Tenth Review for The Cronian Incident’s Audiobook!

Tenth Review for The Cronian Incident’s Audiobook!

Good news! The Cronian Incident (the audiobook version on Audible) just got its tenth review. And as you can probably tell, this person is real’ positive! I wish I could reach out to them and let them know that the series is no complete, so all the cliffhangers and threads get resolved.

This book is so good!! I enjoyed it immensely. I loved the world, I felt for the main characters. The tech was impressive. The mystery was complete and total. And then that blasted ending. AURGH!!

Politics reign supreme in the new world and them’s that’s got, keeps. The story was incredible! I was so engrossed in the story that I did not see the ending coming. It broke my heart. Thank goodness there is a book two!!

The narration was excellent, in every sense of the word. The main character, Jeremiah Ward, was an ex-intelligence officer, turned con, then private investigator. There was some gruffness and wide-eyed exasperation to Ward learning his new role and figuring out what was going on. The narrator nailed it. There were Russians (natch) and incredibly powerful female characters amongst a host of other voices. The narration made this story real.

I’m glad there is a second book in this series. I need some vindication!”

Latest Reviews for the Formist Series!

Latest Reviews for the Formist Series!

Over at Audible.com, more listeners have been posting reviews for The Cronian Incident and The Jovian Manifesto. I kind of let them pile up without sharing, so I thought I’d share them here today at last.

Continue reading “Latest Reviews for the Formist Series!”

First Review for The Cronian Incident (the Audiobook)

First Review for The Cronian Incident (the Audiobook)

My good friend and fellow writer, Rami Ungar the Writer, recently posted the first review for audiobook version of The Cronian Incident! Here’s what he had to say:

“I read the book when it first came out, and was interested to hear the audio version. Suffice to say, it did not disappoint. Part mystery, part look at what humanity could be like one day, it’s a great story paired with a top-notch narrator. Totally recommend.”

Thanks, Rami, good to have you in my corner! Also, I happened to notice that the audiobook has five ratings so far, with an average rating of 4.8 stars out of five! This is certainly an encouraging thing to see when consulting your book’s listing for the first time.

It’s even more encouraging considering that the audiobook has only been out for a few weeks! Now if I could just convince more of the reading public to leave reviews, I’d really be cooking with gasoline!

In addition, I have some more news about the Formist Series – the trilogy for which The Cronian Incident is the first installment – but it warrants its own post. Stay tuned…

Two More 5 Star Reviews for The Cronian Incident!

Two More 5 Star Reviews for The Cronian Incident!

I’m a happy man! While I wasn’t looking, two more readers posted their thoughts on my first novel on Amazon. And they were quite nice! Both were 5 stars and they offered some highly encouraging words to boot. Here is the latest:

Continue reading “Two More 5 Star Reviews for The Cronian Incident!”

Make that Ten (and Eight) Reviews!

You know, I seem to recall saying I was going to stop making announcement every time I got a new review.But in this case, it was three new reviews, so… yeah! In the past few weeks, The Cronian Incident has received two more reviews on Amazon (4 and 5 stars, respectively), bringing the total to ten. Meanwhile, on Goodreads, I picked up another 5 star review, bringing the total there to eight.
Granted, I am more excited about the latest Amazon reviews, mainly because my publisher has said that advertisers pay more attention to books that have ten good reviews or more. And while I am thankful for a good review no matter where it comes from, the Amazon ones also came with comments, which I wanted to share.
The first came from a user named Chris B, who gave it 4 out of 5 stars. I especially liked what they said in the last sentence:
I’ve enjoyed the world building as another reviewer has stated and am starting to warm to some of the characters. I really like how the action is taking place on various planets/moons of the solar system, and am eagerly waiting for further instalments of the story. For a (seemingly) first time fictional author it’s certainly well written.

Wow! And here I’ve been feeling self-conscious about my writing all along. When you know people are going to be reading it, you really begin to second guess your choices of words, your pacing, everything. Hearing a comment like this makes me feel a bit more comfortable with the writing process.

And here is the second and latest review, which came courtesy of Heather Archuletta. I bragged about her impressions in a previous post (which she posted on twitter) but I’ll let her speak for herself right here:

The Cronian Incident, which I recommended to my audience as my top Sci-Fi read of the year, is a treasure of planetary science. From bio-implants to solar system stations to the particular engineering environments in each planets’ system, this is a well-developed story with believable settings and characters. The author has a firm grasp of exobiology and extremophiles that will please scientists who enjoy ‘realism’ in their reading, but enough possible future tech that will also please the space-opera crowd. Don’t be afraid of methanogenic hydrocarbons — the hard science is never overwhelming, but neither does Williams assume is audience is dumb by over-explaining anything. A nice balance is struck, here. The novel assumes you know the basics of aerospace, but even if you don’t, you’ll follow the hero because you want to, as his reluctance transforms into purpose. The standout in terms of detail is the uniquely, culturally distinct planets and moons, which could only be done with competent research on each environment, and projecting the imagination into the framework of what it would truly take to colonize places like Mercury, Titan, or Callisto. Join the Interplanetary Accord.
The Interplanetary Accord. No spoilers, but that’s a reference to something mentioned in the text, and something I totally forgot about (to be honest). I better keep this in mind for future novels! 🙂
In any case, thanks to everyone who has left a review and know that your words of encouragement are what is making ths all worthwhile.

Eight (or Seven) Reviews and Counting!

Eight (or Seven) Reviews and Counting!

That title needs a little explaining, I realize. Since it’s release in September, The Cronian Incident has been accumulating reviews. And I”ve been monitoring them pretty closely. These days, Amazon.com and Goodreads are kind of the gold standard for online reviews. And between them, the book has eight reviews on one and seven reviews on the other.

The book has done far better on Amazon, where it has accumulated an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars. I tell you, you can get greedy for 5-star reviews when that’s what the first few are. But so far, I’m very glad that no one who’s reviewed it on Amazon has rated it lower than four stars. Sure, there was some constructive criticism here and there, but that’s what’s good about a decent review that offers some pointers. You know that they liked it, but were still able to offer some suggestions on how it could be improved.

On Goodreads, things have gone a little less well. With seven reviews to its name, my book has accumulated an average ranking of 4 out of 5 stars. I’m still very thankful for that much, but you kind of get slammed when some people don’t like your work and say so! In this case, one person gave it a 1-star review and that brought the overall ranking down. Not going to name names, but I did look up what they had to say and found out that they didn’t like the book because it was: Cursing, icky vilence, slow.” (that typo is all them).

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36117087-the-cronian-incident

Hmm. I wish they had said “Cursing, icky violence and sex”. That one bad review would have sold a thousand copies! And, from what I understand, as soon as I reach ten reviews on Amazon, advertisers will apparently start taking me seriously. So if you’ve already read the book and have not found the time to make a review, that would great!

 

Another 5 Star Review for The Cronian Incident

Another 5 Star Review for The Cronian Incident
The latest review for The Cronian Incident is in. And it was both detailed and pretty favorable! It comes courtesy of

The Cronian Incident (The Formist Series) (Volume 1) by Matthew Williams is a slow-paced, contemplative science fiction story that fans of The Expanse will really enjoy. When a high-ranking member of a Formist family disappears, Jeremiah Ward, a former detective serving a hard labor sentence on Mercury is called to act as private detective. In exchange for Ward’s services, his sentence will be commuted, but it may be more than he bargained for.

Out of the gate, Ward has his own self-imposed obstacles to overcome. He’s guilt-ridden over the events that landed him in prison, and seems to accept his fate as if he were on death row. When Ward is given his “golden ticket” of a task as a private detective, it seems like the best of all worlds. Of course, nothing is ever so easy as all that, and Ward finds himself going deep down the rabbit hole of conspiracy and danger.

Williams injects a realism into this splendid science fiction story that is reminiscent of some of the best in the genre. The Cronian Incident offers a unique view of the future-imperfect through the eyes of the flawed by likable character Jeremiah Ward. Fans of the genre will definitely want to pick up the slow-boil science fiction mystery and tuck in for a good read.

5 Star Reviews for The Cronian Incident

5 Star Reviews for The Cronian Incident

The first reviews for my recently-released novel have come in. And they are admittedly pretty good! If there’s one thing a new author who has just released a book will suffer from, its that pins-and-needles feeling that comes with waiting on the first reviews. Good ones will help attract new readers and fans to your book, while bad ones will cast a stink on it which will be hard to shake! So as you can imagine, I was really happy to see these!

The first was posted on Amazon, where JJ Clayborn (a fellow SF writer) wrote the following:

“Mr. Williams delivers an exciting tale in this story. It was a very enjoyable read and I’m looking forward to seeing more from him.”
The next two were posted on Goodreads, where users Scott McGlasson and Cyber both gave it five stars.

And of course, there was the lovely advanced review from Professor Abraham Loeb himself:

“An exciting science fiction adventure into the technological future. An exhilarating read for scientists and fiction lovers alike.”
So far, so good. Fingers crossed the readers continue to think nice things about this book. Every positive review makes me that much more eager to get the sequel done!

Advance Review for The Cronian Incident

In preparation for the release of The Cronian Incident, my publisher sent out Advanced Reading Copies (ARC) to a number of influential people that I just happen to know. The first one came in not that long ago from Professor Abraham (Avi) Loeb. Over the years I’ve had the privilege of speaking to him a few times as part of my job with Universe Today. So when the opportunity arose to get some professional opinions on my book, I naturally thought of him.
He graciously accepted, and wrote the following:
“An exciting science fiction adventure into the technological future. An exhilarating read for scientists and fiction lovers alike.”
Not only is Prof. Loeb the Chair of the astronomy department Harvard University, he’s also the Director of the Institute for Theory and Computation, a member of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) and the chairman of the Breakthrough Foundation’s Advisory Board. Basically, he’s part of the organization that is mounting the largest SETI effort to date, and plans to build a laser sail-driven nanocraft that would make it to Alpha Centauri in 20 years.