Earlier this summer, another call went out for judges for a self-publishing contest. A science-fiction one specifically. I’ve been reading more Sci-fi but not in the indie category. And I wanted to give it a shot. But since I’m already a teamleader for BBNYA, I didn’t want to be a full judge. I’ve joined The Shaggy Shepherd’s team, the Wayward Stars, as minion and will be helping out thinning the slush pile.
The Self-Publishing Science Fiction Contest is a whole different beast from BBNYA and their methods of picking a winner are really different. For me, not much changes. I read the first parts of a few allocated books and give a yes, no, or not my style. This will add up to the other team members’ reading and the best few will continue on. Each team is assigned 30 books out of the 300 submitted, and I was given ten titles for initial judging. I’ve started reading already but I won’t give you my thoughts just yet. Check out the full list on my team leader’s blog! If you’re curious who else is on the team, check out Jamedi’s post!
God In The Machine by Cole Martyn
Summary
The Earth is dying
The Resistance lives on
The Nihon will rise
Blinded by their addiction to technology, the people of Earth’s last remaining city shelter beneath an artificial sky, shielded from the devastating impacts of global warming.
Some still strive for change, driven underground, the remnants of a shattered civilisation fight to bring down the ruling cabal. Elias, a refugee from a forgotten war, living beyond the city walls, vows to escape the despair of the refugee camps and give his little brother a real home.
Until the day Elias discovers he has an incredible gift that will change his life forever. Dragged into a war to save a world that rejected him, Elias risks losing the one thing he was fighting for – his brother.
The Rax–Out of Darkness by C. G. Harris
Summary
Human technology is a crime punishable by death and the alien race controlling the planet fears one thing… a blind boy immune to their greatest weapon…
With Earth enslaved by a vicious alien race known as the Rax, hope hangs on a single savior—a blind runaway named Tael. His alien captors distill fear into a devastating weapon, but Tael and a small band of rebels discover an ancient super computer that holds the technology to defeat them. If Tael unravels its secrets, humanity may have a fighting chance. But only if they find the traitor hidden within their rebel ranks who threatens their extinction…
Speak to Our Desires by Brenda Clough
Summary
It’s June 1969 in New York City. The moon is in the second house, Jupiter has aligned with Mars, and private investigator Tim Coates is having his own personal summer of love. A gorgeous blonde girl hires him to find her missing mother. Finally, his life is starting to look like Nero Wolfe’s!
But Ellie Quartern and her mom are not your standard damsels in distress. They share an eerie and destructive secret that warps hearts and destroys lives. As Tim digs deeper into their dark private world, he’s not in a mystery, but a horror novel. And he discovers that the Rolling Stones were wrong. Even when you get what you want, you just might find that it’s not at all what you need.
I’m in Sci-fi Hell by Daniel Aegan
Summary
The world is a screwed-up place. None know that better than Ray Samson. He’s a hard-boiled Century City detective where anything can and does happen. He’s seen it all: illegal magic dealers, space alien immigrants, sex robot pimps, and a lot more than he cares to think about on a daily basis. The abnormal is his normal, though he doesn’t much like it.
One night, Ray follows an anonymous tip that turns his world more upside-down than it already is. He’s thrust into a world of magic, super-science, and shit he can’t even understand, and he finds himself on a world tour full of wizards, dinosaurs, amazons, supervillains, and a whole lot more. There’s a race against the clock to stop a mad scientist from ending all that is and ever was. Along with Nadya, the mad scientist’s daughter, and Andy Seven, his android partner, Ray must find a way to stop time and space from imploding into itself.
And he’s not even getting any overtime.
The Tide Will Erase All Justin Hellstrom
Summary
Wreathed in celestial cataclysm and child-like grandeur, The Tide Will Erase All hijacks your imagination to calculate the speed of light inside a dream.
A transreality phenomenon known as the Mouth of God foams with star saliva as it eats myth and constellation alike to corrode our laws of nature and steal away the night sky. Dreams from spacetimes unknown prowl toxic and deranged while beings sent from the Mouth of God plumb an unseen treasure from a helpless, traumatized earth.
The imagination of an eleven-year-old girl named Robot remains unphased by the astrocatastrophe. Having survived the emergence of the Mouth of God, Robot forms an expedition with a few surviving children and a lone astronomer to contact the world’s last remaining telescope-an orbital observatory which they hope can puncture the exo-cosmic firmament and expose the core of all truth. But navigating a landscape of miracles and gore threatens to devastate the fabric of reality and their hearts all the same.
As the Mouth of God descends upon the galaxy and its emissaries embolden, Robot uncovers a rationale for the calamity that transcends all material fortune and dominance. A glimpse of emotional floodsurf where monsters from pre-existence sleep in tropic swells, waiting to be released. Waiting to drown the Mouth of God. Waiting to drown everything.
Balanced on the lip of extinction, Robot narrates her adventure through a walkie-talkie to astronauts aboard the orbital telescope, a story both contemplative and heartbreaking while soaked in the action influence of the best manga and anime.
With wide-eyed lyricism and hyper optic imagery-The Tide Will Erase All curates the surreal annihilation of a dream apocalypse with all the sadness, hope, and wonder of a teardrop falling in reverse. The start of a saga which unfolds as a Miyazaki film at the end of the world, a science fiction that seeks to become aflame in your hands and return to the stars.
Intergalactic Bastard by Dave Walsh
Summary
There was no room for puny humans in the arena alongside the galaxy’s mightiest warriors… until now.
Coop Sabre, along with his exploding barbed wire bat, Guy, has turned the galaxy upside down, taking crowds across the galaxy by storm. The brutal bloodsport of alien deathmatches was no place for the average person, but nothing about Coop and his reckless fighting style was average.
Join Coop as he battles it out for galactic supremacy in the INTERGALACTIC DEATHMATCH.
He is the INTERGALACTIC BASTARD.
Aztra’s Mirror by Charles Freedom Long
Summary
The galaxy’s mightiest warriors laughed at humans entering their arena… until they met the bastard.
Coop Sabre, along with his exploding barbed wire bat, Guy, has turned the galaxy upside down, taking crowds across the galaxy by storm. The brutal bloodsport of alien deathmatches was no place for the average person, but nothing about Coop and his reckless fighting style was average.
With everything he desires seemingly within reach, an unwanted question pops into his mind: Is this really what he wants out of his life?
The vicious cycle of violence, addiction and depression takes a toll on every warrior. It’s up to Coop to find where he belongs, or he risks losing it all.
Before The Sun Hits by Arthur Swan
Summary
When an unrelenting universe threatens to end Earth in an instant, one man could make a difference . . .
In a small North Carolina college town, a disillusioned math professor, Drew Bauer, discovers the sun is dying. His abandoned research could hold the key to survival, but he needs more information, and he needs help against the growing conspiracy to stop him. Trenton Smith, a sadistic billionaire who plans to sacrifice Earth for his own survival, attempts to isolate and control Drew. But Drew escapes with his engineer pal, Joe Sandusk. They plunge into a dangerous cross-country trip to a secret NASA facility where Drew falls for a scientist, Liza Maddox, whose uncertain loyalty could sabotage all their efforts. Almost out of time—and with Smith’s forces closing in—Drew, Liza, and Joe race down the California coast to save the world.
Tropical Punch (Bubbles in Space #1) by Sarah Jensen
Summary
Strippers, Drugs, and Headless Corpses…
All in a day’s work for Bubbles Marlowe, HoloCity’s only cyborg detective.
What do an anti-tech cult, a deadly new street drug, and the corrupt Chief of Police have in common?
It’s a question Bubbles can’t afford to ask. Last time she got curious it cost her job, a limb, and almost her life.
She vows to stay out of police business. But with a newly minted cybernetic enhancement, a semi-legal P.I. license, and a knack for asking the wrong kind of questions… Vows are made to be broken, right?
When a seemingly straightforward contract takes a dark turn, heads literally roll. Unless she wants to take the fall for the murders Bubbles needs to cut town on the double. Too bad she’s flat broke.
And now, she’s being hunted.
In a world where dreams can be made real for the right kind of dough, nothing is as it seems. One thing is clear, though. The dream is becoming a nightmare.
As the body count stacks up, Bubbles realizes she’s made a terrible mistake.
Can she figure out who is behind the murders before she loses her head?
Warning: Don’t read this book if you hate fun, glitter, sassy robotic pigs, or hard-boiled badassery. Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett are rolling in their graves, but this is all their fault.
Across the Broken Stars by Jed Herne
Summary
LEON HAS A SECRET. He was once an angel – a winged warrior sworn to protect Paya, a realm where people live on discs that float in space.
He failed.
Now, Leon’s a broken man, trying to forget the past. He thinks he’s the last angel. But then a young fugitive stumbles onto Leon’s doorstep. She’s an angel, too. And she has a riddle leading to a place where angels still live. Or so the stories claim …
Desperate for redemption, Leon begins a perilous quest through myth and folklore. But will Leon and the fugitive find their legendary destination? Or will Leon lose his last chance for salvation?
