Virtual Book Tour + #Giveaway: Red Dragon by Brian H. Roberts @GoddessFish

Red Dragon

by Brian H. Roberts

GENRE: Science Fiction

BLURB:

How do you fight a hidden adversary on Mars?

Dallas Gordon’s miners keep disappearing. Back on Earth, general Zhang Aiguo has seized control of the Chinese military and declared himself emperor. His forces have secretly dispatched to the Red Planet to plunder EPSILON’s hard-won treasure.

Time is running out. Can Dallas Gordon and the Prospector team find Zhang’s hidden bases before they are all killed?

Excerpt:

As his momentum carried him back toward the center of the dome, Genady swung the blade down against the fabric with all his strength.

A ten-foot-long slash opened up across the top of the dome. The resulting blast of air pressed Genady against the cliff face. A simultaneous loud pop signaled that something inside had ruptured in the rapid decompression. He swung back into a swirling fog of frozen water vapor. Though blinded, he jerked the rope three more times. He dropped down atop the collapsing fabric and swiftly worked his way under it at the back end of the gash. The blade was now a liability, and he dropped it so he could grope for Dallas with both hands. He quickly located a leg and pulled it to himself.

To his surprise, the figure was a Chinese guard. The guard’s eyes nearly bulged from their sockets, and his bloated tongue pushed through mottled purple lips. He gripped a pistol in his right hand. Genady grabbed the pistol from the guard’s rapidly freezing fingers and stuffed it in a sleeve pocket.

Genady pressed on under the dense fabric. He found Dallas hunched forward against his knees, eyes tightly shut. Frost covered his waxen yellow face. Genady slumped in defeat. He surmised the pop he had heard was actually a gunshot. Dallas was dead.

As Genady stared in shock at his dead comrade, Dallas’s eyes swiftly blinked open and shut. Genady screamed out within his helmet, “Yes!”

He quickly pulled the oxygen from his waist belt and slapped the mask over Dallas’s face.

Interview with Brian H. Roberts

How did you become involved with the subject or theme of your book?
I’ve always been interested in the exploration and colonization of the solar system and beyond. But I recognized the desire for exploration alone would only go so far to motivate humanity to spend the billions and billions of dollars it would take to reach and colonize another planet.

At the same time there is recognition that our current rate of resource extraction to manufacture the stuff of civilization and progress isn’t sustainable either environmentally or economically.

I realized that there are nearly unlimited resources to exploit on Mars and the asteroids. Such potential for wealth provides plenty of motivation to explore and colonize. Wealth also promotes greed and jealousy – grist for Red Dragon and my EPSILON Sci-Fi Thriller series!

What were your goals and intentions in this book, and how well do you feel you achieved them?

Education – where will science and technology take us in the near-future? As much as possible, I hew true to known physics technology. Reviewers have commented on my first book (Crimson Lucre) that they felt they learned something about technology.

Entertainment – I love the pacing, the plot twists and turns of a good thriller. In addition to Science Fiction, I’m a huge thriller fan. Its gratifying to share the entertainment value of a good thriller to my fans.

What was the hardest part of writing this book?

My college degree was in science, not literature. Once I embarked on this odyssey, I had to learn how to select and work with editors and cover designers. Then I had to navigate the world of self-publishing, and marketing. For me, writing was the easy part.

What did you enjoy most about writing this book?

The research was the coolest part. What sort of landforms could an astronaut expect to encounter on Mars? What’s the climate like? How does water behave in that environment? What will it take to stay alive and to accomplish something? To my surprise, some of my preconceptions were wrong. In some ways, living on Mars will be more complicated than living on the Moon, thanks to the very fact it has an atmosphere.

Were there alternate endings you considered?

I actually rewrote the ending after my first draft. Dallas (mission commander) and Ann (mission flight director) rekindled their old relationship during the mission. It took me awhile to settle on an ending that properly honored/reflected that relationship.

Can you share some stories about people you met while researching this book?

My research hasn’t led me to meet people so much as my writing has. I have a stable-full of author friends I’ve made, with whom I stay in regular contact. It’s been eye-opening to find that most of the things I go through as a writer, are common to other authors out there, at all levels of success.

What genre of books do you enjoy reading?

I’ve always been a fan of hard science fiction. I’m a science nerd, and I always love to explore where our technology will take us one day. I’ve ready extensively some of the great minds in science fiction: Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert A. Heinlein, Frank Herbert, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Andy Weir.

And as I noted above, I love thrillers. My favorite author is Dean Koontz, and he has influenced my writing style more than any other author. But I’ve also extensively read Michael Crichton, Dan Brown, Clive Cussler, Lee Child and Lisa Jackson.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

In his first life, Brian worked as a contractor and civil engineer in bustling Seattle. Desiring a change, he and his wife traded big city life for the outdoor adventures of Central Oregon. His writing draws deeply on his lifelong loves of science/technology and adventure sports. His EPSILON Sci-Fi Thriller series now boasts two novels: Red Dragon and Crimson Lucre.

Follow him at

Website ~ Facebook ~ LinkedIn

Giveaway:

$75 Amazon/BN GC

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