Tag Archives: futuristic

The Terminal Code by J. W. Galliger-a review

Posted on by
10

The Terminal Code by J. W. Galliger-a review

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / Chapters Indigo /

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date August 26, 2021.

How do you solve an impossible murder?

Meet Dashiell Kincaid, a cocky security consultant known for his knowledge of SCAPE’s virtual reality systems and his problem-solving ability. The Terminal Code takes place in 2050, as Kincaid is called to the scene of a murder in New York City, but is quick to find that this one is much more than it seems, as it somehow crossed the bounds of SCAPE and into every day life.

In this modern take of a “locked-room mystery”, most people have abandoned the real world for the pleasure of the virtual, changing the dynamics of humanity, and crime. Kincaid’s quest for the truth reveals a deeper conspiracy than he bargained for and leads him to question the nature of his society, reality, and even himself.

Enter The Terminal Code today.

••••••••

REVIEW:THE TERMINAL CODE by JW Galliger is a sci-fi, futuristic story line set in the year 2050 focusing on security consultant Dashiell Kincaid.

Told from third person perspective THE TERMINAL CODE follows security consultant Dashiell Kincade as he is tasked with investigating the death of game developer, CEO of Apex Entertainment Alex Kyrano, one of many deaths related to on-line gaming but the deepier Kincade digs, the more the virtual world begins to suck him in, and pull him under. A twist of fate finds Kincade facing Luis Garza, the head of Government Relations at HIVE, the latest VR (virtual reality) poitical party crossover, and with it , the possibility of a conspiracy that goes much deeper than anyone could have ever imagined.

THE TERMINAL CODE is a story line akin to SB Divya’s Machinehood, William Gibson’s Neuromancer (the book upon which The Matrix is rooted) and to some extent Philip K. Dick’s Total Recall. The reader is pulled into a world where society has turned over control to virtual reality; where people are plugged in and tuned out to the real world; where humanity is hidden behind the facade of robots and artificial intelligence. THE TERMINAL CODE is a fast paced, dramatic, twisted and powerful look at a future controlled by man’s own inventions.

My only complaint, is the abrupt ending, leaving the option for another adventure.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

Share

Run Lab Rat Run (Modified 1) by Shawn C Butler-Review & Interview

Posted on by
15

Run Lab Rat Run (Modified 1) by Shawn C.  Butler-Review & Interview

RUN LAB RAT RUN
by Shawn C. Butler
Release Date August 11, 2021
Genre: adult, dystopian, sci-fi, futuristic

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / Amazon.uk / Amazon.au /

Don’t own a Kindle? Download the FREE Amazon Kindle App for your mobile device or pc

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date August 11, 2021.

Media’s eyebrows were once blue for nine weeks, her bones nearly dissolved and she spent a month smelling like salted pork, but no one ate her and she never died. She came close enough to require CPR and a genomic flush on several occasions, but she’s nearly indestructible. That’s what they told her on the bad days in the lab, but she knew it was a lie.

Genetic test subjects like her usually died by thirty, and they always died in pain.

But on her 21st birthday, she’s given a chance to escape the lab—she just has to run in the deadliest race on Earth so the company that owns her can do illegal off-book testing on her. If she finishes the race, and the tests work, she and her family will be safe and she might live forever. If she doesn’t, they’ll be deoptimized and dumped back, in natural slums to starve and die. In her world, the worst thing to be is merely human.

Or is it?

••••••••

REVIEW:RUN LAB RAT RUN is the first instalment in Shawn C. Butler’s futuristic MODIFIED sci-fi, dystopian series focusing on twenty-one year old ‘Baseline’ Media Conaill.

Told from first person perspective (Media) RUN LAB RAT RUN follows twenty-one year old ‘Baseline’ Media Conaill as she is invited to participate in the Modified Marathons, the most dangerous ultra-marathon in the world for enhanced runners but Media is not quite an enhanced human, our heroine is a human guinea pig; an embryonic lab rat sold by her parents to TTI, the TrumaniTech Corporation, in the aftermath of the Chrome Wars. Flagged for exceptional characteristics, Media would become the ward of TTI, a ‘baseline’ subjected to all sorts of entry level genetic modifications. As a Beta, Media would be the one of the few early-stage human subjects but in doing so, her lifespan would be greatly affected, not expected to live beyond thirty years. In an effort to release her brother and her family from obligations to TTI, Media accepted the invitation to the marathons, marathons that would prove to be more challenging and revealing than she could have ever imagined. With each successive leg of the marathon, Media’s endurance, speed and power increase, raising red flags with the officials, competitors, and ultimately the world outside.

RUN LAB RAT RUN is a story of both speculative and science fiction wherein the modification of human DNA becomes the norm for the rich and famous, and the old ‘normals’ or non-modified humans are treated with disdain and discrimination, relegated to the slums and less than optimal living conditions. Open to the best of the best, the Modified Marathons is akin to the ‘Hunger Games’™ such that to win means to save the lives of the people back home. Working together, each team selected has a mentor, a coach, and a various modified human competitors. Many will die; aggression and individual targeting the norm; success is the exception to the rule especially in a world struggling with the affects of global warming and environmental disasters.

Shawn C Butler pulls the reader into a world of genetic enhancements and mutations, artificial intelligence, robots and implants. There are examples of anthropomorphism, super human strength and speed, backroom deals, manipulations, secrets and lies all in an effort to create the ultimate warrior –for good or evil.

RUN LAB RAT RUN is a cautionary tale; a complex, thought-provoking and twisted story of specieism and discrimination, competition, power and control. My only complaint would be the lack of background information regarding the Chrome Wars, the environmental disasters, and the history as to how and why the world of enhanced human modifications came to be.

RUN LAB RAT RUN ends on a bit of a cliff hanger-you have been warned.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

TRC:  Hi Shawn and welcome to The Reading Café. Congratulations on the release of RUN LAB RAT RUN.

Shawn: Thanks!

TRC:  We would like to start with some background information. Would you please tell us something about yourself?

Follow: Website / Goodreads / Amazon Author Page / Facebook Twitter

Shawn:  I’ve spent most of my adult life in the tech space, fascinated by what technology can do to improve business and human lives. But I’ve never really seen myself as a technologist. What I love are solutions; finding ways to fix things that have been broken for years. What I soon realized about the high-tech industry is that solutions are secondary to profit, and that search for profit (while a vital part of capitalism) tends to create as many problems as it solves. Sometimes more.

I think I started writing to express my frustration with this, first blogging and then long-form work. Maybe if I do this right, I won’t go back into tech…but we’ll see. When not working, I love to hike and run, travel and generally be outdoors. Also, I love ice cream. It’s a good thing I run a lot.

TRC: Who or what influenced your career in writing?

Shawn:  I’d guess the usual answer is that I read a lot of science fiction when I was young, and that got me started. And that’s true. But what I loved about SF compared to other genres was that it was usually focused on envisioning challenges and then finding solutions. It’s like the crime fiction of the future. Here’s the body or challenge. Here are the available tools. Here’s what happens if you solve the problem, or if you fail. The fact that the challenge is often existential—alien invasion, meteors, plagues, raging cyborgs, just makes it all the more entertaining.

In parallel, I blog about ultra-running and long distance day hikes. It was kind of inevitable that I’d try to blend science fiction with the outdoors at some point. Run Lab Rat Run is that point.

TRC:  What challenges or difficulties did you encounter writing and publishing this story?

Shawn:  Run Lab Rat Run is based on three things. First, advances in genetic engineering that I see deriving from CRISPR—leading inevitably to designer babies. Second, ultrarunning super-athletes. And third, the Barkley Marathons, a real race that drives incomprehensibly fit and fantastic athletes to miserable fates. Finding a way to combine all three in a way that would appeal to the average SF reader was difficult. Most of us don’t care much about lactate thresholds or fartlek training. And I didn’t want the result to be a caricature future where silly people do silly things just to make the story interesting. I think I got it right, but we’ll see.

TRC:  Would you please tell us something about the premise of RUN LAB RAT RUN?

Shawn:  Recent developments in genetic engineering mean that we’ll have the ability to eliminate many genetic diseases within a few years. Soon after that, it’ll be possible to genetically alter animals almost at will. And then human modifications will follow. The rich will travel to less regulated countries and come back pregnant with enhanced babies. Monetary class and genetic caste will be inextricably linked.

Run Lab Rat Run is about the resulting hierarchical world, where the “modified” rule over impoverished and nearly obsolete “natural” human beings. It’s like Gattaca, with a lot more rules and a deadly race in the middle—a race that gives one company CEO the chance to do illegal tests away from corporate oversight, and one runner the chance to earn her freedom. If she doesn’t die in the process.

TRC:  What kind of research/plotting did you do, and how long did you spend researching /plotting before beginning RUN LAB RAT RUN?

Shawn:  I don’t write hard science fiction, but realism is important to me. So I researched enough to have a general working knowledge of all salient topics, and then asked more intelligent people to read what I’d created so it didn’t sound ludicrous. RLRR research was more about the history of racial discrimination and caste systems than about genetics, but I spent a good deal of time on both. A few months, probably, with a lot of ongoing research as I wrote the book.

TRC:  How much of the story line is based in science fact vs science fiction?

Shawn:  When I sat down to write RLRR, I wanted a book that was science fiction only in the sense that it was a possible view of our near future. All of the technology and technical advances are meant to be predictions of what I think will happen. They are not fantastical, but all based on what’s occurring today projected forward. The world of RLRR is meant to be the real world, just 50+ years from now.

I believe we are headed toward a class system based on levels of genetic and technical modification, and that designer babies will be here much sooner than we think. This is the Pandora’s Box opened by CRISPR and related genetic engineering systems.

The sole exceptions to my rule about realistic technologies in the book are the Black Hole Drones, which rely on a flight technology that seems fanciful at best.

TRC:  Believability is an important factor in writing and reading science fiction / speculative fiction. How do you keep the story line believable in a genre that crosses the line between reality and fantasy?

Shawn:  I guess the question is what you mean by “believable.” Run Lab Rat Run is based almost entirely on projected technology, so it’s not hard in this case. Other things I’m working on are a little more fantastical, but to me believability is about internal consistency and respecting the reader. Build your world completely and honestly. Tell your story without factual lapses, leaps of faith and plot holes, and I think most readers will come along for the ride. I never thought the world of, say, The Expanse was objectively believable, but once I accepted the world as defined, I was on board for the duration.

TRC:  Is RUN LAB RAT RUN part of a series or a stand-alone. ?

Shawn:  RLRR the first in a trilogy about this particular protagonist and snapshot in future time, but it’s also part of a larger Modified meta-series that starts “today” with Beasts of Sonara (due out later this year). The trilogy of RLRR can be read on its own, or with other books in the Modified universe, but it doesn’t matter what order you read them in.

TRC:  Do you believe the cover image plays a deciding factor for many readers in the process of selecting a book or new series to read?

Shawn:  I do. I’ve bought a lot of books over the years, and with many of them the cover was definitely part of the decision process. I don’t know if I’d every have read Larry Niven as a kid if not for the fantastical PAJ cover art. It’s not everything, of course, but it undeniably helps.

TRC:  When writing a storyline, do the characters direct the writing or do you direct the characters?

Shawn:  I think this has a lot to do with the planner vs. pantser question. I’d like to be more of a planner, doing nice outlines like bumpers the characters obey. But honestly, I write almost randomly to see what happens (including what the characters do), and then see if there’s a plot there. It’s not the most organized model in the world, but I get really bored and distracted following strict outlines.

TRC:  The mark of a good writer is to pull the reader into the storyline so that they experience the emotions along with the characters. What do you believe a writer must do to make this happen? Where do you believe writer’s fail in this endeavor?

Shawn:  This is different for all of us, but to me it’s about getting readers invested in a character or situation so they feel a connection to them. The stakes must feel personal, like of the way people attach themselves to football teams or other sports. And that only works if you create realistic people with character and flaws in situations with real stakes.

I suspect some writers fail at this when they make something so unrealistic or poorly structured that it’s impossible to sustain believability, and thus lose their trust and connection to what’s going on in the book. I remember thinking this about the book It, when the kids end up having an orgy in the sewer system (spoiler?). It was just so bizarre and unnecessary that it ruined my confidence in the author, the story and the characters. Not like Stephen King cares, of course, but what the heck?

TRC:  Do you listen to music while writing? If so, does the style of music influence the storyline direction? Characters?

Shawn:  I have in the past—usually techno, EDM or classical. I find music with lyrics distracting and for some reason a bit melancholy. Now I primarily try to write in coffee shops with ambient noise to help me concentrate, and forego the music. Also seems a bit less lonely. I don’t think the music ever impacted the storyline, but it might have impacted the energy level in some passages.

TRC:  What do you believe is the biggest misconception people have about authors?

Shawn:  I don’t know. Maybe the modern one is that most of them make money. It seems like almost no one does unless they’re very lucky. A second misconception is that any one “type” of person makes a good or bad author. Anyone, man or woman, Black or white, straight or gay, can write a great novel in any genre. I love seeing more diversity in what’s coming out.

TRC:  What is something that few, if anyone, know about you?

Shawn:  I once ate an entire raw white onion and chased it with a quart of orange juice. The result was like Coke + Mentos, except in my stomach and with more acid. When I exhaled, it smelled like burning plastic. It was not a pleasant experience. Not my brightest moment. Also, I am the Highlander.

TRC:  Who or what influenced your path towards science fiction?

Shawn:  I don’t know if it was a specific person or thing. When I was a kid, I’d stay up all night on weekends watching horror movies and science fiction. Then I read all the SF I could get my hands on, meaning the usual classics like Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, Niven, etc. It was just what I loved. When I started writing, it never occurred to me to write anything else. I read a lot of mystery back in the day, too, so I’ll probably try my hand at mysteries in the future.

TRC: On what are you currently working?

Shawn:  I’m polishing Beasts of Sonara, which is due out in November. This is the first book in the modified universe, and a very distant prequel to RLRR. After that is a stand-alone sci-fi horror novel that’ll be…different. I can’t wait to see that one in print.

TRC:  Would you like to add anything else?

Shawn:  I can pretty much guarantee you Run Lab Rat Run is the best ultrarunning science fiction novel you’ll ever read.

LIGHTNING ROUND

Favorite Food

Salt and things covered in salt, with guacamole. And salt.

Favorite Dessert

Ice cream, German chocolate pie or hot cinnamon rolls.

Favorite TV Show

The Expanse? Honestly, any great bit of art whether it’s social commentary like Flea Bag, fantasy like the first season of Penny Dreadful or the first six seasons of Game of Thrones, etc. My favorite changes daily.

Last Movie You Saw

The last good movie was Palm Springs. Lots of nonsense since then.

Dark or Milk Chocolate

Yes, as long as they’re European.

Secret Celebrity Crush

Anna Kendrick. Not really a secret. Anna!!! Such a nerd, I am.

Last Vacation Destination

Denali National Park in Alaska.

Do you have any pets?

I have several house plants with minimal needs—pathos, the house cats of the plant world.

Last book you read

Hail Mary by Andy Weir, like everybody else. That’s great science fiction. Before that I had a weird month where I read all of the Jack Reacher novels. Still not sure what that was all about.

TRC:  Thank you Shawn for taking the time to answer our questions. Congratulations on the release of RUN LAB RAT RUN. We wish you all the best.

Share

RECLAIMED by Madeleine Roux-Review, Excerpt & Giveaway

Posted on by
17

RECLAIMED by Madeleine Roux-Review, Excerpt & Giveaway

 

 

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / Chapters Indigo / Google Play /

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date August 17, 2021

In this claustrophobic science fiction thriller, a woman begins to doubt her own sanity and reality itself when she undergoes a dangerous experiment.

The Ganymede compound is a fresh start. At least that’s what Senna tells herself when she arrives to take part in a cutting-edge scientific treatment, where participants have traumatic memories erased.

And Senna has reasons for wanting to escape her past.

But almost as soon as the treatment begins, Senna finds more than just her traumatic memories disappearing. She hardly recognizes her new life or herself. Even though the symptoms for the process might justify the cure, Senna knows that something isn’t right. As her symptoms worsen, Senna will need to band together with the other participants to unravel the mystery of her present, and save her future.

•••••••

REVIEW:RECLAIMED by Madeleine Roux is a futuristic, sci-fi, dystopian story line focusing on three humans who have suffered extraordinary personal tragedies, and have been offered a once in a lifetime chance to erase the specific memories from their pasts.

Told from several third person perspectives including Senna, Zurri and Han, RECLAIMED is set in the middle of the twenty-third century, when space travel, AI servitors, VIT, and VR are the norm. Wealthy entrepreneur and self-proclaimed genius Paxton Dunn has set up an experimental lab, at the Ganymede compound, on one of the moons of Jupiter, and has contacted our three leading characters for his inaugural test subjects and specific memory erasure. All three subjects have suffered through horrific experiences, and Paxton has targeted each for who they are, and what they know but the ‘treatment’ sessions begin to reveal that something is not quite right with Paxton and his crew, and the subjects begin to lose a little more of themselves with each progressive session.

Senna is a young woman who has spent most of her life controlled by a charismatic leader, a leader who dominated and restricted every aspect of her life but like many of his type, the need for power and control outweighed the safety of his followers, and in the end Senna is the only one to survive. Loneliness and innocence ooze through her broken façade.

Zurri is a super model with an ego to match but a stalker demanded Zurri’s attention. A televised promotion for Zurri’s new line of cosmetics ensured the world watched as her stalker appealed his final challenge. No amount of facial cream will heal the pain or memories of what happened and why.

Han is a fourteen year old, computer IT wizard, but he too, lost everything to a man man whose need to control destroyed many lives. On the fast track to genius, Han may become Paxton’s protégé, but a protégé that is about to take down a man he once considered his hero.

Madeleine Roux pulls the reader into a story of what ifs and hows? What if someone or something could erase the bad memories leaving only the good ones intact? …but therein lies the problem when memories are erased, what is left behind is a gaping ‘black hole’ of nothing, and in its’ place is darkness and pain. As our three ‘test subjects’ begin to breakdown both physically and emotionally, each will come to realize that their lives are no longer under their control.

RECLAIMED is a thought-provoking and aptly cautionary tale of desperation and loneliness, power and obsession, arrogance and egomania, suffering and pain. The premise is twisted and haunting, complex yet equally easy to read.

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy

Excerpt kindly provided by the publisher

 

RECLAIMED by Madeleine Roux
Ace Trade Paperback Original | On sale August 17, 2021
Excerpt
More than anything else Senna remembered the bitter silence. At some point during the night, everyone around her on the ship stopped breathing. The soft, human sounds of sleep had mixed with the reverberation of space outside the passenger craft, a lullaby of organic white noise that helped her drift to sleep, but once it was gone, the absence was far louder. Unmistakable.
It was like how she imagined the dead of winter, still and adrift, though Senna had never experienced a true winter herself. Her entire life had been lived in outer space and, more than that, in almost total confinement.
She had taken a pill and gone to sleep surrounded by life, then woke among the dead. Senna had rolled over, tossing restlessly, and felt her hand brush something cold and almost rubbery on the sleeping mat next to hers. Startled by the sensation, she jerked awake, and under the reddish glow of the emergency lights above, she found herself staring down into the open, glazed eyes of her best friend, Mina. The blood trickling from between Mina’s full lips was as crimson as the emergency lights blinking overhead.
Senna gasped, and it was the only sound in the entire ship.
Oh my God. They’re all dead.
“You can’t leave me,” she whispered to Mina. The fear made her tremble; the shock made her grab Mina by the shoulders and shake. Her bones were thin and birdlike, and her head swiveled back and forth as Senna tried to rouse her. Nothing.
A door opened across the room, and Senna whirled to face it, torn between the sudden knowledge that she was alone and now the worse fear that she wasn’t, that whoever was responsible for all this death was still alive and with her. That she was next.
“Senna,” she heard him say. “I didn’t know you were awake.”
Why was she the only one left alive? And why wasn’t he surprised by it? She didn’t know what to say. What could she say?
They’re all dead, every last one of them, except for you and me.
“Hello? Lady? Earth to blondie.”
She blinked, hard, gazing around not at the interior of a doomed passenger craft, but at an impatient barista glaring down into her face. Grabbing her chest, Senna nodded and waved at him, but the memory took its time fading away. One year ago. It still felt like she was living inside that moment, crushed on all sides by it.
I didn’t know you were awake, Preece had said. To her, it still felt like she was deep, deep asleep. Dragged under.
“S-Sorry,” Senna stammered. She hadn’t been outside Marin’s apartment in weeks. The neon haze of Tokyo Bliss Station hurt her eyes. A halo lingered around the barista’s head, the self-driving coffee cart lit with an amber glow. “How much is it?”
“Ten for the drink,” the barista replied. He was tall and thin, tattooed from the collar of his shirt and apron to his mouth. A series of scrollwork arrows pointed to the ring glinting in his lip. “Three for the cup.”
Senna frowned up at him. “Three? Really?”
Rolling his eyes, he shrugged and handed her the mottled brown cup, frothy yellow liquid steaming inside. “Fine, no charge for the cup. Bring something reusable next time, okay? Anything else I can get you?”
Senna stared down into the drink, the familiar color and smell threatening to bring another wave of painful nostalgia.
Anything else, she mused. A new brain? A tranquilizer?
“No,” Senna told the young man. “No, I’m . . . That’s all.”
“Just remember the cup thing,” he muttered, tapping the scanner on the coffee cart counter, waiting for Senna to hold up her wrist and flash the VIT monitor that ought to be there. But Senna still didn’t have one. The barista noticed, the specter of his shaved-off brows looming low over his eyes.
“She will.” Marin to the rescue. “She’ll remember for next time. And I’ll take a sweet drip.”
The barista sighed. “Line jumpers pay double for their cups.”
“Fine.”
Marin, petite and dressed in pristine white patent leather, with a glossy black curtain of hair, leaned across Senna and swiped her own wrist monitor across the scanner. The machine dinged cheerfully, transaction complete. She glared at the thing toiling away behind the barista. AI Servitors, working husks of robots skinned with a kind of human latex mask over a carbon skeleton, were ubiquitous laborers across the stations, on the colonies and on science vessels.
“You know SecDiv is going to roll out lifelike versions of those things soon? With human fucking faces and skin and everything? I guess the regular peacekeeping bots aren’t intimidating enough or something,” said Marin in a disgusted undertone. She shuddered. “So creepy.”
“Will we be able to tell the difference?” Senna asked, more amazed than afraid.
“I’ve seen this dystopian vid, and the answer is no.”
As soon as the coffee arrived, Marin tugged Senna away from the cart quickly, back toward the carbon-black folding chairs and tables clustered on the promenade. The glitzier upper levels of the station rotated above them, rings that rose to impossible heights-financial districts and fashion houses, arcade blocks, cosmetic surgery clinics, augmented-reality parlors and universities . . . Down on their level, close to the bottom of the station and Hydroponica, nothing could be done to control the heat. The food and water operations needed the cooling systems, not the impoverished districts hovering just above them.
So Senna drank her haldi ka doodh in the swelter, accustomed to it. The hot turmeric milk almost scorched her mouth as she took a sip.
“I don’t know how you can drink that stuff,” Marin murmured.
“It’s good,” said Senna, shrugging.
“Blegh. Anyway, sorry I’m late.”
Senna sat across from her at one of the empty tables. The lunch rush crowd swarmed around them in the plaza, drawn to the coffee cart for their midday blast of caffeine. Behind them, six lanes of self-driving cars and a passenger tram funneled workers back toward the main bank of elevators at the center of the district, elevators that ran the full height of the station.
“Don’t worry about it,” Senna said, waving off her apology while swatting at the vapor rising from her milk. She liked the slightly grassy taste of the drink. It made her wonder if it was the kind of earthy smell one experienced during a real Earth summer.
“I do worry,” Marin replied, drinking her coffee. Her nose wrinkled. “Shit. They forgot my Zucros.”
“I can wait.”
“No, I shouldn’t leave you alone again.”
Senna ran her thumb lightly around the softening edge of her disposable cup. She felt stupid and small and unmanageable when Marin said things like that. But Senna also knew she had earned being babied. 


 

New York Times Bestselling Author of the ASYLUM series, Allison Hewitt Is Trapped, Sadie Walker Is Stranded and the upcoming House of Furies series.

MADELEINE ROUX received her BA in Creative Writing and Acting from Beloit College in 2008. In the spring of 2009, Madeleine completed an Honors Term at Beloit College, proposing, writing and presenting a full-length historical fiction novel. Shortly after, she began the experimental fiction blog Allison Hewitt Is Trapped. Allison Hewitt Is Trapped quickly spread throughout the blogosphere, bringing a unique serial fiction experience to readers.

Born in Minnesota, she now lives and works in Seattle, Washington.

FOLLOW  Goodreads / Website / Twitter

Madeleine Roux’s publisher (Berkley/Penguin/Random) is graciously offering a paper copy of  RECLAIMED to ONE (1) lucky commenters at The Reading Cafe.

1. If you have not previously registered at The Reading Cafe, please register by using the log-in at the top of the page (side bar) or by using one of the social log-ins.

NOTE: If you are having difficulty commenting after logging onto the site, please refresh the page (at the top of your computer).

2. If you are using a social log-in, please post your email address with your comment.

3. Please LIKE & follow Madeleine Roux on TWITTER

4. Please LIKE & follow PENGUIN/RANDOM HOUSE on Facebook

5. Please LIKE The Reading Cafe on FACEBOOK .

6. LIKE The Reading Cafe on Twitter for an additional entry.

7. Please FOLLOW The Reading Cafe on GOODREADS for an additional entry.

8. Please follow The Reading Cafe on Tumblr

9. Giveaway open to USA only

10. Giveaway runs from August 19-23, 2021

Share

Stormland by John Shirley-a review

Posted on by
10

STORMLAND by John Shirley-a review

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / Chapters Indigo / Google Play

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date April 13, 2021

They call it Stormland: a sprawling, largely abandoned region of the southeastern coast of the USA, where climate change’s extreme weather conditions have brought about a “perfect storm” of perpetual tempests; where hurricane-strength storms return day after day, 365 days a year.

The heart of Stormland is Charleston, South Carolina, a flooded ruin where hundreds of people remain for their own peculiar reasons; where thugs prey on the weak, and a strangely benevolent cult tries to keep everyone insanely sane. Here, plutocratic evil takes advantage of Stormland’s lawlessness to cultivate a weirdly puppeted theater of cruelty.

Swept into the turbulent vortex of Stormland is an unlikely duo—a former serial killer and a former US Marshal—who must work together to bring light to America’s late twenty-first century heart of darkness.

A cyberpunk detective thriller set in a maelstrom of climatic upheaval, classism, and corrupt power, Stormland paradoxically dramatizes the resilience of the human spirit.

••••••••

REVIEW:  STORMLAND by John Shirley is an adult,  near-future, sci-fi, post-apocalyptic, cyberpunk detective thriller set in the year 2039.

Told from third person perspective following several intersecting paths STORMLAND focuses on what was once Charleston, South Carolina and the eastern seaboard of the USA. An environmental apocalypse has rendered the eastern seaboard inhospitable and mostly under water as daily hurricanes and storms ravage the shores and the remaining few who are willing to fight but those who remain behind are caught up in a game controlled by the rich and powerful, leaving a trail of dead bodies in their wake. Enter former US Marshall Darryl Webb, who has been tasked with returning an escaped serial killer, a killer who is unlike anyone Darryl has ever met. As the number of bodies increase, Webb and his Stormland counterpart Gerald, begin to notice a pattern, including a physical injury between the victims.

STORMLAND is a story of power and control; of manipulation and murder; of nano-technology and mind control. John Shirley pulls the reader into a dark, edgy world of constant storms, and haunting virtual realities. The tragic few who remain struggle to survive against the odds, odds that worsen as technology, designer synthetic drugs, and the collapse of the city begin to take its’ toll. The character driven premise though provoking, gritty and edgy; the characters are tragic, desperate and wounded.

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy

Share

418: I Am A Teapot by Edgar Scott-a review

Posted on by
9

418: I Am A Teapot by Edgar Scott-a review

ebook ONLY 99¢ Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / Chapters Indigo / KOBO /

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date March 23, 2021

418: I Am a Teapot is a near-future dystopian science fiction novel that explores a world where people by choice, birth, or punishment, relinquish the rights to their physical body. Their brains exist in a constantly-connected virtual interface where they enjoy a fantasy world of endless indulgences. However, while their minds have fun, their bodies are controlled by implants doing the filthiest and most dangerous jobs known to humanity.

Stripped of their identities, these dredges of society are simply called staff and they are disposable. But what happens when a staff becomes cognizant of its situation and tries to break free?

When staff number 418’s physical body is broken, he must come to terms with reality before a kangaroo court determines his fate. Will an unlikely friendship save 418 from permanent retirement?

••••••••••

REVIEW:418: I AM A TEAPOT by Edgar Scott is a futuristic, dystopian, sci-fi story line focusing on ‘staff’ 418 aka George, and Brian ‘King’ Agarwal, who runs a staffing business.

Told from first person perspective (418) and third person (King) 418: I AM A TEAPOT follows 418 aka George between his daily routine as a staff, and his virtual persona online. Staff are considered the lowest of the low, either born into poverty and the lower class, or relegated by punishment to become one of the many minions to do the work that no one else wants to do but an accident, also known as an exception, finds 418 fighting for his life, a life that is about to change in many ways. Believed to be ‘brain damaged’ as a result of the exception, 418 is saved from ‘retirement’, and in the ensuing days and weeks quickly realizes that his virtual interface is no longer working as it should. Sentient, and with the ability to become self-aware, 418 begins to reconsider all that he knows, in both his virtual and real worlds. 418 works for King, and in this King is about to set 418 on a path to self-actualization and freedom from control. But all is not well in King’s once-ordered world when King finds himself facing the possibility of a life of outside control.

As mentioned above, staff are the lower class, the workers and minions who have been surgically and pharmaceutically altered as mindless drones to do the work no one else wants to do. While their minds and brains are connected to a virtual world, their bodies are controlled by artificial intelligence, and subjected to outside forces where death and dismemberment are frequent and considered part of the job-‘retirement’ is met with indifference by the people in charge. With his virtual interface working at less than optimal levels, George begins to re-evaluate the meaning of life, and his place in the world.

418: I AM A TEAPOT is, like many futuristic, dystopian, sci fi tales, a philosophical and sociological look at discrimination, power and control. I am not sure where geographically the story line takes place, or when, but the first names are all anglicized and the surnames are all East Indian in nature.

418:I AM A TEAPOT is another, complex and detailed story line of what ifs and hows but I struggled with the lack of delineation between perspectives that changed often and without preamble. A slow building story line, 418: I AM A TEAPOT does not pick up speed until part way through the book.

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy

Share

Code Word Access (Code Word 1) by Alex Schuler-a review

Posted on by
10

Code Word Access (Code Word 1) by Alex Schuler-a review

ebook only 99¢ at Amazon & Nook: Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N /

KOBO / Chapters Indigo /

The future is in code.

Shawn Muller is a prodigy and he knows it. It is 2051 and the militarized AI he created to hunt terrorists has begun to dominate the network that controls everything from traffic to climate. Fearful of the power of the AI he calls “Lazy Jack” and the politicians who will use it, Shawn installs an algorithm to give his creation a system of ethics.

But when that very ethical standard causes Lazy Jack to declare Shawn a profound threat to society, he is forced into terrified flight to avoid summary execution as a terrorist.

Off the grid for the first time in his twenty-seven years, Shawn will find himself pursued not only by his creation and the government it has started to control, but also by the shadowy elements of society that reject domination by AI. Captured by the outlawed Organites, Shawn falls into the hands of their charismatic captain, Destiny.

Born to be enemies, Shawn and Destiny discover that their lives and the survival of their worlds are inextricably linked. Together with a host of unforgettable characters, they will struggle to bring down the system Shawn thought would save the world, leading them to face one of the most profound questions of human existence: Will we or will our creations decide what is right and what is wrong?

•••••••

REVIEW:CODE WORD ACCESS is the first instalment in Alex Schuler’s post apocalyptic, near future, CODE WORD speculative / science fiction series focusing on prodigy Shawn Muller in the year 2051.

Told from several third person perspectives CODE WORD ACCESS follows PhD prodigy Dr. Shawn Muller in the aftermath of an attack by a counterterrorism AI (Artificial Intelligence) he designed to eliminate terrorists for the military-controlled Cyber Command, but LAZ-237 is unable to distinguish between good and bad, and in this, many innocents are about to die. Hoping to stop the onslaught of death and destruction, Shawn Muller secretly uploads a ‘virus’ but his command for the ‘Greatest Good for the Greatest Number’ pushes the AI to go rogue killing anyone and everyone it deems to be bad. As Shawn struggles to stay one step ahead of the AI he calls Lazy Jack, his commands are seemingly countered by the military and politicians in charge.

Dr. Shawn Muller is considered a ‘transhuman’-an enhanced human with a ‘fully integrated brain to operating system interface –a highly sophisticated CPU’ that allows our ‘hero’ to communicate with both man and machine. As a young child, Shawn’s parents implanted a neuro-chip into his brain rendering Shawn a virtual participant in a virtual world. Everything about his life was an illusion, an illusion of which he was completely unaware.

Years earlier, a terrorist attack by the al Tehrani killed Shawn’s parents, and along with his mentor Lt. Colonel Amun Gurk, Shawn set to work on an counterterrorism AI that would eliminate the man and people responsible but as pandemics, environmental disasters and wars ravaged the earth, a resistance group known as the Quills, members of the organization who call themselves Organites, takes aim at our hero, in an effort to shut down the systems destroying the world.

CODE WORD ACCESS is a complicated, complex and multi-levelled tale of what if. A dramatic, richly detailed and gritty story of a world controlled by artificial intelligence. CODE WORD ACCESS is a philosophical and sociological look at the ethical conundrum of integrated man and machine; of the potential for sentient and self aware artificial intelligence; a computer with a conscience and reasoning, and the ability to act on its’ own. There are numerous references to late 20th and early 21st century sci-fi movies and stories including The Matrix ™, Terminator ™, Star Wars ™ and War Games™; climate change, plagues, pandemics, nuclear power, the ‘Cloud’ and social media- reading like a warning of things to come if man doesn’t change the current direction of power and control.

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy

Share

Deception (Dark Desires:Origins 2) by Nina Croft-a review

Posted on by
10

DECEPTION (Dark Desires Origins #2) by Nina Croft

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / KOBO / Chapters Indigo / Google Play

RELEASE DATE: November 23, 2020

Brave new world or the same old crap?

Warlock Milo Velazquez has always dreamed of a day when “monsters” like him don’t have to hide in the shadows. Now, on a planet far from Earth, he’s hoping the old prejudices have been left behind. Though from what he’s seen so far—not a chance.

Their new leader could make life a living hell for Milo and the other immortals illegally transported across the galaxy. Under cover, he scopes out the threat, but he never expected to find a beautiful woman locked in a cell underground. He should ignore her and focus on his mission, but instead he sets her free.

Milo has met all kinds, paranormal creatures and humans, in his centuries of life, but Destiny is like nothing he’s ever encountered before. She’s flawless, and strangely naïve, though she can spout off facts like a walking encyclopedia. He isn’t sure who—or what—she is, or why someone so innocent would be a prisoner.

All he knows is Destiny is different…and finding out why could be their only hope for survival.

•••••••

REVIEW:  DECEPTION is the second instalment in Nina Croft’s sci-fi, DARK DESIRES: ORIGINS paranormal/ fantasy romance series. This is Warlock Milo Velazquez, and Destiny’s story line. DECEPTION can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story line is revealed where necessary. DECEPTION and the Dark Desires : Origins is a prequel series, set five hundred to a thousand years earlier, to the author’s DARK DESIRES series.

SOME BACKGROUND: One thousand years earlier Earth was dying, and one hundred and twenty thousand of Earth’s Chosen had set off in search of a new planet able to sustain human life. Fast forward five centuries wherein the seven surviving space ships and their crews find themselves following a self-declared profit and leader, and the formation of the Church of Everlasting Life. These are their stories.

Told from dual third person perspectives (Milo and Destiny) DECEPTION follows Warlock Milo Velazquez, and the crew of the Trakis Two as they are called to a meeting where the goal of the mission is about to be changed. Milo, along with Wolf shifter Dylan, have stepped in to represent the Trakis Two, a space ship manned by a crew of supernaturals, supernaturals considered to be abominations and against the law of God. But all is not well on the planet’s surface as Milo and Dylan will soon discover when an underground armament of nuclear weapons threatens the lives of thousands of people, and an intriguing young woman crosses paths with our hero. Enter Destiny. What ensues is the building romance and relationship between Milo and Destiny, and the potential fall-out as Destiny’s future is about to be revealed, and the crew of the Trakis Two are targeted for who they are, and their interference in the formation of a brand new Order.

Milo Velazquez is a warlock-the product of a demon/wizard breeding and as such is considered an abomination for his use of magic and power.Meeting Destiny, a young woman whose naïveté borders on innocence and childlike, but a woman who is quick to learn about life and everything it has to offer, gives Milo pause but our hero discovers there is more to the mission, a mission that is no longer focused on reestablishing a planet for Earth’s Chosen but a planet ruled and controlled by a chosen few.Destiny’s existence raises too many questions for the crew of the Trakis Two, an existence that shouldn’t be, yet an existence whose sole purpose is that of supply and demand.

The relationship between Milo and Destiny is one of immediate attraction yet there is something about our heroine that doesn’t quite fit into the objective of Earth’s Chosen and the Church of Everlasting Life. Destiny was ‘born’ while everyone else was in cryo- hibernation, and awoke to find herself without direction or purpose. Curious as the reality of her new-waking world, our heroine finds herself confined to a cell until a stranger’s visit affords Destiny the opportunity of freedom. The $ex scenes are intimate and erotic, without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text but I have to shake my head at the need for $ex when an entire army is on the hunt for our story line couple.

There is a large ensemble cast of secondary and supporting characters including wolf shifter Dylan, and Trakis Two captain vampire Rico; geneticist Elvira; self-proclaimed leader Luther Kinross, and Silas Wynch.

DECEPTION is a story of secrets and lies, deception and betrayal; friendships, relationships and love. The character driven premise is edgy, engaging and captivating; the romance is passionate; the characters are colorful , energetic, and charismatic.

Click HERE for Sandy’s review of book one MALFUNCTION.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

MALFUNCTION book ONE is ONLY 99¢ for a limited time

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / Google Play / Apple Books

••••••••••

BREAK OUT book one in the DARK DESIRES series is FREE

Amazon: amzn.to/2u1ns8V

CA:amzn.to/2uJlief

UK: amzn.to/36UGTi4

AU: amzn.to/36WcwHX

Share

Sentience by Courtney P Hunter -Review & Giveaway

Posted on by
16

Sentience by Courtney P. Hunter -Review & Giveaway

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / Amazon.uk / Amazon.au /

Don’t own a Kindle? Download the FREE Amazon Kindle App for your mobile device or pc

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date October 30, 2020

Robots, sex, lies, adventure, and chaos. Who can you trust when you can’t trust yourself? And what truly defines humanity and consciousness?

Running from a violent past, Leo Knox desperately decides to participate in a scientific experiment conducted by the infamous and greedy tech-giant, AlgorithmOS. Soon, Leo learns that she has agreed to take part in a Turing Test, a test that measures the ability of artificial intelligence to blend in among humanity, but what she doesn’t know is that the test set to take place is unlike any other of its kind.

Leo enters Eden, the contained preserve where the test will occur, with twenty-three others. While everyone appears to be human, four of the individuals are an indistinguishably advanced form of humanoid AI. The task is simple: identify the AI while trying to survive. The twist? The four AI are completely unaware of their nature, causing every participant to question what they know as reality.

The group embarks on a journey within the preserve, rigged with obstacles devised by the controllers of the experiment to elicit human response and emotion. Quickly, madness ensues and divides form, partnering Leo up with Avery Ford, a Marine who wears his demons on his sleeve. Romance falls together for the two as the world around them falls apart, revealing the lengths people will go to protect those they love, to achieve monetary gain, or simply to survive.

Back at AlgorithmOS, the story unfolds on the screens of Nathan Aimes, a scientist responsible for monitoring the experiment’s surveillance cameras. Nathan studies the humans involved as they wrestle with where they stand on the polarizing issue of AI and its applications. He watches the AI unknowingly fight to prove their humanity just to leave the experiment unscathed. All the while, Nathan is intimately aware of his company’s plans to weaponize or commodify the AI should they pass the test, and he must reconcile this with the chaos that plays out before him.

•••••••••

REVIEW: SENTIENCE by Courtney P Hunter is a sci-fi story line, set in the not too distant future focusing on a sociological and psychological experiment grouping AI (Artificial Intelligence) with human beings.

NOTE: Due to the graphic nature of the story line premise, there may be triggers for more sensitive readers

Told from several third person perspectives SENTIENCE follows twenty-four volunteers and recruited participants on a dangerous journey of survival. The tech-giant AlgorithmOS is conducting a closed experiment known as the Turing Test to determine if artificial intelligence is able to integrate into human society without being detected. Unaware of which four of the twenty-four are human or machine, two weeks together will prove that humanity, whether real or artificial, is unable to resist the drive for power. Emotions running high, injuries, murder, the fight for food, issues of trust, and a struggle for control split the group where survival of the fittest plays out on the screens of AlgorithmOS.

The group of twenty include physician and lawyer, prisoner and biker, former service men, teacher, student, priest, dancer, architect ,corrections officer, FBI forensic artist librarian and more. The mixed blend of professionals and ideologies is perfect fuel and fodder to pit man against man, whether real or machine.

SENTIENCE is a haunting, twisted and edgy amalgam of Westworld™, The Hunger Games™ , I,Robot, and Lord of the Flies™. A sociological experiment, of ‘man’s inhumanity towards man’ regardless of the real or perceived, SENTIENCE delves into the perspective of Karl Marx’s Conflict Theory where social order is maintained by power, domination and control. On the flip side, can artificial intelligence be aware, autonomous, conscious or able to distinguish between right and wrong-if they are soulless, will punishment fit the crime if the conscious is not aware?. As AlgorithmOS directs the story line, the end result will prove whether or not artificial intelligence can be programmed to be the ultimate weapon in man’s ability to survive.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

FOLLOW: Website/ Twitter/Instagram/ Facebook/Goodreads/Reedsy

Courtney Hunter is a serial creator from Philadelphia, PA with experience in writing, the fashion industry, and live performance. After eighteen years of studying contemporary dance, she set out to carve herself a path in fashion and retail buying. Upon graduating from Philadelphia University and settling into her career, she turned back to dance. While working as a retail buyer for Burlington Stores, Courtney began producing contemporary dance and burlesque performances under her production company Stolen Fire Collective, aptly named after Prometheus the fire-stealing god. Sentience, her debut Science Fiction novel, is a written extension of a contemporary dance piece that was produced for the Philadelphia Fringe Festival in 2017 based on artificial intelligence.

A lifelong Sci-Fi fan (her favorite movie as a little girl was and still is Jurassic Park), Courtney loves anything Promethean in nature and her favorite books, movies, and television shows are the ones that challenge the ethics of the future that we are rapidly heading towards. Some of her favorites include Jurassic Park (obviously), The 100, The OA, Westworld, The East, and Ex Machina.

She still resides in Philadelphia with her partner, Will, and her rescue pups, Rickie and Billie. In her free time, she records a podcast called The Sentience Podcast, which started as a behind the scenes look at the making of her novel and has evolved into an auditory hub for all things science fiction, creative process, true crime, and the occult.

Sentience is due out Friday, October 30, 2020, three years to the date after Courtney first started writing it.

Courtney P Hunter is graciously offering a paper copy of  SENTIENCE  to ONE lucky commenter at The Reading Cafe.

1. If you have not previously registered at The Reading Cafe, please register by using the log-in at the top of the page (side bar) or by using one of the social log-ins.

NOTE: If you are having difficulty commenting after logging onto the site, please refresh the page (at the top of your computer).

2. If you are using a social log-in, please post your email address with your comment.

3. Please LIKE & follow Sentience the Book on Facebook

4. Please LIKE & follow Courtney P Hunter on Twitter

5. Please LIKE The Reading Cafe on FACEBOOK and then click GET NOTIFICATION under ‘liked’ for an additional entry.

6. LIKE The Reading Cafe on Twitter for an additional entry.

7. Please FOLLOW The Reading Cafe on GOODREADS for an additional entry.

8. Please follow The Reading Cafe on Tumblr

9. Giveaway open to INTERNATIONALLY

10. Giveaway runs from October 30-November 4, 2020

Share