Tag Archives: scifi

Promoting “Galactic Treks” and “Our Legacy, The Stars: A Tom Corbett Adventure”

promo

Promotional image for my recent work.

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I used a recent Starry Eyed Press newsletter to craft the composite image you see above. I’m sure you can tell this is all about self-promotion. When you’re an indie author, you are also your own marketing department.

My novelette “The Aliens” is now published in the Starry Eyed Press anthology Galactic Treks: Short Stories. This is brand new and I’m one of five featured authors.

“The Aliens is an old school science fiction tale about a starship, the rise of a new and uncertain second officer, and after 200 years of space exploration, the very first contact with an intelligent, space traveling race. Will this signal disaster for humanity or a bold new step into the final frontier?

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Book Review of “The Pride of Chanur” (1982)

chanur

Cover art for C.J. Cherryh’s “The Pride of Chanur.”

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I finished C.J. Cherryh’s The Pride of Chanur a few days ago but am just now getting the time to write the review.

I remembered reading this back in the 1980s but didn’t recall the details (forty years is a long time). When I saw it on Bookbub, I was curious. There wasn’t a copy in my public library system so I bit the bullet and bought a digital copy from Amazon.

The story is set in a universe involving a species called the Hani. They’re cat-like, their space traveling freighters are captained and crewed by females, as the males aren’t suited to space travel, and their particular region of space is dominated by them and other races who trade with each other via a system of space stations in an alliance called “The Compact.”

The chief “baddy” in this tale are the Kif which are tall, thin, and hairless. They are also predatory, cunning, and devious.

While the ship “Pride of Chanur” is at Meetpoint station, a strange alien is seen to be skulking on the docks. It finally manages to slip by the Captain, Pyanfur Chanur, into her ship, but is wounded in the attempt.

Communication is a chore since the creature doesn’t speak a civilized language. It’s eventually discovered that this is an intelligent creature which had been a captive on a Kif ship and was trying to escape.

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A Brief Errand in Time

cotton

PHOTO PROMPT © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

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Miles Jackson strolled past the bistro to The Cotton Exchange. His contact said he had to depart from someplace that existed both now and at the target date. He wouldn’t have much time once he arrived, which was ironic. But in 2024, he couldn’t walk down the streets of Wilmington dressed like a Civil War era slave.

The vaccine was secure in his pocket. Miles knew that ten-year-old Caleb would be in a house just two doors down on the morning of August 16, 1862. He had to inoculate him for the Yellow Fever so his ancestor would grow up.

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Book Review of Orson Scott Card’s “Wakers” (2022)

wakers

© James Pyles

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I finished Orson Scott Card’s novel Wakers last night. Naturally it’s the first book in a trilogy because all books have to be trilogies if not expanded series these days.

Like most people, I was introduced to Card’s writing long ago through Ender’s Game and the subsequent novels in that series. I’m glad to see that Card is still writing and still successful.

In the past twenty years or so, the current gatekeepers of science fiction determined never again to heap any sort of award upon him. This was because he had committed the grievous crime of being religious and making public statements about how his beliefs are guided by such. Between 1978 and 1995, he did win numerous accolades, but the only award post 2000 he’s been granted is the ALA Best Books for Young Adults for “Shadow of the Hegemon.”

Yes, I read “Wakers,” in part, to thumb my nose (like they even know I’m alive) at the exclusionists who run “official” science fiction and fantasy. You know, the folks who claim they want to be “inclusive” and then just shuffle around the players so certain groups are favored at the expense of others, what they say has always been done and they’re still doing it. The only difference is which groups are included and which groups are not. That’s not inclusive, that’s a shell game.

I’m a sucker for an “underdog” (Card’s doing pretty well, but still…) so I checked “Wakers” out of my local public library.

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Read My Serial “Our Legacy, The Stars – A Tom Corbett Adventure” Now!

tom corbett

Promotional image by “Starry Eyed Press.”

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I am totally thrilled to announce that my 16-part serial “Our Destiny, The Stars” featuring Tom Corbett, Space Cadet is now available through Kindle Vella.

If you’re old enough, you may remember the Tom Corbett television show which ran from 1950-1955, pretty much pre-dating even me. When the fine folks at Starry Eyed Press asked me if I’d write a brand new Corbett adventure, one modernized with our current understanding of space travel and knowledge of our solar system, I was over-the-moon excited.

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Book Review of “The Andromeda Evolution” (2019)

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© James Pyles

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I heard about Daniel H. Wilson’s novel The Andromeda Evolution almost by accident and found that my local public library had a copy.

I read Michael Crichton’s 1971 novel The Andromeda Strain way, way back in the day and I’ve seen the 1971 movie adaptation a number of times and enjoyed them both.

But fifty years later and written by another author, even with the Crichton family’s blessing, how would this turn out?

A lot better than I expected.

The book started out very slowly and I was afraid it would be a hard slog all the way through. On top of that, Wilson sometimes decided to lecture the reader on the evils of colonialism and how bad white people and civilization is for indigenous people (the main action takes place in a protected reserve in the Amazon). I thought if this was going to be the tone of the book, it would be tedious and I almost stopped reading it once or twice.

Fortunately, Wilson didn’t belabor the point too much and then things began to pick up.

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Book Review of “Cobra” (1986) by Timothy Zahn

cobra

Original cover art for “Cobra” by Timothy Zahn

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When I first read Timothy Zahn’s Cobra back in the 1980s and I liked it. Decades later, I still had that feeling but only vague memory of the book’s contents.

So I downloaded it onto my Kindle Fire and finally got around to reading it.

The novel holds up well. It’s really the “hero’s journey” of Jonny Moreau, a young boy from a backward frontier planet, who volunteers to undergo surgical procedures and specialized training to become an augmented soldier, a cyborg known as Cobra.

His idealism is stripped away when he and his fellow Cobras are sent to another world in their Dominion to fight the alien enemy known as Trofts. He sees destruction, death, and loss. He also first experiences distrust from his own allies. Cobras are highly dangerous. They were created that way. But because there was always the possibility they could turn on those they were helping, no one wanted to get too close.

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Get “Spring Into SciFi 2024” Today!

2024

Cover art for “Spring Into SciFi 2024.”

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It’s here!

Spring Into SciFi 2024 from Cloaked Press is available TODAY!

Download it from Amazon onto your Kindle device and start reading right now. The price is very reasonable.

If you’d rather have the paperback, that’s available too for $15.99 USD.

This anthology features my short story “I Don’t Want To Be Human.”

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Book Review of “Star Wars: The Last Command” (1994)

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Cover of the novel “Star Wars: The Last Command.”

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I just finished reading the third book in Timothy Zahn’s “Thrawn Trilogy,” The Last Command. Oh “spoiler alert,” it is Thrawn’s last command because he dies, which I didn’t see coming.

Grand Admiral Thrawn having acquired the “Katana fleet” in the previous book and with a massive army of clones to man them, proceeds to press the offensive, even to Coruscant.

Leia has her twins and cares for the infants with the help of her aide Winter, but that doesn’t keep her out of the action as the story progresses.

The clone of Jedi Master Joruus C’baoth goes further off the rails, claims the Empire, galaxy, and the whole universe for his own, and is still raving about having Luke, Mara, Leia, and her babies as his apprentices. He decides to leave the Grand Admiral’s ship for the planet Wayland, which is where Thrawn originally found him. Thrawn grants this, but turns the tables. He makes C’baoth his prisoner in the Emperor’s own throne room in the mountain fortress where the clone factory and all of the Emperor’s other secrets are hidden.

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Review of the Movie: “Demolition Man” (1993)

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Poster for the 1993 film “Demolition Man”

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Last night I finally got around to watching the 1993 film Demolition Man starring Sylvester Stallone as Detective John Spartan (some of these made up names are lame) and Wesley Snipes as Simon Phoenix. This is an action/adventure science fiction film with some unique insights on the future, but I’ll get to that.

The story opens in 1996 Los Angeles. Spartan is in a helicopter with two other cops (the pilot Zachary Lamb is played by Grand L. Bush, who played “Little Johnson” in the 1988 classic Die Hard).

Spartan is closing in on his nemesis, the notorious criminal Simon Phoenix, who is holding hostages taken from a commercial aircraft. This L.A. is even more brutal and lawless than the actual Los Angeles in the 1990s, already establishing a break between the film and the reality of the audience.

In typical “Rambo” style, Spartan breaks into the bad guy headquarters and caps off all of the baddies before confronting Phoenix. A heat scan didn’t show any signs of the hostages and Spartan and Phoenix fight over where they are. But Phoenix has rigged enough gasoline and C4 to blow the building into orbit.

Spartan drags Phoenix outside just in time before the whole building goes up (there’s a reason Spartan is called “The Demolition Man”). Turns out the hostages were in the building all along. Phoenix said that Spartan knew that and didn’t care. I guess L.A. coroners in this movie are dumb because they should have figured out Phoenix killed the hostages (no heat signatures) well before Spartan’s arrival.

Both Phoenix and Spartan are convicted of their crimes. Spartan is sentenced to 70 years cyrofreeze. While he’s under, his brain will be reorganized to give him more productive behaviors upon thawing. So both of these men undergo a deep freeze.

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