Interview with Author Jael Wye + Giveaway

ladder to the red star by jael wyeAfter finally reading Ice Red for last week’s review (it was so much fun, what on Earth or Mars was I waiting for?) I was very glad to get the chance to ask Jael a few questions about her marvelous combinations of science fiction and fairy tales.  After the interview, check out her take on Jack and the Beanstalk (I found a bit of Pinocchio too!) in today’s featured review, Ladder to the Red Star.

1. Hello, Jael! Can you please tell us a bit about yourself?

Hi, thanks for having me today. A little about myself? Well, I grew up on the American Great Plains, went to school in the Midwest, and now live in beautiful New England with my family and my enormous collection of houseplants.

2. Describe a typical day of writing? Are you a planner or pantser?

I am definitely a plotter. My books are all based on classic fairy tales, and so I have a plot laid out for me before I begin writing. My task each day is to figure out how my specific, individual characters are driven to enact this plot. For example, my new release Ladder to the Red Star is based on the tale of Jack and the beanstalk. Jacques, the hero, must ascend the space elevator cable to the space station floating high above the Earth in order to steal a valuable item from his greatest enemy. But what drives him to do such a thing? My challenge each day is to write my characters in a way that makes them real people as well as archetypes.

3. In your guest post last week, you talked about why you love science fiction romance. But what inspired you to combine Snow White and Mars for Ice Red?

I decided to combine fairy tales and science fiction because I wanted to use these mythic stories to explore what the powerful technology we humans have invented might mean for us culturally and as individuals. Arthur C. Clarke once said that advanced science is not much different from magic. Enchanted mirrors become video screens, golden eggs become valuable data spheres, but the human drama surrounding these artifacts remains the same. I began my Once Upon a Red World series with a retelling of Snow White because that was the first fairy tale I ever read, the one that dug deepest into my mind. With Book II, Ladder to the Red Star, I went with the tale of Jack and the beanstalk, a classic hero’s journey. With each new fairy tale I reinvent, I try to delve into what these stories have to tell us about our basic humanity, no matter how much science may change us.

4. Will there be more books in this series? What is next on your schedule?

There are many more fairy tales to be retold in my Once Upon a Red World series. Next up is the story of Devi and Bianca’s father and his estranged lover Sita. This book, based on the tale of Patient Griselda, will look further into the Aurora project, the corrupt plot endangering the Solar system. Stay tuned.

5. Play the casting game; if one of your books were made into a movie, who would you want to play the characters?

This is a difficult challenge for me, because I try to write my characters to be so specific in looks and personality that it’s hard to picture them as any one else. But…I’d have to go with Chris Evans as Jacques, and the beautiful, blue-eyed Indian actress Aishwarya Rai as Devi.

6. And what’s your favorite scene in Ladder to the Red Star?

My favorite scene varies, but right now it is the scene in Devi’s flat when Jacques is recovering from an intensive medical treatment. He’s so wounded and yet so adorable, and Devi is striving so heroically not to pounce on him. I just love the tension between and within my hero and heroine in this passage.

7. Who first introduced you to the love of reading?

I loved reading from very early on, but the first author who really made an impression on me was C. S. Lewis. To this day I remember hanging out in my closet for hours, trying to get into Narnia.

8. What is your favorite thing about the writing experience and why?

Seeing my books on the bookstore sites like Amazon and iBooks. It gives me a shiver every time I see it.

9. Book you most want to read again for the first time:

I think maybe Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer. That book took me for a ride that was just so much fun.

10. Book you’ve faked reading:

Les Miserables. I got through three chapters before giving up and just watching the musical.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova11. Book you’ve bought for the cover:

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. That creepy half-face staring out at me sideways gave me the most delicious nightmares for months.

12. Tell me something about yourself that I wouldn’t know to ask.

Due to my martial arts classes, I can break a wooden board in half with my fist, elbow, heel, and forehead. If ever a wooden board attacks me in a dark alley, I’ll be prepared.

13. Morning person or night owl?

Night owl. I function best at two in the morning, enveloped in silence and vibrating with caffeine.

14. Coffee or tea? (because I couldn’t leave it at 13 questions!)

Coffee. It is the nectar of life, the font of creativity, and the reason I get up in the morning. However, all my Martian characters drink tea. Humph. Martians.

jael wyeJael Wye grew up on the American Great Plains, went to school in the Midwest, and now lives in beautiful New England with her family and her enormous collection of houseplants. For more of Jael’s unique blend of futurism and fairy tale, don’t miss her ongoing series Once Upon A Red World.

To learn more about Jael, please visit her website. You can also find her on Facebook and Twitter.

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~~~~~~TOURWIDE GIVEAWAY~~~~~~

ice red by jael wyeJael will be awarding an eCopy of Ice Red to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour.

The more you comment, the better your chances of winning. So check out the rest of the tour at Goddess Fish Promotions!

Review: Ladder to the Red Star by Jael Wye

ladder to the red star by jael wyeFormat read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Formats available: ebook
Genre: science fiction romance
Series: Once Upon a Red World #2
Length: 242 pages
Publisher: Carina Press
Date Released: April 28, 2014
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, All Romance

Once upon a ruined Earth 300 years in the future…

Jacques Tallinn, biotech smuggler and thief, is after the cure for a brain disorder he’s suffered since childhood—a disorder inflicted by a powerful tyrant. To get the cure, Jacques will need to climb the space elevator to the new Zenith space station hovering above Earth and go undercover in the lab where it’s produced.

Martian head tech Devi Chandra is immediately intrigued by her sexy new lab assistant. Though she insists on keeping things professional, she finds herself charmed by Jacques. Until he betrays her trust, kidnapping her and spiriting her off to Earth.

All Jacques needed to do was steal the biotech and get back home. But when things go wrong, he can’t bring himself to leave Devi behind. Now she’s injured and a simple caper has become an intergalactic cause, endangering his life and the lives of millions of others. But the hardest part? Winning back Devi’s trust.

My Review:

The concept of space elevators has always been one of the classics for a reason. Not only does it produce the high-tech/high-tension adventure of building the elevator itself, but the creation or existence of the elevator provides endless opportunities for comparing life at the two opposite ends of the vehicle.

ice red by jael wyeIn the universe of Jael Wye’s Ladder to the Red Star, even more so than in the first fascinating book, Ice Red (see last week’s review) there’s the contrast between the necessarily advanced technology world of the space station Zenith where the elevator terminates, and a post-Global Warming Earth, where people are weighed down not just by gravity, but also by grinding poverty and quickly diminishing resources.

Max Ross may be a great engineer, but he’s an absolutely lousy dad. The action/adventure in Ice Red is kicked off because he’s such a neglectful father that he married a murdering, thieving sociopathic bitch after his first wife died. His daughter Bianca spends the whole story dodging from her stepmother’s killer thugs while he’s off on Earth finalizing the building of his space elevator.

Devi Chandra is the daughter he doesn’t even know he has, which is a good trick considering that Mars inhabitants generally can’t conceive a child the good old-fashioned way. Devi got herself attached to the medical complex on Zenith Station just so she would have a chance to interact with her old man.

It all goes horribly wrong. Just as in the first book with stepmother Victoria, in Ladder to the Red Star Devi finds herself trying to stay one step out of the evil clutches (much too literally) of Enrique Kurtz, her bio-dad’s partner in the space elevator.

Kurtz wants to use Devi to blackmail her dad into continuing the slaving contracts that he had with the evil stepmother. Oh, and he wants to completely break her will and spirit with physical and sexual abuse. He’s a complete psychopath, but a successful one.

But instead of being trapped, Devi makes common cause with someone who is out to get her for less nefarious reasons, even if Jacques Tallin is using nefarious means.

Jacques lied and stole in order to get on the space station and into Devi’s lab. She is not merely a doctor, but a genius at the gene therapy called “Correction” that keeps the Mars inhabitants from dying of cosmic radiation, and cures just about everything from the common cold to old age.

Jacques needs it to cure deathly illnesses. Both his own and his mother’s. And for that, he has to keep Devi free and away from Kurtz. At least until he kidnaps her.

The question is whether Jacques is really saving her from Kurtz’ evil clutches, or whether he just wants to keep her in his own grasp.

Escape Rating B: Ladder to the Red Star is a love story that uses a science fictional setting to play out its romance. But this one is definitely all about the romance. The worldbuilding is just enough to tease the reader with the good (and bad) consequences of life in the future.

It also helps that this is an extension of the world in the previous book. There’s less heavy lifting involved (space elevator notwithstanding).

In some ways, this is a “kidnapped by a pirate” romance. It’s not just that Jacques is a smuggler, but that he takes her to his remote tropical island, and she falls for him anyway. Or maybe because.

One of the things that makes Ladder to the Red Star different from the typical pirate romance is Jacques. He was experimented on as a young teen in a prison owned and operated by Kurtz. The medical and psychological experiments removed his ability to feel anything; pain, pleasure or even touch. It makes him a formidable fighter, completely fearless, but he’s also losing his ability to fake being human. Nothing affects him.

Then Devi works her medical magic on him, and he’s suddenly alive. (Maybe there’s some Pinocchio in here too!) He falls for Devi, the first person who gave him back his life. There is mutual trust and the beginnings of a relationship. Then he kidnaps her and has to start the trust-building all over again.

There are two villains in this story; the sadistic Kurtz and the fanatical Eschaton cult. Kurtz looms like a giant monster over the entire story, but then barely figures in the climax. His economic motives made some sense, but he was more than a bit bwahaha crazy, more than necessary. It’s the anti-science, anti-medicine Eschatons who turn out to be the real enemy.

Max Ross’ relationships, or lack thereof, with his daughters almost makes him the true villain, depending on how you look at things. But his daughters, both Bianca and Devi, are terrific.

I hope we see more stories set in this world; the dichotomy between the spacers and the earthers definitely has more tales to tell.

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***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Guest Post by Author Jael Wye on Love and Mars + Giveaway

ice red by jael wyeI had an absolute blast reading Ice Red (see review), so I’m thrilled to have Jael Wye as my guest today. And she’ll be back again next week when I review Ladder to the Red Star. The first installment in her Mars science fiction romance did an excellent job of combining romance with great science fiction and tons of adventure. 

Love Saves Planet Mars!
by Jael Wye 

Science fiction romance is the greatest escapist fiction imaginable. It features adventure, amazing gadgetry, and settings that can blow your mind. But what makes scifi romance such a fantastic read is not necessarily of the scifi, but the romance.

Science fiction on its own can be rather grim, certainly in its modern incarnations. Back in ye olde space age of the 1950’s and 60’s, scifi generally portrayed a bright and shiny future we could all look forward to, a la Star Trek. But as the decades wore on, scifi visions got darker, like the gritty world of Alien. Now dystopias are much in vogue, depicting a future not many people would want to live in. So what might make a reader want to immerse herself in a scifi world anyway? The healing power of love, of course.

In a romance, the hero and heroine’s world is out of balance when the story begins, and only their union can set it right. This is true for all the subgenres of romance, though usually on a small, intimate scale. But in scifi romance the stakes are usually galatically high, and the love of the hero and heroine can literally save a planet.

In my book Ice Red, the hero Cesare and the heroine Bianca are all that stands between the people of Mars and the cruel schemes of Bianca’s powerful stepmother. When first Bianca and then Cesare are attacked and captured, it is their love that impels them to fight for each other, to conquer the villain who was disrupting their world and put their lives and Mars itself to rights again.

In science fiction romance love can save the universe, and that makes for not only exciting and satisfying adventure but also a profoundly optimistic vision of the future.

jael wyeJael Wye grew up on the American Great Plains, went to school in the Midwest, and now lives in beautiful New England with her family and her enormous collection of houseplants. For more of Jael’s unique blend of futurism and fairy tale, don’t miss her ongoing series Once Upon A Red World.

To learn more about Jael, please visit her website. You can also find her on Facebook and Twitter.

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~~~~~~TOURWIDE GIVEAWAY~~~~~~

ladder to the red star by jael wyeJael will be awarding an eCopy of Ladder to the Red Star to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour.

The more you comment, the better your chances of winning. So check out the rest of the tour at Goddess Fish Promotions!

 

Review: Ice Red by Jael Wye

ice red by jael wyeFormat read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Formats available: ebook, audiobook
Genre: science fiction romance
Series: Once Upon a Red World #1
Length: 230 pages
Publisher: Carina Press
Date Released: September 30, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, All Romance

Mirror, mirror, full of stars,
Who will claim the throne of Mars?

The princess: Engineer Bianca Ross, heir to a megacorporation and the Mars elevator, needs to acquire a mine on the surface to secure her place in the company. All that stands in her way is the mine’s charming owner, Cesare Chan.

The evil stepmother: Victoria Ross is plotting to gain control of Mars. She plans to assassinate Bianca and seduce Cesare to further her goals, and Bianca’s trip is the perfect opportunity.

The charming prince: Cesare shouldn’t get involved. Bianca’s visit could reveal the escaped slaves he’s hiding at his mine, but he can’t ignore a damsel in distress—especially one as beautiful as Bianca.

Alone, neither would stand a chance against Victoria. But together, they could rewrite a tale that’s meant to end with Bianca’s blood.

My Review:

Mars, Cinderella, and for one brief hilarious moment, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. While this sounds like a fairy tale, it’s actually surprisingly entertaining science fiction romance. I say surprising because those original three things shouldn’t go together in the first place. But somehow they do.

There may be a tiny bit of Romeo and Juliet mixed in too. Bianca and Cesare certainly start out on opposite sides of the corporate fence: her company is staging a hostile takeover of his company. But it’s not really them; his father sold out to her stepmother. The question is why.

The Space Elevator is a tried and true SF device, perhaps even more venerable than the use of faster-than-light travel. In Ice Red, Bianca’s father invented the space elevator. He’s a self-absorbed genius who lets other people run his company while he continues to invent more cool stuff.

Unfortunately for both Max and Bianca, the “other people” who are running his company is Victoria and her goon squad. And back to the Cinderella trope, Victoria is the classic evil stepmother, complete with her own sick version of “mirror, mirror”.

Bianca has been trying to prove that she is a capable manager and administrator, worthy of being given real responsibility in the company that her parents created before her mother’s death. Unfortunately for her, she keeps trying to prove herself to one person who sees her as the ultimate rival, and another who stopped paying attention to anything years ago.

Cesare is just trying to keep the mining company that his father built. It’s not about the money, it’s about the people. Cesare has been investing corporate profits in rescuing all the Earth colonists who were lured to Mars with promises of good jobs, and found themselves on the cargo end of human trafficking operations. Trafficking where stepmother Victoria operated the shipping.

So Bianca wants real responsibility and Cesare wants to save his company, and all the people he’s rescued. Victoria wants to eliminate Bianca and takeover RedIce Mining. It’s really (and very disgustingly) clear why Victoria wants to eliminate Bianca, but her reasons for going after RedIce are hidden until the very end.

Just like the feelings that Bianca and Cesare develop for each other as they try to stay one step ahead of everyone who is out to get them.

Escape Rating B+: Ice Red is rock solid science fiction romance entertainment! It’s set in a not-too-distant future where Mars has been developed through the construction of a space elevator, but these are all familiar concepts. Mars, Earth and the space station that controls the elevator, Eris, are easily imagined places.

Considering the actions of Bianca’s stepmother, Victoria, I find the name of the space station to be particularly appropriate. Eris was the Greek goddess of chaos, strife and discord; all things that Victoria creates as a matter of business. And pleasure.

We get to know both Bianca and Cesare pretty well as the story progresses; it’s just long enough for good character development without letting up the break-neck pace. It was particularly easy for me to identify with Bianca’s desire to carve a place for herself in her father’s company, and her continued frustration with the way that Victoria and her father Max kept pushing her away. But she’s also been lonely and protected from the hard knocks of the world, and she needs to get out of the cocoon she’s been swaddled in.

Cesare has been hiding his heroism under the cover of being a wild cowboy. He needs to step into the light, and she needs someone to shake her up. They have terrific chemistry.

The villainy of Victoria was just a bit over the top. It reminded me of B Movie space operas, in a very fun way. She would have made a great cartoon baddie.

I’m looking forward to seeing where this series goes next. Ladder to the Red Star, here I come!

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***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money or borrowed from a public library and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.