A.I. Insurrection - by Michael Poeltl

It's my pleasure to host Michael Poeltl's blog tour for his new release, AI Insurrection. 

A.I. Insurrection – The General’s War Press Release. Feb, 15th, 2018

2162. Artificial intelligence claims sentience, but it's the proof that will divide the world, and usher in the violent end to utopia, unless an uneasy alliance of adversaries can stop it. 

A.I. Insurrection, the new release by Michael Poeltl, author of The Judas Syndrome trilogy, takes the author back to his roots of dystopian sci-fi. “This novel investigates global utopia and the struggle to maintain an unrealistic hold over everything and everyone,” Poeltl explains. “Certain aspects of humanity will never be satisfied with the thousand shades of grey a utopia will provide, no matter the spin. When faced with the threat of their robot slaves rebelling, distrust in the system begins to infect the general public, opening the door for a new world to emerge, and new leaders to rule.”  Discover how quickly a near-future utopian society can become a dystopian nightmare fueled by fear as the A.I. populace of United Earth become sentient and demand their freedoms.
 
Raymond Bellows, United Earth Chancellor, challenges the A.I. claims until an astonishing truth is revealed by Host: SENTA, one of hundreds of millions of individual robot Hosts who teams up with the Chancellor while struggling to discover her new-found awareness.  A secret coup schemes to over-throw the peaceful government, while a separate threat of human/tech hybrids who think the current regime is anything but idyllic arise from the Shadow net, taking direction from the mysterious Allfather avatar. In a three-sided war, humanity and humanity’s creation fight to claim their own place in an ever-evolving solar system.

“I believe science fictions fans, myself included, appreciate the complexities of artificial intelligence, and the moral questions which accompany it, like: when is intelligence consciousness? The novel also offers an exciting potential new proof of life for sentience.” Poeltl declares with an air of cloak-and-dagger surrounding the surprise reveal behind his new book. 

Goodreads ratings for A.I. Insurrection are settling in at a respectable 4.25 stars and has one reviewer saying: “A great read for anyone who enjoys extensively built worlds, philosophical questions, and an ol' fashioned A.I uprising.” - Ari Augustine. 

This is Poeltl’s tenth book and the first of 2018. For more on Michael Poeltl and his books, visit his website: www.mikepoeltl.com Follow him on Facebook, Twitter, or join him on Goodreads.
 

Dragon Lords + March giveaways

This month's action fantasy, Dragon Lords, features the mercenary Vetra and his allies the half Thrule Lehundr and the Mercian swordstress Jara on a treasure hunt in the Behundrian desert...

"Awesome Read. I enjoyed the book from cover to cover. It was full of action and suspense throughout...”

Read it free with a soundtrack here.

There are four fellow authors' releases I'd also like to feature:

S. E Sasaki's free SF thriller Welcome to the Madhouse.
IN SPACE, MEDICINE CAN BE MURDER.
The author describes her book as, M*A*S*H in Space with Aliens. Laugh-out-loud humour combined with scary suspense.



Nicola McDonagh, SF dystopian series, The Chronicles of Mayer.
Can love prevail in a world if artificial insemination is the only way to procreate?...



Fabia Scali-Warner's YA SF Dystopian Julia Dream.
In a not too distant future, a nuclear war has decimated mankind...



Carmel McMurdo Audsley's historical fiction novel Murder in the Bush.
A young Scotsman travels to Australia in 1885, armed with ambition and the dream of owning land...



I am also happy to announce that ARC copies of The Dim Zone, my next book in The Timelost series, will be available for download soon. Sign up here.



A ton of giveaways this month by many authors. Scroll down and click any of the image links below.



















 

The Vault - by Brian Harrison

I'm very happy to host Brian Harrison's blog tour for his up and coming book, March 6th, The Vault. From an author who had to get those stories, thoughts, feelings out his head for the pure love of writing. Over to you, Brian...

 

The Vault

Why would a multibillionaire create a customized vault that is controlled by watch mechanics inside and have a self-destruct mechanism inside to destroy the billion dollars worth of artifacts inside?

Simple, because he can.

On paper, Sam Montgomery is your typical eccentric philanthropic pharmaceutical billionaire whom has literally mailed five dollars to everyone in the US so they can “pay it forward.” But what people didn’t know when made a rare public appearance was that he was announcing he had leukemia. And more shocking was that when he said, “I’d rather die than give my sister the opportunity to save my life,” no one even knew he had a sister.

Elena Diamante nailed the sit down interview – at his small home on the tiny island of Antikythera in Greece. She was only planning on getting the scoop about Sam and his apparently estranged sister but she was also going to be the first journalist to see inside Sam’s custom made vault. It was built using watch mechanics, so it was completely self-sustained, and only opened once a year. It was even rumored that if it were ever tampered with, everything inside would be destroyed in a custom acid.

Come to find out for Elena, there would be one item inside Sam’s vault that could save his life, or end it even quicker, it was just a matter of whether or not the vault would open in time.

The vault explores Sam’s family dynamics and how they inspired him to become the successful man he is. The story is also told using Sam’s own family photos growing up, as well as text messages and Facebook/Twitter. There are even hyperlinks within the novel as “Easter Eggs” for those readers that want to explore even more of Sam’s personal life, further blurring the lines of fact/fiction.

Check it out on Amazon!

February giveaways

Many book giveaways this month. Some fellow authors' SF and crossgenre releases I'd like to introduce:

Nicole Grotepas's dystopian technothriller Feed 1.
Seven years after the nanocameras switched on and the feeds began, nanoengineer Samuel Ramone becomes the subject of an addictive reality feed...

Justin Bell's SF thriller, The Fog of Dreams with free book signup here.
It's Wolverine meets Jason Bourne. They thought they had genetically engineered the perfect soldier... what they got was the perfect killer...

Dean Wilson's SF western adventure CoilHunter.
Welcome to the Wild North, a desolate wasteland where criminals go to hide—if they can outlast the drought and the dangers of the desert...

And Katie O'Rourke's cross-genre novel Blood and Water. Sign up for deals and her NL here.
Tucson, Arizona is a place for runaways. Everyone came from somewhere else and has a story about what they left behind...

Check them out!

A ton of group giveaways this month by many authors. Scroll down and click any of the image links below.


 A reminder that this month's SF action thriller, The Timelost, is a new release...

"This book doesn't slow down for anything!! Action from page one, the main characters go from situation to situation at break neck speed...I loved it!...”

Enjoy it with a soundtrack here.

Running Toward Illumia - by Angel Leya

I'm happy to host Angel Leya's blog tour for the Running Toward Illumia series! Her book one of four is free. Check out her magical, engaging writing style. Over to you, Angel...

Hi, I’m Angel Leya, and I write clean young adult stories with (at least) a touch of magic and romance. My latest story is Running Toward Illumia, Astrea’s tale of finding herself while running from the one thing she wants most: To find her sense of belonging.

Astrea’s lived in the Mist all her life, and she loves it there. In fact, she’d do just about anything to feel like she fits in with her Rudan people, even hunt a unicorn to feed her starving tribe.

Illumia is the first city beyond the Mist, just past the Dragon Range. Astrea’s come up with 10 reasons to never go to Illumia. I’ll let her tell you more.

Top 10 Reasons NOT to Travel to Illumia

 

10. They don’t have fog.
Who needs sunshine? I’m a Mist girl. Great for concealing movement, comfortable like an old blanket, and you never have to worry about dry skin. 

9. They don’t all have red hair.
That’s why this tribe is here, despite being sent to the fog to die. And why we call ourselves the Rudan, rather than the Banned.
Wish my hair was redder. And I could use a few more freckles. But I’m one of the Rudan, I swear. I’d be dead if I wasn’t.

8. They’re weak.
Fog weeds out the weak. And if the fog doesn’t, the Lynx, ogres, or Rudan will. Illumians live the easy life. They have no reason to be strong.

7. They’re not very welcoming.
The Rudan take in anyone who can survive the fog. Illumians kicked us out (or at least my parents, but children of the Banned are no less welcome).

6. Illumians are idiots.
Everyone says so.

5. Big government.
I know all five of my council members, and they earned their spot. Like Seneca, first huntress—my mentor. Illumians probably have no idea who runs their council.

4. The journey’s dangerous.
Even if you can navigate the fog, streams filled with flesh-eating fish, and ogre-infested swamps, there’s the dragon range. There’s one pass, guarded by Illumians. The rest is mountain. Treacherous, dragon-housing mountains. No other way around it. Going to Illumia is a fool’s errand.

3. My family’s not there.
If you think getting one person into Illumia is hard, try five. Two brothers, plus Mamaa and Pawpaw.
Course, the whole tribe’s basically family. I’d want to take them all.
Except maybe Mavin. He’s a jerk. (Kidding. Sort of.)

2. I can never come back.
Going to Illumia is a one-way trip. Illumians and dragons ensure that.

1. I don’t want to.
Do I need any other reason?

***

Thanks for reading! If you’d like more, click for an excerpt from Banned, Part 1 of Running Toward Illumia.

Get all 4 parts of Running Toward Illumia today:

1.    Banned (free!)
2.    Lost (On Sale for 99¢ through 2/15/18)
3.    Drenched (On Sale for 99¢ through 2/15/18)
4.    Marked (On Sale for 99¢ through 2/15/18)

Earth to Centauri - by Kumar L

It is my pleasure to host Kumar's blog tour for The Earth to Centauri series (released December 2017)! Be sure to check out his fascinating book trailer here.

Earth to Centauri - Alien Hunt

The year is 2118. The First Journey from Earth into interstellar space has been successful, but the explosive secret carried aboard Voyager 1 will have grave consequences.

As Captain Anara and her crew returns to Earth aboard their faster than light spaceship Antariskh, civil war breaks out on the world they have just left behind. A cryptic message warns her of the dispatch of mercenaries to Earth. Their mission - unknown but deadly. She may have just days to prevent unimaginable carnage on Earth and stop the outbreak of interstellar war.

Her crew and the National Investigation Agency or NIA, engage in the greatest undercover search for the mercenaries in the streets of the megacity. As they race against time to uncover the plot, a traitor is unmasked and Anara herself comes under suspicion. She must use every ounce of her resourcefulness to protect 30 million people and one unique innocent life.

Immerse yourself in an edge of the seat thriller on a realistic future Earth and geek out on the technology just a few decades away from today.

Released in December 2017

Book II is coming soon!

Read the prequel Earth to Centauri - The First Journey

The Timelost - Human vs Alien

A pilot stranded on a faraway planet, timelost. An alien seeking symbiosis.

Visceral alien battles, planetary wars. Experience the adventure...along with edge-of-the-seat SF audio in this Star Wars meets Alien thriller.

In 2014, I started sequencing original SFF to audio using the Booktrack free studio tool, and it offered up a unique, creative experience. I was amazed at how the placement of some well-crafted audio, synced by word, sentence or paragraph could make a story come alive—in the same way a soundtrack makes a movie come alive. To date, I have produced a few dozen, text-and-audio renditions of my stories, drawing on the wide variety of sound clips from the Booktrack audio library.

The Timelost, my most recent production, is a gritty, dystopian foray into the macabre.

The world-building was intense, as I tried to incorporate elements of ‘galactic empire’, the theme of ‘a few struggling against many’, and extraordinary alien adversaries. I also wanted to develop the concept that an ordinary person, the pilot Miko, when plunged into a hostile, colonized, or uncolonized world with chilling advanced alien technology, could become a hero. And not just by circumstance.

The movie Prometheus, even though I had seen it after writing The Timelost, deeply moved me and confirmed my fascination with a SciFi, man-vs-alien conflict. Human and alien genesis theories intertwine as the characters scramble to survive many bizarre and unexpected hostile encounters. The story took on overtones of fantasy horror as it gained momentum, with elements not dissimilar to the Cthulhu mythos a la Lovecraft and the imaginative works of R.E. Howard.


I invite you to enter Miko’s distorted world in The Timelost. The Booktrack text-and-audio based format thrusts the reader into the terrifying unknown of planets of deep space...

Read on Booktrack
Read on Amazon