Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson

Robopocalypse is a sci-fi novel I received from the Amazon Vine Program, at no cost to me, and in return I'm providing my unbiased review.



This is a man vs machine apocalyptic story, a genre I love. It was an easy, entertaining read, but I only gave it three stars because the plot is familiar (when is Plague Zone coming out in film?) and predictable. I like edge of the seat suspense, and right off the bat we're told that humanity wins the war so that removed all the tension for me.


In my opinion the book reads as if it was written to be a movie and indeed it is already slated to be filmed. Normally I think the book is always better than the movie but in this case I'm betting the Steven Spielberg adaptation will be a great movie and a big hit.


If you love Terminator than give this one a read. You'll be entertained for sure.


This is the Product Description from Amazon:


They are in your house. They are in your car. They are in the skies…Now they’re coming for you.


In the near future, at a moment no one will notice, all the dazzling technology that runs our world will unite and turn against us. Taking on the persona of a shy human boy, a childlike but massively powerful artificial intelligence known as Archos comes online and assumes control over the global network of machines that regulate everything from transportation to utilities, defense and communication. In the months leading up to this, sporadic glitches are noticed by a handful of unconnected humans – a single mother disconcerted by her daughter’s menacing “smart” toys, a lonely Japanese bachelor who is victimized by his domestic robot companion, an isolated U.S. soldier who witnesses a ‘pacification unit’ go haywire – but most are unaware of the growing rebellion until it is too late.


When the Robot War ignites -- at a moment known later as Zero Hour -- humankind will be both decimated and, possibly, for the first time in history, united. Robopocalypse is a brilliantly conceived action-filled epic, a terrifying story with heart-stopping implications for the real technology all around us…and an entertaining and engaging thriller unlike anything else written in years.


DANIEL H. WILSON earned a Ph.D. in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University. He is the author of such nonfiction works as How to Survive a Robot Uprising. Wilson lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife and daughter.


Product Details
Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: Doubleday (June 7, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-13: 978-0385533850

Ryssa Edwards is on the hot seat today!

I'm excited to have Ryssa Edwards on the hot seat today. She's sharing news about her upcoming releases and a giveaway, so get comfortable and I'll fire away some questions.


First off, tell us who you are and a little about you.

My pen name is Ryssa Edwards. By day I’m hard at work in a cubicle. There’s one stuffed animal, my favorite books and magazines to remind me of the ‘reality beyond the cube’. By night, I’m hard at work at my keyboard, chasing down the next good story and wrestling it to the page.


Tell us a bit about your history as a writer.

I’ve been writing for a while now. I wrote my first story in second grade. It was three paragraphs long, on loose leaf paper, in pencil. My second grade teacher was my very first critic. She loved it! After that. . . I was hooked. My Immortal Pleasures series is my first venture into paranormal romance.

Is writing your full-time job?

Yeah. In my dreams!


What’s your favorite holiday?

This changes every year. It’s been Christmas for a while now. But it’s getting serious competition from Easter. Who wouldn’t love a holiday with chocolate bunnies, chocolate eggs, chocolate grass, jelly beans. . . did I mention chocolate?


What's your favorite food?

Dark chocolate will bribe me into anything, anywhere, any time. I kid you not.


What are you working on now?

Right now, I’m working on “Hunter Angel, Midnight Gamble”, the third story in my Immortal Pleasures series.

Name the three writers that influenced you the most.

This keeps changing. I know that sounds weird, but I’m discovering new writers all the time. Right now, I’ve committed to reading Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. All I can say is wow. . the man knew how to tell a story. His characters live and breathe and crawl right under your skin. You laugh with them, cry with them, suffer with them. If I could write just one story like that in my lifetime, I’d die happy.

A writer who’s really influenced me in later years is Anton Chekhov. His short stories blow my mind. He doesn’t just tell a story, he makes you believe. That’s awesome.


Probably the writer who has most influenced me is Stephen King. I love his style of telling stories. I love the passion he puts into writing. I love that his work comes right from his heart, not from his mind.

What’s your latest release? Is there a giveaway?

I’m so glad you asked! I have four new releases coming up.


Dark Angel, All the Stars is part II two of my Immortal Pleasures series. It’s the story of the Archangel Lucifer and his centuries long love for Aeryn, a mortal.

The Moon House is a short story that will be part of the First Time for Everything Dreamspinner Press Daily Dose anthology. The first story will be out on June 1st. The Moon House is the story of Samson, a carnival strong man who falls for Jace, a virgin.


Dreaming of a Kissing is a novel about Rafe, a college freshman who sets out to find a cure for his mother, and ends up falling in love with Kayne, a Wulf in training to be Alpha Wulf. This book is coming soon from Decadent Publishing.


Immortal Pleasures, Volume I (working title) is a print edition of the first two stories in my Immortal Pleasures series, Warrior Angel, Heart’s Desire and Dark Angel, All the Stars. This is coming soon from Silver Publishing.

I’m writing a secret project for the Male / Male Romance Discussion Group on Good Reads. It’s part of the Hot Days of July “Dear Author” letters. Stop by Good Reads and check out Hot Days of July!

Wow, you have a full plate. Any Giveaways for your fans?


Lots.

Just for today, any reader who leaves a comment will be entered to win a short story every day in June from the First Time For Everything Daily Dose anthology. Thirty days. . . thirty virgins.

Follow the Short Story Marathon on my blog, and leave a comment. Every comment in the marathon will be entered into the Short Story Marathon Giveaway. Check out my blog for prizes.


Where can we find you?

My blog: http://ryssaedwards.blogspot.com/

Good Reads, my Discussion Group: come on over and join us . . .

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/48013.Ryssa_Edwards_It_s_a_Romance_Thing

Good Reads, my promo thread in the M/M Romance Group: you can keep up with news on new releases here . . .


http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/558453-ryssa-edwards

Jeff Carlson, Best-selling Author of the Plague Year Trilogy is Celebrating Another Milestone with free reads

I love apocalyptic science fiction! You may remember my glowing reviews of Jeff Carlson's Plague Year Trilogy. This was one series I hated to see end, and it's on my TBRA list. (to be read again) So I'm happy to celebrate the success of Jeff's sci-fi novella THE FROZEN SKY - 13,000 ebooks sold!



To celebrate this milestone, Jeff is giving away copies of his other short story collections as Mobi or ePub files to anyone with any e-reader. Folks can choose their freebies at:
 http://www.jverse.com/blog/

My Reviews of the Plague Year Trilogy at EzineArticles
http://ezinearticles.com/?Plague-Year-by-Jeff-Carlson&id=3079711


http://ezinearticles.com/?Plague-War-by-Jeff-Carlson&id=2099296

http://ezinearticles.com/?Plague-Zone-by-Jeff-Carlson&id=3746457


 Plague Year


The nanotechnology was designed to fight cancer. Instead, it evolved into the Machine Plague, killing nearly five billion people and changing life on Earth forever.


The nanotech has one weakness: it self-destructs at altitudes above ten thousand feet. Those few who've managed to escape the plague struggle to stay alive on the highest mountains, but time is running out-there is famine and war, and the environment is crashing worldwide. Humanity's last hope lies with a top nanotech researcher aboard the International Space Station-and with a small group of survivors in California who risk a daring journey below the death line...

 Plague War


Researcher Ruth Goldman has developed a vaccine with the potential to inoculate the world’s survivors against the nanotech plague that devastated humanity. But the fractured U.S. government will stop at nothing to keep it for themselves.

Plague Zone


After surviving the machine plague and the world war that followed, nanotech researcher Ruth Goldman and ex-army ranger Cam Najarro discovered that a new contagion is about to be unleashed.

Jeff's Books are available at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Jeff-Carlson/e/B002WN14CQ/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

Happy Reading! And stop back tomorrow to find out who won my giveaway.

And the Winner is...

The Spring Giveaway is over and the winner is Janice!

Up for grabs were the first two books in Susan Sizemore's Prime series.


Congrat! Janice. Send an email with your snail mail address to gale@galestanley.net and I'll get these two books out asap.
 
Check back for future giveaways. 
Happy Reading!

Ta-da! My New Cover for ONE NIGHT IN BANGKOK

I know I've been MIA lately...  I'm in editing la-la land and I'll be right back at it as soon as I share my new cover. Just got it last night and fell in love. Art work by Reese Dante. You can see some of her other fabulous covers at:

http://reesedante.com/

One Night in Bangkok will be released on June 25th from Silver Publishing. Their website url is:

http://www.silverpublishing.info/

****

And here's a sneak peek at One Night in Bangkok

The temperature in Bangkok is a humid ninety degrees but things are about to get a lot hotter. David Elliot is in Thailand on business but when he meets Kai, the younger man turns his world upside down. It was never meant to be anything more than a pleasant diversion but can he walk away when it’s over?

****

I'd really like to stick around, but--

Uh, oh... Hear that? It's the sound of a whip cracking...

Promise Me: How a Sister's Love Launched the Global Movement to End Breast Cancer

Last month I was invited to join the Amazon Vine program. They send me a newsletter with a list of items, mostly books, and I get to choose what I want to review. I receive the items at no cost and I'm expected to review them objectively, whether it's negative or positive. My first pick was Strings Attached by Judy Blundell and I reviewed it on April 3.


Promise Me is my second pick and I chose it for a very special reason. I recently lost a friend to breast cancer. She fought the good fight for five years. There were many battles, and she faced each one with courage and good humor.

Being so close to this horrible disease, I wanted to know more about Susan G. Komen and her sister Nancy who founded the organization named for her - Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

This is a compelling book about a wonderful family struck by a horrible disease. It's the story of two devoted sisters, Susan Komen, and her fight for life, and Nancy Brinker, who had such a huge impact on the breast cancer movement. The book starts out a bit slow, with an account of how the girls grew up. Family members are well described. I was disappointed at the lack of pictures, but it didn't detract from the story.

It's also a history of breast cancer treatment through the years, which was enlightening. We've come a long way – but there's still a long way to go.


The book was written with a collaborator, Joni Rodgers, whose style is easy to read as well as informative. And while the book is uplifting, it still brought the tears - and more so, having gone through this struggle with someone.


It's truly an inspiring story and a great tribute, well worth reading.

****

Below is a product description from the Amazon site:
Suzy and Nancy Goodman were more than sisters. They were best friends, confidantes, and partners in the grand adventure of life. For three decades, nothing could separate them. Not college, not marriage, not miles. Then Suzy got sick. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1977; three agonizing years later, at thirty-six, she died.


It wasn’t supposed to be this way. The Goodman girls were raised in postwar Peoria, Illinois, by parents who believed that small acts of charity could change the world. Suzy was the big sister—the homecoming queen with an infectious enthusiasm and a generous heart. Nancy was the little sister—the tomboy with an outsized sense of justice who wanted to right all wrongs. The sisters shared makeup tips, dating secrets, plans for glamorous fantasy careers. They spent one memorable summer in Europe discovering a big world far from Peoria. They imagined a long life together—one in which they’d grow old together surrounded by children and grandchildren.

Suzy’s diagnosis shattered that dream.

In 1977, breast cancer was still shrouded in stigma and shame. Nobody talked about early detection and mammograms. Nobody could even say the words “breast” and “cancer” together in polite company, let alone on television news broadcasts. With Nancy at her side, Suzy endured the many indignities of cancer treatment, from the grim, soul-killing waiting rooms to the mistakes of well-meaning but misinformed doctors. That’s when Suzy began to ask Nancy to promise. To promise to end the silence. To promise to raise money for scientific research. To promise to one day cure breast cancer for good. Big, shoot-for-the-moon promises that Nancy never dreamed she could fulfill. But she promised because this was her beloved sister.

I promise, Suzy. . . . Even if it takes the rest of my life.

Suzy’s death—both shocking and senseless—created a deep pain in Nancy that never fully went away. But she soon found a useful outlet for her grief and outrage. Armed only with a shoebox filled with the names of potential donors, Nancy put her formidable fund-raising talents to work and quickly discovered a groundswell of grassroots support. She was aided in her mission by the loving tutelage of her husband, restaurant magnate Norman Brinker, whose dynamic approach to entrepreneurship became Nancy’s model for running her foundation. Her account of how she and Norman met, fell in love, and managed to achieve the elusive “true marriage of equals” is one of the great grown-up love stories among recent memoirs.

Nancy’s mission to change the way the world talked about and treated breast cancer took on added urgency when she was herself diagnosed with the disease in 1984, a terrifying chapter in her life that she had long feared. Unlike her sister, Nancy survived and went on to make Susan G. Komen for the Cure into the most influential health charity in the country and arguably the world. A pioneering force in cause-related marketing, SGK turned the pink ribbon into a symbol of hope everywhere. Each year, millions of people worldwide take part in SGK Race for the Cure events. And thanks to the more than $1.5 billion spent by SGK for cutting-edge research and community programs, a breast cancer diagnosis today is no longer a death sentence. In fact, in the time since Suzy’s death, the five-year survival rate for breast cancer has risen from 74 percent to 98 percent.


Promise Me is a deeply moving story of family and sisterhood, the dramatic “30,000-foot view” of the democratization of a disease, and a soaring affirmative to the question: Can one person truly make a difference?