C Gockel Writes

Featured Sci-fi: The Red (The Red Trilogy Book 1) by Linda Nagata

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Featured Sci-fi: The Red (The Red Trilogy Book 1) by Linda Nagata

99¢ as of April 12, 2025
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

Apple, Nook, Kobo

*RECOMMENDED—I loved Lieutenant Shelley, and I loved this whole series, even if I have a slightly different vision of certain “things” ;-).

Nominated for the Nebula-award and named as a Publishers Weekly Best Book
Lieutenant James Shelley commands a high-tech squad of soldiers in a rural district within the African Sahel. They hunt insurgents each night on a harrowing patrol, guided by three simple goals: protect civilians, kill the enemy, and stay alive—because in a for-profit war manufactured by the defense industry there can be no cause worth dying for. To keep his soldiers safe, Shelley uses every high-tech asset available to him—but his best weapon is a flawless sense of imminent danger . . . as if God is with him, whispering warnings in his ear. (Hazard Notice: contains military grade profanity.)

“…an amazing novel… The Red: First Light is a dark, intelligent, cynical take on military SF. It’s an excellent novel that deserves a much larger audience.”—Stefan Raets, Tor.com

“…one of the best pieces of near future Mil-SF ever written. What’s so good about it? The action rocks and the characters are engaging as hell. But this isn’t just adventure fiction, it’s Mil-SF and very well done, straight out of DARPA’s dreambook, not somebody’s fantasy.” —Ernest Lilley, SFRevu

Book Review: Linda Nagata’s The Red Sci-fi Thriller Trilogy

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Hero and secondary characters that you actually care about. Check.

Cool tech? Check.

Dilemmas that necessitate a sci-fi setting (as opposed to a story that could be told anywhere, but is sci-fi just because)? Check.

The series takes place on a near future Earth a little further along on drones and cybernetics than we are now. They’ve notably not done too much in the way of space exploration. Humanity seems to be stuck, stewing in its own corruption, the USA still in the clutches of a military industrial complex run amok. Humanity is still very much alone in the universe … or is it?

The Red is traditionally published, and the first book was a Nebula Finalist, which means you can pick it up at your local library. The trilogy is also available on Amazon of course. Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia also GooglePlay, Kobo, and Nook.

Featured Science Fiction: The Bohr Maker (The Nanotech Sucession Book 1) by Linda Nagata

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Featured Science Fiction: The Bohr Maker (The Nanotech Sucession Book 1) by Linda Nagata

$4.99 as of January 30, 2023
Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

Apple, Nook

Editor’s Note: I loved this novel. It has believable characters, adventure, action, strange new worlds, and a message that resonates.

“…phenomenal….This one is a winner—grab it when you see it…” —Analog Science Fiction & Fact

An award-winning novel of nanotechnology, adventure, and high-tech revolution.
Nikko is the first “post human” genetically engineered to survive in the airless void of space. But the research permit that allows his existence is about to expire. His body has begun an insidious, pre-programmed failure that will end in his death—unless he can cancel his own expiration date. His hopes ride on an illegal and extremely powerful nanotech device known as the Bohr Maker—but his attempt to steal it soon goes awry. The device escapes to infect a young woman named Phousita who lives on Earth, in an impoverished slum, where nanotechnology runs amok, regulated only by the black market. Nikko and Phousita are from different worlds, but their convergence sets off a domino effect of unforeseeable events that threaten to change the definition of “human” for all time.

A brilliantly original, fast-paced biotech thriller, The Bohr Maker won the Locus Award for Best First Novel.

The Nanotech Succession is a collection of stand-alone novels exploring the rise of nanotechnology and the strange and fascinating future that follows.