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Primeval Origins: Light of Honor
![Primeval Origins: Light of Honor (Book #2 in the Primeval Origins Epic Saga) by [B.A. Vonsik]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51Tk-q1IdiL.jpg)
Light of Honor begins when paleontology-archaeology grad student Nikki and her professor are aboard the Wind Runner, escaping from international organizations intent on hunting them down before they uncover more secrets from the past and future. It’s an action-packed beginning and does not waste any time dredging up the details of the past book. In the previous book, Nikki had explored the distant past by inhabiting the body of Rogaan, a teenager who was found in stasis in her archaeology dig. This time, she learns about a humanoid race called Evendiir and its connection with Rogaan. It’s a rush to disentangle the puzzles both these artefacts have created before Nikki gets hunted down.
This is a sweeping and dramatic story that just swoops you out of wherever your mind currently is and takes you to magical faraway lands. It is definitely an intense read that digs into the details, even going as far as giving us the make and style of the secondary character’s shirt. However, I think this is to be expected from an epic fantasy read that is building a fully realized world. It really allowed me to see, hear, feel, and experience new worlds, whether past or present.
I would say it is similar to the first book, Paths of Anguish, in terms of pace and suspense but the tone is darker. It has a deeper and more gritty atmosphere. There is an element of psychological thriller to it which really just made it all the more better. Watching Aren and Nikki struggle with their memories and piece together an increasingly complicated puzzle was an extremely satisfying process. Nikki and Rogaan definitely grew on me more in this book as they had to tackle some complex moral dilemmas that really allowed me to understand the way they ticked. It was incredibly easy to root for them after watching them struggle and be vulnerable.
I don’t think it’s necessary to read the first book in the series to enjoy this one but it would be a good idea to get familiarized with the vocabulary and dialect of the ancient world. There’s also some Easter egg-ish storylines that were continued or wrapped up from the first book. Light of Honor is a thrilling fantasy adventure read that knows where it’s going and takes the most entertaining path to get there.
Pages: 294 | ASIN: B0186PBOIC
Andar
![Andar by [Fulris]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51JNQL-SEML.jpg)
Andar is a post-apocalyptic coming-of-age story, told from the point of view of a juvenile wolf, Kalamu, who is travelling a bleak landscape with his old parents in a desperate search for food and water. This story reads as if intended for the young-adult market, but with frequent use of strong language I would recommend this adventure story for a more mature audience.
The sense of tension is well-drawn, with danger lurking behind every mound of earth. There is no reprieve from the violence and the sense of impending doom, so there is little hope to be found in the barren moors the family is crossing.
The landscape, tone and plight of the wolves remind me of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. While the writing overall is very good, there is an occasional odd phrase that could be cleaned up to keep the fantastic atmosphere intact.
The fight scenes are plentiful, but they are sensitively told with excellent description of injury and death without wallowing in the gore. The dialogue, too, is skillfully written and an important element in characterizing the fearful young wolf, his protective mother and distant father. While I reveled in the engaging dialogue it was sometimes hard for me to tell who was speaking.
The tension in the story is high and the suspense is drawn-out in this coming-of-age story but I would have liked to have seen Kalamu grow a bit more. However, he does seem to find some hope at last, although at the highest of costs. Andar is a riveting fantasy adventure novel with excellent atmosphere, dramatic tension and sensitive characterization.
Pages: 87 | ASIN: B08W8QFQ78
Fun and Terrifying to Imagine
Man, Kind follows two women on a headlong and perilous journey that may decide the fate of humanity. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
I’ve always been fascinated with post-apocalyptic and dystopian fiction. It’s both fun and terrifying to imagine a demolished world where there are little resources left and even fewer people to share them with. However, the genre as a whole was beginning to feel a little stale for me. The question always is, “How do I get rid of most of the people on Earth?” and the answer has almost always been nuclear war, global pandemics, or zombie outbreaks. But why not the real, much more imminent threat of climate change? And why must a mysterious, indestructible male savior always lead the way in these tales? I knew there had to be a more interesting, compelling, and grounded way to approach the apocalypse, and that’s what I set out to do when writing “Man, Kind”.
Juno was an intriguing and well developed character. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
Juno, the thirteen year old protagonist of “Man, Kind”, was meant to experience the post-climate-changed world alongside the reader. From the very first pages you discover that Juno had just been abandoned by her mother and now has to navigate this new, frightening, and violent world on her own. You both have questions, and you both want answers, and you get to embark on her epic journey together.
One of my favorite traits of Juno’s is that she’s also relentlessly curious. Whether she’s exploring an abandoned building, interacting with dubious characters, or simply taking a break to write down her own thoughts in a journal, you’re always right there with her; feeling what she’s feeling, wondering what she’s wondering, and smiling when she’s smiling.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Climate change is the primary one. Mainly, how does humanity live on after mother nature has exacted her revenge? It’s true that human pollution not only affects the weather, but also our own bodies at the cellular level. Plastics, fossil fuels, greed, they all play a part in our current world as well as “Man, Kind’s” future one. So how do we cope with such truths? And what can we do about it now?
The other themes I wanted to cover were grief and kindness; the “kind” of “Man, Kind”. Many, if not all, of the characters in this story are grey characters. They’ve all suffered losses, they all have their own motives, and not one of them fully trusts the other. I really wanted to drive home the question, “Will kindness still play a role in the wasteland?”
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I am currently on the home stretch of an illustrated short story compilation called “Destination Earth”. Each story deals with existential questions we must ask ourselves throughout our lives, but told through weird, dark, and often humorous points of view. Available fall of this year.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Website
From the top of the tallest skyscraper in Denver, Colorado, a lonely girl named Juno watches the sun and sand torment the Rocky Mountains day in and day out. She wonders why she was abandoned so suddenly, wonders if she will ever see her mother again, and wonders why, on her thirteenth birthday, a mysteriously scarred woman has just shown up to kidnap her.
But there’s no time to explain.
Instead the woman makes three things painfully clear: Juno is being hunted, their only hope at safety is on the opposite side of the Rockies, and that this journey will be the hardest thing either of them has ever done.
As the resentful duo races across an unpredictable environment, Juno will also have to grapple with unpredictable changes of her own. She’ll stumble upon what mankind left behind, and learn why things ended up the way they are. Then, once Juno discovers how important she truly is, she’ll be forced to decide just who she can trust, and who she’ll have to leave behind…
Mad Max meets The Road and An Inconvenient Truth in this epic climate fiction adventure!
Behemoths Rising – Book Trailer
A future world ravaged by climate change hasn’t seen anything yet. From beneath the ground, the depths of the oceans and from high in the endless skies a trio of massive creatures rise with only one thing in mind… destruction. These gigantic monsters will spare no one and nothing, not even each other as they battle mankind and one another for world domination.
Jason Bagley heads up a team of climate soldiers. Their sleek, futuristic airships meant to battle the unpredictable forces of the weather are now the only weapon against the unimaginable. After the world’s armies fall to the fearsome Kaiju it comes down to Jason and his team to defend the imperfect world they love against their new Kaiju Overlords.
Alternate Realities of a Similar Tale.
Orange City follows an advertising executive whos new addictive product causes him to question his reality to dangerous, and world changing, effect. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
Seeing the power of advertising was a big influence. I remember watching TV one day and it was an ad for sodas and I got up from the couch and grabbed a soda without even thinking about it. The ad was that good! Orange City began as a short story about an ad exec addicted to the sodas in his new campaign, but there weren’t any science fiction aspects to the story beyond that. It existed in this world. When it became a novel it needed more, so the City became a character as well, along with the Man, and the Outside World. The story has been published separately by a journal, so I like to think of both as alternate realities of a similar tale.
Graham is an intriguing and well developed character. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
Thank you. Graham is someone who has been beaten down so much in his life that he’s lost himself. It’s what makes him so susceptible to the soda addictions. But he shows real growth as a character as the book progresses. He’s someone who’s been oppressed but learns to stand up for himself and others like him. He becomes the face of the resistance. I wanted a character that had the ability to be molded. Someone who was weak but that you rooted for. Someone who could become a product for change.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
The threat of democracy being destroyed is a huge part of the novel. There are allusions to our own society and the last four years we went through in the United States. Also the manipulation of the advertising world and how much they control our lives. And the power of brands that exist in our world like Pow! How easily we have become addicted to so many different things to our detriment. And I stopped really consuming sugar so that had a lot to do with the anti-soda messages.
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
I have a YA series coming out in the Spring. The first book is called Runaway Train and is about a teenage girl in the 1990s who runs away from home after her sister dies to become a grunge singer and meet Kurt Cobain. The first two books have been written, but I’m editing the second right now and plotting out the third in the series. Look for them soon!
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Website
Its citizens are ruled by a monstrous figure called the “Man” who resembles a giant demented spider from the lifelike robotic limbs attached to his body. Everyone follows the Man blindly, working hard to make their Promised Land stronger, too scared to defy him and be discarded to the Empty Zones.
After ten years as an advertising executive, Graham Weatherend receives an order to test a new client, Pow! Sodas. After one sip of the orange flavor, he becomes addicted, the sodas causing wild mood swings that finally wake him up to the prison he calls reality.
A dynamic mash-up of 1984 meets LOST, Orange City is a lurid, dystopian first book in a series that will continue with the explosive sequel Lemonworld.
Age of Magnus: The Iron Dawn
![Age of Magnus Book Two (New Era 2): The Iron Dawn by [David Crane]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51FYspmKmhL.jpg)
The Iron Dawn centers around a supercomputer named Magnus as its protagonist in a world one hundred years after a devastating pandemic is followed by a nuclear war. Magnus – created before the war to assist first-time exploration of planet Mars – survived and possessed full knowledge of human history and technological development. With this, it decided to take the survival of the human species into its own hands by taking over the world, Magnus was not met without resistance, however.
The Iron Dawn is an intellectually refreshing science fiction epic. The choice to tell this story from the viewpoint of an A.I., artificial intelligence, instead of the humans trying to beat it was new and provides an interesting take on a dystopian future society. It did have me wondering initially if we were following a villain or a hero, but Magnus’ morality was shown through how it treated humans, cared for humans, and how, in many cases, it thought like a human. This gave the novel good steam to move forward on while also keeping uncertain whether Magnus would go through a corruption arc or not.
Even though Magnus, as a character, had many strengths and endearing moments, it was not devoid of flaws especially with how it intended to deal with the current war against itself. Fortunately, there are many other characters we meet along the way that teach Magnus things that it never considered and caused it to reflect. This along with a bittersweet romance humanized Magnus to a great extent and made it that much more enjoyable to read.
However, a lot of the tension gradually falls away after Magnus experiences less pushback from both companions and enemies. This doesn’t take away too much of the whole novel, however, as we constantly meet new characters and come to understand the viewpoints of the antagonists the tension rises again as these people we care about are lied to. Though the initial tension never quite came back the same.
The setting itself was vivid, and it was intriguing to explore not only Earth in its post-apocalyptic stage but also Mars and its alluring new findings.
The Iron Dawn is a refreshing dystopian fiction with a visionary look at the future and an imaginative story that will keep science fiction fans entertained.
Pages: 384 | ASIN: B08KPL3K2S
Sanctuary (The Dark Days Series Book 2)
![Sanctuary (The Dark Days Series Book 2) by [Christopher Cole]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41pfWNY1BIL._SY346_.jpg)
The world is succumbing to a zombie infestation, and society is crumbling. It’s every man for himself in Christopher Cole’s post-apocalyptic novel. Through chance meetings, a ragtag team of children and teenagers stick together to fight their way to the only known safe place in the world, Fort Gold Rush. But Sonny and his friends soon have to pick up their arms again as they must undertake training that will equip them with the skills needed to become protectors of their new haven. Out in the wild again, they soon discover that flesh-eating zombies aren’t the only enemies. They must also contend with human predators. In these dark days, it’s a battle on three fronts for these noble kids. They fight zombies, bandits, and the darkness that threatens to consume their hearts.
Author Christopher Cole’s Sanctuary is a unique combination of a dystopian city, in a post-apocalyptic world. It takes readers on a journey through man’s struggles to hang onto hope in the face of mounting adversity. There is hardly anything that is straightforward in this twisted world. Cole reminds us of this fact by posing the philosophical question – what is good and evil?
One of my favorite things about the book is what Cole does with the characters. I didn’t get to know some of the characters’ backstory until I was more than halfway through the book. But by that time, I had already connected with them. Instead of using backstories to evoke a quick connection, Cole invests heavily in the characters’ personalities – flaws and quirks.
The book pushes several emotional buttons. Exploring humanity through a dark lens that doesn’t hold back commentary on the darker problems with society. The dystopian city of Fort Gold Rush provides ample opportunity for readers to see contemporary societal issues magnified to entertaining effect. The author uses detailed imagery to build this gritty world. I must warn you, though, you’ll visualize shimmering sunrise and picturesque landscapes, but you’ll also imagine gory sights like knives thrusting into brains and bullets drilling into flesh. A stimulating combination for the right audience. And if you are a gun enthusiast, the battle scenes are littered with gun mentions you can geek over. Although, having to read through the multiple types of guns everyone carried was a little tiring.
Sanctuary continues the thrilling post-apocalyptic action that fans expect in Christopher Cole’s Dark Days series. With such an intriguing cast of characters, it is fascinating to see where they’ll end up, how they’ll get there, and what price is paid along the way.
Pages: 292 | ASIN: B08L84KY32
LITERARY TITAN 