Shh! Be Vewy Quiet. I’m Hunting Weviews. Er, #BookReviews #free #ScienceFiction

I’m still looking for pre-release reviews for OTHER EARTH, OTHER STARS.

Here are the sections:

SPACE

Science fiction. Back in the “golden age” of the first pulp
science fiction magazines, the term mainly conjured visions
of spaceships and ray-guns. There are no ray-guns
here, but the first group of stories in this collection take
place in the artificial atmospheres of a ship, station, or
habitat off the characters’ native planet.

Apart from the first title, the stories in this section are
flash (also called postcard) fiction, a form to which I’m
partial.

Mermayds, the Species

Mermaids are creatures of fantasy. Mermayds, on the other
hand, are sentient natural creatures. I created mermayds
for my novel (out of print, as of the date of this collection’s
publication), EEL’S REVERENCE. The first two stories
take place long before the novel. “Blood of Mermayds”
takes place only a year or two before the novel, and
“Becalmed at Sea” takes place not long after the novel’s
end.

Alien Earth

Science fiction isn’t always about outer space, of course; it
can be set right here on Earth.

The first two stories in this section are what I call
“soft steampunk”. True, classic steampunk is a form of
alternate history in which inventions of modern times were
invented in the past, but worked by steam or clockwork;
the “punk” part comes from a dystopian component, with
a strong thread of anti-establishmentarianism. Soft
steampunk is a travesty, and, of course, that’s what I write:
steam, clockwork, blimps, sky pirates, and nonsense are
my watchwords. Any social consciousness is purely
coincidental. So, no, I don’t consider myself a steampunk
author; I just play one in my own mind sometimes.

“Dog Star” is a good old alien crash-landing on Earth
story, told from the point-of-view of the dogs who find him.

“Sure Thing” is a flash fiction buddy story in which one of
the buddies is an earthling and one is his alien hired hand.

“Pile-up” posits a scientific understanding that we
haven’t yet reached, but that I’m ready for when it comes.

“Snow on the Screen” . . . Not quite sure what to say
about that one.

The rest of the pieces in this section take place in Earth’s
future.

Alien Worlds

Maybe there’ll never be faster-than-light travel. Maybe
we’ll never find sentient life (that we can recognize and
with which we can interact) on other planets. But that’s no
fun! What’s interesting is imagining people like us somewhere
and somewhen else.

“The Woman Who Wasn’t A Shavetail” features a
bit character from my novel SIDESHOW IN THE CENTER
RING. The woman of the title is the main character
from that novel, but the story is told by someone who
was only in one scene, but insisted on having his own story.

If you’d be interested in reading the uncorrected proof (electronic format) and leaving a pre-release (or, I suppose, post-release) review, let me know and I’ll send you a PDF copy.OtherEarth5cA WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: Have your main character write a book review.

MA

About

I was born in Louisville, Kentucky, but now live in the woods in southern Indiana. Though I only write fiction, I love to read non-fiction. The more I learn about this world, the more fantastic I see it is.

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One thought on “Shh! Be Vewy Quiet. I’m Hunting Weviews. Er, #BookReviews #free #ScienceFiction

  1. Jane

    July 19, 2015 at 10:02am

    YES, OF COURSE!

    You know where to send it! 😉

    Permalink  ⋅ Reply
  2. Heidi C. Vlach

    July 20, 2015 at 12:16am

    I still think Eel’s Reverence is a fantastic book and I really hope it sees distribution again so I can tell all my friends to read it. So I’d love to review the mermayd stories!

    Permalink  ⋅ Reply
    • Author

      Marian Allen

      July 20, 2015 at 8:08am

      Oh! Bless you ever-lovin’ pea-pickin’ heart! I’m doing a little revision on it, hoping to get it back into circulation in 2016. Sending you the science fiction collection now. Thanks! 🙂

      Permalink  ⋅ Reply

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