C Gockel Writes

Featured Sci-fi: Eifelheim by Michael Flynn

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Featured Sci-fi: Eifelheim by Michael Flynn

$1.99 as of December 27, 2024
Click for current price: Amazon US, Canada (Paperback and Audiobook available at: United Kingdom, Germany, Australia)

“Carl Sagan meets Umberto Eco. . . . Bursting with pungent historical detail . . . this dense, provocative novel offers big rewards to patient readers.” —Entertainment Weekly

The alien world of medieval Europe lives again, transformed by the physics of the future, by a winner of the Heinlein Award.

Over the centuries, one small town in Germany has disappeared and never been resettled. Tom, a historian, and his theoretical physicist girlfriend Sharon, become interested. By all logic, the town should have survived. What’s so special about Eifelheim?

Father Dietrich is the village priest of Eifelheim, in the year 1348, when the Black Death is gathering strength but is still not nearby. Dietrich is an educated man, and to his astonishment becomes the first contact person between humanity and an alien race from a distant star, when their ship crashes in the nearby forest.

It is a time of wonders, in the shadow of the plague. Tom and Sharon, and Father Deitrich have a strange destiny of tragedy and triumph in Eifelheim, the brilliant science fiction novel by Michael Flynn.

“Heartbreaking. . . . Flynn masterfully achieves an intricate panorama of medieval life, full of fascinatingly realized human and [alien] characters whose fates interconnect with poignant irony.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Meticulously researched, intense, mesmerizing novel . . . for readers seeking thoughtful science fiction of the highest order.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Eifelheim may turn out to be the best science fiction novel this year.” —Orson Scott Card, Hugo Award–winning author of Ender’s Game

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
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

“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: Catseye by Andre Norton

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Featured Sci-fi: Catseye by Andre Norton

$1.99 as of December 21, 2024
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

Apple, Nook, Kobo, GooglePlay

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: Yestertime Series by Andrew Cunningham

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Start the Series FREE (Book 2 just $2.99)
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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
Click for current price: Amazon US and Canada (Normal price: United Kingdom, Germany, Australia)

Apple, Nook, Kobo, GooglePlay

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.
 

Featured Sci-fi: Starship Renegade The Complete Series (Books 1 – 9) by Daniel Young

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Featured Sci-fi: Starship Renegade The Complete Series (Books 1 - 9) by Daniel Young

99¢ as of December 14, 2024
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

A MISFIT CREW RACES AGAINST COSMIC DESTRUCTION

***FULL AND COMPLETE SERIES!***

In a vast, resource-rich fissure in space, two mighty empires are locked in an endless struggle for control.

Captain Luka Kelly leads the Renegade, a battered gunship with a crew of aliens, outcasts, and unlikely heroes — each with their own secrets and skills. As they navigate the treacherous space between the warring factions, they stumble upon a conspiracy that threatens to tear the galaxy apart.

Ships are sabotaged, diplomats assassinated, and entire fleets brought to their knees by an unseen enemy. With each explosion, the Seam inches closer to becoming an uninhabitable wasteland. Kelly and his team race against time to uncover the truth behind these attacks and prevent cosmic catastrophe.

From pulse-pounding space battles to tense diplomatic showdowns, the Starship Renegade series plunges readers into a universe where loyalty is currency and betrayal lurks around every corner. Can Kelly and his crew outmaneuver their foes and save not just one side, but both?

Strap in for an interstellar thrill ride that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last page. The fate of civilizations hangs in the balance, and only the Renegade can tip the scales.

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