Contrary to the conservative axiom, going woke doesn’t make the entertainment world go broke. And so wokeness isn’t going extinct anytime soon. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t un-woke entertainment out there, and you only need to visit the Based Black Friday / Cyber Monday Book Sale to find great sci-fi and fantasy stories that will leave you wanting more.
Hans Schantz curated the book sale. Indeed, he puts together multiple book sales throughout the year. He’s also an author, and the first novel of his The Hidden Truth trilogy, a popular sci-fi techno-thriller series, is part of the sale.
Over 190 titles in total are part of it. They range from hard sci-fi, to space opera, to urban fantasy, to steampunk, and more. Check out below for some of the books that are a part of the sale, and check out his site for the full list.
Thor vs. The Valkyries
What happens when some Valkyries rebel against Asgard and take Lady Sif as their slave? They have to face off against an angry Thor. Will he be able to defeat them or is one man simply no match for a group of women? Find out in this action-packed short story.
As the book cover reveals, the author of the tale is also the author of this post. After the blowback against the MCU Thor and against the decision to rename “Slave Leia” as “Huttslayer Leia,” I was inspired to write this really short story as an homage to tales of old. And I had a lot of fun with it. One day I might even expand on the idea and turn it into a full-length novel.
The Hostage in Hiding
It’s young adult space opera from author Henry Vogel. “In a family full of heroes, Nora Connaught is the normal one. She’s never fought space pirates. Never saved anyone’s life. Never done anything remotely heroic.” All that, of course, is about to change.
Nora plans to go “to college on another planet” but gets caught in a pirate attack. And from there, her plans do not go according to plan. With a sharp cover and some positive reviews, Vogel’s novel is a book that parents can consider for older teens looking for a fun adventure in the space opera genre.
In My Time Of Dying – #Savant
David J. West’s novel is in the Western Science Fiction, Western Horror Fiction, and Steampunk Fiction genres on Amazon, and the opening line of the book summary shows why that is: “A young woman seeking arcane knowledge. A saint of killers riding shotgun. And an immortal who wants to die… all aboard a runaway train.…”
That’s a big setup and the genre mixing makes it even more so. So was West able to pull it all off? Apparently he was, with one five-star reviewer writing that “. . . part of the enjoyment of a good pulp story is usually the plot twists and turns and the set action pieces. And there’s a lot to like here in terms of plot.”
The Dream of the Iron Dragon
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This is book one of Robert Kroese’s Saga of the Iron Dragon, an alternate history Viking epic. But it’s more than just an alternate history; it’s science fiction as well, with part of the novel taking place “in the 23rd century” where “humanity has been hunted to the verge of extinction by an alien race.”
Kroese managed to combine all that into a coherent and compelling narrative. The book has a 4 ½ star rating on Amazon with over 500 readers providing feedback on it. On top of that, he didn’t run out of ideas at the end. He followed it up with four more novels in the series.
Cobra
Timothy Zahn became a household name to science fiction fans after he wrote the Star Wars Thrawn trilogy in the 1990s. But he’s written many other novels (before and after the Thrawn series) outside of the Star Wars universe. His original Cobra trilogy falls into the “before” category.
Fans of hard sci-fi who aren’t already aware of Cobra will want to check out this novel first published in the 1980s and then reprinted in 2015 as an eBook (see above cover). One Amazon reviewer positively summarizes the book as being something he wasn’t expecting, writing that it “isn’t really military sci-fi at all, but rather speculative fiction about politics using super soldiers as a thought experiment.”
*****
*****
There are many more fun stories in the Based Black Friday / Cyber Monday Book Sale, (such as the cleverly named Iron Maiden novel). So head over to Hans Schantz’s site and peruse them all. Fans of sci-fi and fantasy are bound to find something that’s entertaining, to their tastes, and free of any wokeness.
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