A Guest Post by Author Alicia Michaels: Women in Science Fiction - Free Book - Excerpt - Giveaway
The RevolutionAlicia Michaels
(The Bionics Novels, #3)
Published by: Crimson Tree Publishing
Publication date: January 18th 2018
Genres: Adult, Dystopian, Science Fiction
Blythe Sol has a New Year’s Resolution, but it’s not your typical self-improvement plan. She wants to end the conflict between the government and the Resistance once and for all—by sneaking into Washington D.C. and putting a bullet in President Drummond’s skull. If she can cut the head off the snake, the genocide of the Bionics might finally end. But if she fails, she will surely bring retaliation crushing down upon the entire Resistance.
Blythe and fellow soldier Dax Janner are already coping with the loss of people they loved. When their dormant feelings for each other begin to rekindle, they struggle with feeling anything positive after so much suffering. The return of Gage will only confuse matters more. As the terrorist sect known as The Rejects begins to work hand in hand with the government to push the Resistance toward all-out war, the battle will be brought to their doorstep. Will the movement stand tall and conquer—or collapse under the strain and be destroyed for good?
The Revolution is the thrilling third novel in the award-winning Bionics series by Alicia Michaels.
Guest Post by Author Alicia Michaels
Women in Science Fiction: From Bikini Babe to Gnarly General
Me being a writer of Science Fiction and Fantasy, it should hardly surprise you that I am a HUGE fan of the Star Wars franchise. As a young girl, they were some of the first science fiction movies I cut my teeth on, the amazing world and engaging characters becoming as much a part of my childhood as roller blades and ice cream trucks. Like most girls my age, I connected with the character of Princess Leia. The only primary female character in a sea of men, she became like a symbol to me—a princess who was beautiful, but also carried a gun and fought along side those men to save the galaxy.
As I grew into adulthood, my love for her became tainted by her sexualization—the way pop culture often turned her into nothing more than a sex symbol … a hot woman who once wore the skimpy gold bikini which starred in the not-so-secret fantasies of dudebros and nerd-guys everywhere. There was, of course, nothing wrong with Leia rocking that gold bikini or being sexy or sexual. However, that so many people reduced her to being that, and only that, irked me.
And then, The Force Awakens was released, bringing us a new, diverse cast that included a badass woman in the lead role. It also brought us a transformed Princess Leia, who has, in the years since we saw her last, shed her tiara and donned a suit of armor. ‘Call me General’, her clothing, hair, and regal bearing tell us through the screen. With a quiet strength that demands the respect of everyone around her, she replaces the princess of the past as my hero … a woman who might no longer have the sexy body, but has gained so much more. Wisdom. Experience. Strength.
She is the symbol of a new age of Science Fiction heroine—a woman who fights for her people and for a cause, but who also loves even when she has lost. In that regard, she is so much like Blythe, the heroine of the Bionics Novels. Like Leia, Blythe lost her home, along with most of the people she cared about in one fell swoop. Like Leia, she has found love in the midst of a revolution, and even though life has made her hard, there’s still a soft spot in the center of her heart for the people she cares about. Like Leia, time brings her wisdom and insight, the hardships she has endured only serving to make her stronger than ever.
As I continue to strive to write strong female characters in a genre where they are so sorely underrepresented, I am grateful for both Princess Leia and General Organa. I am grateful for the woman she was and the woman she has become. I imagine her at the forefront of a fictional revolution, leading the latest emergence of fantasy and sci-fi heroines into the future—one where they take their places as the heroes of their own stories, where they are free to be as strong, damaged, fearless, and emotional as they want. I imagine her being proud of the ones coming behind her, for whom she paved the way.
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Excerpt
Swallowing the bile rising in the back of my throat, I close my human eye again and zoom in through the scope. I move the rifle until the crosshairs rest over Drummond’s forehead.“I’m taking the shot.”
“Wait,” Dax says. “Maybe you shouldn’t.”
Disbelief drops my jaw, but I don’t take my eyes off the president. “What? Why the hell not?”
“Listen to me, B,” he says, his voice sounding closer. I feel him crouching beside me. “If we kill him now, they’ll just say we did it to silence him. Don’t you understand? If we kill him now, he’ll look like a martyr.”
My palms break out in a sweat, and Drummond’s voice fades to an unintelligible warble as my blood begins to rush so fast I can hear it roaring in my ears. Dax is right … but Drummond is in my sights. The man who destroyed our lives and killed my family. The man who murdered Yasmine and threatened to come for the rest of us.
“I have to,” I whisper, curling my finger around the trigger once more, shaking my head to clear it. “We came all this way.”
“Undetected,” Dax argues. “We can leave the same way. It’s not too late.”
“Yes, it is,” I argue. “It’s too late to go back! I won’t get another shot like this.”
“We’ll find another way,” he insists, his hand now on my shoulder. “A way that doesn’t make us look like the terrorists he’s making us out to be.”
I jerk away from his hold and refocus through the scope. “You can only treat someone like shit for so long before they snap. You can’t keep backing people into a corner without expecting them to eventually come out swinging. Drummond wants me to be a terrorist? Fine … I’ll earn my fucking spot on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. I’m taking the goddamn shot.”
Dax whispers a string of curses under his breath, but he doesn’t physically try to stop me. He doesn’t touch me again. I think it’s because, deep down, he wants to see this fucker pay for what he did to Yasmine. He wants to see Drummond fall, even though he knows the consequences we’ll face for it.
I zoom in a little closer … so close it feels like I’m staring directly into his cold, dead eyes. Spittle gathers in the corners of his mouth as he gets really riled up, waving his hands and pointing as he raises his voice to rally the crowd to his side. All around the world, people are buying into this … believing every poisonous word that comes from his mouth.
It’s time to silence him once and for all.
Taking another deep breath, I hold it as I prepare for my moment of truth. I see my father falling to the ground with a bullet in his skull … my mother sobbing hysterically as Skyye’s insides paint our front lawn red. And the hot rage in my veins goes cold like ice, freezing there as the entire world around me goes still.
As I exhale, my finger squeezes the trigger.
About the Author
Ever since she first read books like Chronicles of Narnia or Goosebumps, Alicia has been a lover of mind-bending fiction. Wherever imagination takes her, she is more than happy to call that place her home. With several Fantasy and Science Fiction titles under her belt, Alicia strives to write multicultural characters and stories that touch the heart. V-Card, the first book of the Sharing Spaces series, was her first Contemporary Romance.
The mother of three and wife to a soldier, she loves chocolate, coffee, and of course good books. When not writing, you can usually find her with her nose in a book, shopping for shoes and fabulous jewelry, or spending time with her loving family.
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