What’s Best on the Internet This Week? I have scoured it from stem to stem and boiled down billions of articles and videos to these. This includes free books and offers for you.
Let’s start with this doozy:
So if one robot kills another, is a crime committed? What is the crime? Who is liable? If you answer these three questions,I’ll give you an audiobook of your choice.
I met Andy at PeoriaCon last spring at Expo Gardens. He was very animated and reading an excerpt from this book, so I couldn’t help but to purchase it. The book was great. I really enjoyed the humor and detail, but also the fact that the midwest where I from was the backdrop for the storyline. I was very excited to get my hands on the next book.
If you write a review of my books, I’ll give you one in appreciation. Or, you can ask for an ebook or audiobook and I’ll give you one in exchange for a review. It doesn’t have to be positive. Every review helps me gain visibility through the Amazon algorithm.
What’s Best – Here’s a Jaw-Dropper Coming Up
Now maybe you’re creeped out by the size of asteroids, especially the thought of one hitting the Earth. (Although that’s a good premise for a story.)
Your trivia of the day: a meteor 23 miles across killed the dinosaurs. That’s 37 kilometers. Which of the asteroids listed comes closest to that? Tell me and I’ll send you a free audiobook.
“Best Stuff on the Internet this week? I don’t believe you, Andy.” So you say.
I can hardly wait to prove it to you. Let’s begin with this.
There are many famous doctors who aren’t on this chart: Doc EE Smith, of pulp science fiction fame, Dr. Crusher from Star Trek, and Dr. Smith from ‘Lost In Space’. Tell me more! Tell me where they should go on this chart. For each one you name, you get a free audiobook from me. My audiobooks are below:
Next, you have this amazing technological breakthrough:
For a little context, I’ve been reading about fusion technology since my teens in the 70s. It’s always been 20 years away–even today. But this technology involves fusing boron hydride using laser beams. Once fusion starts, it’ll keep going. Will it work or will it be another dead end? You tell me.
On the wacky side of life imitating art, we have rocket propulsion by explosion. Let me know if you’ve read Jerry Pournelle’s book Lucifer’s Hammer and I’ll send you an audiobook of your choice.
Now I have two videos for you, both astonishing. First, check out this one:
Did you ever think you’d live to see a rickshaw pulled by a robotic dog? That sounds like a steampunk premise to me.
Best Stuff (Free) That I’ve Found
Let me give you some free stuff before I go, the best I’ve found. The next item is a free short fiction by fellow author Jane Jago. If you like ghost stories mixed with Urban Fantasy, you’ll love this.
I met Jane Jago on the SciFi Roundtable. Here you can get a sampling of the writers from that group for free:
More Stuff for Free
I won’t make you click through for the review. Read it here:
What happens when differently-abled people become super-abled? Andy Zach tells that story in this short (100 page) novel.
From the back of the book:
“Jeremy Gentle fell flat on his face at therapy. That was normal since he had cerebral palsy. But his new superpower wasn’t normal. Then things got weirder when his best friend, Dan Elanga, got a different superpower. But Dan was still blind.
Kayla Verdera and Aubrey Wilcosky, two girls in their middle-school special ed class, discovered they too had new superpowers. Kayla was mute and needed a walker. Aubrey lost two legs and used crutches. But they were as powerful as the boys.
What should the four friends do? Jeremy knew if the word got out, it’d be a media circus. Then they started fighting crime, as the Secret Supers. Who knew a disability could be a perfect disguise? No one would ever think of disabled kids as superheroes. Then they ran into problems they never expected.”
Secret Supers is perfect for kids, ages 8-12 who have special needs, siblings with special needs, or just live on planet earth. Along with diversity in race, income, and culture, we also work to introduce our kids to people who are different than them. This book tells the story of four amazing kids who gain superpowers and how they learn about themselves.
I love when science catches up with science fiction. Here I just wrote Paranormal Privateers in 2018 including mind control through skull implants. Then I read an article heading in the same direction with current technology!
Can anything top this in October 2019? Find out in the next section.
In one blog post, I discussed where I got my ideas for Paranormal Privateers, my third novel. I had to surpass my previous books. I added a surprise twist and I gave two hints. Here’s your first hint:
Your first hint about Paranormal Privateers
Then you got this second hint:
Excerpt from Forbidden Planet
I love these two movies, so, naturally, I included elements of them in my book.
If you haven’t read Paranormal Privateers, let me know your guesses about the plot twist. The best response gets a free ebook of your choice!
Oops! I almost forgot! I got a review for Oops! Here it is:
The First Review of Oops!
Oops! Tales of the Zombie Turkey Apocalypse by Andy Zach is a collection of short stories and as the clue is in the title, the theme is zombies. And boy do they come in a variety of different shapes and sizes.
The book starts with three stories that are a starter and not in the zombie genre. Firstly, you are introduced to a world where nothing is heard. Then we move on to finding an elusive phoenix and trying to use its DNA for breeding. Lastly, we have a story about a time-travelling wheelchair.
Then we jump straight into zombies. From zombie pickles, to zombie service dog corgis, to zombie models and even zombies in a nursing home. There is a timeline thread running through the stories where characters that create something or meet someone bring them into a later story. And all of this in a world where becoming a zombie is as easy as ordering blood online!
After each story, the author explains where he got his ideas from, and since in his bio he claims both his parents were zombies, he must be an expert on all things undead. The author has a very quick mind and some of the quips and plays on words were very clever. In some of the stories, however, I would have preferred a definite ending—one where the story doesn’t just finish and you think there is more coming. It was almost as though they were ideas taken from diary extracts with sporadic glimpses into a world of zombies.
After the zombie stories came tales from some of his other books about teenage superheroes. I think the one I enjoyed the most was of the hamster that one of the kids had experimented on and had developed some superpowers. He taught himself to read and was eventually able to communicate with others by typing on a computer. The author very cleverly integrated himself into that story by being the author in the story and the one that the hamster contacted. And of course, we had to have a story about aliens to end it off.
The editing of the book was very good, and I only caught a couple of minor errors. I enjoyed the writing style of the main author and very often you had to reread something because the clever nuances were so subtle you only got them a few lines later. The different styles of writing by the different authors was a bit offputting as you get into a tempo with one and then get thrown off your rhythm by another.
While I enjoyed the book overall, I would still put it in my average category as I wouldn’t go back and reread it. I would, however, recommend it to anyone looking for a quick read where you can turn your brain off from reality and just jump into a world of crazy.
