Hello everyone! Welcome to another Instalment of Indie Recommends Indie. Today’s post is special because there are only recommendations here, no spotlight. Author Nathan Lowell wants to keep the focus on these amazing books that he has read. Let’s take a look.
Nathan, thank you for joining me for this series! Before we get started and since this is your first time on Armed with A Book, tell me and my readers a bit about yourself. 🙂
I’ve always wanted to write fiction. It seemed like a nice, clean, comfortable way to make a living. For most of my life the barriers to entry prevented me from making much progress. Podcasting changed that for me in 2007. I wrote, recorded, and published four novels that year. In 2010 I started publishing text versions. In 2012 I became a full-time, self published novelist. At the moment, I’ve published over 20 novels and have 4 more in various stages of production.
Do you primarily read indie books or big publishers books as well?
I only read indie books. If the author didn’t publish it, I won’t read it. I make very, very rare exceptions. Maybe one book a year. Usually non-fiction although I read a friend’s title last year. I also get fooled once in a while and read a small press title thinking it’s a self-published imprint. C’est la guerre.
I read mostly series because I read a lot (3-6 books a week). I don’t have the patience to deal with standalone novels. I don’t look for a good book. I’m always in search of a good author – someone with a back list that can keep me entertained for more than a few hours.
Nathan’s Indie Recommendations
Blaze by Krista D. Ball
Epic Fantasy
Published 2013.
Series: Tranquility – Book 1/6
A half-breed and a female, Lady Bethany clawed her way to the ranks of the Elven Service’s top military elite. They only knew her as their champion against Magic, and not the daughter of a Goddess. She’d expected a long, rewarding life protecting those under her care. But that was before her twin sister returned from exile, addicted to brutal Magic and human sacrifice, twisted inside, and abusing ancient prophecies to overthrow their mother and destroy everything Bethany holds sacred.
The world will burn in flames and innocents will die, unless Bethany can stop it. Unless she can take the life of her own sister.
Why this book is loved:
This isn’t the first – or even second – of Krista’s series I’ve read and enjoyed but I found it to have the richest world-building and deepest character development of all her works to date. The action scenes are gripping, visceral. The narrative flows with rich detail in even the quietest moments. The cast of characters – mortal and immortal alike – pulled me through the twists and turns of the early stages without ever making me feel lost. She made the complexity of her universe smoothly palatable, a fine literary wine with notes of copper and smoke with a soft burn and a sharp, dry finish.
We meet the main character, Lady Champion Bethany, in the first paragraph. Rough-tongued, occasionally foul-mouthed, but always concerned for those in her charge, she never leaves the story, even when she’s not in a scene, her presence controls and drives the narrative. I found myself thinking about this book even after finishing the six book series. Mostly wishing there was more of it.
I’d recommend this book (and series) to fans of complex, sometimes gritty, epic fantasy. It’s going to appeal most to those who appreciate plots derived from the characters’ actions and least who want things neat, clean, and free of messy blood and passion.
Bob’s Saucer Repair by Jerry Boyd
Science Fiction
Published 2019.
Book 1 of Bob and Nikki series
Ride along as Bob’s life goes from ordinary to out of this world. Helping a stranger in need changes everything. Spend a little time on a fun romp with Bob and Nikki.
Why Nathan recommends this book:
I just finished book 19 in this series. There’s a lesson for all writers here, but especially the self-pubbed who insist that there’s only One Right Way to publish a book. All the way through the hilarious book 1, I kept thinking “This would be really good if he learned how to format” or “Really? This gag again?”
You may need to read that paragraph again if you think I’m dunking on Jerry.
All. The. Way. Through. 19 books. I bought them. Laughed. Enjoyed. Kept buying. Kept reading. Keep looking for the next one.
Why? Because a good story can shine, sometimes because the packaging isn’t perfect or the cover isn’t just so.
Bob’s indefatigable paranoia, good-ole-boy grit, and concern for everyone regardless of molecular make up takes the space age hillbilly trope and makes it magic.
Did I mention these books are hilarious? Because these books are hilarious. Part slapstick. Part shaggy dog story. Part Punch and Judy. All without punching down, belittling, or making fun of anybody. Well, maybe not anybody. Earthers take a fair amount of abuse, but I think it’s all justly earned.
Taken as a package, Bob and Nikki’s Saucer Repair is some of the very best storytelling out there. Boyd doesn’t need me to spread the gospel, but if you have not at least sampled one of these, you owe it to yourself.
Highly recommended to people who are happy to groan at outrageous puns and like good barbecue in their space opera. Not recommended for people who think every story needs a nice box.
Witching for Grace by Deanna Chase
Paranormal Women’s Fiction
Published 2020
Series: Premonition Point, Book 1
A Paranormal Women’s Fiction with a bit of class, and a lot of sass, for anyone who feels like age is just a number!
Welcome to Premonition Pointe, where witches take care of their own.
Grace Valentine had the perfect marriage and a great career managing her husband’s real estate office. Or so she thought until three months ago when she was served with divorce papers. Thanks to her philandering ex, not only is she out of a husband, she’s out of a job, too.
At the age of forty-five with the help of her coven, Grace is ready to pick up the pieces and move on. But her only job prospect is at the rival real estate office, and it’s only for a trial run. She’ll need to prove that she can sell the haunted properties of Premonition Pointe before she’s hired permanently.
But who has time to deal with haunted houses when she’s testing out every anti-perspirant on the market to combat her escalating hot flashes, trying not to succumb to the advances of the hot thirty-four-year-old in her office, and ignoring the urges to hex her ex with erectile disfunction? Okay, maybe she doesn’t ignore the urges. She might be a witch, but she’s only human. Can Grace prove to herself and her new boss she has the magical touch to sell the impossible and find the courage get her groove back… even if her new love interest is a decade younger?
Why Nathan recommends this book:
That genre? Yeah. Made up by thirteen paranormal romance authors and launched on the same day. I got an early heads up through social media and looked for it. It’s taken on a life of its own. The key element is that these main characters are all women in some kind of midlife crisis.
In this first volume, Grace Valentine learns that her philandering ex has kicked her to the curb in both their shared home and their shared real estate business. Deanna takes this set up and carries Grace forward through some harrowing escapades with haunted houses, mystical home buyers, and a much younger hottie who works in her new office.
Hey, it’s paranormal romance. It ain’t all devils and pitchforks here.
Witching for Grace sets up a lovely romantic series of stories as each of Grace Valentine’s friends eventually finds themselves in some kind of hocus pocus hot water in subsequent volumes of the series. I loved reading about women who weren’t all young and beautiful on the outside – and the men who admired them for who they really were.
Recommended for anybody who loves a great story about good witches, bad (ahem) witches, and women who can kick it after 40. If you’re looking for the gory side of paranormal, maybe give this one a pass.
I went through her Keating Hollow series while waiting for new releases and only scratched the surface in Deana Chase’s catalog.
The First Step by Tao Wong
Xianxia/Wuxia
Published 2019
Series: A Thousand Li – Book 1
Given a chance at immortality, can Wu Ying grasp the fleeting opportunity?
Long Wu Ying never expected to join a Sect or become a real cultivator. His days were spent studying, planting rice on the family farm and spending time with his friends. Fate, however, has different plans for Wu Ying and when the army arrives at his village, he and many other members of the village are conscripted. Given the opportunity to join the Verdant Green Waters Sect, Wu Ying must decide between his pedestrian, common life and the exciting, blood soaked life of a cultivator.
Join Wu Ying as he takes his first step on his Thousand Li journey to become an immortal cultivator.
The First Step is the first novel in A Thousand Li series, a book on cultivation, immortals, wondrous martial art styles and spirit beasts and will be loved by wuxia and xianxia fans. The First Step is written by Tao Wong, the bestselling scifi and fantasy LitRPG author of the System Apocalypse, Adventures on Brad and the Hidden Wishes.
Why Nathan recommends this book:
This book brings the traditions of the East to Western storytelling. Tao Wang brings the fantastical imagery of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Jade Dynasty to the page. It’s glorious and the story only grows more engaging as the series unfolds.
I stumbled on this work and had no name for this kind of story. The main character, Long Wu Ying, finds himself on the path to immortality – a goal he can reach through long study and sacrifice as he cultivates his power and strength. I fell in love with a fantasy milieu that felt so fully realized and yet so foreign. The story of a humble farm boy conscripted into an army to fight a war beyond his understanding grew on me.
What enchanted me most is that he’s not a “chosen one.” He’s literally plucked from his father’s farm and must find his way in a strange world far from the village where he was born. Sure, Wu Ying has some skills, but Tao Wong paints the picture of life in this world as skillfully and colorfully as any landscape shanshui painter from the Tang dynasty.
Recommended for those who need something fresh in their reading. A truly fantastical story with a main character who seems to live and breath in the text. Not recommended for readers looking for the familiar and comfortable.
Pendulum Heroes by James Beamon
LitRPG
Published 2018
Series: Pendulum Heroes – Book 1
Melvin Morrow has become a barbarian warrior maiden. Will he be able to escape this new, dangerous world and the chainmail bikini he foolishly chose as his armor or will he and his friends be stuck living their lives as their game avatars?
Melvin’s a teenage boy not used to being ogled or the real world consequences of wearing a steel bikini. But the real world has shifted… him, his friends Jason and Rich, and his big brother Mike are stuck in character, in a place where danger doesn’t lurk because it prefers to boldly stride out in the open.
Mages import game players like Melvin via the Rift Pendulum. The reason: the work’s suicidal and pendulum heroes are insanely powerful. Usually. Melvin and his friends can be, too, if they’re in the right emotional state to trigger into character. Melvin’s a one-man, uh, one warrior maiden army when he’s angry but anger’s hard to find with all that mortal danger striding around everywhere.
The road back home’s at the end of a suicidal quest. Melvin better find something to rage about… because being genre-savvy only gets you so far.
Pendulum Heroes, James Beamon’s debut novel, is an adrenaline fueled adventure for anyone who’s spent a little too much time on the character creation screen instead of playing the game, those of us who have thought just how godmode we’d be with mage power, but mostly it’s for all of us who have wondered who the heck installs a portal to another world in a wardrobe. Fans of Ernest Cline and Scott Meyer better be prepared to fall in love with a new series..
Why Nathan recommends this book:
LitRPG (Literary Role Playing Games) – a subcat of GameLit – involves a main character being caught in a game world and having to deal with all the problems of eating, drinking, and surviving the rigors of a game where – if you die, you come back to try again. Maybe. The genre has been around for a few years now but the movie Free Guy has brought the genre more into the mainstream after being relegated to some of the darker corners of fantasy fiction.
I’ve read dozens of them but Jim Beamon’s Pendulum Heroes stands out as a particularly interesting example of the genre. To begin with, one of the young men decides to play a female and finds himself in a kind of gender-limbo that his brothers find both hilarious and troubling. The individual members of the party each have moments where they shine – and others where they’re just too clearly humans out of their depth. In a genre where the usual story follows a single player through the dungeon adventure, following the whole party makes for intricate and engaging storytelling as Jim moves his point-of-view around the playing field.
Recommended for readers looking for a fun starting point in the litRPG genre or more experienced players looking for something less crunchy yet still satisfying. Not recommended for readers who have trouble with suspension of disbelief because these stories are nothing if not challenging.
And now the bonus recommendations! 🙂
Her Big City Neighbor by Jackie Lau
Romance
Published 2020
Series: Cider Bar Sisters – Book 1
When small-town engineer Amy Sharpe inherits a house in Toronto, she decides it’s the perfect opportunity to start over and go back to school. Away from the family that takes her for granted, away from the ex who expected so much and gave little in return.
The new Amy enjoys wandering around the city and frequenting bubble tea shops, German beer halls, dim sum restaurants, and coffee bars serving Japanese pastries. She has a roommate with the same name as her favorite fictional character, and a group of friends who meet at a cider bar every couple of weeks.
The new Amy is also in lust with her brooding, tattooed next-door neighbor, Victor Choi, who is far from friendly but looks really hot cutting the grass without a shirt. Too bad the grass doesn’t grow faster.
As she starts telling him about her daily adventures—and as a little kissing in the garden becomes a regular activity—Amy begins to feel more than lust. But she fears she’s falling into her old patterns in relationships and refuses to let herself be underappreciated again.
Is Victor really more than a hot fling? And what’s he hiding behind that grumpy exterior?
Why Nathan recommends this book:
If you’re looking for something with a little more romance and a lot less fantasy, then perhaps Jackie Lau’s Cider Bar Sisters series is more to your liking.
The series follows a collection of young woman and their adventures seeking love on the streets of Toronto. These novels, each featuring a delightful couple who would seem to have no chance of getting together, unfold like some kind of reverse origami. Seeing them together, it’s clear they were meant to be, but their journeys? Funny, touching, warm, satisfying.
Recommended for people who like a some heat in their romance but aren’t interested in erotica. Not recommended for those who like their romance sweet.
Quantum Curators and the Fabergé Egg by Eva St. John
Time Travel/Alternate Universe
Published 2020
Series: Quantum Curators – Book 1
Death or Glory – just another day in the office.
When a priceless Fabergé egg comes to light everyone is after it. Neith Salah is a quantum curator. It’s her mission to get the egg; she doesn’t know what it looks like, or where it is, but she knows it’s not on her earth.
Julius Strathclyde lives on a parallel earth. He’s a Cambridge professor and an archivist; he loves tea, research and a quiet life. It’s a pity then, that he’s the only person alive who knows where the egg is.
She has guns and attitude, he has a fountain pen. Together they are going to have to race against time to save the egg, before a hidden enemy gets there first.
Why Nathan recommends this book:
Eva St. John has crafted a multiverse featuring Leonardo da Vinci, an Earth where the Library of Alexandria didn’t burn, and a cast of characters that step out off the page and into your heart.
I’m not usually a fan of time travel stories. Too often they wind up in London running from Jack the Ripper. Eva St. John’s stories – starting with the lost Fabergé egg – don’t fall into any of the normal traps of fighting paradoxes, juggling timelines, and other normal problems. No, we have to deal with the politics of time travel, the chauvanism from the time travelers themselves, and where Jonathan Strathclyde can find any kind of sense in the crazy-quilt of people, places, and things after his childhood chum – Charlie – gets slaughtered in a hail of bullets and broken glass in a quiet tea shop near the university.
It’s a richly woven tapestry of a story that only gets more impressive the deeper you go. Little details from the beginning take on immense significance a book or two down the line. I found myself thinking “Wait, didn’t we see…?” Yes. Yes, we did.
Recommended for the detail oriented reader who can suss out the plot lines from the sketches revealed in the things not said, the pieces missing from the puzzle. Not recommended for readers who have problems with stories that seem to make no sense until the end.
Nathan does want to spotlight any of his work and instead encourages you to explore the titles above. There are a ton of good indies out there. Explore. Have fun.
Find out more about Nathan and his work on his website, Twitter (@nlowell) or Facebook.
Did you add any to your TBR today? Tell us in the comments!
Thank you so much for hanging out with Nathan and me today as part of the seventeenth Indie Recommends Indie Series. I hope you are enjoying the series so far and are looking forward to future posts.
If you are an indie or small press author who is an avid reader and wants to be featured, sign up using the form on the Indie Recommends Indie home page. This is a fantastic way to bring attention to fellow indie authors as well as your own book. 🙂
Banner Photo of library by Alfons Morales on Unsplash
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