Blog Tour: LATENCY by Nathaniel Koszer
LATENCY
by Nathaniel Koszer
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GENRE: Sci Fi biotech
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BLURB:
Serais a LO-EC, a human who gained superpowers as an unintended side effect of abiotechnological breakthrough. Her unique abilities allowed her to survivewhile others like her, including her parents, were exterminated by a worldgovernment fearful of their potential.
Afterdecades of hiding, she meets Naren, another superpowered survivor who hasinfiltrated the ranks of the military. Together, they form a plan to unite withother surviving LO-ECs, claim vengeance against the forces who murdered theirfamilies, and ultimately stoke a worldwide rebellion against the governmentthat wanted them dead.
Theentirety of 26th century Earth’s armed forces stand in their way: Soldiersequipped with terrifying weaponry, armies with electromagnetic cannons,merciless bloodthirsty androids, and Spidre, the World Leader with unnaturalabilities of his own. The world brought Sera and the other LO-ECs pain andloss, and they’re determined to return it in kind.
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Excerpt One:
In the basementof a skyscraper hundreds of stories high, a constant shaking and groaningaccompanied the cacophony of breaking glass and falling bricks from the streetabove. A man and a woman had spent the night here, fearing those sounds meanttheir building was on the verge of collapse. Finally, the sun rose and thesounds gave way to stillness. The death of the noises gave life to new fears,in that now the man and woman had to take action.
“Are there anysort of supplies on the cycles?” the man asked. He was bleary-eyed, his facewas flush, and even the simple task of standing up seemed to be a struggle.
“I doubt it,”the woman replied, her expression as beleaguered as his. “And you’re sure therewas nothing in these boxes?” she continued, glancing around the small storageroom.
The man shookhis head. “Just lots of cleaning supplies. And we can’t risk going backupstairs,” he replied. “I can’t even hear the big one lumbering around, thathas to mean they’re searching another building. We need to move now. We’llworry about supplies after we get out of New Orleans, and after it feels safe.”
The womannodded and walked over to one smaller pile of boxes. She pulled them away andthe room lit up in an orange glow. The boxes had been covering a young girl, nomore than six years old, whose skin had trails of orange light swirling acrossher arms, legs, and face.
“We need toleave, sweetie. We’re going to find our cycles in the garage, Ok?”
The little girlnodded.
“Do youremember that woman? Alison?” she asked the girl. “Do you remember where sheand her friends live?”
The little girlnodded slowly, while the man’s face furrowed with skepticism.
“If anythinghappens to us, you go straight to her. Do you understand?”
“She can’t goto them!” the man exclaimed in an elevated whisper. “They’re a bunch offanatics!”
“They are, butthey will keep her safe!” the woman responded
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What makes your book different from any other book in thisgenre
Latencyhas unique aspects specifically because it is a book. This always seems strangeto admit as an author, but I am by no means a prolific reader. I listen to afew audiobooks a year and that’s about it. What I have consumed a lot of isother science fiction media (movies, TV shows, comic books, video games) andLatency uses a lot of ideas that are much more common, albeit exploreddifferently, in those other spaces and throws them together in an 83,000 wordnovel.
The unique aspect of Latency readers will first notice isthat there are six protagonists. Yes, this book bounces back and forth acrosssix different character’s points of view throughout its chapters. Multi-POVbooks do occur in sci-fi and fantasy novels, but having this many is a rarity.But for comic books and anime, six main characters is standard fair. The X-men,who are arguably the single biggest influence behind Latency, have dozens ofcharacters who all take the “main character” role at some point. In anime thereis usually one “main” character, but they are often flanked by several otherprotagonists who are united in their goals and who are frequently just aspowerful, engaging, and interesting as the main character.
One part of Latency that I do think is truly unique, evenif you include tv, film, games, and comics, is the origin story of thecharacters superpowers. It is also unique in the sense that the inspiration forit came from one single source. That source is The Matrix, the epic sci-fiaction movie from 1999. I was intrigued by the idea of machines using humanbody heat and synaptic energy as a fuel source and was always frustrated thatno one ever wrote a story exploring what would happen if we, humans, were ableto store and use that energy. Eventually I got tired of waiting for someoneelse and wrote it myself, and thus Latency was born.
Bio-punk as a genre isn’t really explored much as it canbe, and that’s unfortunate. In fact, I have now had to explain what thebio-punk genre is to easily a dozen different people, and some were prolificreaders and even librarians! My go-to now is to say something like “You everread or see a story where people get genetically spliced to have animalfeatures? That’s bio-punk,” and that is really what most people’s familiaritywith the genre is. I’d love to see more bio-punk, and I’m glad I have abio-punk superhero book coming out into the world.
The last unique feature of my book was one I learnedrecently, when doing an interview for another podcast. The interviewer saidthat the protagonists in Latency felt like real people, that there wasinterpersonal conflict but that an overall gentle understanding made itbelievable when they eventually reconciled their differences. So I guess whatmakes Latency different is empathy. Don’t get it confused though. When it comesto their enemies, the six protagonists are brutal, some might even sayremorseless. But when they finally meet up with each other, they understand thehard life each has led and keep that in mind as they all work through theirhangups. Having six main characters helps here. If two of them have an issue,there is always one or two other characters around who can see a middle ground.But even in instances where there is no mediator, characters work through theirdifferences in a relatively healthy way.
It was not even a conscious decision to write characters likethis, at least not exactly. What I was trying to avoid was something thatannoyed me about many other fiction stories: Two characters having a hugefight, one that if it happened in real life would irreparably damage therelationship, but a few chapters or episodes later they’re friends or lovers orteammates again like nothing ever happened. I didn’t want that, but it was alsohard to imagine six characters coming from different backgrounds being in completeagreement with each other about everything all the time. Empathy was just themiddle ground I landed on, and hearing that it makes my book unique makes mevery happy (and also a little sad, because let your characters have empathy people!).
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Nategrew up in Brooklyn NY, but now calls the Bronx home along with his wife andtheir sons. Nate grew up on all things sci-fi. Partly due to his chronicillness, Nate always had a special place in his heart for the X-Men, andespecially the invulnerable Wolverine. This was heavy inspiration for his firstnovel, Latency a superhero sci-fi story to be released March 5, 2024.
Website:https://natekoszer.com/
https://bsky.app/profile/natejklol.bsky.social
Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Latency-Nathaniel-Koszer/dp/1962308073/ref=sr_1_1
Smashwords:https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1489470
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GIVEAWAY
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