C Gockel Writes

Box Set List Fantasy

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The Dark Man: Collected Edition | The Complete Paranormal Thriller Trilogy Kindle Edition by Desmond Doane (Author)

99¢ USD as of August 6, 2020 6AM
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany

Kobo, iBooks, Nook, GooglePlay

Yes, you should be afraid of the dark.

A powerful demon has a score to settle, and he knows television’s most popular ghost hunter, Ford Atticus Ford, by name.

Unlike the unfortunate souls who have passed on to the other side, grudges held by an ancient entity never seem to die.

As Ford embarks on one truly terrifying journey with his estranged partner and former friend, Mike Long, one thing is certain…life in the world of paranormal reality will never be the same.

INCLUDES:
The Dark Man
The White Night
The Belly of the Beast

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Box Set List Featured Sci-fi

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The Advent Trilogy Boxed Set Kindle Edition by Terry Schott (Author)

99¢ USD as of August 4, 2020 6AM
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany (Prices vary slightly by regions)

Speculative Cyberpunk adventure for fans of classic Science Fiction and Conspiracy Thrillers.

The Ward kicks off a series of mind-bending books centered around a mystery with roots so deep, they trace their beginnings back to stardust.

Senator Kerri Delaney doesn’t expect her doctor visit to foretell the end of the world. Even when she receives an impossible offer from a mysterious stranger, she doesn’t see it.

But it’s coming… and there’s only one man who knows where it will all lead.

Alex Wolfson. The elusive billionaire no one can recognize on sight, and who is said to rule the world from shadow.

There is danger coming. and even Alex may not be able to stop it.

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Box Set List Featured Fantasy

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Shattered Realms: Books 1-2 Kindle Edition by Melissa Wright (Author)

99¢ USD as of August 4, 2020 6AM
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany

Kobo, iBooks, Nook, GooglePlay
(Prices vary slightly by country.)

Magic, Monsters, and Mayhem

This Shattered Realms Box Set includes KING OF ASH AND BONE and QUEEN OF IRON AND BLOOD

When flying monsters break through the veil into her world, Mackenzie Scott has nothing left to lose. Her brother has been marked, her future has vanished, and all that remains is a desperate need for revenge. After discovering the breach the creatures used as a gateway, Mackenzie devises a plan to stop them, whatever the cost.

When she finds an injured stranger in the street, he just might be the key she needs to succeed. What Mackenzie doesn’t know is that this stranger isn’t the helpless boy he appears to be. And he’s got plans of his own.

Thrown into a dying city in another realm, Mackenzie is powerless to get back. With the gateway closing, time is not on her side. But the stranger is, and if they can escape execution, this girl and her monster might be able to save both their worlds.

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Book Review : Throne of Jade

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Throne of Jade: A Novel of Temeraire Kindle Edition by Naomi Novik (Author)

UPDATE: I finished the whole series, adored it, and went into a state of withdrawal afterwards. It is traditionally published and very popular…and therefore available at libraries, though the first two ebooks are reasonably priced.

Fresh off reading His Majesty’s Dragon, I picked up this book from my local library. (Hooray for ebook lending! So helpful in this age of “Come on Eileen”–errr…think of what that title rhymes with. I will not speak the name of the pestilence aloud! Or type it and make you hear it in your mind.)

I loved the first book: it was just such a lovely imagining of what Britain would be like during the Napoleonic Wars if dragons existed. The characterizations were also spot on–something that is really important to me. I typically drop a book immediately if characters don’t ring true.

As much as I loved His Majesty’s Dragon, Throne of Jade was better. It was funnier. (Do you have a problem? Your dragon will eat it.) But it was also deeper. Some of the things that niggled at me in the first book, the British populace not knowing that dragons are completely sentient and self-aware, for instance, were addressed. As was the issue of the dragons being perhaps manipulated into service of the crown, almost, in fact, slaves.

It was also nice to see a China that was strong instead of weak when the West came knocking–mostly because they treat their dragons very differently than the British treat theirs. I wondered if this fictional China will start to decline in later books as it did in the real world. I am going to keep reading to find out. I love Chinese history, and there were many reasons beyond the British that caused it to slide. I suppose, Dragons or no, it could happen.

Again, characterizations were spot on–but I laughed more. Oh, and there were some phenomenal battle scenes! They were even better than the ones in the first book–and this is coming from someone who doesn’t like battle scenes. (Battle scenes are like sex scenes, when they don’t further the growth of the character, or aren’t intrinsic to the plot, to me, they’re just …meh. These aren’t like that.)

Black Powder War is available at all vendors, but in some regions only in dead-tree & audio format. Ebook: Amazon US, Amazon AU, Amazon DE, Kobo, iBooks, Nook, GooglePlay

Dead-tree: Amazon UK, Amazon CA

Also, check your local library!

Book Review : An Accidental Goddess

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An Accidental Goddess: A Novel Kindle Edition by Linnea Sinclair (Author)

What a fun read! When I read sci-fi and fantasy I look for a book with a plot or theme that can’t be conveyed without fantastical elements. An Accidental Goddess is a space-fantasy with a protagonist who wakes up centuries after her last battle and discovers she’s being worshipped as a Goddess. Definitely a story that couldn’t happen in the here and now–well, not without a fair bit of blasphemy. The Virgin Mary waking up might be extremely fun…but then again, would be “fantasy” to a fair number of people.

The characters Accidental Goddess are really well drawn. The story moves quickly, and the romance doesn’t feel forced. It’s also not particularly steamy. Those looking for anatomy lessons in their romantic fiction will be sadly disappointed. (I already have taken gross anatomy, and have seen multitudes of cadavers without their clothes or even skin, and I really don’t like to go there, thank you.)

It was definitely a pick me up, and helped me after my Temeraire and Winternight withdrawal.

Highly recommended. Available on Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany & Kobo, iBooks, Nook, GooglePlay

Box Set List Featured Sci-fi

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The Eon Series: Legacy, Eon, and Eternity Kindle Edition by Greg Bear

$2.99 as of August 2, 2020 6AM
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom

This saga of parallel universes from a Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author “may be the best constructed hard SF epic yet” (The Washington Post).

One of the world’s preeminent New York Times–bestselling authors of hard science fiction mesmerizes readers with a mind-expanding, three-volume masterwork about the creation of an alternate universe that breaks down all barriers of time and space, and its consequences for future and past generations.

Legacy: In the stunning prequel to Eon and Eternity, an agent of the masters of the Way—a man-made tunnel through countless dimensions—follows a renegade fanatic and his four thousand acolytes to a remarkable world of flora/fauna hybrids, where he is plunged into the terrible chaos of a raging civil war.

Eon: As nuclear tensions rapidly reach a breaking point in a volatile twenty-first century, a hollowed-out asteroid appears, mysteriously hovering above the Earth’s surface. The asteroid contains the remains of Thistledown, an abandoned city that was once home to survivors of a nuclear holocaust. Scientists must race to unravel its secrets before the human race is annihilated in the impending apocalypse.

Eternity: A devastating war has left Earth a nuclear wasteland. Orbiting the planet is an asteroid-starship containing the civilization of Thistledown, humanity’s future descendants. For decades, they have worked to heal their world and its survivors, but their resources are finite. They need to reopen the Way, a gate that would not only benefit Earth but also help the asteroid’s residents return home.

Greg Bear’s classic Eon trilogy is an astonishing feat of the imagination that combines humanism, cutting-edge science, and brilliant extrapolation. This masterful science fiction saga has no equal in contemporary speculative fiction.

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