The Resistants Series (Big Blue Comics)

In an oppressive corporate-ruled future, a small band of alien refugees and human freedom fighters struggle to put the power back in the hands of the people. The year is 2121 and the alien refugee, Interval, leads the rebel strike team known as THE RESISTANTS. In the last few years, they have helped build a large-scale humanitarian aid group to help the downtrodden and unemployed. They go on frequent raids in the Takeo Corporate-State to get food, water and technology for the needy people in the desert marketplaces. Their efforts are noble, but fleeting, as precious supplies and resources continue to dwindle faster than they can be attained. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

THE RESISTANTS: Declan

by K.J. Kaminski, Jason Krause, Jason Howard & Teo Gonzalez, Pin-up by Jason Johson & Teo Gonzalez

Declan Albright has a past connection to THE RESISTANTS‘ leader Interval. He’s pulled into her fight when, he’s deemed guilty-by-association, and a large bounty is placed on his head. But is there something more to the two-bit hunters now on his trail, than first seen.

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THE RESISTANTS: Kestrel 

by K.J. Kaminski, Chris Royal & Fahriza Kamaputra, Pin-up by Ben Herrera & Teo Gonzalez

When a weapons test threatens their safety, Erin Hawthorne a.k.a. Kestrel leaps in to action to save her fellow employees. In the conflict, she finds her true calling, helping others because she can. Will she follow her cause as a member of THE RESISTANTS?

Whispers of Death (Alicia Rivoli) #update

Pages - 266 pages

Published - September 2015

Language - English

ISBN - 9781516806

Haunted by Death, Amelia's dreams feel ever so real with each passing night. Plagued by the sense of palpable fear, she continues forward with the demands of life at the forefront.

Death had been searching for just the right person that could help him regain his powers. After hundreds of years it seemed all hope was lost as those that died were now stuck in Limbo, forever suffering in pain and anguish. A ray of light appeared as a vision from a stranger led Death to Amelia, though making her a willing participant would prove to be difficult.

An endearing and supportive husband is something every woman would dream of and something Amelia has been blessed with, although nothing could have prepared them for what was about to take place. Their lives were turned upside down in the blink of an eye and their outlook of life, and death, forever changed.

A battle with Death can make one question even their most righteous desires, despite the fact that a common enemy had brought them together. Can Amelia ever find solace with her new knowledge or would death be the only thing that will bring her peace?

Journey on both sides of the veil as Amelia helps battle an evil that threatens to take away all that she has ever known and loved.

Paperback:

https://www.createspace.com/5664981

http://www.amazon.com/Whispers-Death-Alicia-R…/…/ref=sr_1_1…

Ebook:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/573541

The Nano Experiment (Wid Bastian, Ivan Castillo)

Pages - 206

Authors - Wid Bastian, Ivan Castillo
Published - January 2015

ISBN - 9781506021980

Genre - Science Fiction

In the twenty second century, total war is destroying the planet. In a desperate effort to defeat the enemy, the Western Alliance develops nano technology, tiny machines that are implanted into human beings to enhance their physiology. A few super soldiers are created from this nano technology, but the West has also unwittingly unleashed hell. Earth is ravaged by hideous abominations spawned from a global nano plague.

Decades later there is little of humanity left, except in small outposts in the Arctic. A very special boy is born in one of these Alaskan colonies. Perhaps he is the one humanity has been waiting for, the warrior who can destroy the nano monsters and save the last vestiges of the human race.

Featured - Frozen to Life: A Personal Mortality Experiment

 Book Info

How far would you go to avoid death?

Frozen to Life is the true account of the author’s extraordinary answer to this question: If he cannot escape the constraints of a 'natural' lifespan, he will, upon his death, have his severed head preserved in a vat of liquid nitrogen in the Arizona desert.

This book illuminates the astonishing science behind his decision, and the transformative power of the patternist thinking that carried him to it. From the initial confusion and isolation of his upbringing on the Scottish islands of Benbecula and Skye comes a curious inkling that collides with dominant religious dogmas and alters relationships: What am I? What is a 'self'? Must selves die?

Neuroscience - including the latest theories about the way mind emerges from the architecture of the brain - interweaves with philosophy, Buddhism, and personal testimony to create a fascinating and emotionally-charged insight into the psyche of a 'cryonaut' in waiting.

Written with empathy, searing insight, and dark humour Frozen to Life is both cutting edge and bleeding heart: a postmodern experiment in falling in love with life while preparing for death, in ways we can change ourselves radically without losing our treasured humanity, and in coming to understand that neither life nor death is what we think it is.

"I don’t think I’ve read a better or more poetic exploration of what it means to be. Or indeed not to be, or only potentially to be."

–STEVE GRAND, roboticist and creator of the Creatures artificial life simulation

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                                                    Author - D.J. MacLennan

Paperback, 400 pages

Published August 31st 2015 by Anatta Books

Real Virtue (GR Review)

Author - Katy Lee

Published - April 2012 #Goodreads_Review

In a virtual reality game where she can fly, someone’s aiming to take her down.

Mel Mesini is a New York City restaurateur and an avid, virtual reality world traveler. But her successful life—both online and in reality—takes a swerve the night her father is seriously injured in a hit-and-run. To make matters worse, Officer Jeremy Stiles, the man who had once cut her deep with his harsh, rejecting words, is heading the investigation.

When Jeremy realizes Mel is the actual target, his plan is to protect her—whether she wants him to or not. What he wants is answers, especially about this online game she plays. Is it a harmless pastime as she says? Or is she using it to cover something up? As a faceless predator destroys the things that matter to her, Jeremy knows he’s running out of time before she loses the one thing that matters most—her real life.

Amazon link: http://tinyurl.com/cjtxzg5
BN link: http://tinyurl.com/bnjg5k5 

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Real Virtue is an engrossing story of a Mel, young woman who flees her past to recreate herself in a whole new image. The world she has made for herself—and thinks she controls—begins to unravel when her father is injured in a hit-and-run accident and Mel returns to the home she left many years before. Mel is forced to confront reality and fantasy on many levels: her own involvement with a video game, the mystery surrounding the attempts on her life, her mother’s schizophrenia, and the qualities of the man who once rejected her and is now trying to save her. This thriller kept me guessing until the end and was satisfying on many levels. The character of Mel I found to be very difficult to connect to because she basically lived in her own worlds where she saw negativity in every situation, even the most innocent. Jeremy on the other hand took everything so personally, as if he failed, and would preach about God and religion. I am not a terribly religious person so it was a little overwhelming to hear all of his speeches about his path and purpose. The progression of Mel’s understanding of the relationship she once fled from, contrasted with the world she created for herself was as intriguing as the stalker-mystery parts of the book. Real Virtue is a great read.

The Silvered by Tanya Huff (Review)

Hardcover, 454 Pages, Year 2012

ISBN - 0756407435

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The Empire has declared war on the small, were-ruled kingdom of
Aydori, capturing five women of the Mage-Pack, including the wife of the were Pack-leader. With the Pack off defending the border, it falls to Mirian Maylin and Tomas Hagen—she a low-level mage, he younger brother to the Pack-leader—to save them. Together the two set out on the kidnappers’ trail, racing into the heart of enemy territory. With every step the odds against them surviving and succeeding soar….

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Review

"I had a hard time figuring out what I thought of this book. It was fun to read, although parts of the middle did drag on a bit. The world building and the conflict between science and magic that has been set up is intriguing, and I am interested to see where this goes in future books. My main problem with The Silvered was the rather simplistic relationship between Tomas and Mirian (and, to a lesser extent, all other werewolf/mage pairings). The attraction between men and women of the wolf/mage pack seems to be based almost entirely on visceral and instant connection (whenever a wolf met Mirian they couldn't stop talking about how good she smelled). This type of instant magical connection takes away from the build-up of a strong relationship for me. I actually didn't see much of a romantic connection between Tomas and Mirian outside of the magical connection, and it seems like a kind of lazy way to set up a romance so that you don't have to actually think about what might connect two characters. Having said that, I did like the end of the book and will be reading any future volumes in the series."

Rating - 6.5/10

The Reapers are the Angels (Reapers # 1) Book Review

The Reapers are the Angels (Reapers # 1)

Pages - 225

Year - 2010

Author - Alden Bell

Zombies have infested a fallen America. A young girl named Temple is on the run. Haunted by her past and pursued by a killer, Temple is surrounded by death and danger, hoping to be set free.

For twenty-five years, civilization has survived in meager enclaves, guarded against a plague of the dead. Temple wanders this blighted landscape, keeping to herself - and keeping her demons inside. She can't remember a time before the zombies, but she does remember an old man who took her in and the younger brother she cared for until the tragedy that set her on a personal journey toward redemption. Moving back and forth between the insulated remnants of society and the brutal frontier beyond, Temple must decide where ultimately to make a home and find the salvation she seeks.

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Book Review (GR)

Over a hundred people have shelved this as a YA novel. This is not a YA novel! The prose is artful and does not condescend, there is a fair amount of (admittedly half-baked, being birthed in the brain of an illiterate fifteen-year-old) philosophy that does not bear directly on the story, but most importantly, it doesn't have a YA ending.

YA novels pretty much have to have a happy ending. Or at least a triumph. Sure, the author might kill off a kid sister or a friend or two, but ultimately the heroine is going to find some measure of peace and happiness, or at least safety. There is closure of a nature reassuring to the kids who read YA novels and the neotenous adults who prefer them to adult literature.

The Reapers are the Angels has closure, but not that kind.

Temple was born after the zombie apocalypse ended most of what passes for civilization, and doesn't remember the old world. She is a wanderer by nature, with no surviving kin, but by chance she comes across a mentally disabled man for whom, quite against her wiser inclinations, she takes up the burden of escorting on a road trip to probably no longer living family on the other side of a zombie-ravaged country. Why? She never explains this herself, but it seems she just really doesn't have anything better to do.

Along the way, they encounter any number of horrors, and a very small number of kindnesses. The "meatskins" are really the least of the dangers — Temple dispatches them quite readily with a gun or her Ghurka knife. But there are creepy ordinary folks in mansions, and even creepier Texas Chainsaw Massacre-type folks in the hills. And then of course there is Moses Todd, whom Temple irks by killing his brother. Even he admits that his brother had it coming, but now he has to kill her. That's just the way it is. And like a slightly more affable Anton Chigurh, he pursues Temple and her mute companion (whom she just refers to as "dummy") across a blighted American landscape.

It is written in Southern Gothic style, and the dialect of Temple, who was born after the zombie apocalypse ended most of what passes for civilization, has shades of McCarthy and Faulkner.

It has become something to her, that memory — something she can take out in dismal times and stare into like a crystal ball disclosing not presages but reminders. She holds it in her palm like a captured ladybug and thinks, Well ain't I been some places, ain't I partook in some glorious happenings wanderin my way between heaven and earth. And if I ain't seen everything there is to see, it wasn't for lack of lookin.

Blind is the real dead.

Plotwise, The Reapers are the Angels is derivative of Stephen King and any number of zombie novels; the story is good enough, but this is the sort of book you're likely to like, or else find annoying, because of the prose.

If you are not completely burnt out on zombie novels, The Reapers are the Angels is a short, literary take on this well-worn theme. Highly recommended for YA readers as well who might like to try something a little more upmarket. 

METRO 2033 Novel Review (Ajay_D)

Ajay Dhillon - METRO 2033 (NOVEL) Review #421brandbeedifed#freelancetalents #Ajay_D

"This is one of the best story I've ever read in any format (comics/movies/books). Potent psychological horror, suspense and adventure mixed together to form an intoxicating blend. There is no filler in this book; each chapter gives you something new and exciting to read about. The suspense is through the roof and you want to know what happens with each passing sentence....something so rare in 500 page novels. Amazing story that takes place in a new and unique setting.

Might be little expensive for some, but the price of admission is worth it - trust me.

Synopsis: In late 2013, a nuclear war occurred. Russia was targeted with atomic bombs, causing severe radiation across Moscow. This forced the few 1000 survivors to live underground in the metro stations away from the deadly effects of radiation. Moscow has one of the largest Metro systems in the world and it becomes mankind's last refuge in this story. In addition to extreme radiation, many animals were heavily mutated into aggressive beasts, which make travel on the surface dangerous. People have formed communities in many of the stations, but there are lots of stations which remain unexplored and littered with dangers like radiation, paranormal activity, cannibals, and mutants. 

The story is about a young man in the year 2033, who has to travel in the tunnels of Metro, go from station to station, to reach the military establishment inside the Metro in hopes of eliminating a new and unknown threat (some call them the dark ones - a mutated version of man with paranormal powers) that has terrorised his home station. Considering the dangers (both humans, ghosts, and mutants), his journey won't be easy. Amazing book, from start to finish. Must read."

421 Brand Beedi Rating - A+ (Above 90%)

Indy Pro Wrestling Vet Rant

"I'll have an easier time teaching a good talker / actor how to be a passable wrestler, than I would teaching a good wrestler to be a passable promo guy / actor. Everyone knows how to talk, so if your stuttering and stammering and have no confidence in your voice people are going to call bullshit real fast, and then disconnect emotionally from you. Not every wrestling fan knows quality wrestling... Infact Id say 80-90% have no clue what a TRUELY great match is. But if you suck them in with your gimmick, live your moments, they won't focus on the wrestling they will focus on the emotional struggle your character is going through.

Point is, we are in the era of entertainment ... Give an equal Focus on character speaking skills and confidence at your wrestling schools this week ... Too often you kids get sucked into a routine of bumps, basic chain, and blow up drills ... And while that's all essential, remember ... This is entertainment, and when is the last time you drilled promos and skits... When is the last time you drilled how to get your specifics characters emotion across in the ring ...

Wrestling isn't just for meat heads, some of the most successful people I know in this business are truly brilliant actors as well...For the advanced wrestling student ... These acting skills quickly come in handy when it comes to dealing with all of the backstage drama and politics ... Learn to control your emotions, and manipulate others and do what's best for your, and the company's best interest ... (With this being said this is not a pass to work the boys or be a snake cancer, it's meant as a problem solving and conflict resolution statement)"