Sadie's Spotlight

November 9, 2020November 8, 2020

Book Blitz: Fire Dancer + Giveaway

This is my stop during the book blitz for Fire Dancer by Elizabeth Lowell. This book blitz is organized by Lola’s Blog Tours. The book blitz runs from 9 till 15 November. See the tour schedule here.

Fire Dancer
(The Concord #1)

By Elizabeth Lowell/Ann Maxwell
Genre: Science Fiction
Age category: Adult
Out Nov. 10, 2020

Rheba and Kirtin are the last survivors of their homeworld, at the edges of the Concord, forgotten but rich in history and traditions. Rheba is a fire dancer, able to focus and manipulate vast amounts of energy through discipline and motion and form. Kirtin is her protector and mentor, training her in these skills and knowing that one day these energies may grow to consume her unless she masters her own emotions and the power she derives from them.

In search of rumored other survivors like themselves, they set out amongst the worlds of the “civilized” Concord, finding that the presented superior and enlightened cultures they encounter conceal hypocrisies that assist even greater crimes. Entire civilizations built upon slavery and degradation are tolerated so long as they play the proper games of power and civility.

Led by the promise of knowledge regarding one of her kin, Rheba and Kirtin are brought to Loo, a planet ruled by a hereditary empire of slavers and decadents. There, both of them are consigned to slave pits beneath the gleaming cities and palaces of the surface. Amongst the forgotten and cast-off, Rheba and Kirtin find others like themselves, stolen or abandoned by their homeworlds and left to languish here, subject to labors and appetites and whims of the planet’s rulers.

But not everyone wants to remain a slave…

You can find Fire Dancer on Goodreads

You can buy Fire Dancer here:
– Amazon
– Barnes & Noble
– Kobo

About the Author:
Individually and with co-author/husband Evan Maxwell, Elizabeth Lowell has written seventy novels and one work of non-fiction. There are over 30 million copies of these books in print, as well as reprints in 30 foreign languages.

Writing as Ann Maxwell, she began her career in 1975 with a science fiction novel, CHANGE. Since then, seven of her nine science fiction novels have been recommended for the Science Fiction Writers of America Nebula Award; A DEAD GOD DANCING was nominated for what was then-called TABA (The American Book Award). After more than thirty years, these books are being brought back into print starting with the FIRE DANCER trilogy (FIRE DANCER, DANCER’S LUCK and DANCER’S ILLUSIONS) with TIMESHADOW RIDER following. The rest of her science fiction backlist will be published over the next two years.

You can find and contact Elizabeth Lowell here:
– Website
– Facebook
– Goodreads

Giveaway
There is a tour-wide giveaway for the book blitz of Fire Dancer. 10 winners will receive an e-copy of Fire Dancer. Copies will be sent through Amazon.

For a chance to win, enter the rafflecopter below:
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November 9, 2020November 9, 2020

Spotlight: Crimsy + Giveaway

Crimsy
Michael Martin
Out November 9th 2020
Genres: New Adult, Science Fiction

A YOUNG SCIENTIST and her research team are thrust into a global battle for control of the greatest discovery in human history: a harmless bacteria that loves frozen saltwater—and lives on Mars.

__________________________________

After enduring politics, Congress, marsquakes, dust storms, and landslides, PhD-to-be Jen Z and her research team hope their successful, years-long quest to find life on Mars is finally over.

But their biggest fight has just begun.

◆◆◆

“The you-know-what hit the fan when charming but feckless university lawyer Nathaniel Hawthorn showed up in my office. Someone was trying to patent our stupendous find, Crimsococcus halocryophilus.

“A simple microbe I gave a simpler nickname: Crimsy.

“I think it was the trillionaire investors who helped finance our mission, eager to prevent a repeat of the Martian Ground Wars, when every nation on this planet wanted their ‘fair share’ of the Red Planet: the rocks, dust – and fossils – Odysseus brought back. But a foreign space agency, Homeland Security, the Pentagon, even our own NASA might want patent protection, too.

“The patent filings triggered a law we’d never heard of, the Invention Secrecy Act. FBI agents showed up at my apartment, served my research team with cease-and-desist orders. Crimsy was now classified and would stay aboard Deep Space Gateway indefinitely.

“People called us crazy, said we were wasting taxpayer money, refused to believe. But we proved them wrong. And some fantastic developments after MarsMicro brought Crimsy to the space station make studying it on Earth all the more urgent.

“Our money, our jobs, our privacy, our lives. The muckety mucks holding Crimsy hostage control everything.

“But I’m through letting them control me . . . . ”

Goodreads / Amazon / Facebook

EXCERPT:

TOSSING, TURNING, ALMOST FLIPPING, the helidrone moved farther away from the canyon wall. As it pulled clear of the dust, our amorphous nemesis took shape.

“Holy—” another ground navigator (GN) exclaimed next to me.

“Jennifer: We’re witnessing the largest avalanche any human has ever laid eyes on,” Dr. Levitt said, in a hush meant only for me. It looked like the entire canyon wall was collapsing, and at incredible speed. “This is sand on ice, people,” she announced into her mic. “No friction to slow it like snow on snow.”

“Look!” I heard.

We saw the rover on the drone cam now, a tiny David fleeing the sliding Goliath.

“Turn! Turn! Turn! Turn! Turn!” I heard. The rover made a quick turn around a corner.

“Slide’s moving at a couple hundred,” the CGE said.

“If not faster,” Levitt said. “What’s our speed?”

“Holding at twenty five.”

As the helidrone lost sight of the rover, the rover’s own cams caught it hitting bumps that became ruts that became gullies, signs of increasing water flow. The GN throttled it back, but the chief ground engineer put his hand over the navigator’s hand and pushed the joystick forward. The rover slapped the ruts, then jumped over what looked like a sandbar, landing hard and spinning. The cameras cut out and my earphones went crazy.

“What’d we hit?”

“What was that?”

“All communications offline.”

“Systems down.”

The drone cam’s screen was screwed up, too. Static and snow replaced clear images.

“Where’s the drone? Bring it in.”

“Lost contact.”

“So am I interpreting right?” Levitt said. “We’re effed?”

“We’re not letting Hale off that easily,” Cooper said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Physicist and science journalist Michael Martin has written hundreds of stories about dedicated scientists, researchers, and innovators whose joys, frustrations, bottlenecks, and breakthroughs push the bounds of possibility, the boundaries of space, and the limits of human understanding.

GIVEAWAY!
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November 8, 2020November 2, 2020

Spotlight: A Holo World + Giveaway

A Holo World
Hiding Can’t Save You Series, #2

Science Fiction, Dystopian, Cyberpunk, Robotics, Genetic Engineering,
YA

Out 10/13/20

Invisible illusions are John’s first inclination that things are not quite as theyseem in Amber City.

Following the aftermath of the destruction to the city caused by the criminal mastermind named Crofar, John’s world flips upside down. Not only does John have to hunt down Crofar, but he also has to figure out his own problems. Everything around John glitches out of existence and reappears as if it never left. Simultaneously, John’s visions of the future start fading away which may signify his death.

A team of soldiers called the Renegades, John’s best friend Chase, and a feisty girl named Hazel are not experiencing what John is going through. In a sudden change of events, John’s surroundings vaporize and all that is left is darkness and the voices of his dead parents.

A small glimpse allows John to see the hand of his mother, injecting his neck with a serum that allows her to control him like a robot. The rest of John’s future is now out of his control and there is nothing he can do to change that. It’s time for fate to take the wheel, or maybe this was all part of a plan.

The Uncontrolled: 9/18/20

Tracking Devices, Mind Control, and Visions of the Future

An action-packed adventure set against the loss of free will that comes from a mind-control serum.

The robotic way people smile is John’s first inclination that things are not quite as they seem in Amber City.

At the age of fourteen, everyone is “vaccinated” with a biological implant that makes people controllable. John is supposed to get his shot the very next day, until he and his parents find out about the mind-controlling chip requiring his family to devise a plan to put a stop to this once and for all, but things don’t go exactly as planned.

Along with his friend Chase, and an irrepressible girl named Hazel, the three of them find themselves in the world of the controlled, where they must try to escape the notice of this powerful society and its leader, Crofar. As the trio of teenagers attempt to defeat Crofar on their own, they stumble upon the Renegades, a formidable group of “the uncontrolled,” led by Maximus.

Warily forming an alliance with the teenagers, the numbers are not in their favor, and the uncontrolled are barely holding their own. Until that is, they realize they have a secret weapon. John starts to have regular visions of the future, which can change in interesting ways when certain variables are adjusted.

While John has visions they can use to win the war against Crofar, things become complicated because Crofar has visions too. With two adversaries who can see the future, only one can outsmart the other.

The Uncontrolled is an adventurous, sci-fi book written by award-winning
teen author Zachary Astrowsky.

Available from Amazon HERE

About the Author

Zachary is a 16-year-old high school student. His debut novel, The Uncontrolled, was originally published in March of 2018. The book was re-launched in September of 2020 with a new sci-fi cover. The sequel, A Holo World, is expected to be released October 13, 2020.