C Gockel Writes

Want to keep reading for free (or close to it)?

by

I Bring the Fire Omnibus eBook and The Defiant audiobook

Subscribe & Save

You can read (and listen to!) most of my books through subscription services:

  • Everand* (formerly Scribd) – ebooks + audiobooks
  • Kobo Plus – ebooks (no Kobo device needed—the app is free)

Both offer 30-day free trials—so if you’re a fast reader, you could get through quite a bit at no cost.

Learn more about KoboPlus and Everand. 

Or Read & Listen Completely Free

You can also find my books at your local library:

  • Libby / OverDrive
  • Hoopla
  • CloudLibrary
  • BorrowBox

If your library carries ebooks or audiobooks, there’s a good chance they have my books—or can request them.

Find Libraries that Offer Libby/Overdrive

If Your Library Doesn’t Loan eBooks or Audiobooks

You may be able to get a library card at a larger library system for a modest fee. Here is a website that lists libraries with non-resident borrowing priveleges.

A quick note

I’m a big library user myself and often enroll in various subscription services (books add up fast—and so do growing kids’ expenses).

However you choose to read—buying, borrowing, or listening—I’m just glad you’re spending your time with my stories.

*Everand isn’t currently featuring Magic After Midnight.

Featured Sci-fi: Extinction Horizon (The Extinction Cycle Book 1) by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

by

Featured Sci-fi: Extinction Horizon (The Extinction Cycle Book 1) by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

99¢ as of Posting
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

A mission that doesn’t exist. A threat that could end us all.
A rapidly spreading outbreak no one can contain.

When a covert Medical Corps facility goes dark, it triggers a classified response. Master Sergeant Reed Beckham has led Delta Force Team Ghost through every kind of hell imaginable—and never lost a man. But this time, his team is deployed to contain a biological outbreak that has already escaped.

By the time they return to Fort Bragg, it’s spreading and turning people into Variants: hyper-fast, intelligent, and ravenous predators. Bullets and bombs can slow them, but they won’t stop them. Only science might.

As outbreaks escalate and cities begin to collapse, the military launches Operation Reaper—firebombing infected zones in a desperate attempt to slow the advance. In the middle of the chaos, Team Ghost is ordered to keep CDC virologist Dr. Kate Lovato alive while she searches for a cure.

What she uncovers is a terrifying truth and a solution that could either save humanity or destroy what remains. Because sometimes, to kill a monster… you have to create one.

Grounded in real science and military precision, Extinction Horizon is a pulse-pounding race against time where the only thing more dangerous than the virus is the lengths humanity will go to survive it.

Experience the first book in the global bestselling Extinction Cycle series, by New York Times bestseller Nicholas Sansbury Smith (Hell Divers), revised in this definitive edition and included in Kindle Unlimited for the first time!

This edition also includes an exclusive new prequel novella, Extinction Kill Zone!

Featured Sci-fi: Between (Stellar Bridge Book 1) by Maureen Miller

by

Featured Sci-fi: Between (Stellar Bridge Book 1) by Maureen Miller

FREE as of Posting
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

Apple, Kobo, B&N, GooglePlay

New York City hides a portal to another world.

Six years ago, Marda lost her husband and daughters to a portal linking Earth to her planet. It was supposed to be safe—just an ancient corridor between two worlds. But sometimes, people get trapped inside it.

Marda calls that void the BETWEEN.

Now the portal is acting up again. In the middle of Central Park, people are vanishing.

Ben, a burnt-out Wall Street analyst.
Lily, a dreamer trapped in a suffocating life.
Tony, a young caregiver with nothing left to lose.

Their paths collide in a place that defies logic.

The BETWEEN took Marda’s family. Now she’s willing to let it take her too—if it means she can find them again.

From USA TODAY bestselling author Maureen A. Miller comes an emotional sci-fi mystery about loss, resilience, and a mother’s refusal to give up.

This is the first book in a series, but it can be read as a standalone novel. No cliffhangers.

Featured Sci-fi: Intruder Alert (The Hunter Trilogy Book 1) by Toby Neighbors

by

Featured Sci-fi: Intruder Alert (The Hunter Trilogy Book 1) by Toby Neighbors

99¢ New Release
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

Disruption… trauma… danger…

The galaxy is not safe. Midway is a planet under constant threat, whose citizens are subject to a mandatory two-year draft in the army. Randall Yeager is in a patrol platoon high in the Drang Kong mountain range. Despite the situation he finds himself in, Randall is still trying to discover what to do with his life.

Venician Station is a commercial hub in the Hesperian System. Part tourist resort, part business center, it is a highly trafficked space station along a major trade route through the galactic spiral, and home to hundreds of workers, from the service industry to engineering specialists. It’s also a ripe target for organized crime.

Against all odds, an unidentified alien spacecraft is on a collision course with Venician Station. It has no power. It will not respond to hails or warnings. And it absolutely has to be stopped.

Intruder Alert is the first book in an exciting new series by master storyteller Toby Neighbors. Combining the action of John Wick with the horror of Aliens, Intruder Alert will shock and surprise you. With iconic characters that you’ll be cheering for right from the start, the EDE series is sure to keep you turning pages straight through the night.

EDE – Ecological Devastating Event – When an invasive species infiltrates an ecosystem and causes massive destabilization—often the death of all native life and natural resources—resulting in the system becoming uninhabitable.

Featured Sci-fi: Recon—A Nuclear Apocalypse Dystopian Series (The Fringe Book 1) by Tarah Benner

by

Featured Sci-fi: Recon—A Nuclear Apocalypse Dystopian Series (The Fringe Book 1) by Tarah Benner

FREE as of September 19, 2026
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

Nuclear war destroyed the earth, but Harper’s world was perfect until she met Eli Parker.
Harper was the best developer in her year. She should have been a shoo-in for a cushy job in Systems. Instead she was drafted into Recon — kicking and screaming onto Eli’s squad.

For Eli, death is just your average Tuesday. Most of his cadets don’t last a year. When your job is to venture out into the radiation-soaked Fringe, you learn not to get attached to anyone.

Harper Riley should be no different, but she’s gotten under Eli’s skin. She’s started asking lots of questions — dangerous questions with no good answers. Eli wants to save her despite his better judgment. But can Eli save her from herself?

If you love kickass heroines, tormented heroes, blistering action, and slow-burn romance, you’ll love this nonstop dystopian adventure.

[Read more…]

Featured Sci-fi: Alice Luck Space Adventures by H. Claire Taylor

by

Featured Sci-fi: Alice Luck Space Adventures by H. Claire Taylor

START THE SERIES FREE—Books 2 – 4 only $2.99 Each
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

In space no one can hear you yeehaw.

Earthling Alice Luck dreamed of bigger things than working at an office supply store. Fortunately, the gig is not what she thought it would be. Instead of pushing printer ink, she’s now the unqualified space captain on an intergalactic mission to breed dwindling populations.

With the help of a warrior woman from a parallel universe, an anxious expert in weapons and culture, a holographic therapist, and an operating system with a hard-on for double entendres, Alice leads the crew of DeepService Team One on their inaugural mission.

But when an unexpected attack on alien territory catches them with their pants down, Alice must ask herself: why in the multiverse does someone want them dead?

Lucky Stars is the first book of the Alice Luck Space Adventures series. If you like a rag-tag crew, zany aliens, and unexpected laughs, you’ll love this space comedy series from H. Claire Taylor.

Book Review: Hyperion by Dan Simmons

by

Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, Book 1) Kindle Edition by Dan Simmons (Author)

$1.99 as of September 15, 2026
Click For Current Price Amazon US, Canada, (Full-price: United Kingdom, Germany, Australia)

Apple Books, Nook, Kobo, & GooglePlay

They Hyperion Cantos is the series that made me love sci-fi. Deep characters, real love, real loss, and enduring philosophical questions in an epic story that spans the universe? Sign me up please.

So what is it about?

Errrrr….

God?

A would be God?

People who’ve lost faith in God?

AI?

Yes.

Space exploration? Also, yes.

This is sci-fi that makes you feel as much as think, and it is completely deserving of the Hugo Award it received.

[Read more…]