Allison Wall writes sci fi

Welcome Allison Wall and her debut self-publishing short story adventure. Allison and I met at Novel-In-Progress Bookcamp a few years ago.

Footnotes on a Space Opera: A Musical First Encounter Short Story

sci fi short story

.99 ebook

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About the story:

In the year 2026, aliens landed on Earth. But they didn't come to take our planet or to annihilate us. They came for the last thing anyone expected. They came for opera.

 

Told from the distant future, this first encounter short story imagines a reality in which opera--one of Western culture's greatest but most polarizing musical traditions--becomes planet Earth's greatest interstellar export.

 

Arrival meets Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera.

 

In Footnotes on a Space Opera, author and classically trained soprano Allison Wall fuses her love of opera with a dry, brilliant humor that will have readers laughing out loud. 

Allison, what do you love about your story?

So many things! The form. The combination of two of my favorite things: science fiction and opera. Most of all, I love the "what if" the story asks: What if aliens arrived and they were interested in the last thing we thought they'd be? Because that seems to me like the most likely option—not that real aliens would necessarily be classical music fans, but that their intentions and goals are probably nothing like what we imagine. I think that's the strength of fiction, and what interests me about speculative fiction in particular, the ability to ask a fantastical "what if" question and follow cause and effect to see what might happen in a scenario like that.

 

Introduce us to your best-behaved character.

Interesting question... Because the short story is in an unconventional format—that of a paper or a chapter in a history book—characters don't show up on the page in the way they typically would. It's not always clear who's behaving well and what people's true intentions are! I suppose I might put forward the narrator, but even she is breaking rules, though she's doing it for the right reasons.

 

What do you want readers to tell other readers after they've read the short story?

I would love for readers to compare their favorite humorous moments. There are so many to talk about. A few are classical music inside jokes, but the vast majority are very accessible. I would love for readers to talk about the treasure hunt of the footnotes, and what they revealed about what was really going on in the story. I would also love for readers to talk about opera! It's an art form that the majority of contemporary society has never learned or forgotten how to listen to, which is a shame, because, as the aliens in Footnotes on a Space Opera convince the world, it is an extremely powerful medium.

 

What are you reading now?

I just finished reading The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers, a German writer with a really fun, whimsical style. It's a comedic adventure novel about writers, literature, and the publishing industry, and the main character is a dinosaur named Optimus Yarnspinner. I highly recommend it.

 

What’s next for you?

I have several novels in the works! Currently, I'm editing and exploring publishing options for The Violet Tamarind, a futuristic speculative fiction novel, in which a crew of cyborg airship pirates go hunting for a legendary treasure.

 

About the author:

Allison Wall is an American writer. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from Hamline University and has published short fiction and personal essays and book reviews.

Allison is trained as a classical singer and pianist, and she works as a music teacher, dissertation editor, and academic tutor.

In the general chaos of 2020, Allison found out she is neurodivergent (autism, ADHD). She is passionate about sharing her experiences, advocating for empathy, and contributing to a world in which neurodiversities are seen on an inclusive spectrum of brain differences, not pathologized as illnesses. To that end, she runs NEURODIVERSION, a monthly newsletter that centers neurodiverse news, research, and current events. Connect with Allison on her website or Twitter

 

Sci fi and Frank Dravis's Dianis series

The Matriarch, book 2 in the Dianis, a World in Turmoil Chronicles

Frank Dravis

Epic Sci-fi/fantasy

Six Factors Publishing, LLC, March 2020

386 pp

$3.89 ebook

Buy on Amazon

About the Book

The second book in the Dianis, A World In Turmoil chronicles, The Matriarch, a sci-fi fantasy, centers on the protected planet of Dianis. In a sudden shift of federation policy the planet is stripped of its cultural observers and colonization control agents, but a single team circumvents the withdrawal and stays behind. Love, friendship, and career aspirations drive the members of the last remaining Interspecies Development Branch team.  In many ways The Matriarch can be compared to Dune. Both are on primitive backwater worlds with precious resources coveted by the galaxy. Both are protected by a caretaker organization, and both succumb to galactic intrigue and betrayal.

The IDB team has disappeared, and the Matrincy, the governing council of adepts has intervened seeking clues as to their whereabouts. In the absence of the IDB, Nordarken Mining has intruded in the planet in its quest for new sources of aquamarine, a strategic resource needed in the Turboii War. Before his disappearance, Chief Inspector Achelous of the IDB predicted Nordarken Mining, in the form of extrasolars, would invade the planet and they do.

The effort to defend Dianis from extrasolar incursions has attracted the attention of the powerful Paleowrights a major religious sect on Dianis. The Paleowrights covet the technologies that Achelous brought to Dianis and have begun to raid any suspected sites where Achelous and his team may be. The free peoples of Dianis are thus faced with two enemies: galactic conglomerates intent on stealing their resources and the provincial Paleowrights intent on suppressing their free will.

Becoming aware of the cosmic turmoil that surrounds her lover Achelous, Marisa, a trader princess and force of nature, learns more and more of Achelous's secrets: he is not the simple Dianis trader he pretended to be but an undercover agent for a secret monitoring organization of a galactic federation hundreds of years in advance of her own. Marisa loves Achelous, her son, and her country, but can she unravel the mystery of Achelous' disappearance in time to save him from Paleowright retribution?

My review

The world of Dianis holds more precious secrets than the desperately needed and highly sought aquamarine taken for granted by the planet’s inhabitants.

Once secluded and sheltered from a galaxy at war, matriarch herself, the leading adept, or a type of mind-reader, of the ruling federation council has taken an interest in the turmoil surrounding this planet. The federation's leading expert on Dianis, cultural anthropologist Archelus, chief inspector of Interspecies Development, has not only been found, but has committed a grievous misstep on the planet he's supposed to be observing. He's uncovered the surface secret that makes Dianis a prize to mining companies eager to profit from war, but also the darker secret that would destroy the balance of power in the federation.

Dianis is a complicated hierarchy of various species with several different moralities and faith values at odds--sound like another world we know? The mysterious but despised Paleowrights know something's amiss due to strange phenomena occurring on their world and will use any means to control the source of these powerful abilities. At war with the Life Believers and everyone else, they wreak havoc. The Matriarch goes undercover to the planet to determine the real interest in exploiting this little world. Who will win the battle over Dianis’s true treasure trove?

Told in multiple viewpoints in epic format from a boundless cast, it’s troglodytes, Timberkeeps, Paleowrights and various tribal peoples fight to defend their way of living and coping on Dianis, a small planet in the Margel Damansk Asteroid Cloud. At stake? The culture of Dianis. At greater stake? A battle for control of the galaxy. Fans of epic sci fi serials will enjoy this second episode in the World in Turmoil series.

About the Author

Living along the Mississippi River, Frank Dravis has leveraged his many life experiences to write The Foundry, the first book in the Dianis, A World In Turmoil series. He was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan where he and his father cruised the Great Lakes. His father often chose to go out on the lake when it was empty, on the roughest days. Frank spent six years in the US Navy chasing Soviet submarines during the Cold War. His love of the sea is reflected in The Foundry, a love he has shared with his wife and two girls.

A hunter, Frank has taken game with a variety of weapons, including the bow, rifle, shotgun, and muzzleloader, the weapon modeled in The Foundry and used as the tool of choice in the fight against corsairs in The Citadel.

He assists his wife in her passion for horses as stable hand and the sole rider of Shaboom their willful appaloosa. Equines appear regularly in the Dianis series, not as horses, but as eenus.

Frank's care for Earth and the stewardship of their land in Wisconsin are reflected in the culture and ethos of the Timberkeeps.

He has two degrees, a Bachelor of Computer Science and a Master of Business Administration. Those degrees have been integral to his professional life where he has worked in a variety of roles from software engineer, to marketing executive, to chief information officer, at such prominent firms as SAP and Organic Valley. The technical and scientific acumen he gained through those endeavors is demonstrated in the series in the effort to make the Dianis brand of science practically possible somewhere in the galaxy today.

Science Fiction The Third Thaw

Third Thaw by Karl J Hanson

Young adult futuristic fiction

August 2018

EL Marker, Publisher

$5.99

$17.95

Buy on Amazon 

About the Book:

Mankind forced to relocate to a different habitable environment, light years from Earth. A group of young people on a distant planet who must re-establish human civilization. A fantastical yet realistic world based on plausible technological developments. A power-mad egomaniac determined to destroy anyone who gets in his way. This is The Third Thaw, a hard science fiction novel that presents a radically different strategy for planet colonization, one within the grasp of present technologies.

In a settlement called New Eden, live a group of teens known as the Third Thaw. They come from Earth, conceived there and sent as frozen embryos on a rocket ship to this planet twenty-six light years away, a journey that lasted 80,000 years. 

When they reach the age of twenty-one, after being thoroughly and specifically educated for their future tasks, the Third Thaw must leave New Eden to assist with colonizing a larger, permanent settlement on the planet. 

After the First and Second Thaws fail to complete their expedition, it’s up to the Third Thaw to succeed and save civilization.

As the highly-trained expedition party heads out to fulfill their tasks, they encounter life-threatening obstacles in their way, many of which challenged the Thaws that preceded them. 

Not the least of these is a group broken off from a German colony sent from Earth years earlier. This group and their leader, Ulrich, believe they are evolved beyond ordinary humans. 

Ulrich, along with his supercomputer “Genius,” is determined to destroy the Third Thaw. And anyone else who threatens to stop him.

Review:

The Third Thaw is an intriguing distant future yet familiar novel that spans several genres, from coming of age to New Adult to mildly science fiction fantasy. The summary explains the story quite well. If you like Lord of the Flies combined with some of Ray Bradbury’s robotic parent-teacher tales, you’ll find The Third Thaw enjoyable. A little rough start with formal language eventually smoothed out into a very nicely written, engaging story. One aspect I was surprised about was that the children raised in New Eden are virtual innocents, not even taught about adult relationships, then expected to go forth and populate their new world, but there were a number of twists that kept me turning pages. The story is an intriguing tale about potential societal development when attempting to start from scratch. I wanted to read this story as I worked on my book, Parhelion, that revolves around a similar theme of starting a new civilization from scratch and was glad to note we each have our own fresh perspective.

New Sci Fi epic series

The Foundry

Frank Dravis

c. Jan 2018

$3.49 ebook

$12.89 print

Buy on Amazon

About the Book

A storm of greed and lust for global domination is rolling through the forests of Mount Mars, on the planet Dianis. The assault crashes against the walls of an idyllic town called Wedgewood. Over the walls Paleowright soldiers and their troglodyte allies climb and meet the human defenders sword against teeth, and shield against claws. In a staggering retreat, the defenders fight the first battle to save their planet from tyranny and galactic exploitation. Outnumbered, the citizens and mercenaries of Wedgewood stand shoulder to shoulder and send the rally call to their brethren. 

For IDB Chief Inspector Achelous, if Wedgewood falls the plans to protect the planet from Nordarken Mining fail as well. Those plans rest on the forge in Wedgewood's foundry. Ruthless in its insatiable demand for a rare mineral, Nordarken ignores the federation law – ULUP -- that protects the isolated, primitive planet. Destroying whole cultures to satisfy their avarice is just the cost of doing business, but for Achelous, a ULUP enforcer, it's his job to protect the defenseless. 

The politics authorizing ULUP are complex, and Nordarken is a master of manipulation. Ordered to leave Dianis, Achelous and his team face an excruciating dilemma. In a surprise, as the story of Dianis unfolds, Achelous learns he is not alone against both the global and galactic powers. Marisa, a trader princess, and Christina, an Ascalon Defender, respond to Wedgewood's rally call, but as provincials, they are unaccustomed to stellar intrigue. 

The defense of liberty for Dianis starts here, in The Foundry. 

My Review

Epic in length and subject, Dravis’s sci-fi fantasy far distant future world is at heart a passionate treatise on environmental protection.

When a valuable mineral is found on a distant planet that also features beings with untapped powers that could affect the tide of galactic war, the race is on to plunder Dianis’s resources no matter the law.

The Foundry features Archelous, a man living a mysterious double life as an embedded native on an undeveloped world while also trying to defend that world from intergalactic turmoil. Dravis’s world-building skills are finely developed, as are his very real complex characters. While I love sci-fi fantasy, I occasionally found the details overblown and admit to skipping through some parts to pick up the threads of what, at first, was a story within a story. But unlike other lengthy books I had to put down for a time due to other projects, I found I was able to pick up the story again within a page of reading.

My caveat to readers is that you will want to set aside goodly chunks of time to immerse yourself in this complicated and challenging story. Characters from a number of different environments and philosophies unite to protect not only one world, but ethics in general. Told in numerous points of view throughout, readers may occasionally need to backtrack to determine the new speaker as there is little attempt to separate these viewpoints and introspection can be muddled. The characters are unique and fresh, however, and quite engaging as they battle for justice against their own kind as well as all manner of sentient beings. Archelous is heroic, but I found myself rooting for Outish. And to learn who those folks are, you’ll just have to read.

About the Author

Living along the Mississippi River, Frank Dravis has leveraged his many life experiences to write The Foundry, the first book in the Dianis, A World In Turmoil series. He was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan where he and his father cruised the Great Lakes. His father often chose to go out on the lake when it was empty, on the roughest days. Frank spent six years in the US Navy chasing Soviet submarines during the Cold War. His love of the sea is reflected in The Foundry, a love he has shared with his wife and two girls. Frank's care for Earth and the stewardship of their land in Wisconsin are reflected in the culture and ethos of the Timberkeeps. 

He has two degrees, a Bachelor of Computer Science and a Master of Business Administration. Those degrees have been integral to his professional life where he has worked in a variety of roles from software engineer, to marketing executive, to chief information officer, at such prominent firms as SAP and Organic Valley. The technical and scientific acumen he gained through those endeavors is demonstrated in the series in the effort to make the Dianis brand of science practically possible somewhere in the galaxy today. Follow the Turmoil series on Facebook. 

Sci Fi Soap Opera MM Perry

Mission's End series, book 1: The 13
$3.99
buy books 1 & 2 $6.99
c. April 2017

Buy on Amazon

About the Book

After an epic 700 year journey, the 13 ships of the colonial fleet are nearing their new home. One of them isn't going to make it.

While everyone around her celebrates the end of their generations-long mission, Naomi frets. She knows a disturbing secret few are privy to. One of the ships in the fleet has gone dark. No one knows why.

Mike is an obedient soldier, but if his commanders knew the doubts he was harboring, he'd be the next one spaced. When he accompanies Naomi to the fleet's silent ship, his worst fears are confirmed. Naomi's life is in danger and he's the only one who can save her.

As they uncover the mystery of the unresponsive ship, they soon realize there's only one way they'll make it to Mission's End. One ship must fall. Mike and Naomi will do whatever it takes to make sure that ship isn't theirs.

My Review

Well thought-out science fiction soap opera, ala Future Shock, The Giver, and many other sagas of humanity in search of a new home. We don’t know why these people are sent off or what happened to Earth, but the fact that some 10-15,000 humans on thirteen generational ships know Earth and its customs makes for good connections without the author having to teach us too many new and strange things.

Perry has created a cast of memorable and well-fleshed characters. From floor waxers to different class engineers to genetically enhanced caretakers, societal structure is strict protocol on the ships. How else are thousands of people going to hold together for a 700-year journey?

But the truth of the matter is…not very well. One ship, the Magellan, the ship of this tale and its main characters, has maintained a very happy but restricted standard of living to keep its infertile placeholder humans pleasantly occupied during these last years before landing on a chosen planet. Everything during these many generations has been pre-programmed, from expected death and repopulation rate, to food, oxygen, medical needs, work and play, education and nurture. Redundant society has been programmed into three levels which don’t interact: command, general population, and military. All three are necessary for the survival and establishment of a new planet-bound colony. But things don’t go as merrily on other ships, which experience catastrophic accidents and/or mutinies.

Things really aren’t what they seem, especially when two ships join forces. I found the story exciting and page-turning. I love science fiction and appreciate enough detail to make a journey believable without getting stranded in too much tech talk. I did wonder at why so many people were necessary to “live” during the many, many generations it took to travel to the new world, when their real job was to build the new world and care for and nurture the first generation of fertile embryos when they reached mission’s end. The author chose to head-hop throughout which led to some confusion upon occasion about who was talking, though most of the story is told through a female engineer, Naomi Tesla. I thought her society was interesting, especially when seen through the eyes of others. It’s a lengthy saga, and you’ll want chunks of time to spend in Perry’s world when you pick up this book. I had to get the second one too.

About the Author

M.M. Perry has published ten books. By day, she is an expert cat and dog wrangler, a nacho connoisseur, and writer of fantasy, science fiction and horror. By night… she does the same things. She is hard at work editing her next novel. She’s equally busy teaching her pug to sing along to the Muppets. She is known for saying, “No task involving a pug is impossible, just highly improbable.”

Read more about M.M. Perry at authormmperry.com

Reviewed for VoraciousReadersOnly.com

Sci fi lovers! Grace Bridges is back

BRIDGES OF SPLASHDOWN Yes... yes I have been off the scene for some time! Bear with me while I shake things up just a little bit. Come along for a free story in Mariah's world, AND a spaceship poem...

99c That's right - for this week only, you can still get my latest novel, Mariah's Dream, for just 99c on Kindle. If you need another format, just let me know.

But that's not all... Mariah's Prologue #7, "Foe or Forager", is a tale of Peter and Liam before the events of the novel. You won't want to miss it! Coming soon on Kindle, but for now, click here to view for FREE in Issue 5 of the Common Oddities e-zine; you can also check out my space opera poem, "Let There Be Stars". I'd love to hear what you think!