Category: Science Fiction Page 6 of 30

EXCERPT from Eclipse by Herman Steuernagel: A Rescue?

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from Eclipse by Herman Steuernagel

Chapter 4

Mikka Jenax
The Redemption

“This is taking too long. Why is this waystation so backed up?”

Mikka Jenax paced the bridge of the Redemption, hands behind her back. She was brooding, but she didn’t care. They had been waiting for over an hour, stuck in the queue.

The waystation wasn’t typically a stopping point for regular traffic, which was what irked Mikka the most. If this was the way orbital traffic was going, rum-running through the sector was going to be a nightmare, but it wasn’t as though she had any other career paths laid out for her.

“A wave of leftover debris from the Infinity.” Kiara Ryson strode across the shuttle, assuming her seat in the cockpit. Mikka shook her head as the woman straightened her faux leather jacket and pulled her sunglasses down over her face.

“I know that, genius, but the Syndicate’s had seven years to clean this mess. I’m tired of it backing up the transport corridors.”

“Just sit back and wait it out. We get paid either way.” Kiara’s matching brown boots found their way onto the edge of the console, and she crossed her legs at the ankles and leaned back. With the woman’s short frame, her feet barely reached the panel from the navigation console’s seat.

Agitation coursed through Mikka’s veins, and she couldn’t calm herself enough to sit. Kiara’s laid-back attitude was usually a godsend, an anchor in her spaceport, but right now, with their next round of credits on the line, it was infuriating. Mikka adjusted her own gray jacket and ran a hand through her coarse black hair before reaching under the counter of the navigational console and pulling out a bottle of whiskey.

Might as well enjoy some decent alcohol while we’re waiting. Stars know, there won’t be any once we get to Lunar.

“We’ll get paid for this load,” she said as she poured, “but we’ll be late for the next one. Every hour of delay means credits off our paycheck.”

“And what do you propose we do? There’s a river of debris between the stations we have to navigate around. I’m not about to blow a hole through our engines for a couple chips.”

“I’m not proposing we do anything.” Mikka swilled the drink in her glass, watching as the artificial gravity pulled the droplets against its side, before draining its contents in a single shot. “I just hate sitting around. I’ve got bills to pay.”

“I do too, but you don’t hear me whining.”

“Times are tight. My mother’s not getting any better.”

Pfft.” Kiara waved a hand dismissively. “Times are always tight. You worry too much.”

Mikka bit her tongue as she poured another drink. She sipped this one slowly, allowing the woody taste of the alcohol to coat her tongue and throat as it slipped down. The amber liquid still bore the grit and metallic tint that Lunar whiskey always held, but it was a hell of a lot better than anything she’d find on the moon’s surface. The whiskey’s sharp fire was enough to distract her for a moment, but only barely. They had just picked up a shipment of computer parts and cabbage from Space Dock Eleven—one of their better-paying hauls. But their delivery window was narrow, and the clock was ticking.

If only we could get through this damn debris field.

The space station Infinity had been decommissioned seven years ago. A year later, some Syndicate fat cat decided it was time to put an end to the ghost station’s misery and pushed it into the Earth’s atmosphere, resulting in a series of explosions. Whoever that genius was, they hadn’t accounted for the chunks of metal, plastic, and the stars knew what else had been left behind from the explosion that ripped it apart. Instead of spreading, the fragments that were not drawn into the atmosphere clumped together in a hazardous blob. It usually occupied less frequently traveled paths, but over the past month, it had become lodged in the main transport corridor.

“It’s crazy we still can’t go around. These new space routes are getting on my nerves.”

“Easy, Mikka.” Kiara lifted both hands in a conciliatory motion. “We’ll deliver this shipment, pick up a round of Helium or whatever our next load is, and be on our way again before you know it. You might lose an hour or so of sleep, but no harm done. Chill out now and it won’t matter.”

“Looks like I don’t have a choice, do I?” Mikka slammed her glass down harder than she intended, sending a crack through its side. She grasped her temple between her thumb and forefinger, willing the knots above her brow to melt away. She didn’t have time for setbacks, and she was running out of patience. At some point, life had to throw her a bone.

“Is there any chance we can make up for it by taking a double load back?” she asked, hoping the suggestion didn’t come across as desperate.

“You’re really getting worked up, aren’t you?” Kiara commenced picking at the gunk beneath her fingernails with a nail file. “You know the drill—we can only take back what they’ve loaded up for us.”

The Redemption’s systems beeped and hummed around them, almost as if the ship was eagerly anticipating being allowed to continue on its way.

From where she was standing, Mikka could see a panel light blinking on the communications terminal, beeping in an irregular pattern.

“You expecting a call?” Kiara asked.

“Are you kidding? Who do I know? It’s probably just a patrol announcement.”

Kiara grunted, pulling up the details on her own console. “It’s no patrol. I don’t recognize this frequency.”

“Let’s see.” Mikka pulled up the holo-screen on her own console. The semiopaque projection came to life, hovering above her control pad.

A blinking bar of red lit up, displaying an incoming transmission on a frequency Mikka hadn’t seen used in a long time.

“Whoever it is, they’re using an old pirate channel,” she said. “But it’s one that’s been abandoned for years. The Orbital Guard cracked its encryption, and it’s been useless ever since.”

“Pirates?” Kiara’s tone grew serious for the first time all morning. “One of your old friends?” She stared at the panel, her eyes furiously darting between the readings as if considering whether there was danger in merely answering the hail. She ran her palms through her cropped purple hair. “What are we going to do?”

“Hang on!” Mikka lifted a hand toward her. “It could just be someone else found the frequency. Maybe it’s a wrong number.”

Hilarious,” Kiara said, her arms crossed.

“A pirate wouldn’t use this channel; the encryption has been compromised. If they were after our ship, they’d use a different means of communication.” Just the same, only a pirate or the Orbital Guard would have access to the encryption.

The console continued to chirp.

Mikka sighed and leaned over the nearest terminal, tapping the screen. The face of a young woman was projected above her datapad. Her hair was white and cut short, except for a single silver braid that hung down the side of her face. Blue and green beads were tied within it, along with a smaller pull decorated with a few grubby ship parts, metallic shards, and white stones.

Not stones. Bones.

Through the static-filled feed, it was impossible to tell if the bones were human or animal, though Mikka had a pretty good idea.

The woman’s eyes— a smoky gray—were as mysterious as the rest of her, as was the scar that curved down through the top and bottom of her left eye socket, as though someone had tried to blind her.

The woman stood, strapped in to hold her from floating around a craft with no gravity. It was hard to tell through the haze of smoke that filled the cabin, but Mikka recognized the markings of the woman’s vessel.

An escape pod.

The woman didn’t even flinch as sparks and bursts of flame surrounded her. The image flashed in and out, and it was obvious the feed might not last long.

“Thanks for picking up, love. I presume you’re Jax Luana?”

Mikka caught her breath.

She scanned the woman’s features for a hint of recognition, something that would tie this woman to her old life. Even if the woman’s hair or eyes were another color, even if her scar was gone, there wasn’t anything about her that struck Mikka as being familiar.

Besides, she was too young to be someone from Mikka’s past. She was twenty at most, and no one had dared to call Mikka by the name of Jax Luana in seven years. That would have made the person projected before her thirteen when Mikka had left her old life behind. Even aboard a pirate vessel, thirteen would have been far too young. It was possible she could have come across a youth at a bar or port city, but if that were the case, clearly the encounter wasn’t memorable.

Yet somehow this woman recognized her.

“I haven’t used that name in a long time.” Mikka gritted her teeth, attempting to hide her disdain. She absently pulled a knife from her belt, fidgeting with it to both calm her mind and send a message that she was still someone who wasn’t to be messed with. “My name is Mikka Jenax. Who are you? How did you gain access to this channel, and why are you calling me?”

The woman glanced over her shoulder as a sharp pop sounded from somewhere behind her. Her eyes bulged as, presumably, she located whatever the source of the noise had been. She raised a finger, unclipped her safety restraints, and floated off-camera momentarily.

No gravity plating in those old escape pods. Her ship must have been a relic.

Mikka rolled her eyes at Kiara, but her co-navigator didn’t meet her gaze.

“Ah, yes.” The woman reappeared, the cape she had been wearing now gone, revealing sweaty but well-toned shoulders. “The name’s Abigail. And, well, as much as I’d love to get into specifics—this deathtrap is about to break apart. I’d love it if you could give me a lift.”

Mikka groaned. Bringing an unknown woman aboard would be a risk. The woman clearly had a connection to Mikka’s past—a past she wanted to avoid. And something didn’t smell quite right.

“Not without knowing anything about you. You’re calling me on an old, encrypted frequency, referring to me by a name that has been dead for seven years. Can’t blame me for being skeptical.”

“Let’s just say, I’m both a ghost from your past and a damsel in distress. I didn’t come looking for you, love, but my circumstances have become quite . . . dire.” Another burst of flame erupted behind Abigail’s head. “I think we could come to a mutual understanding.

Great. This is just what I need.

“I gave that life up a long time ago,” Mikka insisted.

“Well, even if that is the case . . . could you at least save mine? I’m quite happy with the one I’ve got.”

Mikka cursed. “How much time do you have?”

She knew this was a bad idea, but there’d be no more lives lost because of her. Not if she could help it.

“Um . . .” Abigail’s eyes darted wildly to the surrounding capsule as she punched a few keystrokes on the pod’s display screens. “I’m actually kinda surprised I’m still here. I’m sending you my coordinates. You’re not far.”

Mikka nodded. “We’re on our way. Ping us again if the situation gets worse—but I can’t promise there’ll be anything we’ll be able to do if it does.”

“Aye, aye, captain.” Abigail gave a two-fingered salute accompanied by an impish grin as the screen faded to black.

Chapter 5

Mikka
The Redemption

“Are you insane?”

Kiara was on her feet, hands on her hips, marching toward Mikka.

Mikka raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Look who’s suddenly interested. You could have spoken up before. You kind of left me hanging there.”

“I didn’t expect you to be such an idiot! You can’t bring a pirate on board! We know nothing about her!”

Kiara turned to the console beside her and pulled up a holographic display. Kiara was a master at navigating the Syndicate network, but she still impressed Mikka with how quickly she had pulled up the profile of the woman on the escape pod.

Mikka’s eyes flashed. “Remember whose ship this is. I make the calls here.”

Kiara ignored her as she scrolled through the entry. “Smuggling. Theft. Conspiracy. Murder! Shit, I’m not ready to die today.”

Whatever sense of indifference Kiara had presented a few minutes ago had now disappeared. Being delayed on a job wasn’t something to get worked up about but letting a fugitive on board was another matter.

Understandably so, maybe, but . . .

“I don’t care who she is,” Mikka said. “I’m not leaving her out there to die. Not when she’s asked for our help.”

Kiara wasn’t ready to back down. “How do you know this isn’t a setup to lure us in? A trap to commandeer our ship?”

“She launched herself into a failing escape pod with the sole intent of hijacking a decades-old refurbished orbital trader? Is that what you think? There are easier, more lucrative targets out there.”

“Stranger things have happened.”

A fair point, but . . . No, Mikka couldn’t think of any legitimate reason why anyone would want the Redemption.

“I know how her type operate,” Mikka continued. “Our current payload isn’t worth the effort or the risk.”

“She knew you were here,” Kiara persisted. “That doesn’t raise red flags for you? She’s obviously learned enough to make you a target.”

And there it was. Kiara wasn’t implying the ship was the target.

I am.

The woman’s words hung over Mikka like a solar storm. “I presume you’re Jax Luana?”

Kiara was right: it did raise red flags. Huge, monumental red flags.

The only two people in the entire system who knew Mikka used to go by that name were her own mother and Kiara. Not only that, but Mikka had also undergone dozens of surgical procedures to alter her appearance, until she no longer resembled the woman Abigail had named.

Be that as it may, though, her mind was made up.

“I’m not leaving her out there to die,” Mikka reaffirmed, punching in the coordinates into the ship’s navigation system. “You can cuff her in the cargo hold until we get to Shackleton City if it makes you feel better, but let’s get her ass out of that pod before we decide what to do with her.”

“Toss her out the airlock—that’s what we should do with her,” Kiara muttered under her breath.

“We’re about ten minutes out,” Mikka said, ignoring the remark. “Hopefully, her pod can hold together until then.”

“It wouldn’t be the worst thing if we didn’t make it.”

Mikka grabbed the cracked whiskey glass beside her and hurled it across the shuttle. It landed squarely against an empty wall panel, shattering under the force of the impact. A million pieces of broken glass spread out along the hard paneled floor.

Kiara’s eyes grew wide with horror.

“What the hell is your problem?” Mikka shouted. “That could have been me in that pod! Do you think I didn’t deserve a second chance? Do you think I should have died with my companions? With my friends? Because if you do, you can find another ship.”

Kiara didn’t respond, instead looking bashfully toward her own console.

“Damn it, Kiara! A life’s a life,” Mikka said, composing herself. “Everyone deserves a shot. If someone hadn’t taken a chance on me, I wouldn’t be here now. Enough of the bullshit.”

Fine.” Kiara held her hands up in mock surrender. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

She picked up an energy weapon—her trusty SC11 pistol—from beside her station and attached it to her belt. “And don’t think I’m letting her out of my sight. I might help save her life, but I’m not above locking her in the holding cell or calling in a patrol.”

“You call in a patrol and you risk exposing me as well,” Mikka reminded her. “I’m taking a monumental risk here. Don’t forget I have sins I need to atone for, and that pirate’s just admitted she knows more than she should. This is still my ship, Kiara; I may have agreed to split our profit for your expertise, but I’m still the one who calls the shots.”

Mikka tapped the projection before her with a few keystrokes. “I’m sending you the coordinates of the pod. The only thing I’m concerned about is making it back in time to hit our window through the debris field. We’ve got thirty minutes.”

“As long as I’m not the one who ends up out the airlock,” Kiara groused, pulling up her own holographic display. “Just promise me you won’t let her talk you into anything stupid.”

“I’ve got a sick mother to worry about. That’s enough excitement for me.”

The Redemption groaned as it propelled into a lower orbit. The crest of the Earth filled the viewport as the ship flew toward Abigail’s position.

Abigail wouldn’t have to worry about the void of space for long: she would soon enter the Earth’s atmosphere, and those pods weren’t made to withstand entry. She’d burn up long before she ran out of air.

“We’ve got to get off the main route,” Mikka said. “We’re not going to make it in time otherwise.”

“Might catch the attention of the OG if we do that,” Kiara warned. “If we get pulled over by a patrol, we won’t make it, either.”

Mikka cursed under her breath. Kiara was right, but she didn’t see they had any other choice. Plus, the woman was slowly becoming a thorn in her side, so she didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of being right.

“We’ll deal with that if it happens.”

Kiara shook her head but didn’t argue.

It didn’t take long before the Redemption’s scanners picked up the solitary pod adrift in the lower orbit, just off the main transport corridor. The gray escape vessel floated among a sea of debris, much of it several times larger than the pod itself. If it hadn’t been for Abigail’s distress call, Mikka would likely have never seen it among the rest of the floating remains, never mind known that there was a person inside.

Her ship didn’t just run into trouble, Mikka realized. It bloody exploded!

Whatever trouble this pirate had gotten herself into was possibly a bigger deal than Mikka had first realized. Orbital attacks weren’t common, especially this close to the planet. If her ship’s destruction was simply a matter of Abigail’s criminal record, there would have been other ways to handle things.

Mikka tapped her communications terminal. “Abigail, we’re descending to your position. Are you still there?”

“I’m here,” the pirate’s voice chirped. “But I’ve lost my video feed.”

“Is your docking equipment functional?” Mikka asked. “Are you able to connect to our clamps?”

“I don’t have any fuel, love. I’m dead in the water. All I’ve got is enough air to see the end of my days as I incinerate in orbit, and enough power to keep this channel open for a few more minutes.”

“All right.” Mikka nodded to herself. “Kiara, how close can you get us to the pod without being ripped apart by the surrounding debris?”

Kiara met her gaze. “Are you doubting me?”

“I’m just asking!” Mikka shot back.

“We can kiss her on the nose if you want.”

“Perfect, but she’ll be coming in the other end. Back her up so we can pull that pod into the cargo bay. I’ll seal it off manually.”

“It’s a good thing we loaded our shipment below deck this round.”

Mikka hit another few commands on her console. “Abigail, we’re going to pull you into our cargo hold. You shouldn’t get banged around too much, but you should probably strap yourself in.”

“Already buckled—and I’ve got nowhere else to go, love. Do what you need to do.

The Redemption shook again as Kiara decelerated, weaving around some of the larger pieces of debris.

“Hang on,” Kiara said. “I’ll get us in, but there’s a lot of garbage here. It could get bumpy.”

As promised, the shuttle rattled and bounced as it slowed. Mikka did her best to hang on as she pulled each of the four toggles that would seal off the ship’s bridge from the cargo bay and braced herself for the inevitable turbulence. The pressurized seal allowed them to release objects into the void of space, but they didn’t typically try to bring objects in. It was an unusual maneuver, but if anyone could pull it off, it was Kiara.

“I’m opening the cargo door now,” Mikka said.

“Reversing engines to overtake the pod,” Kiara replied.

There was a faint whoosh and a crack formed in the wall behind them. The Redemption groaned as she strained beneath the atmospheric pressure. A thud and a couple of shudders told Mikka their task had been successful, even before Kiara reported the outcome.

“And she’s in. Re-pressurizing the cargo bay.”

Mikka let out a sigh of relief. “All right. We’ve got twelve minutes until the waypoint sends us to the back of the line. I’d rather not miss our window through the debris field. Let’s get back and take this shipment home.”

“And hope the Guard doesn’t want to inspect our ship on the way through.”

“They won’t. The gates are backed up enough already.”

As if in response to her promise, the holo-screens and monitors in the shuttlecraft all shifted. Big, bold text in orange and red lit their screens, and a rendering of Abigail’s bust hovered above the panels.

Emergency Bulletin.

Fugitive Wanted. Charges: Theft. Conspiracy. Piracy. Murder.

Abigail Monroe. 10,000 Credit reward.

Mikka caught her breath.

“Spoke too soon. Looks like we won’t need to kill her,” Kiara remarked. “We can just turn her in.”

 


Interested in the rest? Go grab your copy of Eclipse by Herman Steuernagel now at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B4ZZXSCD/!


My thanks to Escapist Book Tours for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials (including the novel) they provided. The opinions expressed by me are honest and my own.

Escapist Book Tours

BOOK SPOTLIGHT: Eclipse by Herman Steuernagel

I’m very pleased to welcome the Escapist Book Tour for Herman Steuernagel’s Eclipse to The Irresponsible Reader this morning! People have been talking about this book on the tour for a few days now, and you’re going to want to take a peek at what they’ve been saying—check out the details in the graphic below. But today’s my turn, so what do I have in store? In addition to this little spotlight post, I’ve got an excerpt from the novel, a Q&A with the author, I’m even going to work in a Friday 56 post with this Tour Stop, and then I’ll post my take on the novel, too. (I’ll update with links throughout the day for those of you who don’t follow this blog). Let’s start by learning a little about this book, okay?

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Book Details:

Book Title: Eclipse by Herman Steuernagel
Series: Fractured Orbit
Publisher: The Fourth Media
Release date: February 7, 2023
Format: Hardcover/Paperback/Ebook
Length: 300 pages
Genre: Science Fiction
Intended Age Group: Adult
Eclipse Cover

About the Book

When lies crumble, two lives and an entire civilization teeter on the brink of destruction…

Django had everything he ever wanted… now he’s lost it all.

When Django uncovered an unexpected truth, he didn’t know it would end the lives of nearly everyone he cares about. Left only with his sister, his best friend and an uncle who has some unhinged ideas about what might exist outside of the space station Eclipse, he must follow the truth where it leads – even if it leaves him with nothing.

Mikka can’t escape her dubious past… and now must answer for past sins.

Mikka thought she had left her life as a notorious space pirate behind to care for her ailing mother, but the past comes knocking after her ship, the Redemption, answers a cryptic distress call.

Forced to face a deal she made with the devil years ago, Mikka has no choice but to step back into her old life and make another hesitant pact… with an eccentric pirate.

Django and Mikka’s paths collide as they embark on a journey that will shape the fate of a civilization built on half-truths and the backs of others. Rumors of civil war circulate through the Syndicate’s orbital empire, catching both Django and Mikka in the crossfire — where the stakes are far higher than they realize.

Neither is prepared. Neither is willing. But they will no longer be able to ignore the truth.

Perfect for fans of Red RisingStar Trek and Firefly, ECLIPSE is filled with unwilling heroes, a hidden world, likeable characters, space pirates, a path of discovery and a road to redemption.

See Also:

Dirty Little SecretWhy is the Rum Always Gone?Sympathy for the Devil

Book Links

Amazon ~ Goodreads

Eclipse will be on sale for $0.99 on Amazon and BookBub for the week of the tour, Sept. 3 – 9!

About the Author

Herman SteuernagelHerman Steuernagel is a science fiction and fantasy author. His internationally best-selling debut Lies the Guardians Tell reached the top of the science fiction charts on multiple retailers in the U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Herman grew up with a love of story and science fiction, watching Star Trek: The Next Generation with his father. As a teenager he fell in love with The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks, and The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.

His currently published works are dystopian science fiction that highlight the struggle between humanity and the technology we keep, as well as the motivations that keep us fighting with each other.

Herman currently lives in British Columbia, Canada, While he’s not working on his next book he can be found cycling, running and dreaming up new worlds.

Twitter ~ Instagram ~ Facebook ~ TikTok

My thanks to Escapist Book Tours for the invitation to participate in this tour and the materials (including the novel) they provided. The opinions expressed by me are honest and my own.

Escapist Book Tours

20 Books of Summer 2023: Wrap Up and Other Summer Reading

20 Books of Summer
Summer’s Over, so how did I do at this year’s challenge run by Cathy at 746 Books.

By the skin of my teeth—and using my own (not Cathy’s) dates—Memorial Day through Labor Day, the unofficial US Summer—I made it. I knew back in July when I said I should have a week to spare that I was going to be getting myself into trouble. What I didn’t know was that my library was going to deliver a book to me that was going to take 4 days longer to read than I’d expected (and I’d assumed it’d take me 5 in the first place). Throw in a Book Tour last week, and well, I had to scramble. Thankfully, the last book I had to read was a blast and I tore through it without regard to the deadline (honestly, I’d given up on finishing the challenge and only did it inadvertently), finishing it mid-morning today.

As of this morning, I’ve only posted about 13 of the books—that’s going to take me a bit to finish, especially at the rate I’ve been going lately.

On the whole, I’m glad I picked the books that I did. I might not have fallen head-over-heels for them all, but I’m glad for the experience, glad I scratched a curious itch, and/or glad I cut down the size of my TBR (we’ll ignore how I worked against that this summer for the moment). This might have been my most satisfying 20 Books yet. I had a lot of fun—which is the point, right?

Oh, I almost forgot. I did substitute one read, a totally acceptable thing for the Challenge, but something I typically resist. I’d been saying that I was going to read, Spirelli Paranormal Investigations: Episodes 1-3 by Kate Baray for months (even before I posted my 20 Books). But it turns out that I’d bought and read Spirelli Paranormal Investigations: Season One: Episodes 1-6, which is roughly 300 pages longer. So, yeah, it was a substitution, but a substitution that took 300 more pages to read. So, it really didn’t do me any favors when it came to completing this challenge (although having all six episodes was far more satisfying).

Also, earlier this summer I posted Top Ten Tuesday: Books on My Summer 2023 to-Read List (That Aren’t on My 20 Books Challenge). How’d I do with those? I’ve read seven of those and should be tackling the other three soon. Possibly this month. Hopefully this month.

But for the immediate future, I have two Book Tours in the next week or so, two other review copies that I want to post about really soon—and a couple of NetGalley reads I need to take care of, too. That almost sounds like work, but thankfully, it’s work I want to do (even if I don’t get paid for it. All in all…it’s been a good summer.

✔ 1. The Curse of the Silver Pharaoh by Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris (my post about it)
✔ 2. Spirelli Paranormal Investigations: Season One: Episodes 1-6 by Kate Baray (substitution)
✔ 3. The Lemon Man by Ken Bruton (my post about it)
✔ 4. The Flood Circle by Harry Connolly
✔ 5. Barking for Business by E.N. Crane (my post about it)
✔ 6. Random Sh*t Flying Through the Air by Jackson Ford (my post about it)
✔ 7. Eye of the Sh*t Storm by Jackson Ford (my post about it)
✔ 8. A Sh*tload of Crazy Powers by Jackson Ford
✔ 9. The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith
✔ 10. Stone of Asylum by Hilarey Johnson (my post about it)
✔ 11. Proxies by James T. Lambert (my post about it)
✔ 12. Teaching Moments by Troy Lambert
✔ 13. Stray Ally by Troy Lambert (my post about it)
✔ 14. Cutthroat Cupcakes by Cate Lawley (my post about it)
✔ 15. Shadow Ranch by Rebecca Carey Lyles
✔ 16. Pure of Heart by Danielle Parker (my post about it)
✔ 17. The Worst Man by Jon Rance (my post about it)
✔ 18. However Long the Day by Justin Reed (my post about it)
✔ 19. Klone’s Stronghold by Joyce Reynolds-Ward (my post about it)
✔ 20. Fuzzwiggs: The Switcheroo by Amy Maren Rice

20 Books of Summer '23 August Check In Chart

Proxies by James T. Lambert: The Marx Brothers, Interstellar Threats, a Meddling Mother—Proxies Has it All

ProxiesProxies

by James T. Lambert

DETAILS:
Publisher: Bert Books
Publication Date: August 13, 2022
Format: Paperback
Length: 246 pg.
Read Date: July 19-20, 2023

What’s Proxies About?

Jair Howard is a tech working to maintain the Faster-Than-Light network. Lambert doesn’t give us a lot of details about it, so I’m going to give you even less. The pilot he works with during his maintenance runs, Merab, is his girlfriend. Or maybe. Jair’s reluctance to commit to starting a family has put things on the ropes.

A bigger—or more pressing, anyway—concern is that during their last trip, Jair found some disturbing evidence of hacking into the security network. He’s having trouble convincing anyone of it because the evidence is largely gone. Jair keeps digging, though, he knows what he saw and anyone who can do what he saw—and remove all traces of it—is someone to worry about. Then some of the evidence reappears, and it points at Jair. Suddenly everyone who doubted what he said about a security breach believes it and is coming for him.

To keep his freedom for a little while longer—and hopefully to find proof of what’s really going on—he needs to get into space and get access to the network. The only way that’s going to happen is with Merab’s help.

Remember When AI Wasn’t the Enemy?

Jair doesn’t work alone—in fact, he doesn’t do most of the work. He has a team of AIs helping him. Jair’s a classic movie fan. Black and White Movies that we consider classics today—he’s far enough into the future that he has to think of them as practically ancient. He’s such a fan that he’s given his four primary AIs the names and personalities of the Marx Brothers.

He spends a lot of time tweaking their personalities and humor to get them to better match the versions he knows from film—and finding a way to get Harpo to be able to communicate what he needs to while capturing the essence of the silent brother. It’s something for him to fiddle with while waiting during interstellar travel or while a report generates and the like.

It’s a fun bit of whimsy in the book—and it felt very strange to read while being hit with headline after headline after headline about the problems with AIs this summer.

So, what did I think about Proxies?

The heart of this book isn’t the threat posed by the hacking that Jair found and then lost, etc. Nor is it the efforts that he and Merab undertook to expose and maybe stop the threat. It’s in Merab and Jair’s efforts to get their relationship to work. The bulk of that is on Jair, to be sure—but Merab has some work to do, too.

That’s about all I’m willing to say about that, although it deserves more—because Lambert did a great job with that. As much as I enjoyed the relationships that the protagonist of his first book found himself in, they didn’t feel as grounded as this one. They were clearly there to serve a story, create conflict, and so on. Here, the relationship is the story—and that makes all the difference. If he continues to grow as an author this way, I’m going to be happy reading him for a long time.

This is a Space Opera, so the details of space flight and other science-y stuff don’t need to be really well worked out or discussed—which is good, because Lambert doesn’t bother to (whether that’s because of the genre, or he went with the genre so he didn’t have to doesn’t matter). And a lot of the detailed work into the investigation can be waved away with “Groucho and Zeppo did a thing and came back to tell Jair the results.” I both wanted to see more of the science-y/investigation bits and was perfectly satisfied with the lack of them, because that left time for all the people-y stuff. (I’m clearly in the mood to talk in generalities today).

If you’re looking for some light Space Opera with a lot of heart—you’ll want to pick up Proxies. If you’re not looking for that, you still might want to try it, it’s a fun way to spend a few hours.


3 Stars

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Some Disorganized Thoughts on the Excellence that is Light Bringer by Pierce Brown

Light BringerLight Bringer

by Pierce Brown

DETAILS:
Series: Red Rising, #6
Publisher: Del Rey Books
Publication Date: July 25, 2023
Format: Hardcover
Length: 672
Read Date: August 14-24, 2023
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This Post

Yeah, this isn’t going to be my typical kind of post. I know deep in my bones, the way you know about a good melon, that if I tried my typical approach I’d probably finish this in December. And since I don’t have that kind of patience—and this book was due back at my library on August 19. I’m in deep sh…aving cream already.

So, I’m just going to mention a few things I think are worth saying—and hopefully think of a conclusion to wrap it all up (but no promises).

bullet I need to start with the fact that I went into this with a wrong assumption—I misunderstood something I saw Brown say on Twitter some months ago and thought that this was the finale of the series. I started wondering pretty soon how that was going to be the case, but it took me far too long to admit that I misunderstood him and shouldn’t expect any kind of bow to be put on things by the end of Light Bringer. Once I gave that up, most of my lingering questions about pacing and character went away.

bullet Lyria. If Brown had done nothing else impressive with the post-Morning Star books, what he’s done in creating and growing this character would justify the time reading them. I just cannot get over her. At this point, I enjoy her more than Darrow, Virginia, or the rest. Kavax and Sevro are the only characters that compete with her for my affection. Also, Brown did an excellent job of faking the reader out when it came to her character arc after the last book.

bullet Darrow grows more in these pages than he has since…maybe The Institute. Or probably with Lorn. And a lot of that has to do with the right book being given to him at the right time in his life. (maybe my libro-fixation makes me focus on that part, but, I’m right). I want to see this change in action more—but what Brown does here gives me a lot of hope for our hero. Assuming The Reaper is our hero by the end.

bullet I really, really, really, really want to know how long Brown has been plotting out the major events of this novel—has he been building up to them since Iron Gold or before? Or were they things that came into focus when he started planning Light Bringer? It won’t change what I think of them (devastating, brilliant, etc.)—it’ll just help me understand how he works.

bullet The bonds between so many of these characters are fantastic. Particularly between the classmates turned colleagues turned friends turned enemies turned uneasy allies turned brothers. (or relationships that follow similar paths) How these people can be bound up so tightly with each other after all they’ve gone through is something else. So many times I start off thinking, “There’s no way that Darrow/Lysander/Victra/Whoever is going to trust them is there?” And then they do—and I buy it every single time, just the way that Darrow/Lysander/Victra/Whoever does. And I’m caught as off-guard as they are in the significant percentage of times they end up getting betrayed.

bullet I cannot believe how often these people make me laugh—genuinely laugh. In the midst of all of the death, destruction, revenge, societal upheaval, and uncertainty—there’s a core humanity at work in them all.

bullet After all these thousands of pages (especially when I count re-reads and audiobook listens)…how can Brown completely surprise me the way he does? I can’t even count how many double-crosses that become triple-crosses then go awry and end up becoming alliances that are quadruple-crossed in this book alone. (And that’s not a spoiler, if you’ve read the series, you know that’s going to happen—and I likely left off at least 5 backstabbings).

bullet Speaking of stabbing…Brown’s action scenes—particularly when it comes to small groups of people fighting—one on one, two on two, one on five, etc.—are just great. He’s never been shabby at this, but it felt like he topped himself here. (as he has in each successive book).

bullet Sevro, Sevro, Sevro…I felt so bad for him through so much of this book. Even before he inadvertently found out what happened to his family in Dark Age. But you never want to count the Goblin out, right?

bullet Although, the fox Sophocles just might have done a better job of breaking my heart. Not that it’s a competition.

bullet There’s a fantastic potential spin-off series introduced around the mid-way point. I hope Brown doesn’t give it to us (although I’ll read it if he does), I think I’d prefer my imaginary version of it.

bullet The bond that I referred to earlier is seen in loyalty, forgiveness (and the ability to work together when that forgiveness hasn’t been granted), and best of all, a humor based on shared experiences and attitudes. The humor in this book is almost never situational (too grim for that), or physical (outside maybe of Sophocles)—it comes from old friends being rude to one another, making a joke in reference to something that happened a decade or more ago, etc. And it works—you can’t help but chuckle alongside these men—even when they’re likely saying goodbye for the last time, they can make you laugh. Well done, Mr. Brown.

Let’s See If I Can Wrap This Up

I really think I could just keep going flipping back and forth through the pages of the book and coming up with more and more bullet points to ramble about. But who wants to read that? (especially now that I see that I’ve repeated myself)

I really wish I spent time in discussion groups, fan sites, etc. for this series, so I’d have known that this wasn’t the ending before I started. That preconceived notion really skewed things for a while. Oh well. Like I said before, once I started thinking of this as penultimate—everything clicked.

I do think it’s time for Brown to tie this up—as much as I love this series, readers can only take so many Master Plans that go awry when they meet other Master Plans only to uncover someone else’s Deeper Master Plan working against both.

But it’s been—and will be—quite the ride. These characters are so full of honor, and nobility (of various types), that even when they’re “on the wrong side” it’s hard to think poorly of them until they’ve turned into hypocrites or something. Brown gives us a great picture of so many people working for the common good—if only they could agree with what that is. Chess masters vying against one another to help their picture of the best for society to come about. Sadly, their moves aren’t made with game pieces, but with thousands or millions of lives at a time.

I’m, of course, ignoring the few giant vacuums of decency with a hunger for power and destruction that are also running through the pages.

In Dark Age (and I’m going to be vague just in case someone hasn’t read it yet)—there’s a scene when someone holds down a dying foe, cuts out two giant strips from their back to reveal their ribcage and organs—and pour salt on the wounds. There are a couple of scenes in this book that felt like that. (except for the fact that I was in my recliner sipping on something cool while reading). And with at least one of those scenes the person I was having my heart torn up about was a character I either was bored by or didn’t bother to form an opinion of until this book. But over the course of the novel, Brown’s able to get every one of these modified humans to become a person practically as real as any flesh and blood creature you run into.

It took me less than 50 pages into Red Rising to be awed by Brown and thousands of pages later, he’s still doing it to me.

Go read this series.

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, the opinions expressed are my own.
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Minor Threats: A Quick End To A Long Beginning by Patton Oswalt, Jordan Blum, Scott Hepburn: They’re Going to Save the Day?

 A Quick End To A Long BeginningMinor Threats: A Quick End To A Long Beginning

by Patton Oswalt, Jordan Blum, Scott Hepburn (Artist), Ian Herring (Colorist)

DETAILS:
Series: Minor Threats, Vol. 1
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Publication Date: July 12, 2023
Format: Trade Paperback
Length: 136 pg. 
Read Date:  August 11, 2023
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Not Sure Why I Feel Compelled to Say This, But…

I’m going to make a lot of allusions to other comics/superhero stories. This is intentional and, I think, warranted. Oswalt and Blum are satirizing, paying tribute to, and playing with tried-and-true superhero ideas. When I say they’re doing something ____-esque, or in the vein of, etc. I’m not criticizing, I’m describing. Their work is derivative of more things than I’m aware of because they’re commenting on those things. Oswalt and Blum know their stuff, they’ve drunk deeply from more comic wells than I can imagine and used that to produce this series.

Frankie

When she was a kid, Frankie was the costumed sidekick of her mother, a supervillain/thief. At some point, they were arrested and Frankie went to prison. When she got out, she tried to go straight and get a decent job, but we all know how hard it is for an ex-con to get a job, when that ex-con is a Meta? Forget it—door after door slammed in her face. Finally, she found a job working as a bartender in a bar that catered to supervillains. Not really the elite-level villains, but the “lower ranked” ones—with just enough power to typically need a superhero instead of the police. Think the sillier ones in the Suicide Squad.

I’ve seen this kind of bar in Spider-Man comics, a superhero version in The Tick (animated), and a few other places like that. Frankie is friendly with a couple of her regulars but regards most of them with a kind of contempt/pity mixture. Frankie’s the stereotypical Alcoholic in Recovery working as a Bartender—just her addiction is using the abilities that got her locked up.

Not-Jason Todd/The Joker/Batman

So remember what Batman wanted to do to the Joker after he (assisted by the readers of DC Comics) beat the life out of Jason Todd? What would’ve happened if Superman hadn’t stepped in? Well, we get the answer here—after a Joker-esque character (The Stickman) kills the kid sidekick (Kid Dusk) of a Batman-esque hero (The Insomniac), The Insomniac goes on a vigilante rampage looking for The Stickman—and woe to anyone who gets in his way. The story kicks off with someone stumbling into the bar holding the beaten near-corpse of one supervillain who was “interrogated” by The Insomniac.

This leads to the biggest crackdown on Meta criminals ever—the heroes and the police are trying to lock them all up for their own safety more than because of any crimes. It’s wreaking all sorts of havoc. To put a stop to this, Frankie and some acquaintances/customers decide they need to find The Stickman themselves and kill him themselves. Why wait for the good guys to do the job? If Stickman is out of the picture, The Insomniac might be able to be stopped—or maybe stop himself.

Sure, none of these criminals are the best choices for this—and most are past the prime of their abilities—but it’s not like they have a better idea.

The Art

I can’t put my finger exactly on how to describe the art—it reminded me of a lot of mid-80s Marvel Comics art, with shades of Gotham Central. That’s going to help precisely no one, but it’s the best I can do.

I really dug it—the art fits the story and the characters well. It wasn’t too flashy or too polished—neither would fit this story. There’s a roughness to it (but not in a negative way) that really suited what Oswalt and Blum were doing.

So, what did I think about Minor Threats: A Quick End To A Long Beginning?

This is dark. It’s twisted. It’s funny—and it’s not really funny at all. There’s some tragedy to this, too.

I want more. Now.

Is it the greatest comic story I’ve come across lately? Nah, but the way the creative team is playing with, exploring, exploiting, and so on with tropes, stand-bys, themes, character-types, etc. is just so much fun and so interesting.

There’s just a solid story in the midst of all this, too. It’s more than meta-commentary on superhero stories, it’s a good one itself. But for me to really dig into it the way it deserves would take more time and energy than I’m willing to devote to it. So I’ll just leave it at this—you’re going to dig this.


4 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, the opinions expressed are my own.
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Eye of the Sh*t Storm by Jackson Ford: Flash Floods, Electric Powers, and Teagan Lets Loose in Public

Eye of the Sh*t StormEye of the Sh*t Storm

by Jackson Ford

DETAILS:
Series: Frost Files, #3
Publisher: Orbit
Publication Date: April 27, 2021
Format: eBook
Length: 512 pg.
Read Date: July 20-24, 2023
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And now I’m trapped under a collapsed bridge, in a burning van, having just taken a faceful of meth, while a biker gang shoots at me and my friends with automatic weapons.

We’ve all been there.

What’s Eye of the Sh*t Storm About?

Obviously, spoilers for the previous book are going to come into play here…if you’re concerned about that, skip to the stars at the bottom and move on. Actually, I’ll make it easy for you: ★ ★ ★ ★. Proceed at your own risk.

It’s been two months since Random Sh*t Flying Through the Air, L.A. (and the rest of California) is still struggling to deal with the loss of infrastructure, lives, jobs, and sense of normalcy that had been ripped from them. Teagan and her team have resumed their work as best as they can.

The book opens just as a mission to uncover an illegal gun sales ring goes horribly awry—leading to my opening quotation. Before the team has a chance to recover from this debacle, they’re sent to investigate a strange occurrence that is right up their alley. A storage unit complex—the entire thing, from asphalt to walls to ceilings and everything in between—has become electrically charged. Technically, that’s impossible, right? But so are psychokinetics like Teagan and the earthquake-inducing little boy we met in the last book.

Teagan figures out a way to get her inside the complex and discovers the cause–another little boy. About the same age as the one she faced off with two months ago. But this boy is different—he’s scared. He’s not in control of his power at the moment because he just wants his dad and to get away from “the Zigzag Man” (whoever that is). Teagan knows her job is to bring the kid in and turn him over to the authorities. But she can’t do that—this boy, Leo, isn’t out to hurt anyone. He’s not trying to fry California or anything. He just wants his dad, and Teagan can’t imagine subjecting Leo to the experiments and testing that he’d be subjected to if she did her job.

So, she goes AWOL, hoping to reunite Leo with his family before she figures out what to do with her employers. She’s eventually tracked down by her friends—some agree to help her, some try to apprehend Leo. Things get messy from there. And they all learn pretty quickly that Leo was right to want to get as far away as humanly possible from the Zigzag Man.

Reggie

Of the group, the character we’ve spent the least amount of time with. This makes sense—she’s the “woman in the chair,” as Ned Leeds would put it. She’s their hacker, their supervisor, the one calling the shots from home base and doing what she can to dig up information for them in the field. She’s also in a wheelchair, limiting what she can do in the field (but she pushes those limits as often as possible).

This book solves the we-don’t-get-to-spend-time-with-Reggie problem by giving her several point-of-view chapters. When we’re not with Teagan, we’re with her. And I loved it—I’d take a Reggie solo story anytime. She’s just a rich character—getting to focus on her and having some of her backstory filled in are just great. She had a pretty impressive résumé already, but what she accomplishes here proves that Teagan’s not the only impressive one on the team (that could be said for all of them, really, but I want to focus on Reggie).

Her future looks pretty different going into Book 4 than it has so far—but I’m looking forward to seeing what she does in this new stage of life. I predict things will look better for her within the next 400 pages than it does now.

I Didn’t Expect This To Come Up

There’s a subplot running through all this where Teagan deals with the come down from an accidental (and large) exposure to meth and struggles to experiment with it some more. This is due to the withdrawal symptoms she’s suffering, and also because it turns out that meth supercharges her abilities for a brief period and that sounds really handy right now.

Now, I don’t know how realistic all the non-superpower effects of meth and the temptation to use it again so soon are. But it feels real. And the fact that I have to clarify “non-superpower” does put us outside the realm of realism already.

Teagan goes through a lot in this book (and series), but the way she looks into the temptation of great power at a great cost and cannot shake it immediately was really well depicted and—so far—the most compelling. This temptation keeps calling her name, she’s able to justify/allllllllmost justify experimenting with the drug. And maybe giving herself over entirely to the addiction.

Teagan’s Growth

I reacted… poorly. Hey, just because I’ve been trying to think through my decisions doesn’t mean I’m perfect, OK?

This is already longer than I’d planned, so I’m going to be brief here—in my post about Random Sh*t Flying Through the Air I talked about Teagan’s growth in terms of power and maturity—and how far she has to go. That’s still present, but she’s making progress—and she’s aware of her need.

I think she gives herself more credit than she deserves in this quest up to this point—but she’s moving in the right direction. And who wants a perfect protagonist anyway?

So, what did I think about Eye of the Sh*t Storm?

Over the past few years, I’ve become very familiar with the giant spurt of adrenaline you get after surviving something that should have killed you.

It always arrives around five minutes after I nearly die, beginning with a prickle on my arms, a delightful tremor in my fingers. Then a feeling of well- being, flooding through me, quickly growing to a kind of hysterical euphoria. It’s like an old friend by now. One I’ve been hanging out with for so long that I know everything they’re going to do before they do it.

There was a point where my eReader was at risk of flying through a window. Thankfully for the sake of marital harmony (and my poor eReader), that didn’t happen (my notes read, “No no no no no no no no,” and I was able to limit it to that). Frost has demonstrated that no character is safe, the status quo is not respected, and that readers should not think that anything is settled. This is not a bug, this is a feature. Not necessarily one that promotes emotional health in a reader, however, but it’s a feature.

What Ford’s cavalier attitude toward my blood pressure does is heighten every moment, intensify every conflict (even if it doesn’t seem like it’s time for a major happening), and keeps you focused throughout as you speed through the pages.

I’ve been annoyed with myself for not staying on top of this series since the summer of 2020—and now that I’m almost caught up—I’m even more annoyed with myself. But for now, I’m just happy I got this posted so I can move on to the next book in a few days.

If you’re into super-hero-adjacent kind of stories, this series is a must-read. Could you do okay by starting with this book? Sure—Ford won’t let you get lost and will help you get oriented in the midst of things. But do yourself a favor and start with the first book and do it soon.


4 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, the opinions expressed are my own.

20 Books of Summer

20 Books of Summer 2023: July Check-In

20 Books of Summer
Here’s a quick check-in for this challenge run by Cathy at 746 Books.

So far, I’ve read 11 of the 20—which puts me 2 behind last year (but 3 ahead of 2021, though). I should read at 2-3 over the rest of this week, so I’m feeling pretty good about where I am. I think I’ll have a week to spare.

Now I’ve only written about four of these books, so I’ve got my work cut out for me if I want to get caught up on these by the end of the Summer. It’s doable, but, I need to get to work on that.

✔ 1. The Curse of the Silver Pharaoh by Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris
2. Spirelli Paranormal Investigations: Episodes 1-3 by Kate Baray
3. The Lemon Man by Ken Bruton
4. The Flood Circle by Harry Connolly
✔ 5. Barking for Business by E.N. Crane
✔ 6. Random Sh*t Flying Through the Air by Jackson Ford (my post about it)
✔ 7. Eye of the Sh*t Storm by Jackson Ford
8. A Sh*tload of Crazy Powers by Jackson Ford
✔ 9. The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith
10. Stone of Asylum by Hilarey Johnson
✔ 11. Proxies by James T. Lambert
12. Teaching Moments by Troy Lambert
✔ 13. Stray Ally by Troy Lambert
✔ 14. Cutthroat Cupcakes by Cate Lawley (my post about it)
15. Shadow Ranch by Rebecca Carey Lyles
✔ 16. Pure of Heart by Danielle Parker (my post about it)
✔ 17. The Worst Man by Jon Rance (my post about it)
18. However Long the Day by Justin Reed
✔ 19. Klone’s Stronghold by Joyce Reynolds-Ward (my post about it)
20. Fuzzwiggs: The Switcheroo by Amy Maren Rice

(subject to change, as is allowed, but I’m going to resist the impulse to tweak as much as I can).

20 Books of Summer '23 July Check In Chart

The Inside Scoop—A Q&A with JCM Berne About Self-Publishing

Inside Scoop logo
I’ve talked about him all week, and now it’s time to hear from the man himself, JCM Berne. Without his help, there’d have been a lot less for you to read and me to post this week. And as anyone who has read his fiction, watched his Youtube videos, or has interacted with him in any way will expect, this particular entry in the series is as fun to read as it is useful and informative. Without further ado:


Before we get into things, why don’t you give the reader a brief introduction to you and your work.
I am JCM Berne. I write superhero stories. For grownups. No, they’re not silly. No, they’re not deconstructions. Or anti-heroes. Or gritty. Or hyper violent. Yes, they’re for grownups, I said that already. Yes, I’m serious. Yes there are bears, and sentient space stations, and giant bug monsters. No, really, none of it is silly.

It’s a story about regret and redemption, humor and happiness, coffee and donuts. Some people call it slice-of-life, but there are some war crimes and mass murders, so it’s not exactly cozy fantasy.

My website: jcmberne.com (shocking, I know!)

My books can be found at: https://a.co/d/5LoNrHZ

Best place to talk to me is twitter (my DMs are open!): @joeberne1

What are some of the biggest misconceptions you find that readers have about self-published books?
I’ll summarize it like this: people know that in, say, fantasy, Tor, Baen, Orbit, and whoever else you consider the ‘real’ publishers are releasing a certain number of books each month. People imagine that those companies are actually getting the BEST books. That if those companies release 50 books, the BEST indie book that month is, at most, the 51st best book being released globally.

That is incredibly far from the truth. The major publishers are finding, at best, a fraction of the best books according to their own editorial taste.

If your taste doesn’t exactly align with the Tor (or Orbit or Baen) staff (and it probably doesn’t), the BEST book for you that month might be one that those companies have all passed over. Maybe you want something more original. Or less original! Or litRPG. Or a non-ironic superhero story! The big companies are only releasing books in a very narrow window of genre and style.

Additionally, the process of getting a book through slush piles and into an editor’s hands is so onerous and so luck-dependent that there’s a good chance the best book in any given month was never even looked at by an agent, let alone an acquiring editor at Tor.

If you can find review outlets that you trust, you might find that THEY find better books than Tor can ever manage.

The second set of misconceptions is that self-published books are low quality – more typos, ugly covers, poor editing, etc. This is absolutely true some of the time, but it’s not hard to find self-published books of higher objective quality than trades. It just varies more (the worst self-published books are much, much lower quality, because there’s no gatekeeping at all).

What kind of costs are associated with self-publishing a book? Do you hire one or more editors, or one editor for a couple of passes? Cover artist? Anyone to help with layout, design, etc.? Beta readers? Or do you take it all on yourself? Are you actually making any money at this, or are you still focused on breaking-even while building an audience?
Cover: as low as $50 – but you’d have to be very lucky to find one that cheap that matches your book and still looks decent. Really good covers are very findable in the $1000 range. I spend over $4k on mine (which is probably a really poor investment, but I’m not a smart businessperson).

Editing: Varies. Most self-published authors writing GOOD books are hiring a line editor and copy editor and getting some developmental editing done (I am an exception, I don’t use developmental editors, because I’m just that arrogant). Minimum $1000 for a book and usually closer to $2-4k.

Layout and design – some people hire this out, but there’s software like Atticus ($100 lifetime purchase) that make it really easy to do.

Beta readers – people do hire beta readers, who cost a lot less than editors (usually under $100 for a beta read). Hiring beta readers is a lot less common than just trading with other writers.

Audio narrator: some people do this themselves, but a good audio narrator is around $200+ per finished hour. My book, for example, was about 13 hours. You can go higher.

Marketing: That’s the open-ended part. Blog tours, ads on amazon, newsletters, etc. You can spend absolutely any amount.

I am not making any money at this. Some indie authors are. Some support themselves doing this – more often those in high volume genres, like romance. I hear about indie authors hitting seven figure incomes (I assume that’s US dollars, not rupees or anything). I personally am eager to one day come close to recouping what I’ve already spent (nowhere near it).

Are there tools, mentors, websites you’ve found to help you through this process? Or did you stumble through blindly on your own?
I figured out a lot of it myself. I had early mentors in Ande Li and Maurice Alvarez, who I talked to because they’re friends in real life who had been publishing books for a while!

Once I got a foothold in the community, I got a LOT more help from authors on various Discord servers. I’ve found self published authors very willing to share advice and strategies. It’s a bizarrely supportive community.

How do you juggle marketing/PR/etc. with writing new work? (along with day jobs, family, hobbies, etc., etc.)
I keep telling myself it’s cheaper, and less time consuming, than a drug addiction. Not sure it’s true, but that’s what I tell myself. (that’s the second time someone’s said that—or words to that effect—today. I’m not sure if that’s a good or a bad sign that multiple people think this way)

What made you decide that self-publishing was the direction you wanted to go? How often do you question that choice? How do you get through the self-doubt?
Honestly, I spent a small amount of time trying to find agents that might be interested in my book and got nowhere. It’s possible that some are out there and I just couldn’t find them. Believe me, if I thought I could have gotten a contract from Tor, I would have. I also feel my particular book doesn’t pitch well. I’ve never been able to come up with a brief (1 sentence) description that sounded anything other than a bit dumb. My strength obviously isn’t marketing!

I almost never question that choice, in the sense that to this day I still can’t come up with a good pitch for my book, and I don’t think there’s a route to a traditional contract that would have ever worked for me.

If I had held out for that, I’d be waiting still, and I wouldn’t have the readers I have, who I treasure.

Have you thought about trying to get a deal with major (or indie) publishers for upcoming works, or are you planning on sticking with self-publishing?
I have an independent book coming soon that pitches well (Taken, if it starred Michelle Yeoh and was set on Cradle – a retired monster hunter wrecks a continent when her children are kidnapped.) I tried to get a deal and failed. I’m not sure the patience for that anymore – especially when I’m in a position where I can get literally hundreds of people to read my next book with a few tweets.

Odds are, you’re doing this from love/passion, not to pay the bills. What keeps you going? I’m assuming there are more “who”s than “what”s, actually—who is it?
It creates plenty of bills… not paying any of them yet! While I do dream of making a profit at some point, I’m pretty happy with what’s going on right now.

I love to tell stories. I love crafting them, the slow reveal, figuring out ways to change the emotional impact. I constantly make up stories, even if it’s just in my own head.

Writing is, for me, incredibly fulfilling for that reason!

I tell people this: if you don’t have to write, don’t. It’s frustrating, time consuming, and difficult. If you aren’t driven to do it, don’t punish yourself! But if you’re compelled to write, then by all means, become an author. Just don’t quit your day job!

Self-publishing tends to have fewer external deadlines keeping one accountable. How do you maintain your work process or work ethic?
I have a system.

I book slots with my line editor, who usually fills her schedule 4-6 months in advance. Then I am forced to finish my books to get them to her.

Because I love my line editor (she makes my books more authentically mine than I can manage on my own), I am deeply afraid of disappointing her, so it works!

I do not recommend this system. Do as I say, not as I do.

If you were to start the process over with the experience you have now, what would you do differently?
I would probably write a different genre. Superheroes are a tough sell, much tougher than I expected, and getting readers to take my books seriously is hard (I’m surprised you read it, HC, given what you generally review) [Really? I loves me some good super-hero stuff, I need to do better at talking about that]. On the other hand, this genre is what I really love, so maybe I’d have decided to go with it regardless, and just had lowered expectations.

Maybe that’s what I’d do differently: moderate my expectations.

How do you decide a book is finally finished and ready? (or how do you avoid “perfection as the enemy of good”?)
This is the tricky thing!

I set a deadline – usually announcing things on twitter, or booking a slot with my line editor – and just try to get it as good as it can get before then. But you have to couple that sort of process with a willingness to bail (and eat the editorial cost, or kill some of the buzz you’ve generated) if the product you have really isn’t up to par.

So far, I haven’t done that. It helps that my goal is a really fulfilling series, not a really fulfilling book, and I remind myself that every series has some subpar entries. But really it just takes an enormous amount of confidence, earned or not, to release a book, and you just have to do it.

Thanks for your time and participation! Hope you enjoyed it! And do know that there are many of us out here who appreciate and applaud what you do (and our number is growing)!
Thank YOU so much! Reviewers and influencers are all that stand between relative obscurity and complete obscurity for us authors! (Sorry, I wrote that sentence wrong, then read what it said, and it’s too funny for me to fix). Writing is inherently communicative. Having readers who really understand what I was trying to do in my books is what makes writing them worthwhile, and to be honest, I only KNOW they ‘got’ the meaning when I can read an actual review. Not that a buy or a star rating aren’t great – they are – but it doesn’t mean as much.

Be sure to give The Hybrid Helix (and anything else Berne puts out) a try!


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The Irresponsible Reader On…Self-Published Science Fiction

(updated 7/27/23)
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.

In addition to the Q&As and Guest Posts I have this week, I’m also continuing my habit of highlighting the self-published works that I’ve blogged about over the last few years—just a sentence or two.  Hopefully, this’ll be 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 Wistful Ascending by JCM Berne—if I start talking about this, I’m not sure how to stop. There’s a retired super-hero/super soldier working a menial job on a space station. There’s a revenge story. There are aliens that look like talking bears. It’s just so much fun. (my post about it)
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 Super Powereds: Year 1 by Drew Hayes—The first in a series about a group of freshmen in a college-level Super-Hero Training program. (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 Billy in Space by Harry L-B—Billy has been given telekenetic abilities, and instead of becoming the government agent he’d aspired to, he’s become a human forklift in a spaceship’s warehouse. Not glamorous at all, but it’s a job. Then an alien race attacks his ship. Then space pirates do, too. And then things get bad. You’ll also witness a really bad first date. I should stress that this is a comedy. (my post about it)
bullet Proxies by James T. Lambert—Jair Howard has some big challenges ahead of him–he has to deal with his mother, he has to fix his relationship with his girlfriend, he has to prove someone hacked into the military’s computers, then he has to prove it wasn’t him–oh yeah, and prevent interstellar war. His mother might be the biggest problem, really. I just finished reading the book and haven’t finished my post, but you’ll want to give it a look.
bullet Duckett & Dyer: Dicks For Hire by G.M. Nair—This story felt like the love child of Dirk Gentley’s Holistic Detective Agency (the Douglas Adams version) and Comedy Central’s Corporate, but sweeter. A pair of old friends-turned multi-dimensional P.I.s tackle a missing persons case. (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 Please Return to the Lands of Luxury by Jon Tilton—an MG Dystopian thriller. There’s a fantastic world here—a very plausible one, too. The story is hard to sum up in a sentence or two, but this would be a great read for an MG reader who’s able to read some unpleasantness (and a lot of wholesome and hope-filled moments, too). (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.

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