Released today, “Blood, Sweat and Blaster Bolts: Adrenaline Charged Tales of Speculative Fiction” is a new collection of stories by author Ronald T. Jones. It’s published by South Carolina’s own Mocha Memoir Press.
“Blood, Sweat and Blaster Bolts” collects eight stories, and clocks in at a nice 225 pages. This is a nice introduction to a new author in Afrofuturism, and the tales mostly live up the title, with lots of action, space battles, and drama. But the stories also manage to not bury ideas in the all the action, which puts it ahead of many hard sci-fi collections.
The first tale. “Outpost” is about the last outpost of a crumbling empire, and the last person in the army. Unlike many of the tales of this ilk, it manages to end on a hopeful note, and went places I didn’t expect it to.
“Freebooter” is next, a thrilling tale of survival that manages to touch on issues of colonialism and immigration. “Safeguard” is a nice little tale about religion and the survival of humanity. “The Formula” is a nice little spy romp with touches of steampunk. “Approaching a Day of Reckoning” is a great read, full of action, and taken from the viewpoint of the oppressed, “Tyler’s Goddess” takes the trope of a man from an advanced technology being dropped among primitives and does some fun things with it.
“Mission to Gined” and “Mist Lord” the final two stories, take up almost half the book. “Mission” is a great ride, and once again turns a noted trope, soldiers versus an intractable enemy, on its head. “Mist Lord” is not as action packed as the rest of the book, but is also far grittier, dealing with corrupt governments and drug dealing, while in a space setting.
This was my first exposure to Ronald T. Jones’s work, and I was impressed. His stories have a unique viewpoint, and his world building was well done, as was the action. If I have one quibble it is that most of the stories seem to be set in the same science fiction universe, but other than similar races and events, there’s nothing that really ties them together. If there’s another collection of stories like these, maybe a timeline or a summary of the history can be included.
“Blood, Sweat and Blaster Bullets” does exactly what it’s supposed to. It gives you lots of action, memorable creations, and well written ideas. It’s well worth checking out.
If you wish to purchase this collection, here’s a link to it on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07YJ7N83K?pf_rd_p=183f5289-9dc0-416f-942e-e8f213ef368b&pf_rd_r=SJ39N0AWPP37Q13Z8ZFM
And if you’re interested in more Mocha Memoirs books(and you should be) you can visit them at: http://www.mochamemoirspress.com