C Gockel Writes

Featured Sci-fi: Star Kingdom Books 1 – 3 by Lindsay Buroker

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99¢ as of May 15, 2025
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★★★★★ “…endearing characters you can’t help but root for!”

It is a time of treachery, terrorism, and tyranny in the Star Kingdom. The king cannot be trusted, the galaxy is on the brink of war, and a notorious mercenary is destroying everything—and everyone—in his path on his quest for vengeance.

The Star Kingdom is in dire need of heroes.

What it gets is a band of misfits and underdogs:

• A washed-up bounty hunter struggling to make ends meet.
• A genetically engineered cat woman on the run from her makers.
• A robotics professor who gets space sick before leaving orbit.
• A brilliant scientist who’s better at punching people than talking to them.

As unlikely as it seems, this motley crew is the best hope for bringing peace to the galaxy. But they have troubles of their own, and they’ll have to fly fast to avoid being hunted down and killed.

[Read more…]

Featured Fantasy: Stolen Time (The Witches of Mingus Mountain Book 1) by Christine Pope

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Featured Fantasy: Stolen Time (The Witches of Mingus Mountain Book 1) by Christine Pope

FREE as of May 15, 2025
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When the past steals her future, only one man can help her reclaim it.

Devynn Rowe never asked for her unpredictable gift of time travel. But when a fall in an abandoned mine shaft hurls her back to Jerome, Arizona, in 1926, she finds herself trapped in a world where her own witch clan — the Wilcoxes — are the mortal enemy of the McAllisters of Jerome.

Rescued by the handsome and kind warlock Seth McAllister, Devynn weaves a web of lies to protect her true identity. As she struggles to adapt to life a century before her time, she can’t ignore the growing attraction between them. But pursuing a relationship could unravel everything she’s fought to keep hidden.

Seth is drawn to the mysterious woman he found unconscious in the mine, even as his duties to his clan pull him in another direction. When family obligations thrust him into a dangerous world of bootlegging and deceit, he finds himself torn between loyalty and love.

As Devynn and Seth dance around their feelings and their secrets, the truth threatens to burn away all their illusions. But time is running out. A moment of violence changes everything…catapulting them into a situation more perilous than either could have imagined.

Featured Sci-fi: Star League Assasins by Jaxon Reed

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Featured Sci-fi: Star League Assasins by Jaxon Reed

FREE Books 1 – 3 + Books 4 – 10 Only 99¢ Each in US & UK
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The Republic’s AI controls a clone on one planet. The League controls a bot on another . . .

Jade Thrall is the League’s Tetrarch but she holds a secret even she does not realize. She is a highly advanced droid, formerly known as Miriam.

Few military assets are available to Jade in her effort to wrest back League planets lost during the war. But one potent tool remains in her arsenal: assassins . . .

Join this rip-roaring, action-packed space opera adventure! Featuring space marines, rotten villains, fist fights, gun battles and sharp political intrigue, Digital Death kicks off a brand new series by veteran science fiction and fantasy author Jaxon Reed set in the Milky Way Universe.

Featured Sci-fi: The Departure (G581 Book 1) by Christine D. Shuck

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Featured Sci-fi: The Departure (G581 Book 1) by Christine D. Shuck

FREE as of May 14, 2025
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Their mission was to build a second home for humanity – but who knows if humanity will survive long enough to reach it? Setting forth on a six-year journey to Gliese 581g – Zarmina’s World – Daniel Medry and a crew of fellow scientists planned to explore a brand-new world potentially ripe for colonisation – but when a man-made virus wipes out most of Earth’s population and leaves the rest infertile, their exploration mission becomes humanity’s only hope for survival.

Alone in deep space, a series of equipment malfunctions occur that might not be accidental – and as the crew struggles for survival, some suspect that one of their own intends to keep them from making planetfall. With time running out, Daniel must stop the saboteur before humanity’s last hope for survival is snuffed out in the cold, unforgiving vacuum of space.

Gliese 581: The Departure is an exhilarating sci-fi thriller. If you like dystopian future worlds, second-chance heroes, and suspenseful mysteries, then you’ll love Christine Shuck’s gripping intergalactic thrill-ride.

Featured Fantasy: Red City Reaper (Books 1 – 3)

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Featured Fantasy: Red City Reaper (Books 1 - 3)

99¢ as of May 13, 2025
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If you try to assassinate the Grim Reaper… Don’t miss.

Dax used to be the Grim Reaper. Until he was banished to Earth to live as a human. Exiled to Redemption City, he’s doing his best to keep his head down and run his shabby dive bar. But when an assassin puts a bullet in his chest, his quiet life dies a bloody death.

Red City is a corrupt and decaying metropolis. Finding out who wants Dax dead could be a long twisted road. He’ll have to test the boundaries of his suppressed magic if he hopes to survive.

But if he presses his power too hard, the death gods who allied against him will do more than just exile him to earth. They’ll obliterate him from existence…

Featured Sci-fi: Red Thunder by John Varley

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FREE as of May 11, 2025:
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“The heart-pounding space race is on . . . in this riveting SF thriller” from the Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author of Red Lightning and Rolling Thunder (Publishers Weekly, starred review).
 
As Chinese and US spacecraft compete to be the first to land on Mars, a former astronaut, his cousin, and four teens from Florida decide to take matters into their own hands. If they can quickly build their own space-worthy ship using scrap metal, appliances, and power tools, they have a chance to come from behind—thanks to an inventive new power source that can propel them to the Red Planet within three days. No guts, no glory . . .
 
“Varley’s great strength is in his characterizations, but in Red Thunder he also shows a strong sense of place. . . . If you are willing to simply fantasize about fleeing your office cubicle and becoming a heroic space explorer, this novel will fulfill your wishes.” —The Washington Post
 
“Fast paced . . . Engaging characters.” —Rocky Mountain News
 
“Full of little gems of wit and intelligence.” —Booklist
 
“[A] fun-filled adventure. Varley matches a serious literary style with an outrageous plot, and he’s one of the few writers in the field who could make it work.” —Chronicle