Tag: Military science fiction

Book Review: Stigers Tigers (Chronicles of an Imperial Legionary Officer Book 1)

On By J.R. HandleyIn Book ReviewLeave a comment

 

Hey Space Cadets, here is the next installment in my series of book reviews. I’m just coming out of a reading slump. Lately, life has been chaotic, but now I’m back in the saddle and wanted to share what I just read! Audiobooks have become my friend as I take advantage of the gorgeous summer weather. I don’t normally review books outside of the science fiction genre, though I read plenty of them as well, this one was a military fantasy novel, so I felt like it fit with my brand. And let’s be real, I love nerding out over books! Plus, I know that the author has a new science fiction story coming out, so I wanted to see what Marc was working with! Continue reading “Book Review: Stigers Tigers (Chronicles of an Imperial Legionary Officer Book 1)” →

WARRIOR WEEKEND: James S. Aaron

On By J.R. HandleyIn Warrior Weekend Interview Series, Writing3 Comments

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Hello Space Cadets! Today, I wanted to introduce you to another author from my Warrior Weekend Interview Series, James S. Aaron. He’s the author of The Sentience Wars series, which takes place in M.D. Cooper’s Aeon 14 universe. With three books published, the five-book series will take readers from 2900 to 3200, as sentient AI break free of humanity. A native of Oregon, Aaron joined the U.S. Army in 1993 at the tender age of seventeen and stuck around until 2005, serving as both enlisted and officer. Aaron is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America and currently works in law enforcement. Aside from the normal stuff writers do, he also plays with solar power and aquaponics, protects his seventeen chickens from hawks and his poop gobbling Corgi, and curses the deer who chow on his garden.

Continue reading “WARRIOR WEEKEND: James S. Aaron” →

Book Review: Meltdown (Mech Wars Book 3)

On By J.R. HandleyIn Book Review2 Comments

Hey Space Cadets, how’re you all doing?  I hope you’ve sufficiently recovered from your turkey comma, and are back at it?  Survived the dreaded Black Friday, without loss of life or limb?  I ate the turkey, avoided the shopping, and visited with my in-laws.  Now that the holidays are over, I’m back to the writing.  I should have an announcement on the release of my fourth and final novel in The Sleeping Legion Series soon.  I’m working on that new, super-duper secret project and having a blast.  The instant I can share more, I will!  I’ve got a short story in The The Expanding Universe 3 Anthology that’s coming out on the 15th of December. If you want tons of fun, for the low price of 99c, then pre-order it!  It’s a collection of some pretty amazing stories. Continue reading “Book Review: Meltdown (Mech Wars Book 3)” →

Book Review: Dynamo (Mech Wars Book 2)

On By J. R. HandleyIn Book Review4 Comments

 

Hey Space Cadets, here is the next installment in my series of book reviews. As I’ve mentioned earlier, I’m a member of the TRMN. It’s a fan club for the Honor Harrington Universe by David Weber, and they do contests for their members all the time. There is a reading contest going on recently, and we get points for page reads. I’m thrilled that it prompted me to read more, as I’ve let writing get in the way of reading!  In addition to reading more this month, I’m working on the editorial revisions for book four of The Sleeping Legion Series.  Finally, if you haven’t read it, Operation Breakout is live! Continue reading “Book Review: Dynamo (Mech Wars Book 2)” →

BOOK SALE!!!

On By J. R. HandleyIn Book Review1 Comment

 

 LegonnaireHey Space Cadets, I just want to bring you some news about a book sale!  I figured I’ll do these posts whenever a book I reviewed or loved is on sale.  Spreading the word about good books is just the kind of community I hope to build on this blog, so I’ll shout the good ones from the roof tops!  This time, I wanted to let you know that a book I recently reviewed, Powered by Scott Bartlett, is on sale.  It has dropped from USD 2.99 to USD 0.99, quite the bargain!  Scott’s special sale is to celebrate the launch of the third book in this series, Meltdown, so I figured it was worth mentioning!!  Speaking of the new books, the third book in the series is ALSO on sale for $0.99 for a short while so check out the series! Continue reading “BOOK SALE!!!” →

Book Review: Powered (Mech Wars Book 1)

On By J. R. HandleyIn Book Review8 Comments

 

Hey Space Cadets, here is the next installment in my series of book reviews. As I’ve mentioned earlier, I’m a member of the TRMN. It’s a fan club for the Honor Harrington Universe by David Weber, and they do contests for their members all the time. There is a reading contest going on recently, and we get bonus points for reading authors who are on the TRMN Author List. And, if those authors will be at the 2017 Honor Con, we get even more points! So, you’ll see my next several reviews on books by Chris Kennedy, Marko Kloos and David Weber before I get back to Richard Fox’s Ember Wars Continue reading “Book Review: Powered (Mech Wars Book 1)” →

The Odera Chronicles

On By J. R. HandleyIn Sleeping Legion Series, update, Writing7 Comments

JR Handley Blog HeaderHey Space Cadets, how is everyone on this fine day?  I’m doing well, and wanted to bring you my news!  My former editor, Corey D Truax, and I have signed our next series with a small publishing house, Theogony Publishing.  This umbrella publishing house is a part of the larger and more dynamic Chris Kennedy Publishing.  Corey and I scoped him out together, in a totally non-stalker kind of way, and liked how he operated. He’s professional, and another veteran of America’s Armed Forces. I think Corey liked that he was a sailor too, but I forgive them both for their imperfections

So, what to say about The Odera Chronicles without giving too much away?  This story tells the tale of Alexis Monroe, one of the first female infantrymen in the US Army. Alexis was an only child, her dad was a Seabee and veteran of the wars in Mesopotamia. After her mother died, it was just the two of them, so she became the son he wanted. Alexis strove to please him and honed her inner tomboy. Shortly after she graduated college, females were being allowed to join the combat arms of the military. Alexis enlisted into the infantry.  Alexis did well at training, very well. When those scores were combined with her college degree, she was quickly advanced to the rank of sergeant. Despite how well she did, her fellow grunts always assumed she was promoted because she was female. When she graduated from training at the NCO Academy, she was given an out of the way assignment. Out of sight, out of mind, or so the Army thought. Her job was simple; guard a warehouse, don’t look inside.  Of course, she looked – and a grand adventure ensued.  To find out more, you will have to read the book.

As you all know, I will keep you up to date with our plans for the series, but for now, less really is more!  I really enjoyed working with Corey as he edited The Sleeping Legion series, so I think this collaboration will be a blast. I really hope that the fun we have translates onto the page. We both really want our readers to enjoy this little tale of galactic woe. So, if you’ve enjoyed the shenanigans over here in the Handley Trenches, then re-enlist on the insanity train!

 

Until next time, stay frosty and don’t forget to keep your powder dry!

brown_bess JR

 

 –> As usual, all images came from the Google’s “labeled for reuse” section or are owned by JR Handley.

Story Prompts: Closets (#1)

On By J.R. HandleyIn Story Prompts14 Comments

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Hey, Space Cadets. I hope this fine Tuesday finds you well!  I’ve hit an impasse on Operation Breakout. Namely, managing this blog takes more of my time than I really have.  While I love the collaboration, writing stories needs to be my top priority. Soon, if I can’t find a solution, I might cut back to every other day posting.  Either way, for today, I wanted to try something different.  I’ll be doing a series of writing prompts, and today’s will use the image below as the starting point.  My goal is to improve my ability to write shorter works, and you get to be my lab rats!  I hope you enjoy the insanity that follows! Feedback is welcome. Negative, positive, grammatical, whatever you want to post. Ultimately, a writer grows by seeing their flaws and honing their craft.

 

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She opened the door to her storage closet and braced herself for the horror that would come.  Her normally ruddy complexion turned an ashen white as a hoarse voice whispered to her, imploringly.

“Just let me explain.”

It wasn’t how she expected to spend her Saturday morning, after a glorious Friday evening with her friends.  She’d met up with members of her Imperial Space Fleet Academy graduating class, to reminisce about old times.

With long deployments, spread across Imperial Space, she hadn’t seen several of them in years.  Many of them had exited the Navy, and entered the private sector.  Enjoying lucrative jobs in the Imperial City, which allowed them to meet with their classmates.

The rest, well their time in service meant most were ready for their own class on ships captaincy.  It was only their return to attend the Ship’s Captain Course, after so many good officers died in the insurrection that just ended, that brought them all together.

After so long apart, she’d just gotten through telling them how happy her marriage was.  Droning on about how they’d stood the test of time and were still together after all these years.  College sweethearts even.

What she didn’t expect was to go into the storage closet to find her husband joined in coitus with her best friend.  The fact that he was wearing her high school prom dress and ‘that woman’ was wearing a tux only added fuel to the rage that followed.  She knew she only had a few seconds to decide her next move.

Is the prison time worth killing them?  Would it be better to take a picture, humiliate them both?  What do I do?

 

Hope you all enjoyed this science fiction short, and I’ll try to do more of them in the future! Again, feedback is welcome. Heck, if I get an idea doing this that I like, I might just turn it into something more. If your feedback helps make that happen, you’ll get a mention in the acknowledgements. Or, I’ll make you a redshirt in the book and you can meet death with glory (in the story, of course).

 

Until next time, stay frosty and don’t forget to keep your powder dry!

brown_bess

 JR

 

–> As usual, all images came from the Google’s “labeled for reuse” section or are images owned by JR Handley.

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Marine Monday: Infopedia’s

On By J.R. HandleyIn Marine Monday, update, Writing2 Comments

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Hello Space Cadets, how are you today?  I’m doing outstanding, getting ready for the launch of my debut novel The Legion Awakes and hoping everyone loves it.  Paying back my mom for what we spent in the pre-publication stage wouldn’t hurt either!  To do that, people have to find me, so that lets me justify my time playing on my blog.  Shh, if anyone asks it’s for work (nods vigorously).

 

Today I wanted to talk to you about a feature of Tim’s website that has a metric frakk ton of information about his world building.  He labels these Infopedia’s, and they read like an encyclopedia entry.  They’re written in from the perspective of future historians studying the past, the eras we both write in.  It was a lot of fun to read when I was first introduced to his world as a reader.  I often refer to it as I write as well, and since I started this World Building Series Tim has been inspired to update this section on his own blog.

 

In addition, these posts serve as additional cannon support for the Universal Codex that my editor posted about over on his blog.  Sometimes they’re called other things as well; Universe Bible, World Building Style Guide or their brain dumps.  If you don’t follow him, and you love reading and writing, you should check him out.

 

I’m sorry this wasn’t a more exciting post, but I felt that I needed to point everyone in the right direction to see the building blocks of my works.  From here on out, I’ll be focusing on the things I added to the universe and will let Tim embellish his own idea babies.  Hopefully this helps, and wasn’t too disappointing.  As you know, I’ve been handling the pre-publication details of my first two novels.

 

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 Until next time, stay frosty and don’t forget to keep your powder dry!

brown_bess JR

 

 –> As usual, all images came from the Google’s “labeled for reuse” section or are owned by JR Handley.

 

Playing with Legos

On By J.R. HandleyIn Blogging, Writing21 Comments

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Hello Space Cadets, how are you today?  I’m doing good and going through my interweb folders and finding older posts that nobody read.  I want to bring them into the light of day now that this is a real blog, so bear with me.  This was my fourth post, so climb with me into the wayback machine and let’s go!  I won’t even edit the errors, so you can see how far we’ve come!

 

Beep, bop, boop, beep…..

 

Looking back in time!

 

Today I was, in fact, playing with Legos.  My wife came home to find me playing with Legos after a long hard day at work housewifing.  Naturally she was curious, as there was real work to be done.  Dishes to be washed, Christmas presents to be wrapped, good ole fashioned adulting.  My answer was simple, “I’m building sand-tables.”  What are sand-tables you ask?  Well, they are places where you use sand that can be molded to accurately represent the topography of a specific battlefield.  Basically, you use a sandbox to plan your battles.  When I used this in Army ROTC, we sometimes even used little green army men!  I seem to remember those little troopers being the same color my face turned after I ate my first MRE!!!  I am using Legos (as well as army men, yay!) for this purpose, allowing me to plan out a battle that makes sense and can be clearly explained.  Hopefully this means I write better battle scenes, but at a minimum this helps me clarify things in my own head.  That’s an important factor if I’m going to tell that story to my audience.  Let’s just say she wasn’t convinced, but finally my puppy dog eyes paid off.

 

Until next time, stay frosty and don’t forget to keep your powder dry!

brown_bess

JR

 

–> This image is under available under the free creative commons and was originally posted to Flickr.com.  It was uploaded to Commons using Flickr upload bot on 15:22, 25 July 2007 (UTC) by Ranveig (talk). On that date it was licensed under the license linked to above.