Tag Archives: superversive

Review of “The Olympian Affair: Book Two in the Cinder Spires Series” (2023)

olympian

© James Pyles

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Yesterday, I finished reading Jim Butcher’s 2023 novel The Olympian Affair. It’s the second in his Cinder Spires series and the sequel to The Aeronaut’s Windlass which I read and reviewed.

Butcher doesn’t disappoint. This is another terrific adventure novel set (supposedly) in the far-future where our own civilization has long-since fallen. People live in floating cities called “Spires” ruled by various presidents, kings, and such. Trade is conducted by skyships powered by fantastic crystals. Those, and many other things, including meat, are grown in vats ruled over by powerful (and not-so-powerful) family houses.

The central character in these tales is Captain Francis Grimm, commander of the light-trader “Predator.” He was once in the Albion Navy but sacrificed his career and his honor for a close friend.

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Interviewed by Superversive SF Livestream about “The Last Oasis of Mars”

livestreamIf you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

I mentioned before how I was going to be interviewed by Superversive SF about my short story The Last Oasis of Mars published at High Tower Magazine.

That happened a little while ago and here is the YouTube video:

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Read “The Last Oasis of Mars” at “High Tower Magazine” NOW!

pirates

Promotional art for “The Last Oasis of Mars.”

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It’s here!

More specifically, my short story The Last Oasis of Mars: From the Tales of the Razzle Dazzle is at High Tower Magazine.

Join (a fictionalized version of) writer Jack London and the Captain and crew of the pirate ship “Razzle Dazzle” or “Dazzler” as she attempts her greatest adventure, raiding the last British outpost on the dying planet Mars.

What is the secret of the “Fire” mines beneath the oasis?

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“The Last Oasis of Mars” to be Published in High Tower Magazine

pirates

Promotional art for “The Last Oasis of Mars.”

If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

My steampunk science fantasy short story “The Last Oasis of Mars” has been accepted for publication in the brand new periodical High Tower Magazine.

So far, the publication is entirely digital, so I don’t have any promo art from them. That’s why I posted some of my AI art (the story is 100% me) above for the visual.

“Oasis” is a callback to the “Barsoom” tales of Edgar Rice Burroughs as well as the pulp fiction of the early part of the 20th century. A lot of this was my introduction to science fiction and fantasy when I was a teen, so it’s near and dear to my heart.

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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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The Planetary Anthology Series is Back!

planetary

The Planetary Anthology Series relaunch

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Once upon a time, there was a “Planetary Anthology series,” eleven volumes each containing short stories written by multiple authors using a superversive theme. Although I submitted to almost all of the different “planets,” I only made it into three.

Sol contains my short story “The Pleiades Dilemma.” An object has entered our solar system from interstellar space. A team of NASA experts has been sent aboard a spacecraft to investigate. What they find is betrayal, the threat of global annihilation, and possibly a greatest hope for humanity’s future.

Mars contains my award-winning short story “The Three Billion Year Love.”. After a billionaire scientist tragically lost his young wife, he secluded himself with a new project. In finding the ancient past on another planet, he also found a new reason to live.

Keep reading past the break. There’s more.

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Interviewed by Superversive Livestream

iceIf you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

As I’m sure my regular readers know, I’ve been actively promoting some of my latest work, which includes my first self-published novella Ice as well as Time’s Abyss, a novella published by Black Hare Press.

To that end, I reached out to some folks I know and Ben and Anthony at Sunday Superversive Livestream agreed to interview me last night.

Here’s the direct link to the interview on YouTube.

Frankly, I have no idea what the image is, but I did have a lot of fun chatting with Ben and Anthony for about an hour. Of course, I mentioned my novellas, but also the Cloaked Press published anthology Meteor Fall: An Anthology of The Collective. I have two stories in that one. Oh, “Cloaked” also accepted my short story “That Which Burns” in their upcoming anthology Winter of Wonder.

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Review of Denton Salle’s Novel “Black Earth Rises, Hall of Heroes Book Three”

black earth

Cover art for Denton Salle’s novel “Black Earth Rises”

Black Earth Rises is the third book in a series by Denton Salle, but it stands very well on its own since I haven’t read the first two novels.

Denton asked me to review his book and was aware of recent difficulties I’ve had reviewing books by people I know. He assured me that he’d understand me being forthright and fair about my review, and I have been.

For being a supernatural urban legend thriller, the story is pretty standard, up to a point. Two college buddies from very different backgrounds, the women in their lives, coming up against frat jerks, all seems normal.

Then the frat jerks turn out to be werewolves and there is a sinister school being operated by an evil sorceress in the bowels of a Texas university near Dallas. But this school also has an old graveyard haunted with the unexpected, both evil and good.

A good Catholic boy named Jim gets pulled by his frat friend Mike into an Orthodox religious group (most of which are Mike’s family) of an ancient order sworn to protect our existence from occult dangers. They live an uneasy peace with the “Otherworld” by a compact signed untold centuries ago…but not all of the Otherworld creatures are obedient, or perhaps they just didn’t sign on the dotted line.

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2021 Helicon Award Winner for “The Three Billion Year Love”

“The Three Billion Year Love” wins a 2021 Helicon Award for best short story in an anthology

First of all, no one is more surprised than I am to have won an award. I have no idea what the nomination process was or how I got on the list, but “wow.”

I actually found out on Facebook first before I checked my email. Then once I did, I saw that Richard Paolinelli announced it on his blog:

Thanks to our new overlords and masters in Silicon Valley, the announcement of the 2021 Helicon Awards has been moved up 36 hours.

Check out the 16 winners and buy the books and discover some great authors!

Yes, it’s been a rough week for a lot of us, especially as many high tech platforms continue to censor anyone who leans even slightly right, but I’ll cover that another time.

Anyway, that leads to the 2021 Helicon Award Winners announcement.

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“Fantastic Schools Vol 2” Available in Paperback

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Cover image for the anthology “Fantastic Schools, vol 2”

I just got the announcement from L. Jagi Lamplighter that Fantastic Schools Vol 2 is now available in Paperback. Previously, you could only read the book (from Amazon) by downloading it to your Kindle device.

The anthology features my short story “Sorcery’s Preschool,” which chronicles the tale of a “gifted and dangerous” four-year-old girl being enrolled in an other worldly magical pre-school. However, she’s unsure if the school is to teach her how to use her magic or to prevent her from doing so. There’s also a sinister undercurrent that the little girl’s equally powerful Grandmother realizes almost too late.

The book, so far, has 32 Amazon global ratings with 82% being four and five stars. That’s pretty good.

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