Review: Persistence of Vision (Interchron #1)

Persistence of Vision (Interchron #1) by Liesel K. Hill
Age Group: Adult
Genre: Dystopian Fantasy
Release Date: January 29th, 2013
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ Barnes and Noble

Book Description:

In a world where collective hives are enslaving the population and individuals have been hunted to the verge of extinction, Maggie Harper, and independent 21st Century woman, must find the strength to preserve the freedom of the future, but without the aid of her memories.

After experiencing a traumatic time loss, Maggie is plagued by a barrage of images she can't explain. When she's attacked by a creep with a spider's web tattoo, she is saved by Marcus, a man she's never met, but somehow remembers. He tells her that both he and her creepy attacker are from a future in which individuals are being murdered by collectives, and Marcus is part of the rebellion. The collectives have acquired time travel and they plan to enslave the human race throughout all of history. The flashes Maggie has been seeing are echoes of lost memories, and the information buried deep within them is instrumental in defeating the collective hives.

In order to preserve the individuality of mankind, Maggie must try to re-discover stolen memories, re-kindle friendships she has no recollection of, and wade through her feelings for the mysterious Marcus, all while dodging the tattooed assassins the collectives keep sending her way.

If Maggie can't fill the holes in her memory and find the answers to stop the collectives, the world both in her time and in all ages past and future will be doomed to enslavement in the grey, mediocre collectives. As the danger swirls around her and the collectives close in, Maggie realizes she must make a choice: stand out or fade away...

♥ ♥ ♥

You know how they say that people only use a small portion of their brain? Ever wonder what that unused portion is for? In "Persistence of Vision" by Liesel K. Hill, we find out.

Hill creates a futuristic world where the entire brain has been mapped out and is now used to complete extraordinary tasks. People can now time travel, use their brain to heal others, recognize others by their specific brain chemistry, make ordinary rocks glow like powerful flashlights, and also be able to use the energy of nature as offensive or defensive weapons.

What I liked about the whole "mapping the brain chemistry" thing was that everyone was still very individualized. Not all brains are the same, and each person's specific chemistry is what leads them to have different abilities whether they're a Traveler, who can go through time, a Healer, who can mend almost any injury, a Protector, who can throw up powerful shields to deflect offensive energy, a Concealer, who can hide others' brain signatures so they won't be detected by the enemy, or any number of other talents.

Book Blitz: I Am Just Junco Books 1-3 Omnibus (Clutch, Fledge, Flight)

I Am Just Junco Books 1-3 Omnibus (Clutch, Fledge, Flight) by J.A. Huss
Age Group: Adult
Genre: Dystopian, Science Fiction
Release Date: November 4, 2013
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ Book Depository

Book Description:

Nineteen year old Rural Republic sniper, Junco Coot, has been lied to. Not once or twice, but pretty much everyone she ever trusted is totally full of sh*t. And now her father is dead, she’s on the run, and everyone wants a piece of her—including one winged alien warrior named Tier.

But the truth always catches up and Junco has to choose who she should trust. The people who have lied and trained her to kill since she was a small child? Or the warriors who want to steal her away and use her as the catalyst in a plot to fight the final battle in an ancient war?

It’s a choice that will change her fate forever. And once it’s made—there’s no turning back. Life becomes nothing but brutal killing in the name of vengeance. But everything requires sacrifice—everything has a price. And Junco is about to find out what it means to dedicate herself to saving someone else.

Junco is not young adult. She has a foul mouth and violent tendencies.

♥ ♥ ♥
Excerpt:

Clutch

I swing the shotgun on the strap so it’s out in front of me, brace it on my thigh to compensate for my injured shoulder, cycle the next round into the chamber, and then point it straight at his chest. I strain to prevent the wince that really wants to spread across my face.

"Look, I don’t know who you are, or why you’re here, but as a Farm Family Representative of Council 3, I’m asking you to leave under Regulation V.1.b – Aliens are not permitted in the Rural Republic under any circumstances. I have the authority to shoot and if you doubt me, I apologize ahead of time for taking your life. You are hereby legally warned."

"Look, sweetheart–"

Promotional Event: Unwanted

Unwanted by Alivia Anders
Age Group: New Adult
Genre: Dystopian
Release Date: August 30, 2013
Buy Link:

Smashwords

Book Description:

She would be his freedom.
He would be her price.

In a world overrun with people and narrowing resources, the basis of life has turned to do or die. No longer does the balance of wealth and power apply. A strict split between the rich and poor has made the lines clear- the more money you have, the more power you control.

For seventeen year old Emily Beucant, life is an equal gift and curse. Having grown up pre- Unwanted society, she can still remember the days it was okay to play with children from the other side of the concrete wall, back when her father was still alive, and back when the Unwanted program was used to Mark and hunt criminals, not sign away the lives of ungrateful children or spouses with high insurance collections over their heads.

But since her father's creation of the program, the government has taken control and made it into a lucrative monster. And as Emily is days away from her eighteenth birthday, and handsome inheritance, she will soon see just how badly it is to be Marked.

When her soulless aunt places Emily up to be Marked an Unwanted, she is forced to go on the run from all she has ever known. No where is safe for her, and no one will protect her, least they wish to have the same fate as her. It isn't until she forms a tense, explosive alliance with a former doctor, Ben, that it looks like the tables may turn in her favor. Together they race against those searching for her, desperate to find a way to free her from an early death. But is it too late?

No one is safe.
No one is free.

♥ ♥ ♥
Excerpt:

The time on my phone flashes 4:09AM by the time I come within sight of the first glimpses of Primrose Gardens. It’s nearly identical to Greener Lanes; a carefully monitored entryway was the only real way in, as the land was secured in a fence at least twenty feet high. Of course, like all high property, the maintenance of areas like the bottom of fences was generally overlooked, and were easily broken into by stray animals.

Or fugitive eighteen year olds. I double-check no cameras are positioned on the outside of the fence, then carefully navigate around it. My hands and fingers brush through dewy ferns and pines, the cold droplets a welcomed relief to my grime-coated fingers. At the corner of the first half, I spot an opening. It’s small, roughly the size of a skinny barrel, and pieces of rotting wood have been shoved in front of it in a weak attempt to conceal it.

I wiggle them free with little effort, check the other side for any pesky animals, and slip in. The backyard is empty, nothing but freshly mown green grass to both corners of the enclosed yard. Inwardly I sigh with huge relief. Nothing in the backyard means there’s almost no chance of the house having dogs or kids. I sprint up to the house and press myself into the siding, peering over the corner inside.

Review: Brave New World

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Age Group: Adult
Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopian
Published: 1932
Buy Links: Amazon ♥ B&N

Far in the future, the World Controllers have finally created the ideal society. In laboratories worldwide, genetic science has brought the human race to perfection. From the Alpha-Plus mandarin class to the Epsilon-Minus Semi-Morons, designed to perform menial tasks, man is bred and educated to be blissfully content with his pre-destined role.

But, in the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, Bernard Marx is unhappy. Harbouring an unnatural desire for solitude, feeling only distaste for the endless pleasures of compulsory promiscuity, Bernard has an ill-defined longing to break free. 

A visit to one of the few remaining Savage Reservations where the old, imperfect life still continues, may be the cure for his distress…

A fantasy of the future that sheds a blazing critical light on the present--considered to be Aldous Huxley' s most enduring masterpiece.

♥ ♥ ♥

Brave New World opens with a student tour of a London laboratory where the production of babies takes place. A great deal of time goes into explaining the different processes go into separating the five castes from each other the highest being Alpha and the lowest Epsilon in social standing, intelligence and height. All of this is done to insure the continuation of the motto Community, Identity, Stability. Everyone is conditioned to be happy within their ranking seeking immediate gratification and grateful to do their part.

Promotional Event: Through Glass

Through Glass by Rebecca Ethington
Age Group: New Adult
Genre: Dystopian
Release Date: September 20, 2013
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ B & N

Book Description:

Everyone remembered the day the sky went black. The day the sun was wiped from the sky. They remember the wind as it brought in the darkness; the way the earth shook and everything changed.

Everyone remembered the screams as the darkness ate those who were out in the open, those who had surrounded themselves by light, and those who made noise. Everyone remembered the voice from the sky and the way food disappeared. 

At least, that’s what I hoped. I hoped that there was an ‘everyone’ that would remember because I am not sure how many are left, how many survived. Or if anyone did.

I hoped that I wasn’t alone. I remembered that day. I remembered because it was the day I became alone. It was the day that everything was perfect until the monsters took it away. Then the house went silent and the birds stopped singing. It was the day when everyone disappeared, everyone except the boy, the only person I have seen in two years. The boy I talk to through the glass.

♥ ♥ ♥

Excerpt:

I looked up as the screech of the Ulama ended, as the monster fell to the ground of my room, the dark blood of the two dead creatures spilling over my once white carpet. I stared at the monsters as I panted and my heart beat a frantic pulse against my skin. I stared as my pulse slowed until I could pull my eyes away from the thing that tainted my room to look into the eyes I had dreamed about every night for as long as I could remember.

I couldn’t move, I couldn’t make my tongue work. I just looked at him, knowing that tears were sliding down my cheeks; knowing and not caring. I wasn’t sure why I was crying, I wasn’t sure if it was because of the panic that still surged through my body or the joy that I felt at seeing him there. “Alexis,” he said, his voice as deep and rumbling as I remembered it. It shot through me and for the first time in years I felt alive.

It was him. I didn’t say anything. I didn’t trust my mouth enough to form coherent words. I just moved. I moved as he moved, our hands meeting for the first time in two years as we hovered over the body of the monsters that had attempted to kill me. I grasped his skin, my heart beating so fast I was sure I couldn’t take it. A shaking breath moved out of me, his own breath moving across my skin. He moved closer as his frantic breaths rolled over me—the heat of his breath, of his touch—igniting a fire across the surface of my skin.

Book Blast: Darkest Worlds: A Dystopian Anthology

Darkest Worlds: A Dystopian Anthology by Katie French, S.K. Falls, Zoe Cannon, A.G. Henley, Kate Avery Ellison, Megan Thomason
Age Group: Adult
Genre: Dystopia
Release Date: September 13, 2013
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ B & N

Book Description:

An anthology that explores what humans are made of when society falls to its knees. Darkest Worlds includes six original novellas by award-winning authors and best sellers of Young Adult and New Adult Dystopia.

All proceeds go to Girls Write Now, a charity that promotes literacy of inner-city girls.



♥ ♥ ♥

Nessa A Breeders Story by Katie French, author of The Breeders: Eighteen-year-old Nessa knows what it’s like to be an endangered species. Growing up in a dying world where nine out of ten babies are born male, she survives by trusting no one. When Marlin, the nineteen-year-old gunslinger, kills the man who has been keeping her enslaved, Nessa decides he might be her meal ticket. What she doesn’t realize is love is still possible, even in their decimated world.

Moon by S.K. Falls, author of World of Shell and Bone: Loyalty. Obedience. Patriotism. Moon Stewart has no doubt that the New Amanian way of life is the right way. The only way. But was there ever a time when she felt differently? In this companion novella to the dystopian bestseller World of Shell and Bone, the secrets of Moon’s past are revealed, giving readers a glimpse into the mind of their favorite antagonist.

Promotional Event: John Smith - Last Known Survivor of the Microsoft Wars

John Smith - Last Known Survivor of the Microsoft Wars by Roland Hughes
Age Group: Adult
Genre: Dystopian, Science Fiction
Release Date: May 30, 2013
Buy Links:

B & N

Book Description:

What if the Mayans got the start of the end correct because they had survived it once before? What if our written history was just as accurate as the old tale about three blind men describing an elephant?

What if classic science fiction writing and television shows each got a piece of it correct, would you know which ones? If your eyes can only see a tiny portion of a collage do you know it is a collage?

Fans of Babylon 5, Star Trek TNG, Battle Star Galactica (the new one) and classic science fiction writing will enjoy the bountiful Easter Egg hunt contained within. When you were a child you learned to connect paper clips or thread beads together to make a necklace.

Sit back and watch the beads you’ve had all your life form the picture you could not see. Consider for one second the possibility of the story, then hang onto your mind with both hands while you take the ride.

♥ ♥ ♥
Excerpt:

In the past, when there was a massive nuclear disaster,mankind put in a concerted effort to clean it up. Even when the Chernobyl meltdown happened in a place called the Ukraine,we built a low-quality and hasty tomb around the site and put as much of the waste as possible in safe containment.The closest my cycle had to the off-limits places you know have occurred on an island nation known as Japan.

Blog Tour: No Greater Illusion

No Greater Illusion by K. Baskett
Age Group: Adult
Genre: Dystopian
Release Date: November 30 2012
Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Description:

In the very near future, surging advancements in technology have afforded American citizens with a number of conveniences. Of these, most notable is the SmartTag, a microchip embedded under the skin between index finger and thumb, housing all manner of personal information such as bank account details, medical history, voter registration and more.

This tightly-woven tale follows the lives of several very different people – Tealia, a free-spirited and intelligent photographer battling with conflicting emotions for her ex-lover; Mercer & Viera Scott, a power couple barely holding on to their marriage as the priorities of success and parenthood slowly become skewed between them; impoverished single mother, Naria, content with her reliance on both her current lover and government assistance to make ends meet; and the Holton family, wealthy beyond measure, enjoying carefree days of privilege and luxury.

Their status quo, however, is about to be undermined as America reacts violently to the brutal assassination of a highly esteemed female presidential nominee on the evening of the debates. As the entire nation struggles to make sense of the ensuing chaos, fear and distrust ramp up to dizzying heights. The end result is a series of grave consequences that will drastically alter life as they know it, making them all wonder how much of their world is but an illusion.

A captivating story that is at once gripping and dark, this brilliantly painted picture of a dystopian America cautions against the power of technology and the folly of taking anything for granted. Haunting and lyrical, No Greater Illusion is an astounding debut novel with a powerful message that lingers long after the final page is read.

♥ ♥ ♥
Excerpt:

That night, I became an eye witness to murder. The cop who pulled the trigger might have claimed it was “self-defense” or “protection from an imminent threat,” but all I saw was a 90-pound woman brandishing a lug wrench that was almost too heavy for her to lift.

“Conspiracy!” she yelled at the top of her lungs and used all of her might to swing the weapon at a nearby car, shattering the driver’s side window.

“Stand down,” ordered the nearest police officer in a booming voice, as he and countless others surveyed the entire riot scene unfolding before us.

Guest Post: Persistence of Memory - Liesel K. Hill

Persistence of Vision (Interchron #1) by Liesel K. Hill
Age Group: New Adult
Genre: Dystopian Fantasy
Release Date: January 29, 2012
Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Description:

In a world where collective hives are enslaving the population and individuals have been hunted to the verge of extinction, Maggie Harper, and independent 21st Century woman, must find the strength to preserve the freedom of the future, but without the aid of her memories.

After experiencing a traumatic time loss, Maggie is plagued by a barrage of images she can't explain. When she's attacked by a creep with a spider's web tattoo, she is saved by Marcus, a man she's never met, but somehow remembers. He tells her that both he and her creepy attacker are from a future in which individuals are being murdered by collectives, and Marcus is part of the rebellion. The collectives have acquired time travel and they plan to enslave the human race throughout all of history. The flashes Maggie has been seeing are echoes of lost memories, and the information buried deep within them is instrumental in defeating the collective hives.

In order to preserve the individuality of mankind, Maggie must try to re-discover stolen memories, re-kindle friendships she has no recollection of, and wade through her feelings for the mysterious Marcus, all while dodging the tattooed assassins the collectives keep sending her way.

If Maggie can't fill the holes in her memory and find the answers to stop the collectives, the world both in her time and in all ages past and future will be doomed to enslavement in the grey, mediocre collectives. As the danger swirls around her and the collectives close in, Maggie realizes she must make a choice: stand out or fade away...

♥ ♥ ♥

Hello Everyone! Thanks so much to Corina for having me here today!

Today I wanted to speak about the inspiration for my characters. This is something I really have to think about, because it’s not a readily obvious answer. I don’t base my characters on any particular or real life people. They all come out of my head.

For Persistence of Vision, I knew there would be what you might call an ensemble cast. I knew there would be a team, each with different abilities and personality traits.

Cover Reveal: Corded

Bookish Brunette Promotional Event

Corded by Alyssa Rose Ivy
Age Group: New Adult
Genre: Dystopian Romance
Release Date: 2013
Cover by: PhatPuppy Art
Book Description:

In a world where women are commodities, the only thing more rare than finding true love is a happy ending.

Kayla is in hiding—her only crime being born a girl in a society of 99% men. When her sister and niece are kidnapped, she is willing to do anything to save them. Kayla ventures into the dangerous streets of the city, a place where a woman can be claimed by anyone unless she has been marked by a club.

Desperate, she turns to Mason, a powerful club leader whose help comes at a cost—her freedom.

♥ ♥ ♥