My earlier thread was moved to Marketplace, but the mods told me I could talk about my book in Cafe Society as long as I didn’t include any links to the online stores. However, I am allowed to link to the Marketplace thread in my sig, which contains those links, so you can see that below if you’d like.
I’m really excited about my new book. I think it’s my best, by far. It’s a sci-fi murder mystery and thriller that takes place on a massive spaceship called Aotea, the first colony vessel to leave our solar system. Here’s the back cover blurb:
The wonderful cover art is by Doper GuanoLad – book covers are a regular gig for him, and here is his website.
I hope sci-fi fans among Dopers will give it a try and let me know what they think. I love to get feedback, and I know tough criticism is how writers improve. So let me have it, if you’re interested! And thanks for reading.
I’ve already socked Spindown away to read later, but I have a question: Did you and GuanoLad know each other previously or is the collaboration born of “meeting” via the SDMB?
We met on the board – he noticed one of my earlier book covers and thought he could improve on it (and did!). And thus a beautiful parternship was born!
Hope you enjoy the book, and I look forward to reading your thoughts about it!
I was blessed to read this book in pre-publication and made the usual round of not-very-helpful suggestions and recommendations, which, if the author has the sense of a sea-squirt, he ignored entirely…
This is a Darn Good Book! A thriller, an adventure, and some mighty good nuts-and-bolts science fiction. The characters are well-developed and believable, and the pacing is seat-of-the pants.
Also, the author is a great fellow, one of the very best, all-around, that the Straight Dope has ever known!
Wow, I’m touched by the kind words! Thanks so much, and your input really did help make the book better. Writing is usually a very lonely process, and I’m very grateful for the feedback I get both while it’s in progress and when it’s complete.
Definitely a page turner, I was hooked after three or four chapters (yeah later than others, I’m a hard sell ) A good solid chunk of hard SF with an agreeably intricate plot and some fine action scenes. It was quite nail bitey toward the end. And the end didn’t disappoint. Good book. I liked it.
Thanks so much, I’m so glad you liked it! And if you’ve got the time, I’d immensely appreciate it if you could put a brief review on the Amazon page (or wherever you purchased it).
Finished it on the bus this morning. I like the final resolution, which dealt with some issues I’ve seen in other works, that cropped up here:
[SPOILER]Why are the Fanatics doing what they’re doing? It seemed obvious that the plan was to kill off everybody, which makes me wonder why the minion-class fanatics are on board with the plan. As it turns out, the minions are just as much in the dark as everyone else about the Real real plan.
But it also highlights the flaws in these sorts of conspiracies. Something always goes wrong that ends up making you have to start winging it, which makes all your planning completely unravel. [/SPOILER]
I’m so glad you liked it, and I appreciate the feedback. And if you have the time, I’d be extremely grateful if you could write a review online. A spoiler response below:
The “fanatical secret plan to kill everyone” is of course pretty common trope in sci-fi and thrillers, but I hope the ostensibly ultra-pacificistic nature of the ringleader of this plan made it a bit more suprising and original than others. I also meant to include a perverse logic in it – if everything had gone according to the villain’s plan, she really would have been able to create a whole new human society, and perhaps it would have even been free of the violence and dark elements she was trying to escape.
Got my third 5 star review! Kind of short, but still nice:
“Takes place a couple hundred years in the future on the spaceship “Aotea” en route to the moon Samwise. The ship is elaborately imagined. I like the sparks between the characters Konami and Madani. Eventually this takes a violent turn.”
Also, the book is available in paperback now – see the Marketplace thread for links.
Congrats on your book. I will try to give it a go as there is a ton of things I am working on. It does check my major category - Sci Fi.
I came to this thread from the marketplace thread. I honestly hadn’t noticed that it was a marketplace thread, as I just click new posts, and read the ones that are interesting to me. So I wouldn’t worry about that too much.
I will also make an effort to get back to Amazon and give you a five star review once I have read a bit. I would encourage other Dopers to do the same, for all the good that will do, lol.
Thanks so much for giving it a chance! And hopefully my 5 star reviews are earned. While I hope I don’t get any 1 star reviews, I know that not every book is everyone’s cup of tea, and I have no problem with thoughtful critical reviews. If you think it deserves 3 or 4 stars, by all means be honest.
If you think it deserves 1 or 2, maybe just be a teeny-tiny bit dishonest.
Cool, I was hoping you’d say that!
) A good solid chunk of hard SF with an agreeably intricate plot and some fine action scenes. It was quite nail bitey toward the end. And the end didn’t disappoint. Good book. I liked it.