– ‘The Magic of Wor(l)ds’ blog is a hobby, reviews and other bookish stuff on this site are done for free. –
Today I’m on the ‘The Blood Dimmed Tide’ blogtour, organised by Random Things Tours.
To promote this book I have an excerpt, but b
About the Author :
Born in the San Francisco bay area and raised in Napa, California, Michael R. Johnston grew up steeped in everything Science Fiction and Fantasy from Asimov to Zelazny, as well as endless terrible SF TV shows he still has a slightly embarrassed fondness for.
In the early 90s, he took “a year” off from college. He spent time as a court process server, a retail sales associate, a sandwich maker, and a data entry tech, before finding himself in a management position with a research firm.
A decade later, burnt out from his job in political research and facing 30, he decided he’d had enough and returned to college, graduating with honors from California State University, Sacramento.
In fall 2006, he became a high school English teacher, a job he likens to herding a swarm of angry bees. It’s the best job he’s ever had.
He currently lives in Sacramento, California, with his wife and daughter. When he’s not writing or teaching, he spends time with his family, plays video games and tabletop RPGs, and reads.
He can be found here and on Twitter.
Synopsis :
The sequel to The Widening Gyre, praised by Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Library Journal and more!
Reclaiming Earth from the Zhen was only the first battle. Now Tajen Hunt and his fellow colonists must fight for their fledgling colony’s survival. Tajen’s mission to seek aid from the Kelvaki Assembly is cut short when the Zhen invade Earth. Now he, Liam, and Kiri must return to Earth and liberate the colony from brutal occupation. When Tajen learns the Zhen plan to destroy a human fleet amassing in preparation to help Earth, he and his crew must escape the planet once more and warn them.
Excerpt :
…The new Earth Council gathered in the colony administration centre’s conference room an hour later, mugs of steaming tea in our hands. Since we’d defeated the Zhen force that had tried to pry us off the reclaimed Earth a year ago, we’d been rebuilding the civilisation they’d destroyed over a thousand years before. Many humans had left Zhen and Terra, the human colony world in the Zhen Empire, and taken up residence on our ancestral homeworld.
It was still a rough world, with a lot to be rediscovered, but it was coming along nicely. We’d built a small city, with the astoundingly unoriginal name ‘Landing’, and were moving outward slowly. There were some isolated settlements on other parts of the planet, some with reclaimed Old Earth names, and some with names inspired in the years of what was now becoming known as ‘the Big Lie’, the period of time in which we’d thought of the Zhen as our saviours, and not the architects of our misfortunes. I had never intended to become the leader of a colony, so when the original group of colonists who arrived with me had tried to make me the colony’s head, I immediately, without reservation, refused. We held elections a few weeks later, and chose Diana Adakai, a woman from Terra who had come with the first wave of humans, to join us. She headed a large group of people she called ‘Diné’, who she told me had worked very hard to remain ‘whole’ during the eight hundred years of the Big Lie. Ben had joined them, and was learning the language. It turned out his mother had been one of them, but he’d been raised by his father and hadn’t learned as a child.
Diana sat in her place at the head of the table and looked around the table. “While we have urgent matters to discuss, let us begin with the standard reports, please,” she said, setting her cup down on the table.
Kiri, to her immediate left, spoke first. “Network security has been upgraded with a new cypher,” she said, brushing her red hair back from her face. “I removed the Zhen back doors from all the software – and, by the way, you’re not paying me enough. It was damned difficult to do without crashing the whole system. We’re continuing to scour the system for more software traps, but I think we’ve got them all. We’re also replacing some of the most vulnerable Zhen equipment with Kelvaki equivalents, giving us another layer of security.”
“What about comms?” I asked, from beside her.
“All the ships in the fleet are now using the same comms equipment, and they’re protected by a Kelvaki encryption code. So far as we or the Kelvaki are aware, the Zhen haven’t broken this encryption. We’ll continue to update the keys and frequencies often.”
Diana nodded. “All the ships in the fleet,” she repeated softly. Her eyes met mine, and she sighed. “How many is that now, Tajen?”
I took a deep breath as I composed my answer. “Not enough,” I said. “We’ve only got two squads left – twenty-four ships in total. The Zhen attacks of the last month have been whittling us down even before today’s disaster.”
“What are they doing?” she asked.
I frowned; we’d discussed this before. I realised she was asking for the benefit of the others around the table. “It’s an attrition tactic,” I said.
“They could just come in with a huge fleet and overwhelm us, but the Zhen like to toy with their enemies when they can. This is designed to brutalise us psychologically. They want us at the edge so they can just push us over. They don’t just want to take Earth back. They want to break us completely as a people.”
“How many personnel did we lose today?”
“One hundred and fifteen,” I said.
“How long can we survive with our current numbers?”
“If they continue this campaign?” I bit my lip. “Maybe six months, at the current rate. But I’d say probably less – a lot less. My pilots were already beginning to fray. Today may have accelerated the process.”
She frowned. “So. We need more ships.”
“Yes.”…
The Magic of Wor(l)ds
Jane Fenwick lives in the market town of Settle in Yorkshire, England. She studied education at Sheffield University gaining a B.Ed (Hons) in 1989 and going on to teach primary age range children. Jane decided to try her hand at penning a novel rather than writing school reports as she has always been an avid reader, especially enjoying historical and crime fiction. She decided to combine her love of both genres to write her first historical crime novel Never the Twain.
My Constant Lady – the first in the Reynolds seafaring saga. A captivating tale of love, loss and loyalty.
Mark Dawson is an award-nominated, USA Today bestseller, with more than 20 books published and over 2 million books downloaded in multiple countries and languages. Mark was born in Lowestoft, in the UK. He has worked as a DJ, a door-to-door ice cream seller, factory hand and club promoter. He eventually trained as a lawyer and worked for ten years in the City of London and Soho, firstly pursuing money launderers and then acting for A-list celebrities suing newspapers for libel.
In the dying days of the Soviet Union, the Berlin Wall still casts a long and deadly shadow
Glynis Peters, lives in Dovercourt, Essex, England.
From the international bestselling author of The Secret Orphan
Pete Langman is a writer, academic, cricketer and sometime rock and roll guitarist who holds a PhD on Francis Bacon (the other one) and was diagnosed with Young Onset Parkinson’s Disease at 40. His non-fiction encompasses Cricket, Parkinson’s Disease, Music, History of Science, literature and culture, and has appeared in publications ranging from The Guardian to Guitar and Bass Magazine. He lives between Leiden and Brighton with his partner Dr. Nadine Akkerman, award-winning author of Invisible Agents, who supplies him with historical expertise and who keeps asking if they can have a cat now, please.
England, 1655. Following the brutal civil wars the country swelters under a cloud of paranoia, suspicion and the burgeoning threat of rebellion. With the fragile peace being won by Cromwell’s ever-efficient Secretary of State John Thurloe, the exiled king Charles Stuart sends two spies on a dangerous mission to wrest back the initiative. These spies are different, however: they are women. Their task? To turn Parliament’s spymaster into their unwitting accomplice. Killing Beauties is a dark tale of subterfuge, jealousy and betrayal.
Michaud is an American-Canadian citizen, an Assistant Crown Attorney in the Greater Toronto Area, and author of BILLY TABBS (& THE GLORIOUS DARROW) (bitingduckpress) and THE INTROVERT series (Black Opal Books). He holds a B.A. in English from McMaster University, an Honors B.A. in Political Science (summa cum laude) from McMaster University, a J.D. from The University of Western Ontario (with an international exchange completed at Washington & Lee), and is a member of Crime Writers of Canada and International Thriller Writers. Michaud has won awards for both his work as a criminal prosecutor and for his work with the community. He has also made regular appearances on SiriusXM’s Canada Talks.
Finally, a book series for all of the weirdos of the world!
Samantha Henthorn was born in 1970something in Bury, England. She has had short stories and poetry published in magazines. Her books include the Curmudgeon Avenue series (The Terraced House Diaries and The Harold and Edith adventures). ‘1962’, ‘Quirky Tales to Make Your Day’ and ‘Piccalilly’.
The house on Curmudgeon Avenue should be happy now, the nincompoop residents have all met their sorry ends. But they haven’t quite left… now that a new family move in can the house find peace? Or are the ghosts of Curmudgeon Avenue going to interfere with the goings-on, romance and dramas that new residents bring?