Tuesday #Teaser - The Lady is Blue by @AuroraSpringer #scifi #romance

Blurb

The peaceful human colonists on the remote planet of Eden welcome alien refugees in their crippled spaceship. The alien Atrapako have spiky crests, sharp claws, and scales of four colors covering massive humanoid bodies. Their rigid class system conflicts with the party-loving human society. The intrepid Dr. Lucy Stannis, a scientist and undercover agent of Terra, is both curious and suspicious of the aliens. She befriends the captain of the alien spaceship, the impressive and devious Blue, Sa Kamizan Veedak, who led the escape from their hostile home planet through the hazards of space to the safety of Eden. Their tenuous friendship is threatened by assassination attempts, and sabotage by humans and aliens. They must learn to fight together to survive. What strange secret are the Atrapako hiding? Can they overcome their cultural instincts and co-exist peacefully with humans on Eden? Lucy struggles to discover the secret of the aliens in a race against time before the colony is lost. 

Excerpt

She leapt over the line with a warning yell. Just as the Red hit the floor, two Atrapako raced across the line behind Sa Kamizan. Both wielded long knives. Sa Kamizan was alerted to the new threat and tackled the bulky Red close to him. He was still unaware of Lucy and the second assailant.

Lucy jumped into the center, drawing the attention of the second attacker. The Blue rushed towards her, brandishing a wide blade like a meat cleaver. Just as she had anticipated, the young Blue swept his blade down with his whole strength. The cleaver slashed toward her head. With an agile sidestep, she avoided the blow and grabbed his arm, jerking down strongly. The thin Blue slammed to the ground and slid across the floor. The knife whirled from his grasp.

Lucy straightened and looked up. Sa Kamizan was staring at her in amazement. He was wild-eyed and panting from exertion. Two Reds lay on the floor, and he held another sword. The crowd was deathly silent.

He stepped over the red bodies to Lucy. “Do you have a weapon?”

She drew out her laser. “I’ll demonstrate,” she said fiercely. She swiveled in a half circle, menacing the spectators with her weapon. Then, she raised the laser and sliced through the cord supporting a large banner mounted on one wall. The banner crashed to the ground as several nearby Atrapako jumped out of the way.

Sa Kamizan wielded a knife in each hand. “Hold the gun ready, Lucy.” He draped one large arm casually over her shoulders. “We walk out slowly.”

Buy link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00K1N951Q

Bio:

Aurora Springer is a scientist morphing into a novelist. She has composed science fiction and fantasy stories for as long as she can remember.  In 2014, she achieved a lifelong ambition by becoming a published novelist. She was born in the UK, and has a PhD in molecular biophysics. In her day job, she imagines how molecules work together to create life. She lives in Atlanta, USA with her husband, a dog and the requisite two cats to lie on her laptop. In her novels, she enjoys expressing humor and a wild imagination with weird new characters and worlds, while sometimes exploring serious problems.

Follow Aurora at:

http://AuroraSpringerNovels.blogspot.com

Facebook Author page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Aurora-Springer/885945434752937

Twitter: @AuroraSpringer

Google+ Aurora Springer

In Rapture with Reptiles

Reptilian races often get a bad rep in SF literature. The legendary Star Trek episode 'Arena' with the Gorn against Kirk. The Visitors in V. The Dracs in Enemy Mine. The Zorgons in Zathura. The Silurians in Doctor Who, pre new Who. Admittedly both Enemy Mine and recent Silurian episodes in Who (Vastra) have shown the other side - that there are good and bad in any race, or that a single misunderstanding has sparked an age long enmity.

In real life, lizards often get the same bad rep - snakes in particular. To be fair, the terminal venomosity of many is to blame. Here in the UK, we have three species of snake (the smooth snake, the grass snake and the adder), and only one is venomous. But even the adder isn't deadly. It can be dangerous to the young, the old and those with a medical condition such as heart problems, but it's rare to die from an adder's bite. The last fatality was thirty five years ago! All the same, I took this photo with extreme caution.

Luckily they aren't aggressive by nature, and it being a cool morning this pretty little critter was probably feeling too sluggish to do more than shift its coils a bit.

But I love reptiles. My daughter has one as a pet - a leopard gecko by the name of Yoshi. While her diet of live crickets might make you squirm, I think she's beautiful. Her underside is smooth and silky, her back bumpy from little raised knots. Her eyes are gorgeous - speckled gold and green. She has no obvious demonstration of affection or pleasure, but she lets us handle her and arches her back when stroked, so we guess she's happy.

Yoshi

So when it came to creating alien races, I have two reptilian kinds in my stories - so far. The lesser mentioned chelonian (tortoise) Camullanese, and the main alien race in Keir - the saurians of Metraxi.

"He was humanoid, but not human, his skin made up of delicate, dark-blue scales. Around his eyes and along his nose were bony ridges with a detailed pattern of rainbow colors, running down the sides of his face and following the square jaw-line. Large, pointed ears lay flat against the side of his head, and reptilian eyes, with the pupils vertical slits, sparkled golden-green. He was very slender, stood a head taller than Keir, and wore long white robes which had an iridescent sheen, as if dusted with mother-of-pearl. The elaborate collar formed a high crest around the back of his head, made from a series of silver spines with fabric strung between. He approached them with sinuous grace, smiling widely." J'dahzi, taken from Keir's first meeting with a saurian.

R'hellek

In the Metraxians we find a complex civilization (technologically advanced, but with certain sections of society who believe in living the simple life on the coast as 'islanders' while others choose the luxury and convenience of the cities) and a mixture of characters, both 'good' and 'bad'. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference. In fact, the rather sexy and sinuous queen of the Metraxians - T'rill - is a close friend of Quin (my heroine in the story), as is T'rill's Senior Advisor, J'dahzi. It's the Minister of War - R'hellek - who appears to be an adversary to the two travellers. But even in friendship, there's the danger of betrayal - something Quin and Keir find to their cost.

My favourite saurian from Keir, though, is S'rano - an islander, and captain of a wooden vessel that rescues Quin and Keir from an unfortunate encounter with another reptilian species in the seas of Metraxi. Blue scaled, intelligent, and with a boyish enthusiasm that charms even the reticent Keir, S'rano represents the very best of his people. So much so that, for Keir's sequel, my travellers have returned to the tropical world and continued their friendship.

So, reptiles. Love 'em or hate them? And do you have a favourite? It doesn't have to be one from this world either.

Men In Black 3 - Review

Generally the only films I get to see these days are ones aimed mostly at children. I guess that's part of being a parent, and I don't have a problem with that. I'm finding more and more that often the kids films are so much better than those for the adults. So when my two oldest monsters begged to see Men in Black 3, I wasn't too unhappy about it. At least it's scifi, even if very silly scifi.

For me, the Men in Black films are very much 'leave your brain at home' comedy - entertaining and quirky, but not generally enthralling. This one took me by surprise. There was some very serious stuff in it - heart-rendingly so. Be prepared to take a few tissues with you. Frankly I was disappointed with Tommy Lee's performance in this film. Admittedly, he isn't in it very much but his sole contribution seemed to be to look and act more grumpy than ever without really doing much else. I was far more impressed with Josh Brolin's portrayal of the younger Agent K, and I hope he'll return should there ever be a fourth. Tommy Lee very much gave me the impression that he'd done this film under serious duress only. I also wasn't blown away by the villain in this piece - Boris the Animal - although his method of assasination was definitely intriguing and gruesome!

Highlights for me? Well, with Agent J going back to the 60's it was great to see the Men in Black headquarters populated by aliens very much from the B scifi movies of the era - a fabulous touch! There's also a fantastic bike chase with cycles very much on the lines of those from the Clone Wars Attack Cycle (new trilogy) while Boris had a very organic-looking Harley-Davidson-type bike that I half expected to be another alien - sadly not. That opportunity must have bypassed the screen-writer's muse. For top characters - Griffin was adorable! The last of his kind after Boris's species wiped out his planet, this 5th dimensional being was constantly caught in a stream of alternate possibilities and a key character to the main plot. As usual, Will Smith pretty much carried the whole film. While I enjoyed it, even Agent J seemed a little tired of the whole thing.

The ending is heart-breaking. The usual comic finish is there, but it just didn't have the impact of the previous two films. Too much tragedy had gone before. And while it might have tied up all the loose threads, and there was a good twist, it left me sad rather than smiling. The kids loved it though.

Overall I'm going to rate this as a C+. It was good, but not all that I expect of the MIB franchise. It felt as tired as its main characters looked.