Book Spotlight Giveaway! The Legacy Human by Susan Kaye Quinn

I have sooooo many books! I have a ton of print books and probably even more e-books. The Book Spotlight Giveaway feature that I post every Saturday is a way for me to clear my shelves and to share some of the many books I have. There are a lot of different reasons that I might be letting some of my books go, the biggest one is that when we moved 2 years ago I discovered how many books I really do have. This feature is a way for my to cull my collection and to give someone else the opportunity to enjoy them.

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I love the author that I am featuring this week and I have loved everything of her's that I have read. Her books have taken me outside my usual reading genres to explore whole new worlds. And I love that! I have a Kindle copy of book #1 of her Singularity series. Again, this is a genre I don't usually read but it was written by her so I just had to read it. And I was not disappointed! You can read my thoughts here.

Good luck and be sure to stop back next week!

The Legacy Human

The Legacy Human by Susan Kaye Quinn

Series: Singularity #1

Paperback and e-book, 412 pages

Published March 2nd 2015 by Createspace

What would you give to live forever?

Seventeen-year-old Elijah Brighton wants to become an ascender—a post-Singularity human/machine hybrid—after all, they’re smarter, more enlightened, more compassionate, and above all, achingly beautiful. But Eli is a legacy human, preserved and cherished for his unaltered genetic code, just like the rainforest he paints.

When a fugue state possesses him and creates great art, Eli miraculously lands a sponsor for the creative Olympics. If he could just master the fugue, he could take the gold and win the right to ascend, bringing everything he’s yearned for within reach… including his beautiful ascender patron. 

But once Eli arrives at the Games, he finds the ascenders are playing games of their own. Everything he knows about the ascenders and the legacies they keep starts to unravel… until he’s running for his life and wondering who he truly is.

The Legacy Human is the first in a new young adult science fiction series that explores the intersection of mind, body, and soul… and how technology will challenge us to remember what it means to be human.

Check out Susan Kaye Quinn's website for information about The Legacy Human and everything Singularity.

  

About the author 

Susan Kaye Quinn is a rocket scientist turned speculative fiction author who now uses her PhD to invent cool stuff in books. Her works range from young adult science fiction to adult future-noir, with side trips into steampunk and middle grade fantasy. Her bestselling novels and short stories have been optioned for Virtual Reality, translated into German, and featured in several anthologies.

She writes full-time from Chicago, inventing mind powers and dreaming of the Singularity.

Chat with her about our coming robot overlords on Facebook.

Find all of Susan's books on Amazon.

Click here for a FREE story!

Connect with Susan 

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon

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The Singularity Blog Tour Mini Post #4

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Where does Creativity come from?
By Susan Kaye Quinn

Your mind? Conscious or Subconscious? Your Soul? (And is that a separate thing from your mind?) Are we just meat and electricity, random firings of neurons producing a seeming intelligence, like the million monkeys and a million typewriters eventually producing Shakespeare? Or is there a supernatural Muse that invades our bodies and creates art – in other words, are we just the conduit for something greater?

This is the “hard question of consciousness” – are we just the sum of our biology, our wet neural processes, or are we something more?

I love the idea that the coming of our Robot Overlords will force us to finally figure out what makes a person… a person. With consciousness and creativity and… a soul?

It’s the fundamental question that all those creative stories humankind has been fabricating for millenium have been trying to answer: what makes us human? In my Singularity series, I tackle this question head-on… including all the questions about mind, body, and soul that I think we’ll be struggling to answer in the very near future.

Shots of Awe is an amazing YouTube channel addressing all these questions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYbA_-mAtUY

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The Robots Are Coming… For Your Job
by Susan Kaye Quinn

The future isn’t just about terrifying Artificial Intelligence. What about the ordinary bot that’s smart enough to diagnose medical problems? Or take your order at McDonald’s? Or write an article for an online newspaper? THESE ALREADY EXIST. And the future will have smarter and smarter machines.

Just like self-driving cars, the bots don’t have to be Einstein. They just have to be a little bit better than human.

In my Singularity series, I imagine a future where humans have the chance to upgrade themselves—they inject nanites in their brains, become super-intelligenct, and stay ahead of the robots that way. Is that the only future we’ll have left for us? And will that option even appear before the robots take most of our jobs?

Are you a techno-optimist, believing that technology will always improve things overall? Or are you a techno-pessimist, believing that technology can be the unraveling of our way of life?

A look at our coming robot economy…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU

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Not Your Mother’s Artificial Intelligence – AI IN THE MOVIES
By Susan Kaye Quinn

Terminator came out in 1984 – long before most of the tech that’s changed the world (the web, the iphone, the fact that I can stream all the movies I want from Amazon OMG). Today we have AI in our browsers and games, and scientists are actively building software and hardware that learns… just like humans. We’re long overdue for a re-imagining of how artificial intelligence will impact our world. Hollywood has started the job (TRANSCENDENCE, LUCY, AUTOMATA, CHAPPIE, EX MACHINA), but these are stumbling starts… I believe we’re just starting to tell the stories of AI in the future.

I can’t wait to see where Hollywood imagines our future to be… but science fiction writers are already busy trying to take a peek at that future. My Singularity series is one possible future – one where most of humanity has ascended into immortal human-machine hybrids, leaving the legacy humans behind, preserved like the rainforest. Is this our future? And even if it is… what are the steps that will happen in between?

What recent AI movies/novels/games have you seen that are RE-IMAGINING the AI of the future?

Donato Giancola - (Robot) Sorrow

http://www.donatoart.com/gallery/sorrow.html

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Would you upload your brain to the cloud?
by Susan Kaye Quinn

The tech is coming: already scientists are building AI software that learns and hardware that mimics the structure of the brain. But it’s no small job to create a mind… especially given we don’t really understand how our own mind/brains/souls work! But someday, the tech will be here.

And when that happens: would you be willing to “go digital” with your brain (or mind? Your essence? Your soul?)?

I think it will challenge everything we know about being human. And it’s one of the core questions I tackle in my Singularity Series (novels and short stories about the coming day when the capability for artificial intelligence has arrived).

What are your thoughts? When the day comes, would you upload your brain to the cloud?

Man/Machine/God

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/24206916723272776/

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On Tour: The Duality Bridge (Singularity #2) by Susan Kaye Quinn, an Excerpt, and a Giveaway!

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The Duality Bridge

The Duality Bridge by Susan Kaye Quinn 
Series: Singularity #2
Print and e-book, 426 pages
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, August 17, 2015

What does it mean to be human? 

Elijah Brighton is the face of the Human Resistance Movement. He’s the Olympic-level painter who refused an offer of immortality from the ascenders—the human/machine hybrids who run the world—in solidarity with the legacy humans who will never get a chance to live forever. Too bad it’s all a complicated web of lies. Worse, Eli’s not even entirely human. Few know about the ascenders’ genetic experiments that left him… different. Fewer know about the unearthly fugue state that creates his transcendent art—as well as a bridge that lets him speak to the dead. But the Resistance is the one place he can hide from the ascender who knows everything the fugue can do. Because if Marcus finds him, he’ll either use Eli for his own nefarious purposes… or destroy him once and for all.

The Duality Bridge is the second book in the Singularity series and the sequel to The Legacy Human. This thrilling new young adult science fiction series explores the intersection of mind, body, and soul in a post-Singularity world.

My thoughts about The Duality Bridge ~~ 

There is not a book that I have read by Susan Kaye Quinn that I haven't absolutely just loved. Reading her stories always take me out of the usual genre reading ruts that are so comfortable for me. Her books have opened my eyes to so many of those other wonderful genres that are out there, waiting to be devoured. 

'A holy man. Or woman. Someone who will usher in a new transcendent age, liberating humanity from their earthly bonds and opening a new world. The coming one will bridge the veil between the living and the dead.'  

I found myself devouring The Duality Bridge. Once I got past a certain point very early in the story, the action really picked up and I couldn't read fast enough. It was pretty intense and I just couldn't stop. I have to admit that I stayed up way past my bedtime, just so I could finish it and see where the story was going. And I am so glad that there are going to be more stories of the Singularity.  

'Some bridges burn. The old man said it - either I'll stop the storm or be destroyed by it.' 

I can't wait to see what is store for Eli and the people who believe in him. 

Excerpt from The Duality Bridge

Delphina is watching me from outside the holo matrix… along with Kamali, whose wide brown eyes hold silent judgment for the things she thinks I’ve done. Forbidden things, like being a love toy for my ex-patron and current-rebel-ascender, Lenora. Who happens to be standing right next to her. While Kamali’s graceful dancer body is hidden under the black military garb of the resistance, Lenora’s perfect bodyform is barely covered in scintillating ascender-tech fabric. The thing is, I’ve never so much as kissed Lenora. Except in my dreams, which really shouldn’t count against me. Any seventeen-year-old guy would have those kinds of thoughts. But the truth is Kamali’s not wrong to judge me.

My feelings for Lenora have always been… complicated.

The Legacy Human 

What would you give to live forever?

Seventeen-year-old Elijah Brighton wants to become an ascender—a post-Singularity human/machine hybrid—after all, they’re smarter, more enlightened, more compassionate, and above all, achingly beautiful. But Eli is a legacy human, preserved and cherished for his unaltered genetic code, just like the rainforest he paints. When a fugue state possesses him and creates great art, Eli miraculously lands a sponsor for the creative Olympics. If he could just master the fugue, he could take the gold and win the right to ascend, bringing everything he’s yearned for within reach… including his beautiful ascender patron. But once Eli arrives at the Games, he finds the ascenders are playing games of their own. Everything he knows about the ascenders and the legacies they keep starts to unravel… until he’s running for his life and wondering who he truly is.

The Legacy Human is the first in Susan Kaye Quinn’s new young adult science fiction series that explores the intersection of mind, body, and soul in a post-Singularity world… and how technology will challenge us to remember what it means to be human.

Read my thoughts about The Legacy Human HERE. 

Praise for The Legacy Human

“This book is Hunger Games (without the violence or controversy) meets Divergent.”

“This story is so intense I felt I couldn’t get a proper breath.”

“Science fiction with philosophical depth!”

About the author

Susan Kaye Quinn is the author of the Singularity Series, the bestselling Mindjack Trilogy, and the Debt Collector serial, as well as other speculative fiction novels and short stories. Her work has appeared in the Synchronic anthology, the Telepath Chronicles, the AI Chronicles, and has been optioned for Virtual Reality by Immersive Entertainment. Former rocket scientist, now she invents mind powers, dabbles in steampunk, and dreams of the Singularity. Mostly she sits around in her PJs in awe that she gets to write full time.

Connect with Susan 

Website | Facebook | Twitter

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$25 Amazon eGift Card or Paypal Cash

Ends 9/6/15

Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com eGift Card or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader and sponsored by the author. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

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Release Day: The Legacy Human (Singularity #1) by Susan Kaye Quinn, a Launch Party and a Giveaway! All Kinds of Fun!!

New Release! 

The Legacy Human (Singularity #1) 

by Susan Kaye Quinn #YA #SF

INTRODUCTORY PRICE $.99 - Limited time

e-book and print

When transcending humanity is the prize, winning the Game is all that matters.

Seventeen-year-old Elijah Brighton wants to become an ascender—a post-Singularity human/machine hybrid—after all, they’re smarter, more enlightened, more compassionate, and above all, achingly beautiful. But Eli is a legacy human, preserved and cherished for his unaltered genetic code, just like the rainforest he paints. When a fugue state possesses him and creates great art, Eli miraculously lands a sponsor for the creative Olympics. If he could just master the fugue, he could take the gold and win the right to ascend, bringing everything he’s yearned for within reach… including his beautiful ascender patron. But once Eli arrives at the Games, he finds the ascenders are playing games of their own. Everything he knows about the ascenders and the legacies they keep starts to unravel… until he’s running for his life and wondering who he truly is.

The Legacy Human is the first in Susan Kaye Quinn’s new young adult science fiction series that explores the intersection of mind, body, and soul in a post-Singularity world… and how technology will challenge us to remember what it means to be human.

I LOVED it and you can read my thoughts here! 

WHAT REVIEWERS ARE SAYING:

“If I were a movie producer, I would option this in a heartbeat.”

“This story is so intense I felt I couldn’t get a proper breath.”

“Science fiction with philosophical depth.”

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Join the Launch Party!

Win paperbacks of The Legacy Human and Mindjack Trilogy, as well as other great prizes, and chat with some AMAZING Sci-Fi author-friends (check out the line-up below!). Giveaways run ALL DAY (9a – 9p Chicago Time, GMT-6)

SCHEDULE - Chicago Time (GMT-6) on March 2nd

9a - 10a - Sue (Singularity)

1p - 2p - Jennifer Wells (Fluency)

2p - 2:30p - Endi Webb (Terran Gambit)

3p - 4p - Rysa Walker (Timebound)

5p - 5:30p - Wes Davies (Binary Cycle)

5:30 - 7p - Sue (Singularity)

7p - 8p - E.E. Giorgi (Chimeras)

8p - 9p - Jessica Keller (Saving Yesterday)

9p  - Sue - PICKING WINNERS

Stop by ANYTIME to enter giveaways!

Stop by during the guest-host hour to chat! 

Join the party now!

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? March 2, 2015

Hello! Welcome to It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? This weekly meme, hosted by Book Journey, is where we share what we have read this past week and what our plans are for the upcoming week. It’s a great way to see what others are reading and to discover books to add to your own To Be Read list. You never know where that next great read may come from!

Click on the book image to read more on Goodreads. 

What I'm currently reading

Silence
by Deborah Lytton

 My thoughts will be posted on Thursday. 

Tremolo: Cry of the Loon (LeGarde Mystery #3)
by Aaron Paul Lazar (audio-book)

What I recently finish reading

The Legacy Human (Singularity #1)
by Susan Kaye Quinn
Loved it! You can read my thoughts here. It's currently on sale for only $.99.

The Long-Shining Waters
by Danielle Sosin

I didn't really enjoy this book. I had a hard time seeing the point of the story. Oh well.

What I think I'll read next

Sundaes with Nora (Sweet Dreams #2)
by Anna Garner 
I loved book #1 in this series. I am excited get started on book #2.

What's going on in your reading world this week?

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The Legacy Human (Singularity #1) by Susan Kaye Quinn

The Legacy Human 

Singularity #1

The Legacy Human by Susan Kaye Quinn
Series: Singularity #1
Print and e-book, 407 pages
Published March 2, 2015

Spiritual successor to the bestselling Mindjack trilogy… 

When transcending humanity is the prize, winning the Game is all that matters.

Seventeen-year-old Elijah Brighton wants to become an ascender—a post-Singularity human/machine hybrid—after all, they’re smarter, more enlightened, more compassionate, and above all, achingly beautiful. But Eli is a legacy human, preserved and cherished for his unaltered genetic code, just like the rainforest he paints. When a fugue state possesses him and creates great art, Eli miraculously lands a sponsor for the creative Olympics. If he could just master the fugue, he could take the gold and win the right to ascend, bringing everything he’s yearned for within reach… including his beautiful ascender patron. But once Eli arrives at the Games, he finds the ascenders are playing games of their own. Everything he knows about the ascenders and the legacies they keep starts to unravel… until he’s running for his life and wondering who he truly is.

The Legacy Human is the first in a new young adult science fiction series that explores the intersection of mind, body, and soul… and how technology will challenge us to remember what it means to be human.

Check out Susan Kaye Quinn's website for information about the Launch Party, ARC giveaways, and everything Singularity.

The e-book is only $.99!

My thoughts about The Legacy Human ~~ 

Aargh!! I DO NOT read science fiction! I never have and always said I never would. It never interested me. I always avoided that section in the library and in bookstores. I just don't read science fiction. Period!

And then I discovered Susan Kaye Quinn and her wonderful stories! I started reading her books way back when and I have yet to find one of them that I have not absolutely loved. I read her young adult science fiction Mindjack series, her adult future-noir Debt Collector series, her steam-punk romance Dharian series, and now this story, book #1 in her new young adult science fiction Singularity series. These are all genres that I had never tried before and did you notice all the science fiction on this list? I never thought that science fiction could consist of such great stories. Susan has opened my eyes to wonderful worlds filled with unique characters and unimaginable, but amazing storylines.

The Legacy Human is a wonderful, but yet a little disturbing, beginning to what is planned to be a 7 book series. We are thrown into a world where humans ascend to a higher intelligence and assume a better life. Everything will be perfect for Eli, if and when he can ascend and leave his human life behind. But he finds that things are not what they seem to be in that other, perfect world and he has a hard time figuring out who the good guys are and who are the bad ones. Just like in the real world. Who knew a perfect world would be like that?

I loved this story as it shows us that striving to be perfect and trying to leave all that we know and love behind as we strive for that perfection won't always make us happy. Be careful what you wish for!

I am continually in awe of the stories that SKQ creates. She has such an amazingly creative mind to be able to produce these edge-of-your-seat types of books. I have a hard time putting them down and anxiously wait for her next creation. I look forward to reading more stories in this Singularity series. And I can now say that I will embrace the science fiction genre, especially if the stories are as entertaining as this one was.

About the author

Susan Kaye Quinn grew up in California, where she wrote snippets of stories and passed them to her friends during class. Her teachers pretended not to notice and only confiscated her stories a couple times.

Susan left writing behind to pursue a bunch of engineering degrees, but she was drawn back to writing by an irresistible urge to share her stories with her niece, her kids, and all the wonderful friends she’s met along the way.

She doesn’t have to sneak her notes anymore, which is too bad.

Susan writes from the Chicago suburbs with her three boys, two cats, and one husband. Which, it turns out, is exactly as a much as she can handle.

Connect with Susan 

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

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