Chanticleer Book Reviews

Author: mw-anderson

  • CYGNUS SPOTLIGHT for SCI-FI – Book Awards, Science Fiction, Space Opera, Time Travel, Genetic Mods, Tech, Apocalyptic, Space Aliens

    CYGNUS SPOTLIGHT for SCI-FI – Book Awards, Science Fiction, Space Opera, Time Travel, Genetic Mods, Tech, Apocalyptic, Space Aliens

    Cygnus Award for Science Fiction

    The Cygnus Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Science Fiction, Steampunk, Alternative History, and Speculative Fiction. The Cygnus Awards is a genre division of Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs).

    Chanticleer International Book Awards is looking for the best books featuring space, time travel, life on other planets, parallel universes, alternate reality, and all the science, technology, major social or environmental changes of the future that author imaginations can dream up for the CYGNUS Book Awards division. Hard Science Fiction, Soft Science Fiction, Apocalyptic Fiction, Cyberpunk, Time Travel, Genetic Modification, Aliens, Super Humans, Interplanetary Travel, and Settlers on the Galactic Frontier, Dystopian, our judges from across North America and the U.K. will put them to the test and choose the best among them.

    Get your Sci-fi on

     enter the CYGNUS AWARDS today!

    Who will receive a beautiful CIBA  CYGNUS Blue Ribbon? 

    Which CYGNUS AWARD winner will receive the next big publishing contract or land a top agent…? 

    Bennett Coles CYGNUS Grand Prize for VIRTUES of WAR 

    Harper Collins Voyager has picked up CYGNUS Grand Prize Winner Bennett R. Coles for his latest work Winds of Marque.

    Titan U.K. picked up his CYGNUS award-winning Virtues of War and then contracted for two more books in his series: Ghosts of War and March of War.

    Virtues of War

     

    Will it be you? 

    THE DEADLINE TO ENTER THE 2020 CYGNUS Novel Writing Competitions is April 30, 2020.

    ENTER TODAY!

    The CYGNUS BOOK AWARDS 

    Hall of Fame

    2018 Grand Prize Winner: 

    The Korpes File by J.I Rogers took home the 2018 CYGNUS Book Awards for Science Fiction Grand Prize Blue Ribbon.

     

     

     

    2018 First in Category Winners:

    • The Fortune Follies by Catori Sarmiento
    • It Takes Death to Reach a Star by Stu Jones & Gareth Worthington
    • Solar Reboot by Matthew D. Hunt
    • Apex Five by Sarah Katz
    • The One Apart: A Novel by Justine Avery
    • The Selah Branch by Ted Neill   

    2017 Grand Prize Cygnus Winner: 

    The Future’s Dark Past by John Yarrow

     

     

     

    2017 Cygnus Book Awards for Science Fiction First in Category Winners

     

     

    2016 Grand Prize Cygnus Winner:

     

    OVER by Sean Curley

     

    2016 Cygnus Book Awards for Science Fiction First in Category Winners

    2015 Grand Prize Cygnus Winner:

    The Great Symmetry by James Wells

    2015 Cygnus Book Awards for Science Fiction First in Category Winners

    2014 Cygnus Grand Prize Winner:

    Enemy of Existence by Yuan Jur

    Citadel 7, Earth’s Secret: Enemy of Existence by Yuan Jur

    2014 Cygnus Book Awards for Science Fiction First in Category Winners:

    2013 Grand Prize Cygnus Winner:

    Bennett R. Coles, Virtues of War

    2013 First Place Category Winners for the Cygnus Awards are:

    • The Lotus Effect by Bridget Ladd
    • Celia’s Heaven by Nancy Canyon
    • Artemis Rising by Cheri Lasota
    • The Maiden Voyage of the Mary Ann by Linda Reed
    • Ragnarok: Demon Seed by Ea Bishop

         

         

        Don’t delay. Enter today! 

        Chanticleer Book Reviews & Media, L.L.C.  retains the right to not declare “default winners.” Winning works are decided upon merit only. Please visit our Contest Details page for more information about our writing contest guidelines.

        CBR’s rigorous writing competition standards are why literary agencies seek out our winning manuscripts and self-published novels. Our high standards are also why our reviews are trusted among booksellers and book distributors.

        Please do not hesitate to contact Info@ChantiReviews.com about any questions, concerns, or suggestions about the Chanticleer International Book Awards. Your input and suggestions are important to us.

        Click here for more information about the Chanticleer Book Reviews International Book Awards.

      • BREACHING the PARALLEL by MWAnderson – Military Sci-Fi, Alternate History, Time Travel

        BREACHING the PARALLEL by MWAnderson – Military Sci-Fi, Alternate History, Time Travel

        A one-way trip from the near future to the distant past forces one army unit to adapt to a life they could never have dreamt. Their flight into history will forever change the future that they know. Once there, they discover they are not the first to make the journey, and history as they knew it, has gone far, far off course.

        As the story opens, the U.S. 4th Armored Cavalry Regiment is conducting an incursion into North Korea during the Second Korean War – an event that seems all too plausible based on 21st-century tensions between North Korea and the rest of the world. But their journey is interrupted by an explosion that interacts with time and space, instantly transporting the 500 men and women from the 21st century A.D. to sometime between 1,000 and 500 B.C.E. Their world is gone – and there’s no way back.

        Their initial contact with a nearby village is peaceful until they are forced to decide whether to attempt to preserve the future, a future they are familiar with, or whether they should integrate themselves into their current circumstances and let future history take care of itself.

        A local warlord has been regularly raiding their village and conscripting young men for soldiers. None have ever returned. This time it’s the warlord’s men who don’t make it back to camp. They are wiped out by 21st-century weaponry in a matter of seconds. It comes as no surprise, then, when a more substantial unit arrives on the scene to investigate.

        Just as the soldiers begin to settle in, building homesteads, relationships, and new lives for themselves, they discover that they are not the first people to travel back in time. Those who have come before are enemies – old enemies.

        As the story begins, the circumstances in which the 4th Armored Cavalry finds themselves in are reminiscent of two classic works of alternate history/time travel science fiction, Island in the Sea of Time by S.M. Stirling and 1632 by Eric Flint. In both of those series openers, an unexplained event transports a location, leaving the time travelers to adapt to their changed circumstances and figure out a way to thrive in the past.

        The setup is a good basis for a Sci-fi. What makes Breaching the Parallel stand out from the rest is the interesting approach MWAnderson takes, by revealing that our protagonists are not the first to arrive and that people who traveled to the past before them, have become the dominant power in their brave new/old world. Breaching the Parallel sets the characters up for renewed conflict in a future book in this prospective series – a pretty interesting set of characters at that.

        Breaching the Parallel is a military sci-fi with a clever twist that both thrills and intrigues. MWAnderson shows his knowledge in detailing how an explicitly military mission would conduct itself in a situation where the mission has changed out of all recognition. Those who love a good military sci-fi need look no further – MWAnderson delivers in spades.

        Breaching the Parallel by MWAnderson won 1st Place in the CIBA 2017 Cygnus Awards for Science Fiction.