The Neon Amazon (Once Giants, Book 1) by Eugene Kirk and Garan Mad

 Release date: May 8, 2017

Subgenre: Military science fiction, Cyberpunk

About The Neon Amazon:

Eight-foot-tall Tina Thompson has to make the biggest decision of her life.

Once a pretend villain in a league of bio-augmented professional wrestlers, Tina now survives in the slums of São Paulo as a drug lord's enforcer, using her genetically enhanced body to take out anyone her boss deems a “problem”.

All Tina wants is a normal life, but with millions in debt and a body that requires constant nano-treatments to stave off deadly side effects, she doesn't have a lot of options. When a collection run goes bad, things get worse. The cyber-enhanced mercenaries she’s just killed have a boss too, and he wants payback. He offers Tina a choice: die, or work for him in exchange for a permanent fix to her enhancements. No more nano-treatments, and no hope of going back to a normal life.

Now, Tina must decide if her freedom is worth the price. All she has to do is give up on her dream of normalcy, become a villain for real . . . and blow up a starship.

Gritty and exciting, The Neon Amazon is the first installment of a new sci-fi action series, featuring a twist on the idea of heroes and villains, set against a military sci-fi backdrop in a cyberpunk world.

When She-Hulk meets Dark Matter, expect some bodies to fly.

Excerpt:

 

Tina’s thoughts left her as she slammed full force into the side of a grav-van. Or maybe it had slammed into her. Either way, the cheap SEAUX-Korean import crumpled like a beer can as it bounced off her eight-foot frame and spun out in a shower of sparks and exploding glass.

“Caralho!” she cursed. Damn idiot!

She launched a barefooted kick into what was left of the van and sent it careening across the rain drenched highway on its busted repeller coils and into the curb. She resisted the urge to take out the rest of her pain and agitation on the crippled vehicle, more out of self-preservation than self-control. It was probably her fault for running across a highway in the middle of the night without looking, anyway.

Still, the least they could have done was hit the friggin’ brakes!

“Stupid schmucks,” she muttered as rain pelted her from the night sky, soaking her through. “That damn well hurt.”

Tina brushed chips of broken glass from her wet shoulders as she peered through the van’s busted windscreen. She couldn’t tell if the occupants were badly injured or not, and she didn’t really care. They were still moving, and it was clear they were a couple of civilians, not members of some rival jacker gang trying to take out Boss Marcos’s “elite prized champion.” Plus the cops would be on their way now, and she didn’t have time for that crap.

Tina fled the highway and jumped the guard rail, falling thirty feet to the darkened confines of the favela below. She impacted with a spray of wet earth and took off in a sprint through the dimly lit shanty town.

A midnight collection run. Solo. How’d she end up working for a bastard who’d make her pull a job like this? Her last conversation with him was over an hour ago, but Marcos’s parting words still had her seething with rage.

“Don’t forget. I own your ass, you big dumb bitch.”

The mere echo of those words had her punching the backs of plastiply shacks as she barreled through the muddy alleyways. She’d fix him one day. When she could finally get free from him, and out of this hellhole called Brazil.

The rain hissed in a steady snare-drum roll as it pounded the corrugated zinc roofs of the three- and four-story tenement buildings lining either side of the alley. She reached a stairway and bounded up the crudely cast concrete steps three at a time, a sudden pain shooting through her body with each lunge.

What the hell?

She forced her mind to push past it and kept going, her lungs struggling to placate her aching cells with as much oxygen and synthetic endorphins as her body could muster. That van hadn’t hit her that hard.

Had it?

She reached a platform and stopped, her breathing ragged, a coppery taste in her mouth. She sucked in air and hacked loudly into her hand, leaning against one of the tenement buildings for support as a coughing fit took hold. When it finally subsided, flecks of rust-colored mucus covered her palm.

“Shit . . .” Dying again, already—not even three days this time. “Cheap-ass nanites.”

 

 

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About Eugene Kirk:

 

I've been writing for about twenty years, mostly in the Sci-fi genre. Before then, I used to make up stories all the time for role playing games, along side my co-author, Garan Mad. But now, with a wife, two kids and a full time career as an engineer, I don't have time to game anymore, but my creative juices still flow, so now I pour them into my writing.

After publishing a couple of novels, I've switched to focus on shorter length works; something I like to call "Made for TV novels". They are fast, fun reads that you can digest in an hour or so, much like an episode of your favorite TV show. And with the time pressures we all have these days, maybe a couple of hours is all you can afford to spend on some quick entertainment. So hopefully you'll enjoy the format and if you keep reading it, I'll keep writing it.

About Garan Mad:

Though I trained as an artist, writing has always been a passion of mine, though this was kept mostly to Role Playing games, alongside long-time friend and co-author, Eugene Kirk.

A few years ago I fulfilled my dream of publishing a series of comics called CONTRACT and although comics/graphic novels have always been my first passion the time and monetary constraints of artwork production is quite daunting. So, after a bit of encouragement to return to writing I've jumped (back) into the pool.

So pick up a book, give it a shot and, most important, if you enjoy PLEASE let us know.