Beware of Monsters

EXO-HUNTER TOUCHES DOWN!

December 8, 2020 / JRobinson / 7 Comments

2020 has been a slow year for Robinson releases. So far, just NPC. I’d like to say that’s all part of the grand scheme, but it’s really just part of me working through personal/health struggles that have slowed me down from a “Is Jeremy Robinson actually Lt. Commander Data in disguise?” level to a “Stephen King” pace (2 – 3 novels a year). It’s still a fast pace, but it’s indicative of my state of mind.

Also indicative of my state of mind is the content of my novels, which have shifted over the past few years from being primarily nutso, light-hearted action to more serious, character driven, introspective action. My novels are mental ping-pong matches between dark and painful themes (me working through personal demons) and crazy funny stories (me taking a vacation from my problems). NPC was dark, serious, and mind-bendy. So it’s time for some light-hearted action right?

Hell to the yes!

BUT, there is a catch. EXO-HUNTER turned out to be strangely timely and possibly controversial/political because of events that happened after I was mostly done writing it (George Floyd’s tragic death and the resulting protests). EXO-HUNTER‘s main character is a black man fighting against a white supremacist future government. That simple description, shared earlier in the year, immediately resulted in some negative comments. Which blows my mind. If a black hero fighting against future Nazis offends you, it’s time to take a looong look in the mirror. White Supremacy in the U.S. is as vile as it was in Nazi Germany. They are real life bad guys. They need to be defeated wherever, and whenever they are. Hopefully, that’s not a problem for you.

On to the book!

EXO-HUNTER is very light-hearted and funny, featuring Dark Horse, a sarcastic main character a la Jon Hudson and Jane Harper. The novel also pays homage to the 1980s (which is always fun), inspired by a slew of my favorite 80s movies (Aliens, Predator, Total Recall, etc…) and 80s New Wave music. In fact, EXO-HUNTER is the first novel of mine that comes with a playlist featuring the 17 songs that are mentioned in the novel. If you want a sneak peek, you can listen to the “soundtrack” on YouTube by clicking here.

Before we get to the story, a note for audiobook listeners. Due to unforeseen circumstances (a la 2020), the audiobook has been delayed. It IS in the works, and will hopefully be out sooner than later, but forces beyond my control conspired against it. I will send out a second newsletter the moment it becomes available.

Now, on to the story!

Callsign: Dark Horse and his Marine Rapid Reaction Force team have been sent to recover a strange artifact near Antarctica’s Soviet-controlled Vostok Station. Confronted by a team of Ruskie Spetsnaz, a battle for control of the strange device, frozen in the ice, breaks out. But before anyone can claim victory, or the prize, an explosion of white light knocks the combatants unconscious and whisks them away to…

2989

One thousand years later. Dark Horse, along with his teammate, Chuy, and one of the Soviets, Drago, finds himself in a future that is both impressive and horrifying. Humanity has left Earth behind and is rapidly expanding throughout the galaxy under the banner of The Union, a white supremacist government who racially ‘purified’ the human race hundreds of years in the past.

Living on the fringe of this twisted Fourth Reich society, Dark Horse-the only Black man in the Union-commandeers a vessel and scours the galaxy for his missing teammates under the guise of an Exo-Hunter, seeking out exo-planets to satiate the Union’s need for colonization. His search takes him beyond the edge of the known universe and into an interplanetary war, guided by a vast intelligence that’s been waiting for Dark Horse’s arrival-for a thousand years.

New York Times and #1 Audible.com bestselling author Jeremy Robinson takes readers on a journey to a dark and twisted future…and makes them laugh. EXO-HUNTER is a light-hearted homage to 1980s science fiction movies that also looks at the dangers of white supremacy and the core values that makes it dangerous, and the butt of the joke. In the audiobook edition, he is joined by #1 Audible bestselling narrator, R.C. Bray, giving readers the most compelling-and most fun-thing to come out of 2020.

PRINT EDITIONS are available everywhere, but the e-book is Kindle only, and available for free via Kindle Unlimited. Go ahead and snag it!

And for those who, like me, enjoy moving pictures, music, and voiceovers, here is the trailer!

EXO HUNTER – TOMORROW!

December 7, 2020 / JRobinson / 0 Comments

NPC Is Here!

June 30, 2020 / JRobinson / 5 Comments

PRINT and E-BOOK

AUDIO

I’m well known for writing books that are balls-to-the-wall action from start to finish, but every now and then, I dump a bit of my deeper, darker self into a novel. Books like INFINITE. And ALTER. They become bestsellers. They win awards. And they expose my personal struggles. INFINITE explored my physical pain, which I’ve been experiencing daily for the past five years now (ugh). ALTER delved into my psychological struggles, which are are linked to the diseases causing my pain. NPC tackles the struggles I have with the nature of reality and my Christian faith. Diseases have affected my body, my mind, and on occasion, my perceptions. I’m not quite losing my mind, but I often can’t shake the feeling that none of this is real. I explored the subject some in INFINITE, but I felt like I didn’t do it justice in a real world scenario.

Kane Looks Back – Callsign: Deep Blue

October 14, 2020 / JRobinson / 0 Comments

[“Kane Looks Back” is a series of posts where my editor, Kane Gilmour, will focus on some of my past novels that you might not have discovered yet. Now read on… –Jeremy]

And then there was Deep Blue. So, I was working with Jeremy occasionally, but I’d been in contact with him on e-mail probably daily for a year or two by then. I’d edited TORMENT and the first LAST HUNTER book. I’d also finished my first novel, RESURRECT, and Jeremy had read it and blurbed it for me. I suggested to Jeremy early on during the Chesspocalypse editing and releases that he do a sixth book—one that focused on the team’s mysterious handler, Tom Duncan, the former President of the United States. The man was a former Ranger, and had set up the Chess Team prior to PULSE, and at the end of THRESHOLD he pulled the team away from the military (and pulled a whole lot more resources along with them) and was setting up his own little fiefdom in a captured bad guy base in New Hampshire. I, for one, was fascinated by this character, and I wanted more back story about him. I nagged Jeremy that he should do a Deep Blue novella, and what was more, I wanted him to do it on his own, without a co-author. But Jeremy, who was already doing the co-writing work with a bunch of other authors, putting the final tweaks on edits for SECONDWORLD, was writing the LAST HUNTER books, and who was already starting to write the story that would become ISLAND 731…well, Jeremy was understandably swamped. He said: “Why don’t you write it?”

Kane Looks Back – Callsign: Knight

October 9, 2020 / JRobinson / 0 Comments

[“Kane Looks Back” is a series of posts where my editor, Kane Gilmour, will focus on some of my past novels that you might not have discovered yet. Now read on… –Jeremy]

The fifth of the originally planned Chesspocalypse novellas, CALLSIGN: KNIGHT was co-written with Ethan Cross, who, at the time, was the only bestselling author involved in the Chesspocalypse project. Since then, several of the authors involved have become USA Today and International bestsellers, while Jeremy himself has become a New York Times bestseller. Whatever way you look at it, the Chess Team was good for all the authors involved.

As I recall, there were very few edits or changes needed for the Knight story. Ethan Cross drafted a taut story of Knight attempting to take a well earned vacation when he was whisked away to a ghost city in central China to face a creature he had already faced once before—the Hydra (from PULSE). Only this time it had been tweaked and hybridized, in an attempt to create a Chinese superweapon, by a drug addled maniac.

Kane Looks Back – Callsign: Bishop

September 30, 2020 / JRobinson / 0 Comments

[“Kane Looks Back” is a series of posts where my editor, Kane Gilmour, will focus on some of my past novels that you might not have discovered yet. Now read on… –Jeremy]

Erik Somers, the original Bishop, was sent to Iran to deal with an abandoned Manifold Genetics laboratory and a bioweapon. Coincidentally, another operator in Iran discovers information about Bishop’s true parentage, and the adventure begins. Gunfights, espionage, and terrorism ensue. Although this was one of the titles where Jeremy needed to adjust a lot of David McAfee’s first draft to bring the story in line with Jeremy’s vision for the team and with Bishop’s character, the resulting novella brings a lot into the story that Jeremy might not have brought, and that’s thanks to David’s approach. The tension, the pace, and threat, with Bishop conflicted by his own inner turmoil over his adopted upbringing and the discovery of his true parents distracting him in a time when he cannot afford to be distracted.