C Gockel Writes

Featured Science Fiction: The Unity Wars Complete Series by Peter Nealan

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Featured Science Fiction: The Unity Wars Complete Series by Peter Nealan

99¢ as of December 10, 2022
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

Get the Unity Wars Box Set, featuring all three books in the action-packed series. 1000+ pages of aliens, war, space marines, and explosive military sci-fi action.

Centurion Scalas and his brothers ride the thundering ships toward the enemy surface. Some of the finest and most respected warriors in the galaxy.

Their code is strict: If you target the innocent…You will fall.

But the horrific foe descending from deep space isn’t like anything they’ve faced before.

Can they hope to stand against the rising new power in the galaxy?

Don’t miss this complete Military Sci-Fi adventure that will grab you from the beginning and not let go. It’s perfect for fans of Rick Partlow, Jay Allan, and Galaxy’s Edge.

Book Review: Lilith’s Brood by Octavia Butler

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As of December 4, 2022 $2.99 … check for current price: Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon CA, Amazon Au, Amazon DE, Nook, Apple, Kobo, and GooglePlay

Ah, the classic alien abduction for purposes of breeding trope…innocent human women abducted by hot, blue, warlike aliens whom the human women inevitably tame with the power of sexy times.

If you’re looking for that story, Lilith’s Brood by Octavia Butler is not it. Her aliens are not sexy–think giant sea anemone–but they do want to breed. They’re not particular when it comes to male or female.

I recently reviewed Sue Burke’s Semiosis and Interference, and praised those for having genuinely alien voices. Sue’s aliens are very alien, but Butler surpasses even her. This is one of the most disturbing series I have ever read, and I highly recommend it. 

It asks a lot of the biggest questions that sci-fi is so good at addressing. What does it mean to be human? If you sacrifice your humanity in order to survive, have humans survived at all? A great, weird, and wonderful read. I highly recommend it.

Lilith’s Brood is available at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon CA, Amazon Au, Amazon DE, Barnes&Noble, iBooks, Kobo, and GooglePlay

Featured Science Fiction: Starshot (The Skyward Saga Book 1) by A.R. Knight

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Featured Science Fiction: Starshot (The Skyward Saga Book 1) by A.R. Knight

FREE as of September 3, 2022
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

Apple, Nook, Kobo, GooglePlay

To save her family, Kaishi fights a desperate war for survival against enemies from Earth and far beyond. Meanwhile, an alien warrior must choose between his honor and his orders as his love faces a fate worse than death.

Caught between warring factions, Kaishi and her tribe face extinction. When a burning meteor lights up the night, Kaishi investigates and finds a creature with answers for everything, with secrets that could let Kaishi save her people. All Kaishi has to do is follow Its orders, no matter where they might lead.

Sax leads a final assault against the galaxy’s most hated enemy, one that holds surprises deep inside its besieged ship. With his claws, teeth, and tail, Sax is a living weapon, but some evils are not so easily erased. He must hunt down every last one, and if Sax survives the assault, he’ll turn his eyes to Earth.

Starshot is the first book in The Skyward Saga, a completed sci-fi adventure series that features mind-bending alien encounters, far-future action, devious villains, and a heroine that won’t stop fighting.

If you’re ready to dive into a new, immersive sci-fi series, you’ll love A.R. Knight’s Starshot and the entire Skyward Saga.

UPDATE: Please don’t buy this box set! (But I’d love some reviews)

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Worlds of Wonder a Sci-fi Fantasy Collection by C. Gockel

Available at:
Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon CA, Amazon DE, and Amazon AU

Nook, Kobo, Google Play, iBooks

Hey Everyone,

I’ve put together a box set with selections from I Bring the Fire and Archangel Project with the express intention of making it free. 

I also included Let There Be Light because I think John must find Hana, and I will probably tie that into the Archangel Universe at a later date. 

Please don’t buy it–I mean, you can if you want, and I would gladly take it as a tip–but I will be setting it to free hopefully by August. 

More than anything though, I’d really like reviews on this one. If it goes free with some nice reviews it will get more downloads. More downloads hopefully will mean I’m reached by new readers. New readers will hopefully buy more books.

If you do want to purchase or, (please with sugar on top) leave a review, just click the button below for links to all vendors:

Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon CA, Amazon DE, and Amazon AU

Nook, Kobo, Google Play, iBooks

Book Review: Semiosis and Interference

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Semiosis and it’s partner Interference by Sue Burke are two of my favorite books of the last year. The duology is about a group of human colonists from Earth striking out to a new world that turns out to be not as uninhabited as they thought. These books are thoughtful, character driven science fiction with aliens that are truly alien. I guess I can give a little bit away since the blurb does…the aliens are sentient plants, and a lot of them see the primary advantage of humankind as being, well, fertilizer. 

The books are told through successive human–and alien–voices over many generations, and cross into literary fiction territory…but you know, aren’t boring. The chief conflict for both species is finding a way to live together and show their relative value to one another…as more than food or fertilizer (which is the same as food when you think about it.) I read them in rapid succession and stayed up late to finish.

There is more I want to say, but I also don’t want to give away some of the books’ secrets, and some of its observations about the nature of pacifism. Suffice to say, if you want to be entertained, surprised, and delve into some beautiful prose, pick these up. 

Semiosis and Interference are available at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon CA, Amazon AU, Amazon DE, iBooks, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and GooglePlay

An Excerpt from The Defiant. Archangel Project. Book 6

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They walked down the same road on the edge of No Weere they’d taken the day before, but Volka was no longer animated and chatty. He almost wished she’d point out a reservoir of diphtheria, cholera, or typhus that she’d played in, just to end the silence. She began falling behind, and he looked over his shoulder, expecting to see her exhausted and flagging. Instead her eyes were bright, her ears were forward, and her body was bent low.

He stopped. “You’re stalking me.”

Three point three meters behind him, Volka straightened. “I was not.” The rain had soaked her through, and he could see every outline of her body. The chill, the rush of hormones or both was giving her “hardware malfunctions.” His core programming insisted he help with the issue. His Q-comm screamed it was a bad idea.

Volka’s ears flattened sideways. “I was stalking you,” she admitted. “I’m so sorry, Sixty.”

“Never appologize to a sex ‘bot for stalking them,” 6T9 said. He meant to be flip, but the words came out heavy and serious.

Her amber eyes met his. “But you’re more than a sex ‘bot.”

“Nebulas,” 6T9 whispered. It was a common enough exclamation, but nebulas filled 6T9’s ocular processors, and he didn’t see the steps he took to close the distance between them.