C Gockel Writes

Featured Sci-fi: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick

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Featured Sci-fi: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick

$2.99 as of January 14, 2024
Click for current price: Amazon US, Canada, Germany (Available at regular price: United Kingdom Australia)

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A masterpiece ahead of its time, a prescient rendering of a dark future, and the inspiration for the blockbuster film Blade Runner

By 2021, the World War has killed millions, driving entire species into extinction and sending mankind off-planet. Those who remain covet any living creature, and for people who can’t afford one, companies built incredibly realistic simulacra: horses, birds, cats, sheep. They’ve even built humans. Immigrants to Mars receive androids so sophisticated they are indistinguishable from true men or women. Fearful of the havoc these artificial humans can wreak, the government bans them from Earth. Driven into hiding, unauthorized androids live among human beings, undetected. Rick Deckard, an officially sanctioned bounty hunter, is commissioned to find rogue androids and “retire” them. But when cornered, androids fight back—with lethal force.

Praise for Philip K. Dick

“The most consistently brilliant science fiction writer in the world.”—John Brunner

“A kind of pulp-fiction Kafka, a prophet.”—The New York Times

“[Philip K. Dick] sees all the sparkling—and terrifying—possibilities . . . that other authors shy away from.”—Rolling Stone

Featured Fantasy: Good Bad Magic by Isa Medina

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Featured Fantasy: Good Bad Magic by Isa Medina

99¢ as of January 14, 2024
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It’s hard being a good witch when your clients want bad magic.

I’m a witch. Not a powerful witch, mind, but as Grandma liked to say, it’s all in the kindness, not the power. Grandma is gone now, but her dream of having a witch shop lives with me. So, when the opportunity to run my own shop presents itself, I move across the country to take it, no questions asked.

But maybe I should have.

The sexy local bounty hunter shifter thinks I’m up to no good, my clients keep asking me to use forbidden dark magic, and someone’s trying to sabotage my shop. Probably the same someone who reported me to the Witch Council and left a dead body in my bathtub.

Hah! Joke’s on them. As Grandma also used to say, it’s nothing a positive attitude, excellent cleaning supplies, and the complete annihilation of whoever has in it for me can’t fix.

Paraphrasing.

Join Hope in her dream to have the best witch shop in Old Olmeda, where magical mysteries abound and positivity always wins the day! Featuring witches, shifters, one sexy bounty hunter, and all kinds of magical creatures. Full of humor, mystery, plenty of heart, and a slow-burn romance.

Included in this set are the first three books in the series:
– Good Bad Witch
– Right Wrong Shifter
– Fresh Old Bounties

Features Fantasy: Inker and Crown (Guilds of Ilbrea Book 1) by Megan O’Russell

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Features Fantasy: Inker and Crown by Megan O'Russell

FREE as of January 13, 2025
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Ilbrea: A magnificent country that offers fame to those brave enough to seize their place among the Guilds—no one has worked harder to find their scrap of glory than Adrial Ayres. But being a prodigy and the Lord Scribe’s heir won’t be enough to find the secrets the Guilds would kill to hide. Adrial can’t face the dangers of hidden magic alone…

A sailor with a taste for adventure.
A soldier whose heart has been claimed.
A beauty they will never suspect.
A map maker with secrets of their own.
An inker who will change Adrial’s life forever.

The Guilds offer glory. The truth promises death. Adrial might be the only one who can save Ilbrea—if he can survive the shadows long enough to discover his true enemy.

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Featured Sci-fi: Saving Mars (Saving Mars Series Book 1) by Cidney Swanson

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Saving Mars (Saving Mars Series Book 1) Kindle Edition by Cidney Swanson (Author)

FREE as of January 13, 2025
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Already read it? Get Books 1, 2, & 3 as part of the Sci-fi Explorations Bundle!

Some pilots follow orders. Others just wing it.

Grounded for her Top Gun attitude, a Mars colony pilot jumps at the chance to fly a covert mission to off-limits Earth and save her world from starvation. On Earth, the Chancellor keeps a dystopian peace through a competitive consciousness-transfer program, offering perfect bodies to those who toe the line. Pilot Jessamyn’s orders are simple: get the food and get out, minimizing contact. But when the pilot’s brilliant autistic brother is captured and charged with treason, all bets are off. Jess finds an ally in Pavel, the Chancellor’s rebel nephew, but now she’s got a choice to make: rescue her brother or save Mars?

“SCI-FI THAT SOARS.” -Kirkus, starred review

Saving Mars is a Sci-Fi series of colonization on Mars featuring interplanetary politics, adventure, and romance that’s perfect for fans of Pierce Brown’s Red Rising or Mary Robinette Kowal’s Lady Astronaut series.

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Featured Fantasy: The Thirteenth Child by Erin A. Craig

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Featured Fantasy: The Thirteenth Child by Erin A. Craig

$2.99 as of January 12, 2024
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An instant #1 New York Times and USA Today bestseller! • Drawing on the Grimm Brothers’ dark fairytale, “Godfather Death,” this new novel from the bestselling author of House of Salt and Sorrows is a sweeping, fantastical saga of actions and consequences.

All gifts come with a price.

Hazel Trépas has always known she wasn’t like the rest of her siblings. A thirteenth child, promised away to one of the gods, she spends her childhood waiting for her godfather—Merrick, the Dreaded End—to arrive.

When he does, he lays out exactly how he’s planned Hazel’s future. She will become a great healer, known throughout the kingdom for her precision and skill. To aid her endeavors, Merrick blesses Hazel with a gift, the ability to instantly deduce the exact cure needed to treat the sick.

But all gifts come with a price. Hazel can see when Death has claimed a patient—when all hope is gone—and is tasked to end their suffering, permanently. Haunted by the ghosts of those she’s killed, Hazel longs to run. But destiny brings her to the royal court, where she meets Leo, a rakish prince with a disdain for everything and everyone. And it’s where Hazel faces her biggest dilemma yet—to save the life of a king marked to die. Hazel knows what she is meant to do and knows what her heart is urging her toward, but what will happen if she goes against the will of Death?

From the astonishing mind of Erin A. Craig comes the breathtaking fairy tale retelling readers have been waiting for— what does a life well-lived mean, and how do we justify the impossible choices we make for the ones we love? The Thirteenth Child is a must-read for fans of dark fairy tales, romantasy, and epic fantasy alike.

Featured Sci-fi: Neon Nights (There’s no Murder in Paradise Book 1) by Anna Mocikat

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Featured Sci-fi: Neon Nights (There's no Murder in Paradise Book 1) by Anna Mocikat

FREE as of January 12, 2025
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

There’s no murder in paradise.

Homicide detective Siro Ferreira-Nunes must solve his most challenging case.

More and more people end up dead in the “city of dreams,” an allegedly perfect society. The victims haven’t just been murdered; they’ve been also horribly mutilated and stripped of their neural implants and augmentations. This is not the work of a serial killer but the signature of crime syndicates who sell the costly augmentations on the black market.

A specialist in organized crime, detective Ferreira-Nunes is the right man for job. Partnered with the sharp-witted Kate Spader, they delve into the seedy underworld of Oldtown, the megacity’s most notorious district, where life is cheap and criminal masterminds know how to evade the all-controlling “perfect” society of Olympias.

One of the victims, a popular TV star provides a surprising clue: behind his shiny smile the actor hid a shocking double life in Oldtown’s infamous redlight district. Was the man really just a victim?

The investigation leads Siro and Kate from Oldtown’s gritty shadows to the opulent penthouses of the elite in the skyscrapers above. After the detectives barely survive an assassination attempt on their lives, the Guardian Angels, Olympias’ notorious elite cyborg enforcers enter the stage.

But can they be trusted or are they following their own agenda?

“Neon Nights” is a spin-off from the acclaimed “Behind Blue Eyes” series but can be read as a standalone—an exciting mix of cyber intrigue, sex, and danger.

For fans of “Altered Carbon” and noir detective stories!