The Tremblers - by Raquel Byrnes

I am pleased to host Raquel Byrnes' blog tour for her latest book in the Blackburn Chronicles, The Tremblers.

Over to you, Raquel...

Weapons of Light & Power 

 

"A soldier leaned out the window, taking aim at Charlotte. A frisson of energy pulsed from the weapon, barely missing her. She screamed, flailing. 

Ashton flipped the rocket ignition on the power cycle and the force of the thrust slammed him against the seat as he shot skyward toward the roof. Pulling his tracer gun, he fired blindly at the building. 
The soldier dove for the floor." ~Ashton Wells, The Tremblers

Creating the weapons for my YA Steampunk novel, The Tremblers took me on a fascinating path. The invention of destructive devices was vexing and addicting all at once.

Weapons of light -- Tracer Guns are the weapon of choice for the soldiers of the Peaceful Union. Powerful blasters that syphon the glowing purple energy from the massive Tesla Domes caging the city-states are feared by the average citizen. Constantly recalibrating to the dome's pulse, they are outlawed to everyone but the soldiers of the government.

Charlotte is a tinkerer and inventor. The daughter of a renowned soldier and chemist, her weapons needed finesse. I designed the metal spheres of her Shrieking Violet grenade to cluster together like a flower. Its shrill screech disables her enemies while a curtain of magenta gas shields her escape.

The outlaws and Lawmen of Outer City favor guns and pistols of the old world. Sheriff Sebastian Riley's revolver helped him to rise to power among the pirates and pioneers of the sky settlement.
 
Another daunting tool as the Lightning Stick. Capable of lashing whips of energy. Used by the ruthless Lawmen of the floating ports, Charlotte learns of its devastating effects while trying to flee with Ashton.
 
However, it is the power and might of the Peaceful Union Aero Squad that strikes fear into the heart of every citizen. Their searing lamps and concussion bombs send rioters scrambling. Creating airship battles and designing the infamous rebel ship, The Stygian, was great fun! Myself the daughter of a military man, I grew up visiting airshows and sitting at the controls of massive machines of war.  I wanted to bring that fascination and awe to the Blackburn Chronicles.
 
If you love mechanica, mayhem, and monsters, then check out The Tremblers and Wind Reapers available now wherever books are sold.

Far Future SF

Some far-future gems featured this week...

Outcast of Empire by Nicholas Woode-Smith, a 'few against the many' SF adventure. One pariah against a totalitarian alien regime. If you like getting immersed in alien cultures, heroism and revenge, then you will enjoy this book which has many aspects similar to my Timelost Series. Check it out!


















Also Phane, a far-future coming-of-age story, featuring Kolbe, a teen prodigy who chooses to walk a different path than his vandalistic friends...

Read the full anthology, including Phane, on Amazon here.

Finally, an April fantasy giveaway. Click the image link below. Enjoy!

The Movie Maker + giveaways

SF pick of the day, The Movie Maker, features Holgram Hines, a gifted undergrad who develops an innovation to revolutionize the holographic film industry...

"This is awesome! Glad I found this. Another grand slam booktrack!”

Read it free with a soundtrack here. Full anthology on Amazon here.

Many fellow authors' releases I'd like to feature:

J. O. Quantaman's Alternate history, SF Loose threads: Cool Assassins.
Multi-genre Alternate History with a human touch. Cooperation versus hierarchy, circa 2070s. Free sample here:

Katherine Bogle's SF thriller, The Aldar Dominion.
The Aldar Dominion saved the world. Then they damned it...

K. J. Water's SF Time Travel, Stealing Time.
She seeks shelter at her boyfriend’s weather lab but what she finds there is more terrifying than the storm...

Stephen Perkin's SF Supernatural, Sorcerer's Dynasty.
What would you give up for immorality?...

 

Check them out!

ARC copies of The Dim Zone, the next book in The Timelost series, will be available for download soon.
A group of mercenaries sent on an odd mission to the far corners of the universe...something beautiful, something terrible waits...
Sign up here.



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

 

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.