Neon City trilogy covers!

Hi all, excited to reveal the next covers in the Neon series! It's another trilogy; Neon City, Tides of Hysteria, and Purge of Deceit. The blurbs aren't completed yet but you can add them to your reading lists on Goodreads! 

Review: The Dragon's Den

The Dragon's Den by Graeme Rodaughan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This book was like "Welcome back, good to see you, sit down, we're all out of starters, we only have 24 ounce steaks for main courses and here it is, waiting for you, get stuck in."

That is to say, after the first handful of pages it was relentless in its action. The reader is guided towards where they think the showdown is going to happen, and then realises the whole damn thing is a showdown. Pure, frenetic, ramp-coruscating action.

With that in mind, the set-pieces need to work, and while you're left mesmerised and wondering just how far the Morovar team can push their skills, they go and push it some more. It's frankly miraculous they get as far as they do, especially with grenades aiming their way as they cling to the top of a moving vehicle. Batted away like baseballs.

And the set-pieces do work. The obstacles they meet on their path are realistic (for this world), with the right amount of insurmountability to be surmounted. It is satisfying to read how they navigate their way from mini-battle to mini-battle, within the framework of the grander scale. The POV seems tighter than the previous two books, with clarity between characters when we switch. Individual character motivation is also more obvious, though sometimes questionable, but that's characters for you!

My only negative really is the run-on sentences; ironically it works well during action sequences, as the pace is kept racing. It doesn't work so well when we do get down time, and seems to be just how the writing style is. Seems picky, but I know it would be a bigger issue for me if this wasn't an action-oritiented series.

I enjoyed the ending too - the little teasers of further intrigue and misdirection and guilt and new character motivation. Leading straight to the next one! I wonder if it'll last longer than a few in-story hours!

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Selection of active giveaways

See below for some giveaways of free books currently going on. You'll find my titles within, but also just a great selection of other titles. Happy reading!

https://books.bookfunnel.com/nohappyendings/xdkl41c8zm

SPACE EXPLORATION

https://books.bookfunnel.com/spaceexploration/c6le3483pw

https://books.bookfunnel.com/scifiwinter/ax7xili6db

https://books.bookfunnel.com/speculativefictionshowcase/1y55i4ydd1

Neon Sands Trilogy Boxset & Permafree Prequel - NOW OUT!

She's out there in the world for all to read. A little scary; heart flutters of nervousness.

It'll be fine.

You'll click on this link:

DOWNLOAD AND ENJOY MY BOOK

And then you'll LEAVE A REVIEW and the world will keep on turning.

I'll keep on writing.

And we'll do it all again, you and me.

And should you enjoy that little taster, you'll either buy the reasonably priced BOXSET or have that sweet KINDLE UNLIMITED membership to read the entire set in one go.

And LEAVE A REVIEW on all 3 books.





Because you're a reader, and you're great.

Review: Neon Zero: The Neon Series Prequel

Neon Zero: The Neon Series Prequel by Adam J. Smith
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

To great fanfare...... Neon Zero is now available for FREE download. That's FREE!

It's a permafree prequel to the Neon series, so enjoy!

getbook.at/amazon-neon-zero


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Cover reveal - Neon Zero - Neon Series Prequel

Hi all! Well it's been an exciting month for my book sales - having Neon Sands Book One on free for a few days was great, reaching #1 in 3 different categories and curiously, across all 5 days, the ratio of free downloads to purchases of books 2 and 3 was 30:1, consistently. I like that ratio. So next up, the perma-free prequel Neon Zero:

You cannot outrun the sun...

With Earth falling to pieces, those who escaped look back with sorrow, and forward with hope. Hope of a new beginning. A chance to start over.

Then the fires began...












Looks good, eh? I might just have to get a paperback version printed, if only for myself, even though it'll only be 100 pages or so long. You can add it to your Goodreads reading list here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43199128-neon-zero

I seem to have had a rise in book review requests lately - apologies if I've not responded to you. At the moment, the only books I'm thinking about are my own and a few that are already on my reading list, sorry.

Breaking the silence - Neon Sands FREE

I am alive! The blog is not dead! Hallelujah!

In all seriousness, I've just been too busy to do anything but work and write Flames of Apathy! It was a bit of a beast but in the end, I think I've done the trilogy justice. Science-fiction, for me, has always been about hope and aspiration, as much as it has been about any futuristic science, or high-concept action scenes. I'm most interested in the human story. Which is why I think Flames of Apathy works well. But, who knows, maybe it'll divide opinion. If at least one person enjoys it, than that'll be something!

It's out on 6 December, so to celebrate, Neon Sands is free, and Plains of Ion is reduced, for the next 5 days. Neon Sands is currently sitting at #2 in various categories, which is pretty amazing. Might even be #1 by the time I finish writing this. This will be the first and only time it'll be free, so grab it while you can. I'm writing a prequel to the Neon series which will be permafree, out in February.

Review: Poor Things

Poor Things by Daniel Barnett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Had fun with my new kindle reading this one, sharing lots of good quotes as some may have seen. This book is perma-free on Amazon and if you like horror and gore with characters in the Stephen King mould, you'll enjoy this.

A devestating event sends Joel to live with his Aunt Sandy in the town of Honaw; a place with more than one skeleton in its closet. New school, new friends, new bullies - pretty soon we're treated to a cast of characters to become attached to, and horrors to endure.

“In the dictionary under ‘adolescence’ you’ll find a bunch of stuff about transitional periods and developmental phases, and that all may be accurate enough if you’re writing a paper for Health class, but only one word defines ‘adolescence’ and that word is ‘earthquake.”

I shared many quotes and could've chosen any of them to put above, but the truth is the writing is just extremely solid throughout. There's a definite style which lends itself well to suspense and horror, and in first person it is peppered with incisive observation.

“I think we all have that place where we feel closest to ourselves, where the mind slides into perfect orbit around the heart.”

And when it arrives, the crawling horror is satisfyingly bloody, and splatty, gorey and squelchy - almost too much, stretching the believable, testing the limits of our narrator. But then it's reigned in again, lulling us into its safe space. Before kicking on, shifting into a higher gear, crescendoing to a satisfying conclusion.

Did I mention it's free?





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DailyFlash: Adrift

Skin no longer skin; inside a bubble of gelatine gently decoding her, she followed where her mind lead. Threads stretched beyond the dome; beyond the planet and the atomsphere and into the empty chaos of space. She was that chaos; starbursts and heat deaths and dark that did not matter, and dark that was. She could see between the nature of things, and through it, into the soul - a disembodiment of God. Planktons of knowledge dislodged from her and became part of the soup around her, blazing.

Neon Series Promo - 24-26 Sept / #Amreading

Howdy folks. Just a quick update to let you know you can pick up Neon Sands for 99c, and a discount on Plains of Ion. Book 3, Flames of Apathy is on permanent preorder bonus price of 99c too - great to see some preorders already!

You may have already read my newsletter - I'm giving the whole NL swap thing a go, and so far, it's not doing too badly. Best sales day since July!

The Risen is also on offer at the moment for 99c, while Hereafter is FREE! Free I tell ya.

The writing for Flames of Apathy is going well, and while I'm not writing, I'm reading Poor Things by Daniel Barnett and The Fireman by Joe Hill. So far, so prefering Poor Things. The Fireman is a whole lotta book!

Follow me on Goodreads for updates there.

Review: How the World Ends

How the World Ends by Rudolf Kerkhoven
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The world's population is dying by their own hand. Can one family halt their demise?

The plot unfolds from this central premise and turns into a sort-of road trip - a linear exploration of a family struggling to keep it together as everything falls apart. The strengths are with the writing, which flows very well and does a good job exploring the inner self of Alex, our matriarch protagonist; and the characterisation of the husband and wife. Even if we are often asking ourselves how these two remained together. But that in itself shows strong characterisation.

Sometimes the children felt a little forgotten - when they were there they were realistically portrayed, but they didn't come into their own or feel 'rounded' until later. But this wasn't so bad. For me, after everything, the book kinda fell into Book One syndrome - it never reached fifth gear; the family are constantly running AWAY from danger it feels, and even when danger catches up it's more of an uphill labour to generate any tension or unpredictable action. The problem is we are in the head of someone who has no idea what's going on, and the development arc all leads towards book two.

I can see why someone would rate this higher, so my 3 stars is (obviously) just a personal taste thing. It's a character-driven end-of-world tale; I'd have just enjoyed a bit more bite in the middle.

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Flames of Apathy: Neon Sands Book 3 Preorder

Great news! The 3rd book in the Neon Sands trilogy is now on preorder - available 6 December. Special preorder price of 0.99!

CHECK OUT THE SERIES HERE

Far beneath the city’s depths burns far more than the fuel that feeds it.

What happens when equilibrium unbalances?

Will the people be ready for it?

Would they recognise it, even when it happened?

When Rylan finds new friends in old places, his passion for fairness and order is reignited. And when those new friends themselves become a target, he must make a decision: his mission or their lives?

Set within the bowels of Neon City, incessant rain shrouding an entire population with their hoods drawn up, book three of the Neon Sands trilogy burns as bright as the forges beneath the city – a ferocious final act.

Review: Among Wolves

Among Wolves by R.A. Hakok
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

There's a lot to admire in Hakok's Among Wolves (not least the Amazon ranking) - for it is a Young Adult Sci-fi Dystopia that knows how to tell a story. Specific sciency things are glossed over or stretched to points of believability, but this is small fry, for the way the story unfolds offers us sneak peeks and tidbits, while focusing on character, and when certain events are unveiled, you can forgive a little far-fetchedness.

The world has come to a stop; all that remains is a group of teens and the adults left in charge of them, buried deep within the safety of a mountain. Outside is dangerous and snow-ridden. Changes are occuring within the small community, and revelations are not far away. Supplies are in short supply, and the tension is rising. We follow Gabriel's story; he is a scavenger, who, along with Marv (one of the remaining adults) heads out to pick through the remains of the nearby small towns and buildings. Pickings are slim, as they are forced further and further.

Refreshingly, we also witness the end of days, following one of the key figures in its downfall. It gives the story a more rounded feeling than you sometimes get from these apocalyptic adventures (including my own). Reading this taught me a few things about how I could about my own stories. But that aside, I enjoyed the pacing. It took its time, with nice, full-length paragraphs and sparse dialogue. I imagine if I did this, it would be full of description, but here it's often movement. Sometimes not a lot happens, but there's always movement, and at other times reflection. There'll be no awards won for imaginative synonyms or metaphors, but that's okay. For what this is, and who it's for, it works.

I've seen some complaints about the ending, but if you're picking it up, you already know it's book one in a series. Even considering that, there's more than enough within the pages to tell a full story, with plenty of twists and turns and surprises, right up til the end.

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Book Review: Mutation by Nerys Wheatley

"Despite their bravado, most of the men facing them now looked on edge, ranging from nervous to downright terrified, glancing around them as if they expected a wave of ravenous monsters to flood from the surrounding buildings at any second. It was one thing to shout and goad an empty street, but quite another to come face to face with their nightmares."

Mutation is book one in the Twenty-Five Percent series; featuring samurai swords, bromance, romance, gore, suspense, guns (in the UK!), motorbikes - and eaters (not zombies!). It's also a meaty book, coming in at nearly 400 ebook pages. From page one it's a series of encounters covering the usual humans-are-the-real-bad-guys and running-from-zombies tropes, all tuned to the max. If you're going to write this kind of story, do it well! And Nerys has.

Pinning the story to earth is Alex and Micah, an unlikely duo who begin at loggerheads (literally) before developing a believable bromance as the story unfolds, while they keep tally of who has saved each other more than the other. This central partnership is key, and the book wouldn't work half as well without this being convincing, but there's also plenty of exciting misadventure too as they narrowly avoid death time and again.

"Carrie was staring at Alex's face. "What happened to your nose?"
"Someone punched me," he said quickly, before Micah could say anything. "Big dude, fists like rocks."
Micah snorted. Alex ignored him."

The writing is solid - my only gripe being the slightly heavy handed use of the passive voice, such as "Carrie was staring at Alex's face." Personally, I'd prefer "Carrie stared at Alex's face." But this is minor in what is a well-written story.

As the plot progresses, it also begins to throw in the elements that the story would need to make it stand out from other zombie-genre titles, to make it different. We already have the Survivors (Alex) - those who were turned but then cured just before it was too late, left with 'powers' and distinguishable white irises. Gradually, more is revealed, and it's not so far-fetched (in this world) to be believable either.

If you enjoy this genre of book, you can't go wrong!

DailyFlash: ImMEDIAte

The man has a flashback to sitting in the backseat of a car with potential in-laws, the heat of a strange country on everything from the window glass to the material upholstery to the kid's clammy hand. The kid - not his, but yes his in this as-yet unbroken timeline - goes "Mommy says you're my Daddy now." It explodes in the car, an aftermath of silence, and the potential in-laws say something, he doesn't remember what; and he says something, he doesn't remember what. It doesn't matter. There's no rewind.

In the present timeline he sees the kid's face as it is now on the screen, and the face of his own as she plays in the corner of the room. She calls out a legitimate Daddy, and he is struck by his own complacency, and remorse. She wasn't the first to call him Daddy - how could he have taken the clammy hand so lightly? Not seen through the eyes of the kid? A well opens in his heart and he falls into the darkness, staring only at the kid's gaze, hoping they were young enough to forget him easily. His punishment; that they would or already have: unaware of the Daddy roaming the earth who would never forget them.