Self-Published Roundup
The only way self-published writers get any traction is by word of mouth, so I'm saving the regular Wednesday Reading post for next week (also, yesterday didn't seem a great day to post, too much anxiety-making news). Today is about the self-published works I've enjoyed, and feel free to recommend discoveries in the comments.
Terms of Enlistment, by Marko Kloos. The bio stuff says that he's a Viable Paradise grad. I wonder if he learned some of the tight and vivid action description and stylish transitions from Debra Doyle and James D. Macdonald, who wrote one of my favorite space operas of all time, beginning with the killer The Price of the Stars.
If you enjoy the subgenre of military SF in which a loser enlists and makes his way into a career, give Terms of Enlistment a try. Engagingly written, super fast paced, sympathetic characters, and believable military, right down to the cadences and the cursing. I meant to read a chapter or two before bed, and ended up reading half the night.
Medair Duology by Andrea K Höst. Like most of her books, a female is thrown into an utterly new situation, in this case there is a nifty Sleeping Beauty spin - Medair emerges from her version of an enchanted sleep 500 years after the war in which she was sent to get the Magical Doodad That Will Fix Everything. The world is much changed and the battles and Medair herself are part of history, but for her, it was only yesterday.
The storyline weaves back and forth in time, through memory and the present . . . and just when she's got everything wired, all changes yet again. The second half could easily have been two books, there was so much packed into it. There is an elegiac feel to it all, the questions are big and personal both, even the romance. Especially the romance.
Ordinarily I don't get into the whole awards thing, as there is such a strong social component in their choices that tends to run orthogonal to my tastes, but the fact that a self-published book made it to the Aurealis Award finalists is pretty impressive.
A Cup of Smoke is Rachel Manija Brown's collection. These stories and poems feature a steampunk Wild West, in whichwomen with nothing left to lose walk into the desert, and emerge soul-bonded to giant robots... (I love this one),a pair of bickering angels try to re-create Heaven in a Tokyo subway station, and a female warrior matches swords and wits with a demon in mythic India. Among the poems are her Rhysling Award-winning poem "Nine Views of the Oracle."
(And hey, since it's my blog, I will throw in a mention of mine. Even if you don't have any interest in my stuff, check out the other BVC authors! New works added every Tuesday.)
Terms of Enlistment, by Marko Kloos. The bio stuff says that he's a Viable Paradise grad. I wonder if he learned some of the tight and vivid action description and stylish transitions from Debra Doyle and James D. Macdonald, who wrote one of my favorite space operas of all time, beginning with the killer The Price of the Stars.
If you enjoy the subgenre of military SF in which a loser enlists and makes his way into a career, give Terms of Enlistment a try. Engagingly written, super fast paced, sympathetic characters, and believable military, right down to the cadences and the cursing. I meant to read a chapter or two before bed, and ended up reading half the night.
Medair Duology by Andrea K Höst. Like most of her books, a female is thrown into an utterly new situation, in this case there is a nifty Sleeping Beauty spin - Medair emerges from her version of an enchanted sleep 500 years after the war in which she was sent to get the Magical Doodad That Will Fix Everything. The world is much changed and the battles and Medair herself are part of history, but for her, it was only yesterday.
The storyline weaves back and forth in time, through memory and the present . . . and just when she's got everything wired, all changes yet again. The second half could easily have been two books, there was so much packed into it. There is an elegiac feel to it all, the questions are big and personal both, even the romance. Especially the romance.
Ordinarily I don't get into the whole awards thing, as there is such a strong social component in their choices that tends to run orthogonal to my tastes, but the fact that a self-published book made it to the Aurealis Award finalists is pretty impressive.
A Cup of Smoke is Rachel Manija Brown's collection. These stories and poems feature a steampunk Wild West, in whichwomen with nothing left to lose walk into the desert, and emerge soul-bonded to giant robots... (I love this one),a pair of bickering angels try to re-create Heaven in a Tokyo subway station, and a female warrior matches swords and wits with a demon in mythic India. Among the poems are her Rhysling Award-winning poem "Nine Views of the Oracle."
(And hey, since it's my blog, I will throw in a mention of mine. Even if you don't have any interest in my stuff, check out the other BVC authors! New works added every Tuesday.)