C Gockel Writes

Featured Sci-fi: Talented (Talented Saga Book 1) by Sophie Davis

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Featured Sci-fi: Talented (Talented Saga Book 1) by Sophie Davis

FREE as of July 16, 2025
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

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With over Half a Million worldwide downloads and Twenty-Eight Million pages read in Kindle

Unlimited, readers are raving about the Talented Saga: “X-Men meets Divergent in a new way.” “Intoxicatingly good.”

Block out thoughts.
Talia Lyons has one goal at the McDonough School for the Talented: learn to use her Talent as a Mental Manipulator to kill the man who murdered her parents.

Block out pain.
She’ll deal with anything. The brutal physical demands. The emotional toll. Whatever it takes to reach her objective.

Block out friendship.
With only one year left in the program, Talia is suddenly finding it harder than ever to ignore the rest of her life. Block out love. Even worse, she can’t seem to turn off her psychic connection to her first love…or quit thinking about her fascinating new teammate.

Feel only vengeance.
Ian Crane. The man who destroyed Talia’s life. The one she’s determined to eradicate.

Now focus.
It’s time to kill.

The Talented Saga is an award-winning and internationally bestselling Dystopian Romance series about the life of a girl with extraordinary psychic powers, and what happens when a heart is torn between love and rage…

Featured Sci-fi: Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton

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Featured Sci-fi: Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton

$1.99 as of July 15, 2025
Click for current price: Amazon US, Canada (Full-price: United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia)

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“A fascinating, compulsively readable clash of hardware and ideals” in a stand-alone space opera from an acclaimed sci-fi author (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).

In the distant future, corporations have become sustainable communities with their own militaries, and corporate goals have essentially replaced political ideology.

On a youthful, rebellious impulse, Lawrence joined the military of a corporation that he now recognizes to be ruthless and exploitative. His only hope for escape is to earn enough money to buy his place in a better corporation. When his platoon is sent to a distant colony to quell a local resistance effort, it seems like a stroke of amazing fortune, and Lawrence plans to rob the colony of their fabled gemstone, the Fallen Dragon, to get the money he needs. However, he soon discovers that the Fallen Dragon is not a gemstone at all, but an alien life form that the local colonists have been protecting since it crashed in their area. Now, Lawrence has to decide if he will steal the alien to exploit the use of its inherent biotechnical processes—which far exceed anything humans are capable of—or if he will help the Resistance get the alien home.

“One of Hamilton’s best . . . undeniably a page-turner.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

Featured Sci-fi: Nepenthe Rising (Stars in Shadow Book 1) by John Triptych

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Featured Sci-fi: Nepenthe Rising (Stars in Shadow Book 1) by John Triptych

99¢ as of July 14, 2025
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

The most lethal pirate crew in the galaxy just met their match.

In the far future, two major factions are locked in a galactic cold war. As tensions mount between the technocratic Union and the genome-harnessing Concordance, both sides anxiously watch for a chance to conquer the other.

The Nepenthe is a pirate vessel, loyal to neither. Led by the enigmatic Captain Dangard, her rough and ready crew includes the cat-like alien Commander Creull, Zeno the immortal synthetic, the dashing Garrett Strand, and Duncan Hauk, a promising young recruit.

Hired by a cryptic employer, the crew waylays a transport ship carrying a mysterious passenger. In due time, this incident sparks the beginnings of an interstellar conflict that could threaten the state of known space.

The first of an epic new sci-fi series, Nepenthe Rising delivers what today’s fans want: detailed world-building, thrilling action, and mind-blowing adventure on a grand scale.

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 July 14, 2025
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The Atlantis Grail has been optioned for development as a feature film series and/or TV series.

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.

See all the Box Set List Featured Fantasy | See All Featured Sci-Fi

Featured Sci-fi: Diplomat’s Apprentice Books 1 – 3 by LJ Dix

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Featured Sci-fi: Diplomat's Apprentice Books 1 - 3 by LJ Dix

99¢ as of July 12, 2025
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The best laid plans . . . Fall apart when family gets involved!

Anwyn’s family has always assumed that she’d follow in the footsteps of her illustrious mother and uncle as a diplomat and eventual head of state. But Anwyn is an impulsive rule-breaker, and she’s made other plans: getting off her home planet and seeing the galaxy after training as a starship pilot.

Persuaded to go with her uncle on one diplomatic mission, Anwyn arrives at a planet in the midst of a violent uprising.

Space battles, daring rescues, dramatic chases, firefights and yes, even a bit of diplomacy, all make for a more exciting trip than Anwyn could have imagined. For her uncle has a hidden past that comes to light when they run into a small, specialized band of freelance agents with their own agenda, who know her uncle far too well.

Anwyn will find unexpected allies and dangerous adversaries. But she will need to learn to think before she acts if she wants to help her uncle and survive her journey as a Diplomat’s Apprentice?

Included in this boxed set:

  1. Diplomat’s Apprentice
  2. Pilot’s Apprentice
  3. Pilot’s Quest

Grab your copy and dive into this sci-fi adventure today!

Featured Sci-fi: Max and the Multiverse by Zachry Wheeler

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FREE as of July 12, 2025
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An award-winning sci-fi comedy about a nerdy teen who tumbles through the multiverse.

It’s spring break and Max is stuck at home all by himself. Just the way he likes it. He games online, feasts on junk, and wonders why his cat can suddenly talk.

Thanks to a bizarre mishap, Max has started shifting between parallel universes whenever he falls asleep. A curious affliction, and one that steadily erodes his sanity. Day after day, he awakes to a strange new reality and struggles to make sense of his surroundings.

But then one day he awakes to a hyper-advanced version of Earth where humans have colonized space. Determined to fulfill a lifelong dream, Max and his cyborg cat venture into the black, only to entangle themselves in an intergalactic conflict.


Max and the Multiverse is a Readers’ Favorite® 5-Star Selection and a Global Ebook Awards Gold Medal Winner

“One of the finest pieces of sci-fi satire I have ever read.” —Eric Michael Craig, Rivenstone Press

“In my opinion, Zachry Wheeler is the heir apparent to Douglas Adams.” —Ben Ragunton, TG Geeks

“A roller-coaster of a trip, fast-paced and filled with excitement.” —Geoff Habiger, Readers’ Favorite

“A delightful tour de farce! Brilliantly absurd and absurdly brilliant.” —Victor Acquista, Podfobler Productions

“Holy smokes! Wheeler is the funniest living author I’ve read.” —S. Shane Thomas, Science Fantasy Hub