Ready Player One read by Wesley Crusher

Since I moved outside Seattle and have children who live half the time in the city, I do a fair amount of driving. I initially opened an Audible account because the girls got it into their heads they wanted to learn French, and it seemed a good way to pass the drive time. Now we've rearranged our schedule so they are going back and forth less, and I've been using the Audible credits to listen to books I might not otherwise have the time to read. Plus, some books are just made to be read out loud. I particularly love listening to Neil Gaiman's books, because they are read by the author and I could listen to him talk about organizing his sock drawer.

Recently I had some credits to use up and went to the Oracle (Facebook) to ask for advice. A fellow author recommended READY PLAYER ONE, in particular because it is read by Wil Wheaton, who played Wesley Crusher on STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION. Wil is a funny guy, and he's played a gamer in a couple of YouTube series (my favorite being Felicia Day's THE GUILD). He is the perfect voice for the first-person perspective of a post-apocalyptic gamer geek, and there is this awesome moment when ... nope, not gonna spoil it.

So let me start by saying Donna reviewed this book back in 2013. I read her review again before posting this one to ensure there wasn't too much overlap. If you are interested in seeing the movie (scheduled for release next spring) AND you're one of those people like me who prefers to read the book BEFORE watching the movie, now you have your deadline.

This review is high-level and only contains minor spoilers. It's adapted from my Goodreads review specifically for Spacefreighters.

READY PLAYER ONE by Ernest Cline, read by Wil Wheaton
Genre: Young-adult sci-fi with romantic elements

I didn't have high expectations for this book. I'm a middle-aged woman, and READY PLAYER ONE ("RPO" henceforth) is about a teenage gamer essentially living inside a virtual world anchored in a post-apocalyptic society. I have played both arcade and computer-based games, but not in decades. I did not expect that I'd relate. But as Donna notes in her review, this novel is RIDDLED with references to 80s culture, and I was a teenager in the 80s. Music, TV shows, movies, commercials, even specific computer models I owned in early adulthood. What a genius decision by the author, amirite? You get the young adult audience, because that's the age of the protagonists, plus all the Gen Xers and some Baby Boomers too. And I had further reason to identify with the protagonist: he lives in a trailer park in Oklahoma City, where I was born and raised. (I never lived in a trailer park, but I knew people who did. Plus they were on the news every time there was a tornado.)

From the original book cover art. It's gorgeous,
though based on Cline's description
the trailer stacks were much closer together. 

RPO is sci-fi at its best. There's an underdog hero and an evil corporate villain, and they fight their battles with super cool tech, in both the real and virtual worlds. The post-apocalyptic world Cline paints is very believable, as you can see the seeds of his calamities already germinating in today's society. For example, Cline depicts government so ineffective and in bed with corporations as to be useless in its original role of serving the interests of the populace, and corporations that have been given broad powers over the lives of private citizens.

Believe it or not this young-adult-centered geekfest even includes a sweet love story. It doesn't take up a lot of screen time, but it's critical to the plot and the ending wouldn't be nearly as satisfying without it. Can you really fall in love with a person you've never actually met? You be the judge. And as for the ladies, they DO represent in this story. Frankly when I started this book, I figured I'd have to just be okay with it being about a bunch of dudes in their basements. Granted, a lot of the 80s reference ARE very male-oriented. The only female rock musician I remember being referenced (Pat Benatar) was mentioned in conjunction with Artemis, the protagonist's crush. But whatever.

Admittedly it took me a while to get into this story. As stated above, I have little in common with the protagonist (Wade) beyond our knowledge of 80s culture, and besides that there is a fair amount of setup and backstory to get through. Wade also has a tendency to use cliché phrases (ie, "armed to the teeth"), which as an editor and fellow author pulled me out of the story at times. But once the story clicked for me, I was swept away. (Hubs started listening to it with me about halfway through, on one of our drives to town, and after a bunch of initial protesting, he was asking to listen to it at home EVERY DAY until we finished it.) There's so much attention to detail in the world building, it feels like you're inside the game. In fact at times the detail can be a little tedious, but it fits the story, as these details MATTER to Wade.

Now I'll tell you what I liked best about this story, besides the amusement-park-ride quality of the plot. As Wade goes about his quest for the ultimate high-stakes Easter egg, which has been hidden inside the virtual world (the Oasis) by its now-deceased creator, you find yourself rooting and cheering at every turn. He's just a kid vying for a prize along with thousands of other "gunters," but it's fun to watch his obsessiveness and attention to detail begin to pay off. The REAL payoff, however, comes as Wade begins to evolve as a person, developing relationships that bring out his more noble qualities—empathy, loyalty, openness to emotional vulnerability. Qualities that, fairly or not, we don't often associate with gamer personalities. Wade learns to use his powers for the greater good, and that's a quality with timeless, universal appeal.

TROUBLE IN MIND BLASTS OFF TODAY!

WE HAVE LIFTOFF! Yes, today is Launch Day for Trouble in Mind, Book Two in my Interstellar Rescue series! Lana and Gabriel, my alien-busting, hot-loving, action-oriented heroine and hero meet the world today at last! 

The early reviewers have been more than kind: FOUR STARS from RT Book Reviews, FIVE STARS from Riley Moreland at Smart Girls Love Sci Fi (and her own Whiskey with My Book blog), FIVE STARS from Kat Smith at Nerd Girl Official, FIVE STARS from Kim at Crystal’s Many Reviewers and a rave review from Publishers’ Weekly!

If you have your book on pre-order, you can start reading now. If not, you can get your copy on Amazon right away!

In the meantime, check out these links for reviews, guest posts and excerpts today and tomorrow:

Already up:--Anna Durand’s Spunk and Hunks blog—book spotlight and excerpt

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                  --Science Fiction Romance Brigade blog—Special excerpt!

Tomorrow:--Pauline Baird Jones Life Happens. A Lot. blog—Why I Wrote Trouble in Mind.
 

            --Trouble in Mind by Donna S. Frelick Release Party on Facebook—Sharon Lynn   Fisher, Lea Kirk and a bunch of other authors will be joining me for trivia contests, giveaways and lots of virtual fun tomorrow night from 6:00-10:00 p.m. EST on Facebook. Just grab your favorite adult beverage and get online in your comfy clothes and fuzzy slippers—it’ll be a blast!

And don’t forget to reward yourself for all that clicking! I’m giving away a $50 Amazon Gift Card to one lucky winner through the Rafflecopter giveaway HERE. Enter for your chance to win! The giveaway runs through the end of March.

As always, thanks, everybody, for all your support. We writers can’t do it without you readers. And when you read and review, you make us want to work even harder!

Cheers, Donna

 

Negative Review? Do Not Engage! #reviews

I was asked to write this post. I'm not sure it'll make any difference, being as the thing I'm blogging about happens at least a couple of times a year that I'm aware of. Maybe more. I suppose in a pre-internet world, maybe it happened just as often but we didn't get to hear about it.

So, again this week I 'heard' about another author meltdown on Goodreads. I went and read it. Ai! I'm not going to link to it because there's plenty of info about it out there already if you know where to look. Suffice to say, yet another author took affront to the fact that somebody didn't like their book. And that's all it was. Not one of those super snarky reviews with epilepsy-inducing flashy gifs, or the world's most acid critic. A simple one star, didn't like it, wasn't for me.

But the author couldn't accept this and asked that the reviewer TAKE IT DOWN. When the reviewer offered to rewrite it, being more specific about what they didn't like (and by no means was this reviewer in any way obliged to do so, and I certainly wouldn't have), the author took umbrage even at that. Accused the reviewer of trying to destroy their career, of having no empathy by trying to sabotage his efforts to make a living, and of being too stupid to appreciate his art.

*face palm* Of course, the only one destroying his career at this point was the author himself. The thread escalated, spread, and I've seen numerous tweets, blog posts, comments etc throughout the internet. He got his fifteen minutes of fame, probably more. Frankly, I'd rather not be that famous. The author was even removed from Goodreads (I've no evidence that they did remove him or he left of his own accord, but it's been said he was removed), and his 1* reviews have had many babies. Oddly, the reportedly low ratings on Amazon have been deleted (no idea how that was achieved). It's not a new story, but I really wish it was an old or extinct one.

Because this doesn't just damage the author concerned - it damages ALL authors. It damages author/reviewer relationships. Aside from feeling embarrassed at seeing another author meltdown like this, the resulting comments from reviewers saying they didn't feel safe to review, or refusing to ever review self pubbed authors (it isn't exclusive to SP authors, though it does seem more common. As a now almost fully self pubbed author, of course this upsets me) is terrible for publishing as a whole.

But it has led me to change my number one piece of advice to aspiring/new authors. DO. NOT. ENGAGE! Ever!! It doesn't matter how diplomatically you word your response, how reasonable you think you're being, responding to a negative review will always, always be seen as a bad thing. It will only be seen as you being a special snowflake who can't take a bit of criticism. Yes, some reviews and reviewers are downright nasty. There's a particular one on Amazon who delights in giving nothing but 1* reviews (over 300 of them, and no other ratings! Makes you wonder why they read at all), and those that delight in the snark. Some reviewers do get personal. But if you cannot take honest criticism of your work, then maybe you shouldn't be published at all. Because no matter what you do, what you write, what qualifications you have or awards you've won, at least ONE person in the world will absolutely hate your work. And there is nothing you can do about that.

Except for one thing, and I'll say it again for all the good it'll do.

Status Update

Keir's Fall is with my editor (woo hoo!), and this week I finished revising the side story (which is scheduled for edits in October) and a second Venus Ascendant novella, which I haven't scheduled at all...yet. I'm hoping early 2016. At the moment I have one superhero romance short and potentially three SFR shorts scheduled for July's Camp NaNoWriMo. Er, yeah. At probably the 60K mark, I think I'm setting myself up for a fail there...

Happenings

On a more fun note, the SFR Brigade Summer Cafe is now into its third week, and it's dishing up Dystopia! Go check out the authors taking part and the prize bundle HERE.

Next week I'll be swapping days and blogging on the Monday for week four of the Cafe - Androids and Aliens! I'll be offering some goodies on my post as well as contributing to the prize bundle for that week.

The print giveaway for Keir is still running until the end of June, and if you're a NetGalley member, it's also available to read and review for free HERE. 

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Keir

by Pippa Jay

Giveaway ends June 30, 2015.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to Win

Anchors Aweigh: Sail into a Great Summer Adventure

August is "Hell Month" at my day job, which usually means I drop out of sight until sometime in September. But I just had to pop in to share this...

I just finished the coolest book!

Yes, it's written by one of my fellow Firebirds--which means she's also a 2012 RWA Golden Heart finalist--but that said, I have this thing... If I can't rave about a book, I don't write a book review. Peeps, I'm raving. For anyone, anywhere, interested in Military Romance, don't pass this one up. For those of us who write Military Romance (of any era), you can learn a lot from this tale about how the military--the Navy, in particular--works. 

Like...flight decks are damn scary, noisy places, full of hazards.

And trying to get a bit of much-needed shut-eye is no easy feat when you live in the equivalent of a dormitory packed with three-tier-high bunk beds located directly beneath a busy airport.

This story delivers not only a great romance, but a genuine experience. "Join up" and serve aboard a floating, self-contained city as it heads out "on cruise." What great muse-fodder for those of you who write Science Fiction Romance of the space-faring variety.

Forgive & Forget

by Heather Ashby

Henery Press

280 pages

________________________________________

There's something about a man in uniform...but there's something about a woman in one, too...

When Hallie McCabe meets Philip Johnston at a picnic, she is drawn to his integrity. He is a gentleman. But also an officer. From her ship.

Aware of the code against fraternization between officers and enlisted, Hallie conceals her Navy status, hopeful she and her secret will stay hidden on their enormous aircraft carrier until she can figure out a way for them to sail off into the sunset together.

Caught in an emotional firestorm, Hallie faces a future without the man she loves, a career-shattering secret from the past, and the burden of being the one person who can prevent a terrorist attack on the ship she has sworn to protect with her life.

Prepare to set sail for the Persian Gulf with a crew of 4,999 sailors and officers and one terrorist in search of his own kind of Paradise.

________________________________________

What so completely absorbed me once I started reading this book was the feel of utter authenticity. The rules, the regs, the smell of jet fuel, the roar of the engines, the close quarters, conflicts and camaraderie of military life.

I can appreciate the heroine's situation. She's fallen for a man she knows she shouldn't be with, and she's bending the rules to the point of catastrophic failure--and risking his trust in the process--because she knows as soon as she tells him the truth, it's over. But she will tell him the truth, even if it costs her everything. It's just that her timing on that big reveal goes completely askew...

I imagine some holier-than-thou readers will have issues with her honesty, and admittedly, I did at times, too, thinking, "OMG, girl, just tell him!" At the same time I could completely relate to her sentiments and easily walk in her shoes. This is the man of her dreams and she doesn't want to see her relationship go up in smoke. Who would? Hallie is likable, relatable, and an endearing combination of timid heart and tough-as-steel mind.

The hero, Philip, is a man of integrity, a true gentleman and someone I admired as a "good guy." He's a a working hero, not some commanding officer with lots of shiny brass and top-dog swagger, but an honest-to-goodness Navy man doing a real job in the bowels of his massive ship. Even so, this shoulder-to-the-grindstone, squeaky clean, BCG-wearing sailor has an alpha side that often surprised and delighted me. I LUV me an unpredictable hero.

Author Heather Ashby
with Navy Seahawk

The story also does a remarkable job of getting inside the head of the villain, and showing some of the culture and traditions he has more-or-less adopted (less, actually). Though I can't respect him or his warped values, I can understand why he turned. He's tragic, twisted and deeply disturbed, but he's no cartoon villain.

This story carries some big surprises and killer twists, but the biggest surprise for me came in the form of a secondary character that at first annoyed and then absolutely dazzled me. You know things will be okay when this guy takes charge. And best of all? The next book is about him! (Pssst....Keep your eye on the Sky. :)

FORGIVE & FORGET is the first book in the Love in the Fleet series. Watch for the next one, FORGET ME NOT, December 3, 2013.

Here's the link to Amazon: Forgive & Forget (Oh, and BTW, just between us, you might want to note the very reasonable price on the Kindle version right now. *winkety wink*)

Song of Scarabaeus: Peer Review

After many years of passing by my copy of Song of Scarabaeus for other books, I finally settled down to give it a read.

It's not that I wasn't curious. First of all, author Sara Creasy landed Kristen Nelson as an agent, and that isn't an easy feat. So I figured the story had to have a lot going for it.

I can't blame the cover for my procrastination either. The art wasn't a turn off, though it was a bit dark and doomsy for my taste.

I think what failed to shout YOU HAVE TO READ ME NOW was the title. After reading the book, I now understand why the title was fitting, but it didn't carry any meaning until I got into the story instead of pulling me in to flip the first few pages like a great title can. The author's use of "song" in the story is creative and almost poetic. I'd never thought of technology in those terms.

And once I finally did start turning pages, I didn't stop.

I found Song of Scarabaeus well-crafted, imaginative and techie enough to satisfy many purist (and male) SF buffs.  The world building was rich, layered and appropriately dark, with the biology, politics and counter-culture elements realistic, with a well-rounded cast of characters. The vocabulary was particularly cutting-edge, and some of the descriptions were pure genius. For me, the Science Fiction really ticked all the boxes.

But I'm not sure this novel could be labeled SFR. Perhaps SF with romantic elements. Or romantic hints. Or something. Because the romance was practically non-existant. The characters did share a strong bond, they cared for each other, and they occasionally had some real moments of heat between them, but the closest thing to a romantic interlude in the first 150 pages quickly got shut down by the heroine. For me, that seemed to leave the story a bit lacking, because I did want the H/H to get together and it seemed they could have shared a pretty spectacular love affair. All the elements were in place, but it short-circuited somewhere along the way.

That said, if you're not a diehard Must Have Romance sort, Song of Scarabaeus is a great story that will tantalize your imagination to an innovative and sometimes cruel future. Firefly meets Blade Runner comes to mind. There are equal parts intrigue and heart-pounding adventure and characters you love to root for as well as characters you love to hate.

Well worth the read and one of the better SFs (without much R) I've read this year. I'll definitely pick up a copy of the sequel, Children of Scarabaeus.

_________________________

MISSION SUCCESS

I'm so happy to announce I'm on the verge of launching my new web site. This has been in the works since August, and with much tweaking and brainstorming, I think site developer Bemis Promotions and I have collaborated on a striking design. I hope to soon announce it's gone live here on Spacefreighters...and, well, everywhere!

Many, many, many, MANY congrats to peer Laurel Wanrow on landing an agent. This marks the third SFR Brigader in six months to find representation. Exciting times for Science Fiction Romance indeed! It's not an easy feat to find an agent, and I hope Laurel might pop in to Spacefreighters and tell us a little more about her 'agent hunt' story in comments. Laurel, the Billins is on us!

I, of course, am so excited about our own co-blogger Donna recently finding representation. We co-bloggers are now two published authors and two agented pre-published authors--this Mission Success thing has really worked well for us! Behold the power of positive thought. :D

Here's wishing everyone a fabulous week of holiday parties and preparations, and that the world doesn't end on Friday (as prophecized for thousands of years, by many cultures and prophets, all over the globe). When the day comes maybe we'll all hear a tiny little Roseanne Rosannadanna voice in our head saying, "Never mind." Bet the bars will be jumping for Happy Hour on Friday night!  

*Walks off humming It's the End of the World As We Know It*