Curse of the Kraken and other SFF

Some new books and giveaways this week! First up is some sword and sorcery...

Curse of the Kraken

“Caves of old where krakens and gold,
Lie in darkness and dream, so it’s been told.”
This is a Lord of the Rings type fantasy...a tale of headstrong heroes and a larger-than-life creature, vying for lordship in an age where light and darkness walk a blurry line...

Here's what one booktrack reviewer wrote:

Wow! This is good... I mean REAL good. What else can I say to describe it? I highly recommend that every adventure/fantasy lover like me read this and see what I mean.

Read it free with a soundtrack here. On Amazon here.

Check out and like my new FB author page!

Next up is the Auriga Project by Matt Herron. A mix of Stargate, survival against all odds and alien mystery. Fans of Stargate Atlantis and John Scalzi's works and character-driven fiction will like this.

Ripped from Earth in a horrifying teleportation accident, archaeologist Eliana Fisk finds herself stranded on a strange planet whose denizens want her as a human sacrifice.

Can she stay out from under the knife long enough to find her way home? Or will the desperate natives and their bloodthirsty gods get to her first?
 

Next up is Coilhunter

An imaginative, alternate-history SF Western adventure by Dean Wilson. Follow badass bounty-hunter Nox in a futuristic world.

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. Or the dangers of something else.

Meet Nox, the Coilhunter. A mechanic and toymaker by trade, a bounty hunter by circumstance. He isn't in it for the money. He's in it for justice, and there's a lot of justice that needs to be paid...

Lastly, don't miss more May giveaways!

The Timelost series + other SFF

A list of riveting SFF this week: alien technothriller, space adventure, dark fantasy, dystopian, steampunk, and paranormal romance. First up is the next technothriller in the Timelost series:

The Dim Zone

Mercenary Yul Vrean is hired by billionaire CEO Mathias of Cybercore to bring back alien samples from a remote planet in the Dim Zone. It’s a region rife with murderous space pirates and slavers, the warlike Zikri and Mentera. Yul and his space thugs suspect Mathias is not on the up-and-up as he expands his techno-empire...

I had fun creating the alien effects for this one: a combo of modulated synth tones and various animal sounds. Contains space battles, extreme action, a touch of the bizarre and fantastic...

Read it free with a soundtrack here. On Amazon here.

Refuge : The Minder's War

Sometime during their thousand-year voyage, the invaders perished. But their slaves, the minders, survived to finish the journey to Earth. Deanne doesn’t believe any of the news about visiting aliens. She’s a felon serving time in a California youth detention center. As the lights go out and the world falls down around Deanne and her fellow inmates, she discovers something that might hold the key to their survival. Saving Earth will mean risking not only her life, but what makes her human… Free on amazon

 

The Knight's Secret : The Mage Conspiracy


Sir Corbin, retired Hero of Jerkum Pass, rides for honor, glory, and his pension with the aid of a magic ring. The knight’s mission takes him to the capital of the Iron Empire. The city is in an uproar. The emperor has been slain by rogue mages. The new empress is livid. Soon all mages are suspect... including Corbin’s daughter...

 

Cytress Vee - A Dog Squad Story - A SF Military series

Across the void formed by two galactic spiral arms, vast forces face each other. The tenuous Alliance, sixty civilizations united only by fear of invasion, prepare to resist the encroachment of their as-yet unseen enemy, known only as the Creeps...

 The Fall : The Mutant Rain Series

New Hampton is bloodthirsty. The streets are a cesspool. Greed and corporate necessity rule the overcrowded city. A mysterious doctor, his young protégé and a monstrous enforcer are playing gods, their wanton destruction going unchecked. The city’s Mayor seeks vengeance and believes the doctor’s work is the key to achieving redemption. These men will change the city forever... Kickstarter + rewards!...

Nighthawks : Children of Nostradamus

New England is a walled off radioactive prison. People exhibiting extraordinary abilities are hunted for experiments. The only talent twenty-six-year-old Conthan has in life is his art and knack for sarcasm. When a cop threatens his life, Conthan discovers he has the ability to teleport...

Star Crusader : Hero of the Alliance

Nate has a talent for space combat after hundreds of victories in the Star Crusader videogame simulation. His skills are unique, enough to gain him a rare privilege. The chance to join five other Alliance cadets and escape the dull routine of the classroom. They will enter a fierce competition light-years away in the ancient Byotai Empire. Yet days after their arrival a rebellious faction begins a bloody mutiny that spreads like wildfire. The time for competition has ended; the time of war has begun...

The Untold Tales of Dolly Williamson : An Occult Steampunk Thriller

Not your typical guns and gears steampunk. Sherlock meets the Dresden Files, in a steam-powered alternate history thriller. The woman on the cover is not Dolly. Her name is Sister Rose Caldwell. That man in the shadows is Dolly, and without the help of Sister Rose, all of London is in danger. Well maybe not all London, just the social elite that are having their souls stolen...

The Coven Princess

Your blood does not define you.
Harley Torrance's parents were killed in a home invasion when she was three. Adopted by a nice couple, Harley begins to develop strange powers. At fourteen she brews a potion so strong it gains the attention of the Coven King, and changes her world forever...

Venus Rising

After a string of brutal murders rips her planet apart, Empress Nadira is the only councilwoman left standing. Unable to calm the civil war brewing on Venus, her only hope lies in a reclusive but powerful magistrate, who sends Nadira on a dangerous mission to Earth in exchange for her help...

Re:Camelot: Part One: The Descendant of the King

In an inaccessible solar system, on the planet Avalon, darkness spreads across the continent, consuming all. But through the blackness, a small light emanates, signaling hope. Merlin awakes from her realistic dream in a cold sweat. She recalls an ancient prophecy. She must find the descendant of King Arthur who will draw Excalibur and save them...

Nailed by the Bear: A Billionaire Romance

The naïve and lovable Clarissa Carr is not looking for love, only looking for another paycheck. Another day another dollar. Another month of a roof under over her head so she can focus on her passion. Her one true love, Painting.
She meets a handsome, mysterious man when he walks into the Art Museum she works at one day. Taking an instant liking to her, she is suspicious of this Damian Holt. Nobody can be that perfect. Werebear or not…

Many thanks for those of you who reviewed The Dim Zone! For readers still reviewing, be sure to mention you received an arc copy.

Don't miss May's giveaways! Scroll down and click the image links below.

The Dim Zone - How far is too far?

Mercenary Yul Vrean is hired by billionaire CEO Mathias of Cybercore to bring back alien samples from a remote planet in the Dim Zone. It’s a region rife with murderous space pirates and slavers, the warlike Zikri and Mentera.

This alien technothriller is full of deadly space battles, extreme action, bio-mechanical fusion, killer aliens, a touch of the bizarre and fantastic… it will certainly intrigue fans of Alien, Predator and The Matrix.

In a race for mechnobot technology, genius Sigmund Hresh has engineered a prototype for what may be the holy grail of AI. The uses of such technology vary from the sinister to the saintly. Yul and his space thugs may be the only link preventing the next galactic war and saving the human colonies from hostile aliens.

The Making of The Dim Zone...

The booktrack audio component was based on many space classics with similar textures to Alien Covenant and Life. I created composite alien effects from mixes of digital samples and animals, using pitch effects and warping. All in all, an eerie backdrop to the alien planet Xeses, and later, the corridors inside the starship Orb of the Zikri hunters.

Enjoy The Dim Zone, the next book in The Timelost series:

Booktrack (free)

Amazon

The Jisil-ou-az-lar and other SFF

An exciting collection of SFF this week: space adventures, technothrillers, sword and sorcery, fantasy and mystery. First up is Niel Bushnell's space war saga!

Arkship Obsidian (The Arkship Saga Book 1)

Earth has been destroyed, the entire solar system turned to dust by a cataclysmic event known as the Fracture. Now, the last survivors of humanity live on vast arkships drifting through the Cluster, fighting for survival in this hostile, ever-changing environment...

Liberty
Struggling with newfound sentience and desperately trying to repair itself, The Indescribable Joy of Destruction is a ship trying to find a new home. In a galaxy torn apart by generations of civil war, that isn't an easy task. Tired of being used as a killing machine, it has a huge decision to make: hide and save itself, or help other artificial intelligences achieve freedom...

Breakers
Humanity has fallen from its once majestic place amongst the stars. Desperate for more resources and colonizable planets, humans wage xenocidal war on the peaceful Enthos...
Book III in the series releases May 4!
 

The Infinet
Imagine a few short years from now…
...a quantum computer more powerful than all other computers ever created...combined...a madman seeking to destroy civilization with a computer virus targeting the Internet of Things...a brilliant but reclusive geneticist determined to solve one of the great mysteries of all time...
Download 'The Infinet' free here:

Battle Beyond Earth: Resurrection
The first instalment in an epic new series that tells of humanity's desperate struggle to survive in an uncertain and war-torn future. Four centuries have passed since the end of the alien invasion that almost destroyed humanity. The surviving races, human and alien, now live in peace as allies. But when a terrifying new enemy cuts a path of destruction through the Alliance, there seems little hope of resistance...

The Tube Riders Trilogy Boxed Set
Beneath the dark streets of London they played a dangerous game with trains. Now it is their only chance for survival...
Britain in 2075 is a dangerous place. A man known only as the Governor rules the country with an iron hand, but within the towering perimeter walls of London Greater Urban Area anarchy spreads unchecked through the streets...

 

Storms of Fate & fury: An Anthology of Ten Epic Fantasy, Myths and Legends, and Sword & Sorcery Novel

Beware the storm that brings magic, for there is no magic more powerful than love…Storms of Fate and Fury is a unique multi-genre anthology that brings together the best of epic fantasy, fairy tales, mythology, and more. Let the winds of magic, legends, and shadows sweep you away to worlds where impossible quests clash with forbidden love. Destiny can be a dark gift when the fate of all that you love rests on a sword's edge and every choice is marked by sorrow or sacrifice...

I Dream of Fire
In a not-so-distant future, Dreams really do come true...
When the world ignores a warning of total destruction, it rebuilds itself around the Dreamers that can predict and prevent another catastrophe. Revered, rich, and powerful, Dreamers are protected from all the dangers this new world presents...

Ambassador Series:
The bundled edition of the first three books in the popular Ambassador series. This series will appeal to readers who like alien societies that are familiar and disturbingly different at the same time, dangerous political intrigue, edge-of-seat action and characters who are never entirely good or entirely bad...
Free with Audible trial...

The Jisil-ou-az-lar
In a far future earth of melted polar ice, cities are gone; continents are flooded and humankind must fend its way by sea.  Only a handful of individuals survive on ships, invariably in competition with each other.  Can one man make a difference to the lives of a few?

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

For those of you who signed up for the ARC, The Dim Zone, many thanks! The story is finished. ARC's are available and the book will be released May 10th. Sign up for a free review copy here.

Don't miss May's giveaways. Scroll down and click the image links below:

April SF

A mix of genres this newsletter: supernatural, space aliens, paranormal romance, adventure....


Touch Sensitive: A Noir Supernatural Thriller
John Ballard is a PI with a condition. One in a million born with a sensitivity. He absorbs the memories of whatever or whoever he touches, whether he wants to or not...

Werewolf M.D.
His medical miracles are too good to be true. This aloof doctor's methods are less than conventional. What better way to save a patient, than by biting them?

 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 the probe Voyager 1 will have grave consequences.

The Maker
Thirteen-year-old Nate Smith starts having visions—and drawing them. Strange creatures come for his work, launching him on a space adventure to learn the alien art of making. 

The Whisperer Gatherers
What if your last day at school turned out to be your first day as a rebel warrior?

 

Still Life
This collection of FREE short stories is about women negotiating their roles in family, love, and the world at large. A tense family dinner exposes cracks in a long marriage. Insecurity and secrets threaten a passionate new love affair. An unconventional beauty wrestles with the false message her work uniform is sending. It also includes an excerpt of the novel, Finding Charlie, in which a girl goes missing, prompting her family to examine what went wrong...
 

Femme Fatale
Flint Beck is a down-on-his-luck PI who has a chip on his shoulder. A disgraced cop, he's trying to serve justice in an unjustified world, but it's hard when no clients come to his office...

Her Keeper
The feud between Detective Rick Andrews and Sara Michaels is legendary and no one ever wants to stand in the line of fire when they go at it... Her Keeper has mature content that features a hot cop (two actually), a crazy, hot proposition and two people who are stubbornly in love.

ARC copies of The Dim Zone will be available for download May 1.
A mercenary’s mission to the far reaches of the galaxy entangles him in an industrialist’s dream of forging a new techno-empire...
Sign up here.

Kickstarter: A Visionary SF Anthology
I am pleased to announce the 1st BooksGoSocial Anthology Kickstarter project has just launched and I am one of the authors selected. Please support and Share the Kickstarter page too. Rewards are low cost and have real value. Thanks!

 

Follow me in the Booksprout app!

 
You can now hear about my new releases and deals in the Booksprout app. Just download the app, search for "Chris Turner" and click follow! Click the above icon, or get the free Booksprout app here.

Lastly, but not leastly, here are some April SFF giveaways. Scroll down and click the image link below. Enjoy!

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!