Hi peeps! We have J. Scott Coatsworth visiting today with his brand new release The Rising Tide, we have a brilliant exclusive excerpt, a fantastic $25 Amazon GC,& paperback giveaway and my review, so check out the post and enter the giveaway! ❤ ~Pixie~

The Rising Tide

J. Scott Coatsworth

Earth is dead.

Five years later, the remnants of humanity travel through the stars inside Forever, a living, ever-evolving, self-contained generation ship. When Eddy Tremaine and Andy Hammond find a hidden world-within-a-world under the mountains, the discovery triggers a chain of events that could fundamentally alter or extinguish life as they know it, culminate in the takeover of the world mind, and end free will for humankind.

Control the AI, control the people.

Eddy, Andy, and a handful of other unlikely heroes—people of every race and identity, and some who aren’t even human—must find the courage and ingenuity to stand against the rising tide.

Otherwise they might be living through the end days of human history.

Exclusive Excerpt!

Prologue

Ana closed her eyes, visualizing the seed ship’s current trajectory. They’d rendezvous with 42 Isis in five days, their last stop in the solar system that had birthed mankind. Five years past, it had nearly been the location of its destruction.

The asteroid contained a high percentage of olivine, a mineral high in useful elements like oxygen, iron, magnesium, and silicon—a veritable feast.

Around Ana, the clean white laboratory that was her personal vee space domain was in perfect order, every surface spotless. A swipe of her virtual hand brought up an image of Forever, the long cylindrical generation ship hanging in the dark void of space between Mars and Jupiter.

The world sails had been pulled in, and Ana was in the process of nudging Forever into alignment with the asteroid, firing off excess bits of waste material to bring her into the proper trajectory. If all went well, Forever would end up with enough mass to finish build-out, along with a shield to help absorb space radiation on the journey to their new home.

Thank God.

Ana shook her head. That was clearly one of Jackson’s thoughts. She even picked up some of Lex’s thoughts at times. The original world mind veered off into philosophical territory to a degree that often surprised Ana—how an AI had become a philosopher poet.

The three Immortals, as they had jokingly taken to calling one another, were bleeding into each other more and more. It worried her.

This new second life was a gift beyond measure, certainly nothing she had ever expected. A chance to go with her creation across the stark divide, between the stars. But if the ultimate price was her own individuality, was it worth it?

She made a minor adjustment in the world trajectory, then shut off that part of her awareness. If she were needed, the system would let her know.

She slipped off through the conduits of the world mind to find Jackson.

The three Immortals had created a number of virtual worlds in vee space to pass the time when their skills weren’t needed. While it was possible to create AI personalities to populate each of their various worlds, these constructs took a lot of processing power, and the Immortals had quickly grown tired of that game.

The worlds they built now were usually empty except for the three of them.

She found Jackson in Frontier Station, sitting all alone in the gardens. The blue-green ball of Earth, as it once had been, stretched out below him.

“You’re bleeding into me again.” Ana took a seat on the bench next to him.

He glanced up, his face drawn, his nose red and puffy. He concentrated, and the tears and puffiness went away. “Was I? Sorry. I was just thinking of Glory.”

Even in vee space, we emulate our old human selves.

His wife, Gloria, had just passed away a few days before, after a protracted battle with cancer that the new world’s facilities weren’t set up to treat. So much had been lost in the flight from Earth.

They had agonized over whether to bring Glory into the world mind.

Jackson had requested it, but Ana and Lex, the other two Immortals, had both been against it. Their little team worked well enough together, and adding additional human minds was likely to muddy the waters. Besides, the mind only had so much capacity. It couldn’t hold everyone within its confines. It hadn’t been created for that purpose.

Ana sighed. She wasn’t blind to the human cost of that decision. “She liked it here.” She squeezed his shoulder. Jackson’s vee space was beautiful, though it broke her heart to see Earth once again as it had looked before the Collapse.

Jackson nodded. “This is where we first met.”

He must have been just as annoyed at her bleed-through thoughts. She was being insensitive again, considering all he was dealing with.

Being effectively immortal was turning out to be harder than she’d ever imagined. She put an arm around his shoulders and hugged him. “I am so sorry about Glory.”

He regarded her in surprise. “Thank you. That means a lot.”

“Ours is a lonely path. We must make sure they get where they are going. Nothing else matters.”

He nodded. “I know. But it’s hard. Good Lord, guide me.”

Although she didn’t believe in a higher power, she squeezed his arm gently. “I hope he does.”

Liminal Sky Trilogy!

Humankind is on its way to the stars, a journey that will change it forever. Each of the stories in Liminal Sky explores that future through the lens of a generation ship, where the line between science fiction and fantasy often blurs. At times both pessimistic and very hopeful, Liminal Sky thrusts you into a future few would ever have imagined.

The Stark Divide (book 01)

.•.•.**❣️ DSP Publications | Amazon US | Amazon UK | B&N | Kobo | iTunes | QueeRomance Ink ❣️**.•.•.

About J. Scott!

Scott spends his time between the here and now and the what could be. Enticed into fantasy and sci fi by his mom at the tender age of nine, he devoured her Science Fiction Book Club library. But as he grew up, he wondered where all the people like him were in the books he was reading.

He decided that it was time to create the kinds of stories he couldn’t find at his local bookstore. If there weren’t gay characters in his favorite genres, he would remake them to his own ends.

His friends say Scott’s mind works a little differently – he sees relationships between things that others miss, and gets more done in a day than most folks manage in a week. He loves to transform traditional sci fi, fantasy, and contemporary worlds into something unexpected.

He runs both Queer Sci Fi and QueeRomance Ink with his husband Mark, sites that bring queer people together to promote and celebrate fiction that reflects their own lives.

Website | Facebook | Facebook Author Page | Twitter | QueeRomance Ink | Amazon

Giveaway!

Win a $25 Amazon gift card!
Win a signed copy of “The Stark Divide,” book one in the series (US winner only for the paperback).

Review

Title: The Rising Sky

Series: Liminal Sky 02

Author: J. Scott Coatsworth

Genre: Science Fiction

Length: Novel (380pgs)

ISBN 13: 978-1-64080-627-6

Publisher: DSP Publications (30^th October 2018)

Heat Level: Nil

Heart Rating: 💖💖💖💖💖 4 ½ Hearts

Reviewer: Pixie

Blurb: Earth is dead.

Five years later, the remnants of humanity travel through the stars inside Forever, a living, ever-evolving, self-contained generation ship. When Eddy Tremaine and Andy Hammond find a hidden world-within-a-world under the mountains, the discovery triggers a chain of events that could fundamentally alter or extinguish life as they know it, culminate in the takeover of the world mind, and end free will for humankind.

Control the AI, control the people.

Eddy, Andy, and a handful of other unlikely heroes—people of every race and identity, and some who aren’t even human—must find the courage and ingenuity to stand against the rising tide.

Otherwise they might be living through the end days of human history.

Purchase Link: DSP Publications | Amazon US | Amazon UK

Review: This story is the second book in the Liminal Sky series and follows on from The Stark Divide so I’d advise that the books must be read in order.

The Rising Tide begins five years after the end of The Stark Divide with Eddy, now the Sheriff, starting an investigation into missing and slaughtered sheep. Eddy stumbles across something that shocks Eddy, Andy, Colin and the Immortals; it will also turn your stomach.

Before delving further into the story I would advise brushing up on the characters in The Stark Divide, because I went into this story cold and it took a bit of time for the characters to fall back into my memory. This story can’t be read without having all the background and characters stories that are fully fleshed out in The Stark Divide; you wouldn’t make it past chapter one without scratching your head and wondering what the hell you’d fallen into.

When we finished book 1 we knew that Davian would cause some problems in the future, and now we finally discover just what trouble Davian causes and boy is it a doozy.

The Rising Tide is split into three parts, Rendezvous 2171, Coup 2181, and Flight 2188. This really is an amazing story and while it has gay, lesbian, Trans and asexual characters I would actually say that this is a more mainstream story. There’s no romance as such and no one character to focus on. Each part sees progression for all the characters, their lives growing and changing, new main characters coming forward and some main characters being lost. As with the previous story there is a core of characters who have the centre light, as they age and roles change the younger generation take the spotlight.

There are shocking revelations, danger, depravity and sheer horror at times in the story; we also have love, understanding and forgiveness. There are several relationships being built, restored, explored and let go, I’d love to delve deeper but with so many main characters there’s just too many to describe. The main focus of this story is family, friendship and the adventure of surviving as a whole world inside a living world/ship, the last of humanity, the hope of the future, and free will.  

This is an amazing story, the world building, the character development and story development which keeps you gripped as you discover what’s happening, are so fully flesh out that you get immersed in their world, you feel for the guys as they struggle to put their world to rights and battle an evil that wants to rule with an iron grip to serve his wants and whims.

As I reached the end of the book I began to wonder what could be next, the evil has been vanquished, safeguards have been put into place to protect the world mind, the last of humanity have begun to establish Governments for its cities and begun to rebuild after the devastation… so what is next??? I suppose we’ll have to wait and see.

I recommend this to those who love deep science fiction stories, who adore a storyline that pulls you along in its wake, who love interesting characters, who love the sheer instinct to survive, and an ending that leaves you feeling fulfilled but wondering what could be next for our intrepid survivors.