by Nina Schluntz
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GENRE: Science Fiction Romance
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Series BLURB:
Game Wardens rule most of the galaxy by a fierce empire built on enslavement and brokered deals. The only means to earn one’s freedom is by playing in the Alien Games. Two slaves go in the arena, the survivor, if there is one, is given their freedom and crowned a king, earning them a small country to rule and slaves of their own.
To make the battle more fun for spectators, genetically enhanced monsters, sahalias, are given to the combatants, but they must found in a scavenger hunt. Five orbs, each hatching into a lizard that will bond with their keeper, are hidden on a random planet. If the competitor finds all five, they have a great imbalance of power over the other, who will have none. The sahalias are created with one purpose, to battle to the death and destroy the other competitor.
Blurb: Slaves of an Alien Game - Book 1
Caden works at an all night diner in a small town near the interstate. When a man comes in late at night, asking for access to the roof, Caden knows the man is a bit off. But his ruffian nature and a small bribe makes Caden decide to let him go up.
“It’s a scavenger hunt,” the man says. Caden thinks he’s being helpful when he finds the item, a black orb, but when he touches it, he unknowingly becomes a competitor in an intergalactic competition that ends in a battle to the death. Manipulated and lied to, drugged by the alien Incubus, Raghib, whom he is now allied with, he must train his lizard battle creatures to fight for him on an unknown planet with rules he barely understands.
He has little chance to survive and although he wants to trust, Raghib, who will earn his freedom if Caden wins the battle, he worries he is simply being used. A bit of truth is revealed when one of the Game Wardens takes a liking to Caden, but his alien species is known to eat humans, so Caden isn’t sure if the desire is that of hunger or true romance.
Either way, Caden is nothing but a slave to their alien games.
Blurb: Slaves of an Alien Game - Book 2
Caden is free. He won his battle and got what he wanted. Sent back to Earth with his won kingdom given to the slave, Raghib. However, life on Earth, back at the diner isn’t the same after living on an alien planet. He still suffers from withdrawals from the Incubus influence and drugs Raghib forced on him, and nightmares from the horrible battle to the death.
When a woman arrives, the latest competitor in the alien games, she offers him a chance to visit Raghib. All he has to do is be her slave during the games and help her find the orbs. He agrees and finds she is a higher level competitor than Raghib was, the hunt is on a deadlier planet, one covered in darkness and monsters.
Caden is eventually reunited with Raghib and gets to see the kingdom he won. Raghib is more broken from the battle and haunted by the brutality of it than Caden. He has a new lover and is driving his country to poverty so he can buy drugs to forget the pain. Caden turns to the Game Wardens for help, offering to go back in the arena again, with the woman he helped in the scavenger hunt. He is a fan favorite and knows their ratings will improve if he goes in again.
He arranged to go in as her pretend slave, in a role that will have safety features turned on so he will be in no real danger. He thinks its his idea to go back in. Confident he’s messing with the structures in place and trying to leverage the Game Wardens to change the deadly games into a nonlethal form.
However, it was their plan for him to go back in from the start. Caden is still nothing but a slave to their alien games.
Blurb: Slaves of an Alien Game - Book 3
Caden’s long-term girlfriend on Earth is pregnant, and Caden is missing. Jenny worries he has been kidnapped and drugged again. A strange woman arrives, saying she knows Caden and where he is. She offers to take Jenny to him, if she helps her… they just need to find some orbs in a scavenger hunt. Jenny agrees, but is careful to not touch the objects. She doesn’t trust this woman.
They find four orbs and encounter the other competitor. The fifth orb is there, and Jenny is forced to pick it up. The other competitor forfeits and Jenny finds herself now in the games, the woman she’d been helping now announced as her deadly competitor.
She is taken to an alien planet and united with a distraught Caden. He confesses that he has a relationship with a man, an alien man, an Incubus named Raghib, and the woman Jenny must fight is Raghib’s daughter.
Caden is in an impossible situation, either his lover’s daughter dies or his childhood sweetheart dies, but there is a rule in the games, a protection for slaves and their offspring, who are viewed as profitable future slaves. A pregnant woman may not enter the arena, instead the sire must.
Caden is again forced to play in the games, but this time he has no sahalias to battle on his behalf, and safety features are not allowed. If Caden is to survive, he must find a way to not be a slave in their alien games.
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EXCERPT
Battle of a Thousand Deaths-Behind the Scenes
Vicr
I stayed silent in the conference room as we watched the video on the screen of that blasted Vanguard. She sat across the table from Caden in the roadside diner and spewed her lies to convince him to board her ship. My secretary had given me the highlights on my way to the meeting, but watching the footage made my cold blood seethe with more anger than I’d expected.
Caden wanted to be free of this. His only desire when victorious in the arena had been to return to Earth and to never see any of us again, including myself.
“The video is on about a two-hour delay,” the presenter said, his name not one I bothered to remember. “So they were already on Planet Eklard before we saw the footage of Kralasee on Earth. Even if we’d wanted to intervene…” He shook his head. “It’s too late. The eggs are in place, and both competitors were released from their ships to begin the hunt…”—he glanced at his wristwatch—“twenty minutes ago.”
“We can’t get the footage quicker than it’s being aired live?” Harvy asked.
“We add an additional five-minute delay before it’s released, so we can edit anything out that’s needed.”
“You didn’t think you should edit this out?” Ivard said, gesturing at the screen that now showed the Vanguard carrying Caden to her ship.
“If we edit Caden out, we wouldn’t be able to show any of Kralasee’s hunt.” He frowned as if saddened by the idea of wasting the footage.
“So this is happening? We’re letting this happen. A competitor has gone rogue, kidnapped a previous competitor, and we are…letting it happen.” Ivard flung his hands in the air, his notes skittering across the table.
“That’s why we’re having this emergency meeting,” Ricardo said. “So we can decide how to handle this.”
“It will be good for ratings,” Trevic said. “Caden was a fan favorite.” He pointed to Kralasee. “That’s why she’s doing it. She’s obsessed with him.”
“How much did our viewership go up since Caden appeared?” Gira asked.
“We’ve been gaining a hundred new viewers every ten seconds since Caden appeared on the screen,” the presenter said. “Social media is spreading the news faster than any advertising could have.”
“So we roll with it. Like it’s a planned stunt,” Gira suggested.
“If people think it was planned, that will make it even worse,” Ivard argued.
“Would you rather they think we lost control of a competitor? Her ship shouldn’t have been able to deviate from course. The routes for the missions are preplanned. Hell, they can’t even alter where their ship lands on the scavenger planet,” Gira said.
“And yet she did,” I said. I stood, my hands in my pockets to hide the unriddled fury I felt. “Explain to me how this happened?” The presenter opened his mouth to respond. “Explain to me.” I said it sterner this time, silencing anyone who hadn’t already figured out my quandary was rhetorical. “How could she have done this without insider help? Without approval from one of you?”
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Nina Schluntz is a native to rural Nebraska. In her youth, she often wrote short stories to entertain her friends. Those ideas evolved into the novels she creates today.
Her husband continues to ensure her stories maintain a touch of realism as she delves into the science fiction and fantasy realm. Their three cats are always willing to stay up late to provide inspiration, whether it is a howl from the stray born in the backyard or an encouraging bite from the so called “calming kitten.”
https://mizner13.wordpress.com/
https://www.facebook.com/nina.schluntz.novels
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1980193.Nina_R_Schluntz
https://www.queeromanceink.com/mbm-book-author/nina-schluntz/
Series link:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BMXTJLSV
Book 1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BM4HLGJL
Book 2
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BMY6H3P7
Book 3
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BMZC24SF
Kindle Vella (serialized version of the series, available in USA only)
https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B0BKTF9LMF
Book Video Links
Book 1: https://youtu.be/uN3P7D3oY4c
Book 2: https://youtu.be/4AXEX23pA3A
Book 3: https://youtu.be/_d_7Ki4S_MI
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ReplyDeleteThe books sound great.
ReplyDeleteThe book sounds very intriguing. Great cover!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good book.
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