Get Michael West's Poseidon's Children for FREE!

Get Poseidon's Children for free on Kindle!



The first book of the Legacy of the Gods series from Michael West is available for free on Kindle today and tomorrow!



Try out a great writer and new urban fantasy book that features artwork from the award-winning Matthew Perry. Like the Cthulu mythos? This one's definitely for you! Download for free right now for your Kindle or Kindle App.



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Michael West is one of my favourite new authors of 2012, and I can tell you this is definitely worth the read. If you don't believe me, stop by next week when I post my review!

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Waiting On Wednesday: Amped by Daniel H. Wilson

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.



This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:



Amped: A Novel by Daniel H. Wilson



Technology makes them superhuman. But mere mortals want them kept in their place. The New York Times bestselling author of Robopocalypse creates a stunning, near-future world where technology and humanity clash in surprising ways. The result? The perfect summer blockbuster



As he did in Robopocalypse, Daniel Wilson masterfully envisions a frightening near-future world. In Amped, people are implanted with a device that makes them capable of superhuman feats. The powerful technology has profound consequences for society, and soon a set of laws is passed that restricts the abilities—and rights—of "amplified" humans. On the day that the Supreme Court passes the first of these laws, twenty-nine-year-old Owen Gray joins the ranks of a new persecuted underclass known as "amps." Owen is forced to go on the run, desperate to reach an outpost in Oklahoma where, it is rumored, a group of the most enhanced amps may be about to change the world—or destroy it.



Once again, Daniel H. Wilson's background as a scientist serves him well in this technologically savvy thriller that delivers first-rate entertainment, as Wilson takes the "what if" question in entirely unexpected directions. Fans of Robopocalypse are sure to be delighted, and legions of new fans will want to get "amped" this summer. (June 5, 2012)



While I have yet to read Robopocalypse (it's sitting in my TBR pile, I promise!), I'm really excited for this one. Technically,  I'm not really waiting, since I got the ARC last week, but I am anticipating the read.

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In My Mailbox

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme created by Kristi at The Story Siren. The idea of the meme is pretty simple - share the books you bought for yourself, won via a contest or first-read program, received as part of a book tour, or were provided with for the purposes of a review.



Since my wife already complains (good-naturedly, of course) about the bookshelves that have spread across two bedrooms, the pile on the floor by our bed, the pile on the stairs, and the pile in the living room, I try not to bring in too many new books, but here goes . . .

Received for review



Socialpunk by Monica Leonelle







The Hammer and the Blade by Paul Kemp







Amped by Daniel H. Wilson







The Janus Affair by Pip Ballantine

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REVIEW & GIVEAWAY: Isadora Daystar by P.I. Barrington

Isadora DayStar is grim and gritty tale, one that creatively challenges the conventions of genre storytelling. Its central character is a broken young woman who has been reduced to the life of crime in order to support her drug habit. We first meet Isadora as a failed assassin, become mired in her drug addiction, and then watch helplessly as she prostitutes herself for another hit. As immediately unlikeable as she is, there’s something indefinable about her that drags you into the story, despite your better judgement. Part of the appeal is the compulsion to understand what brought her so low, but a larger part of it is the deft plotting and cleverly construction narrative that comprises her tale.



While it’s not quite a stream-of-consciousness tale, the first half of the novel almost reads as if it were written by a drug-addicted young woman on the run. The main narrative is constantly interrupted by fragmented memories and snippets of dreams that first drag down our opinion of her even further, before building the context we need to understand the choices that brought her to her situation. Once she hits rock bottom, however, the story begins to turn, although it’s abundantly clear that salvation is to be hard-earned.



Eventually, Isadora manages to become a sort of awkward, conflicted, flawed anti-hero. While the full revelation of history does a lot to explain (if not necessarily justify) her situation, it’s her connection to Iphedeiah that ultimately demands our forgiveness for what she’s done. Their relationship is a tenuous one, brought about entirely by circumstance, but it serves to reveal Isadora’s humanity . . . even if she’s never fully redeemed or repaired.



There’s a nice contrast in the story between grit and gloss, between humanity and technology, that drives the story along. Remarkably fast-paced and action-packed, it’s a story that never loses sight of the fact that it’s the characters who matter, and with whom the reader feels connected. Given its already dark beginnings, it sounds harsh to say that it gets even darker before the end, but there’s a thread of hope and humanity to cling to that carries you through the darkness.



An unusual novel, to be sure, but one that’s well-worth the read.

αωαωαωαωαωαωαω

Check out the tour page for Isadora Daystar over at Close Encounters with the Night Kind and enter to win a copy for yourself!

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GUEST POST & GIVEAWAY: P.I. Barrington (author of Isadora Daystar)

Please extend a warm welcome to P.I. Barrington, who has wandered into the ruins today to talk about her book, Isadora Daystar - which I'll be reviewing later this morning.

αωαωαωαωαωαωαω

Isadora DayStar was a true labor of love. I was trying to create a character I hated but it just didn't work; in fact I grew to love her, terribly flawed as she is. It's funny but over the years I had all of these flawed women characters who were losers in some way but I'd put away any thoughts of writing until about 2008. I was published in 2009 with a futuristic crime thriller trilogy (Future Imperfect) but it was a gritty, fast paced thriller with flawed characters who were that way through no real fault of their own and were definitely nowhere near Isadora, there was the requisite happy ending. I'd had several short stories published as well. Isadora DayStar, I realized when I began seriously writing the book, was actually the composite of all those flawed female characters. In another time and place I'd probably have killed her off at the end, lol!



I think when you have someone as deeply damaged as Isadora, you have to have faith in her; you have to believe she's got strength that she doesn't know she possesses and sometimes you don't know she possesses. Isadora is riddled with enormous, life ripping guilt, and she can't forgive herself. Like many people she tries to bury the guilt and memories with Ingentin, the drug she is addicted to, and she'll do anything to satisfy that addiction rather than deal with that guilt. It's just too big for her. I've said before that a lot of my work is about psychology; guilt is both a universal experience and a powerful motivator for human beings. People behave in all types of ways because of guilt and a lot of times they punish themselves. Isadora DayStar is one.



I had to bring Isadora to the lowest place in her life, I had to debase her and humiliate her completely and that was very difficult, probably one of the hardest books I've ever written, if not the hardest. The prostitution scenes, even though they weren't graphic at all, were designed to show just how low she sinks to get her Ingentin. And yet, at the worst moment, she sells herself in the most terrible way not for the drug but to protect someone else.



There's still a little flame of hope in her though that flickers through. No matter how abused and kicked down she gets, she still tries to survive. It's that hidden, sometimes invisible strength that keeps her alive amidst all the horror and torture she endures. With the amount of suffering she endures she's a survivor. I had to create that flicker, that tiny belief that somehow someway in the future, she might get a break. That's why she desperately tries to work as an assassin and that's what leads her to utilize that secret strength.



I'll tell you a secret that I've never talked about with Isadora. I cut out an entire chapter that I loved because I thought it would be too depressing for the readers. I'd come to a point where that chapter was probably the most poignant of the book and I hated to cut it, but I worried it was just too negative. Or really that it built up hopes and then dashed them and then I cut out an alternate ending of that chapter that was…too much. I felt the readers would give up by the apparent hopelessness and not follow through reading to the positive ending.



So that's my little version of "Author Confessions", lol!



I do thank you so much Bob for allowing me to open up a little on the writing of Isadora DayStar! It was great fun!

αωαωαωαωαωαωαω

Check out the tour page for Isadora Daystar over at Close Encounters with the Night Kind and enter to win a copy for yourself!

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Waiting On Wednesday: God Save the Queen by Kate Locke

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.



This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:



God Save the Queen by Kate Locke



The undead matriarch of a Britain where the Aristocracy is made up of werewolves and vampires, where goblins live underground and mothers know better than to let their children out after dark. A world where being nobility means being infected with the Plague (side-effects include undeath), Hysteria is the popular affliction of the day, and leeches are considered a delicacy. And a world where technology lives side by side with magic. The year is 2012 and Pax Britannia still reigns.



Xandra Vardan is a member of the elite Royal Guard, and it is her duty to protect the Aristocracy. But when her sister goes missing, Xandra will set out on a path that undermines everything she believed in and uncover a conspiracy that threatens to topple the empire. And she is the key-the prize in a very dangerous struggle. (July 3, 2012)



I'm always game for a good alternate history novel, and this one seems to have all the necessary trappings to be a winner. Definitely looking forward to it.

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Free Sci-Fi Books from Phoenix Pick all month long!

Phoenix Pick is the science fiction and fantasy imprint of Arc Manor, a digital publisher that is dedicated to bringing out-of-print classics to the world of electronic publishing.



Starting tomorrow (April 3rd), they will be offering one free eBook on Amazon each week, with DRM-free copies available to download on Tuesday & Wednesday of that week. The schedule announced includes some interesting titles, a few of which I plan to get my hands on:

• April 3/4 - Daughter of Elysium by Joan Slonczewski


• April 10/11 - Halfway Human by Carolyn Ives Gilman


• April 17/18 - The Arm of the Stone by Victoria Strauss


• April 24/25 - Barking Dogs by Terence M. Green


• May 1/2 - "The Forest of Time" (Novella) by Michael Flynn


• May 8/9 - AI Unbound: Two Stories of Artificial Intelligence by Nancy Kress


• May 15/16 - Adventures: The Chronicles of Lucifer Jones Vol I. 1922-26 by Mike Resnick


• May 22/23 - Arkfall by Carolyn Ives Gilman


• May 29/30 - Tau Ceti by Kevin J. Anderson


• June 5/6 - Act One by Nancy Kress

Even though they're being made available through Amazon in the Kindle format, the books are DRM-free, so they invite you to download the book and convert it using an application like Calibre.



There are also associated promotions being offered with the free books (this week you can get the next two books in the Elysium Cycle (Children Star & Brain Plague) for only $0.99 each, so be sure to check the Phoenix Pick KINDLE PROMOTION CALENDAR.

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