January 27, 2022

BOOK TOUR: Mars Wars Series by John Andrew Karr

                         

Hi all! I'm pleased to be a part of John Andrew Karr's Virtual Book Tour for the Mars Wars Series through Goddess Fish Promotions. The author is giving away a  $50 Amazon or Barnes and Noble Gift card to a randomly drawn winner, so make sure you enter using the Rafflecopter at the bottom of the post. For more entries, check out the other tour hosts and their pages (link below).


Blurb for the Mars Wars Books

For decades the Space Consortium of America has searched for new ways to harvest resources beyond an increasingly depleted Earth. The ultimate plan is about to be ignited. So is the ultimate threat to humankind . . .

Detonation Event

Battle-hardened Captain Ry Devans and his crew of the Mars Orbiter Station One (MOS-1) are part of a bold plan: resurrect the active molten cores of the Red Planet with synchronized thermonuclear explosions, and terraform the hell out of that iron-oxide rock for future generations. It’ll change history. So will the strands of carbon-based Martian cells that have hitched a ride on the ship.

Dr. Karen Wagner knows the microbes’ resistance to virus is incredible. It’s the unknowable that’s dicey. Her orders: blow them into space. But orders can be undermined. Two vials have been stolen and sent hurtling toward the biosphere. For Devans and Wagner, ferreting out the saboteurs on board is only the beginning. Because there are more of them back on Earth—an army of radical eco-terrorists anxious to create a New World Order with a catastrophic gift from Mars.

Now, one-hundred-and-forty-million miles away from home, Devans is feeling expendable, betrayed, a little adrift, and a lot wild-eyed. But space madness could be his salvation—and Earth’s. He has a plan. And he’ll have to be crazy to make it work.

Add Detonation Event to your Goodreads TBR!

Rogue Planet

The mission: make Mars inhabitable for humans with a thermonuclear reawakening. But for the adventurous remnants of the Space Consortium of America, the biggest threat isn’t from the erupting rage of the Red Planet. It’s from a treacherous blue marble called Earth . . .
 
ROGUE PLANET
 
  You’d think Captain Ry Devans was a hero when he jumpstarted the cores of Mars, giving the previously dormant planet a fresh start at harboring life. But he’s also the host of a life-saving alien microbe, and the most wanted man within thirty-three million miles—courtesy of the terrorist global juggernaut the Earth First Faction, and its sociopathic agent Paton Schiflet. They’re doing everything in their power to quash the organized inhabitation of space and keep the last humans under control.
 
 Now that the EFF has dispatched its own insanely weaponized crew, Devans and his dirty-dozen team have three options: fight, surrender, or witness the extinction of the thousands of civilians repopulating space. For Devans and outlaw partner Dr. Karen Wagner, option number one is the only way to go—but the odds against them are astronomical.
 
Not only are moles undermining every offensive tactic, but some on MOS-1 are exhibiting dangerously psychotic mood swings. Is it just an extreme case of space crazy? Or a new microbial gift from Mars that could kill their mission before the war with EFF even begins?

Add Rogue Planet to your Goodreads TBR!

Annihilation Plan

Mars, in the throes of resurrection.

If you happened to have an illegal telescope or proxied your galaxynet address well enough to pirate your way to satellite images of Mars, you might glimpse a damaged but operational Mars Orbiter 1, alive with ‘rebels.’

You could see clusters of superheated propellant burning beyond Earth space, as the EFF (Earth First Faction) sends armed planetary shuttles on an attack route to relieve the rebels of their existence.

If so, you’d be witnessing Mars Wars.

PRE-ORDER Annihilation Plan today!

EXCERPT from Book 1, Detonation Event:

The barren red face of Mars grew before them.

The space shuttles of two centuries earlier had orbited Earth at roughly five miles a second. Doubling that speed, even tripling it—and in a hurry—was within easy capability of the PS-class shuttles.

Devans threw in a series of mild doglegs to make it a little interesting for Wagner. He had to admit, the youth had staying power. An hour later and Wagner hadn’t even taken a bathroom break. Two blips showed up on the main hologram of the planet below. They marked tunnel locations T1 and T2 as yellow-highlighted lines that shot straight down. Both had tiny right angles at the ends where the bombs were housed. 

As they approached the space over T1, the surface camera feeds showed nothing but a mass of gray-and-red dust. Very little wind speed. It was thick but gentle, like a snow globe after its been shaken.

“Raise shields, Nuro,” Devans said. “Shannon, how about splashing our entry on the big monitor here and the feed to the crew?”

The shuttle’s shields warded off the entry heat and they entered the anemic Martian atmosphere.

“Withdraw shields, Nuro.”

“Withdrawing.”

“Nice sandstorm,” Devans said, gazing at the roiling wall hundreds of feet high.

“Dust storm!” Trent Wagner said over his shoulder as he leaned back and forth on the table as if shredding the galaxy’s longest wave. “This is the tail end of it!”

“How long until cleared?”

“Two or three.”

“Couple, three hours, not so bad.”

“Weeks,” Wagner said.

“And here I just had this thing washed. Let’s go to the dark side for now.”

The sun cut a divide on the red planet’s surface. PS-9 easily outdistanced the storm and raced over the desert surface to the dark side. The second blip beckoned them on the navigation screens. Near-total darkness pushed against their vessel lights.

This was the eve of the moment they all had labored for…One last manual check and they would attempt to resurrect Mars with synchronized thermonuclear explosions at the core.

At least, that was the plan.

EXCERPT from Book 3, Annihilation Plan

The debris would be recovered by the drones for re-purposing.


No one on MOS-1 wanted human bodies to be stripped of their space suits by drones.


The machines would take them to Mars entry, however, for incineration.


Devans flew just past the next drifting form. He twisted into a one eighty to allow the ion jets to act as space brakes, then angled the small funnels to keep himself at the same rate and direction as the deceased.


He held an arm out and touched the suit.


The helmet had been atomized on a diagonal. He could not determine the gender of the victim inside. The identification chip was either gone or damaged.


This one’s even worse than the last one, he thought.


A glow spot grew in the corner of Devans’ eye. At first he thought it was notification of a mindtext, as they came with tiny dots in the periphery. But this was on the wrong side of his mindtext queue.


“Ry, duck and move! NOW!”


He knew Burroughs’ tones well enough to react first, ask later.


His hand blurred to hit a double max jet burst downward and sideways.


A concentrated cluster of laser beams lit up the inside of his helmet and hummed through his suit speakers.


He didn’t stop there.


He arced up and he drew the spatz pistol holstered at his side.


Where, where?


Another flash and he hit a jet burst upward this time. The beam went low, anticipating a maneuver similar to his first.


“Crew, back to ship!” Devans said. “Gwen, fire a volley at the origin.”


PS-17 shifted and fired, the beams trailing out into darkness.


“Shannon, where the hell is it?”


“I can’t see it!” her voice was frantic. “INCOMING, RY! Go, Go, Go!”


He zipped away on a spin, returned fire though he had yet to make visual, even with the face shield’s enhanced zoom.


“They must be cloaked,” he said, dodging two more beams.


PS-17 lit up the originating area with a barrage of streaking plasma rounds. He saw a single splatter that had appeared as nothing.


He aimed and fired at it, shouting coordinates.


“Get in the ship, Ry! They’re after you!”


If true, then PS-17’s shields were as about as impervious as human flesh to a spatz beam, and he’d be putting the crew at greater risk. However, his little suit jets were micro thrusters compared to the fusion engine of a shuttle, and the crew and all the ‘rebels’ of MOS-1 had already been hurled into the risk vortex that accompanies war.


The space crazy had an answer.


“Nah, I’m good out here.”

Interview with the Author

What are four things you can't live without?
Family, country, writing, exercise

What is your favorite television show?
What We Do in the Shadows makes my wife and I laugh out loud at times, and we appreciate that a lot these days. 

If you could be any character, from any literary work, who would you choose to be? Why?
The monster from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. He never asked for his blasphemous existence, yet is shunned by society and driven away upon pain of death. He survives and takes charge via murder, and challenges his creator on a personal level. Who else has done that?

And despite his hatred for his creator, in the end he mourns the loss of Victor Frankenstein as his 'father' and does the honorable thing and destroys himself on his father's funeral pyre. 

Such a great story. A dark monster villain with murderous impulses who only wants what so many people want; a companion and to live in peace. Imperfect people acting on obsessive impulses, including the need to play God. And the clash between them. 

I wouldn't really want to be the monster, of course, but he is compelling. 

What have you got coming soon for us to look out for?
January 2022, the third volume in the Mars Wars trilogy titled Annihilation Plan. Unlike the first two volumes, this one will be published by Close to the Bone publishing. Much appreciation to them for taking on the unfinished trilogy challenge. 

What books or authors have most influenced your own writing?
Tolkien and Howard and Wagner for sword fantasy and horror, Mary Shelley for creating the horror of man playing God in Frankenstein, Varley for science fiction, Poe for suspense and horror, Hemingway and Steinbeck for general fiction. 

One I keep returning to is Robert E. Howard. I admire his imagination in sword and sorcery tales, and his ability to immerse the reader in a setting and plot in just a few powerful sentences. 

About the Author:

From his home in Wilmington, North Carolina, John Andrew Karr (also John A. Karr) writes of the strange and spectacular. He is the author of a handful of independent and small press novels and novellas, and also leaves in his wake a trail of short stories.


www.johnandrewkarr.com

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/John-A-Karr/e/B003DVNQ8G%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

Twitter: @johnandrewkarr1

Instagram/Tumblr: johnandrewkarr

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgMXLJ0MK2Q


Detonation Event: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07D6BDQBC


Rogue Planet: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07XFMCD21


Annihilation Plan (releasing January 28, 2022): https://www.amazon.com/Annihilation-Plan-Mars-Wars-Book-ebook/dp/B09NKPN3Z5/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2O78A582ECL15&keywords=john+andrew+karr&qid=1643245634&sprefix=john+andrew+karr%2Caps%2C125&sr=8-2


Enter the giveaway using the Rafflecopter here!

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9 comments:

  1. thanks for hosting, and the cool comments!

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    1. Of course! It was my pleasure :) I'm always happy to spotlight cool sci-fi books on my blog.

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  2. Great interview, I enjoyed the excerpt, the covers are awesome and the series sounds like an exciting, edge of your seat reads that I will enjoy! Thanks for sharing it with me and have a funtastic weekend!

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    1. Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today Stormy - I hope you have a great weekend!

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