Story Review: Tinkerman by Jake Bible, From For a Few Credits More Anthology

 

Spoiler Free Summary: Tinkerman by Jake Bible is the 15th story in the Four Horsemen anthology, For a Few Credits More.  Tee, called Tinkerman by those he provides cybernetic implants to, is in hiding. Sooner or later, people are going to come looking for him because of the secret he carries. When they do, he’ll be prepared, as will the world that’s protecting him, such are the terms of his care for those same people.

Character: Tee is a fantastic character. He’s proactive and capable. He’s got great depth. He’s sympathetic, but not in that he’s just likable or just unlikable. Indeed his range of emotion is a part of the story, and it’s the best part. I was hooked on this story from the moment I started the story as Tee was in his shop.

Exposition: This was perfect. I got the back story I needed as I needed it. Perfect isn’t a story that has no exposition, it’s exposition that provides exactly what the reader needs to be able to progress through the story.

World building:  So for a few reviews now, I’ve been talking about one story I loved, and this is it! This world is every bit as amazing as its characters. This planet feels real. It has textures and minute details that make the feeling of the location visceral. In every scene, I truly felt like I was there. The more I learned, the more I was able to suspend disbelief. We’re not overloaded with aliens and tech. We’re exposed to a cast consisting of different species of aliens; we’re exposed to tech and gadgets that are immediately relevant to the plot. I’m probably going to read on of Bible’s books just because of this short story.

Image of Mr. Bible taken from his website for review purposes under Fair Use doctrine. 

Dialogue: Powerful. Relevant. Realistic. Bible’s conversations move the plot forward without sounding like some sort of plot direction. It’s snappy. It’s entertaining.

Description: Just as I’ve mentioned in the world-building, the feel of this story is amazing. The movie theatre in my mind was on full IMAX-powered overload in all the best ways. I wasn’t bogged down by details, but I always had all my senses active.

Overall: Here’s how much I liked this story. First, there were a handful of stories I truly thought were fun or entertaining. However, whatever I paid for the whole anthology, I would have happily payed for just this one story. It’s honestly amazing, and I think any fan of gritty scifi should make sure they take the chance to read it.

Thanks for reading,

Matt

The 2018 M.L.S. Weech Book Cover of the Year Bracket Starts Now!

Hello all!

I’ve been building to this for quite some time, and I’m so excited to kick things off. This is it! Twelve Book Covers of the Month join four Wild Card Book Covers to comprise a sixteen-book tournament to determine which one will rule them all!

If you like, you can take a look at each book cover’s winning announcement: December, January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, and November.

365 book covers. 53,047 votes. All leading to this tournament! The covers were ranked 1-16 by the number of total votes each received. That means the cover that received the most votes (Until Nothing Remains) is going up against the Wild Card that received the fewest votes. (Age of War), and so on and so forth.

You can vote all the way through the tournament, supporting the covers you like best through each round. I like to make sure people get the credit they deserve, so please show your support. Please vote and share as much as possible to get people a chance to pick their favorite.

As always, I’d appreciate it if you tag the authors and artists if you know them. I try to tag or friend every author I can, but sometimes it’s hard to track someone down. Max participation is a huge deal to me. The more people who vote, the more recognition these authors and artists receive, and I want this to be as legitimate as possible.

Image taken from Pixabay.

If you are the author, let’s remember to be good sports! 1) Please feel free to message or contact me at any time. 2) Please feel free to like, share, text, ask for support, and call everyone you know. I absolutely want max participation. However, if you’re going to offer giveaways or prizes, please offer them for voting, not just voting for you.

Also, while your summoning your army of voting soldiers, please make sure you ask them to vote in every match. Part of the idea of this is to get exposure to as many artists and authors as possible. By all means, if you can get 1,000 people to vote for your book, do it. Just please also send some eyeballs to the other matches.

A final note to authors and artists: I currently have links to the books’ Amazon pages. If you’d prefer I switch that link to sign up for your newsletter or like your social media page or whatever, just send me the link and let me know. I want this to help you. I want this to be as helpful as possible, so whatever you need me to do to facilitate that, just let me know.

It’s been fun! I’d like to end this tournament on a high note. I’m trying to get 10,000 total votes. Please, tell everyone. Get people to vote. I want this trophy to mean something, and it’ll frankly mean more as more people vote.

I hope you keep having fun. Please, vote, share, and discuss as much as possible.

All you have to do now is head over here to vote!

Thanks for reading,

Matt

The 2018 Book Cover of the Year Wild Card Round Begins!

Greetings all,

I decided to break this into a few posts so each one got the equal amount of credit. Also, those who want to vote in this round might not have wanted to slog through all of the November information just to get to the link.

That said,

THE 2018 BOOK COVER OF THE YEAR BRACKET HAS BEGUN!

Here’s how this round works:

Since I did a bracket every month, I have 12 covers, but the smallest bracket I can run here has 16 slots.  That means I need four more covers. Hence this round of the tournament. This bracket has eight entries. Winning is nice, but you only need to land in the top four of this bracket to get into the final Book Cover of the Year bracket. 

This year’s wild card participants are:

1st Seed: Age of War by Michael J. Sullivan.  This cover was the runner up in July and received 709 total votes. All those votes came up short against Asunder.

2nd Seed: Metal and Stone The Awakening by Kevin Potter.  This cover was the runner up in March and received 307 total votes.

3rd Seed: Siren’s Lure by Frost Kay.  This cover was the April runner up and received 288 total votes.

4th Seed: Unrelenting Tide by Alexa Dare.  This cover was the October runner up and received 282 total votes.

5th Seed: The Flipside by Jake Bible. This cover was the May runner up and received 172 total votes.

6th Seed: Blackwoods: The Beginning by Teressa J. Martin and Adaline McMillan (I can’t find a webpage for them). As the November runner up, this cover was automatically in, but with 155 total votes, it got in on it’s own merit as well.

7th Seed: The Saint’s Rise by Michael John Grist. This was the December runner up and it received 150 total votes.

8th Seed: Born to the Blade by Michael Underwood, Marie Brennan and Cassandra Khaw.

These covers all got in because they were received the highest number of votes in their respective runners up categories.  They’ll be matched up the highest vs the lowest. Again, you don’t have to win to get in (though that’s nice). You just have to get into the top four.

Because of what’s going on at Brackify, we’re on a tight schedule.  This contest will go from right now until midnight on Dec. 18.  That gives the 2018 Book Cover of the Year Bracket the two weeks it deserves.

I wish these books and authors all the luck in the world.

The link to vote is here.

Thanks for reading,

Matt

 

The June Book Cover of the Month Starts Now

Happy first everyone! As is now officially tradition here on my blog, it’s time to start a new book cover of the month competition.

The Flipside by Jake Bible  and A Guiding Light by Susan Copperfield join 30 brand new covers this month.

You can vote all the way through the tournament, supporting the covers you like best through each round. I like to make sure people get the credit they deserve, so please show your support. Please vote and share as much as possible to get people a chance to pick their favorite.

As always, I’d appreciate it if you tag the authors and artists if you know them. I try to tag or friend every author I can, but sometimes it’s hard to track someone down. Max participation is a huge deal to me. The more people who vote, the more recognition these authors and artists receive, and I want this to be as legitimate as possible.

Image taken from Pixabay.

If you are the author, let’s remember to be good sports! 1) Please feel free to message or contact me at any time. 2) Please feel free to like, share, text, ask for support, and call everyone you know. I absolutely want max participation. However, if you’re going to offer giveaways or prizes, please offer them for voting, not just voting for you.

Also, while your summoning your army of voting soldiers, please make sure you ask them to vote in every match. Part of the idea of this is to get exposure to as many artists and authors as possible. By all means, if you can get 1,000 people to vote for your book, do it. Just please also send some eyeballs to the other matches.

A final note to authors and artists: I currently have links to the books’ Amazon pages. If you’d prefer I switch that link to sign up for your newsletter or like your social media page or whatever, just send me the link and let me know. I want this to help you. I want this to be as helpful as possible, so whatever you need me to do to facilitate that, just let me know.

I hope you keep having fun. Please, vote, share, and discuss as much as possible.

All you have to do now is head over here to vote!

Thanks for reading,

Matt

Announcing the May Book Cover of the Month!

Hello everyone,

We’ve just wrapped up another month. This month was a pretty close month! I’m glad June is a 30-day month because that means we might see another highly-contested bracket.  There weren’t a ton of votes, but it was a close contest.

We had 3,235 votes this month.

It was a three-horse race the entire time, but one book managed to get seven more voters than the rest.

The May Book Cover of the Month is…

 

 

Clara’s Diary by Angelique S. Anderson! If you’re curious about how I felt about the book, check out the Facebook post that I posted when this book first landed on the bracket, here.

Let’s look at the stats!

Lenders received 227 total votes.

The Flipside by Jake Bible fell just eight votes short in the finals, and A Guiding Light by Susan Copperfield fell just four votes shy in the Final Four. The good news is (remember that 30-day month I mentioned?) both covers get another chance to win the title in the June bracket.

But for now, let’s look at this month’s winner!

Amazon:

(START BLURB)

In a tale of monstrous proportions, with a flash of steampunk gadgetry, experience the impossible. After leaving the police force and striking out on his own, Detective Desmond still struggles to come to terms with the death of his daughter six years later. Then disaster decides to come knocking again. This time, a young Octilune woman is found dead. As a species of half-octopus, half-human, Lizbeth Patinson’s death is a tragedy. Raging against the two injustices, Detective Desmond does everything in his power to find the murderer. When evidence points to him, he has twenty-four hours to prove his innocence. Is Detective Desmond really guilty of murdering two young women in cold blood? Or will he find the evidence needed to exonerate himself and finally find the closure he’s been looking for? Get ready to swim for your life.

(END BLURB)

I’ve added Clara’s Diary to my TBR. (For those who are new to the deal, I buy the Book Cover of the Month to read and review in the future. I buy all the winning covers. I’ve already bought, April, March, February, January, December’s book.

Here’re Angelique’s Facebook page. Give it a like if you’re curious about her and her work.

I’ll try to find out who did that cover. Truth is interviews are a bit hard to arrange on my end these days.  I’ll try to get back on track, but things are looking a bit busy lately (in a less good way at the moment).

The June Book Cover of the Month is coming along, and that contest will launch July 1.

I will continue to identify and select covers for each day from Amazon’s New Release section for fantasy and science fiction. If you follow and like my Facebook page, you can see what covers will make the bracket.

Thanks for reading

Matt

The May Book Cover of the Month Begins!

 

Happy first everyone! As is now officially tradition here on my blog, it’s time to start a new book cover of the month competition.

Siren’s Lure by Frost Kay joins 31 brand new covers this month.

You can vote all the way through the tournament, supporting the covers you like best through each round. I like to make sure people get the credit they deserve, so please show your support. Please vote and share as much as possible to get people a chance to pick their favorite.

As always, I’d appreciate it if you tag the authors and artists if you know them. I try to tag or friend every author I can, but sometimes it’s hard to track someone down. Max participation is a huge deal to me. The more people who vote, the more recognition these authors and artists receive, and I want this to be as legitimate as possible.

Image taken from Pixabay.

If you are the author, let’s remember to be good sports! 1) Please feel free to message or contact me at any time. 2) Please feel free to like, share, text, ask for support, and call everyone you know. I absolutely want max participation. However, if you’re going to offer giveaways or prizes, please offer them for voting, not just voting for you.

Also, while your summoning your army of voting soldiers, please make sure you ask them to vote in every match. Part of the idea of this is to get exposure to as many artists and authors as possible. By all means, if you can get 1,000 people to vote for your book, do it. Just please also send some eyeballs to the other matches.

A final note to authors and artists: I currently have links to the books’ Amazon pages. If you’d prefer I switch that link to sign up for your newsletter or like your social media page or whatever, just send me the link and let me know. I want this to help you. I want this to be as helpful as possible, so whatever you need me to do to facilitate that, just let me know.

I hope you keep having fun. Please, vote, share, and discuss as much as possible.

All you have to do now is head over here to vote!

Thanks for reading,

Matt