Blog Tour: The Childless Ones

Welcome to the book tour for “The Childless Ones,” the debut novel of Cam Rhys Lay! “The Childless Ones” will be released November 12, but you can preorder your copy now on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Book description:

TWO WORLDS...TWO ALTERNATING NARRATIVES...A REALIST RELATIONSHIP DRAMA...AN EPIC FANTASY...

In the "real world," we open with Jack Ampong just leaving a prostitute when he receives a phone call that his wife Sarah has been assaulted. With this incident as a jumping off point, we watch as Jack and Sarah deal with past guilt and regrets as well as their own ongoing struggles with relationships, infertility and parenthood.

In the "fantasy world"—ostensibly written by Jack—a bureaucratic Empire rules with an iron fist...an ancient sect of sorcerers have extraordinary powers but are cursed with the inability to have children... and a race of beings called the Mandrakar live lives one quarter the length of normal people, but have memories that are passed on to future generations through the last of an ancient breed of tree. Along the way, we meet a crotchety governor who just wants to do right by his granddaughter, a hardboiled, lesbian, dwarf detective who just wants another drink, and a villainous sorcerer whose motives form one of the central mysteries of the story.

Throughout the book, the two narratives echo off one another—often in surprising ways—ultimately commenting on the very nature of storytelling itself.

About the Author:

Cam Rhys Lay received his Bachelors Degree from the University of Pennsylvania and his MFA from the University of Kansas. For five years, he worked as an Associate Publisher at The Easton Press in Connecticut. Currently he lives in Brooklyn, New York where he runs marketing for Skillshare, an online learning community for creators. The Childless Ones is his first book. To learn more about Cam and his writing, please visit him at camrhyslay.com.

Amazon link(Preorder)

Barnes and Noble (Preorder)

Add it on Goodreads

Praise:
"impressively creates two vivid worlds, each with its own history and compelling characters, while also offering a meditation on the relationship between creativity, fertility, and shared memory. A stunning fantasy debut." -- Kirkus Reviews

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Review: Disconnected

Title: Disconnected
Author: Nick M Lloyd
Page Count: 450
My Rating: 3 TURTLES: An enjoyable read, but I suggest check out if you like the topic before adding it to your to-read list.
Amazon
*This book was given to me by the author in exchange for an honest review

Description:
What if you found a way to compel someone to support your own ambitions?
But, all the while, this newly devoted follower continued to believe their own free will was intact?
Political advisor, Asha Kharjal, has mastered the mysterious science of directly manipulating the subconscious.
He can literally rewire us.
And for the good of mankind, he’s going to. Whether we like it or not. 

Review:
Disconnected has an incredibly interesting premise which I had never come across before, which is why I took it on for review even though it is a departure from the kinds of things I usually read. I was intrigued, not only by the idea of humans having these subconscious connections with one another, but also how that idea would work in a thriller. Seeing the moral implications of being able to manipulate these connections playing out on a global political and corporate scale was fascinating. I also thought that Nick M. Lloyd did a great job interweaving the various storylines. They were all intricately connected (which I guess is appropriate given the premise) and tied up really well at the end. I thought the characters were also really strong and well-crafted. All of them exist within a sort of grey area morally, even - and especially, often - the idealistic ones. At times I'd find myself rooting for a character even though they had done awful things previously because all of them are multifaceted and live complicated lives.

Despite there being so much about this book I enjoyed, it took me a while to get into it. It wasn't that it was slow paced, but for some reason it took me longer than usual to get pulled into the story and the characters. It might have had something to do with much of the story being told through Asha's point of view, especially at the beginning. It made sense to have it be like that since he is the leader of those able to manipulate the subconscious and gives us a lot of the exposition. But I definitely got more into the story as I spent more time with the other characters. Also, even though the idea of the subconscious is explained really well for the most part, it still felt a little bit confusing at times. This could partially be because it is so well though out and elaborate, but I wonder if there could have been another way the anatomy and rules of the subconscious connections could have been explained that would have made it clearer.

Fans of science fiction should definitely check Disconnected out, but is crosses genres so well that readers of contemporary political and medical thrillers should enjoy it too.






Disclosure: this post contains links to an affiliate program (Amazon), for which I receive a few cents if you make purchases. 

Cover Reveal: Equus

Equus edited by Rhonda Parrish There’s always something magical about horses, isn’t there? Whether winged or at home in the water, mechanical or mythological, the equines that gallop through these pages span the fantasy spectrum. In one story a woman knits her way up to the stars and in another Loki's descendant grapples with bizarre transformations while fighting for their life. A woman races on a unique horse to save herself from servitude, while a man rides a chariot through the stars to reclaim his self-worth. From steampunk-inspired stories and tales that brush up against horror to straight-up fantasy, one theme connects them all: freedom. Featuring nineteen fantastic stories of equines both real and imagined by J.G. Formato, Diana Hurlburt, Tamsin Showbrook, M.L.D Curelas, Laura VanArendonk Baugh, VF LeSann, Dan Koboldt, J.J. Roth, Susan MacGregor, Pat Flewwelling, Angela Rega, Michael Leonberger, Sandra Wickham, Stephanie A. Cain, Cat McDonald, Andrew Bourelle, Chadwick Ginther, K.T. Ivanrest, and Jane Yolen. Equus is the newest installment of Rhonda Parrish’s “Magical Menageries” anthology series, preceded by Fae (2014), Corvidae (2015), Scarecrow(2015), and Sirens (2016). Equus will be released July 18, 2017, and is available now for pre-order now from Amazon, BarnesandNoble.com, iTunes, Kobo, and World Weaver Press. Rhonda Parrish is driven by the desire to do All The Things. She was the founder and editor-in-chief of Niteblade Magazine, is an Assistant Editor at World Weaver Press, and is the editor of several anthologies including, most recently, Sirens and D is for Dinosaur. In addition, Rhonda is a writer whose work has been included or is forthcoming in dozens of publications including Tesseracts 17: Speculating Canada from Coast to Coast, Imaginarium: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing (2012 & 2015), and Mythic Delerium. Her website, updated weekly, is at rhondaparrish.com. Praise for the Magical Menageries Anthology Series: “A delightfully refreshing collection that offers a totally different take on your usual fairy stories! I should have known that editor Parrish...would want to offer something quite unique. I found it difficult to stop reading as one story ended and another began – all fantastic work by gifted writers. Not for the faint of heart, by any means.” — Marge Simon, multiple Bram Stoker® winner “Corvidae evokes the majesty and mischief of corvid mythologies worldwide—and beyond our world—in a collection that is fresh and thoroughly enjoyable.” — Beth Cato, author of The Clockwork Dagger “With fifteen talented writers and a subject that is both evocative and memorable, Rhonda Parrish’s new anthology, Scarecrow, is no straw man. Like any good scarecrow, this anthology is truly outstanding in its field. Don’t be scared to pick this up and give it a read.” — Steve Vernon, author of Tatterdemon  "The call of SIRENS is quite powerful indeed. With a variety of stories, crafted with care, you will delight in the tales that the many authors weave throughout this fantastical anthology. It will lure you in and not let go." —Tara Platt, author Zartana Publication Date: July 18, 2017 • Anthology • Fantasy/Science Fiction $13.95 trade paperback, 325 pages  • $4.99 ebook ISBN-13: 978-0998702209 Publicity/Reviews: publicity@worldweaverpress.com Information: http://www.worldweaverpress.com/store/p130/Equus.html

Review: Lotus and Thorn

Title: Lotus and Thorn
Author: Sara Wilson Etienne
Page Count: 464
My Rating: 4 TURTLES: A great read, I definitely recommend.
Amazon
*I was given this book in exchange for an honest review

About the Book:

A thrilling science fiction adventure perfect for fans of Tamora Pierce and Sarah Maas

Ravaged by a plague known as Red Death, the planet Gabriel, a former colony of Earth, is a barren wasteland. Since being abandoned by Earth 500 years ago, resources are scarce and life is cheap. To stay alive, the survivors, the Citizens, scavenge the remains of a now dead city, trading for food with the resource-rich Curadores, the only other survivors on Gabriel. Every old computer, every piece of wire, every scrap of metal counts. To steal is the ultimate sin. So when tough-as-nails seventeen-year-old Leica is caught doing just that, she's exiled and left to the mercy of Gabriel's unforgiving desert for the rest of her life. 

While in exile, Leica discovers a mysterious shuttle, which may not only lead her home, but even more impossible—reestablish contact with Earth. Then Red Death rears its head again, killing her entire work crew, leaving Leica all alone until a handsome Curador offers her refuge in the Dome—the only place on Gabriel untouched by Red Death, where a decadent and sultry life awaits. But there's a catch: Leica can only enter the Dome as his concubine—his Kisaeng. When a rogue group of Citizens see their chance for revolution in Leica's good fortune, she finds herself unraveling a deadly mystery with chilling answers to the true origin of Red Death and the reason Earth really abandoned them so long ago. 

A richly imagined fantasy in the vein of Tamora Pierce, Lotus and Thorn, is a magnificent, epic adventure.

Review:

I really enjoyed this book! I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to get to, but it was certainly a good way to spend my flight back to college after going home for Easter break. Dystopian worlds (and many fictional worlds for that matter) fall into the pit of being extremely European and United States-centric. So after reading so many of those worlds, it was really cool to read a dystopia where the culture before the world went to pot was apparently a latino one. I love how the author envisioned the people would cling to certain traditions, and how they would evolve and change over time and how they would stay the same.

The characters often weren’t what they first appeared, and that made them interesting to read – and it kept me on my toes. There was quite a cast of them, but no one felt left in the wayside. They all added something to the story. (I also loved how all the Curadores were named after famous scientists, I thought that was an awesome addition!)

One thing that didn’t quite sit right with me about the story was the “big reveal” at the end. Without spoiling it, I think that part of the problem was that while it was a huge rug pull for the characters, there is a famous story that uses this exact same plot twist. Because of that, when I read it I wasn’t thinking “whoa, I didn’t see that coming” (even though I didn’t) I was thinking “oh, this is just like blank.” I think part of the reason why this reveal fell flat for me is that there was not enough foreshadowing for the reveal to not feel completely out of left field and abrupt, and because the story would have been strong enough on its own without the plot twist. The ending would not have even changed that much except that a few loose ends would have been explained differently and the characters would have had one less truth to integrate.

Lotus and Thorn is a gripping YA dystopian story of intrigue, family, and revolution. It is a real page turner and I highly recommend that you check it out.



Disclosure: this post contains links to an affiliate program (Amazon), for which I receive a few cents if you make purchases.