C Gockel Writes

Featured Sci-fi Fantasy: Defiance by Aaron Hodges

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Featured Sci-fi Fantasy: Defiance by Aaron Hodges

99¢ as of November 26, 2021
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom
Also available for sale in Canada, Germany, Australia

On the wild planet of Talamh, humanity thrived…
…until the alien Alfur conquered their world.
Now, defeated and broken, humanity serves their immortal overlords.
And pleads to the stars for a hero.

Rydian Holt is nothing, nobody. Just another human from the streets of Talamh. Or at least, that’s what he thinks—until his mother is caught up in a fledgling resistance group. Branded a traitor and sentenced to fight in the arena, now Rydian must face hardened gladiators in single combat. To survive and advance through the ranks, he’ll need the help of an enigmatic weapons master—and more than a little luck.

But after a lifetime of servitude, survival is no longer enough for Rydian. He seeks a way to fight back— not just against his fellow gladiators, but against the Alfur themselves. If Rydian can uncover their greatest secret—the truth about the mysterious Light that powers their world—he might just win his freedom.

★★★★★ Warformed meets Brandon Sanderson in this stunning new science fantasy series by New York Times Bestselling Author Aaron Hodges.

Featured Sci-fi: Girl of Flesh & Metal by Alicia Ellis

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99¢ as of November 26, 2021
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

Available at regular price at: Apple, Nook, Kobo, GooglePlay

Marissa Meyer’s Cinder meets Netflix’s Black Mirror in a high-tech future where a teen gets the cybernetic arm she never wanted.

Lena hates her parents’ tech company. The world worships each cutting-edge CyberCorp release, but Lena has her doubts. Machines that think for themselves? She doesn’t trust them… So when a car accident lands her with the company’s first cybernetic arm, she’s pissed.

Is control of her own life too much to ask? Now, the arm’s artificial intelligence makes her sleepwalk. Then children of CyberCorp employees start dying in their beds, and thanks to her unwanted nighttime strolls, Lena has no alibi.

Is she the killer, or does someone else hate her parents’ inventions more than she does?

★Girl of Flesh and Metal made the American Library Association’s 2021 LITA Excellence in Children’s and Young Adult Science Fiction Notable Lists.★

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Book Reviews: The Lotus Palace Mysteries by Jeannie Lin

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These are not my normal genre–and I think they should be called “mystery romances,” all the books have “steam”– but I love Chinese history, and these are set in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD.) The Tang period is long before foot binding, so that is in no way part of these books. It was interesting see into the Tang justice system, the culture, and see the power struggles of the time period. I’m really drawn to characterization in fiction, and the characters, particularly in the The Jade Temptress (the book I started with, and my favorite), really jumped off the page. The first book was written for a traditional publisher, and it is good, but it is more in the style of a traditional romance–the girl gets her lord. The next books were self-published, and the heroes were not lords, and the endings did not have the heroines being ensconsed in mansions, but they had more freedom.

If you’re looking for something a little different, I recommend them.

They are available at Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

Apple, Nook, Kobo, GooglePlay

Featured Fantasy: Miss Mabel’s School for Girls by Katie Cross

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Featured Fantasy: Miss Mabel's School for Girls by Katie Cross

FREE as of November 22, 2021
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

(Available for sale: Apple, Nook, Kobo, GooglePlay )

Never underestimate the power of a determined witch.

Sixteen-year-old Bianca Monroe has prepared for this moment her entire life:
the day she’ll enroll in the quietly famous magical school Miss Mabel’s School for Girls.

Winning a spot to work directly with Miss Mabel is a dangerous game.
Bianca soon faces enchanting spells, simmering potions, and the warmth of new friendships.

Unfortunately, Miss Mabel has her own evil plans—and if Bianca loses, she’s at the very center of them.

Bianca’s only hope lies within the power of her closely-held secrets that threaten her and everyone she loves.

Winner of IAN 2015’s Outstanding Fantasy Book

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Featured Fantasy: The Devil You Know by Monique Singleton

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Featured Fantasy: The Devil You Know by Monique Singleton

99¢ as of November 21, 2021
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Apple, Nook, Kobo

When Heaven becomes the door to Hell, the only one you can turn to is the Devil.

My father is the self-proclaimed God.
I guess that makes me the Devil.

For hundreds of years my family has hijacked the souls of believers from your world to reincarnate them in my dimension, where they face endless torture in abject slavery.
And that’s just the ones who were promised Heaven.

The worst thing is they’re helped by your own people. A syndicate of high placed humans, your leaders, sell you out for a cozy second life in our world once they pass over.
I’m committed to bring them down. To expose the biggest scam in human history and to defeat my megalomaniac father.

Helped by a disillusioned priest with violent tendencies and a computer wizard who is much, much more, I am taking on the most powerful organisation known to mankind.

Oh yeah, and my family.

The Devil You Know was a finalist in the PageTurner Screenplay-book adaptation awards. It is the first book in a brand new series by USAT best selling Urban Fantasy author Monique Singleton