Category: Science Fiction Page 18 of 34

My Favorite Audiobooks of 2021

On January 4, 2022

In Audiobook, Fantasy, Fiction, History, Humor, Kevin Hearne, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, News/Misc., Non-Fiction, Politics/Current Affairs, Rick Riordan, Science Fiction, Seanan McGuire, Toby Daye, Tufa, Urban Fantasy

My Favorite Audiobooks of 2021
Last year I kicked off my Year-End Retrospective with a look at my favorite audiobooks, I might as well repeat that this year. How do I keep this from being just a rehash of my other year-end lists? By focusing on the audiobook experience over the content. What was it like to listen to it? How engaging was it, how did the narrator do? Was it a good match in terms of tone, content, and performance? All of these books are/were good—but the audiobooks are a bit better because of the narrator and the rest of the people involved in the production.

(in alphabetical order by author)

The Hum and the Shiver

by Alex Bledsoe, Emily Janice Card(Narrator), Stefan Rudnicki (Narrator)

This was my third or fourth trip through this book (maybe, fifth, but I don’t think so). I’m not sure if that means it was easy for me to be impressed—or maybe it was really hard because I had high expectations. Regardless, Rudnicki and Card took me to Cloud County and the land of the Tufa. I could believe that these people lived, breathed, and walked around in this world—and yet were otherworldly, as they ought to be. I knew Rudnicki could make me believe in a Fantasy world—it turns out that he can make me believe in this one, too. Card was right there with him.

4 Stars

Finlay Donovan Is Killing It

by Elle Cosimano, Angela Dawe (Narration)

My original post
This is on the list because of Dawe’s narration. The text was entertaining enough, sure, but her narration is what made sure I remembered the book during the list-making time. The novel was a tricky balancing act between the various tones and characters, and Dawe makes you believe it. She captured the comedic sense of the novel along with the tension and emotional moments. There were a few accents involved and she did a believable job with them, too.

3.5 Stars

A Christmas Carol: A Signature Performance by Tim Curry

by Charles Dickens, Tim Curry (Narrator)

My original post
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: all you need to know about this is: Tim Curry. This wasn’t the performance I expected—I figured I was in for something near to over-the-top, with Curry going to town with the text. Instead, we’re treated to a respectful, restrained performance giving Dickens’ classic just the right emotional weight, sentimentality, personality, and life.

5 Stars

In This Bright Future

by Peter Grainger, Gildart Jackson (Narrator)

My original post
Grainger and Jackson together have made this one of my Top 3 audiobook series, period. So my only question was how many of the books would end up on this list. I ended up limiting myself to one, and therefore it had to be this one—we get so little of our typical characters and settings, but Jackson is able to make Belfast as warm and homey as King’s Lake. There are elevated dangers and emotions in this book that we don’t typically get with D.C. Smith, but Jackson doesn’t miss a beat. Grainger puts D.C. through his paces, too. Both are at the top of their game—making D.C. at the top of his, too.

4 Stars

Ink & Sigil

by Kevin Hearne, Luke Daniels (Narrator)

Even though a pro like Luke Daniels is constantly doing voices/accents for his characters and the narration is almost never his “natural” voice (assuming he even has one anymore), I have to think that maintaining a Glaswegian accent for as long as he did for this book (ten hours and change, I think) has to be an added level of difficulty. Not that you can tell from listening to this. I thought the novel was a rollicking good time and just the way you should introduce a new series. The audiobook version just cemented that.

4 1/2 Stars

The Unkindest Tide

by Seanan McGuire, Mary Robinette Kowal (Narrator)

This novel was the payoff (as far as we know so far, I wouldn’t put it past McGuire to turn it upside down later) to a storyline that had been lingering and building for years, I remember being stunned when reading it—just that aspect of The Unkindest Tide brought a great combination of anticipation, grief, suspense, and surprise. The story of the novel—the trip to the Duchy of Ships, the intrigue around Dianda, etc. was as solid as it gets, too. I remembered all this going in, so it was all teed up for Kowal—and she nailed it, it almost felt like I hadn’t read the book before and was discovering it fresh. A narrator who can do that is tops in my book.

4 1/2 Stars

We Had a Little Real Estate Problem: The Unheralded Story of Native Americans and Comedy

by Kliph Nesteroff

My original post
As I was trimming down the list of audiobooks I listened to last year for this list, I didn’t expect that this would stay on the list. A history of Native Americans in Comedy, really? But I kept not deleting it…so I started thinking of it—there’s a social history, an entertainment history, with individual profiles mixed it—it has it all. What’s more, despite a pretty dry (but never boring) narration, and not using clips of original performances, the comedy of these individuals comes through. In the midst of hardship, suffering, prejudice, and hard breaks, there are some solid laughs. It’s hard not to keep thinking about that.

4 Stars

Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods

by Rick Riordan, Jesse Bernstein (Narrator)

I started working on a post last year about contemporary myth retellings (and I intend on finishing it before my unconceived grandkids are ready to read it), and listened to this as part of that. In many ways, the book and the information didn’t fare well compared to things like Gaiman and Fry have recently produced. But this is here and they’re not—because as an audiobook this is a great experience. Bernstein is Percy Jackson here, and it felt like something ol’ Percy was sitting down and relating to future Camp Halfblood residents. It inspired me to listen to the original Percy Jackson series again just so I can listen to Bernstein perform this character.

3 Stars

You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories about Racism

by Amber Ruffin, Lacey Lamar

My original post
I’m still telling people about this audiobook/book nine months later. I can’t think of a book that made me angrier, sadder, or made me laugh as much in 2021 (or a few years before it, either). This did all three. Ruffin’s narration, Lamar’s stories, their hurt, and their optimism make this a must-listen.

4 1/2 Stars

The Salvage Crew

by Yudhanjaya Wijeratne, Nathan Fillion (Narrator)

My original post
This is a very strange SF story about a sentient AI (based on the memories and personality of an engineer). I think I’d have enjoyed the story had I read the novel, but it’s Nathan Fillion that brought it to life. That same charm that makes you like Caleb, Mal, Castle, and Nolan shines forth and makes you believe in this malfunctioning (at least eccentrically-functioning) AI and get invested in the AI’s survival and that of his ragtag crew.

4 Stars

Catch-Up Quick Takes: A Few 2021 Books I Can’t do a Full Post About

By HCNewton

On December 30, 2021

In Audiobook, C. J. Box, Fiction, Joe Pickett, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller, Non-Fiction, Science Fiction, Urban Fantasy

The point of these quick takes posts is to catch up on my “To Write About” stack—emphasizing pithiness, not thoroughness.

Super Powereds: Year 1

by Drew Hayes, Kyle McCarley (Narrator)
Series: Super Powereds, #1
Unabridged Audiobooks, 26 hrs., 11 min.
Tantor Audio, 2016
Read: November 19-25, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

(the official blurb)
Lander University has a program that most universities don’t. They offer a Hero Certification Program—a way for super-powered students to become qualified to be a super-hero. This book focuses on five particular students—they’re not just super-powered, they’ve got a secret, too.

As the title suggests, this book follows them over the first year—as they grow, increase in power and ability, develop bonds, and so on. The book is a nice mashup of superhero training and dumb college kids being dumb college kids.

I went into this expecting something that felt a lot like Fred, the Vampire Accountant. This was less like it than I thought possible—it’s much longer, it doesn’t feel like a collection of interconnected short stories, it’s a novel.

I was impressed at how different it is, sure. But I liked the story, world, and characters. I’m not sure I’m up for four more in this series, but I have a feeling that Hayes will change my mind.

3.5 Stars

Master of Formalities

by Scott Meyer, Luke Daniels (Narrator)
Unabridged Audiobook, 14 hrs., 58 min.
Brilliance Audio, 2015
Read: November 12-17, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

(the official blurb)
Thousands of years in the future, elaborate rules of honor, etiquette, and form have been imposed on the planetary governments to preserve order—even in the midst of war. We’re talking rules that Downton Abbey’s Carson would find overly elaborate and restrictive.

Two planets have been at war for decades—but things have come to a tipping point. It’s up to the two arbiters of these rules on these planets to keep things under control.

This book did something I didn’t expect—I would have admitted it was possible, but wouldn’t have expected that Scott Meyers and Luke Daniels produced something that left me frequently bored and that I had a hard time connecting with at all. It was clever, but that cleverness strayed into convolutedness in the plot. Good enough to listen to, but by a hair.

3 Stars

See Her Die

by Melinda Leigh
Series: Bree Taggert, #2
Kindle Edition, 315 pg.
Montlake, 2020
Read: September 30-October 2, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

(the official blurb)
I don’t have much to say about this book, which is why it’s here, but I wish I did. There’s just something nice about this series, and I’d like to talk about it more.

This is really a follow-up to the first in the series—okay, so Bree got herself the job, what’s she going to do with it? How are the vets in the department and the community as a whole going to handle her coming in? How is she going to do with the whole parental figure for her niece and nephew? Etc. We don’t get definitive answers, but we get some good ideas.

But more importantly, there’s a creepy killer on the loose. In the end, that story is both too outlandish to buy, and I can actually imagine reading about this happening.

I’m coming back for more.

3 Stars

Cold Wind

by C. J. Box, David Chandler (Narrator)
Series: Joe Pickett, #11
Unabridged Audiobook, 11 hrs., 13 min.
Recorded Books, 2011
Read: August 23-24, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

(the official blurb)
Wow. There’s a lot going on in this one. The events of the Nate story were horrible, but Box pulled it off in a way that will be good for the character/series long-term.

Killing Missy’s husband Earl on the other hand…well, like Joe himself, I’m not crazy about any time we spend with Missy, so making her a focal point of a novel isn’t going to make me thrilled with it. But, I ended up really liking this one, too.

These books don’t inspire a lot of thought or writing from me—and maybe they should—but I do consistently enjoy them. Chandler’s narration is solid as ever. At this point, I don’t think I can switch to the print version of the series—I need his voice for Joe and the gang.

4 Stars

Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses

by Kristen O’Neal
Hardcover, 379 pg.
Quirk Publishing, 2021
Read: June 2, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

(the official blurb)
It’s really bothering me that I haven’t gotten a full post out of this yet—and it’s been long enough (and I lost my notes) that anything I end up saying will be super vague and would be too much work to get a longer post.

In a Discord support for chronic illnesses, a group of people from around the world from a variety of age groups, come together to share struggles common to people with a variety of ailments and disorders. A couple of them realize they live nearby and strike up a friendship. Eventually, one of them disappears from contact for too long, so the other takes it upon herself to go try to find her friend IRL.

It turns out that this friend’s chronic illness is a case of lycanthrophy—things get strange and heartwarming from there.

A lot of this is told in modern-epistolary: texts, emails, Discord chats, tumblr posts, etc., etc. I loved the jumble of methods used to tell the story. It really captures the feel for these characters and their lives.

If you look at places like Goodreads, you’ll see a lot of controversy about elements of this book. I didn’t know about any of it until I’d read the book. 96% of what I saw doesn’t reflect the book, and seems to stem from one or two people who hadn’t read the book. Ignore it all.

This was a fun, earnest story that addresses serious things like living with chronic disease and finding your place in the world along with silly things like Lycanthropy and excessive binge-watching with friends. A nice break from reality that maybe helps you think about some things.

3 Stars

Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives

by Tim Hartford, Nicholas Guy Smith (Narrator)
Unabridged Audiobook, 9 hrs., 45 min.
Penguin Audio, 2016
Read: December 16-17, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

(the official blurb)
I think I’m going to have to make a point to listen to more Hartford books—between the time I put this on my TBR list and picking it up, I’d forgotten it was by the man behind The Data Detective.

The basic premise is this—people who are messy (not those full of utter chaos in habits or possessions), function better than those who are ruled by rigid standards—either metaphorically or literally. When rules (primarily at work) are too inflexible it hurts productivity and satisfaction in the work.

So let people organize their work and workplaces as they will, don’t impose a filing system on people who don’t want it, etc. Sure, keep things tidy, but beyond that…let the individual reign. That’s a horrible oversimplification, but to do it justice would take…well, most of this book. Just go with that as a thumbnail and read/listen to it. It’s entertaining, thought-provoking, and empowering.

I think this went on a bit too long—perhaps if the last couple of chapters had been excised, it would’ve been better. But I might change my mind on a re-read/re-listen.

3.5 Stars

Stuff You Should Know:
An Incomplete Compendium
of Mostly Interesting Things

by Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant
Unabridged Audiobook, 9 hrs.
Macmillan Audio, 2020
Read: December 27-28, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

(the official blurb)
Very little (if any) of this fits into things I should know, and I’m glad the subtitle talks about “Mostly Interesting” things. It’s a strange hodgepodge of in-depth look at topics like…the history of facial hair, Murphy beds, Mezcal, and child prodigies.

It was fine, but nothing special. Before I started it, I figured this would end up turning me into a subscriber to the podcast. It didn’t, but I can see why people would listen to it—the narrators/hosts are pretty engaging and had an interesting approach to their explanations. Maybe it was these topics, the randomness of the topics, or…I don’t know. I just didn’t see the point. It made for a good soundtrack to my workday, but within two days, I’ve pretty much forgotten everything I heard.

2 1/2 Stars

This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase from any of them, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

Daughter of the Deep by Rick Riordan: An Overdue Sequel to Verne’s Nemo Stories

By HCNewton

On November 26, 2021

In Fiction, Rick Riordan, Science Fiction, YA/MG/Children's Books

Daughter of the Deep

by Rick Riordan

Hardcover, 336 pg.
Disney-Hyperion, 2021

Read: November 18-22, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

What’s Daughter of the Deep About?

So here’s the thing—the events and characters of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island are based on actual events and people—but Verne was given a few skewed details. One hundred-fifty years later, descendants of these people are running rival schools their ancestors founded, the Land Institute and the Harding-Pencroft Academy.

Students at HP are only told about their origins at a certain point, and their mission is to graduate future leaders in a variety of disciplines to guard the science that Nemo developed and slowly, carefully introduce it to the world.

Land Institute students are told their origins earlier and their mission is to rush that science out into the world—even if by doing so, it’ll unleash societal upheaval, economic trouble, and will upend established science for years.

The two schools are in sort of a cold war until the Land Institute launches an attack on HP, and the freshman class has to head to sea to try to survive. While on the run, the class is told about HP’s origins and our central character, Ana Dakkar, learns about her family history, forcing her to take a leadership position and more.

Can Ana and the rest of the freshman survive the Land Institute*? Can they utilize Nemo’s technology in ways no one else has? Who will control Nemo’s heritage?

* It is unfortunate that the ocean-going HP Academy is rivaled by the “Land Institute.” It feels a little too-on-the-nose, even though it’s named for Ned Land.

Plausibility

Because this is aimed at the MG crowd, I can buy the whole “a bunch of preteens/teens outsmart and outperform dangerous and super-smart older teens” nature of the plot—it’s pretty much a given in the genre.

Also, the whole Land Institute teachers/administrators allowing students to start killing people is a pretty hard pill to swallow. For some reason, I had an easier time buying competing mythological figures setting teens against teens.

But hey…if it’s in a universe where everything in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is based on reality, and that Nemo’s tech worked (and still does!)? Well, hey, I can buy a little less-than-plausible High School actions.

So, what did I think about Daughter of the Deep?

I had a lot of fun with this. A goofy premise, but well-executed. I dug the characters, the action was solid and the pacing was good—enough to keep the reader engaged and entertained, while giving enough breathing room for a little character development.

And there’s a giant cephalopod—every undersea adventure needs one of them.

If this is the beginning of a series (and it feels like it), there’s a good chance I’ll come back for more. But honestly? I think it’d be better as a stand-alone.

Either way, this is a fun ride—and one that’ll hopefully spur the target audience into giving Jules Verne himself a try.

3.5 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

Junkyard Bargain (eBook) by Faith Hunter: Sometimes getting what you want is painful

By HCNewton

On October 20, 2021

In Book Tour, Faith Hunter, Fiction, Science Fiction, Uncategorized

Junkyard Bargain

by Faith Hunter
Series: Shining Smith, #2

eARC, 166 pages
Lore Seekers Press, 2021

Read: October 16-18, 2021

Back in March, I talked about this as an Audible Original. And I’m going to borrow from that, but the eBook is a different experience, so we’ll talk about that a little bit, too.

The Law was uncertain. Vengeance wasn’t.

What’s Junkyard Bargain About?

Shining Smith needs to gear up and improve her weapons and armor if they’re going to take on the task they have ahead of them. This means traveling to Charleston, and selling some of the junk from her scrapyard, and making the right deals.

Standing in their way are rival bike gangs, corrupt police, sex slavers, and random other criminals. Whatever else happens—Shining isn’t going to allow those slavers to hang on to their captives (and likely won’t let them hang on to their lives, either). She needs to avoid the police, strike careful deals with the gangs, and survive the rest—all the while she’s noticing changes in her cats and expands the control Shining’s won enhancements have on those closest to her.

It’s really hard to explain without pretty much recapping everything in the first book.

Shining’s Thralls and Allies

This time through the book, Cupcake, Jagger, Mateo, and Jolene—Shining’s Thralls—grabbed my attention to various degrees more than they had before. Don’t get me wrong, this is Shining’s story and she’s a character that’s worth dissecting.

But what Hunter has done with these secondary characters is really interesting. Cupcake, for example, changes a lot over the course of these pages—due to what’s required of her as well as what happens to her. There’s a lot to Cupcake that’s been latent, but she’s never had a reason/opportunity to express. Now she’s been given that opportunity…I can’t wait to see what Cupcake gets up to in the next installment.

The rest of the thralls all end up doing things that Shining doesn’t expect (this is hard to get into while staying away from spoilers). The way this works out both in the closing pages of this book and in the next is likely going to make or break this series.

Getting back to Shining—one thing that Hunter’s protagonists tend to share is that they’re coming to greater understandings of their abilities (and developing them) in each book. This applies just as much to her post-apocalyptic SF hero as it does to her Urban Fantasy protagonists. It’s just about her nanobots instead of magic.

A Different Experience

This isn’t evaluative, I just figured it deserved a mention. While I’ve frequently moved from reading a book to re-reading it via audiobook, I’ve never moved from audio to text before, so this was an interesting experience just for that. For one thing, I finally learned how to spell “Berger chip.”

I did think that I related to the text, story, and characters differently when reading as opposed to listening—although part of that is due to the fact that this was my second exposure to Junkyard Bargain. It’s like getting to read the screenplay/script for a movie/play that you’re familiar with. I did find that most of the characters “sounded” a lot like Khristine Hvam as I read the dialogue.

I’m definitely still going to listen to the third Shining Smith book when it’s released on audio, but I’m also going to be making sure I get the ebook later (which I didn’t do for Junkyard Cats…yet).

So, what did I think about Junkyard Bargain?

I absolutely love this world. I don’t think one more novella is going to be enough to satisfy my curiosity. I’m going to need more somehow—it doesn’t necessarily have to be about Shining Smith.

After Junkyard Cats took several unexpected turns in the latter half, I didn’t know what to expect from this beyond more of the same. This novella may have ended up where it seemed to be heading from the beginning, but the route it took bore so little difference to what was expected that it’s hard to recognize that. Hunter is filling this post-apocalyptic world with more dangers and strangeness than we’d been exposed to last time, and you know the next installment will increase the danger.

When talking about the last book, I said that it was too brief and not deep enough. This isn’t the case this time—and not just because it was 40 minutes longer. This time it felt like there was a solid match between depth and time—to the point I wondered how she fit it all in the novella-length book.

There were some great action scenes, some solid surprises, and good character development. And…cats with telepathy. I can’t wait to see what #3 has in store.

3 Stars

EXCERPT from Junkyard Bargain by Faith Hunter: A Breakfast Conversation

By HCNewton

On October 20, 2021

In Book Tour, Faith Hunter, Fiction, Quotations, Science Fiction

from Junkyard Bargain by Faith Hunter

“I love broccoli,” I said, shoveling beets into my mouth. “I had broccoli pesto once. It’s good.”

“Oh my god, yes. Anything with garlic and pine nuts is good. You ever tried Brussels sprouts pesto? So good! The greenhouse is just blooming up a storm,” she nattered on now that I had contributed to the conversation, once again cheery, her blue eyes sparkling. I ate and heard her say, “That new hemp mesh Mateo and I strung up? The stuff that was left over from shading the greenhouse compound? We put it up on aisle Tango three.”

“Mmm,” I said, now scooping in the pancakes. Trying not to puke at the growing rotten-finger stench.

“This place needs a good cleaning,” she said. “It’s getting kinda rank in here.”

“Right. Soon. New hemp mesh?” I reminded her.

“It’s absorbing and capturing moisture out of the night air like a dream. Come winter, we might bring in enough to actually get a shower once a week.”

That caught my attention. I swigged my coffee so I could talk. She poured me more. “Fresh water?” I asked.

“Nearly a week’s supply for drinking and watering the greenhouse, in a little over ten days,” she said, pouring herself a cup of coffee. “We think we can do twice that in winter.”

My hand, holding the fancy fork, halted halfway to my mouth. “That’s … That’s really good.”

“It’s not a full replacement, yet,” she prattled, “but not bad for summer, and if Mateo and I can get that water tower off the office roof and patch it up, we’ll have a good place to store water.”

Something like pleasure, maybe mixed with joy, flowed through me—a rare and unexpected sensation. “I’m … I’m proud of you, Cupcake.”

Cupcake’s blue eyes widened. Her color went high as she blossomed at the praise. “Eat,” she ordered, pointing at my meal, shaking with elation.

I didn’t praise her enough. I had to remember to do that. I ate. The buckwheat and millet pancakes were tasty enough. The roasted beets were surprisingly sweet and tender.

“It’s good.”

She hid her smile in her coffee cup. That was the thing about thralls. They were eager to please, needed to please, quite literally might die if they couldn’t find a way to serve and didn’t get attention from their nanobot-donor queen. She set down her cup, whipped a nail file out of her pocket, and reached for my left hand. “Not this morning,” I said softly. To keep her from freezing in uncertainty, I continued, “Tell me more about the netting and the free water.” Then, because it made her glow, I added, “This is exciting.”

Read the rest in Junkyard Bargain by Faith Hunter to see what happens from here—and all the new ways that Cupcake finds to serve.

My thanks to Let’s Talk! Promotions for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials (including the book via NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group) they provided.

BOOK SPOTLIGHT: Junkyard Bargain by Faith Hunter

By HCNewton

On October 20, 2021

In Book Tour, Faith Hunter, Fiction, Science Fiction

Today I’m very pleased to welcome the Book Tour for the e-book release of the second Shining Smith novella, Junkyard Bargain by Faith Hunter. Along with this spotlight post, I have a fun excerpt to share. I’ll be giving my take on the novella a little later. Those links’ll work when the posts go live in an hour or two.

First, let’s take a look at Junkyard Bargain.

Book Details:

Book Title: Junkyard Bargain by Faith Hunter
Publisher: Lore Seekers Press
Release date: October 19, 2021
Format: Ebook
Length: 166 pages
ISBN: 9781622681648

Book Blurb:

Sometimes before you can face your enemies—you need to confront yourself.

Time is running out for Shining Smith and her crew to gather the weapons they need to rescue one of their own. But will they even make it to the ultimate battle? First, they’ll need to hit the road to Charleston—a hell ride full of bandits, sex slavers, corrupt lawmen, and criminal bike gangs looking to move in on Shining’s territory.

Shining’s human allies will do anything to protect her—because they must. But will victory be worth it if she must compel more and more people to do her bidding? And will her feline warriors, the junkyard cats, remain loyal and risk their lives? Or are they just in it for the kibble?

Purchase Links

Barnes & Noble ~ Amazon

About Faith Hunter:

Faith Hunter is the award-winning New York Times and USAToday bestselling author of the Jane Yellowrock, Soulwood, Rogue Mage, and Junkyard Cats series. In addition, she has edited several anthologies and co-authored the Rogue Mage RPG. She is the coauthor and author of 16 thrillers under pen names Gary Hunter and Gwen Hunter. Altogether she has 40+ books and dozens of short stories in print and is juggling multiple projects.

She sold her first book in 1989 and hasn’t stopped writing since.

Faith collects orchids and animal skulls, loves thunderstorms, and writes. She likes to cook soup, bake bread, garden, and kayak Class II & III whitewater rivers. She edits the occasional anthology and drinks a lot of tea. Some days she’s a lady. Some days she ain’t.

Find Faith online at:

Website ~ Facebook (official) ~ Facebook Fan Group ~ Twitter ~

Yellowrock Securities website ~ Gwen Hunter website

My thanks to Let’s Talk! Promotions for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials (including the book via NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group) they provided.

BOOK SPOTLIGHT: The Adventures of Tevin and Ryn – Part 1 by J. Spackman

By HCNewton

On October 1, 2021

In Fiction, Science Fiction

I just don’t have time to read every book that comes my way, but I’d like to do my part to expose them to as many eyeballs as I can. So, from time to time, I’ll post a Spotlight to lend a hand. If SF novellas filled with dystopian tech are up your alley, you should jump on it.

Book Details:

Book Title: The Adventures of Tevin and Ryn – Part 1 by J. Spackman
Release date: June 25, 2021
Format: Kindle
Length: 66 pages

Book Blurb:

The Adventures of Tevin and Ryn is a series of fast-moving short novels of a futuristic world filled with dystopian technology. In Part 1, Tevin, a teenage orphan and young first-year professor, learns that Bliss Island has a dark side run by Damian, an evil tycoon. Ryn, pretending to be his student assistant at the university, joins him on many adventures that take them across Bliss Island and the neighboring Ghost Island. Throughout the series, they find themselves in situations where many friendships are formed and tested, love blossoms, mysteries are solved, family secrets are revealed, sporting events are hacked, revolutions are started, children are rescued, treasure is found and lost, and a new society is born of an ancient legend.

About the Author:

Back in 2010, I met with Dr. Stephen Yanchar in the Instructional Pyschology & Technology department of Brigham Young University to talk about my dissertation. The major thought rattling around inside my head centered on treating students like humans with agency rather than like programmable computers or trainable animals. If we were to treat students as humans with agency, then what kind of learning opportunities would be ideal? Dr. Yanchar and I published “Learning as Embodied Familiarization” as our learning theory.

Then I finished my dissertation “Exploring the Narrative-Oriented Qualities of the Learner’s Encounter with Unfamiliarity” and received my PhD.

Following my dissertation, I decided to begin work on creating an example of the type of learning opportunities I initially set out to find where students were treated as humans with agency. In my spare time, that example turned into a six-book series of fast-moving short novels about the adventures of Tevin and Ryn. The main characters exemplify learning as embodied familiarzation and also explore narrative or storytelling as the medium.

Social Media

LinkedIn ~ Facebook

Purchase Links

Amazon

BOOK BLITZ: The Entrant (Antigravity Racing League Book One) by Rock Forsberg

By HCNewton

On September 28, 2021

In Book Tour, Fiction, Science Fiction

This morning I’m pleased to host a Book Blitz for Rock Forsberg’s The Entrant—book one in the Antigravity Racing League—to celebrate its publication today. It looks like a heckuva ride.

Book Details:

Book Title: The Entrant by Rock Forsberg
Series: Antigravity Racing League
Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
Release date: September 28, 2021
Format: Ebook/Paperback
Length: 378 pages

Book Blurb:

The ARL race crafts run on sonic speeds just a few metres from the track and race massive rollercoaster circuits all across the galaxy. It is the biggest sport under the federation.

Zane Silvering, the son of an ARL legend, races in a local antigravity league and dreams of making it big in the galaxy.

On his eighteenth birthday, after being kicked out of his team, an ARL team offers him a position as a substitute. Despite the warning signs, he seizes the opportunity, and boards a massive spaceship, the mobile base of a team competing for the galactic championship.

But the life of an ARL racer isn’t as easy as he thought. The crafts are raw and powerful, the competition relentless—also inside his team—and the game sometimes gets dirty. Just to get to race, he has to beat some of the galaxy’s best racers.

And there’s more to the team than racing: a group of them run secret missions for the enigmatic owner. Soon Zane works night-shift as their getaway pilot.

When the day and night jobs meet, he must step out of his father’s shadow, and race, not only for the glory, but for his life.

If you like underdog stories, awe-inspiring galactic trekking, and high-adrenaline racing, The Entrant will keep you strapped to your seat until the finish line.

Purchase Links:

Amazon UK ~ Amazon US

About the Author:

Rock Forsberg is a science fiction author. He loves awe-inspiring stories and started writing so that he could create epic worlds and stories of his own. He has also written songs, poems, and short stories, both in English and in Finnish. He considers writing to be a long game, with a lifetime of learning, and dozens of novels to write.

A dual citizen of Finland and Australia, he splits his time between Helsinki, Finland and Sydney, Australia. If he not writing, he’s reading, keeping fit (he’s a health geek), playing guitar, or enjoying time with his family and friends.

My thanks to Love Books Group for the invitation to participate in this Blitz.

Firefly: The Magnificent Nine by James Lovegrove: The Hero of Canton Lives!

By HCNewton

On August 12, 2021

In Fiction, Science Fiction

I could go on for a long time about all sorts of details about this book while still avoiding spoilers, but I’m going to force myself to be brief. However long this ends up being, just know, it’s probably about 1/4-1/3 the length I wanted it to go.

Firefly: The Magnificent Nine

by James Lovegrove
Series: Firefly, #2

Hardcover, 384 pg.
Titan Books, 2019

Read: July 27-28, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

“If” he said, and he repeated the word for emphasis, “if I go along with this entirely hare-brained idea, which’ll most likely end up gettin’ us all killed, Jayne’ll be in my debt.”

“That he surely will.”

“And I’ll have this to rub his nose in for months to come.”

“Again, yes.”

Mal crooked one corner of his mouth. “Then what the heck? I’m in. Just tell me this: when did a shipload of criminals, desperadoes, and fugitives become such a bunch of do-gooders?”

Inara had the answer. “When their captain showed them how.”

What’s The Magnificent Nine About?

Fourteen years ago, Temperance Jones walked out of Jayne Cobb’s life without warning. They’d been partners in crime for some time—and in a few other ways, too. Now, while Serenity and her crew are between jobs, Temperance (now using McCloud as a last name) sends Jayne a message—her town’s water supply is being held hostage by a local gang called the Scourers. If they aren’t stopped, her small town, like many others on the planet already—will fall to this group and what little water they have will come at too steep a price.

Mal’s not interested in helping, but the rest of the crew remembers how not long ago, they did something similar for Inara’s friend Nandi—and that went okay, right? (well, eventually). So they convince the Captain that this is the right thing to do.

It was probably when Wash almost didn’t out-maneuver a heat-seeking missile—which still resulted in Serenity being disabled for days—that everyone realized that this was going to be harder than defending Nandi’s ranch. But now, they had to find some way to stop the Scourers to save Temperance’s town and their own lives.

Oh, and somewhere along the way, someone needs to do some thinking about why the not-quite-fourteen-year-old daughter of Temperance is named Jane.

Random Observations

I’m not going to let myself fully geek out about this book, but some of the highlights and/or things I’d like to spend a lot of time discussing include:
bullet River got to talk to more cows!
bullet Shepherd Book’s Christianity was a little more pronounced than I’m used to (and they actually explicitly called it “Christianity”–it was always clear that’s what it was, but no one ever used the C-word in the show/movie)
bullet While trying to fly the ship away from the missile, Wash remembered the words of “his Zen Buddhist flight instructor”: You are a leaf on the wind. I almost threw the book away at that point, why do that to me?
bullet River defended Serenity using blades and guns—and was (again) the hero of the moment.
bullet Wash and Zoë have some great moments together. Zoë has some pretty good moments that have nothing to do with Wash, too.
bullet The Chapter titles (one of those things I never pay enough attention to) are even pretty fun: “The Inevitable Bar Brawl” and “Landmines of an Improvised and Somewhat Homespun Nature,” for example.
bullet Jayne described talking to River as “a radio and the signal keeps hopping, changing channels at random.” Hard to beat that.

So, what did I think about The Magnificent Nine?

This is just so much fun. Lovegrove captures the feel of the show and the voices of the characters so, so, so well that it’s impossible not to enjoy the book if you liked Firefly.

Is there anything else to say, really? This was a satisfying, entertaining, and nostalgic ride with Serenity, with the bonus of getting some good focus on Jayne Cobb—and maybe seeing him in a better light than you’d be tempted to otherwise.

3.5 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

The Irresponsible Reader On…Self-Published Science Fiction

By HCNewton

On July 22, 2021

In Books, Fiction, Miscellany, News/Misc., Science Fiction, Self-Published Authors Appreciation Week

Self-Published Authors Appreciation Week

From the first moment that people did the strange thing of asking me to talk about their books on my blog, I’ve been impressed by the quality of a lot of what’s been published by authors going out on their own, taking all the risks, shouldering all the responsibility and doing all the work to get their words, their dreams, their blood, sweat, and tears. This should be celebrated—it’s definitely appreciated, as we’re trying to show this week.

I haven’t had time to read anything new for Self-Published Authors Appreciation Week, and therefore don’t have anything new to blog about, so I’m going to highlight some of the self-published works that I’ve blogged about over the last few years—just a sentence or two. Hopefully enough to make you click on the link to the full post. Beyond that, it’d be great if I inspired you to add a few of these to your TBR. Also, be sure you check out the other posts over at the SPAAW Hub.

Today we’re going to be looking at Self-Published Science Fiction. Old tropes in new garb, fresh ideas, and a creativity that astounds. These authors are well worth your time and money.

bullet The Elites by Matt Cowper—a Batman-esque figure rebuilds a government-sponsored team of heroes. They take on super-villains of all stripes and even an alien invasion.
bullet The World Savers (my post about it)
bullet Rogue Superheroes (my post about it)
bullet Nightfall (my post about it)
bullet Children of the Different by S. C. Flynn—a very different kind of YA take on post-apocalypse life in Austrailia. (my post about it)
bullet Full Metal Superhero by Jeffery H. Haskell—a young technical genius who lost the use of her legs in the accident that cost her parents their lives creates an Iron Man-esque suit and starts fighting crime in the hopes to be recruited into an Avengers/Justice League-type team. I’ve frequently talked on the blog (and even in this series of posts) about being frustrated that I haven’t caught up with a series. This one really gets to me. There’s also a spin-off series that looks great.
bullet Arsenal (my post about it)
bullet Unstoppable Arsenal (my post about it)
bullet Darkside Earther by Bradley Horner—this is a series about a privileged group of teens trying to get through school and into adulthood while on a space station orbiting Earth. Their parents are the elite of humanity and are trying to mold their children into very different types of leaders.
bullet Darkside Earther (my post about it)
bullet Degrading Orbits (my post about it)
bullet Saul by Bradley Horner—a professor of nanotech tries to save his daughter in the middle of a global catastrophe. (my post about it)
bullet Serengeti by J.B. Rockwell—a damaged warship–and the AI who operates it–attempts to rejoin the fleet.
bullet Serengeti (my post about it)
bullet Dark and Stars (my post about it)
bullet The FATOFF Conspiracy by Olga Werby—Americans have lost the war on obesity and all but the elitist of the elite are dangerously obese (while tucking away a good portion of that fat into a pocket dimension), in pain, struggling, dying young, and yet eating almost constantly. (my post about it)
bullet Genrenauts by Michael R. Underwood—Parallel to our world are various worlds populated by fictional characters in a wide variety of genres (Western, SF, Romance, etc), and when things go wrong in the stories, things go wrong in our world. n this world, there are a number of teams of story specialists who shift to the other worlds to fix the stories and set things back on course here. The first two novellas in this series were published by Tor, but after that, Underwood took it over himself.
bullet The Cupid Reconciliation (my post about it)
bullet The Substitute Sleuth (my post about it)
bullet The Failed Fellowship (my post about it)
bullet Genrenauts: The Complete Season One Collection—a compendium of all the novellas/stories in Season 1. (my post about it)
bullet The Data Disruption—a Season One Prequel (my post about it)
bullet The Wasteland War—Season Two kicks off (my post about it)

If you’re a self-published author that I’ve featured on this blog and I didn’t mention you in this post and should have. I’m sorry (unless you’re this guy). Please drop me a line, and I’ll fix this. I want to keep this regularly updated so I keep talking about Self-Published Authors.