Friday, April 3, 2015

How Readers Feel About The IX

 
I thought I'd share some recent reviews of The IX to let you know how people are feeling.
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If you're looking for a rich, complex and compelling story, then look no farther than Andrew Weston's "The IX."

As an avid Sci-Fi fan, this book caught my attention from the beginning with an interesting premise, good strong characters and just the right mix of the new and familiar. I love the premise behind this book, and the author definitely did it justice. The pulling of soldiers from unique time periods and cultures added a lot of depth to the book. Furthermore, Weston did well with each of the cultures, having the different characters respond in situations to ways that felt culturally appropriate.

I've often felt that the true measure of a hero is not just in their 'heroic deeds,' but in how interesting and difficult their villains are to face. The evil hoard in this book was not only a formidable foe, but it was an interesting creation all on its own. One part horror creatures, one part old-school evil aliens, the antagonists in this book were well thought out and formed.

The different characters were engaging and interesting, which is hard to do when you have as many as Weston has in this work. The battle tactics felt real and practical. Overall, this was an enjoyable and fun read. Fans of TV shows like 'Warehouse 13' and 'Supernatural,' and the film 'Timeline' should definitely check out this book!
 
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I am not generally a fan of this genre, but I've been trying to spread my wings a bit lately with my reading. I wouldn't say that this book has made me want to buy more in the genre, but it kept my attention the entire time and the writing was superb. I was definitely invested in the characters and had to finish the book to see how it would end. This is a fast-paced read with a large cast of characters each with their own agenda. I would say readers of high fantasy and epic fantasy will rate this very highly. Enjoy!
 
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With its superb and vivid writing, this novel is one that readers can certainly sink their teeth into. It's obvious from the get-go that the author is not only gifted with an extraordinary imagination but also with the ability to bring to life a strangely compelling cast of characters in an equally strangely compelling atmosphere of danger and suspense, starting with the clever premise of bringing together warriors from different periods in time and assembling them in a tense struggle for survival in an alien world. How these people of such diverse cultures and attitudes are able to engage in a fierce combat with an obviously powerful and inhuman enemy makes up the bulk of the storyline. While a sense of impending danger is always present in chapter after chapter, one is frequently struck not only by the increasing momentum of events being described, but also (for example) by such striking descriptive passages like the one early on in the novel, describing an Indian warrior with "tomahawk in hand, long flowing locks streaming behind him in the gale,...a vision of the very land itself come to life."
This would surely translate into a tremendous theatrical film. The absorbing, action-packed storyline, and the vividly etched characterizations are already present in the writing in an incredibly visual way. One of the best-written science-fiction sagas to come my way in a long time!
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If you would like to find out more about the sci-fi epic of 2015, just check out the links below, or on the picture of the covers in the side bar.

 

 
Roman legionnaires, far from home, lost in the mists of Caledonia.

A  US cavalry company, engaged on a special mission, vital to the peace treaty proposed by Presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln.

A twenty-first century Special Forces unit, desperate to prevent a nuclear catastrophe.

From vastly different backgrounds, these soldiers are united when they are snatched away from Earth at the moment of their passing. Thinking they may have been granted a reprieve, imagine their horror when they discover they have been transported to a failing planet on the far side of the galaxy, where they are given a simple ultimatum. Fight or die. Against all odds, this group of misfits manages to turn the tide against a relentless foe, only to discover the true cost of victory might exact a price they are unwilling to pay.

How far would you be willing to go to stay alive?
The IX.
Sometimes, death is only the beginning of the adventure.
 
 

 
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Sunday, March 29, 2015

The IX

Film? Game? Graphic Novel?

 
What Reviewers are saying about the IX
 
"Make This Superb, Sensational, Spectacular Story Into A Movie Please!"
 
"...let there be no doubt that I seriously do not anticipate reading a better book in 2015."
 
"This would surely translate into a tremendous theatrical film. The absorbing, action-packed storyline, and the vividly etched characterizations are already present in the writing in an incredibly visual way. One of the best-written science-fiction sagas to come my way in a long time!"
 
"...military science fiction in the grand tradition of Robert A. Heinlein, Poul Anderson, Gordon R. Dickson, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, Janet Morris, and Joe Haldeman."
 
"Walk the Ix and get lost inside this wonderful story that is sure to become a modern classic of heroic and military science fiction."
 
"We would strongly recommend this book to any fan of adventure stories, not just sci-fi and agree that it would form the basis for a successful feature film."
 
"Brilliant writing, allied with fast paced and compelling action make this for a book that should be enjoyed over and over."
 
"This book shattered all of my expectations. I expected a good book, knowing Perseid Press and the kind of work that they put out, but I was not prepared for this kind of quality. Andrew Weston has a way of putting you in the moment, mist swirling around you, spent brass rattling into the ground near your feet, swords slashing your companions to death as they scream incoherent terror into the press."
 
"The author, with his own military background, provides fantastic research and information from the perspective of somebody who clearly knows his stuff. It's a gripping read and a real page turner. Graphic, novel with the right blend of war and sci-fi."
 
"Fight or die" is the only choice for warriors from the past, present, and future in a novel sure to please you if you like a mix of high adventure, military history, hard science fiction, and metaphysics. A tour de force! Highly recommended."
 
"You'll be on the edge of your chair for the climax of this major novel by an amazing, polymathic new talent."
 
"The IX has taken me back to the books I enjoyed in my youth (Jerry Pournelle's King David's Spaceship or Gordon Dickson's Hour of the Horde)"
 
 
 
 
Roman legionnaires, far from home, lost in the mists of Caledonia.
A  US cavalry company, engaged on a special mission, vital to the peace treaty proposed by Presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln.
A twenty-first century Special Forces unit, desperate to prevent a nuclear catastrophe.
From vastly different backgrounds, these soldiers are united when they are snatched away from Earth at the moment of their passing. Thinking they may have been granted a reprieve, imagine their horror when they discover they have been transported to a failing planet on the far side of the galaxy, where they are given a simple ultimatum. Fight or die. Against all odds, this group of misfits manages to turn the tide against a relentless foe, only to discover the true cost of victory might exact a price they are unwilling to pay.
How far would you be willing to go to stay alive?
The IX. Sometimes, death is only the beginning of the adventure.
 
Experience the Fight for Yourself!

 
The IX
 
Amazon:
 
Barnes & Noble:
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Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Could You Imagine A Game Concept Built On This?

The IX
 

 

Fight or Die!
What could unite a Roman Legion and the Caledonian army they are fighting?
 
Or a US Cavalry Company with the Native American tribes arrayed against them?
 
How about a highly trained and motivated Special Forces unit and the terrorists they have been sent to wipe out at all costs?
 
Yes…
What could such a diverse and mutually aggressive group possibly have in common?
 
Arden – and the Horde, that’s what!
 
Arden, home to a culture that has existed for thousands of years and which spans dozens of worlds. Regardless, their sophistication cannot prevent calamity at the hands of an unstoppable nemesis. Known only as the Horde, this enemy has proven relentless. They have not only stripped the outer colonies bare, but now threaten the existence of the entire Ardenese way of life.
Realizing there is nothing they can do to prevent the inevitable march toward extinction, the Ardenese governing body comes to a drastic decision. They gather together at their capital city, Rhomane, and place their remaining genetic heritage in a vast underground ark, in the care of an advanced AI construct called the Architect. Its mission? To use Rhomane’s dwindling reserves and safeguard their race by reaching out across time and space toward those who might be in a position to help reseed a devastated world at some time in the future.
That’s how soldiers from varying eras and vastly different backgrounds find themselves together. Snatched away from Earth at the moment of their passing they are transported to the far side of the galaxy. Thinking they have been granted a reprieve, their relief turns to horror when they discover they face a simple but stark ultimatum:
Put aside your former animosities and preconceptions in order to survive. Quite simply…
 
Fight or die!
 
How does this group of mismatched and antagonistic misfits fare?
 
Find out for yourselves, in The IX.
… And remember...
Sometimes, death is only the beginning of the adventure!
 
*******
 
 

Roman legionnaires, far from home, lost in the mists of Caledonia.

A  US cavalry company, engaged on a special mission, vital to the peace treaty proposed by Presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln.

A twenty-first century Special Forces unit, desperate to prevent a nuclear catastrophe.

From vastly different backgrounds, these soldiers are united when they are snatched away from Earth at the moment of their passing. Thinking they may have been granted a reprieve, imagine their horror when they discover they have been transported to a failing planet on the far side of the galaxy, where they are given a simple ultimatum. Fight or die. Against all odds, this group of misfits manages to turn the tide against a relentless foe, only to discover the true cost of victory might exact a price they are unwilling to pay.

How far would you be willing to go to stay alive?

The IX. Sometimes, death is only the beginning of the adventure.

Experience the Fight for Yourself!

 
The IX
 
Amazon:
 
Barnes & Noble:
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The IX

Shining Like A Diamond

 
 
Why is the IX maintaining its stranglehold in the world of Science-Fiction?
What draws lovers of fantasy to its cause?
Why are so many people suggesting it should be a movie - a graphic novel series - or the latest craze in game design?
 
 
Fight or Die!
What could unite a Roman Legion and the Caledonian army they are fighting?
Or a US Cavalry Company with the Native American tribes arrayed against them?
How about a highly trained and motivated Special Forces unit and the terrorists they have been sent to wipe out at all costs?
Yes…
What could such a diverse and mutually aggressive group possibly have in common?
Arden – and the Horde, that’s what!
Arden, home to a culture that has existed for thousands of years and which spans dozens of worlds. Regardless, their sophistication cannot prevent calamity at the hands of an unstoppable nemesis. Known only as the Horde, this enemy has proven relentless. They have not only stripped the outer colonies bare, but now threaten the existence of the entire Ardenese way of life.
Realizing there is nothing they can do to prevent the inevitable march toward extinction, the Ardenese governing body comes to a drastic decision. They gather together at their capital city, Rhomane, and place their remaining genetic heritage in a vast underground ark, in the care of an advanced AI construct called the Architect. Its mission? To use Rhomane’s dwindling reserves and safeguard their race by reaching out across time and space toward those who might be in a position to help reseed a devastated world at some time in the future.
That’s how soldiers from varying eras and vastly different backgrounds find themselves together. Snatched away from Earth at the moment of their passing they are transported to the far side of the galaxy. Thinking they have been granted a reprieve, their relief turns to horror when they discover they face a simple but stark ultimatum:
Put aside your former animosities and preconceptions in order to survive. Yes…
Fight or die!
How does this group of mismatched and antagonistic misfits fare?
Do they survive?
Find out for yourselves, in The IX.
… And remember…
Sometimes, death is only the beginning of the adventure!
*******
 If you like science -fiction to contain an element of myth and fantasy and a cutting historical edge, then this is the epic for you.
*******
Amazon:
 
Barnes & Noble:
 
 
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Tuesday, March 24, 2015


SpaceX Photos – Now Available Under a Creative Commons License


For all those interested in astronomy and any other aspect of stargazing, I spotted this excellent article on Motherboard the other day – and had to share it with you here.
See what you think

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Following a launch last month that was operated by SpaceX but paid for by NASA, we wondered: Who owns the photos taken on the mission? And what do we lose when a company starts to own many of the photos taken in space?

Since the beginning of the Space Age, most photos we have of space, and most of the photos taken from space of the Earth, were taken by NASA. NASA is a government agency, so those photos go into what’s known as the public domain, meaning they can be used by anyone for any purpose, including commercial ones.

UPDATE: Elon Musk has tweeted that these photos are now in the public domain—we've got a new article that explores what that means and what you can do with the photos.

“We don’t talk about the public domain too often, but there are no restrictions, which is how it is for most NASA photos,” Parker Higgins, a copyright expert with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told me in a podcast we recorded about the subject. “You can use them for literally whatever you want… I saw an old ad the other day and the ad was for a chocolate bar that said it was ‘out of this world,’ and then it had a picture of space. They didn’t have to clear that with anyone.”

Soon after my first story, SpaceX reached out (after not responding during the course of my original reporting), to let me know it was working on a solution.

“We’re actually looking at this right now and will have more to say soon,” the company said at the time.

Wednesday night, the company created an official Flickr account with all of the photos released under what’s known as a Creative Commons license, which gives the public the chance to reuse and share the photos in many cases.
More than 100 photos, including some of the company’s offices, employees, launches, and pictures taken from space, are currently available.
The specific license SpaceX used is known as Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic, and it does have some restrictions. Notably, no one can resell SpaceX’s photos, even if you remix or alter them (unless it falls under “fair use,” which is another area of copyright altogether that we can talk about sometime). The photos can be used by journalists to illustrate news stories. UPDATE: SpaceX has changed the license to Attribution 2.0 Generic, which means the photos can be used anywhere, including for commercial purposes, as long as SpaceX is credited.

The license also allows, say, schools to make posters and put them in their hallways, students to use them in science fair projects, and internet artists to adapt and mess with them.

“We lucked into every photo of space happening to be accessible to everyone. Except now maybe it won’t be,” Higgins said in the podcast. “For each photo, it may not matter that much, but the fact we had a resource of all the images of the Earth freely accessible, and that could go away.”
SpaceX’s move is a good one, but we’re still losing something here. The Creative Commons license is much better than nothing, but it’s still a shift from what we’ve gotten used to with space photos. It’s a side effect, I suppose, of democratizing space.

UPDATE: SpaceX founder Elon Musk announced that the company has decided to make the photos available on Flickr under a more generous license, removing the "non-commercial" requirement. The move seems to have been prompted by a ​Twitter user's question to Musk about why the company originally went with a more restrictive license. SpaceX confirmed the change to Motherboard in an email. (Note that while Musk referred to the new license as "full ​public domain" on Twitter, the legal designation in the US is not technically the same, Higgins said. "The complicating factor is that (a) who knows if Elon Musk is using the word 'public domain' carefully, and (b) Flickr does not have an option for marking works with the CC tool used to release things into the public domain, a [Creative Commons] Zero waiver," Higgins said in an email. "It only has a 'no known restrictions' option (for, say, govt or historical works) which isn't quite right here. So I don't know which it is! Either [public domain] or [Attribution 2.0] is a marked improvement... but they're not the same thing and it's not clear which it is.") 

Courtesy of Jason Koebler


So there you go – just a little article, but one fraught with possibilities for those who love to keep their own stockpile of images. :)
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Monday, March 23, 2015

The IX

The Universal Success of the IX is spreading
 
 
Were you aware of how many places The IX was popping up all over the known universe?
 
Just take a look at some of the venues:
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Amazing Stories:
 
 
 
Clarkesworld Magazine:
 

 
Black Gate:
 
 
Yes, the phenomenal success of the IX continues.
Find out for yourselves why.
 
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Roman legionnaires, far from home, lost in the mists of Caledonia.
A  US cavalry company, engaged on a special mission, vital to the peace treaty proposed by Presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln.
A twenty-first century Special Forces unit, desperate to prevent a nuclear catastrophe.
From vastly different backgrounds, these soldiers are united when they are snatched away from Earth at the moment of their passing. Thinking they may have been granted a reprieve, imagine their horror when they discover they have been transported to a failing planet on the far side of the galaxy, where they are given a simple ultimatum. Fight or die. Against all odds, this group of misfits manages to turn the tide against a relentless foe, only to discover the true cost of victory might exact a price they are unwilling to pay.
How far would you be willing to go to stay alive?
The IX. Sometimes, death is only the beginning of the adventure.
**********
Amazon:
 
Barnes & Noble:
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Saturday, March 21, 2015


Improving My Writing.

This week, I thought I’d share some of the things I do to try and improve my own writing.

It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but, I find it works for me. Hopefully, you’ll find one or two things in there that work for you.
 

1.      As I write, I like to read aloud. I feel it’s the only sure way to ensure the rhythm of the sentences is okay. It also assists me to get a feel of the ‘flow’ of the narrative.

 

2.      Keep your exclamation points under control. I write a lot of action scenes. There’s a temptation to try and emphasize certain aspects of the dialogue with the dreaded EP! (See – one jumped in right there). So, as I complete my re-read of a section, if I see one has slipped in, I take a scalpel to it with bloody vengeance.
Try it.  Take them out in all but the most exceptional cases. J

 

3.      Watch out for the word ‘suddenly’ – or similar. The bane of my life...(I refer to the action scenes I mentioned earlier. My editors pointed out my habit of doing this when I first started writing. I always work closely with my editors, so, I’ve made an effort to improve. The best way I’ve found to apply their advice is to approach the problem in waves.
As I write, I consciously try to avoid them if I can. When I do the re-read of a section for flow and rhythm, etc, I take a second look and get that scalpel out again. It’s a gradual process, and one that is now becoming a good habit.

 

4.      Keep a book. Specific scenes require certain descriptive words. But if you’re writing – for example – about a number of explosions taking place in quick succession, and each blast needs to be emphasized, don’t use the same word over and over. Use a thesaurus to assist you in the first place – AND – keep a book. I jot down those words I need, so I can memorize them, and refer to them instantly if I get stuck. (Explosion – blast – detonation – concussion – eruption – bang – implosion) – a little example J

 

5.      Write every day. I keep to a schedule. Others hate that. Find whatever is right for you, but write as often as you can...keep those creative juices flowing.

 

6.      And finally, finish the day when you’re still itching to write some more. It makes you look forward to what’s in store.

 

There you go. Nothing amazing or world-shaking, but these little pointers – constantly applied – keep my writing fresh, and help me improve. I hope they help you as well.
Until next time J
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