C Gockel Writes

Featured Science Fiction: Exhalation – Short Stories by Ted Chiang

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Featured Science Fiction: Exhalation - Short Stories by Ted Chiang

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Editor’s note: I’ve read this one. The first two stories alone are worth the price.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • Nine stunningly original, provocative, and poignant stories—two published for the very first time—all from the mind of the incomparable author of Stories of Your Life and Other

Tackling some of humanity’s oldest questions along with new quandaries only he could imagine, these stories will change the way you think, feel, and see the world. They are Ted Chiang at his best: profound, sympathetic, revelatory.

Ted Chiang tackles some of humanity’s oldest questions along with new quandaries only he could imagine.

In “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate,” a portal through time forces a fabric seller in ancient Baghdad to grapple with past mistakes and second chances. In “Exhalation,” an alien scientist makes a shocking discovery with ramifications that are literally universal. In “Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom,” the ability to glimpse into alternate universes necessitates a radically new examination of the concepts of choice and free will.

Featured Sci-fi: Machine A White Space Novel by Elizabeth Bear

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Featured Sci-fi: Machine A White Space Novel by Elizabeth Bear

$1.99 in the U.S.
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Also available at: United Kingdom, Germany, Australia

A “spectacularly smart space opera” that follows Ancestral Night in the Hugo Award–winning author’s White Space duology (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

Meet Doctor Jens.

She hasn’t had a decent cup of coffee in fifteen years. Her workday begins when she jumps out of perfectly good space ships and continues with developing treatments for sick alien species she’s never seen before. She loves her life. Even without the coffee.

But Dr. Jens is about to discover an astonishing mystery: two ships, one ancient and one new, locked in a deadly embrace. The crew is suffering from an unknown ailment and the shipmind is trapped in an inadequate body, much of her memory pared away.

Unfortunately, Dr. Jens can’t resist a mystery and she begins doing some digging. She has no idea that she’s about to discover horrifying and life-changing truths.

Written in Elizabeth Bear’s signature “rollicking, suspenseful, and sentimental” (Publishers Weekly) style, Machine is a fresh and electrifying space opera that you won’t be able to put down.

[Read more…]

Featured Fantasy: Kissed by Songs of Lillies: A Frog Prince Fairy Tale Romance by E.V Everest

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Kissed by Songs of Lillies: A Frog Prince Fairy Tale Romance by E.V Everest

New Release
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Never bargain with a frog.

There was a chill in the salt air the morning my sister was taken. All they left was a single golden shell in her bed. The fae had claimed another bride.

Now, careless on champagne, I’ve met one myself. By night, an intoxicating gentleman with piercing green eyes. By day, a slimy, conniving frog.

When I drop my precious golden shell, he offers to retrieve it… for a price. By his law, we are betrothed.

To break a bargain is to die, so I will cross the cursed waters with him and go to their hidden isle. But this won’t be a one-way trip. It won’t be so easy to claim the heart of this princess.

Kissed by Songs of Lilies is one of ten books in the Enemies Ever After series, a collection of standalone short novels featuring enemies-to-lovers fairy tale retellings with a touch of steam.

Featured Science Fiction: Fire Fight (The Fire Planets Saga #1) by Chris Ward

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Chris Ward Fire Fight

FREE as of May 13, 2024
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In a far corner of the galaxy, the seven systems of the Fire Quarter face a terrible threat from a dangerous warlord.

On the fire planet of Abalon 3, evil Raylan Climlee threatens to unleash a wave of destruction in order to take control of the planet’s valuable source of trioxyglobin, a dangerous but valuable liquid used for starship fuel. The only person who can stop him is Lianetta Jansen, a disgraced former Galactic Military Policewoman now turned smuggler, who is haunted by a terrible tragedy in her past. Along with her ragtag, wisecracking crew—the one-armed pilot Caladan, and the malfunctioning droid, Harlan5—Lia must confront her own demons, while trying to stop another.

Fire Fight is the beginning of the Fire Planets Saga, an epic new space opera series.=

Featured Fantasy: Nora Black Midlife Psychic Mysteries Book 1 – 3 by Renee George

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Featured Fantasy: Nora Black Midlife Psychic Mysteries Book 1 - 3 by Rene George

99¢ as of May 10, 2024
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Join Nora Black, the fifty-one-year-young owner of Scents & Scentsability, as she navigates life in the charming resort town of Garden Cove. Since her near-death experience during a hysterectomy, Nora’s developed a peculiar psychic gift triggered by scents, thrusting her into a world of mystery and intrigue.

In Sense and Scent Ability, Nora becomes embroiled in a murder investigation to clear her best friend Gilly’s name. Using her newfound abilities, Nora races against time to catch a killer before Gilly is wrongly convicted.

Then, in For Whom The Smell Tolls Nora tackles another case, investigating the suspicious death of a friend’s cousin. With allergies hindering her senses and her ex-chief of police breathing down her neck, Nora must rely on her intuition and loyal friends to sniff out the truth.

Finally, in War of the Noses, Nora faces off against her former nemesis at a spa convention turned deadly when murder becomes the main event. With the help of her friends and her hot detective beau, Nora dives nose-first into solving the mystery, determined to uncover the truth before another life is lost.

Filled with humor, friendship, romance, and plenty of intrigue, this aromatic trio of mysteries proves there’s no scent (or villain) too elusive for Nora Black to sniff out.