Kavin

Silverstones Books 2023 Year In Review

Wow, what a year! 2023 was by far the biggest year yet for Silverstones Books, and not just because it was the first full calendar year we were open. There were many ups and some downs throughout the year, but I'm really glad with where the store is as we close out the year. Let's jump in as I break it all down. 2023 Recap I started 2023 by doing pop-ups, but quickly abandoned that, as I was not seeing the traffic I needed for that due to many factors out of my control. So I went back to focusing...

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Guest Review: The Automaton by Ian Young

By Bill Adams Synopsis Humanity is on the cusp of extinction. Deteriorating populations threaten the planetary economy and risk the collapse of humanity itself. In desperation, human-like machines are built to serve where man no longer can. These are the Automata. Five thousand years later, humankind no longer walks the Earth, but has ascended beyond biology to float above Earth in a hemisphere-spanning supercomputer. When an anomaly arises on Earth that not even a post-biological civilization can comprehend, XR-345x — a long deactivated top-of-the-line automaton — is awoken in a derelict facility deep within the overgrown jungles of Africa. With help from Hank —...

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Guest Review: Tears of the Maelstrom by Timothy Wolff

By Bill Adams Summary: With Vaynex on the brink of civil war, Tempest Claw struggles for peace among his people, many of whom seek vengeance for their lost deity. As the recession grows deeper, one thing remains clear: Tempest will either find common ground with his brethren, or a tomb buried within the sand. Serenna Morgan struggles in her new role as Guardian leader. With insufficient time to mend the emotional scars from the last Harbinger, she must prepare a scattered team to defend the realm from old enemies reemerging in the South, along with a new divine nemesis scheming...

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Guest Review: River in the Galaxy by Natalie Kelda

by Bill Adams Summary When Merlon's parents disappeared, his world fell apart. When his best friend died, he lost the ability to enjoy life. For Captain Merlon Ricosta, Lanier's death, two years prior, feels like yesterday. But when a map from his parents is discovered, he decides to push aside his grief to get closure and follow the route they vanished along eighteen years ago. Despite political trouble, Merlon leads his crew into the unknowns of strange galaxies in his quest to find out why his parents never returned. In River in the Galaxy, Merlon fights to keep his crew...

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Short Story: Cast It Into The Fire by Jared Leys

“I’m sorry it came to this, Dr. Grady.” The head in the chair next to me didn’t respond. Its lifeless, deep-set eyes stared into oblivion from a countenance with a large nose and a furrowed white brow. Wrinkled skin clung to high cheekbones. Dr. Grady’s eighty-four years had been stressful, but he had smiled often. Blood seeped from the base of the severed neck and dribbled to the floor. It splattered on the hardwood boards and reflected light from the fireplace. Warm, flickering shadows played along the walls of the small den. Books and technical equipment rested on a desk...

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Where to Start With Indie Books: 10 Authors to Start With Part 3

This week we're talking about two authors that have taken the fantasy genre by storm in recent years with their dark and epic tales. John Palladino John Palladino burst onto the scene in the summer of 2022 with his debut The Trials of Ashmount. His books are firmly rooted in the grimdark genre of fantasy, and he's not afraid to remind you of that. Taking cues from authors like Joe Abercrombie, Mr. Palladino's Tragedy of Cedain series will have you hooked on the multi-pov tales of people that seem to just have no luck in life, or no love for...

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Where to Start With Indie Books: 10 Authors to Start With Part 2

Continuing my Intro to Indie series, today we're going to check out authors Mark Timmony and James Lloyd Dulin, fantasy writers taking completely different approaches to the genre. Mark Timmony Mark Timmony is the author of the Eye of Eternity series, which currently consists of the novel The Blood of the Spear and the prequel novella Starbinder. This series revolves around two brothers who are the subject of a prophecy, and what that means for them politically. This series wears its Wheel of Time influences prominently and doesn't take itself too seriously. Mark is currently hard at work on the...

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Where to Start With Indie Books: 10 Authors to Start With Part 1

"I want to start reading indie and self-published books, where do I start?" I get this question a lot. Over the next five weeks I'm going to highlight ten authors that are perfect entry-points into the indie and self-publishing science-fiction and fantasy world, starting with Andrew D Meredith   Andrew D Meredith is the author of two ongoing series. Thrice is book one in his Needle and Leaf series, a series that is inspired by Slavic mythology. The Needle and Leaf series is on the smaller scale compared to his other series. It has a smaller cast and smaller stakes....

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Silverstones Blog Buddy Read Announcement & Reveal

The Silverstones Blog team is doing our first buddy read! We're looking forward to what we hope will be a fun time for everyone. I've never participated in a buddy read, much less organized one, so I'm excited to get into it. But I bet you want to know what book we're reading. Okay I guess I'll tell you. We are reading Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio, book one in the genre-bending Sun Eater series! "Hadrian Marlowe, a man revered as a hero and despised as a murderer, chronicles his tale in the galaxy-spanning debut of the Sun Eater...

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What’s all the fuss over SPFBO and SPSFC? Guest Post By Palmer Pickering

What’s all the fuss over SPFBO and SPSFC? You may be wondering why SPFBO has become the hottest Indie Fantasy contest around, and what is its younger cousin, SPSFC? Mark Lawrence, prolific author of several trilogies, (e.g. grimdark “Broken Empire Trilogy”/”Prince of Thorns,” and other fantasy sub-genres including his latest release, “The Book that Wouldn’t Burn”) and published by Ace, suffered from “survivor’s guilt” of a sort, when he landed a book deal that he considered lucky circumstance while many of his peers who were also good writers did not get a deal. He wanted to provide a platform to...

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