Michael Patrick Hicks's Blog, page 35

Review: Revenger by Alastair Reynolds

Revenger by Alastair Reynolds

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


With Revenger, Alastair Reynolds turns his talents toward a far-future sci-fi swashbuckler. Here, sisters Adrana and Fura Ness join the crew of a sunjammer in order to earn money after their father's savings are lost. It sounds like a simple plan until Captain Rackamore's crew runs afoul of Bosa Sennen, a space pirate that many believe is more legend than reality.

Although the book gets off to a bit of a slow start while Reynolds puts all his pieces in place, by the time Part One finishes Revenger is an unputdownable adventure filled with high-stakes, grim choices, and plenty of future-history flourishes to excite.

The story is told in first-person POV, through the eyes of Fura Ness. She's a wonderful gateway into the universe Reynolds has crafted here, and her development over the course of the story is top-notch. I quite enjoyed seeing her transform into a strong, independent young woman, even as the choices she is forced to make ravage her body and soul, while her heart is swallowed by vengeance. Reynolds does a brilliant job developing her from a waifish youth into a hard-edged, revenge-driven woman of action and consequence.

I also really dug the universe itself, and the mysteries it holds. Scattered between worlds are small planets known as baubles, sheathed in a protective cocoon that opens irregularly and contain alien artifacts. There is a lot of history baked into Revenger, of both human and alien mystique, much of it even beyond the ken of our characters, and it is these historical left-overs from past alien conflicts that becomes our pirate's booty analog to motivate the crew of the solar-sailed spaceships to plunder for riches. It's also the motivating factor of Bosa Sennen, our sort-of Blackbeard of the stars, and the lure for conflict.

My only real complaint is that we don't get quite enough of Bosa to satisfy. Since the story is told strictly from Fura's point of view, we're offered limited insight into the chief antagonist or Fura's crew mates, although her observations are enough to get us by. It's during the climax of Part One that it becomes quite clear that Bosa is a serious force to be reckoned with, but I wouldn't have minded another scene or two to help cement her status as the frightening myth most of these space sailors regard her as.

In fact, I wouldn't at all mind another book or two set in this universe. Although Revenger is currently billed as a stand-alone, there's enough threads left loose and dangling to indicate Reynolds may have some grander plan to explore, should he choose. If not, this is certainly a compelling enough read on its own. Still...it'd be a real shame if we didn't get to read more about Fura Ness and the adventures of these sunjammers. I'm quite keen for more of these particular space pirates, matey.



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Review: The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First 25 Years [Audiobook]

The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First 25 Years by Edward Gross

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


As most Trekkies likely know, there was as much, if not more so, drama behind the scenes than ever made it to screen. The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First 25 Years recounts all of the various conflicts that went into creating this franchise from the people who witnessed it all first-hand.

On the one hand, thanks to plenty of hindsight and having grown up in a world permeated by the existence of Star Trek in some form or another, it seems downright foolish that there was ever any reticence in bringing Star Trek to screens both big and small. On the other hand, given all of the infighting between studios, producers, creators, and actors, it's almost miraculous the TV incarnation ever got made, let alone moved onto theatrical productions.

The Fifty-Year Mission presents an unvarnished view of the creation of the initial episodic series back in the 1960s, which ran for three seasons before being cancelled, and its leap to the silver screen a decade later. Through decades' worth of interviews, we get a sense of the people involved through their own words, as well as reflections from others. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry is, of course, a large part of this narrative's initial focus, and although he may have been the Great Bird of the Galaxy he was also his own worst enemy. We see here a man of extraordinary progressive vision, a vision that has infused and shaped Star Trek over the course of now fifty years, but also a man whose hubris and ego often got in the way of his own creative efforts, as well as those around him. His rewriting of scripts was often to the detriment of those stories, and he made more than a few enemies, including well-known science fiction author Harlan Ellison, whose interview segments do nothing to dispell his status as sci-fi's biggest curmudgeon.

As with any long-running franchise with so many people involved and so many moving parts, there is going to be a fair share of ups and downs. The Fifty Year Mission does not shy away from tackling both the good and the bad, and there is an appreciable level of candor from the parties involved as they air their frustrations and their successes.

Twenty-five years is also a long period of time to cover, and this audiobook's runtime of nearly 23 1/2 hours represents the creation of Star Trek as a television series, and its redevelopment as a theatrical franchise, culminating with Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, the final voyage for the entire original crew of the Starships Enterprise. Production-wise, this is a fairly basic affair and while it is solidly done, I wouldn't have minded a few extra bells and whistles to curb some of the narration's dryness. A handful of narrators tackle the readings of the various interview sources collected here, and I can't help but think it a shame that we never get to hear any of the original recordings these interviews originated from. I suppose such an undertaking would have been too prohibitive, but for a book curated to celebrate the fifty-year milestone of such a beloved franchise it seems a few extra steps could have been taken to make this a more special and engaging listen.

Keep in mind, too, that title is dubbed an "oral history," for very good reason. The story of Star Trek is told entirely through first-person accounts, with snippets of interviews, thoughts, and recollections from the various creatives involved pieced together to create context and a narrative framework. The book's authors, Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman, should be credited for piecing all this together, but their footprint as story-tellers here is very small, and they provide very little input to the proceedings aside from a foreword from each (along with Seth McFarlane), taking a backseat to the curation of the Star Trek legacy itself. I might also add that, once past the forewords, listeners can skip the multiple chapters devoted solely to dramatis personae, which involves more than an hour's worth of one narrator dryly listing the names and credentials of those interviewed in subsequent chapters, information which gets repeated numerous times throughout the course of the book's oral history.

Since this is only the first half of Star Trek's fifty-year history, the audiobook finishes with a To Be Continued note, but for fans of The Original Series their part of the story is sufficiently self-contained. For hardcore Trekkies, there are still 25 more years to cover, and plenty more Star Trek to explore in the subsequent volume, The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From The Next Generation to J.J. Abrams.



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Buy The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First 25 Years at Amazon

Review: The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First 25 Years

The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First 25 Years by Edward Gross

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


As most Trekkies likely know, there was as much, if not more so, drama behind the scenes than ever made it to screen. The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First 25 Years recounts all of the various conflicts that went into creating this franchise from the people who witnessed it all first-hand.

On the one hand, thanks to plenty of hindsight and having grown up in a world permeated by the existence of Star Trek in some form or another, it seems downright foolish that there was ever any reticence in bringing Star Trek to screens both big and small. On the other hand, given all of the infighting between studios, producers, creators, and actors, it's almost miraculous the TV incarnation ever got made, let alone moved onto theatrical productions.

The Fifty-Year Mission presents an unvarnished view of the creation of the initial episodic series back in the 1960s, which ran for three seasons before being cancelled, and its leap to the silver screen a decade later. Through decades' worth of interviews, we get a sense of the people involved through their own words, as well as reflections from others. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry is, of course, a large part of this narrative's initial focus, and although he may have been the Great Bird of the Galaxy he was also his own worst enemy. We see here a man of extraordinary progressive vision, a vision that has infused and shaped Star Trek over the course of now fifty years, but also a man whose hubris and ego often got in the way of his own creative efforts, as well as those around him. His rewriting of scripts was often to the detriment of those stories, and he made more than a few enemies, including well-known science fiction author Harlan Ellison, whose interview segments do nothing to dispell his status as sci-fi's biggest curmudgeon.

As with any long-running franchise with so many people involved and so many moving parts, there is going to be a fair share of ups and downs. The Fifty Year Mission does not shy away from tackling both the good and the bad, and there is an appreciable level of candor from the parties involved as they air their frustrations and their successes.

Twenty-five years is also a long period of time to cover, and this audiobook's runtime of nearly 23 1/2 hours represents the creation of Star Trek as a television series, and its redevelopment as a theatrical franchise, culminating with Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, the final voyage for the entire original crew of the Starships Enterprise. Production-wise, this is a fairly basic affair and while it is solidly done, I wouldn't have minded a few extra bells and whistles to curb some of the narration's dryness. A handful of narrators tackle the readings of the various interview sources collected here, and I can't help but think it a shame that we never get to hear any of the original recordings these interviews originated from. I suppose such an undertaking would have been too prohibitive, but for a book curated to celebrate the fifty-year milestone of such a beloved franchise it seems a few extra steps could have been taken to make this a more special and engaging listen.

Keep in mind, too, that title is dubbed an "oral history," for very good reason. The story of Star Trek is told entirely through first-person accounts, with snippets of interviews, thoughts, and recollections from the various creatives involved pieced together to create context and a narrative framework. The book's authors, Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman, should be credited for piecing all this together, but their footprint as story-tellers here is very small, and they provide very little input to the proceedings aside from a foreword from each (along with Seth McFarlane), taking a backseat to the curation of the Star Trek legacy itself. I might also add that, once past the forewords, listeners can skip the multiple chapters devoted solely to dramatis personae, which involves more than an hour's worth of one narrator dryly listing the names and credentials of those interviewed in subsequent chapters, information which gets repeated numerous times throughout the course of the book's oral history.

Since this is only the first half of Star Trek's fifty-year history, the audiobook finishes with a To Be Continued note, but for fans of The Original Series their part of the story is sufficiently self-contained. For hardcore Trekkies, there are still 25 more years to cover, and plenty more Star Trek to explore in the subsequent volume, The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years: From The Next Generation to J.J. Abrams.



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Buy The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First 25 Years at Amazon

Sci-Fi Month 2016: Info, Upcoming, and A Giveaway

Image courtesy of Rinn (Rinn Reads).

Today kicks off the annual Sci-Fi Month blog event, hosted by Rinn from Rinn Reads and Lisa from Over the Effing Rainbow. This is a month long celebration of all-things science fiction, with a number of blogs taking part to discuss, read, review, and enthuse over the sci-fi genre across all the various forms of media. You can find out about all the finer details here, and be sure to follow along on Twitter with the #RRSciFiMonth hashtag and the official account, @SciFiMonth.

All through November, I'll be reading select sci-fi titles that I have already set aside specifically for Sci-Fi Month 2016 that I am quite eager to dive into. At the top of the list are Alastair Reynolds' Revenger, Made to Kill by Adam Christopher, and KC Alexander's Necrotech.

I'm sure there will likely be some other books pulled from my large catalog of TBR titles and NetGalley review copies that are deserving of my attention, but I don't know what quite yet. Or maybe I'll finally break down and read some Star Trek novels that I'm behind on, like The Typhon Pact series. This might even be the impetus I need to catch up on some comic books that I'm good and truly lagging behind on. We'll see, but I think I've got a pretty good starting point with those three definites above.

I'm also giving away copies of my science fiction debut novel, Convergence, a near-future cyberpunk romp. This title was an Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award 2013 Quarter-Finalist, where it earned strong praise from Publisher's Weekly.

PW called Convergence a "smart splice of espionage and science fiction. ... frighteningly realistic. Well-drawn characters, excellent pacing, and constant surprises make this a great cautionary tale about technology and its abuses." 

SciFi365.net said Convergence is “A cyberpunk thrillride through a future America under Chinese rule. The conflict between the humanity of the main character, Jonah, and the things he has had to do to survive in this harsh new world makes ‘Convergence’ an absolute pleasure to read.”

To claim your copy of Convergence, all you need to do is head over to InstaFreebie and claim your book!

What are your plans for Sci-Fi Month 2016? What are you reading, watching, or writing about?

October 2016 Read and Reviewed RoundUp

Earlier this month, I transferred from a Wordpress hosted site to one on Squarespace. As it turns out, you can't change a web-host without breaking a few links (or at least I can't, anyway...), so some prior month's reviews and roundups may have links to lead only to dead ends. Sorry about that. Beneath the "Blog" menu up top, there are options to search, as well as a comprehensive listing of all titles I've reviewed here. This may be a long way around it in terms of a solution, but, frankly, I don't have time to go through every blog entry and check every link. By all means, though, feel free to poke around!

In addition to changing things up with web-hosts and redesigning this site from square one, I've been busy reading, as I often am. Here's the books I've crossed paths with in October!

Order to Kill by Kyle MillsBite by K.S. Merbeth (audiobook)Pressure by Jeff Strand (audiobook)Extinction Aftermath by Nicholas Sansbury SmithHammers on Bone by Cassandra KhawThe Dispatcher by John Scalzi (audiobook)Everything Belongs to the Future by Laurie PennySiren of Depravity by Gary FryFungoid by William MeikleSherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell by Paul KaneWitching Hour Theatre by Jonathan Janz

In addition to changing web hosts, I've also stepped away from BookLikes for a while. When I was using Wordpress, I was able to sync my BookLikes account with my blog and have reviews from BL automatically post to Wordpress. Unfortunately, this synchronization is not possible between BookLikes and Squarespace, which I'm kind of disappointed with. Older posts written at BookLikes/Wordpress were imported here with the star rating, but newer posts will not have them. I did like having the star rating present as an image on each title I reviewed, but it looks like I won't be able to carry over that information anymore in quite the same way as before. Ah well. The entire issue of star ratings is somewhat problematic anyway, but that's an issue for another day... I've decided to include the star rating they would have otherwise received in old fashioned text as a Final Verdict portion of the review at the bottom, or by using the code supplied by Goodreads to copy the review posted there to this blog here, so you may notice some stylistic changes as I adjust and get comfortable to this new setting.

November is Sci-Fi Month 2016, so stay tuned for some genre goodies from that field for the entire month. I've got a few titles all picked out and lined up, ready to go. It's been a while since I've focused specifically on science fiction titles, and I'm pretty eager to explore what's out there. The first review, for Alastair Reynolds's Revenger, should be up in a few more days.

Review: Witching Hour Theatre by Jonathan Janz

Witching Hour Theatre by Jonathan Janz

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Witching Hour Theatre is a fresh re-release of Jonathan Janz's out-of-print novella from the author himself. Earlier this year, I was introduced to Janz by way of his most recent novel, Children of the Dark, and, a short time later, an earlier novel, Savage Species. Now, we go even further back into the Janz archives with this particular title, which is both a fun read and also a solid indicator of how much this author has grown over the years.

In his foreword and a brief essay at the end of this novella, Janz discusses those early days as a new writer working to find his voice while under the strong influences of Stephen King, Richard Laymon, and Richard Matheson. Shamefully, I'm only familiar with the latter two by proxy, having read other horror writers who were similarly influenced, but there is a bit of a similar through-line shared amongst these works. And if you're going to be influenced by anyone, you couldn't do much better than King, in my opinion.

Witching Hour Theatre is an early work from a new writer finding his voice and wanting to do his own thing and it shows. This, however, is not necessarily a bad thing, as the novella also shows a young writer with a tremendous amount of promise in the future ahead (which, I can say, thanks to wonderful powers of prognostication stemming from having read his more current works, is a promise realized in Children of the Dark, itself a solid indicator that Janz's star is still exponetially on the rise and that this dude is going to be a name well known to horror fans soon. And yeah, I'm a fan. I know. Deal with it.).

The story itself is simple - a guy goes to the movies to catch a triple-bill of horror flicks, a staple of the theater dubbed Witching Hour Theatre. As the films wear on and the theater empties, Larry becomes aware of an entity seated in the dark rows behind him. Soon enough, we're off to the bloody races and witness to a fight for survival.

This is a satisfying story, but not particularly deep. Janz cuts things close, going for the quick, visceral feel of a slasher movie, keeping the pace taught. We get some glimpses of story elements Janz will play with in his later works, such as the self-described lovable loser who is hopelessly in love with the girl he thinks is out of his league, intense action scenes, vicious villians, and adept characterization.

Witching Hour Theatre is not Janz's best work, but, it is still very good and an awful lot of fun. And there's the thrill of finally reading Janz's very first published work in a spiffy, revised edition with some pretty awesome artwork fronting it. Readers who are already fans of Janz will find plenty to appreciate here, and, I think, readers just now discovering Janz through this work will be inclined to read plenty more from this author. The fact that it was re-released just in time for Halloween helps sweeten the deal, and it made for some fine late-night, witching hour reading at the close of October.



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Review: Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell by Paul Kane

Arthur Conan Doyle introduced Sherlock Holmes to readers more than a century ago, and few other characters have proved to possess such longevity or elasticity. Just in my lifetime alone, I've seen Holmes presented as a youngster, a keen yet stuffy detective, a roguish brawler, and an occult detective. I can honestly say I never expected Holmes to come face to face with the Cenobites of Clive Barker's mythology, but Paul Kane corrected that in a mostly, and surprisingly, effective mashup.

Holmes and Watson are charged with investigating the disappearance of one Francis Cotton, a name Barker reader's will know well from The Hellbound Heart, which serves as more than mere inspiration here. As the investigation proceeds, more individuals disappear and the investigators are pulled deeper into the darkest corners of London's recesses as they search for a mysterious organization known as the Order of the Gash, as well as the strange murder weapon - a small puzzle box known as the Lament Configuration.

Right from the get-go, it's pretty clear that Kane is both a Holmes and Barker aficionado (heck, the man wrote about the Hellraiser films and put together a tribute anthology to Barker's mythology), and Barker has even stated in the past that, "Paul’s the resident Hellraiser expert." So yeah, the dude clearly knows his Cenobites from his cinnabites. 

Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell is at its best during the book's first half, with Holmes and Watson chasing down leads and disappearances and becoming slowly involved in every-increasingly supernatural events. Holmes himself is still recovering from his fall over Reichenbach Falls, and Watson is happy to have him back, even if slightly wounded by his friend's disappearances and secrets. There's some really solid character work between these two and their relationship, colored by their past cases together, and you get a terrific sense of their shared history. I must admit, I had only read one Holmes book previously, and roughly fifteen years ago at that, and my introduction to Barker came only recently with the audiobook of The Hellbound Heart, but the pop culture landscape these icons have become infused in made reading about them here welcomingly familiar. 

I was quite captivated by the subtle shadings of horror Kane revealed over the course of Holmes's and Watson's legwork and appreciated the subdued nature as the story grew progressively darker. Where it kind of fell apart for me was in the finale, where the supernatural horror elements became an almost dark superhero fantasy. The book synopsis notes that this is "Holmes’ most outlandish adventure to date," and that's certainly accurate. It just depends on how much outlandishness you can appreciate, and there's certainly a fair bit of fan-service conducted in the book's final third that didn't quite work for me. Barker fans may relish some of these events, and there are certainly some cool aspects to the hell-raising finale, but it struck me as being so tonally different and fantastical from the well-grounded events prior that it never quite jelled for me.

My other problem came with the structure of the third act. In Part One, the story is recounted by Watson, and Part Two is left to Holmes' point of view. Part Three offers us a look at both, and with this comes a fair amount of repetition. Stuff happens in Holmes' narrative that then gets immediately recounted from Watson's view point, but without enough dissimilarity to make these recaps sufficiently necessary. Thankfully, the shifting narrative in part three works more often than it fails, but it was problematic enough to niggle ever so slightly. 

Mostly, Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell worked for me, and it was cool reading such two disparate characters and mythologies as Holmes and the Cenobites come together to produce something unique. I greatly enjoyed seeing the references to Barker's canon and the way some of his plots and characters became repurposed elements for a Sherlock Holmes mystery. Kane's depictions of characters was spot-on, and he captured the grotesque sensual suffering of the Cenobites quite effectively. The last few chapters proved to me, though, that you can definitely have too much of a good thing.

Final verdict: 3 out of 5 stars

[I received a copy of this title for review from the publisher via NetGalley.]

Buy Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell At Amazon

 

Review: Fungoid by William Meikle

William Meikle wastes no time dooming the world with a fungal apocalypse in his latest DarkFuse title. Fungoid is basically a non-stop adventure read, with a nice little dose of science tossed into the mix to help balance the action and occasional moments of horror.

The story itself shifts across a handful of characters. There's the university research scientist, Rohit, and emergency worker, Jim Noble, who give us equally interesting, and compellingly different, perspectives on the mushroom menace. Shaun is stuck away from his family and when things begin heading south treks out across Canada to reach the Atlantic shores and reunite with his wife and children. 

Fungoid is a quick, breezy, expertly paced, and well-crafted story. Couple this with an intriguing doomsday premise and you've got yourself a brisk read. Although it has some shades of familiarity with Joe Hill's The Fireman or the PlayStation video game, The Last of Us, it still stands on its own and is a welcome interpretation on this particular apocalyptic theme. But with this infusion of fungal ends, I can't help but think there must be some kind of spore in the air...

This is a super-fun End of the World romp, but be sure to give yourself some room to breathe and get up to move around a bit in between chapters so you don't start growing moldy. 

Final verdict: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars

[As a member of the DarkFuse Book Group, I received an advanced copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley.]

Enter The Canyons of the Damned

Hot on the heels of my Extinction Cycle debut with yesterday's release of From the Ashes, today marks my debut in Tales from the Canyons of the Damned!

Canyons is an indie pulp fiction magazine published by author Daniel Arthur Smith (he of Hugh Howey Lives fame and the maniacal genius behind CLONES: The Anthology, which contains my Lovecraftian sci-fi horror title, Black Site) and continually features some of the best and brightest upcoming voices in the indie scene today. Authors like Will Swardstrom, Ernie Howard, S. Elliot Brandis, Hank Garner, Artie Cabrera, and plenty more have all gone mad in these Canyons, and a few even survived to tell their tales.

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Tales from the Canyons of the Damned No. 10, The Horrific Halloween Edition, features a reprint of my short story, Consumption, alongside brand-new fiction from S. Elliot Brandis (Young Slasher, The Pearl Diver), Samuel Peralta (the genius responsible for bringing us a plethora of The Future Chronicles anthologies), and Smith. 

Consumption is my odd ode to Lovecraftian fiction, as well as Food Network's Chopped. It's gourmet horror, if you will, and features some stomach-churning foodie frights. I wrote this one back in 2014 and it's still one of my personal favorites. I'm excited at the prospect of this story reaching new readers within the Canyons community and its Damned devotees. I hope you'll agree that it's some fun Halloween gross-out material.

Here's the snyopsis for this issue:

This Horrific Halloween edition of Tales from the Canyons of the Damned consists of Three short stories and One Epic Poem—each from a different featured master of speculative fiction and Horror.

S. Elliot Brandis opens with a visit to airport security (what could be more chilling).
Award winning Poet Samuel Peralta contributes the inner thoughts of one so special.
Michael Patrick Hicks tells the tale of a dinner transcendent of earthly delights.
And Daniel Arthur Smith shares the first of the recovered Lost Tapes.

Tales from the Canyons of the Damned No. 10 is available at Amazon for only .99c.

Buy now

Facing Extinction Head-On

What do you do when an Amazon and USA Today best-selling author asks you to write a story and help launch a brand new Kindle Worlds property based on his enormously popular and much-loved series? Well, as a fan of Nicholas Sansbury Smith's Extinction Cycle series, and a fan of the man himself, I must admit, the answer was easy. I said yes.

The Extinction Cycle series is a combination of thrillingly badass military action and cutting-edge medical science that presents a zombie apocalypse scenario unlike any other. William Massa, author of the Silicon World and Occult Assassin series, described these books as "World War Z meets the Hot Zone." 

Today, Amazon is launching their latest Kindle World licensed from Smith's series, hot on the heels of Nick's release of book six, Extinction Aftermath. My title, From the Ashes, is set during the aftermath of Operation Reaper, which occurred in the latter half of Extinction Horizon (Extinction Cycle Book 1).

From the Ashes introduces a set of new characters, and takes the fight against the infected right into the streets of the Motor City. Here's the synopsis:

In an effort to contain the spread of the Hemorrhage Virus, the United States government launched an attack on its nation's cities. Hundreds of thousands of lives, and a number of major cities, were lost in Operation Reaper but the monsters created by the bioengineered virus remained.

A small team of Army Rangers have entered the ruins of Detroit in an effort to save whatever refugees they can, and stop whatever creatures they encounter. In an all-or-nothing gambit, the Rangers will soon discover that in the heart of the Motor City, evil rises from the ashes.

I had a tremendous amount of fun writing this story, and it's a pretty lean novella, clocking in at 30,000 words.

My aim was to put a Black Hawk Down spin on the EC events, set in a city close to my own home. From the Ashes is my first pure military thriller. While both Convergence and Emergence had some elements of a military thriller in them, and were pretty heavily inspired by a number of military thrillers I've enjoyed as a reader, From the Ashes is definitely a straight-up boots on the ground military sci-fi horror. And hopefully it will function well enough within the world Nick has already firmly established for readers to enjoy.

You can find From the Ashes on Amazon for $1.99.

If you are not familiar with the Extinction Cycle series, you can find all six books on Amazon.

Buy Now