Friday, March 31, 2017

Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month for March 2017

Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month
It’s that time of the month again, time for “Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month”.

So what is “Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month”? It’s a round-up of speculative fiction by indie authors newly published this month, though some February books I missed the last time around snuck in as well. The books are arranged in alphabetical order by author. So far, most links only go to Amazon.com, though I may add other retailers for future editions.

Once again, we have new releases covering the whole broad spectrum of speculative fiction. This month, we have urban fantasy, epic fantasy, Asian fantasy, space opera, military science fiction, near future science fiction, post-apocalyptic science fiction, dystopian fiction, science fiction romance, time travel, horror, dragons, vampires, witches, ghosts, superheroes, aiens, robots, artificial intelligences, cyborg bounty hunters, supersoldiers, mutant assassins, galactic empires, Martian judgements, intergalactic prison breaks, radioactive wastelands, lake monsters, murder mysteries in space and much more.

As always, I know the authors at least vaguely, but I haven’t read all of the books, so Caveat emptor.

And now on to the books without further ado:
Wisps of Spider Silk, First Thread by Athena Andreadis Wisps of Spider Silk - First Thread by Athena Andreadis:

Wisps of Spider Silk, First Thread is a diptych of two interlinked space opera stories (“The Stone Lyre” and “The Wind Harp”) that tell of interplanetary cultures in conflict — and in perilous alliances — over psychic talents and the dominance they can confer.

These two stories are wisps of a vast nebula. In this universe the Minoan civilization partly recovered from the Thera explosion and some of its descendants eventually took to the stars, as did their adversaries. This is the universe of “Dry Rivers” and “Planetfall” which appeared in Crossed Genres in 2009.

Traitor by Krista D. BallTraitor by Krista D. Ball:

Seven years ago, Rebecca St. Martin took the coward’s path to save her skin. She has lived with that decision, eking out a life as an indentured servant on a space station far from home. Only now, fate has decided to give Rebecca another chance. A ghost from her past plans to execute a daring rescue from the prison bowels of the station Rebecca now works.

Rebecca has to face the same decision she made all those years ago. Could she watch her friends be murdered? Or could she, just for once, be a hero?

Aletheia by J.S. BreukelaarAletheia by J.S. Breukelaar:

Deep below the island, something monstrous lies waiting for Thettie, and it knows her name.

“Family and small town desires and secrets simmer in J. S. Breukelaar's melancholy and affecting mix of literary, noir, and horror by the lake. ALETHEIA is a compelling 21st century ghost story. Don't lose your Gila monster!” — Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and Disappearance at Devil's Rock.

The remote lake town of Little Ridge has a memory problem. There is an island out on the lake somewhere, but no one can remember exactly where it is—and what it has to do with the disappearance of the eccentric Frankie Harpur or the seven-year-old son of a local artist, Lee Montour.

When Thettie Harpur brings her family home to find Frankie, she faces opposition from all sides—including from the clan leader himself, the psychotic Doc Murphy.

Lee, her one true ally in grief and love, might not be enough to help take on her worst nightmare. The lake itself.

A tale of that most human of monsters—memory—Aletheia is part ghost story, part love story, a novel about the damage done, and the damage yet to come. About terror itself. Not only for what lies ahead, but also for what we think we have left behind.

Dead World by Cora BuhlertDead World by Cora Buhlert:

Once, Anjali Patel and Mikhail Grikov were soldiers on opposing sides of an intergalactic war. They met, fell in love and decided to go on the run together.

Now Anjali and Mikhail are trying to eke out a living on the independent worlds of the galactic rim, while attempting to stay under the radar of those pursuing them.

When they are hired to retrieve a weapons prototype from an abandoned planet, it seems like a routine job. But it quickly turns out that the planet is not as empty as they had thought. And soon, Anjali and Mikhail find themselves caught in a deadly chase across a radioactive wasteland.

This is a novella of 27500 words or approx. 95 print pages in the "In Love and War" series, but may be read as a standalone.

The Bay of Sins by J.D. ByrneThe Bay of Sins by J.D. Byrne:

The war is over, but nothing is settled.

On the Neldathi side of the Water Road the clans are slowly pulling apart following a sudden murder. Hirrek is tasked with getting to the bottom of a mystery: was this killing the random act of a violent, unstable man? Or was it something more sinister, a hint of what the Neldathi thought they’d defeated during the war? The unity won in blood may be slipping away.

In the rebuilding city of Innisport, life is returning to something like normal. That’s largely due to Mida, given the task of rebuilding the city by Antrey Ranbren herself. After Mida hands power over to the Guild of Politicians, she finds herself on trial for her life, charged with treason and being a collaborator. Along the way she meets someone, a curious remnant of the war, who makes her rethink the way she sees those that destroyed her city.

In the meantime, Antrey returns from exile, escaping to the wilderness of Telebria. She gains new allies, including Rurek, and a new foe, the Sentinel Faerl. He’s best known among the other Sentinels as the man who let Antrey slip away once before, getting all his men killed in the process. Now he has a chance for redemption and revenge. But Antrey is willing to do anything to ensure that her legacy does not slip away.

The chase is on, as the saga of The Water Road barrels toward its explosive conclusion.

The Boy with the Blue Sky by N.C. DavisThe Boy With The Blue Sky by N.C. Davis:

How far would you go to bring back a loved one from the dead?

Theo returned her stare. 'It's not just a program.'
'Then what the hell is it?' she said.
'It's a digital reconstruction of our son.'


On the anniversary of their young son’s death, teacher Eury can only find peace by descending into an electronically-induced world of dreamless sleep.

Her husband Theo, a music lecturer, is at the end of his tether and has tried everything he can think of to drag Eury out of the darkness. So, in a final act of desperation he acquires software that can digitally resurrect their child.

Will it bring Eury back to him or will the shock drive her deeper into a world of endless slumber?

The Boy with the Blue Sky is a story that shines a light on the steady creep of technology, into the most intimate parts of our lives.

Starbound by J.J. GreenStarbound by J.J. Green:

Humanity has colonized Mars and invented interstellar travel—joining the thousands of alien races that explore the deepest reaches of the galaxy.

Jas Harrington is the sole survivor of a Martian colony disaster. After growing up in institutions on Mars and Earth, she travels to Antarctica to train as a deep space security operative. All she wants is to graduate college and escape her past, but it isn’t long before she faces familiar prejudice against returned colonists.

Jas must navigate aggression, bigotry, and the frozen Antarctic wastes if she’s to fulfil her dreams.
For once, fighting her way out of her problems isn’t an option, until it is.

Prequel to the 10-book space opera serial, Shadows of the Void.

Prominence by A.C. Hadfield and Colin F. BarnesProminence by A.C. Hadfield and Colin F. Barnes:

They tried to destroy our planets. Our way of life. They tried to send us into extinction. But we, the Coalition, fought them and won. That was a decade ago. We had assumed they were beaten for good.
We were wrong.

They’re known as the Host: a cabal of aliens seeking to dominate our sector of space. And they’re back—with help from a powerful new enemy.

Against their wrath, we must stand. We’re outnumbered and unprepared. If we lose, we lose everything.

But there is hope. An ancient race of long-dead but technologically advanced aliens called the Navigators have a ship called the Blackstar that could potentially turn the tide. That is if I, Kai Locke, a humble ship racer, can find it and learn how to harness its power in time.

If I fail, the Coalition will fall, and the Host will consign us to a distant memory. I refuse to let that happen. I will fight to my last breath for the Coalition’s survival.

Simon Rising by Brian D. HowardSimon Rising by Brian D. Howard:

Five years ago, an alien ship crashed into the bay. Since then, vigilantes and criminals with extraordinary powers increasingly dominate headlines.

A man wakes up in the hospital with no memory. He's told he is Steve Ambrose, a serial bank robber who was shot while being arrested. Everything changes when he discovers he has telekinetic powers.

Hunted by FBI Special Agent Rachel Moore, and with unknown enemies around every corner, can he change who he is, or is the dark criminal everyone accuses him of being too deeply a part of his nature to escape?

The Enemy Within by Patty JansenAmbassador 6: The Enemy Within by Patty Jansen:

Two men went on a surfing trip in a remote area. Only one came back, accused of murdering the other.

Sounds simple, right?

Not quite, because the alleged murder happened on another planet, the accused is a member of the secretive Pretoria Cartel of super-rich business tycoons--with illegal off-Earth ventures--and the only person who can remotely be called a witness is an alien, the elder Abri from the Pengali Thousand Islands tribe.

Diplomat Cory Wilson is asked to accompany Abri to the Nations of Earth court, but when he and his team arrive there, their contacts have been moved to different cases, their rooms are bugged and their movements restricted. No one is answering their questions, but it is when a lawyer is murdered and Cory's team captures a mysterious stalker that things get interesting.

Just as well they are prepared in the usual way: alert and highly armed.

Dances of Deception by J.C. KangDances of Deception by J.C. Kang:

An invincible empire threatens to invade Cathay, and only a Dragon Song can ensure peace.

After vanquishing the Last Dragon with the power of her voice, all Kaiya wants is a quiet life of anonymity. Instead, the Emperor sends her to negotiate peace with the aggressive Teleri Empire.
The critical mission reunites her with her childhood friend Tian, now an assassin-spy who loathes killing. He is no longer the adorable, gullible boy from her memories, any more than she is the adventurous, sweet girl from his. Instead of rekindling nostalgia for a youthful innocence they both yearn for, their reunion ignites a mutual hatred.

When the Teleri Empire breaks off talks, Tian must help Kaiya escape. Orcs, Ogres, and enemy soldiers stand between them and home, and their volatile relationship could get them captured… or killed.

Chameleon Uncovered by B.R. KingsolverChameleon Uncovered by B.R. Kingsolver

The dark sequel to the best-selling Chameleon Assassin.

Libby has a chance to build a legitimate reputation when she’s hired by one of the world’s most prestigious museums to bolster their security. The gig is in Chicago, where her heartthrob lives, so she hopes for a little romance.

She's on a first-name basis with larceny, mayhem, and death, but Libby's not used to being on the receiving end. Chicago is far darker and more dangerous than her native Toronto. Amidst terrorist bombings, stolen treasure, and murder, a mutant prophet calls for revolution. Away from her family and friends, Libby has nowhere to turn as enemies assault her from all sides.

Their mistake. Libby is a dangerous enemy.

2184: Beneath the Steel City by Ben Lovejoy2184: Beneath the Steel City by Ben Lovejoy:

In London 2184, the government monitors every move its citizens make, logs every action, notes every visit, supervises every communication, penalises the slightest transgression with all the warmth and sympathy of a hungry piranha.

Computer tech David Lafferty has grown tired of living beneath the crushing weight of a billion petty rules, and decided it was time to create his own rules in an underground life beneath the steel city.

Aided by Saira, a Self-propelled Artificially Intelligent Robot Assistant, and a small circuit board stolen from the government, all is going well until an unknown adversary appears to have learned his every secret …

The Cosmic City by Brian K. LoweThe Cosmic City by Brian K. Lowe:

In the conclusion to The Stolen Future trilogy, Keryl Clee finds himself at the center of a crisis which could mean the destruction not only on Earth, but of Time itself. Hostages of a time-traveling madman who is creating an army from the past to conquer the world of the future, before Clee and Lady Maire can defeat him they must come to grips with the shocking truth behind the 300-year-old Nuum invasion of Earth.

Beset by new and powerful enemies, betrayed by the Council of Nobles itself, Keryl Clee has one last chance to unite the peoples of Earth--Nuum and Thoran, human and non-human alike--because even he is powerless against those who are coming from beyond the stars to reach…The Cosmic City.

Insurgence by Lori Ann Ramsay:

Earth's last hope relied on the mission to Xeoron, to save the captive from the horrid alien virus that claimed so many lives and plagued mankind for over three centuries. The mission would also set those bound on the alien planet free, even if it meant giving their own lives. The team had trained most of their lives for the mission, with many entering the Academy of Space Exploration as young as twelve years old. Now the launch propelled their starship into space at warp speed to a planetary system on the other side of the galaxy. The team sought to free the humans held captive there, whether dead or alive and to bring back a cure to save mankind and to save planet Earth from an alien invasion and annihilation. But the underlying possibility of captivity on Xeoron and failure to complete the mission hung in the air, would they succeed in saving Earth and mankind?

Insurgence is the first book of The Realm of Xeoron series. A space opera sci-fi series with genetic engineering, colonization on an alien planet, and contact with aliens.

Prison Break by Jim RudnickPrison Break by Jim Rudnick:

The Warlord Noriega, once captured is now being tried for the destruction of the Barony destroyer the Gibraltar with hundreds of casualties. But his lawyers are claiming that the Confederacy does not have jurisdiction and that is the court cases that begin with this tale. Added is the threat from the largest Warlord, Konoe, that if the Confederacy does sentence Noriega to life, then that constitutes a declaration of war with his realm.

The Barony is also now a part of the investigations over on Birdland, where the Duke and Duchess are discovering more about the mysterious ball-birds--and why they seem to be important even though the knowledge about them is scant. This however is also a factor in the new dissolution of the partnership between the Duke, the Baroness and the Caliph. With all the Xithricite that is currently known on the RIM, the Caliph and his new admiral are formidable powers on the RIM.

As the Warlord is sentenced to life on Halberd the lawyers file with the RIM Confederacy Supreme Court and yet the Warlord Konoe will not wait, and tries to break Noriega out of the prison planet--something that has never happened before. Ships clash and battles occur as the breakout rises to Pike Station up above the prison and threaten the security of the RIM Confederacy too...

Blood Hunt by Izzy ShowsBlood Hunt by Izzy Shows:

Wizard without a license. Defender of London.

The Hunter in the Darkness. Not a title I wanted, but that's who I am now. Vampires are trying to destroy my city. We're one mistake away from the world knowing about magic, but the vampires don't care. They just crave their next fix. I have to stop them, but I can't risk using the demonic powers I have. Whatever lurks inside me, it's dark, and it's hungry. I will find a way to fight on my own.

Vampires are not the only evil in this world.

Judgment of Mars by Glynn StewartJudgment of Mars by Glynn Stewart:

A war fought in the shadows
A conspiracy shattered in fire
A moment of weakness…
When politics are played for blood.

The destruction of the secret archive of the Royal Order of Keepers on Mars has left Damien Montgomery, Hand of the Mage-King, with his enemies defeated, his lover dead—and his questions unanswered.

When he seeks out the remaining Keepers for answers, he discovers only violence and death in their strongholds. Someone else is hunting down the survivors to make sure they never answer Damien’s questions—or anyone else’s.

As a wave of murder sweeps Mars and the consequences of the Keepers’ conspiracy sink home, Damien is summoned before the Council of the Protectorate to answer for the deaths of two other Hands. In the political heart of the Protectorate of Mars, he finds he may be forced to choose between honoring the oaths he swore and preserving the survival of the Protectorate itself!

Team Guardian by Naomi StoneTeam Guardian by Naomi Stone:

This collection includes the three Team Guardian adventures: Sweet Mercy, Safe Haven and Shining Hope.

When a probability bomb exploded in the heartlands of the US, no one couldhave predicted the results. Spreading chaos was the point of using a probability bomb. Thousands died. Others were gifted with strange powers. Ten years later the world had become a different place.

When Rachel Connolly — a Reverse Empath — and Franklin Luke Delano (Fluke) — a Probability Talent — meet in the course of capturing a would-be bomber, they have little time to explore their powerful connection before they must draw a mad Puppet Master into the open.

Beth Talbot’s psychometry Talent is a curse as well as a blessing, making Time for her less a smoothly-flowing river than a storm-tossed ocean. She sees David Connolly as a rock of stability in that maelstrom, with his Talent for neutralizing other Talents like hers. But how can she even try to turn his attention her way when everyone on Team Guardian needs him, especially with amad Talent out to take control of the entire world’s computing - and banking-systems.

Maybe Tom could have called on another Illusionist to help in the hunt, but Sophia Alvarez is the best, and she’s been on his mind since the last mission they worked together. Tom takes on the authority and responsibilities of leading the Team – in time to join the FBI in tracking down a rogue Talent behind a string of killings they believe the work of a vigilante Talent bent on destroying sexual predators.

The Piranha Solution by John TriptychThe Piranha Solution by John Triptych:

In the near future, a new space race begins. Private industry is now pushing the limits of human exploration and colonization. NASA has changed its mandate into a regulatory agency to oversee all US-based corporations and individuals involved in interplanetary expansion.

Stilicho Jones always has his hands full while working as a personal troubleshooter for eccentric trillionaire Errol Flux and his numerous cutting edge space projects. When a mysterious and potentially deadly situation threatens the colonies on Mars, Stilicho must team up with a feisty NASA special agent in a race against time to avert a looming catastrophe that could end any hope of inhabiting the Red Planet.

Check out The Piranha Solution. If you were ever inspired by the NASA Space Program, Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars, Robert Zubrin's The Case for Mars, or Andy Weir’s The Martian, then have a look at this newest, edge of your seat technothriller!

Monday, March 27, 2017

Aletheia: A Supernatural Thriller by J.S. Breukelaar


Release date: March 24, 2017
Subgenre: Horror, supernatural thriller

About Aletheia

 

Deep below the island, something monstrous lies waiting for Thettie, and it knows her name.


“Family and small town desires and secrets simmer in J. S. Breukelaar's melancholy and affecting mix of literary, noir, and horror by the lake. ALETHEIA is a compelling 21st century ghost story. Don't lose your Gila monster!”—Paul Tremblay, author of A Head Full of Ghosts and Disappearance at Devil's Rock.

The remote lake town of Little Ridge has a memory problem. There is an island out on the lake somewhere, but no one can remember exactly where it is—and what it has to do with the disappearance of the eccentric Frankie Harpur or the seven-year-old son of a local artist, Lee Montour.
When Thettie Harpur brings her family home to find Frankie, she faces opposition from all sides—including from the clan leader himself, the psychotic Doc Murphy.
Lee, her one true ally in grief and love, might not be enough to help take on her worst nightmare. The lake itself.
A tale of that most human of monsters—memory—Aletheia is part ghost story, part love story, a novel about the damage done, and the damage yet to come. About terror itself. Not only for what lies ahead, but also for what we think we have left behind.

Excerpt:

 

1. Arrival


When old man Zabriskie got sick and privately offered his manor house, including its very own island, to the first man who would shoot him in the head, it was Frankie Harpur who stepped up to the plate. Frankie Harpur—shell-shocked war veteran one minute, Lord of the Manor the next.
It would be five years before Thettie Harpur would hear about Frankie’s change of fortune. They’d moved away by then, of course, and how she heard about cousin Frankie was through a one-eyed girl called Bryce, whose inflatable took a bullet a mile upriver, and who Doc found drifting face-up in the current, her good eye open and blinking. Back at The Landing, an abandoned hamlet along the Susquehanna, where they’d been in exile for almost a decade, Doc told Thettie that there was something familiar about the girl. As far as Thettie could see, she was just some no-account water-rat, but Doc was right, as usual. It turned out the foundling knew Frankie, or said she did, and had even claimed to have been to the island—so Doc decided to keep her. By then, the Harpur boys were falling all over her, but it was Archy who won her in the end, fair and square—even if his brother, Grif chose not to see it that way.
‘We ain’t taking her back with us,’ Grif said. ‘What kind of a name for a girl is Bryce, anyway?’
‘Bryce with a ‘y,’’ said Archy.
‘I don’t give a god damn what it’s with. You don’t know where she’s been.’
‘She’s from Little Ridge, same as us.’
‘How comes we never seen her before when we was there?’ Grif bit down on his cigar and spat out the tip in the direction of where Bryce was sitting alone on the dock fixing her lines. Nothing but a dark blur against the white Pennsylvania sky.
‘She’s younger than us,’ Archy said.
‘Too young.’
Maybe it was that. Or maybe it was her narrow waist and uncomely boy-hair, not to mention the fact of the missing eye. Or maybe it was that Bryce-with-a-‘y’ did have news of Frankie and some new mix he was cooking up alone on Nose Island—a rock whose very existence had been in contention for as long as Thettie remembered. Maybe it was her uncanny knowledge of all the hidden currents and inlets that would get them there—but whatever it was, Thettie, like Grif hated the girl on sight.
‘She’s been there her own self,’ Doc claimed. He described to Thettie what the girl had told him about the deep narrow harbor that spilled out beneath a high nostril-shaped outcrop, and Frankie’s new lab supposedly in one of the old engineer huts.
So, after ten years away from Little Ridge, they were going back, and if Thettie had her doubts as to where or what ‘back’ was, she kept them to herself.
‘Let bygones be bygones,’ Doc said. ‘Forgive and forget.’
‘Harpurs don’t do either,’ Grif said, under his breath. ‘And if he was one of us, he’d know that.’
 

Amazon

 

About J.S. Breukelaar:


J.S. Breukelaar is the author of the novel, American Monster (Lazy Fascist Press). Her work has appeared or been anthologised in numerous publications including Lamplight, Lightspeed, Gamut, Juked, Prick of the Spindle, Opium, Go (b)et Magazined,Women Writing the Weird, Vols I and II, and States of Terror Vol. II. She is a StorySouth nominee, a Wonderland Award Finalist, and a John W Campbell Award finalist. An ex-pat New Yorker, she lives in Sydney, Australia, with her family and online at www.thelivingsuitcase.com

Author Website | Crystal Lake Publishing

Saturday, March 25, 2017

Interview with John Triptych, author of The Piranha Solution



Today, the Speculative Fiction Showcase has great pleasure in interviewing John Triptych, whose novel The Piranha Solution (Ace of Space, Book 1) was recently a featured new release on the blog.



You recently published The Piranha Solution (Ace of Space, Book I). What explains the enduring fascination with Hard SF and space colonisation?
I believe we are living the dawn of a new space age. The commercialization of space, with new companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, signifies a new approach to expansion in a frontier that was previously dominated by governmental agencies. You have to realize that humanity hit the apex when we landed on the moon, and it inspired so many kids to become scientists and engineers. But we seemed to have regressed for decades afterwards, sticking with only orbital manned missions and have used robotic probes to other planets since then. So these new developments are a welcome change; it means we are back to making an attempt to go where no one else has gone before. This was the driving force behind my writing of this latest novel.

To further elaborate, hard science fiction is about getting the science right. It took me months of research and I contacted a number of beta readers with actual backgrounds in applied sciences and engineering to make sure all the technologies described in the book would be plausible. Things like space physics, the laws of thermodynamics, orbital transfer manoeuvres and the latest in high-tech equipment were all carefully researched before being put into the story. What I’ve done is to fit the story into the science rather than the other way around. I wanted to make the novel as realistic as possible. I think readers have gotten more sophisticated and are perhaps tired of the usual space operas in which everybody (even the aliens) speak English, ships going faster than light or that every planet has an earth-like atmosphere and gravity. It’s the same approach as to what Andy Weir did when he wrote his awesome book The Martian. Now it will be up to the audience to decide if I succeeded or not.

The name Stilicho Jones is wonderful. Why is the naming of characters so important?
I named the main character after John Varley’s protagonist by the name of Cirocco Jones in his Nebula award-winning novel Titan. I just happened to like the name, and it’s one of the many Easter Eggs I placed in the book. Stilicho also bears a special significance because that is the name of one of Rome’s last great generals, a half-Vandal who happened to be the final bulwark against the destruction of the empire by the barbarian hordes that threatened its borders. Stilicho functions as a kind of general who is tasked by his boss (who I named after Elon Musk incidentally) to solve problems that threatens the firm he works for. Character names allow a distinctiveness that gives the readers a clear path to follow along with the story. I chose the names of my characters carefully, to make them unique and cool at the same time!

Who were your main influences as a writer of SF?
Oh, wow. I can talk about this part for hours! I actually read books of many different genres and try to incorporate them into a science fiction setting. But if you want me to narrow my answers down to the sci-fi field, well I would say almost all of them! I spent a few years being raised by my grandparents, and my uncle (who moved out) had this incredible sci-fi collection of books which I devoured every waking moment. I was particularly influenced by John Wyndham’s Day of the Triffids, Roger Zelazny and Robert Heinlein’s juvenile works. Then I moved over to Ursula K LeGuin’s anthropological works and Frank Herbert’s immersive Dune saga. Then I discovered the eldritch horrors of HP Lovecraft. Soon after that, my mind was turned inside out by Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion series, Phillip K Dick’s myriad state of reality and the ever depressing Harlan Ellison. By the time I got to high school I moved onto to Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. So I got the full spectrum of all the essential sci-fi works while still at a young age.

You list your interests as including art, architecture, wines, spirits, beer, history and travel. Can you elaborate?
Suffice to say, I find everything to be interesting! I’m the type of guy who loves going to museums or spending hours browsing through books in libraries. I also like to look at giant structures, and wonder how they got built. On top of that I love good food and drink, and try out any new restaurant I can find. Travelling around the world broadens one’s horizons, and makes me realize just how much there is that I don’t know about.  There’s really nothing that doesn’t interest me to be honest. Life in general is fascinating, and I absorb all the incoming information that my senses provide like a sponge. I try to add bits of trivia on all my books, and I hope that people get to learn new things when they read my works.

What are you working on at the moment?
Oh boy, right now I’m stressed out at doing three concurrent works. The first is the third book in my Dying World series, and that is slow going at the moment. The second is the sequel to The Piranha Solution - and there’s so much technical stuff I have to research on, and the third is a new trilogy set in the far future with a bit more space opera to it - it’s about a rebellion in an alien world, and I am having a blast creating a unique alien species with its own culture. If you want to know the story, think of it as like James Cameron’s Avatar, but set in a very different planet. On top of all this, my business partner asked me to go back to running the company, so I am working full time in addition to writing. Needless to say this will be a taxing year for me!

Tell us about your other SF and Fantasy writing…
I have a number of different series out. My main one is the Wrath of the Old Gods saga, which currently comprises six interlocking novels. Its theme is about the old pagan gods returning to modern earth, and how it affects humanity. These books are epic in scope, and cross into multiple genres. I have plans to continue them in the future, assuming I have the time!

Another series I have is called the Dying World. Its setting is millions of years in the future, and the oceans have dried up. The surviving pockets of humanity live a hand to mouth existence and a few of them have developed mental powers. It’s sort of like my own version of Star Wars, minus the lightsabers and starships.


In your blog, you mention Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Is humour important in your writing?
I try to add humour in all my works because there are times a lot of my stuff gets too serious. I’ve come to realize that audiences prefer to read stuff that isn’t all depressing and horrible, so I do add bits of levity as a counterpoint to all the violence, the gore and the horror. I don’t think I’ve quite mastered the art of comedy yet, but I am trying!


What Science Fiction writers are you reading at the moment, and any recommendations?
I rarely read any new works, most of what I like are the classics. I’ve recently gotten my hands on the complete Elric novels by Michael Moorcock, and I plan to finish reading them in the near future. The only problem is that I am so far behind in writing that I don’t have time to read books by others.


What is your favourite Science Fiction (or Fantasy) film?
I like Bladerunner - its visuals and immersive qualities are second to none. I can’t wait for the sequel! The first two Alien movies are also excellent - though the succeeding ones have dropped in quality. John Carpenter’s The Thing is another all-time classic for me since it combines horror and paranoia with sci-fi. Dystopian movies like Mad Max, Andre Tarkovsky’s Stalker and Hard to be a God (gross but awesome) also rate highly for me. In the end I can recommend quite a bunch so its best we stop now!


Are you--or have you ever been--a gamer?
I am indeed. I started out playing tabletop role playing games as a kid and then went on to computer games since their very beginnings. I think playing these games helped in regards to providing structure to my writing. This is another subject that can run for pages so I think we need to stop right here! Sadly though, I have not been keeping up with the latest games because of my writing schedule.

Do you cook? What is your best/favourite/most popular recipe?
I can cook. My specialties include leg of lamb with yogurt sauce, three-cheese lasagne and a whole bunch of others. The only thing I am not good at is desserts - I tend to use my bare hands and instincts to measure ingredients and that’s a no-no when it comes to baking and stuff.

Do you have a garden? Have you ever grown your own food?
No I have not. I would like to do this in the future since I recently bought beachfront property. Once I get enough money to build a house I would like to retire and tend a garden, so it’s on my bucket list. I’m, also fascinated by Japanese rock gardens, and would like to build one of those too.


Would you choose tea, coffee, or something different?
I rarely drink tea or coffee or even sodas. It’s just usually water for me. Or if failing that, then wine, beer and the hard stuff- but that’s a completely different subject...


if you could have any director to shoot the film of your book(s), who would you choose?
Wow, this is a tough question! I think Ridley Scott is excellent, and I wouldn’t mind him. Too bad Stanley Kubrick has passed on or he would have been my first choice.


How would you define Speculative Fiction?
I think anything that has to do with elements of fantasy combined with imagination is speculative fiction. There has to be a slight suspension of reality in order to bring this broad genre about, even if it’s just a little, and that’s what makes it so special.

About John Triptych:




John writes thrillers of differing genres, from hyper-realistic crime books to fantastic, post-apocalyptic sci-fi novels that make you want to turn one more page just before bedtime. A former fanfiction writer turned self-publishing novelist, John Triptych’s varied interests include: reading other people’s books, recreational diving, watching movies and TV, guns, internet, politics, computer and tabletop gaming, cooking, art, architecture, wines, spirits, beer, history and travel.