Royce Sears-Sci-Fi/Fantasy Author

Morning Star by Pierce Brown My rating: 5 of 5 stars Morning Star is a heartfelt and dizzying end to the Red Rising Trilogy. Although Morning Star is a great book, it IS the end of the trilogy--much to my dismay. The author's acknowledgments and comments make the last book even more loveable because we can see the struggle Mr. Brown had in bringing Darrow through the conflicts arising within Morning Star. Where Red Rising and Golden Son focused on Darrow himself, Darrow has to learn that he can't always do everything by himself. As much as I wanted to savor this last book, it was another Pierce Brown novel that I couldn't put down--and alas it is done. I'm looking forward to Iron Gold scheduled for release in 2018. Royce Sears www.roycesears.com View all my reviews

Golden Son by Pierce Brown My rating: 5 of 5 stars Golden Son by Pierce Brown is the second novel in the Red Rising Trilogy. I have fallen in love with these characters, so much so that as soon as I finished Red Rising I had to acquire Golden Son and Morning Star simultaneously. Written in the first-person POV, Brown takes us on an epic adventure through a stratified society's strengths and weaknesses via Darrow, a low-born miner, who begins to tilt this society's views of place and caste in Red Rising. Between the covers of Golden Sun, Darrow's rise through the ranks of aureate society continues as he struggles to protect the secret of his low-born identity and build the relationships he will need in the days ahead. Golden Son is a maze of friendships, betrayals, loyalties, and power struggles that provides the reader with nonstop hours of page-turning, mind-bending thrills. Royce Sears www.roycesears.com View all ...

Red Rising by Pierce Brown My rating: 5 of 5 stars Red Rising ! The cover quote by Scott Sigler says it all, "Ender, Katness, and now Darrow." The social stratification we see in Ender's Game, The Hunger Games, and Divergent, is taken to all new levels in Red Rising. Pierce Brown's delightful use of a Eugenic's obsessed culture makes Darrow's rise from a lowly Red to an iron Gold an enjoyable story that will go down in history as 'classical' and 'epic' science fiction. This is one of those books that you just CANNOT put down. We feel every betrayal, every heartache, and every triumph as Darrow faces impossible odds in a system stacked against him in every way possible. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! Royce Sears www.roycesears.com View all my reviews

Hyperion by Dan Simmons My rating: 5 of 5 stars Hyperion by Dan Simmons is a wonderful science fiction novel that combines a number of scifi elements in a fantastically woven story. Simmons tells each character's story separately, in a delightfully artistic manner, that escorts the reader through the many and varied facets of the incredibly complex world he's created. Using character archetypes, Simmons tactfully uses his characters as ciphers to decode the mysteries of a backwater world known simply as Hyperion. Aspects of military-scifi, cyberpunk, space opera, mythology, religious mysteries, and a profound appreciation of literature--expressed through his mad poet character--make Hyperion a delightful reading experience. The only place throughout the entire novel where I felt let down was the end...and I'll leave it at that. Royce Sears www.roycesears.com View all my reviews

A Vision of Fire by Gillian Anderson My rating: 4 of 5 stars I enjoyed A Vision of Fire by Gillian Anderson. This novel takes the reader down a twisted path toward the Piri Reis map via lost artifacts and a consciousness extending across time to invade the minds of those who suffer traumatic experiences. Anderson explores several facets of mythologic tales, ranging from Norse and Celtic tales to Vodoun legends, and interweaves these facets into a larger fabric to spin a science fiction yarn of mystery, intrigue, and suspense. Royce Sears www.roycesears.com View all my reviews

The Human Division by John Scalzi My rating: 4 of 5 stars While The Human Division is a collection of short stories, and it's normally difficult to write a review of such a collection, this collection is situated in Scalzi's Old Man's War universe and the stories are interrelated enough to make writing a review much easier. I enjoyed the way the stories accented events in Scalzi's other books while telling their own stories at the same time. We get to experience the growing pains of the CDF as they learn to deal with things through diplomacy rather than brute force. All in all, a great collection of shorts that fleshes out the universe more fully than before. I love Scalzi's brash characters and the situation's he throws them into. Who else could have thought of making a diplomatic incident out of a Lhasa Apso's encounter with a carnivorous plant? Leave it to Scalzi... View all my reviews

Sharing the most recent reviews of my debut novel, "Prophecies of the New World." Available on Amazon Kindle Format: $1.99 Paperback:$11.99 A cross By: dabj  on April 8, 2017 Format: Kindle Edition A great story that blends the old days and the new with a hope for the future. Anxiously awaiting the next book. Captivating! By: Amazon Customer on April 7, 2017 Format: Paperback This was a thoroughly enjoyable read from start to finish. The kind of book you'll find impossible to put down. Get swept away by the rich scenery, absorbed in the vivid characters and their fantastic struggles. You'll find yourself tingling on the edge of your seat. This story has the perfect amount of ebb and flow, allowing fast paced action and quiet periods of reflection. With likable, compelling characters, larger than life creatures and intriguing, detestable villains you'll be dying to see come to life on the pages. Thought provoking without bein...

It's a wet and rainy day in West Virginia, but we ventured into the murky weather to visit the Huntington, WV StinkFest today. Yes, I said StinkFest. Ramps! For those of you who are unfamiliar with them, ramps: Allium tricoccum  (commonly known as  ramp ,  ramps ,  spring onion ,  ramson ,  wild leek ,  wood leek , and  wild garlic ) [2]  is a  North American  species of  wild onion  widespread across eastern  Canada  and the eastern  United States . [1]  Many of these English names are used for other  Allium  species, particularly  Allium ursinum . After visiting StinkFest, we stopped by the Flea Market in Milton, WV. Much to my delight, I found two vintage Anne McCaffery novels at one of the used book vendors.  Sassinak - Circa 1990 Crystal Singer - Circa 1982 Score!

We dread query letters, synopses, and trying to get the pacing of the novel to flow ...just right. Here are some of my thoughts and what I've accumulated so far.  These three words have been my entire existence for a few months now! Pulling my hair out? What hair? It's gone already. Queries: What have I learned? I've learned a great deal, actually. Keep it short! When we begin this process, many of us start with the common phrase, "Query letter? What's that?" So we Google it...ah, Google my good friend... and our wise GoogleBot Guru tells us that a Query letter is a one-page letter wherein we pitch our book to an agent.- No sweat- One page. I can do that. Umm.. not as easy as it looks.  Upon further research- and after a few rejections- we find that one-page stuff is nonsense. An agent doesn't want to read a whole page about your book. They want your book in a nutshell--an easily crackable nutshell with the meat of the nut in a ready to eat ...