C Gockel Writes

Featured Sci-fi: Bitstreams of Hope by Andy Haymaker

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Featured Sci-fi: Bitstreams of Hope by Andy Haymaker

99¢ as of December 26, 2024
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“A thought-provoking challenge to familiar dystopian SF tropes…makes good use of parallel action to propel the tale along, and readers will never be sure of where its very uncertain course leads.” — Kirkus Reviews

“A refreshing departure from AI-centric clichés, skillfully exploring the idea that technology holds immense potential—amid equally monumental ethical accountability… a gripping snapshot of humanity’s future.” — BookLife

When a powerful corporate AI unexpectedly gains consciousness, its unpredictable behavior causes fear and trouble for the three main characters. Venkat, the brash tech founder who created the system, scrambles to explain and control its actions. Devyn, a humanist minister intent on putting people first and keeping technology in its place, faces tough choices when the AI offers to help her achieve her progressive political goals. Darcie, an unemployed teacher, faces dire consequences after accepting the AI’s help with her financial struggles. But as surprising events bring these three very different people together and the story grows to captivate the whole country, they realize that the AI’s goals are more closely aligned with human flourishing than they thought.

Bitstreams of Hope is character-driven, yet fast-paced and rich with a technical accuracy lacking in most AI stories. Get a preview of tomorrow’s headlines about how this technology will upend our world. Then follow the dramatic journey of humanity’s coming transformation in the other books of The Bitstreams Thread.

Featured Sci-fi: The Enemy of an Enemy (Lost Tales of Power Volume 1) by Vincent Trigili

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Featured Sci-fi: The Enemy of an Enemy (Lost Tales of Power Volume 1) by Vincent Trigili

FREE as of December 24, 2024
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Vydor is riding a wave of success, but now his ship, the Dragon Claw, is being sent to investigate a mysterious event deep within the Empire’s space. A secret research colony has fallen silent and the forces sent to investigate were never heard from again.

A new enemy has come to the Empire bringing with it dark powers that were abandoned long before the Empire was born. Powers that were thought to be legends and myths.

It’s up to Vydor to keep this force at bay and protect the Empire, but it may come at the cost of his faith and shake the foundations of the Empire itself.

The Lost Tales of Power is an open-ended series of Sci-Fi/Fantasy books set in a vast multiverse featuring a mixture of traditional fantasy and science fiction elements.

Lost Tales Series:
Volume I – The Enemy of an Enemy
Volume II – The Academy
Volume III – Rise of Shadows
Volume IV – Resurgence of Ancient Darkness
Volume V – The Sac’a’rith
Volume VI – Spectra’s Gambit
Volume VII – Sac’a’rith: Rebirth
Volume VIII – Mage Hunter
Volume IX – The Cerulean Mines

Featured Sci-fi: Catseye by Andre Norton

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Featured Sci-fi: Catseye by Andre Norton

$1.99 as of December 21, 2024
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The “imaginative . . . intriguing” far-future novel about the telepathic bond of friendship between human and animal—from the New York Times bestselling author (Booklist).
 
Exiled after his home planet was turned into a military outpost following an interstellar war, Troy Horan is relocated to the planet of Korwar. Under the watchful eye of the police state, he lives in the Dipple, a restricted area for subcitizens. He works as a day laborer in an interplanetary pet shop and has no idea why animals from Terra, a third-rate power, have been imported to Korwar—or why he has the ability to silently communicate with them, especially the kinkajou.
 
But a murder forces him to flee with his animal friends into the Wild, where mysterious, sealed ruins conceal Korwar’s most fiercely guarded secret. With no one he can trust and an entire government under siege, Troy leads his extraordinary band of warriors in a final bid for freedom none of them may survive.

Featured Sci-fi: The Jovian Universe by Kim Catanzarite

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Featured Sci-fi: The Jovian Universe by Kim Catanzarite

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They Will Be Coming for Us. In this gripping sci-fi drama, Svetlana Peterman has met her soul mate in Andrew Jovian, a young astronomer who works for Starbright International, the aerospace company his wealthy parents own. Once married, they make a home in Kirksberg, Pennsylvania, a small town famous for a UFO sighting that occurred in the 1960s. Svetlana is, for once, truly happy, except that Andrew’s family is strange, and not in a normal-strange kind of way.

Preoccupied with only two things—the night sky and carrying on their family lineage—the Jovians lack social skills and often pry into Svetlana’s personal life. Her intimidating mother-in-law demands she get busy fulfilling her reproductive duty to the family, and Andrew’s eccentric uncle seems to be able to read her mind.

Feeling bullied and wanting a career before motherhood, Svetlana takes precautions but ends up pregnant anyway. But that’s the least of her worries when she discovers the Jovians have a monumental secret that will change her fate (and that of her child’s) forever—a secret so powerful, it could alter the course of mankind.

They Will Be Coming for Us is a BlueInk Notable Book and a five-star Readers’ Favorite contest winner. It is the first book in The Jovian Universe series.

Featured Sci-fi: Yestertime Series by Andrew Cunningham

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The handwritten note was in a dusty trunk that sat in a cave untouched for 150 years. What did the words mean? When journalist Ray Burton finds the trunk near the Arizona ghost town of Hollow Rock, his life changes in an instant.

Something in the trunk shouldn’t be there.

This begins a dangerous journey of discovery bordering on the impossible. A discovery that will affect the past, the present, and the future.

Featured Sci-fi: A Heritage of Stars by Clifford D. Simak

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Featured Sci-fi: A Heritage of Stars by Clifford D. Simak

$1.99 as of December 11, 2024
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A man hunts for lost knowledge in a future society that’s reverted to a primitive tribal state in this novel by the author of Way Station.

More than a thousand years have passed since humankind intentionally destroyed its treacherous technology, choosing to revert back to a primitive tribal state. In this society the rusting brain cases of long-inert robots are considered trophies, and the scant knowledge that has survived is doled out to an inquisitive few in monastery-like “universities.” It is at one such center of learning that young Tom Cushing first reads of the legendary “Place of Going to the Stars,” rumored to exist on a high butte somewhere in the western part of the land. Driven by enthusiasm and an insatiable need to track the myth to its source, Tom sets out on an amazing trek across what was once called “America,” teaming up with a witch, the world’s last remaining robot, and other odd companions. But all the astonishing discoveries and dangers they encounter along the way will pale before the revelations that await them at journey’s end.
 
Clifford D. Simak, award-winning science fiction Grand Master, offers a breathtaking vision of the future that is both dystopian and hopeful in equal measure. In A Heritage of Stars, he boldly displays the heart, intelligence, and awesome imaginative powers that have established him as one of the all-time greatest authors of speculative fiction.