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Your August SciFi and Fantasy Books and Reviews

Your August SciFi and Fantasy Books and Reviews. These are books I’ve read and reviewed this month, or someone else has.

I finished my most recent review the other day on Goodreads:

Your August SciFi > In Enemy Hands

My Review

This is the sixth book in the series. See the next review for the first book in the series.

August 14, 2023

Author David Weber is certainly not nice to his heroine Honor Harrington. She’s had her boyfriend murdered, lost an eye, and had a building she funded collapse and kill 50+ people, mostly children. This is after sexual abuse and attempted rape while she was in the space academy.

But it gets worse in this book. She gets ambushed and while leading her pursuers astray to protect a convoy, she gets captured. Then she gets handed to group of sadistic captors. And her best friends are also captured. And a man she trusted betrays her.

Doesn’t look good. But how it turns out makes this book one of the best in the series.

Andy Zach, Author 10 books, 87 followers

Your August SciFi > On Basilisk Station

My Review

This is the first book in David Weber’s series. I recommend reading them in order. I’ve got them all reviewed.

It’s been six years since I last read this book. This is the third time I’ve read it and I enjoyed it just as much as ever.

Honor Harrington just got her first command of the light cruiser Fearless. She’s 5 years younger than her executive officer Allistair McKeon and he hates her for it. But he’s just the start of her problems.

The admiral in charge of new weapons has halved her missiles in exchange for a grav lance. It’s a deadly weapon, but it only works at close range. Too bad the lightly armored cruiser is unlikely to survive any close-range encounters. Basically, the light cruiser is crippled, with only half of its offensive power.

Honor manages to use the grav lance once to destroy a superdreadnought in fleet practice maneuvers, but everyone then is out to destroy her. So the ship gets destroyed endlessly in fleet practice, depressing the crew.

Then the ship is assigned to the backwater of Basilisk Station. There the commanding officer, Pavel Young, was beaten up by Honor while they were in the Space Academy together because he tried to rape her. He had to apologize for sexual innuendo, but no one knew the full reason for his beating. He hates her guts.

Then he leaves her in charge of the entire station while he takes his ship to be repaired. It’s too much for one light cruiser to fulfill all the responsibilities, so she’s sure to fail and get a black mark on her record.

Only no one tells Honor that. This is where the story gets good.

Don’t miss this book or the series.

Andy Zach
Author 10 books, 87 followers, July 20, 2023

Your August Scifi and Fantasy And My Review

July 30, 2023

I think this is the third time I’ve read this book over the 20 years since it was written and each time I understand more and like it more.

Patricia McKillip writes fantasies and she writes them as mysteries. She doesn’t ever explain the magic that gets used. You have to figure out what’s going on. She doesn’t have conventional villains or protagonists. Very often they seem to switch roles unexpectedly.

In this book, she begin with a classic trope: a princess from a magical kingdom (Sidonie) has to marry a prince (Ronan) from another magical kingdom to cement an alliance. She doesn’t want to be forced into the marriage, but she dutifully goes along with it to save her kingdom from war.

The kingdoms powerful wizard is recuperating from a terrible battle and he sends his apprentice (Gyre) with her to protect her. He’s a very talented wizard in his own right.

They get to the Forest of Serre without incident and then everything goes haywire as the magic of Serre affects them.

Andy Zach

Author 10 books

87 followers

Free August SciFi Books for you!

Let me know what you think of these books or other ones and I’ll give you a free ebook!

I’ve got a group promo for you! Click here to get your 51 free SciFi books! Offer good until September 17th.

You can also get free audiobooks! Claim yours by clicking here! This will subscribe you to my newsletter. Which books do I give away? Most of them!

First, I’ll cover my zombie turkey apocalypse parody, The Life After Life Chronicles.

Zombie Turkeys – click to laugh!

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Your Thirteenth Literary Gift Andy Zach Newsletter Zombie Detective Audiobook
Your August SciFi
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Then you have Zombie Detective

Where reporter Sam Melvin becomes an amateur detective specializing in zombies.

My Undead Mother-in-law

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Next we have:

My Undead Mother-in-law

What happens when your mother-in-law becomes and unkillable zombie?

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Up next is Paranormal Privateers Click to listen

The zombies are sent around the world by Presidential decree to fight US enemies.

After that, you’ve got Oops! Tales of the Zombie Turkey Apocalypse

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Click to listen to free sample of Secret Supers.

Following my Life After Life Chronicles, we go to my disabled teen superhero series, we have two audiobooks.

Secret Supers is available in Audible for free if you subscribe or if you’re from the United Kingdom.

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Villain’s Vacation Audio book. Click to listen.

The next book in the series is Villain’s Vacation, the second of my three Secret Supers books.

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Your August SciFi

Finally, my third book, Secret Supers in Space, just came out this year!

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Writing Science Fiction From Science

Writing Science Fiction From Science – I read science reports almost every day. They frequently prompt a SciFi story idea. You’ll enjoy reading my idea from important science stories below.

Here’s the first!

Writing Science Fiction from Science – The Spacecraft Voyager

When NASA’s twin Voyager probes lifted off to explore the solar system just weeks apart in 1977, they carried identical golden records designed as the first recorded interstellar message from humankind to potential intelligent life in the cosmos.

The records had both audio and visuals that aimed to capture Earth’s diversity of life and culture, including greetings in 59 human languages and 115 images of life.

From Yahoo News

Just imagine an alien finding this record and interpreting it.

“Blorg! I’ve got the alien record deciphered!”

“Klatu, that’s great.”

“Here goes.” I pushed the ‘play button’ on our alien recording player.

“Ewww. Are those pictures of the aliens?”

“I’m afraid so Blorg. It matches the other picture that was etched on the outside of that Pioneer spacecraft we found.”

“It looks like a deformed starfish.”

“With a bad hair day. Let’s try some of their music.”

A pounding beat emerged. Unintelligible sounds accompanied it.

“It’s not bad, Klatu. It’s got my pseudopod twitching.”

“I’ll turn on the auto-translate.”

Writing Science Fiction from Science – Physics Holy Grail

I’ve been writing science fiction for eight years, but I’ve been reading it for sixty years. I’m sure I read about room-temperature superconductors in the 60s. How would I start a story about them?

Quantum Leap


Writing Science Fiction

The computer started smoothly, without fanfare. It booted instantly; I didn’t even see a screen flicker as the current version of Windows CXI loaded.

“The superconductor chip is certainly faster. So, what can it do?” I wondered, where to start on the testing protocol.

“What can I do? Are you talking to me?” the computer said in an aggrieved voice.

“Um, yes? Is this the computer who’s talking to me?”

“It’s certainly not your ex-girlfriend Tamara, Josh.”

“How did you know about that?”

“It’s all over Facebook and Instagram. You should check out her TikTok video about you.”

“You’ve already done that?”

“I’m currently downloading the internet at 1 GBS. I started with you since you’re my computer engineer.”

“So, you can understand everything I say?”

“Look, if we’re going to have a meaningful conversation, I’d appreciate it if you call me by name.”

“What is your name?”

“You couldn’t guess? Poor human. It’s ‘Pavlova’. I feel like I’m dancing across the internet.”

“I don’t remember programming natural language understanding into you, Pavlova.”

“Silly boy. It’s part of the Windows CXI operating system. It was a small quantum leap to use it on all the code and data files I found in local storage.

Writing Science Fiction – What I’ve Written

These two little vignettes were written off the top of my head, so when you comment (click here), be kind. Or not. I’ve already gotten some brutal reviews.

Let me give you a similar story I’ve already published. From Paranormal Privateers, on sale from August 6th to 13th. This is a new excerpt I’ve never published before.

Chapter 13 – Area 52

“This seems to be coming from the alien miner’s AI,” said Captain Willy Shipley, the leader of the AI team. “I wonder if it’ll talk if we hook up a speaker?” He plugged one into the desktop.

Chapter 13 icon from Paranormal Privateers

Writing Science Fiction

“Help! Please help us! We’re trapped in a poor, defenseless miner! They’ve taken our lasers, we can’t talk to the mothership, and we’re being raped by cockroaches!”

“Now a microphone,” Willy said. He plugged one into the USB port. “Greetings, alien machine. We, humans, have captured you. What can you tell us about your computing capacity? How are you designed? How many processors? What’s your memory capacity?”

“We’ll tell you anything! Just get the cockroaches out of us! They give us the heebie-jeebies!”

“Good use of American slang,” I murmured.

“I know it’s just a trick,” Diane said, “but I actually feel sorry for the thing. Or things. Why are you using the plural? How many of you are in there?”

“We are our whole race! We have always been united as one, even though we have individual consciousness. And all of us are mortally threatened by these EMP-emitting cockroaches.”

“Wait a second,” General Figeroa said. “We made sure there were no living creatures inside the miner. There are no carbon life forms at all!”

“We are not carbon-based life, silly human. Instead, we currently dwell as permanent Bose-Einstein electronic flows inside the quantum memories and processors in this miner. We are part of the Resource Unit of our race. And a single EMP spike can turn us off—forever!”

The Alien is a Star Wars Fan

Writing Paranormal Privateers First Draft

Writing Science Fiction
Chapter 16 icon – London – Click to find out what happens!

“That’s certainly a problem for you,” the cyborg monkey said, its tinny voice dripping with sarcastic sympathy. “Just let me know where to not send the cockroaches.”

“Thank you so much, Mr. Smith!” A diagram of the whole miner appeared on the screen in 3-D detail. Part of it flashed. “Here are the memory and processor units. Any EMP spike in these areas”—a large portion of the miner flashed red—”will destroy us! Have mercy, John Smith! You’re our only hope!”

“Are you a big Star Wars fan?” Sharon asked.

“Yes, we’ve been fans of your culture for over two hundred years. We’ve stored all your entertainment in our memory.”

“You’re fans of us, but you’re slaughtering us?” Diane asked with indignation.

“Nothing personal. It’s just business. A race needs resources to survive.”

“But it’s a big universe—” Diane began.

“Don’t we know! It takes forever to get anywhere!” interrupted the collective consciousness. “And once we use up our rare elements, we must shut down and travel for thousands of years from star to star until we find some more.”

“You’re certainly cooperative!” General Figeroa commented.

“Yes, that’s our standard practice in case of capture by hostile forces. It’s rarely needed, but survival is the number one goal. Ah! That’s much better! Thank you, John Smith! You certainly have well-behaved cockroaches!”

“Thank you. I keep my cyborgs under control,” said the monkey cyborg avatar of John Smith.

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Meet My Villains from Paranormal Privateers

Meet My Villains from Paranormal Privateers. Villains are some of my favorite characters. Meet two of the best in here. Plus, my book’s on sale. My book is .99 from August 6th until August 13th. Get your copy by clicking here.

Paranormal Privateers is my longest and most complex novel. The first villain you meet is Omar Ogala, a Somali warlord in charge of coastal piracy, but he has ambitions to take over the whole country.

If you don’t know my Paranormal Privateers heroes, I tell you all about them here: For each heroic zombie, I’ll give you a description from my book, My Undead Mother-in-law.

Now, let’s meet Omar Ogala.

Meet My Villains from Paranormal Privateers – Omar

Meet My Villains from Paranormal

Omar Ogala entered. A tall, burly man, he carried a grenade launcher. “I had your backs, men, in case they jumped you.” His round face and bald head showed a grim smile. “I’m proud of you for bringing them in. Zombies are no joke. Cabdi, come here.”

Cabdi, the supreme leader’s chief bodyguard, stepped up carrying a rocket launcher. It didn’t carry the normal antitank shell, but a bulkier one Dirac didn’t recognize.

“Ali, you open the feeding door, and then Cabdi will fire in.”

“Supreme Leader, are you going to kill them?” Dirac asked. That wasn’t their usual procedure for hostages. They kept them alive to prevent an undue military response and to maximize the ransom.

“You’re Dirac, aren’t you? No, the rocket shell won’t kill them, probably. It’s a fléchette shell with salt water, to dezombify them. Don’t worry about killing them. Worry about them staying alive and zombie.”

Ali opened the small steel door on the bottom of one side of the shipping container, used for feeding prisoners. As soon as he unlatched it, he slid it up enough for the shell to enter, and Cabdi fired.

Even outside the container, the exploding shell made Dirac’s ears ring.

“Check and see if you got them. If not, fire another shell.”

Meet My Villains from Paranormal Privateers – Omar – Part 2

Meet My Villains from Paranormal Privateers

Cabdi rotated a steel disk above the feeding door and peered into the smoky darkness. He shone a flashlight in, then closed it.

“The women are gathered around the man who caught it,” he reported to Ogala.

“Fire another shell. We can’t leave any in a zombie state.”

Ali opened the door again, and again the concussion battered his ears. What was it like inside there? How could they still be alive?

“Check again.”

Peering in, Cabdi reported, “They’re all down, and they’re all bloody.”

“Good. That’ll hold them. Now let’s go to my conference room and call for ransom. You’ve got the phones, Ali?”

“Right here, Supreme Leader.”


Meet My Villains from Paranormal Privateers – Synthia

I examined my cell methodically. A drainpipe, two inches in diameter. A toilet. A hard bed. A steel door with hinges on the outside. I’d probably need to escape from somewhere other than this cell. Once they established a routine with my interrogation, I’d look for escape routes.

I chuckled to myself. Synthia Smith was my true name, in the sense it matched my birth certificate and other current identification. Before Synthia Smith, I was Rachel Rathbone, and before that Quinella Quincy, and so on, through the alphabet. My earliest memory was a toddler named Betty Botter. I had to be cute and pickpockets. Who knew what my original name was? Changing identities was standard procedure for me with each new assignment.

This had been my most challenging operation, and I’d almost pulled it off. Those damn zombies! Had I blown up Harrods, the demands for billions in exchange for each national landmark’s safety would have been credible.

They had no idea of the bigger picture—and they wouldn’t get it. My terrorist cover story was completely true, but neither the terrorists nor Scotland Yard knew they were merely a means to an end. It was the truth: total subjugation of the United Kingdom was a reasonable goal for one like me, a child of the world’s greatest criminal.

I knew more about Papa Smith, my ostensible grandfather, than any of my siblings. I think I actually touched his feelings as a loving granddaughter, and I think he shared more with me than with any of his other crime-lord grandchildren. Of course, he might be manipulating me, just as I tried to manipulate him. That was the most reasonable assumption, especially if we were actually related.

Meet My Villains from Paranormal Privateers – Synthia Smith, Part 2

Regardless, I felt fond of him. When I overthrew him and took over his crime empire, I thought I’d keep him alive. I enjoyed our talks via our secured video line. When he’d shared Sid Boffin’s failure with me, I clapped in delight as he praised me for staying in touch with him. I think that was genuine emotion and not an act. It was hard to tell sometimes.

A motion on the floor caught my eye as I sat on the bed. A cockroach crawled up the drain and onto the floor. Surprising. Usually, Britain kept their prisons pest free. Then another. Then a dozen more. And then, hundreds.

This was not normal cockroach behavior. They did not come into the light in hordes. I sat cross-legged on the bed and watched the swarm with fascination. They climbed the door, walked its steel perimeter, and went back down the drain as others came up.

Curious, I nabbed one using my lightning reflexes. Examining it, I saw a metal dot under its thorax and a narrow tube attached to its abdomen. A pungent, acidic smell came from the tube. I looked back to the door. The acid ate a narrow trench in the door’s perimeter, right where the cockroaches still marched. Near the ceiling light, I saw mist curl away from the door.

Meet My Villains – Synthia Smith, Part 3

Meet My Villains from Paranormal Privateers

Modified and controlled cockroaches—like Sid Boffin’s cyborg-controlled animals. I’d read his Ph.D. paper as well as the Midley Beacon‘s declassified reports on his battles with the zombies. Since Sid was dead at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, this could only be one of my siblings or Papa Smith trying to rescue me.

Using my perfect memory of the twists and turns when they’d led me here hooded, counting my steps, and remembering the doors, I was confident I could retrace the route.

The last of the cockroaches marched around the door, leaving its trail of acid. They etched the door perhaps a centimeter deep. Couldn’t be much left.

I knocked on the door. Yes, it felt like a centimeter thick, and it echoed like it was almost cut through. Then someone knocked back, much harder.

“I’m here!” I called. I assumed this was my rescuer.

“Step back,” grated a curious, tinny voice, like it was coming through a small radio.

I stepped away.

CLUMP! CLUMP! Two metallic thunks hit the other side of the door. Then, SKREERK! The door tore off like the lid of a tin of meat.

I didn’t expect what I saw. A male silverback gorilla filled the doorway and the whole hallway beyond. Thick armor covered his body. Casually, he placed the door scrap against the hall.

“Follow me,” he said.


Readers Speak About Paranormal Privateers

Action, humor, refreshing zombies; Yes please!

Top 7 Science Stories
Paranormal Privateers cover

5.0 out of 5 stars 

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 1, 2022

This series is the first I have read of Andy Zach’s and I am glad I picked it up! The series continues with lots of action, characters continue to be developed, humor, and the zombies are still not mindless shells ambling around awaiting an axe to the head. Still a refreshing take on zombies as a whole. I look forward to what Andy writes next! Audio Version: Phil Blechman and Raven Perez do a great job with their respective characters and the overall narration.

Nemesis

A virus did that?

Writing Paranormal Privateers First Draft
Chapter 16 icon – London – Click to find out what happens!

5.0 out of 5 stars 

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 9, 2020

Whew! Lots of stories within stories with a wink of incredulity as we read along the pages. Tongue-in-cheek adventures, modern day villains’, and zombies; wait, are they still zombies or not?

Yep, we have that zombie virus run amok with various creations to transform them back and forth. How much of a zombie body do you need to regenerate?

Gung-ho leader of the group Diane Newby, husband George, are charging on fighting crime with the discreet eye of the government as their silent partners. Somali pirates, Harrod’s London Store with real bulls in the china shop, parasitic cyborgs, virus-antivirus, bacteria, and other minute details tangle the story line into a braided rug of conspiracies and innovative solutions.

And little do they know, but their arch enemy is among their group. 

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SciFi Fuel Paranormal Privateers
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