July 2022 - Skinwrapper by and with Stephen Kozeniewski

[Char]

Please stay on with us, then, Elizabeth! We're going to read it next month. :)

I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[Stephen]

Ian (RebelGeek) wrote: "Thanks for the free book. It's short enough that I'll read it with my eyes. I downloaded the epub with my iPad & added it to my Apple books app!"

Thanks much, Ian. Hope you enjoy it!

[isanythingopen]

I loved Skinwrappers (thank you for the free download Stephen).
2 out of three of my favorite genres rolled into one. Cant beat that!

[Stephen]

Kasia wrote: "Welcome Stephen, the cover alone looks phenomenal!!"

Thanks, much, Kasia! The very talented Matt Davis did that cover.

[Stephen]

Hayley wrote: "Awesome! I love horror/sci-fi! Can't wait!"

Great! Hope you enjoy it, Hayley!

[Stephen]

S. wrote: "Wow! That’s great of you Steve! That cover is worth a thousand screams and the synopsis sounds like an experience for sure! I’m gonna show it to my husband too, he loves this stuff. Thank you ahead..."

Very kind of you to say, S. Matt Davis did the cover. Hope you both enjoy the contents. :)

[Stephen]

Netanella wrote: "This looks pretty cool! Thank you for the free download.

I must admit, when I read the blurb that stated the story is about space pirates who jack people's body parts, I was reminded of a scene f..."

Heh. I do love Monty Python. I often tell Brian Keene that he's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy.

[Char]

No one expects the Spanish Inquisition.

[Netanella]

Char wrote: "No one expects the Spanish Inquisition."

Indeed not. 😂😂

[Giovanni]

i started it yesterday, read half of it and I like it

[Ian (RebelGeek)]

I enjoyed this, why only women?

[Netanella]

Yes, great question! The female-only world in continued in The Hematophages as well. Is there are reason that males have died off as a gender?

[Kimberly]

Netanella wrote: "Yes, great question! The female-only world in continued in The Hematophages as well. Is there are reason that males have died off as a gender?"

Great question! I was wondering that, myself. I plan on reading The Hematophages in August.

[Stephen]

Ian (RebelGeek) wrote: "I enjoyed this, why only women?"

Ah, yes, you hit upon the question I get asked the most often, Ian, Netanella, and Kimberly.

1.) From a storytellng perspective, I've read and watched many sci-fi and action stories with an all-male cast, with little comment even in retrospect. I wondered if I could reverse it, and if so, how many people would notice and how long it would take them to. Sometimes people say they never noticed until they read other reviews and others say they didn't realize until the characters in THE HEMATOPHAGES comment upon it. I really wrestled with whether to include that scene, since I wanted to leave it an Easter egg of sorts, but I felt like it would be strange not to in that particular instance.

2.) The in-world answer, I always thought, was simple and self-evident, but everyone always thinks it's very complicated. Space travel is expensive and the corporations are always looking to cut costs. If one of your colonists cannot help populate new planets, and can be easily replaced with a vial of semen, why would you bother paying to send them into space? Presumably genetics have advanced far enough that artificial semen can be generated, and through genetic coding, all babies can be kept female. (We're practically there already. I'm sure 300 years from now it'll all be de rigueur.) It's either implied or explicitly stated at some point that on backwaters like Earth where old-fashioned breeding still takes place, there are still a few men, but they would never appear on a corporate ship, station, or most colonies, except as a curiosity.

[Ian (RebelGeek)]

That certainly is a unique feature of your universe. Fascinating.

[Ricardo]

Stephen wrote: "Netanella wrote: "Sally wrote: "Johnny wrote: "Hi everyone! Thanks @Steve for doing this, highly appreciated :) I‘d love to join in and read the novella but unfortunately I can’t figure out where t..."
Thak you!!!

This book is out of print in Amazon, they do not have kindle edition.

[Netanella]

Ricardo, if you go to the very first post of this thread, you will find a dropbox link to download the book.

[Stephen]

Terry wrote: "Wow! So awesome!"

Thanks, Terry!

[Stephen]

Cassie wrote: "Sounds awesome can’t wait!"

Thanks much, Cassie!

[Michael]

I started today, approximately 20% finished so far.
It's a quick and captivating read.
I love good opening sentences and/or paragraphs, always admire a good "hook".
That first sentence really got me curious. What's in the bag? So many possibilities to consider. How many dark places can your imagination take you? I had to chuckle when I figured out what it was . . . .(view spoiler)[ Oh no you don't. I'm not giving it away that easily. You'll just need to read the first page like I did! (hide spoiler)]
A few pages later there were so many other things to worry about. Great beginning.

[Ricardo]

50% so far, I like the plot

[Michael]

At the 60% point.
Some really tight writing, lean and mean, makes for a quick and engaging read. First person narration makes this work excruciatingly well. Worried for her, and we don't even know her name yet.

[Hayley]

I absolutely loved this! The setting is fantastic, and as someone with a chronic illness I appreciate the frightening financial situations a person can get into with paying for medical care. There is true horror in this, as well as some gray moral areas. And the tension building is fantastic.

My question is - is there more? :D Edit: Just bought a copy of Hematophages. ;)

[Char]

We're doing a buddy read of The Hematophages next month, would you care to join us?

When I create the thread, I will post a link here.

[Michael]

I finished this morning. A great read, but a little disappointing in that so many details are not expanded upon or (pause for a smile) - - fleshed out. I loved what was there, but couldn't justify a rating more than three stars because of what was missing.
Stephen I love your explanation here about why there are no men in this story, but don't understand why you left that explanation out of the story. It's an interesting part of your world-building.
Had I read your answer at Message #68 I might not have posed the question about prequel vs sequel in my review. I thought about editing that out, but other readers who don't have the benefit of this group read will probably wonder the same thing - so it stays in.
Thanks so much, Stephen, for sharing this with us. My review is here . . . . .https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Stephen]

Hayley wrote: "I absolutely loved this! The setting is fantastic, and as someone with a chronic illness I appreciate the frightening financial situations a person can get into with paying for medical care. There ..."

Thanks so much, Hayley! I'm sorry to hear about your illness, but I'm glad it jibed with you. :)

In addition to THE HEMATOPHAGES I'll be revisiting this universe with the short story "Derelictus" in the second Negative Space anthology which should be out later this year. And...more to come. :)

[Hayley]

Awesome, Stephen! I'll keep an eye out. And Char, I'd absolutely love to join!

[Char]

That's great Hayley! I'll post here when I open the thread.

[Kimberly]

Looking forward to that one!!!

[Stephen]

Michael wrote: "I finished this morning. A great read, but a little disappointing in that so many details are not expanded upon or (pause for a smile) - - fleshed out. I loved what was there, but couldn't justify ..."

Hi, Michael. Thanks for the review! It's been a tricky needle to thread, whether people should start with SKINWRAPPER, which is chronologically first, or THE HEMATOPHAGES, which was written first.

The reason I didn't lean into the no men thing is because that's an element that's always frustrated me about science fiction. You and I don't walk around saying, "Let's hop into our automobiles (or "cars") which are powered by the internal combustion engine, invented by Henry Ford in the early 20th century..." or "As you know, the Austro-Hungarian Empire broke up after the First World War, so let's fly to Serbia, which is a country in eastern Europe..." People just don't discuss the things they accept about society. I know it's a choice not everybody agrees with, but that's how I felt about it. :)

[Netanella]

Yeah, I can buy that explanation. Info-world-building dumps are eyeball-numbing and completely unnecessary if an author can simply submerge the reader into the new world without any extraneous explanation. I think the details would need to emerge as the situations present themselves, say, for example, a pregnant character. Which you must likely would not get on a space station or ship, I assume.

[Michael]

Stephen wrote: "Michael wrote: "I finished this morning. A great read, but a little disappointing in that so many details are not expanded upon or (pause for a smile) - - fleshed out. I loved what was there, but c..."

Good points, Stephen. Thanks for sharing!

[Ricardo]

I finished it 2 days ago but I hadn't written the summary. I can say I liked it. It's an interesting story. I see that the descriptions could have been more detailed to increase the gore. There are very good images like (view spoiler)[Body parts float past in perfectly square chunks. Here’s a hand, neatly severed at the wrist in a perfect line. Here’s a cube of thigh, sliced to the bone, still hairy and imperfect on one side, but the other five forming perfect right angles carved out of the flesh (hide spoiler)]. The ending did not convince me much, although from the middle of the story it could be predicted. The other thing is that I don't know how much it adds to the story that (view spoiler)[she is urinating all the time, with those floating drops (hide spoiler)] . the last thing is that they would have been male or female, or both creop that does not put or add.

[Ricardo]

I forgot, I gave it 2 stars.

[Char]

Aww, that's a bummer Ricardo. I hope you enjoy your next read a little more.

[Char]

I have opened a thread for those of us that wanted to read The Hematophages. You can find it here:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Stephen, I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you for joining us! It was awesome that our readers were able to get the book free, so thank you for doing that as well. We really appreciate it!

[Ricardo]

Maybe we can creade a drive our own Tortuga Island

[Kimberly]

Thank you, Stephen! I'm looking forward to continuing with The Hematophages. :D

[Kerry]

I posted a review. Thank you so much for sharing your work with us, Stephen, and for organizing the read along, Char!

[Char]

Thanks, Kerry! I'm glad you had fun!

[Alan]

Thanks again for joining us Stephen, and it was great meeting you at STC!

[Stephen]

Kimberly wrote: "Thank you, Stephen! I'm looking forward to continuing with The Hematophages. :D"

Awesome to hear. Hope you enjoy it, Kimberly!

[Stephen]

Alan wrote: "Thanks again for joining us Stephen, and it was great meeting you at STC!"

Thanks for having me, Alan. Great to meet you, too!

[Stephen]

Aficionados! I wanted to give you all a heads up that I'll be hosting a SKINWRAPPER book club over on the Splatterpunk Horror Readers page on FB. (I would host one here, too, but Goodreads doesn't support video, sadly.) That'll be this Wednesday, August 24th, at 8:00 pm EST. Hope to see some of you there!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/17321...

[Char]

Thanks, Stephen!