C Gockel Writes

Featured Sci-fi: Shattered Starship Book 1 by Scott Bartlett & Christian Kallias

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Featured Sci-fi: Shattered Starship by Scott Bartlett & Christian Kallias

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With a single act of bravery, Wyatt proves to an ancient AI that he’s worthy to save the galaxy.

Too bad it also thinks he’s a moron.

Everyone knows the legend of the Kharathi, who almost destroyed the galaxy.

And everyone knows the Kharathi are all dead.

They’re about to find out just how wrong they are.

The Argo was built to defeat the Kharathi. But the ship was too powerful. And so, with its task complete, the Argo’s creators dismantled it and scattered it across the stars.

It now falls to Wyatt to find and reassemble the pieces of this incredible starship before the clock runs out.

He will fail.

Unless: he can somehow steel his heart, rise above his lowly station, and reclaim the greatness that is his birthright.

Fate is about to throw together the strangest crew imaginable, to sail the most powerful starship, against the deadliest alien foe.

Jump in now for this unforgettable ride – and don’t. Let. Go.

Featured Sci-fi: Hal Space Jock by Simon Haynes

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Featured Sci-fi: Hal Space Jock by Simon Haynes

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Clunk, an elderly robot, has reached the end of his useful life. He has one last chance to earn a much-needed overhaul.

Hal Spacejock, a crash-prone pilot, will have multiple bones rearranged if he doesn’t repay a loan shark.

Clunk is patient, reasonable and brimming with helpful suggestions.

Hal is stubborn, quick to anger and incapable of listening to good advice.

They’re as compatible as a burning match and a stick of dynamite.

All they have to do is complete a simple cargo delivery.

What could possibly go wrong?

The Hal Spacejock series combines humorous science fiction with fast-paced adventure and action. Clean, character-driven books with only occasional mild swearing.

Featured Sci-fi: Zero (Hal Spacejock Book 0) by Simon Haynes

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Featured Sci-fi: Zero (Hal Spacejock Book 0) by Simon Haynes

FREE as of October 6, 2026
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Learning on the job might not be the best idea when that ‘job’ is flying someone else’s spaceship.

Broke, about to get evicted, and bullied non-stop by his human-hating robot supervisor, Hal Spacejock is desperate to escape his miserable life as a cargo loader at a third-rate spaceport.

After helping an eccentric old nobleman threatened by two armed thugs in the shadow of a rusty, condemned starship, Hal sees his ticket to the stars. Don Manuel needs a pilot for his space-faring wreck, and Hal is more than happy to lie about his qualifications.

All Hal has to do now is figure out how to fly a starship before anyone realizes he’s a complete fraud.

Hal Spacejock: Zero is the prequel to the popular Hal Spacejock series.

Featured Sci-fi: The Thunder and Lightning Series Books 1 – 3 by John Varley

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Featured Sci-fi: The Thunder and Lightning Series Books 1 - 3 by John Varley

$2.99 as of October 6, 2026
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Red Thunder, Red Lightning, and Rolling Thunder—”action-packed, science-packed homages to Heinlein’s best work”—now in one volume (Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing).

Enjoy all three novels in Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author John Varley’s Mars saga!

Red Thunder
As Chinese and US spacecraft compete to be the first to land on Mars, a former astronaut, his cousin, and four teens from Florida have a chance to beat them both—thanks to an inventive new power source that can propel them to the Red Planet within three days. No guts, no glory . . .

Red Lightning
Son of one of the first men on Mars, Ray Garcia-Strickland is over the Red Planet and its gravity-dependent tourists. And when an unknown object hits Earth and causes a massive tsunami, he’ll get his own chance at interplanetary adventure . . .

Rolling Thunder
Stationed on one of Jupiter’s moons, Podkayne, a Martian navy lieutenant and daughter of Ray Garcia-Strickland, is finally realizing her dream of being a singer when disaster strikes. Put into a state of suspended animation, she awakens ten years later to face her—and humanity’s—greatest challenge . . .

Praise for the Thunder and Lightning Series

“Superior science fiction.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Fast paced . . . engaging characters.” —Rocky Mountain News

“Much more than a simple adventure story, full of poignant moments and relevant social commentary.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“The heart-pounding space race is on . . . in this riveting SF thriller . . . with hilarious, well-drawn characters, extraordinary situations presented plausibly, plus exciting action and adventure.” —Publishers Weekly

Featured Sci-fi: Bastion (Against a Dark Future) by Evan Currie

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Featured Sci-fi: Bastion: Against a Dark Future by Evan Currie

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It’s 1986. Again.

Sebastian Parker had lived a long life, one that most would consider successful as a writer of science fiction. Mastering his craft had been the work of decades, but when the world came under assault from actual aliens, the war demanded more from every person… and Sebastian was no exception. Too old to fight, he contributed the only ways he knew, and that drew him deeper into the last gasp of humanity’s struggle for survival until, one day, his own struggle came to an end.

… and then he woke up.

A century earlier, his body once more that of his youth, his memories split between the world’s dark future and his own childhood. He would have considered it all a dream, except for one unassailable piece of evidence. Alien technology he had known had come back with him, and now he looks to the future and sees only the coming storm.

Sebastian and his Virtual Intelligence companion, Al, must now set a course from the 1980s to the future and the distant threat… only to find the threat isn’t so distant, and the future isn’t so certain. Armed with knowledge of the future, an occasionally snarky Virtual Intelligence, and absolute disgust at the sheer number of genre tropes he’s dealing with, Sebastian begins making his plans the only way he knows how… guided by his familiarity with fiction and gaming and his knowledge of what is to come.

The countdown has begun, the threat is here, and he’s the only one who can stand as a Bastion against the Dark Future.

Featured Science Fiction: Qualify (The Atlantis Grail Book 1) by Vera Nazarian

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Featured Science Fiction: Qualify (The Atlantis Grail Book 1) by Vera Nazarian

FREE as of October 4, 2026
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You have two options. You die, or you Qualify.

The year is 2047. An extinction-level asteroid is hurtling toward Earth, and the descendants of ancient Atlantis have returned from the stars in their silver ships to offer humanity help.

But there’s a catch.

They can only take a tiny percent of the Earth’s population back to the colony planet Atlantis. And in order to be chosen, you must be a teen, you must be bright, talented, and athletic, and you must Qualify.

Sixteen-year-old Gwenevere Lark is determined not only to Qualify but to rescue her entire family.

Because there’s a loophole.

If you are good enough to Qualify, you are eligible to compete in the brutal games of the Atlantis Grail, which grants all winners the laurels, high tech luxuries, and full privileges of Atlantis Citizenship. And if you are in the Top Ten, then all your wildest wishes are granted… Such as curing your mother’s cancer.

There is only one problem.

Gwen Lark is known as a klutz and a nerd. While she’s a hotshot in classics, history, science, and languages, the closest she’s come to sports is a backyard pool and a skateboard.

This time she is in over her head, and in for a fight of her life, against impossible odds and world-class competition—including Logan Sangre, the most amazing guy in her school, the one she’s been crushing on, and who doesn’t seem to know she exists.

Because every other teen on Earth has the same idea.

You Qualify or you die.

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