Recommended Reads

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Recommended Reads: A GOOD HOME by Karin Lowachee

lightspeed_73_june_2016One of my favorite authors, Karin Lowachee, has a short story out in this month’s Lightspeed Magazine called A GOOD HOME that is an absolute must read.

I just one-clicked the issue on Amazon after reading the story. It’s worth the $3.99 just for her story alone. I can’t wait to finish the rest of the issue.

Read A GOOD HOME here, and when you’re finished, one-click the heck out of it.

Here’s more about the issue. Enjoy!

Lightspeed Magazine, June 2016 (Issue 73)

This month, we’ve made another special double issue for you: People of Colo(u)r Destroy Science Fiction! We’ve brought together a team of terrific creators and editors of color, led by Guest Editors Nalo Hopkinson and Kristine Ong Muslim. We’ll have ten pieces of original science fiction by exciting SF authors: Karin Lowachee (“A Good Home”), Steven Barnes (“Fifty Shades of Grays”), Isha Karki (“Firebird”), Lisa Allen-Agostini (“Depot 256”), Brian K. Hudson (“Digital Medicine”), Sofia Samatar (“The Red Thread”), Nick T. Chan (“Salto Mortal”), Dayo Ntwari (“Omoshango”), Terence Taylor (“Wilson’s Singularity”), and Gabriela Santiago (“As Long As It Takes to Make the World”). We also have a special flash fiction section curated by the talented Berit Ellingsen. We have flash from S.B. Divya (“Binaries”), Fabio Fernandes (“Other Metamorphoses”), Teresa Naval (“An Offertory to Our Drowned Gods”), Nin Harris (“Morning Cravings”), Jennifer Marie Brissett (“Breathe Deep, Breathe Free”), T.S. Bazelli (“The Peacemaker”), Caroline M. Yoachim (“Chocolate Milkshake Number 314”), Naru Dames Sundar (“A Handful Of Dal”), Kevin Jared Hosein (“Hiranyagarbha”), and JY Yang (“Four And Twenty Blackbirds”). Our nonfiction editor, Grace Dillon, has brought us some incredible essays and articles, and we have our usual assortment of author and artist spotlights. For our ebook readers—and for those who seek out the print edition of our special issue—we also include have our usual novella reprint and a novel excerpt. But as a special treat, Sunil Patel has collected the more than two dozen essays on life as a PoC reader and creator of science fiction that originally ran in our People of Colo(u)r Kickstarter campaign. All that, and of course we also have our usual assortment of author spotlights, along with an extra special book column.

More on lightspeedmagazine.com

A GOOD HOME by Karin Lowachee
Amazon | Karin Lowachee’s website

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Recommended Reads: MERCENARY INSTINCT by Ruby Lionsdrake

mercenary_instinctSharp-witted pickpocket heroine. Grumpy ship captain who paints his throwing knives black so they’re invisible at night. Plus, spaceships.

Mercenary Instinct has everything you need in an SFR (sci-fi romance), and right now it’s only $.99 on Kindle.

I read this several weeks ago and the characters are still so vibrant in my mind. The proportions of world-building, romantic tension, action and adventure are just right. I think I need to grab the next in the series…

MERCENARY INSTINCT by Ruby Lionsdrake
Amazon | Goodreads | Ruby Lionsdrake’s website

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Recommended Reads: UPROOTED by Naomi Novik

uprootedUprooted by Naomi Novik = a million wows.

I feel guilty for devouring it instead of savoring every word. What a perfect joining of fairy tale and fantasy, alive with magic in the story as well as the prose. The pace has a perfect ebb and flow, with scenes of high action tempered by slower scenes of vivid description that allow a moment to savor and breathe. The slower scenes pull you into a world that becomes more layered each time.

The characters are some of the best drawn fictional people I’ve read in a long time. And the world! It’s wonderful and frightening and built in such detail that when the conflicts explode, it’s breathtaking.

Uprooted is one of the few books I’d buy a paper copy of just to leave out on my nightstand, to be able to pick it up, flip to a random page, and lose myself just for a moment. It’s designed to not just consume, but treasure. If I didn’t have so many books on my To-Read, I’d read it again right now. And yes, there’s a love story threaded in, pulling tighter with each scene until you’re dying to see something give. It reminds me a lot of Beauty and the Beast, yet it’s so different, and so much more.

Fans of my books, I think you will love this one.

UPROOTED by Naomi Novik
Amazon | Goodreads | Naomi Novik’s website

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THE CATALYST: 20,000 Word Mark

I just reached the 20,000 word mark in THE CATALYST.

TB is breaking my heart. Anti-heroes can be traumatizing to write sometimes. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.
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While you wait for those 100,000 or so remaining words, here’s another series with a great anti-hero with his own set of problems. He’s angsty, tormented, foul-mouthed, and also a heavy drinker just like someone I know. And the women around him are casting a floodlight on his problems. Making him own up. Maybe making him clean up, if my hopes for the series are fulfilled. I really hope there’s a happily ever after for Caleb, #1001, and Fran, too. They’ve stolen my hearts as much as my own characters live to do.

GIRL FROM ABOVE (The 1000 Revolution) by Pippa DaCosta
Amazon | Goodreads | Pippa DaCosta’s Website

Try it! The first one’s only $.99 on Kindle right now. It’s wonderfully devourable. Probably one of my favorite series of all time.

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Recommended Reads: THE WINTER WITCH by Paula Brackston

the_winter_witchRich in character, setting, and story, this is the type of book I’m always looking for. Topnotch writing and a powerful love story set in fantasy is a win for me every time, especially when the romance is an integral piece to a larger story. I usually crave more story than simply “will these two fall in love,” and this book has so much more. I have found a new favorite author.

THE WINTER WITCH by Paula Brackston
Amazon | Goodreads | Paula Brackston’s Website

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Recommended Indie Reads: Intercontinental Moves, Interdimensional Travel

I got tagged again with the Four Q&As about my WIP blog hop, so instead of repeat the same questions and answers, I’m going to promote two great indie writers.

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Rosemary Whittaker is a British born author. She is an English teacher by profession. Since leaving university she has lived and worked in the United States, New Zealand, Australia and twice in Denmark. Her husband works in biodiversity informatics (cataloging all living species on earth) and this has entailed many moves. They have five children so the moves have been extra challenging.
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Her real love has always been writing and she has written several novels, variously set in the countries in which she has lived. She also writes for children. All her novels are available on Amazon and Amazon.co.uk.

Her recent novels, a set of four, all take the theme of British women who move, by choice or circumstance, to one of the four countries mentioned above. THE CINNAMON SNAIL is set in Denmark, where Rosemary currently lives.

The Copenhagen Post Publisher’s Corner: Review of ‘The Cinnamon Snail’

Rosemary’s Website | Rosemary’s Books on Amazon

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Eleanor
Jason Gurley is a writer I recently found. His book ELEANOR was released on June 27, but I received an early copy from his website.

I’m about 80% through ELEANOR, and devouring it. It’s a lovingly crafted book, a story I can recommend wholeheartedly even though I haven’t finished it. It’s a perfect example of why I love indie fiction, and why I’m so glad this book never found a traditional publisher. ELEANOR hasn’t been forced into any mold. It’s a story that takes its time to build, to immerse you, to wiggle in deeply so you can’t shake it off.

If you like magical realism, and exploring the barrier between life and the afterlife, you might want to check this one out.

Jason’s Website | Jason’s Books on Amazon

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Recommended Reads: THE BRIDGE by Rebecca Rogers Maher

I’m not sure where I heard about Rebecca Rogers Maher‘s books, but whatever it was sold me for an instant read even though I have dozens of books waiting for me on my Kindle. I started with THE BRIDGE. Probably the best book I’ve read this year. I’m 50% into TANYA, the followup which was just published last month. TANYA’s plot is milder, but the romance is much more spicy, which I’m usually not into (graphic sex scenes bore me into a coma, go figure). But! The writing is so flippin’ good—that spice mixes with sweet and beautiful and it’s impossible not to savor every word. If all writers infused such compelling emotion into a sex scene I’d be signing up every time.
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While reading THE BRIDGE, I was confronted with the idea that the best relationships, the most fulfilling ones, are based on complete honesty. You could meet a person who’s your polar opposite, but if there are no games and no masks and no pretending, no small-talk pleasantries to keep a polite distance, no egos to stroke, no images to uphold, if the playing field is level and you’re both standing in the mud, then the only way to connect is on a simple human level. Which works every time. Unless you’re like, Hannibal Lecter or something.

But honesty, as a foundation, just might be all we need. Everything else–respect, sympathy, love, can grow from it.

THE BRIDGE is the type of love story I’m on a never-ending quest to find. I’ve added all of Rebecca’s books to my TBR list and I think I’m pushing them to the top.

THE BRIDGE by Rebecca Rogers Maher
Amazon | Goodreads | Rebecca Rogers Maher’s website

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Recommended Reads: SONG OF SCARABAEUS by Sara Creasy

It’s really hard to find the blend I like in fiction: just enough action, just enough sci-fi/fantasy, just enough of a love story.

SONG OF SCARABAEUS is one of the few novels I’ve found with that perfect blend. Toss in a captivating plot, great characterization, realistic dialogue, and several fresh story ideas that I wake up in the morning pondering, and I’m disappointed I can’t erase my memory of this book just so I can read it again. Maybe slower this time, so it can sink in more.

One of my favorite elements was the masterful male/female interaction. One example–the hero’s trigger finger is a bit eager even though the gunshots seem to do nothing to scare off a threat. The heroine says, “Save the bullets, Finn. There are hundreds of tons of biomass up there. Clearly it doesn’t want to have a hole carved through it.”

And at the end of Chapter 28? I actually put down the book and said aloud, “Oh my god. Awesome.”

I can’t wait to read the sequel.

SONG OF SCARABAEUS by Sara Creasy
Amazon | Goodreads | Sara Creasy’s website