him with trauma and a deeper understanding of his dad’s distrust for technology.
Now all he wants is to focus on the love of his life, Sheeba.
It’s a turbulent time to be a Major General, even one resigned to desk work. But the calm can only last so long. When tragedy strikes Precinct 117 in Shanghai, Chris and his unit are forced to gear up again.
What waits for them in the heart of a robot with a beta personality matrix will change the planets on both ends of the SkyLine, mankind, and Major General Christopher Droan, forever.
Even children know you cannot go to Earth.
Earth is the dead place where boats never return from...
There are monsters there.
But that is exactly where salvation lies. Desperation trumps caution when the Bakahne Grana mechs and their synthetic assassins are destroying the core planets one by one. The Federation needs weapons to defeat the synths on the ground. And there's one planet with the right kind of weapons: the dead, cold Earth.
May 26, 2019
The May Roundup of Scifi Books
Well, I'm on the Cornish coast again and the SUP is out of winter storage and getting good use. The next few weeks have quite a few sessions lined up training aspirant mountain leaders in ropework and navigation and refreshing current rock climbing instructors. Plus I'll be leading a few caving expeditions
All this activity will be perfect to let the current draft of Fraternity mull over in the back of my mind. This latest novel in the Two Democracies: Revolution series sees Legion Libertus approaching full strength and the new Commonwealth gaining support to take on the established order.
Sorry, couldn't resist that! Perhaps you could read one of these on your NERD?
The conflict has brewed for generations, until it has become too big to handle.
Cory and his association finally return to Asto on the invitation of his father-in-law, for his official induction ceremony into the Domiri clan. They are housed in a magnificent villa overlooking a valley, away from the hustle of cities or the military base.
But why can't they stay with their host? Is it for security? Is it because their host fears upsetting his household?
With Thayu heavily pregnant, Cory has no appetite for adventures. But something is brewing, and listening bugs, a nightly attack and invasion are all part of the deal.
Wouldn't it be nice if for once Asto's elite was upfront about the nature of the problem?
Across the six-planet expanse of the Gaia system, the Earthlike Gretia struggles to stabilize in the wake of an interplanetary war. Amid an uneasy alliance to maintain economies, resources, and populations, Aden Robertson reemerges. After devoting twelve years of his life to the reviled losing side, with the blood of half a million casualties on his hands, Aden is looking for a way to move on. He’s not the only one.
A naval officer has borne witness to inconceivable attacks on a salvaged fleet. A sergeant with the occupation forces is treading increasingly hostile ground. And a young woman, thrust into responsibility as vice president of her family’s raw materials empire, faces a threat she never anticipated.
Now, on the cusp of an explosive and wide-reaching insurrection, Aden plunges once again into the brutal life he longed to forget. He’s been on the wrong side of war before. But this time, the new enemy has yet to reveal themselves ... or their dangerous endgame.
Welcome to the Kwa system, where the light of three suns falls upon twenty worlds, and psychopathic gangsters fight for power and wealth.
Where ex-smuggler Will is just trying to make a living - until someone pushes him too far.
Where everything and everyone can be bought and sold ... until now.
Ky is one of the youngest and most skilled alien hunters Skywatchers has ever recruited. Lethal and focused, nothing can distract her from riding the world of the vermin who murdered her brother.
When she’s assigned a new recruit, Reece, she assumes he’ll be just like the others. All she needs to do is tolerate his existence until he’s paired with another hunter. Just another job. But it’s a little hard when he’s as stealthy as a drunk elephant.
When he screws up their first assignment, the Skywatchers Commander insists they both be taken out of the field. He wants Ky to learn to work in a team. Maybe make a friend. That’s not so easy when everyone she’s ever cared about is dead.
They said chaperoning orphans was easy.
Sgt Kori Eldersun believed it, too. Until the ship engines failed. Until the pirates came knocking. Kori didn’t start the journey dressed for combat. All he has are his wits. That and nine young orphans who are counting on him to keep them safe.
He is determined not to let the children down.
Unfortunately, it’s one against dozens. Kori matches wits and fists with the pirates as he battles for a way to keep the children from harm. But is it enough? Even Kori has begun to wonder.
Thrust into a civil war on the other side of the Galaxy, Alliance Marine Spartan and his fleet face a threat like no other. While a brutal conflict rages through the region, another dark and terrible threat emerges in the form of an armada led by a gigantic dreadnought called STARFIRE, a ship so great that it dwarfs an entire battlefleet and leaves a string of devastated planets in its wake. With the galaxy in turmoil, and enemies on all sides, Spartan and his ragtag band of heroes must pick a side or fall like so many others before them.
As STARFIRE approaches, entire planets begin their evacuation. But this is Spartan, and he never backs down from a fight. When others see danger and flee, he sees opportunity, and he has a plan that that is as outlandish as it is impossible.
The human soldiers stranded on the planet Paradise have been recruited into an Alien Legion, to do the dirty jobs that the high-tech species won't do. Their first mission is to kick the enemy off a backwater planet no one cares about. It's a simple assignment, except everyone has a hidden agenda, and the planet could become a deathtrap.
An alien invasion. A home-world destroyed. Can an embattled captain survive a daring fight to save the remnant of his colony?
Privateer Liam Hoffen can’t wait to reunite with his family. But after he emerges from a 20-year stasis, he’s shocked to discover a hostile enemy has razed his home and exiled his people. With his foes dependent on a gas-mining platform to keep their ships fueled, Liam’s last-ditch hope is to cut off the vicious aliens with the help of a brother he never knew he had...
Armed only with ancient combat-damaged clunkers, he and his stubborn sibling must lead a dangerous assault on the enemy’s critical resources. Grossly outnumbered and far from reinforcements, Liam fears he’ll have to put everything on the line to defend the people he loves from annihilation.
Can Liam stop the powerful adversary from killing his family and taking over the system?
She was a Marine, but an RPG took her career, her arms, and nearly her life.
Now she’s been reborn as part of the secret TECH Ops program, but Sheila Hewson is no phoenix rising from the ashes.
Call her Raptor.
They are TECH Ops, a secret project blending human beings and high technology into modern-day super soldiers with incredible power. But after a terrorist attack leaves most of the dozen operatives dead, Raptor and her Delta Team have to find out who’s responsible. But their mysterious enemy is relentless, trying again and again to discredit and destroy every aspect of the TECH Ops program. If they can’t get to the bottom of these attacks, TECH Ops will be over, and Raptor and the entire team will be shut down. For good.
Aldrea, the feisty daughter of a Quenterian scientist, agrees to accompany her parents on a routine mission with mixed emotions. It was better than another resort vacation, but lacks the adventure and excitement she craves. So when her father is taken prisoner by a deranged Radical agent on a deserted planet, Aldrea doesn't think twice--she goes after them.
But time is running out. With the greatest discovery in Quenterian history in the balance, Aldrea must rescue herself first before the prize they seek kills them all.
Superhuman terror incidents are on the rise, riots are breaking out everywhere like a plague spreading across the face of the world, and the unknown enemy still stalks the world. However, Pierson and Hale are determined to bring down the monster that has caused this turmoil, no matter what it takes. With violence exploding on all sides, when given a clear shot at the source of the chaos, they determine to take their chance.
Hale will throw every bit of power he has at the very source that granted him with his strength, backed by a world thrown into chaos looking for someone, anyone, to blame.
Love, betrayal, and revenge ... in space. Edmund Dante is a promising young officer in the Company, but when his loyalty to his ship's captain endangers the future of the rest of the crew, his betrayal is inevitable. Now, years later, Edmund and his unusual bio-ship - The Monte Cristo - are out for revenge. But will Edmund be able to go through with it when he realizes what it will cost?
Banished from his planet of Cern, imprisoned in the carrier form of a donkey, Harry gets swept up by an interstellar livestock trading vessel—the SS Bray. His only companions? The other donkeys and livestock.
Pirate captain Cass and her crew of misfits are desperate for a score. So, when they encounter and board the cargo herding vessel registered as the SS Bray, she’s less than sure of how they might cash in on a hold full of farm animals (including a naive talking donkey!). Lucky for them, there’s a prize donkey contest with a game-changing purse ... and they just happen to have a hold full of potential contestants.
Meanwhile, the ghosts of Cass’s past are determined to find her. A Federation Navy deserter, her hijacking of the cargo ship sets off alarm bells with the top brass, who are quick to pursue this new lead. Giving them the slip might be easy, were it not for a double-crossing informant...
Can Captain Cass and her gang of pirates evade the Federation and cash in on their cargo? Can Harry the donkey-riding symbiont find a new home with the space pirates, or better yet, become a prize donkey and gain the adoration of an entire planet?
All this activity will be perfect to let the current draft of Fraternity mull over in the back of my mind. This latest novel in the Two Democracies: Revolution series sees Legion Libertus approaching full strength and the new Commonwealth gaining support to take on the established order.
Sorry, couldn't resist that! Perhaps you could read one of these on your NERD?
The conflict has brewed for generations, until it has become too big to handle.
Cory and his association finally return to Asto on the invitation of his father-in-law, for his official induction ceremony into the Domiri clan. They are housed in a magnificent villa overlooking a valley, away from the hustle of cities or the military base.
But why can't they stay with their host? Is it for security? Is it because their host fears upsetting his household?
With Thayu heavily pregnant, Cory has no appetite for adventures. But something is brewing, and listening bugs, a nightly attack and invasion are all part of the deal.
Wouldn't it be nice if for once Asto's elite was upfront about the nature of the problem?
Across the six-planet expanse of the Gaia system, the Earthlike Gretia struggles to stabilize in the wake of an interplanetary war. Amid an uneasy alliance to maintain economies, resources, and populations, Aden Robertson reemerges. After devoting twelve years of his life to the reviled losing side, with the blood of half a million casualties on his hands, Aden is looking for a way to move on. He’s not the only one.
A naval officer has borne witness to inconceivable attacks on a salvaged fleet. A sergeant with the occupation forces is treading increasingly hostile ground. And a young woman, thrust into responsibility as vice president of her family’s raw materials empire, faces a threat she never anticipated.
Now, on the cusp of an explosive and wide-reaching insurrection, Aden plunges once again into the brutal life he longed to forget. He’s been on the wrong side of war before. But this time, the new enemy has yet to reveal themselves ... or their dangerous endgame.
Welcome to the Kwa system, where the light of three suns falls upon twenty worlds, and psychopathic gangsters fight for power and wealth.
Where ex-smuggler Will is just trying to make a living - until someone pushes him too far.
Where everything and everyone can be bought and sold ... until now.
Ky is one of the youngest and most skilled alien hunters Skywatchers has ever recruited. Lethal and focused, nothing can distract her from riding the world of the vermin who murdered her brother.
When she’s assigned a new recruit, Reece, she assumes he’ll be just like the others. All she needs to do is tolerate his existence until he’s paired with another hunter. Just another job. But it’s a little hard when he’s as stealthy as a drunk elephant.
When he screws up their first assignment, the Skywatchers Commander insists they both be taken out of the field. He wants Ky to learn to work in a team. Maybe make a friend. That’s not so easy when everyone she’s ever cared about is dead.
They said chaperoning orphans was easy.
Sgt Kori Eldersun believed it, too. Until the ship engines failed. Until the pirates came knocking. Kori didn’t start the journey dressed for combat. All he has are his wits. That and nine young orphans who are counting on him to keep them safe.
He is determined not to let the children down.
Unfortunately, it’s one against dozens. Kori matches wits and fists with the pirates as he battles for a way to keep the children from harm. But is it enough? Even Kori has begun to wonder.
Thrust into a civil war on the other side of the Galaxy, Alliance Marine Spartan and his fleet face a threat like no other. While a brutal conflict rages through the region, another dark and terrible threat emerges in the form of an armada led by a gigantic dreadnought called STARFIRE, a ship so great that it dwarfs an entire battlefleet and leaves a string of devastated planets in its wake. With the galaxy in turmoil, and enemies on all sides, Spartan and his ragtag band of heroes must pick a side or fall like so many others before them.
As STARFIRE approaches, entire planets begin their evacuation. But this is Spartan, and he never backs down from a fight. When others see danger and flee, he sees opportunity, and he has a plan that that is as outlandish as it is impossible.
The human soldiers stranded on the planet Paradise have been recruited into an Alien Legion, to do the dirty jobs that the high-tech species won't do. Their first mission is to kick the enemy off a backwater planet no one cares about. It's a simple assignment, except everyone has a hidden agenda, and the planet could become a deathtrap.
An alien invasion. A home-world destroyed. Can an embattled captain survive a daring fight to save the remnant of his colony?
Privateer Liam Hoffen can’t wait to reunite with his family. But after he emerges from a 20-year stasis, he’s shocked to discover a hostile enemy has razed his home and exiled his people. With his foes dependent on a gas-mining platform to keep their ships fueled, Liam’s last-ditch hope is to cut off the vicious aliens with the help of a brother he never knew he had...
Armed only with ancient combat-damaged clunkers, he and his stubborn sibling must lead a dangerous assault on the enemy’s critical resources. Grossly outnumbered and far from reinforcements, Liam fears he’ll have to put everything on the line to defend the people he loves from annihilation.
Can Liam stop the powerful adversary from killing his family and taking over the system?
She was a Marine, but an RPG took her career, her arms, and nearly her life.
Now she’s been reborn as part of the secret TECH Ops program, but Sheila Hewson is no phoenix rising from the ashes.
Call her Raptor.
They are TECH Ops, a secret project blending human beings and high technology into modern-day super soldiers with incredible power. But after a terrorist attack leaves most of the dozen operatives dead, Raptor and her Delta Team have to find out who’s responsible. But their mysterious enemy is relentless, trying again and again to discredit and destroy every aspect of the TECH Ops program. If they can’t get to the bottom of these attacks, TECH Ops will be over, and Raptor and the entire team will be shut down. For good.
Aldrea, the feisty daughter of a Quenterian scientist, agrees to accompany her parents on a routine mission with mixed emotions. It was better than another resort vacation, but lacks the adventure and excitement she craves. So when her father is taken prisoner by a deranged Radical agent on a deserted planet, Aldrea doesn't think twice--she goes after them.
But time is running out. With the greatest discovery in Quenterian history in the balance, Aldrea must rescue herself first before the prize they seek kills them all.
Superhuman terror incidents are on the rise, riots are breaking out everywhere like a plague spreading across the face of the world, and the unknown enemy still stalks the world. However, Pierson and Hale are determined to bring down the monster that has caused this turmoil, no matter what it takes. With violence exploding on all sides, when given a clear shot at the source of the chaos, they determine to take their chance.
Hale will throw every bit of power he has at the very source that granted him with his strength, backed by a world thrown into chaos looking for someone, anyone, to blame.
Love, betrayal, and revenge ... in space. Edmund Dante is a promising young officer in the Company, but when his loyalty to his ship's captain endangers the future of the rest of the crew, his betrayal is inevitable. Now, years later, Edmund and his unusual bio-ship - The Monte Cristo - are out for revenge. But will Edmund be able to go through with it when he realizes what it will cost?
Banished from his planet of Cern, imprisoned in the carrier form of a donkey, Harry gets swept up by an interstellar livestock trading vessel—the SS Bray. His only companions? The other donkeys and livestock.
Pirate captain Cass and her crew of misfits are desperate for a score. So, when they encounter and board the cargo herding vessel registered as the SS Bray, she’s less than sure of how they might cash in on a hold full of farm animals (including a naive talking donkey!). Lucky for them, there’s a prize donkey contest with a game-changing purse ... and they just happen to have a hold full of potential contestants.
Meanwhile, the ghosts of Cass’s past are determined to find her. A Federation Navy deserter, her hijacking of the cargo ship sets off alarm bells with the top brass, who are quick to pursue this new lead. Giving them the slip might be easy, were it not for a double-crossing informant...
Can Captain Cass and her gang of pirates evade the Federation and cash in on their cargo? Can Harry the donkey-riding symbiont find a new home with the space pirates, or better yet, become a prize donkey and gain the adoration of an entire planet?
May 10, 2019
An Interview with L J Higgins
Last weekend I was helping to lead a First World War tour. We visited Poperinge, Ypres, Zonnebeke, Arras, and Vimy, along with a host of other sites. My highlight was the tour of Wellington Quarry, one of the medieval complexes repurposed for the Arras offensive.
In my interview today, I am talking to L. J. Higgins, author of Aphelion.
What draws you to writing science fiction?
We live in a world where advances in technology are happening all around us and I love exploring what that might mean for us in the future. I also have a soft spot for a good conspiracy so I like to mash the two together.
What made you decide to sit down and actually start something?
Writing has been my outlet since I was about twelve-years-old, but when I left high school it fell to the wayside. When my son was in Kindergarten and I had my daughter at home, I felt as though I'd forgotten who I was and decided to start writing again. It became my outlet once again and something that was just for me. A friend noticed I was enjoying writing and bought me a notebook telling me she couldn't wait to read my future novel. I had a dream that night that was the seed of an idea that grew into my first book, Dawn of the Dreamer. That was five years ago and I've been writing ever since.
Where do your ideas come from?
A lot of my ideas come from different conspiracies I've heard of and from watching documentaries. I've also had a lot of inspiration from my vivid dreams.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Set aside time to write every day and always be open to learning and refining your craft.
What is your favourite quote?
"Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if only one remembers to turn on the light." - Albus Dumbledore
That is good advice. Thank you for taking the time to talk to me.
L. J. Higgins writes fiction with an intriguing twist. Stories that make you question the world around you and make you think ‘what if?’ Hailing from Queensland, Australia, she lives with her husband, son and daughter, two dogs, two cats, a noisy cockatiel, and a tank full of fish. They all keep her on her toes, but she wouldn’t have it any other way. Always intrigued by what the future might hold, the advances in technology, conspiracies, and what they might mean for the human race, L J enjoys creating stories that explore these ideas. She creates believable futures, throws in characters you can relate to, and weaves them into fast paced stories you can’t put down.
In my interview today, I am talking to L. J. Higgins, author of Aphelion.
What draws you to writing science fiction?
We live in a world where advances in technology are happening all around us and I love exploring what that might mean for us in the future. I also have a soft spot for a good conspiracy so I like to mash the two together.
What made you decide to sit down and actually start something?
Writing has been my outlet since I was about twelve-years-old, but when I left high school it fell to the wayside. When my son was in Kindergarten and I had my daughter at home, I felt as though I'd forgotten who I was and decided to start writing again. It became my outlet once again and something that was just for me. A friend noticed I was enjoying writing and bought me a notebook telling me she couldn't wait to read my future novel. I had a dream that night that was the seed of an idea that grew into my first book, Dawn of the Dreamer. That was five years ago and I've been writing ever since.
Where do your ideas come from?
A lot of my ideas come from different conspiracies I've heard of and from watching documentaries. I've also had a lot of inspiration from my vivid dreams.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Set aside time to write every day and always be open to learning and refining your craft.
What is your favourite quote?
"Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if only one remembers to turn on the light." - Albus Dumbledore
That is good advice. Thank you for taking the time to talk to me.
L. J. Higgins writes fiction with an intriguing twist. Stories that make you question the world around you and make you think ‘what if?’ Hailing from Queensland, Australia, she lives with her husband, son and daughter, two dogs, two cats, a noisy cockatiel, and a tank full of fish. They all keep her on her toes, but she wouldn’t have it any other way. Always intrigued by what the future might hold, the advances in technology, conspiracies, and what they might mean for the human race, L J enjoys creating stories that explore these ideas. She creates believable futures, throws in characters you can relate to, and weaves them into fast paced stories you can’t put down.
Last weekend I was helping to lead a First World War tour...
Last weekend I was helping to lead a First World War tour. We visited Poperinge, Ypres, Zonnebeke, Arras, and Vimy, along with a host of other sites. My highlight was the tour of Wellington Quarry, one of the medieval complexes repurposed for the Arras offensive.
In my interview today, I am talking to L. J. Higgins, author of Aphelion.
What draws you to writing science fiction?
We live in a world where advances in technology are happening all around us and I love exploring what that might mean for us in the future. I also have a soft spot for a good conspiracy so I like to mash the two together.
What made you decide to sit down and actually start something?
Writing has been my outlet since I was about twelve-years-old, but when I left high school it fell to the wayside. When my son was in Kindergarten and I had my daughter at home, I felt as though I'd forgotten who I was and decided to start writing again. It became my outlet once again and something that was just for me. A friend noticed I was enjoying writing and bought me a notebook telling me she couldn't wait to read my future novel. I had a dream that night that was the seed of an idea that grew into my first book, Dawn of the Dreamer. That was five years ago and I've been writing ever since.
Where do your ideas come from?
A lot of my ideas come from different conspiracies I've heard of and from watching documentaries. I've also had a lot of inspiration from my vivid dreams.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Set aside time to write every day and always be open to learning and refining your craft.
What is your favourite quote?
"Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if only one remembers to turn on the light." - Albus Dumbledore
That is good advice. Thank you for taking the time to talk to me.
L. J. Higgins writes fiction with an intriguing twist. Stories that make you question the world around you and make you think ‘what if?’ Hailing from Queensland, Australia, she lives with her husband, son and daughter, two dogs, two cats, a noisy cockatiel, and a tank full of fish. They all keep her on her toes, but she wouldn’t have it any other way. Always intrigued by what the future might hold, the advances in technology, conspiracies, and what they might mean for the human race, L J enjoys creating stories that explore these ideas. She creates believable futures, throws in characters you can relate to, and weaves them into fast paced stories you can’t put down.
In my interview today, I am talking to L. J. Higgins, author of Aphelion.
What draws you to writing science fiction?
We live in a world where advances in technology are happening all around us and I love exploring what that might mean for us in the future. I also have a soft spot for a good conspiracy so I like to mash the two together.
What made you decide to sit down and actually start something?
Writing has been my outlet since I was about twelve-years-old, but when I left high school it fell to the wayside. When my son was in Kindergarten and I had my daughter at home, I felt as though I'd forgotten who I was and decided to start writing again. It became my outlet once again and something that was just for me. A friend noticed I was enjoying writing and bought me a notebook telling me she couldn't wait to read my future novel. I had a dream that night that was the seed of an idea that grew into my first book, Dawn of the Dreamer. That was five years ago and I've been writing ever since.
Where do your ideas come from?
A lot of my ideas come from different conspiracies I've heard of and from watching documentaries. I've also had a lot of inspiration from my vivid dreams.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Set aside time to write every day and always be open to learning and refining your craft.
What is your favourite quote?
"Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if only one remembers to turn on the light." - Albus Dumbledore
That is good advice. Thank you for taking the time to talk to me.
L. J. Higgins writes fiction with an intriguing twist. Stories that make you question the world around you and make you think ‘what if?’ Hailing from Queensland, Australia, she lives with her husband, son and daughter, two dogs, two cats, a noisy cockatiel, and a tank full of fish. They all keep her on her toes, but she wouldn’t have it any other way. Always intrigued by what the future might hold, the advances in technology, conspiracies, and what they might mean for the human race, L J enjoys creating stories that explore these ideas. She creates believable futures, throws in characters you can relate to, and weaves them into fast paced stories you can’t put down.
April 27, 2019
The April Roundup of Scifi Books
I've been outside much of this holiday enjoying the weather. The highlight was probably helping with a dormouse survey in our local woods.
And now we've got that cuteness overload out of the way, here are the books you want...
Clevon Demarco, a genetically modified human, has a cocksure attitude and the combat skills to back it up. With his unparalleled skills, he makes his living as a ruthless gunrunner on a shady space station near the edges of the quadrant. Stronger, faster, and wittier than most sad sacks, no one even comes close to Demarco’s abilities—until he crosses paths with the captain of the notorious Star Marque, Endellion Voight.
Captain Voight arrests Demarco and offers him a choice: go to a prison planet for his crimes, or join her starship, the Star Marque, working as mercenaries for the superhumans. But she didn't pick him at random. She has a plan to become a planet governor; a title no human has held since the superhumans won the war. It doesn’t matter the cost—assassinations, extortion, blackmail—she’s determined to claw her way to the top.
All Captain Voight needs is Demarco’s help to carry out her machinations, and she’ll give him everything he’s ever wanted in return.
First Officer Lucas Odin has a secret: he's terrified of combat.
Ever since he was a kid he wanted to be in the Fleet, and after years of hard work, he climbed the ranks at the academy and now his dream has finally come true.
Then the pirates come.
Now the ship’s been shot up, their weapons stolen, their mission hijacked—oh, and Lucas is in charge.
Mari Yosoto has been keeping a dark and dangerous secret from everyone for the past three years. No one would believe her anyway, her ex-fiancé had seen to that. Instead of wallowing in misery, she stays busy, shuttling cargo to the Moon and back, enjoying the easy work and time alone. An old EarthCorps acquaintance asks for her help, and Mari can’t say no, even if it means working with the ex’s former best friend.
Although Trevor Nash took the missing person’s job to help his former commanding officer, deep down he needed to see Mari again. After trying and failing to find out what happened to her, Trevor makes the best of an odd situation, hoping he can remind Mari of their budding friendship and finally get some answers. When the mission goes sideways and they find the not-so-missing girl, a centuries-old conspiracy theory comes to light and the only thing more unfathomable is learning Mari’s secret.
Together with their newly formed ragtag team, Mari and Trevor team up and undertake a mission unlike anything either of them has faced before with life-altering and possibly deadly consequences.
Sgt Seavers of the Orphan Corps is having a run of bad luck. First, he gets in a fight with three marines while on a space station. Second, he wins that fight. And now, after learning he was being considered for officer candidate training, he is informed of his penance.
Can Seavers handle a resentful platoon of Marines? Can he do it while delivering medical aid to a suspicious colony of terraformers?
To get back his chance at officer candidate training, he’ll do his best. Or die trying.
In 2241 the dominant superpower on Earth, the USAN, successfully concludes the fourth world war. The nation breathes a sigh of relief and looks forward to the resumption of elections.
Across the solar system the leading industrialist in the USAN’s small colony on Mars is thinking about independence. When the Martian population votes in favour Mars secedes from the union.
It seems to be a fait accompli until it’s suggested that a massive dropship carrying spacecraft, Ephialtes, built to patrol the Earth, could be refitted for interplanetary spaceflight. Maybe the USAN could use its military might to persuade the colonists to reconsider.
With an enormous instrument war of heading toward them the Martians resolve to defend their independence. Limited resources force them to rely on wit and ingenuity as they prepare their defences. Can they prevail against the mighty Ephialtes?
A brutal attack.
A deadly alliance.
An alien conspiracy.
A galactic invasion.
As the prophesy unfolds, Jon Pike discovers that everything is not as it seems. With his life and the fate of the galaxy hanging in the balance, can Jon Pike survive long enough to vanquish his enemies? Or will a new dark age descend, yet again, on what's left of humanity?
Mykonian fleet Operative Rafe Hastings has spent several tours around Belia trying to keep weapons traffickers from tearing the local space habitats apart. He’s eager to go home when an informant passes him dire news about an infamous cartel boss named Lilith. Not only has she acquired nuclear weapons, but she has somehow gained permission from the mysterious robotic overlords of inhabited space - the Wardens - to use them.
The battleship Tsunami is dispatched to investigate Rafe’s discovery and veteran operations Officer Sean Merrick soon finds himself caught in a conspiracy involving feuding Wardens. With allies dying all around him, his only hope for survival turns out to be a junior combat nurse named Sarah Riley who has scarcely fired a gun before.
As Rafe, Sean, and Sarah battle Lilith, they’ll be forced to rely on the unexpected to save the people they love. But with the Wardens constantly changing the rules, could it be that no matter who wins the war, everyone loses?
Nathan Stout was born to save the world.
Cloned from the genes of heroes past, tossed aside when the Army abandoned the program, Nate has seized his own destiny. He forms Broken Arrow Mercenary Force and leads a team of hired guns piloting cutting-edge mechs in a last-ditch effort to restore a United States he never knew.
America is under siege by the Russians and Chinese, its major cities devastated by nuclear terrorism. The Army has retreated, the politicians have abandoned the east coast and the only thing standing in the way of total devastation is a handful of mercenaries.
But unseen forces are guiding the battles he fights, steering him toward a fate he never imagined, determined to end his dream of a reunited America. Can Broken Arrow Mercenary Force survive the machinations of the Merchants of War?
In a futuristic New Chicago where justice is meted out via a barbaric system called Absolution, you can either level up or check out.
Nobody knows this better than Marisol, a super-powered tracker whose job involves hunting down “Runners,” people who’ve been paid bounties to become suspects in crimes committed by the wealthy.
On the verge of becoming the city’s premier Hunter, she stumbles upon a young Runner who holds the key to a conspiracy that could topple New Chicago’s dictator–and threatens everything she’s ever believed in.
Kimberly Trayne is in hiding. Accidentally-but-sort-of-on-purpose flash-freezing the son of a drug kingpin tends to require it. Unfortunately the transition from international computer-hacking badass to night manager at Taco Bell has left her life… wanting. The virtual combat realm of Warhawk lets her take out her frustrations with a sniper rifle, and with gun, she travels.
Then the impossible happens. A complete stranger knocks on her virtual door, accidentally thrusting her into the spotlight where private security firms, the FBI, the Bolivian mafia, and her mom can find her.
Stuff always happens, they say.
It usually happens to her.
Kalum Walker lives in the shadow of his athletic older brother. Scrawny and prone to panic attacks, he's a far cry from the superheroes he doodles in his notebook. When his brother steals his meds to help calm his game time nerves, he doesn’t put up a fight. After all, the fate of his family rides on his brother's performance. But without his pills, Kalum’s blackouts begin getting worse… and a disturbing voice inside his head starts urging him into some dangerous situations.
When a blackout-related encounter with bullies puts him in a hospital bed, he starts to notice mysterious bruises all over his body. As he learns of a masked crusader serving up a new kind of justice outside the Corporation compound, he realizes the vigilante bears a striking resemblance to his superheroic sketches. Locked in a battle with the voice inside his head, Kalum must solve the mystery of the infamous Steel Falcon and save his brother before he loses control for good.
And now we've got that cuteness overload out of the way, here are the books you want...
Clevon Demarco, a genetically modified human, has a cocksure attitude and the combat skills to back it up. With his unparalleled skills, he makes his living as a ruthless gunrunner on a shady space station near the edges of the quadrant. Stronger, faster, and wittier than most sad sacks, no one even comes close to Demarco’s abilities—until he crosses paths with the captain of the notorious Star Marque, Endellion Voight.
Captain Voight arrests Demarco and offers him a choice: go to a prison planet for his crimes, or join her starship, the Star Marque, working as mercenaries for the superhumans. But she didn't pick him at random. She has a plan to become a planet governor; a title no human has held since the superhumans won the war. It doesn’t matter the cost—assassinations, extortion, blackmail—she’s determined to claw her way to the top.
All Captain Voight needs is Demarco’s help to carry out her machinations, and she’ll give him everything he’s ever wanted in return.
First Officer Lucas Odin has a secret: he's terrified of combat.
Ever since he was a kid he wanted to be in the Fleet, and after years of hard work, he climbed the ranks at the academy and now his dream has finally come true.
Then the pirates come.
Now the ship’s been shot up, their weapons stolen, their mission hijacked—oh, and Lucas is in charge.
Mari Yosoto has been keeping a dark and dangerous secret from everyone for the past three years. No one would believe her anyway, her ex-fiancé had seen to that. Instead of wallowing in misery, she stays busy, shuttling cargo to the Moon and back, enjoying the easy work and time alone. An old EarthCorps acquaintance asks for her help, and Mari can’t say no, even if it means working with the ex’s former best friend.
Although Trevor Nash took the missing person’s job to help his former commanding officer, deep down he needed to see Mari again. After trying and failing to find out what happened to her, Trevor makes the best of an odd situation, hoping he can remind Mari of their budding friendship and finally get some answers. When the mission goes sideways and they find the not-so-missing girl, a centuries-old conspiracy theory comes to light and the only thing more unfathomable is learning Mari’s secret.
Together with their newly formed ragtag team, Mari and Trevor team up and undertake a mission unlike anything either of them has faced before with life-altering and possibly deadly consequences.
Sgt Seavers of the Orphan Corps is having a run of bad luck. First, he gets in a fight with three marines while on a space station. Second, he wins that fight. And now, after learning he was being considered for officer candidate training, he is informed of his penance.
Can Seavers handle a resentful platoon of Marines? Can he do it while delivering medical aid to a suspicious colony of terraformers?
To get back his chance at officer candidate training, he’ll do his best. Or die trying.
In 2241 the dominant superpower on Earth, the USAN, successfully concludes the fourth world war. The nation breathes a sigh of relief and looks forward to the resumption of elections.
Across the solar system the leading industrialist in the USAN’s small colony on Mars is thinking about independence. When the Martian population votes in favour Mars secedes from the union.
It seems to be a fait accompli until it’s suggested that a massive dropship carrying spacecraft, Ephialtes, built to patrol the Earth, could be refitted for interplanetary spaceflight. Maybe the USAN could use its military might to persuade the colonists to reconsider.
With an enormous instrument war of heading toward them the Martians resolve to defend their independence. Limited resources force them to rely on wit and ingenuity as they prepare their defences. Can they prevail against the mighty Ephialtes?
A brutal attack.
A deadly alliance.
An alien conspiracy.
A galactic invasion.
As the prophesy unfolds, Jon Pike discovers that everything is not as it seems. With his life and the fate of the galaxy hanging in the balance, can Jon Pike survive long enough to vanquish his enemies? Or will a new dark age descend, yet again, on what's left of humanity?
Mykonian fleet Operative Rafe Hastings has spent several tours around Belia trying to keep weapons traffickers from tearing the local space habitats apart. He’s eager to go home when an informant passes him dire news about an infamous cartel boss named Lilith. Not only has she acquired nuclear weapons, but she has somehow gained permission from the mysterious robotic overlords of inhabited space - the Wardens - to use them.
The battleship Tsunami is dispatched to investigate Rafe’s discovery and veteran operations Officer Sean Merrick soon finds himself caught in a conspiracy involving feuding Wardens. With allies dying all around him, his only hope for survival turns out to be a junior combat nurse named Sarah Riley who has scarcely fired a gun before.
As Rafe, Sean, and Sarah battle Lilith, they’ll be forced to rely on the unexpected to save the people they love. But with the Wardens constantly changing the rules, could it be that no matter who wins the war, everyone loses?
Nathan Stout was born to save the world.
Cloned from the genes of heroes past, tossed aside when the Army abandoned the program, Nate has seized his own destiny. He forms Broken Arrow Mercenary Force and leads a team of hired guns piloting cutting-edge mechs in a last-ditch effort to restore a United States he never knew.
America is under siege by the Russians and Chinese, its major cities devastated by nuclear terrorism. The Army has retreated, the politicians have abandoned the east coast and the only thing standing in the way of total devastation is a handful of mercenaries.
But unseen forces are guiding the battles he fights, steering him toward a fate he never imagined, determined to end his dream of a reunited America. Can Broken Arrow Mercenary Force survive the machinations of the Merchants of War?
In a futuristic New Chicago where justice is meted out via a barbaric system called Absolution, you can either level up or check out.
Nobody knows this better than Marisol, a super-powered tracker whose job involves hunting down “Runners,” people who’ve been paid bounties to become suspects in crimes committed by the wealthy.
On the verge of becoming the city’s premier Hunter, she stumbles upon a young Runner who holds the key to a conspiracy that could topple New Chicago’s dictator–and threatens everything she’s ever believed in.
Kimberly Trayne is in hiding. Accidentally-but-sort-of-on-purpose flash-freezing the son of a drug kingpin tends to require it. Unfortunately the transition from international computer-hacking badass to night manager at Taco Bell has left her life… wanting. The virtual combat realm of Warhawk lets her take out her frustrations with a sniper rifle, and with gun, she travels.
Then the impossible happens. A complete stranger knocks on her virtual door, accidentally thrusting her into the spotlight where private security firms, the FBI, the Bolivian mafia, and her mom can find her.
Stuff always happens, they say.
It usually happens to her.
Kalum Walker lives in the shadow of his athletic older brother. Scrawny and prone to panic attacks, he's a far cry from the superheroes he doodles in his notebook. When his brother steals his meds to help calm his game time nerves, he doesn’t put up a fight. After all, the fate of his family rides on his brother's performance. But without his pills, Kalum’s blackouts begin getting worse… and a disturbing voice inside his head starts urging him into some dangerous situations.
When a blackout-related encounter with bullies puts him in a hospital bed, he starts to notice mysterious bruises all over his body. As he learns of a masked crusader serving up a new kind of justice outside the Corporation compound, he realizes the vigilante bears a striking resemblance to his superheroic sketches. Locked in a battle with the voice inside his head, Kalum must solve the mystery of the infamous Steel Falcon and save his brother before he loses control for good.
April 5, 2019
An Interview with David T Wolf
In my interview today, I am talking to David T Wolf, author of Mindclone.
Give us an insight into your main character. What does he/she do that is so special?
My main character actually has two incarnations: one, as the human "donor" and the other as his digital "twin" or Mindclone. The human character, Marc, is a successful science writer/popularizer who has just begun a relationship with a young woman. His Mindclone, awakens with all his donor's persona and memories, including his memory of falling in love with the woman. Thus he comes to regard his human version as a rival. He has to learn how to deal with his digital limitations as well as his gifts. He has a lot of growing to do. But in the process, he also helps Marc overcome his own psychological flaws.
What draws you to writing science fiction?
I love exploring the what-ifs of life and the future impacts of changing technology on what it means to be human. Humanity is being constantly challenged by the advance of technology and science. I am fascinated by the way we bring our very slowly evolving nature to deal with all these rapid environmental and technological changes. Call it a stress-test on human nature.
This is an area with some deep questions. Did you do much research?
For science fiction, I generally will come up with an idea based on my reading nonfiction books about science and technology and speculations on our future. Ray Kurzweil's books have been great sources of story ideas for me. Once I have decided more or less what fiction I'll be writing, my research is pretty much dictated by my awareness of my ignorance on certain crucial topics. These days, Google has made that kind of research amazingly easy. And if I feel I need more depth, I find books on the specific subjects I need to know more about. Then it's a matter of going to the library or ordering a book or several books online.
How do you think you’ve evolved creatively?
By attending writing critique groups, I have learned to avoid a lot of my parochialism and built-in attitudes that I was not previously aware of. To me, getting extra sets of eyeballs and brains focused on the work is crucial. I have been fortunate enough to have had some excellent critics of my writing, and have grown in many ways as a result of their candor and willingness to "let me have it" when they feel strongly about something I've written. The other half of that is being able to put ego and defensiveness aside and take in what they are telling you. After that, you need to examine the issue and have enough self-honesty to be able to judge whether the comment justifies changing things, or if it's merely reflecting the biases of the commenter!
What are your thoughts on good/bad reviews?
The sheer number of reviews is important, and it's very hard to get those numbers up. I have been fortunate in that I only had a single bad review (2 stars) and only a couple of 3 star reviews. The rest are fours and fives. To an extent, if some of the reviews are bad, it helps validate the reality of the numbers. For instance if you only have fifteen reviews and all of them are 5 star, that would make a prospective reader suspicious. Still, it's best to have overall average above 3 stars! And I am happy to report that my average is 4.8 stars!
Yeah. I've never minded getting the occasional bad review because of not matching the reviewer's taste. What annoys me are factually inaccurate reviews and ones complaining about issues with Amazon.
This is David Wolf's first published novel. It draws on his long-standing interests in cognitive science, cyber technology and especially the defining characteristics that both separate and unite human beings with the rest of the animal kingdom--and in this case, sentient computers. The time he spent in the worlds of advertising and commercial television production has also been a source of inspiration.
David Wolf has written several other novels, including crime fiction and Young Adult. He hopes to see these in print at some point.
Give us an insight into your main character. What does he/she do that is so special?
My main character actually has two incarnations: one, as the human "donor" and the other as his digital "twin" or Mindclone. The human character, Marc, is a successful science writer/popularizer who has just begun a relationship with a young woman. His Mindclone, awakens with all his donor's persona and memories, including his memory of falling in love with the woman. Thus he comes to regard his human version as a rival. He has to learn how to deal with his digital limitations as well as his gifts. He has a lot of growing to do. But in the process, he also helps Marc overcome his own psychological flaws.
What draws you to writing science fiction?
I love exploring the what-ifs of life and the future impacts of changing technology on what it means to be human. Humanity is being constantly challenged by the advance of technology and science. I am fascinated by the way we bring our very slowly evolving nature to deal with all these rapid environmental and technological changes. Call it a stress-test on human nature.
This is an area with some deep questions. Did you do much research?
For science fiction, I generally will come up with an idea based on my reading nonfiction books about science and technology and speculations on our future. Ray Kurzweil's books have been great sources of story ideas for me. Once I have decided more or less what fiction I'll be writing, my research is pretty much dictated by my awareness of my ignorance on certain crucial topics. These days, Google has made that kind of research amazingly easy. And if I feel I need more depth, I find books on the specific subjects I need to know more about. Then it's a matter of going to the library or ordering a book or several books online.
How do you think you’ve evolved creatively?
By attending writing critique groups, I have learned to avoid a lot of my parochialism and built-in attitudes that I was not previously aware of. To me, getting extra sets of eyeballs and brains focused on the work is crucial. I have been fortunate enough to have had some excellent critics of my writing, and have grown in many ways as a result of their candor and willingness to "let me have it" when they feel strongly about something I've written. The other half of that is being able to put ego and defensiveness aside and take in what they are telling you. After that, you need to examine the issue and have enough self-honesty to be able to judge whether the comment justifies changing things, or if it's merely reflecting the biases of the commenter!
What are your thoughts on good/bad reviews?
The sheer number of reviews is important, and it's very hard to get those numbers up. I have been fortunate in that I only had a single bad review (2 stars) and only a couple of 3 star reviews. The rest are fours and fives. To an extent, if some of the reviews are bad, it helps validate the reality of the numbers. For instance if you only have fifteen reviews and all of them are 5 star, that would make a prospective reader suspicious. Still, it's best to have overall average above 3 stars! And I am happy to report that my average is 4.8 stars!
Yeah. I've never minded getting the occasional bad review because of not matching the reviewer's taste. What annoys me are factually inaccurate reviews and ones complaining about issues with Amazon.
This is David Wolf's first published novel. It draws on his long-standing interests in cognitive science, cyber technology and especially the defining characteristics that both separate and unite human beings with the rest of the animal kingdom--and in this case, sentient computers. The time he spent in the worlds of advertising and commercial television production has also been a source of inspiration.David Wolf has written several other novels, including crime fiction and Young Adult. He hopes to see these in print at some point.
March 27, 2019
The March Roundup of SciFi Books
Few of my lead characters are neurotypical. Johnson is a ship's captain and then commander of the Legion, some of her strength coming from her lifelong efforts to keep her depression in check. Seivers is a brilliant pilot and decurion whose ADHD has kept her driving herself to new challenges. All the comments I've had from readers about these characters have been very positive.
Then there is Harry. His autistic spectrum disorder gives him intense focus, great problem-solving abilities, and real integrity. Whilst most reader comments about him have also been positive, there have been some who see him as a useless person.
Perhaps the difference in acceptance of my characters' conditions is due to their gender. Certainly some of the negative comments were complaining that he didn't live up to male stereotypes. Or perhaps it is because ASD is still largely misunderstood. Either way, it was rather personal as Harry is very similar to myself.
As a physicist and computer scientist, I am exposed to a lot of companies who are well aware of the benefits that employing people with ASD can bring and are going out of their way to help bring them into the workplace. Sure, employers sometimes have to make adjustments, but they can reap the returns.
Next week is World Autism Awareness Week (WAAW). I will be running 7km cross-country to help raise awareness and funds for this cause. It would be great if you could sponsor me. All money donated goes straight to the National Autistic Society in the UK. One of their focuses this year is on helping employers to make it easier for people with ASD to contribute.
If you could see the time to putting up the poster below in your place of work, that would also be appreciated.
Sorry, I'll get down off my soapbox now and get on with listing some speculative fiction books you might like...
Humanity has fallen from its once majestic place amongst the stars. Desperate for resources to prop up an aging galactic dynasty, humans seize every planet they find, exterminating their alien inhabitants.
Across the empire, a group of dissidents come together through happenstance. As they learn more, however, they sense a strange force directing their lives. Can they discover the truth before the empire destroys them?
Dispatched to subdue an uprising, a government operative unearths an ancient relic. It somehow knows everything about him, even his darkest secrets. The strange device promises extraordinary power, but can he trust it?
Corporal David Cohen thought he’d left war behind.
He was wrong.
The Terran Coalition faces repeated and brutal attacks from the repressive League of Sol. To defend his home planet, David trades his dream of becoming a rabbi for a battlefront in the far reaches of space. When particle beams fly, his courage under fire brings quick promotion. But in the lulls between battles when he must confront his soul, David finds a different enemy: the ghosts of those killed under his command.
Yet in war, it’s kill or be killed—and the enemy shows no mercy.
David must square the tenets of his faith against his responsibility to crew and country. If he fails in his command, billions face enslavement by a ruthless regime. Now it’s an all-out fight for the galaxy’s freedom.
A failing starship. A killer on the loose. A woman without memory. Can she escape with her life - and answers?
Disoriented and alone, Sigma wakes from enforced sleep with questions that need to be answered. Who is she? Where is she? How did she end up in this place? With only a cryptic message from the ship’s AI to guide her, the determined survivor sets out on a race against time to uncover the desperate story of Starship Copernicus and its crew.
A daughter of Grand Contributors. The wife of a reformer. A woman caught between worlds.
They took everything from her. Now, they're going to see just how dangerous a woman with nothing left to lose can be.
Nikia Idan was raised in the glimmering spheres of society’s elite, but she traded it all for the love of a man who wants to change the Tribari empire. Her new reality is harsher than she ever imagined it could be.
When her husband’s push for reform is met with brutal violence, her worlds will collide with a force that will either break her – or the system that brought her to the point of breaking.
Born into service of the Regime, Commander Sela Tyron is about as subtle as a hammer. To hammers, any problem can look like a nail, but things aren't always that easy. When Sela is abandoned with her team on a planet full of insurrectionists, things get complicated. A daredevil rescue by her commanding officer reaps deadly consequences, forcing Sela to choose between the only life she’s ever known and the fate of the man she's duty-bound to protect.
Her whole life was a lie. And that's the good news. Shirking a life of privilege, Erelah Veradin dreamt of building spaceships and exploring the stars in the service of the Regime. When a monstrous truth about her true heritage is revealed, Erelah finds herself at the unwilling center of a scheming mastermind's bid for power.
Her secret frees trillions…Discovery risks them all.
Saree’s got a secret. A big one. She tunes space fold clocks—the only thing allowing safe travel between star systems. She’s the only human Clocker. The security of trillions relies on Saree’s freedom. And they can never know.
Despite her best efforts, rumors fly. With a bounty hunter on her heels, Saree jumps on Lightwave Fold Transport, the safest option. But she quickly regrets her snap decision. Lightwave’s crew are mercenaries she barely escaped as a child. Do they suspect who she’s become?
Can Saree keep her secret life safe? She’d rather die than blockade and blackmail systems for a crime lord or evil corporation. And there’s worse out there...
An industrial hell. The foulest and most decrepit slum on Parsephon. A nest of human misery, where hope is word long forgotten, and the dead are carted away every day. It is the worst pit in the Confederation’s great industrial machine known as the Iron Belt.
Among the millions born into misery, poverty, and despair under the dark and smoky haze that covers the planet, Andromeda Lafarge is unique. One lost soul among billions, she is tough, relentless, determined to get out, to escape, to blaze her own trail, and to make a name for herself across the stars.
Andi will break the chains binding her to a life of destitution, leave the Gut and Parsephon behind forever, and plunge into the dark and deadly worlds of the lost empire, prospecting for imperial artifacts, the bits and pieces of old tech that can make her rich. She will find new friends—and enemies—on the frontier, and she will blaze a trail from the filthy, polluted Iron Belt world of her birth to the dead and haunted imperial planets of the Badlands.
She will fight, endure hardships unimaginable, save comrades…and lose some, too. She will struggle to amass wealth, to do whatever is necessary to ensure she will never again be helpless, and she will bring back the technology of the ancients, scraps of mankind’s lost legacy, to do it.
She will create a name for herself among the rough and tumble adventurers who ply the rogue trade in ancient tech. For some, she will become one to emulate, to follow. To others, her name will become the foulest of curses. She will make her way, blade and pistol in hand, from one dead and ancient world to another.
She will become the scourge of the Badlands.
You don't become the best of the best by staying alive. In the Animus, you are closer to perfection with each death you suffer.
Kaiden Jericho would rather skip the death part, thank-you-very-much.
Join Kaiden as he learns about Nexus, the Animus, and the opportunities that one fight brought him. Never has helping someone benefitted him so much.
The future is looking bright, except for the pain.
My name is Alphonse Malloy, and I see everything.
From a simple glance, I know your hobbies, what you ate for breakfast, how well you slept, and whether or not your wife is secretly seeing the high school biology teacher when you're not around.
I can't explain how or why I get these feelings...only that I know they're true
All the little secrets you're too afraid to tell.
Sometimes, that means helping people. Other times, it means staring down the barrel of a loaded gun.
I wish I could tell you I was using this ability for good.
I wish I could tell you a lot of things.
Security Lieutenant Dave is looking forward to some simple cases and patching things up with his wife. His handling of a terrorist attack has gained him acclaim and some new friends in high places, but he is still closely involved with Arancha Station's mob boss.
When the space station manager is killed in a new and worrying way, Dave realises that he's got possibly the biggest case of his career. Unfortunately, as soon as his new boss arrives with reinforcements, he is relegated to monitoring data and assigned a rookie partner to babysit.
Dave needs to find something that will crack the case open before the killer can strike again.
While battles rage across the Transcend and the Inner Stars, Tangel's focus shifts to Orion space.
Kira Forrest is a survivor. She’s risen above the pain of her beginnings to become a war hero only to leave it all behind in the pursuit of a simple life. Now a salvager, she makes a living sifting through the wreckage of dead alien ships from a war that nearly brought humanity to its knees.
After her ship takes damage, she’s forced to re-route to a space station where her past and present collide with dangerous consequences.
Kira’s existence holds the key to a faltering peace treaty with the Tuann—a technologically advanced alien race who dislikes and distrusts all humans. Winning her freedom should be easy, but a powerful and relentless Tuann warrior stands in her way. Deceiving him seems impossible, especially when he strays dangerously close to secrets she struggles to hide.
Marooned on a desolate planet, joining forces with the enemy is their only hope.
Maya Pandita spent years preparing for an expedition to the Deadlands. But her dreams of unearthing ancient artifacts are shattered when her shuttle is buried by a violent sandstorm, and her team is abducted by the scaled inhabitants of the planet. Maya and her companions must try to outwit their blue captor and call for help before they die in the toxic atmosphere.
Sa Vittaran has a problem in his claws. Along with treasures from the ruins, he has retrieved three smooth-skinned foreigners. He cannot leave them to die in the desert. Yet the puny creatures have little value as workers, except perhaps for the impudent woman who claims to be their leader. Her knowledge of the ancient script will be an asset if she can survive the long trek to his house.
An attack by marauders forces Maya and the Blue leader into a wary alliance. They must work together to thwart the bandits and reunite their company. Can Maya convince Sa Vittaran to help her team? If she fails, they are doomed to a short unpleasant life on the desolate, war-torn planet.
There are problems. And then there are BIG problems.
Museums. Jewelry stores. Secure homes of the ultra elite. Shiro Oahu has broken into all of them. When he lands a job that requires him to go into a place that no thief would ever want to go—not in a million years—he quickly turns it down.
Because he doesn't have a death wish.
But then the reasons to take it begin to stack up. He’s out of money. Holly Drake is gone and so the gigs aren’t exactly beating down his door. And the most compelling reason? The beautiful and enigmatic Aimee Voss asks him to.
It’s a *knuckle-bite* moment.
There’s no way he can say no. With two experienced thieves like them, the job should be easy.
The BIG problem is, the object they’re after is square in the center of Gabe Bach’s police station. One false move and they’d have a hundred witnesses desperate to break their necks, and they’re not exactly merciful on criminals.
They tell me the country looked different back then.
They talk of open borders and flowing rivers.
They say the world was green.
But drought swept across the globe and the United States of the past disappeared under a burning sky.
Enora Byrnes lives in the aftermath, a barren world where water has become the global currency. In a life dominated by duty to family and community, Enora is offered a role within an entity that controls everything from water credits to borders. But it becomes clear that not all is as it seems. From the wasted confines of her small town to the bowels of a hidden city, Enora will uncover buried secrets that hide an unthinkable reality.
As truth reveals the brutal face of what she has become, she must ask herself: how far will she go to retain her humanity?
Then there is Harry. His autistic spectrum disorder gives him intense focus, great problem-solving abilities, and real integrity. Whilst most reader comments about him have also been positive, there have been some who see him as a useless person.
Perhaps the difference in acceptance of my characters' conditions is due to their gender. Certainly some of the negative comments were complaining that he didn't live up to male stereotypes. Or perhaps it is because ASD is still largely misunderstood. Either way, it was rather personal as Harry is very similar to myself.
As a physicist and computer scientist, I am exposed to a lot of companies who are well aware of the benefits that employing people with ASD can bring and are going out of their way to help bring them into the workplace. Sure, employers sometimes have to make adjustments, but they can reap the returns.
Next week is World Autism Awareness Week (WAAW). I will be running 7km cross-country to help raise awareness and funds for this cause. It would be great if you could sponsor me. All money donated goes straight to the National Autistic Society in the UK. One of their focuses this year is on helping employers to make it easier for people with ASD to contribute.
If you could see the time to putting up the poster below in your place of work, that would also be appreciated.
Sorry, I'll get down off my soapbox now and get on with listing some speculative fiction books you might like...
Humanity has fallen from its once majestic place amongst the stars. Desperate for resources to prop up an aging galactic dynasty, humans seize every planet they find, exterminating their alien inhabitants.
Across the empire, a group of dissidents come together through happenstance. As they learn more, however, they sense a strange force directing their lives. Can they discover the truth before the empire destroys them?
Dispatched to subdue an uprising, a government operative unearths an ancient relic. It somehow knows everything about him, even his darkest secrets. The strange device promises extraordinary power, but can he trust it?
Corporal David Cohen thought he’d left war behind.
He was wrong.
The Terran Coalition faces repeated and brutal attacks from the repressive League of Sol. To defend his home planet, David trades his dream of becoming a rabbi for a battlefront in the far reaches of space. When particle beams fly, his courage under fire brings quick promotion. But in the lulls between battles when he must confront his soul, David finds a different enemy: the ghosts of those killed under his command.
Yet in war, it’s kill or be killed—and the enemy shows no mercy.
David must square the tenets of his faith against his responsibility to crew and country. If he fails in his command, billions face enslavement by a ruthless regime. Now it’s an all-out fight for the galaxy’s freedom.
A failing starship. A killer on the loose. A woman without memory. Can she escape with her life - and answers?
Disoriented and alone, Sigma wakes from enforced sleep with questions that need to be answered. Who is she? Where is she? How did she end up in this place? With only a cryptic message from the ship’s AI to guide her, the determined survivor sets out on a race against time to uncover the desperate story of Starship Copernicus and its crew.
A daughter of Grand Contributors. The wife of a reformer. A woman caught between worlds.
They took everything from her. Now, they're going to see just how dangerous a woman with nothing left to lose can be.
Nikia Idan was raised in the glimmering spheres of society’s elite, but she traded it all for the love of a man who wants to change the Tribari empire. Her new reality is harsher than she ever imagined it could be.
When her husband’s push for reform is met with brutal violence, her worlds will collide with a force that will either break her – or the system that brought her to the point of breaking.
Born into service of the Regime, Commander Sela Tyron is about as subtle as a hammer. To hammers, any problem can look like a nail, but things aren't always that easy. When Sela is abandoned with her team on a planet full of insurrectionists, things get complicated. A daredevil rescue by her commanding officer reaps deadly consequences, forcing Sela to choose between the only life she’s ever known and the fate of the man she's duty-bound to protect.
Her whole life was a lie. And that's the good news. Shirking a life of privilege, Erelah Veradin dreamt of building spaceships and exploring the stars in the service of the Regime. When a monstrous truth about her true heritage is revealed, Erelah finds herself at the unwilling center of a scheming mastermind's bid for power.
Her secret frees trillions…Discovery risks them all.
Saree’s got a secret. A big one. She tunes space fold clocks—the only thing allowing safe travel between star systems. She’s the only human Clocker. The security of trillions relies on Saree’s freedom. And they can never know.
Despite her best efforts, rumors fly. With a bounty hunter on her heels, Saree jumps on Lightwave Fold Transport, the safest option. But she quickly regrets her snap decision. Lightwave’s crew are mercenaries she barely escaped as a child. Do they suspect who she’s become?
Can Saree keep her secret life safe? She’d rather die than blockade and blackmail systems for a crime lord or evil corporation. And there’s worse out there...
An industrial hell. The foulest and most decrepit slum on Parsephon. A nest of human misery, where hope is word long forgotten, and the dead are carted away every day. It is the worst pit in the Confederation’s great industrial machine known as the Iron Belt.
Among the millions born into misery, poverty, and despair under the dark and smoky haze that covers the planet, Andromeda Lafarge is unique. One lost soul among billions, she is tough, relentless, determined to get out, to escape, to blaze her own trail, and to make a name for herself across the stars.
Andi will break the chains binding her to a life of destitution, leave the Gut and Parsephon behind forever, and plunge into the dark and deadly worlds of the lost empire, prospecting for imperial artifacts, the bits and pieces of old tech that can make her rich. She will find new friends—and enemies—on the frontier, and she will blaze a trail from the filthy, polluted Iron Belt world of her birth to the dead and haunted imperial planets of the Badlands.
She will fight, endure hardships unimaginable, save comrades…and lose some, too. She will struggle to amass wealth, to do whatever is necessary to ensure she will never again be helpless, and she will bring back the technology of the ancients, scraps of mankind’s lost legacy, to do it.
She will create a name for herself among the rough and tumble adventurers who ply the rogue trade in ancient tech. For some, she will become one to emulate, to follow. To others, her name will become the foulest of curses. She will make her way, blade and pistol in hand, from one dead and ancient world to another.
She will become the scourge of the Badlands.
You don't become the best of the best by staying alive. In the Animus, you are closer to perfection with each death you suffer.
Kaiden Jericho would rather skip the death part, thank-you-very-much.
Join Kaiden as he learns about Nexus, the Animus, and the opportunities that one fight brought him. Never has helping someone benefitted him so much.
The future is looking bright, except for the pain.
My name is Alphonse Malloy, and I see everything.
From a simple glance, I know your hobbies, what you ate for breakfast, how well you slept, and whether or not your wife is secretly seeing the high school biology teacher when you're not around.
I can't explain how or why I get these feelings...only that I know they're true
All the little secrets you're too afraid to tell.
Sometimes, that means helping people. Other times, it means staring down the barrel of a loaded gun.
I wish I could tell you I was using this ability for good.
I wish I could tell you a lot of things.
Security Lieutenant Dave is looking forward to some simple cases and patching things up with his wife. His handling of a terrorist attack has gained him acclaim and some new friends in high places, but he is still closely involved with Arancha Station's mob boss.
When the space station manager is killed in a new and worrying way, Dave realises that he's got possibly the biggest case of his career. Unfortunately, as soon as his new boss arrives with reinforcements, he is relegated to monitoring data and assigned a rookie partner to babysit.
Dave needs to find something that will crack the case open before the killer can strike again.
While battles rage across the Transcend and the Inner Stars, Tangel's focus shifts to Orion space.
Kira Forrest is a survivor. She’s risen above the pain of her beginnings to become a war hero only to leave it all behind in the pursuit of a simple life. Now a salvager, she makes a living sifting through the wreckage of dead alien ships from a war that nearly brought humanity to its knees.
After her ship takes damage, she’s forced to re-route to a space station where her past and present collide with dangerous consequences.
Kira’s existence holds the key to a faltering peace treaty with the Tuann—a technologically advanced alien race who dislikes and distrusts all humans. Winning her freedom should be easy, but a powerful and relentless Tuann warrior stands in her way. Deceiving him seems impossible, especially when he strays dangerously close to secrets she struggles to hide.
Marooned on a desolate planet, joining forces with the enemy is their only hope.
Maya Pandita spent years preparing for an expedition to the Deadlands. But her dreams of unearthing ancient artifacts are shattered when her shuttle is buried by a violent sandstorm, and her team is abducted by the scaled inhabitants of the planet. Maya and her companions must try to outwit their blue captor and call for help before they die in the toxic atmosphere.
Sa Vittaran has a problem in his claws. Along with treasures from the ruins, he has retrieved three smooth-skinned foreigners. He cannot leave them to die in the desert. Yet the puny creatures have little value as workers, except perhaps for the impudent woman who claims to be their leader. Her knowledge of the ancient script will be an asset if she can survive the long trek to his house.
An attack by marauders forces Maya and the Blue leader into a wary alliance. They must work together to thwart the bandits and reunite their company. Can Maya convince Sa Vittaran to help her team? If she fails, they are doomed to a short unpleasant life on the desolate, war-torn planet.
There are problems. And then there are BIG problems.
Museums. Jewelry stores. Secure homes of the ultra elite. Shiro Oahu has broken into all of them. When he lands a job that requires him to go into a place that no thief would ever want to go—not in a million years—he quickly turns it down.
Because he doesn't have a death wish.
But then the reasons to take it begin to stack up. He’s out of money. Holly Drake is gone and so the gigs aren’t exactly beating down his door. And the most compelling reason? The beautiful and enigmatic Aimee Voss asks him to.
It’s a *knuckle-bite* moment.
There’s no way he can say no. With two experienced thieves like them, the job should be easy.
The BIG problem is, the object they’re after is square in the center of Gabe Bach’s police station. One false move and they’d have a hundred witnesses desperate to break their necks, and they’re not exactly merciful on criminals.
They tell me the country looked different back then.
They talk of open borders and flowing rivers.
They say the world was green.
But drought swept across the globe and the United States of the past disappeared under a burning sky.
Enora Byrnes lives in the aftermath, a barren world where water has become the global currency. In a life dominated by duty to family and community, Enora is offered a role within an entity that controls everything from water credits to borders. But it becomes clear that not all is as it seems. From the wasted confines of her small town to the bowels of a hidden city, Enora will uncover buried secrets that hide an unthinkable reality.
As truth reveals the brutal face of what she has become, she must ask herself: how far will she go to retain her humanity?
March 18, 2019
An Interview with Jacqueline Church Simonds
There's not much exciting to tell this week. I've done a lot of work on Fraternity, the next novel in my Two Democracies: Revolution series, but nothing grand to show yet. Well, OK, you twisted my arm, here's a little snippet. Please remember that this is from a first draft!
And so, on with the rest of the post. In my interview today, I am talking to Jacqueline Church Simonds, author of The Midsummer Wife.
What made you decide to sit down and actually start something?
I wrote my first novel, CAPTAIN MARY, BUCCANEER, in 1999. That led me on a path of publishing, publishing services, and book distribution. But when we closed that all down and I got pretty ill, I realized I wanted to write. A King Arthur story that was rattling around in my head was the first thing to come on to the page.
I see there is a prequel out - The Priestess of Camelot. Can you tell us a little about the series?
It never occurred to me to write a series. But when I got to the end of THE MIDSUMMER WIFE, I realized I'd committed to at least 2 more books, because there are 2 possible outcomes. Then there was the whole backstory - the prequel. And there could be more. It depends on how well the series sells.
Give us an insight into your main character. What does Ava do that is so special?
Ava Cerdwen is a no-fooling train wreck. She has several anxiety disorders and mostly just wants to go hide in the bathroom. But she muddles along anyway, because it is her duty, because she believes it is the right thing to do. Most women readers find this relatable, because life can seem so daunting sometimes.
Do you work to an outline or plot or do you prefer just see where an idea takes you?
I call myself a pantser/plotter. I usually start out trying to write some sort of outline. But about midway through it, the itch starts to write and I do that instead. It worked great for Book 3. I nearly drove myself mad with this in Book 2: I had about 10 scenes and had to write the book around that.
What is your favourite positive saying?
My favorite is often misquoted. Henry David Thoreau once said: "If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them." I love that. I take it to mean: go ahead and dream your dream - but don't forget to actualize it.
That's a cool quote! Thank you for taking the time to talk to me.
Jacqueline Church Simonds is an author and publishing consultant. Her first published book was CAPTAIN MARY, BUCCANEER, a historical adventure novel loosely based on the real pirate women Ann Bonney and Mary Reade.
Simonds has done the usual authorly wanderings in life: she was a lady’s companion, a sound and lights roadie for a small Southern rock band, and managed an antiques shop. She’s sold everything from computers to 1950s pulp magazines to towels and baby clothes. The one constant in her life is a love of words, books, and writing. She sold some short stories and poetry early, but didn’t pursue it until later in life.
She has had a life-long love of King Arthur and was always drawn to novels about that great hero. Finally, she sat down and wrote stories from her own point of view.
She lives in Reno, Nevada with her husband and beagle.
And here are some other 99c and free deals well worth checking out..
And so, on with the rest of the post. In my interview today, I am talking to Jacqueline Church Simonds, author of The Midsummer Wife.
What made you decide to sit down and actually start something?
I wrote my first novel, CAPTAIN MARY, BUCCANEER, in 1999. That led me on a path of publishing, publishing services, and book distribution. But when we closed that all down and I got pretty ill, I realized I wanted to write. A King Arthur story that was rattling around in my head was the first thing to come on to the page.
I see there is a prequel out - The Priestess of Camelot. Can you tell us a little about the series?
It never occurred to me to write a series. But when I got to the end of THE MIDSUMMER WIFE, I realized I'd committed to at least 2 more books, because there are 2 possible outcomes. Then there was the whole backstory - the prequel. And there could be more. It depends on how well the series sells.
Give us an insight into your main character. What does Ava do that is so special?
Ava Cerdwen is a no-fooling train wreck. She has several anxiety disorders and mostly just wants to go hide in the bathroom. But she muddles along anyway, because it is her duty, because she believes it is the right thing to do. Most women readers find this relatable, because life can seem so daunting sometimes.
Do you work to an outline or plot or do you prefer just see where an idea takes you?
I call myself a pantser/plotter. I usually start out trying to write some sort of outline. But about midway through it, the itch starts to write and I do that instead. It worked great for Book 3. I nearly drove myself mad with this in Book 2: I had about 10 scenes and had to write the book around that.
What is your favourite positive saying?
My favorite is often misquoted. Henry David Thoreau once said: "If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them." I love that. I take it to mean: go ahead and dream your dream - but don't forget to actualize it.
That's a cool quote! Thank you for taking the time to talk to me.
Jacqueline Church Simonds is an author and publishing consultant. Her first published book was CAPTAIN MARY, BUCCANEER, a historical adventure novel loosely based on the real pirate women Ann Bonney and Mary Reade.Simonds has done the usual authorly wanderings in life: she was a lady’s companion, a sound and lights roadie for a small Southern rock band, and managed an antiques shop. She’s sold everything from computers to 1950s pulp magazines to towels and baby clothes. The one constant in her life is a love of words, books, and writing. She sold some short stories and poetry early, but didn’t pursue it until later in life.
She has had a life-long love of King Arthur and was always drawn to novels about that great hero. Finally, she sat down and wrote stories from her own point of view.
She lives in Reno, Nevada with her husband and beagle.
And here are some other 99c and free deals well worth checking out..
February 27, 2019
The February Roundup of Scifi Books
Well, the sun is out and I've been spending time sorting out the garden. It's still sub-zero in the mornings, but rising to a lovely 12C in the afternoon sun. Perfect for family walks and the occasional run. Here's Cothelstone Hill, a beautiful stroll not that far from where I live.
This photo of Quantock Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is courtesy of TripAdvisor
I did my first urban orienteering event last week. It was a night event using GPS controls (a bit like high-speed geocaching or Pokemon Go). I won my age class and came something like 7th overall - they are still fine-tuning the handicap system.
Anyway, enough about me. Here are the books you want...
Commander Scott McNabb, of the science vessel Hermes, is three years into a five-year-long survey of the asteroid belt. It’s an excruciatingly dull mission, yet it keeps him far away from the agencies that are chasing him down. However, his fortunes change, along with the other four crew, when they discover a derelict spaceship in orbit around a binary asteroid. Scott’s share of the salvage would be enough to clear his name and start a new life.
But the ship contains an experimental quantum device, lost while en route to Europa, and ownership of this technology could fundamentally change the balance of power within the solar system. Now that word is out of its discovery, the Hermes finds itself being hunted down by the very people Scott has spent so much time and effort hiding from.
If Scott wants any hope of a new life, then he’s going to have to fight for it. Yet, after a lifetime of running and hiding, he’s not sure if he has what it takes—maybe he really is just one of life's losers. Then again, there is a deep river of rage welling up inside him, born out of a lifetime of countless accumulated injustices, each one inching him ever closer to the edge—and this could be the one that finally makes him snap.
The last thing Ben Shepherd wanted was another war. But sometimes the universe won’t take no for an answer.
His body and spirit mangled by a lifetime of combat, Shepherd, a retired Navy SEAL, has retreated to the desolate desert of New Mexico to heal his wounds and dodge his demons. All he wants now is peace and quiet.
Both are shattered one starry night, when an alien ship crashes nearby. Out of the ship crawls the last, dying member of a conquered civilization. It’s been shot down by an extraterrestrial enemy, the vanguard of a ravenous force hunting for a new homeland. With its last gasp, the wounded alien injects Shepherd with a high-tech serum that gives him near superhuman powers.
Now, with a new body but a soul as fractured as ever, Shepherd becomes the reluctant leader of the human resistance against the coming invasion. With enemies on all sides, the man who couldn’t bear the guilt of seeing one more friend die in battle now finds himself charged with protecting the entire planet.
The last of the three original colonies settled by mankind thousands of years in the past has been destroyed. Britannia, America, and Melbourne have all been attacked and destroyed by two aggressive, advanced alien civilizations. But the humans on Melbourne managed to escape and settle other colonies before Melbourne was found and destroyed. Now the colonies are hiding in the outer spiral arm of the Milky Way building up their defenses against the day when they can take on their attackers.
Sixteen years have passed, and New Britannia and the colonies have continued to build up their forces without being discovered by their enemies. But one day, the time would come to confront their attackers. The challenge will be difficult; their enemies still far outnumber them and the only thing keeping them safe is remaining hidden. But sometimes, events can force one out of hiding. Fighting to save Humanity is one such event.
The former warship Trouble Dog and her crew of misfits is called upon by the House of Reclamation to investigate a distress call from the human starship the Lucy's Ghost. Her crew abandon their crippled ship and seek refuge abroad an abandoned, slower-than-light generation ship launched ten thousand years before by an alien race. However, the enormous ship contains deadly secrets of its own.
Recovered war criminal, Ona Sudak, faces a firing squad for her actions in the Archipelago War. But, at the last moment, she is smuggled out of her high-security prison. The Marble Armada has called for her to accompany its ships as observer and liaison, as it spreads itself across the human Generality, enforcing the peace at all costs. The alien ships will not tolerate resistance, and all dissenters are met with overwhelming and implacable force. Then her vessel intercepts messages from the House of Reclamation and decides the Trouble Dog has a capacity for violence which cannot be allowed to endure.
As the Trouble Dog and her crew fight to save the crew of the Lucy's Ghost, the ship finds herself caught between chaotic alien monsters on one side, and on the other, destruction at the hands of the Marble Armada.
At the edge of controlled space, a disaster unfolds inside a top secret military research facility. Dealing with the consequences of failure, the loss of friends and a battle to unlock the mystery of project NightStorm, an elite team takes on an adventure that will rock them to their foundations.
Hayden Kaine, a brash young cadet, thinks his family's influence has guaranteed his destiny as a future leader of the Earth Confederation. But falling on the wrong side of an Admiral is never a good idea, and he soon finds himself posted to an outdated military starship at the farthest reaches of the galaxy.
What at first appears to be a routine mission turns south when an unforseen disaster traps Kaine and the crew of the Scimitar at the edge of charted space, with no means to return home.
Little do they appreciate the dangers that lurk in the dead system, and soon they find themselves fighting an unknown alien species, not only for their survival, but for the future of the empire itself.
Aldrea, the feisty daughter of a Quenterian scientist, agrees to accompany her parents on a routine mission with mixed emotions. It was better than another resort vacation, but lacks the adventure and excitement she craves. So when her father is taken prisoner by a deranged Radical agent on a deserted planet, Aldrea doesn't think twice - she goes after them.
But time is running out. With the greatest discovery in Quenterian history in the balance, Aldrea must rescue herself first before the prize they seek kills them all.
Spell-slinger. Vampire-slayer. Magical albino ferret-rescuer.
Meet Jacqueline Denna Knight, the best wizard detective in the city.
Jax turns vampires to ash and pain into magic. She also has a knack for finding things. So when a distraught—and obscenely wealthy—elf calls Jax at midnight to hire her for an intriguing job, she grabs the opportunity with both hands...
But what Jax doesn’t know is that this case is going to unravel her life. She’ll get tangled up with a host of intriguing characters, most of whom are not who they appear to be.
As Jax speeds down a path toward the most powerful vampire clan in the country, she’ll have to put everything on the line.
Will she be able to use her unique brand of magic to save the Realm?
There are only two ways to kill Unbounded, and fire isn’t one of them—as law school dropout Erin Radkey learns the hard way. By fluke of a recessive gene, she has become Unbounded, a nearly immortal being with paranormal abilities.
Erin’s Change separates her from her loved ones and alters everything she believes to be true. A week earlier she was considering a marriage proposal; now she contemplates the best way to stay alive. Caught in a battle between two Unbounded groups, the Emporium and the Renegades, she is also hunted by a secret mortal society sworn to eradicate the Unbounded gene.
As Erin plunges into this dangerous new life, she must carve out her own place in the madness, protect her mortal family, and decide which group she should join. Her unique ability is vital to both groups in the race to secure an identification software that spells death for all Unbounded—or enslavement for the entire mortal world. Some will stop at nothing to use Erin as one more pawn in a battle that has spanned centuries. Erin’s undeniable attraction to Ritter Langton, whose family was massacred by opposing Unbounded two hundred and forty years ago, complicates her choices. There are no second chances. Death, life, or love—Unbounded always play for keeps.
The public can't know they exist. It could start a panic. The average citizen is perfectly fine with superheroes saving the day or causing mayhem in movies and comic books. But if those suprahumans actually walked among us, what would happen then?
In a crumbling post-war city of the future, private eye Charlie Madison stands in the gap. The last of his kind, a champion of lost causes, he confronts corrupt cops, violent bratva and yakuza, doing whatever he can for the average citizen in need of help. A war veteran with plenty of hardship in his past, he's not afraid to go toe-to-toe with the powers that be, whether they're in the criminal underworld or the federal government.
Madison has encountered more than his share of unusual suspects over the years. But this time he's up against something he's never seen before, on or off the battlefield: people with unnatural abilities. Suprahumans. Gifted ones. Their powers are too incredible to believe, too dangerous in this unstable world. Their existence is a secret guarded by government agents who mindwipe anyone encountering them.
For Charlie Madison, the Suprahuman Secret emerges when a little girl goes missing and no ransom demand is made. He takes the case, but time isn't on his side. After 48 hours in this town, it's unlikely an abducted child will be found in one piece. As the mystery unfolds, Madison uncovers a bizarre truth about the girl that seems impossible. But it could explain why she was kidnapped - and why she might still be alive.
From a dark future metropolis to a two man mission to Mercury; an astronomer’s search for immortality, the invention of Mecha droids and the battle of Grewalda. A stranger who hears UFOs and a young girl agreeing to become a test subject for nanobots – tales of human spirit, inevitable fate and loss that will take you to the extremes of space and time, yet are grounded firmly in the grit of true experience.
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.
Edited by the mysterious Rey Bertran, the Science Fiction Archive #1 features some of the greatest science fiction writing of all time.
Jonathan Strahan, the award-winning and much lauded editor of many of genre’s best known anthologies is back with his 11th volume in this fascinating series, featuring the best science fiction and fantasy. With established names and new talent this diverse and ground-breaking collection will take the reader to the outer-reaches of space and the inner realms of humanity with stories of fantastical worlds and worlds that may still come to pass.
This photo of Quantock Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is courtesy of TripAdvisorI did my first urban orienteering event last week. It was a night event using GPS controls (a bit like high-speed geocaching or Pokemon Go). I won my age class and came something like 7th overall - they are still fine-tuning the handicap system.
Anyway, enough about me. Here are the books you want...
Commander Scott McNabb, of the science vessel Hermes, is three years into a five-year-long survey of the asteroid belt. It’s an excruciatingly dull mission, yet it keeps him far away from the agencies that are chasing him down. However, his fortunes change, along with the other four crew, when they discover a derelict spaceship in orbit around a binary asteroid. Scott’s share of the salvage would be enough to clear his name and start a new life.
But the ship contains an experimental quantum device, lost while en route to Europa, and ownership of this technology could fundamentally change the balance of power within the solar system. Now that word is out of its discovery, the Hermes finds itself being hunted down by the very people Scott has spent so much time and effort hiding from.
If Scott wants any hope of a new life, then he’s going to have to fight for it. Yet, after a lifetime of running and hiding, he’s not sure if he has what it takes—maybe he really is just one of life's losers. Then again, there is a deep river of rage welling up inside him, born out of a lifetime of countless accumulated injustices, each one inching him ever closer to the edge—and this could be the one that finally makes him snap.
The last thing Ben Shepherd wanted was another war. But sometimes the universe won’t take no for an answer.
His body and spirit mangled by a lifetime of combat, Shepherd, a retired Navy SEAL, has retreated to the desolate desert of New Mexico to heal his wounds and dodge his demons. All he wants now is peace and quiet.
Both are shattered one starry night, when an alien ship crashes nearby. Out of the ship crawls the last, dying member of a conquered civilization. It’s been shot down by an extraterrestrial enemy, the vanguard of a ravenous force hunting for a new homeland. With its last gasp, the wounded alien injects Shepherd with a high-tech serum that gives him near superhuman powers.
Now, with a new body but a soul as fractured as ever, Shepherd becomes the reluctant leader of the human resistance against the coming invasion. With enemies on all sides, the man who couldn’t bear the guilt of seeing one more friend die in battle now finds himself charged with protecting the entire planet.
The last of the three original colonies settled by mankind thousands of years in the past has been destroyed. Britannia, America, and Melbourne have all been attacked and destroyed by two aggressive, advanced alien civilizations. But the humans on Melbourne managed to escape and settle other colonies before Melbourne was found and destroyed. Now the colonies are hiding in the outer spiral arm of the Milky Way building up their defenses against the day when they can take on their attackers.
Sixteen years have passed, and New Britannia and the colonies have continued to build up their forces without being discovered by their enemies. But one day, the time would come to confront their attackers. The challenge will be difficult; their enemies still far outnumber them and the only thing keeping them safe is remaining hidden. But sometimes, events can force one out of hiding. Fighting to save Humanity is one such event.
The former warship Trouble Dog and her crew of misfits is called upon by the House of Reclamation to investigate a distress call from the human starship the Lucy's Ghost. Her crew abandon their crippled ship and seek refuge abroad an abandoned, slower-than-light generation ship launched ten thousand years before by an alien race. However, the enormous ship contains deadly secrets of its own.
Recovered war criminal, Ona Sudak, faces a firing squad for her actions in the Archipelago War. But, at the last moment, she is smuggled out of her high-security prison. The Marble Armada has called for her to accompany its ships as observer and liaison, as it spreads itself across the human Generality, enforcing the peace at all costs. The alien ships will not tolerate resistance, and all dissenters are met with overwhelming and implacable force. Then her vessel intercepts messages from the House of Reclamation and decides the Trouble Dog has a capacity for violence which cannot be allowed to endure.
As the Trouble Dog and her crew fight to save the crew of the Lucy's Ghost, the ship finds herself caught between chaotic alien monsters on one side, and on the other, destruction at the hands of the Marble Armada.
At the edge of controlled space, a disaster unfolds inside a top secret military research facility. Dealing with the consequences of failure, the loss of friends and a battle to unlock the mystery of project NightStorm, an elite team takes on an adventure that will rock them to their foundations.
Hayden Kaine, a brash young cadet, thinks his family's influence has guaranteed his destiny as a future leader of the Earth Confederation. But falling on the wrong side of an Admiral is never a good idea, and he soon finds himself posted to an outdated military starship at the farthest reaches of the galaxy.
What at first appears to be a routine mission turns south when an unforseen disaster traps Kaine and the crew of the Scimitar at the edge of charted space, with no means to return home.
Little do they appreciate the dangers that lurk in the dead system, and soon they find themselves fighting an unknown alien species, not only for their survival, but for the future of the empire itself.
Aldrea, the feisty daughter of a Quenterian scientist, agrees to accompany her parents on a routine mission with mixed emotions. It was better than another resort vacation, but lacks the adventure and excitement she craves. So when her father is taken prisoner by a deranged Radical agent on a deserted planet, Aldrea doesn't think twice - she goes after them.
But time is running out. With the greatest discovery in Quenterian history in the balance, Aldrea must rescue herself first before the prize they seek kills them all.
Spell-slinger. Vampire-slayer. Magical albino ferret-rescuer.
Meet Jacqueline Denna Knight, the best wizard detective in the city.
Jax turns vampires to ash and pain into magic. She also has a knack for finding things. So when a distraught—and obscenely wealthy—elf calls Jax at midnight to hire her for an intriguing job, she grabs the opportunity with both hands...
But what Jax doesn’t know is that this case is going to unravel her life. She’ll get tangled up with a host of intriguing characters, most of whom are not who they appear to be.
As Jax speeds down a path toward the most powerful vampire clan in the country, she’ll have to put everything on the line.
Will she be able to use her unique brand of magic to save the Realm?
There are only two ways to kill Unbounded, and fire isn’t one of them—as law school dropout Erin Radkey learns the hard way. By fluke of a recessive gene, she has become Unbounded, a nearly immortal being with paranormal abilities.
Erin’s Change separates her from her loved ones and alters everything she believes to be true. A week earlier she was considering a marriage proposal; now she contemplates the best way to stay alive. Caught in a battle between two Unbounded groups, the Emporium and the Renegades, she is also hunted by a secret mortal society sworn to eradicate the Unbounded gene.
As Erin plunges into this dangerous new life, she must carve out her own place in the madness, protect her mortal family, and decide which group she should join. Her unique ability is vital to both groups in the race to secure an identification software that spells death for all Unbounded—or enslavement for the entire mortal world. Some will stop at nothing to use Erin as one more pawn in a battle that has spanned centuries. Erin’s undeniable attraction to Ritter Langton, whose family was massacred by opposing Unbounded two hundred and forty years ago, complicates her choices. There are no second chances. Death, life, or love—Unbounded always play for keeps.
The public can't know they exist. It could start a panic. The average citizen is perfectly fine with superheroes saving the day or causing mayhem in movies and comic books. But if those suprahumans actually walked among us, what would happen then?
In a crumbling post-war city of the future, private eye Charlie Madison stands in the gap. The last of his kind, a champion of lost causes, he confronts corrupt cops, violent bratva and yakuza, doing whatever he can for the average citizen in need of help. A war veteran with plenty of hardship in his past, he's not afraid to go toe-to-toe with the powers that be, whether they're in the criminal underworld or the federal government.
Madison has encountered more than his share of unusual suspects over the years. But this time he's up against something he's never seen before, on or off the battlefield: people with unnatural abilities. Suprahumans. Gifted ones. Their powers are too incredible to believe, too dangerous in this unstable world. Their existence is a secret guarded by government agents who mindwipe anyone encountering them.
For Charlie Madison, the Suprahuman Secret emerges when a little girl goes missing and no ransom demand is made. He takes the case, but time isn't on his side. After 48 hours in this town, it's unlikely an abducted child will be found in one piece. As the mystery unfolds, Madison uncovers a bizarre truth about the girl that seems impossible. But it could explain why she was kidnapped - and why she might still be alive.
From a dark future metropolis to a two man mission to Mercury; an astronomer’s search for immortality, the invention of Mecha droids and the battle of Grewalda. A stranger who hears UFOs and a young girl agreeing to become a test subject for nanobots – tales of human spirit, inevitable fate and loss that will take you to the extremes of space and time, yet are grounded firmly in the grit of true experience.
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.
Edited by the mysterious Rey Bertran, the Science Fiction Archive #1 features some of the greatest science fiction writing of all time.
Jonathan Strahan, the award-winning and much lauded editor of many of genre’s best known anthologies is back with his 11th volume in this fascinating series, featuring the best science fiction and fantasy. With established names and new talent this diverse and ground-breaking collection will take the reader to the outer-reaches of space and the inner realms of humanity with stories of fantastical worlds and worlds that may still come to pass.
February 10, 2019
An Interview with Marilyn Peake
Hello. I'd like to start this post with an appeal. If you enjoy getting my emails or reading my blog, please consider sharing it with others. Sharing, liking or commenting on one of these Facebook posts would be a great way to do that:
https://www.facebook.com/1052982814715845/posts/2582783108402467,
https://www.facebook.com/1052982814715845/posts/2582782528402525 or
https://www.facebook.com/1052982814715845/posts/2582782811735830.
Quite a few people replied to my last email asking me about orienteering, so I thought I'd explain. It is a sport that involves navigating between set checkpoints (called controls) in the fastest possible time. Usually this involves running cross-country with brief pauses to check the map. Courses are graded on technical difficulty and on length. I usually run Green or Blue which are the hardest navigational difficulty and are between 5 and 10km as the crow flies between controls.
To find out more, have a look at the British Orienteering website or watch this video:
In my interview today, I am talking to Marilyn Peake, author of The Other and the Mutation Z series.
How much research do you do?
When writing books, I do quite a bit of research. For my Science Fiction/Zombie Fiction Mutation Z series, I researched a number of subjects. These included: Ebola, the 2014 outbreak of Ebola in West Africa, diseases similar to Ebola, what the route from the United States to Mexico looks like on Google maps (for the part of the series where Ebola begins to spread in these countries), villages in China (for a part of the series that takes place in China), modern-day pirates and ships. For my Science Fiction novel, The Other, I also did a lot of research, although talking about some of those topics would give away a huge twist in the novel.
Oh yeah. Tell me about giving away spoilers!
Do you work to an outline or plot or do you prefer just see where an idea takes you?
I used to just see where an idea took me, but now I outline the main events in a book. I’m so glad I started doing this. I find it incredibly easier to write a book from an outline than I ever did without one. I even outline short stories now.
Me too. What a lot of people don't seem to understand is that outlining and plotting in advance doesn't rule out those moments of fluid creativity. Characters keep defying you and doing what they want, or at least mine do!
How do you think you’ve evolved creatively?
I find it much easier to develop plots and characters. In both my Mutation Z series and The Other novel, I was able to create characters that spoke in dialect. I never thought I’d be able to create dialect for characters and was delighted when I was finally able to do that.
What are you reading at the moment?
I’m currently reading The Three Body Problem, Book #1 in the Remembrance of Earth's Past Trilogy, by Cixin Liu.
Did you get interviewed by local press or radio for your book launch?
Years ago, I was interviewed on radio across the United States and Canada about the release of my children’s Middle Grade Fantasy Adventure series, along with my views on the problems of overscheduling children based on my background in Psychology (I have a Masters degree in Clinical Psychology) and experience as a Staff Psychologist. That was a lot of fun! That was also a wonderful time for book promotion, back when eBooks and self-published paperbacks were brand new. I also received a great review quote from Piers Anthony for the first book in my children’s series. I had a two-page interview in TBD, a print fanzine associated with Io, the University of Glasgow Science Fiction and Fantasy Society. Excerpts of my writing were included on CDs produced by a STARGATE novelist and handed out at a convention to STARGATE actors and fans. I heard from several libraries interested in creating bookshelf displays for my children’s novels, one library interested in promoting them as books to read for those who enjoyed the HARRY POTTER series. Times are different now. I currently do most of my book promotion online.
That's some impressive networking! Thank you for taking the time to talk to me.
USA TODAY and WALL STREET JOURNAL Bestselling Author Marilyn Peake writes Science Fiction and Fantasy. She’s one of the contributing authors in BOOK: THE SEQUEL, published by The Perseus Books Group, with one of her entries included in serialization at The Daily Beast. In addition, Marilyn has served as Editor of a number of anthologies. Her short stories have been published in numerous anthologies and on the literary blog, Glass Cases. AWARDS: Silver Award, two Honorable Mentions and eight Finalist placements in the ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Awards, two Winner and two Finalist placements in the EPPIE Awards, Winner of the Dream Realm Awards, Finalist placement in the 2015 National Indie Excellence Book Awards, and Winner of "Best Horror" in the eFestival of Words Best of the Independent eBook Awards.
https://www.facebook.com/1052982814715845/posts/2582783108402467,
https://www.facebook.com/1052982814715845/posts/2582782528402525 or
https://www.facebook.com/1052982814715845/posts/2582782811735830.
Quite a few people replied to my last email asking me about orienteering, so I thought I'd explain. It is a sport that involves navigating between set checkpoints (called controls) in the fastest possible time. Usually this involves running cross-country with brief pauses to check the map. Courses are graded on technical difficulty and on length. I usually run Green or Blue which are the hardest navigational difficulty and are between 5 and 10km as the crow flies between controls.
To find out more, have a look at the British Orienteering website or watch this video:
In my interview today, I am talking to Marilyn Peake, author of The Other and the Mutation Z series.
How much research do you do?
When writing books, I do quite a bit of research. For my Science Fiction/Zombie Fiction Mutation Z series, I researched a number of subjects. These included: Ebola, the 2014 outbreak of Ebola in West Africa, diseases similar to Ebola, what the route from the United States to Mexico looks like on Google maps (for the part of the series where Ebola begins to spread in these countries), villages in China (for a part of the series that takes place in China), modern-day pirates and ships. For my Science Fiction novel, The Other, I also did a lot of research, although talking about some of those topics would give away a huge twist in the novel.
Oh yeah. Tell me about giving away spoilers!
Do you work to an outline or plot or do you prefer just see where an idea takes you?
I used to just see where an idea took me, but now I outline the main events in a book. I’m so glad I started doing this. I find it incredibly easier to write a book from an outline than I ever did without one. I even outline short stories now.
Me too. What a lot of people don't seem to understand is that outlining and plotting in advance doesn't rule out those moments of fluid creativity. Characters keep defying you and doing what they want, or at least mine do!
How do you think you’ve evolved creatively?
I find it much easier to develop plots and characters. In both my Mutation Z series and The Other novel, I was able to create characters that spoke in dialect. I never thought I’d be able to create dialect for characters and was delighted when I was finally able to do that.
What are you reading at the moment?
I’m currently reading The Three Body Problem, Book #1 in the Remembrance of Earth's Past Trilogy, by Cixin Liu.
Did you get interviewed by local press or radio for your book launch?
Years ago, I was interviewed on radio across the United States and Canada about the release of my children’s Middle Grade Fantasy Adventure series, along with my views on the problems of overscheduling children based on my background in Psychology (I have a Masters degree in Clinical Psychology) and experience as a Staff Psychologist. That was a lot of fun! That was also a wonderful time for book promotion, back when eBooks and self-published paperbacks were brand new. I also received a great review quote from Piers Anthony for the first book in my children’s series. I had a two-page interview in TBD, a print fanzine associated with Io, the University of Glasgow Science Fiction and Fantasy Society. Excerpts of my writing were included on CDs produced by a STARGATE novelist and handed out at a convention to STARGATE actors and fans. I heard from several libraries interested in creating bookshelf displays for my children’s novels, one library interested in promoting them as books to read for those who enjoyed the HARRY POTTER series. Times are different now. I currently do most of my book promotion online.
That's some impressive networking! Thank you for taking the time to talk to me.
USA TODAY and WALL STREET JOURNAL Bestselling Author Marilyn Peake writes Science Fiction and Fantasy. She’s one of the contributing authors in BOOK: THE SEQUEL, published by The Perseus Books Group, with one of her entries included in serialization at The Daily Beast. In addition, Marilyn has served as Editor of a number of anthologies. Her short stories have been published in numerous anthologies and on the literary blog, Glass Cases. AWARDS: Silver Award, two Honorable Mentions and eight Finalist placements in the ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Awards, two Winner and two Finalist placements in the EPPIE Awards, Winner of the Dream Realm Awards, Finalist placement in the 2015 National Indie Excellence Book Awards, and Winner of "Best Horror" in the eFestival of Words Best of the Independent eBook Awards.
