HARM - Hard Hitting Mecha SF - Free on Dec. 25 at Amazon

UPDATE: The promo is now over.  Thanks to everyone who participated.  The book was free on Christmas Day for 24 hours only.  I'm used up the last KDP free day on this.

My ebook short story HARM is free for a few days.  It has a 4 star rating by people I don't even know!  The ebook is available for the Amazon Kindle in all regions from USA, UK, to Japan.

Story
It is a hard hitting military SF story about the first use of HARM mecha units against the invading Blue Newts. This stand-alone story (9400 words) is all about future robotic warfare with intense mech versus mech battles. You may be left wanting more. All the weapons of the near future battlefield are utilized from autonomous battlefield robots, main battle tanks, powered infantry in exoskeleton battlesuits to unmanned drones. HARM is about the first combat use of giant, humanoid robot, fighting machines called HARMs against the invaders. Can these new humanoid weapons turn the tide of the war?

• http://www.amazon.com/HARM-ebook/dp/B007X65FYA
• http://www.amazon.co.uk/HARM-ebook/dp/B007X65FYA
• http://www.amazon.co.jp/HARM-ebook/dp/B007X65FYA

• Visit my author's page here. 

Notes
HARM is the first story set in the Exocrisis Blue storyline that will take off in 2013.  The story has received some pretty good reviews, so give it a try for free and if you like it, please consider buying a copy of Raid on Kahamba, the next story.

HARM Unit

Starship Troopers Novel Review

Mini-review #2
This is the second of a series of short reviews for military SF and mecha SF.  You will not see a review of something I don't like as it isn't worth writing about in that case, but I will tell you what works for me and what doesn't about the stories I did like.  When I was writing my Exocrisis Blue stories and trying to find places to post about it or reviews of other mecha SF I was unable to find any, so I'm creating my own hub.  I'm going to start with the stuff I have read in the past, and on the review list are The Lost Fleet series, Mecha Corps, Posleen War Series, Gear School, EVE Protomecha, Bolo, Starship Troopers, Old Man's War, and Germline. Now onto the review.   For the master list of reviews, click here.

The Starship Troopers novel by Robert Heinlein is a science fiction classic that is the grand father of powered armour troopers and wars against alien bugs.  There have been two great games based on the original concept (not the movies).  This novel is in a class by itself in the military SF genre.  Heinlein creates some great battle scenes with the mobile infantry starting with the initial battle scene that includes a drop from orbit.  It's a pretty amazing piece of work considering it was published in 1959.  Much of the tech used still looks good today.  Heinlein interjected a great deal of political commentary in this book that will offend some, but I think he crafted a great story even if I don't agree with everything he says.

Revoltech Starship Troopers Figure from Japan

This is a highly recommended read where everyone should find something they like if they like military SF.  The military tech he used has influenced scores of writers after him all the way up to HALO with the ODST drop troopers.  For the Japanese, his work has also been influential with the power armour that ranges from Bubblegum Crisis to Appleseed.  In fact, there have been some great figures manufactured with the book based armour.  Also the Starship Troopers board game by Avalon Hill that was released in the late 1970s was a awesome adaptation of the work.  All the military weaponry could actually be gamed in a consistent manner (I like the board game and have a tattered copy in the closet).

Does it have a cast of characters listing? 
No.

What is the scope / scale of the story? 
While the scope of a star system spanning war is described, the story is about a mobile infantry platoon(s) waging ware against the bugs on multiple worlds.  

Does it have likeable characters?
Yes.  You get to see Juan Rico mature from a young man in boot camp into a battle-tested trooper.  This war is tough and he pulls through.  

Does it have an entertaining storyline?
Yes.  The battles are done well and the characters and story move along well even with the flashbacks to high school.

How is the internal consistency / plausibility?
Good world building for an alternate future Earth where full citizenship is granted by service.  Bugs with their hive and brains are good too.  Military tech is believably described and the story is tight. 

What cool bonus features are there? 
Mobile infantry powered battle armour, hand flamers, and mini-nukes.  Bugs, lots of bugs and they're all being burned down.

The Destroyermen Series and Review of Iron Gray Sea

Mini-review #1
This is the first of a series of short reviews for military SF and mecha SF.  You will not see a review of something I don't like as it isn't worth writing about in that case, but I will tell you what works for me and what doesn't about the stories I did like.  When I was writing my Exocrisis Blue stories and trying to find places to post about it or reviews of other mecha SF I was unable to find any, so I'm creating my own hub.  I'm going to start with the stuff I have read in the past, and on the review list are The Lost Fleet series, Mecha Corps, Posleen War Series, Gear School, Bolo, Starship Troopers, Old Man's War, and Germline. Now onto the review.  For the master list of reviews, click here.

The Destroyermen book series is about a WWII American destroyer (USS Walker DD-163) that finds itself sucked into an alternate universe where they become involved with an intelligent lemur-like/cat species that is fighting an invasion of lizard-like creatures that treats everyone else as edible prey.  The author, Taylor Anderson, has made the USS Walker a high-tech wildcard in a bronze age world.

The series starts with some good naval duels in the early days of the Pacific War after the battle for the Philippines.  The fleeing USS Walker is sucked through a terrible trans-dimensional storm along with a Japanese cruiser.  The Japanese of course join the bad guys who are the man-eating Grik.  These Grik turn out to be smarter than the average savage lizard with weapons.  The crew of the Walker befriends the Lemurians and builds a grand alliance with them.  Many adventures follow to explore this strange new Earth with its wonderful set of very vicious beasts and mysterious landscapes.  Later on, new characters, races, and other humans are introduced into the story and the war against the Grik changes from a Southeast Asian conflict into more of a global conflict. 

When I first picked up "Into The Storm" (volume 1) I kind of thought this could be entertaining and it was.  The whole idea of an alien world with these lemur-like natives was actually done really well.  The story kind of grabs you and drags you along for the ride to see what happens next.  There was plenty of exploration of this new world and industry building to keep the old destroyer running for fuel and ammo.

In the latest book, "Iron Gray Sea" (volume 7)  the grand crusade against the Grik and other enemies continues.  The war has been pretty vast for the last 4 volumes so that you have many sub-stories going on.  This means that it takes many books to resolve events as there is a great deal of cutting back and forth.  Like many other epic books series, such as Harry Turtledove's World War books or the Wheel of Time, you will have an opinion on this that ranges from keep it coming to okay to this sucks.  My own opinion on this is closer to the lower end of okay as everything just drags out with the huge story, but he does have many interesting things happening.

So in the end, I recommend this very readable series that looks like it will run for some time to come.  I'm still reading the series, but due to the crazy pricing on ebooks (THAT SHOULD BE CHEAPER than the printed book), I'm using the public library to do so.  The first three books are also a fairly well contained story arc.

Does it have a cast of characters listing? 
Yes. This is good or bad depending on your preferences.

What is the scope / scale of the story? 
More intimate and small scale with the first books than it grows to become epic in size as the war spans the globe. This is a good and bad sign as the story keeps growing, but overall Taylor Anderson has done a good job with the number of characters and the ever-expanding story.

Does it have likeable characters?
Yes.  Many good leader types, tough guys, misfits, and just lovable characters (especially the little princess that is introduced later).  Good guys seem to be very flexible/modern in their thinking overall (women's rights and rights of other sentients comes to mind first), and the bad guys are not - until they have to up the ante against the good guys.

Does it have an entertaining storyline?
Good.  Very nasty enemies, fairly clear distinction between good and evil for the most part.  You can sink your teeth into the story and your enemies.

How is the internal consistency / plausibility?
Good. World building has been very good to excellent.  USS Walker is very fortunate to have all the skills to build a modern military industrial complex handy.

What cool bonus features are there? 
The Lemurians have giant wooden seagoing home ships that are the size of WWII aircraft carriers.  The destroyer versus cruiser scenario that eventually plays out is good. BIG Fish.

Prometheus Problems - Where Did The Plot Go?

I finally saw Prometheus the other day and was disappointed.  I didn't go in with high expectations after hearing all of the comments and reviews about it from all over, but I was still hoping I would enjoy it.  I thought it was an A class movie for fantastic visuals and special effects trapped in a B or C class plot.  The movie had lots of neat stuff and cool moments, but I kept falling through the plot holes that detracted from the enjoyment.  It was one of those movies that would have been improved if you could have sympathized with any of the characters too, which I could not.

Also, if you like the movie - power to you - as I know lots of people who liked it.  I'm just giving it a C for an average grade.  I do agree with the critics that the android is awesomely acted though!

Hicks Action Figure vs Alien Queen.   Thorsten Becker / Flickr

WARNING : Spoilers ahead as I'm going to talk about the holes in the movie that detracted from the enjoyment. If you keep reading and want to see the movie - stop! Don't read on!

1. It starts with a very powerful and wealthy man who hires a bunch of misfits for a trillion dollar expedition to seek immortality. This is the best crew unlimited money can buy?!?  You gotta be kidding.  They all have emotional baggage a mile long.  Psychological profiling has definitely not improved in the future - or these were the only people desperate enough to go.  The crew for Aliens vs. Predator - the first movie was better.
2. Never trust the android, or any AI named HAL or ALICE.  HAL from 2001, ALICE from Resident Evil and King of Thorn.  Might not want to name your daughter Alice either :)
3. The geologist on the expedition was smart! He wanted to bug out when they found actual dead aliens in a labyrinth in the pyramid.  He says dead aliens aren't in my contract and leaves with a pal (a biologist with no common sense - apparently plays with upset cobras for fun in his spare time). 
   Somehow this guy - a geologist who is an outdoorsy type - who should have a good sense of direction and understands mapping gets lost on the way out when he is under no time pressure.  However, everyone else who has to suddenly evacuate later manages not to get lost in a hurried panic to exit (not to mention they don't see the geologist on the way out). One review I read said that the movie seemed to be missing pieces or it was like 2 plots jammed into one film and I have to agree.  This could be explained by something on the cutting room floor.
4. The above evacuation due to a mega storm rushing down on them was also kind of dumb.  You're telling me that this multi-billion dollar spaceship doesn't have weather radar that could spot this storm a couple of hundred miles out or even as they came down from space?
5. The automatic doctor and surgical unit is only programmed for men?  This scene later on was kind of stupid.  You're telling me you only have enough memory for one sex with nanotech and holographic storage? It was especially bad as the auto doc was in the Weyland Corporation's FEMALE representative's life boat module.  This is the woman who hates risks and takes everything into account.
6. When are they going to bring good guns on these expeditions?  It isn't Alien where they're not armed as they are a mining vessel.  This is an outfitted expedition that should have state of the art weaponry, not wispy little shotgun type weapons (probably some wispy .410 bore shotgun to boot).  Some assault rifles with AP rounds or FULL AUTO shotguns with flechettes and multi-shot grenade launchers please.  Enough of the Starship Troopers movies about popguns vs alien monsters on a mass scale.
7. The captain doesn't know that there is a secret section on his ship with a secret passenger plus entourage that apparently anyone can walk into. I think this is another one of the two plots jammed in one movie items that I talked about earlier.
8. There is apparently no night shift on the ship to watch the bridge.  A common theme with the Aliens movie (BTW Aliens is one of my top 10 SF movies) where you leave your powerful vessel in orbit with no crew and no way to drop nukes from orbit to back up your ground team.
9. Wasn't the heroine supposed to be sedated?  Her escape scene and surgery was pretty cool otherwise, but anti-climactic as no one even bothered to chase her. 
10. The stuff about the Promethians and the origin of humanity.  There's an evolutionary problem with this idea, but I'm going go along for now as this idea has popped up numerous times in SF including Star Trek and 2001 a Space Odyssey.

Overall, I did kind of enjoy the movie. Ridley Scott is an a great director.  I just wonder what happened to the movie's plot.

Exocrisis Blue Next Steps

Hi Everyone,

I took a small breather now that I have published Raid on Kahamba.  I'm now busy doing detailed plotting of the core Exocrisis Blue story.  The plan is to finish writing it over the next 12 to 16 months, but hopefully closer to the 12 month mark.  So I'm aiming for one novella sized installment every 4 months for a total of 3 linked novellas.

German Hangar (keep clear!)  - Mamboman1 / Flickr

The other day while walking home from the train station I figured that I will probably write another short prequel story while writing the first part of Exocrisis Blue. This story would be titled CAJUN and be about the formation of the Canada Japan Union.  It would take place in Japan shortly after the end of of the Alien War and I would also get to write a short bit about the attack on the Newt mothership!  With a few introductory and connection pages I would eventually bundle the three existing stories HARM, CAJUN, RAID into Exocrisis Blue: Origin.

Anyhow, I digress.  For Exocrisis Blue, I had a plot outline and a world building document complete ages ago, but I wanted to write the prequels first to test out the concepts.  Writing HARM and RAID definitely helped to gel some key ideas for me and I even changed some things to make it better, so prototyping works even for writing.

I also might take a couple of horror / horror action stories and try to polish them up, but we'll see.  So much to do... but it'll all get done.

Adios for now and have a happy fall.  Enjoy the leaves!

Raid on Kahamba Ebook Promo Results

Well, the promo period for all three of the ebooks I've published on Amazon is now over. The results were pretty good, but it could have been better. To all of the readers who downloaded my books I want to say "Thank You!" If you enjoyed my books please leave a review on Amazon, even if it is only a sentence or two.  And if it isn't too much, please tell your friends in person or on Facebook about it if you could as I can always use the PR and marketing.

Thanks to the reviews I received I know the SF military fiction I'm writing is hitting the right note with readers.  The action is good along with the world building.  And yes - you can make big mechas appear realistic!

It is pretty funny how two of my books were next to each other at one point!

Results of the Promo

• I gave away between 200 to 300 copies of each ebook during the promo. About 900 in total
• My name stayed up in the Amazon top 100 SF Adventure Ebooks for Free list for 12 days.
• I received 4 new reviews - all good to great! This was the best thing.  I'm glad people like my work.
• I sold more ebooks, but only a few dozen. This is still much better than not selling more than a copy a month for the couple of months prior to the release of Raid on Kahamba.

Conclusions
When I first published the Amazon recommendation engine worked better for newbie authors.  It is definitely harder now to get something into the top seller list.  You actually have to move high hundreds or thousands of free copies I think.  The recommendation engine only seems to recommend the highest sellers now when it used to recommend your book along with all of the other freebie offers before.  So I'll be changing my strategy to just use more social media marketing and the freebie giveaways will probably go away as it doesn't seem to result in more sales or exposure any more (basically a waste of time unless I manage to move copies via other marketing mechanisms anyhow).

Raid on Kahamba is Free From Sept 19, 2012 to Sept 23, 2012

This is the second story set in the Exocrisis Blue universe and takes place ten years after the first story HARM.   It is an independent story that can be enjoyed on its own.   A team of commandos and mecha pilots are thrown together on a hastily organized mission to retrieve an alien artifact from an African warlord.  Time is running out as various factions all desire the artifact.   Expect more mecha versus mecha combat, close quarters battle, and surprising story twists for the characters.  Raid on Kahamba continues building the future history that was begun in HARM about the use of giant humanoid robots  against the invading Blue Newts.
Amazon USA / Canada   http://www.amazon.com/Raid-on-Kahamba-ebook/dp/B009BTMMC0
Amazon UK   http://www.amazon.co.uk/Raid-on-Kahamba-ebook/dp/B009BTMMC0

HARM. A mecha SF story about future warfare is free from 2012 Sept 16 to Sept 20.

HARM. A hard SF story about future warfare between giant mechs to save the Earth from invaders.  Free from Sept 16, 2012 to Sept 20, 2012  to celebrate the release of Raid on Kahamba, the next story in the Exocrisis Blue universe.

Amazon USA / Canada   http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007X65FYA
Amazon UK   http://www.amazon.co.uk/HARM-ebook/dp/B007X65FYA

"A GOOD READ.  Stand alone short set in a world where humanity is being invaded by aliens with superior weaponry. Reverse engineering enables mankind to create new tech... HARM."

Tales From A Yellow Star Free from Sept 11, 2012 to Sept 15, 2012

The Free promo campaign for my ebooks is now live!  Right now Tales From A Yellow Star is free  from Sept 11, 2012 to Sept 15, 2012!  Stay tuned for more upcoming freebies.

"Big Bang For Your Buck ...ideal for a science-fiction reader. More please, Mr. Lok."  A. Chow at Amazon.com
"Good exciting short sci-fi stories ...Good descriptions, believable characters and understandable plot, with credible technology. I enjoyed this."  Chopper at Amazon.co.uk

Amazon USA / Canada http://www.amazon.com/Tales-From-Yellow-Star-ebook/dp/B007HHQGKM
Amazon UK   http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tales-From-Yellow-Star-ebook/dp/B007HHQGKM

Quick Status
I'm running a low key campaign and I'm getting decent downloads.  Over 150 in the last day and a half.  Again, thank you to anyone who has downloaded it.  It is ranking about 40 to 50 in the free SF download list so I'm pretty happy.  If you enjoy it and have a chance, leave me some feedback or a quick review on Amazon if you.

Raid on Kahamba Release / Limited Time Free Book Promo

Good day, Everyone!

Raid on Kahamba is undergoing final edits and I hope to have it up in the Amazon store sometime during the week of September 10-16, 2012.  I hope people enjoy this science fiction action story with mecha combat.  I would love to hear comments back from mecha fans or anyone who just enjoyed the story.  I've tried to create a believable world and am introducing key elements that will figure in the the Exocrisis Blue series which is the next thing I'll be writing up.

Now onto the other news.  Amazon allows authors to put their works up for free every so often to promote their books if they are part of the KDP program.  Here is the free book promo schedule I'll be setting up on Amazon.

• Free from Sept 11, 2012 to Sept 15, 2012  Tales From A Yellow Star  
• Free from Sept 16, 2012 to Sept 20, 2012  HARM  (first Exocrisis story)
• Free from Sept 19, 2012 to Sept 23, 2012  Raid on Kahamba (second Exocrisis story)

Hit the link below to see the direct links to the Kindle store.
My Ebook Publications

If you manage to snag it for free, please leave some comments here on the blog or an Amazon review.  I have a few reviews, but would appreciate more.

Above Photo credit: liza31337 / Flickr

Exocrisis Blue: Raid on Kahamba Cover Art

Hi everyone!

The next story set in the Exocrisis Blue universe is on schedule for a mid-September 2012 release.  I'm glad to report that the first draft is about 80% complete with everything outlined to the end.  It will be a novella length story that is double the length of, HARM, the first story.  This story explains more of the back story for Exocrisis Blue and takes place 10 years after HARM.  It is not a sequel to the first story even though there are recurring characters and is completely self-contained.  If you like mecha action and commando raids then stay tuned for more updates!

I've even been working on the cover art which will look like this.  The cover is in the same style as the first cover for HARM and would look nice on anyones electronic bookshelf.

All of Earth's Water and Our Puny Planet Vs. A Solar Flare

Earth Vs. Solar Flare
Seems like there's news all the time right now about the sun.  A few news books and articles have appeared about the sun, our source of energy for life.  When you compare the size of a solar flare to our puny planet, you realize just how powerful a flare is.  A solar flare is like easily a hundred times larger than the earth.  Not too many scifi spaceships or technologies capable of take that kind of damage.

There is a good article here and it has a great graphic.
http://www.universetoday.com/96465/guest-post-our-explosive-sun/
The article's author also just published a book about the sun and an excerpt can be found here.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=hottest-stars-extreme-cosmos

All of Earth's Water
For some reason it also reminded me about this other infographic about all of the water on earth shown as a sphere.  Sure doesn't seem like very much water is out there when you see the graphic.  When you see images like these, it does makes you realize how small you are.

Big blue sphere is all the water on Earth!

The image above is courtesy of the USGS and there is a very informative article about the graphic here.
http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/2010/gallery/global-water-volume.html

Moon Dust and Solar Flares - Science News

I recently ran across a couple of very interesting news articles.  One from NASA and another from a research group examining the toxicity of lunar dust.

Solar Flare Coronal Mass Ejection / NASA

We've entered a high cycle for solar activity and the photos of solar flares and the movies are amazing to see.  Possible disruption of your electronic devices - maybe.  Nothing like toasted electronics everywhere if a big enough flare pops up.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/News071212-X1.4flare.html

I also never realized how much of a problem lunar dust is.  The particles are just deadly to humans.  These dust particles are razor sharp as they have never been weathered and they are like inhaling asbestos or other really sharp glassy silicates.  They're abrasive to the skin and eyes and bad for the lungs.  Wow.  Talk about needing to clean off the old spacesuit.  Decontamination bath time and major scrubbing and vacuuming.
http://www.universetoday.com/96208/the-moon-is-toxic/