Yes, I'm a great one for starting books.
Despite the fact that I already have three works in progress, I started
a fourth and also am working on a story for a cyberfunk anthology. The
new book has a short story to whet your whistle, so when I'm ready to
publish the story I started last night, you'll have a free sample to
download, and then a whole new book that kicks off the crime noir meets urban fantasy series.
When I get it done.
Meanwhile, I still have a Native American urban fantasy/fantasy series, a dystopian end-of-the-world as we know it Christian science fiction, and a steamfunk set in California that I'm working on. Inch by agonizing inch.
AND three websites to maintain: Alien Star Books, New Bridges, and The Griffith Girls.
AND, I'm still writing non-fiction articles for money. So, since I still have to pay for hockey, I'd best get myself back to work on the money part of the equation...
Yeah, I did buy a Megamillions ticket for tonight. LOL, but I'm not holding my breath...
Showing posts with label science fiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label science fiction. Show all posts
Friday, July 11, 2014
Monday, October 14, 2013
New Books on Alien Star Books!
I've added a few new books to Alien Star Books.
Feel free to come by and check out my little book website, where you can find science fiction and fantasy for teens and young adults of Color, featuring protagonists outside of the stereotypical mold of the "white guy saves the world/universe."
Now, don't get me wrong here. There's nothing wrong with having a white protagonist or white characters. It's just that, well, do they ALL have to be white? And I do have a place for white protagonists too, because Alien Star Books is all about INCLUSION, not exclusion. There's plenty of room for new authors, established authors and the classics.
If your teen (or you) is looking for something different in speculative fiction, there just might be a book that'll take his/her/your fancy as you peruse the pages of Alien Star Books.
Alien Star Books
Feel free to come by and check out my little book website, where you can find science fiction and fantasy for teens and young adults of Color, featuring protagonists outside of the stereotypical mold of the "white guy saves the world/universe."
Now, don't get me wrong here. There's nothing wrong with having a white protagonist or white characters. It's just that, well, do they ALL have to be white? And I do have a place for white protagonists too, because Alien Star Books is all about INCLUSION, not exclusion. There's plenty of room for new authors, established authors and the classics.
If your teen (or you) is looking for something different in speculative fiction, there just might be a book that'll take his/her/your fancy as you peruse the pages of Alien Star Books.
Alien Star Books
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Glowgems for Profit - 5 Stars!
This is another of the books provided to me for review. I really, really liked it and gave it 5 stars! I also added it to my book website, www.alienstarbooks.com, on the "Black" page. I have no qualms about a teen reading this book, what little sex there is, well, it's the "she came to me in the dark" and boom, next chapter. No vivid descriptions of sex. A bit violent, definitely a grittier universe here, but teens see worse on their video games and movies...
Let me just plunge right into the review:
I'd read the sample, so I picked up where I'd left off and the next thing I knew, it was very, very late and I was done with the book. All I can say is WOW!
This is the action adventure sci-fi that hearkens back to an earlier era, when science fiction was a rip-roaring, wild ride through the universe. There's not a bit of magic in this book to muck up the science, nor are there long boring explanations of how futuristic gadgets work -- a sci-fi fan's dream of the perfect science fiction novel!
Refreshingly, Davis' universe is diverse, with good guys and bad guys of every ethnicity and race, and often you have to guess by the last name or a bit of a description to figure it out. Zack himself is Black, an unusual feature in science fiction in general -- a Black main character -- and he doesn't even get killed off. I can't call him African-American, he's from Mars. With his crew/partner, Deuce; an intelligent artificial intelligence (AI), Sylvia, running the ship; a wheelchair-bound sidekick/hacker, Rabbit; and an Asian love interest, Cleopatra Lee (hmmm, makes me think of Cleopatra Jones), and an assortment of bad guys, they leap from one situation to the next, never quite stopping between.
I haven't read good, action-packed sci-fi like this in a long time. I liked the main character, Zack. He's flawed, hard-headed, haunted by the past, a war and an experiment that he survived -- more or less intact. He's not perfect, he loses his temper, he gets it all wrong at times and he'll hit a girl. And I still like him. I also like that the nanos inside his body aren't all perfect, he uses them and sometimes they use him, but there's a price to pay, IE pain. The science is just "there", he doesn't worry about how this or that works. No boring explanations in this book, the author jumps right into the story and off you go!
The bad guys are bad guys, his disabled sidekick who also survived the wartime experiment, but not so well, is a computer genius. And the good guys? I questioned as I read, wondering who was a good guy and who wasn't. No spoilers here, you'll have to read the book to see what I mean.
Several times I was expecting the plot to go in one direction and it made a sharp turn, leading in another direction entirely. Interesting! The story kept me riveted until it was over. It's obvious that this is the first of several titles and I'm looking forward to the next one in the series.
I was so busy reading the story, I didn't really notice the few typos that had crept in despite careful editing by the publisher. The book is well formatted, none of those weird glitches that plague e-books.
(I was provided a free copy of the book by the publisher. Other than the book, I received no compensation for this review.)
I'd read the sample, so I picked up where I'd left off and the next thing I knew, it was very, very late and I was done with the book. All I can say is WOW!
This is the action adventure sci-fi that hearkens back to an earlier era, when science fiction was a rip-roaring, wild ride through the universe. There's not a bit of magic in this book to muck up the science, nor are there long boring explanations of how futuristic gadgets work -- a sci-fi fan's dream of the perfect science fiction novel!
Refreshingly, Davis' universe is diverse, with good guys and bad guys of every ethnicity and race, and often you have to guess by the last name or a bit of a description to figure it out. Zack himself is Black, an unusual feature in science fiction in general -- a Black main character -- and he doesn't even get killed off. I can't call him African-American, he's from Mars. With his crew/partner, Deuce; an intelligent artificial intelligence (AI), Sylvia, running the ship; a wheelchair-bound sidekick/hacker, Rabbit; and an Asian love interest, Cleopatra Lee (hmmm, makes me think of Cleopatra Jones), and an assortment of bad guys, they leap from one situation to the next, never quite stopping between.
I haven't read good, action-packed sci-fi like this in a long time. I liked the main character, Zack. He's flawed, hard-headed, haunted by the past, a war and an experiment that he survived -- more or less intact. He's not perfect, he loses his temper, he gets it all wrong at times and he'll hit a girl. And I still like him. I also like that the nanos inside his body aren't all perfect, he uses them and sometimes they use him, but there's a price to pay, IE pain. The science is just "there", he doesn't worry about how this or that works. No boring explanations in this book, the author jumps right into the story and off you go!
The bad guys are bad guys, his disabled sidekick who also survived the wartime experiment, but not so well, is a computer genius. And the good guys? I questioned as I read, wondering who was a good guy and who wasn't. No spoilers here, you'll have to read the book to see what I mean.
Several times I was expecting the plot to go in one direction and it made a sharp turn, leading in another direction entirely. Interesting! The story kept me riveted until it was over. It's obvious that this is the first of several titles and I'm looking forward to the next one in the series.
I was so busy reading the story, I didn't really notice the few typos that had crept in despite careful editing by the publisher. The book is well formatted, none of those weird glitches that plague e-books.
(I was provided a free copy of the book by the publisher. Other than the book, I received no compensation for this review.)
Monday, August 20, 2012
Book Review - Children of Destruction
My book website, http://www.AlienStarBooks.com, is doing pretty well, drawing some attention.
In fact, recently a small publisher contacted me, submitting books for inclusion on my website. In addition, he asked me to read and review a couple of books.
I must say, after reading the first book, those of you who are hesitating to dive into the self-published book market, you need to take a deep breath and go for it. Just be sure to read the samples and reviews so ensure that you have an idea of the author's ability to write an interesting tale, and then get the darn book! You can't go wrong, the prices are darn near used book prices and you can read them on a Kindle or Nook, on your home computer, or depending on the publisher, download a pdf that you can print out a few pages at a time and read at your leisure. (Use the fast draft option on your printer and print two sided to save paper!)
One of the books provided to me (I haven't read the other yet), the Children of Destruction by Al Philipson is a good read, coming to a very satisfying conclusion.
Here's my review, posted on Amazon.com:
I really enjoyed this adult romp that extends from the deaths of darn nearly everyone on Earth to a distant planet, spanning 200 years. A new beginning for both societies, leading up to a violent and satisfying conclusion.
Like another reviewer, I felt like the Matthews family saga dragged a little in the middle of the story, until it jumped 200 years into the future. I would've like to have read about their first contact with other groups of surviving humans. On the other hand, I liked the way the author mixed a bit of social commentary into the mix, in a very Heinlein-like way, and the solutions to their continued survival. I was a bit concerned at how few survivors there were, as I know a lot of very, very intelligent people who have high IQs; it seemed a little unrealistic on that point. But then again, this is science fiction so perhaps some didn't survive due to their mental quirkiness. A little more diversity in the original disaster would've been nice too. Only two children survive to join the Matthews family, one a teen, and they're both white. Hmmm. Surely there would've been more highly intelligent children who lived, some of them children of Color? And no gays or lesbians?
I would've also enjoyed reading a snippet about the alien's evil wife and her reaction when she found out how she'd out-smarted herself. And too bad they didn't take a few slaves along, it would've been cool to see how they'd have adapted to space and a new world. However, the callousness in how they were abandoned highlighted the aliens' brutality and inhuman (and yet all too human) disregard for other species. I did see some irony in the alien protagonist's situation and the end result, 200 years in the future. No spoilers here, you'll have to read the story to see what I mean!
On the formatting and grammar end, there were actually very few typos and misused words. A few places where there was an extra space between a word and a comma, and the smart quote problem where the single quote faces the wrong way on shortened words like 'em. (You have to put two single quotes in, then delete the first one. Write ''em and then change it to 'em) In general, nothing that held up the progression of the story or made me groan in frustration. One more proofreading pass through the book would've taken care of those small issues.
All in all, I'd recommend this very creative and practical science fiction adventure to adult sci-fi fans. Due to the sex, I'd say it's definitely an R-rated adult book. Some scenarios, including the sex and group marriage, may be disturbing to more conservative readers.
Please note that the book was provided to me at no charge and I received no other compensation for reading and reviewing it.
In fact, recently a small publisher contacted me, submitting books for inclusion on my website. In addition, he asked me to read and review a couple of books.
I must say, after reading the first book, those of you who are hesitating to dive into the self-published book market, you need to take a deep breath and go for it. Just be sure to read the samples and reviews so ensure that you have an idea of the author's ability to write an interesting tale, and then get the darn book! You can't go wrong, the prices are darn near used book prices and you can read them on a Kindle or Nook, on your home computer, or depending on the publisher, download a pdf that you can print out a few pages at a time and read at your leisure. (Use the fast draft option on your printer and print two sided to save paper!)
One of the books provided to me (I haven't read the other yet), the Children of Destruction by Al Philipson is a good read, coming to a very satisfying conclusion.
Here's my review, posted on Amazon.com:
I really enjoyed this adult romp that extends from the deaths of darn nearly everyone on Earth to a distant planet, spanning 200 years. A new beginning for both societies, leading up to a violent and satisfying conclusion.
Like another reviewer, I felt like the Matthews family saga dragged a little in the middle of the story, until it jumped 200 years into the future. I would've like to have read about their first contact with other groups of surviving humans. On the other hand, I liked the way the author mixed a bit of social commentary into the mix, in a very Heinlein-like way, and the solutions to their continued survival. I was a bit concerned at how few survivors there were, as I know a lot of very, very intelligent people who have high IQs; it seemed a little unrealistic on that point. But then again, this is science fiction so perhaps some didn't survive due to their mental quirkiness. A little more diversity in the original disaster would've been nice too. Only two children survive to join the Matthews family, one a teen, and they're both white. Hmmm. Surely there would've been more highly intelligent children who lived, some of them children of Color? And no gays or lesbians?
I would've also enjoyed reading a snippet about the alien's evil wife and her reaction when she found out how she'd out-smarted herself. And too bad they didn't take a few slaves along, it would've been cool to see how they'd have adapted to space and a new world. However, the callousness in how they were abandoned highlighted the aliens' brutality and inhuman (and yet all too human) disregard for other species. I did see some irony in the alien protagonist's situation and the end result, 200 years in the future. No spoilers here, you'll have to read the story to see what I mean!
On the formatting and grammar end, there were actually very few typos and misused words. A few places where there was an extra space between a word and a comma, and the smart quote problem where the single quote faces the wrong way on shortened words like 'em. (You have to put two single quotes in, then delete the first one. Write ''em and then change it to 'em) In general, nothing that held up the progression of the story or made me groan in frustration. One more proofreading pass through the book would've taken care of those small issues.
All in all, I'd recommend this very creative and practical science fiction adventure to adult sci-fi fans. Due to the sex, I'd say it's definitely an R-rated adult book. Some scenarios, including the sex and group marriage, may be disturbing to more conservative readers.
Please note that the book was provided to me at no charge and I received no other compensation for reading and reviewing it.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
My New Website!
OK, this is the project I've been working on ever since I made the mistake of asking for referrals to good science fiction and fantasy for Teens of Color.
Oh my goodness! There was some not-nice comments and one person even accused me of wanting NO White characters at all.
Wahhhht?
Are you kidding me? Are people really that threatened, that they can't share the future with Teens of Color? That all protagonists must be the traditional, stereotypical, White male hero? Really? REALLY?
So amid encouraging private messages and referrals from fellow writers, educators and parents, I took the info and started a website featuring short book reviews of science fiction and fantasy books with protagonists of Color. It's going to take a lot of work, but I've gotten a lot done already and went live because, well, I could work on it forever and it'll never be finished.
Alien Star Books, www.alienstarbooks.com, is all about reading!! I'm reading and reviewing as fast as I can so I can get short reviews of the books up ASAP. Next to the reviews, I have the book cover images that are also links to Amazon. (In the interests of disclosure, I DO get a couple of nickels if you order using my links.)
And before anyone goes off about the focus of the website, yes, there is an "Everybody Else" page that features good sci-fi/fantasy with protagonists that might be a clone, disabled, female, genderless, Gay or Lesbian or White. Why? Because my purpose is to INCLUDE, not exclude good books that are appropriate for teens and young adults, featuring characters that they can relate to. So yes, that includes Tolkien and Asimov and Bradley and Norton and all the other classic works.
I'd like to invite you to submit referrals to science fiction and fantasy books, including your own published works. But be warned, I will review the book and I reserve the right to speak my mind...
Oh my goodness! There was some not-nice comments and one person even accused me of wanting NO White characters at all.
Wahhhht?
Are you kidding me? Are people really that threatened, that they can't share the future with Teens of Color? That all protagonists must be the traditional, stereotypical, White male hero? Really? REALLY?
So amid encouraging private messages and referrals from fellow writers, educators and parents, I took the info and started a website featuring short book reviews of science fiction and fantasy books with protagonists of Color. It's going to take a lot of work, but I've gotten a lot done already and went live because, well, I could work on it forever and it'll never be finished.
Alien Star Books, www.alienstarbooks.com, is all about reading!! I'm reading and reviewing as fast as I can so I can get short reviews of the books up ASAP. Next to the reviews, I have the book cover images that are also links to Amazon. (In the interests of disclosure, I DO get a couple of nickels if you order using my links.)
And before anyone goes off about the focus of the website, yes, there is an "Everybody Else" page that features good sci-fi/fantasy with protagonists that might be a clone, disabled, female, genderless, Gay or Lesbian or White. Why? Because my purpose is to INCLUDE, not exclude good books that are appropriate for teens and young adults, featuring characters that they can relate to. So yes, that includes Tolkien and Asimov and Bradley and Norton and all the other classic works.
I'd like to invite you to submit referrals to science fiction and fantasy books, including your own published works. But be warned, I will review the book and I reserve the right to speak my mind...
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