Fresh Blue Ink Blog

You can now pre-order “The New Planet Policy” from Amazon.ca:

Choose your preferred format:
Kindle ebook
Paperback

The cover image for “The New Planet Policy” has been completed.

Here is what the eBook will look like:

Stay tuned for information on pre-publication reviews.

The third novel by award-winning novelist R.M. Kozan “The New Planet Policy” will be released on August 16th 2024.

From the back cover:

When a mathematically encoded “Hello Other World” message sent by NASA is answered with the unannounced arrival of a hostile fleet of flying saucers, the citizens of Ottawa wonder why their usually placid city has begun to tear itself apart. Are aliens beaming madness into the city?

Ian Hesse is not a lucky man. At least, not anymore. Everything collapses on him: his career, his marriage, his city, his country, and even his planet. He is forced to seek salvation among the stars, far from home and far from lucky.

Humanity must kneel, but it continues to breathe. Meanwhile Ian must endure unending mental experimentation which leaves him confronting his deepest fears. A hopeless situation, or a new beginning?

Unwinding a cosmic chain of rogue powers and trans-galactic malfeasance, it all ends with calm, but is it a prelude to something far worse?

Stay tuned for the cover release.

See a new author interview on the Indie Reader website in which I discuss my Voyages of Ralf series:

https://indiereader.com/2021/04/ir-approved-author-r-m-kozan-i-was-inspired-to-begin-this-book-out-of-sheer-frustration/

See the author interview on the Literary Titan website in which I discuss my Voyages of Ralf series:

https://literarytitan.com/tag/r-m-kozan/

Literary Titan has awarded ‘The Voyages of Ralf, Vol. 1: The Arc of Purchaser’ the Literary Titan Book Award. See the list of all winners at the link here

In their review of ‘The Voyages of Ralf, Vol. 1: The Arc of Purchaser’, Literary Titan  suggested the book “DISPLAYED A MASTERFUL USE OF LANGUAGE” and was “JUST PLAIN FUN TO READ!”. Read the full review here.

A further announcement will be made when the author interview is posted on Literary Titan.

The Indie Reader review of ‘The Voyages of Ralf (Vol. 1): The Arc of Purchaser’ has now been posted.

You can read it here:

https://indiereader.com/book_review/the-voyages-of-ralf-volume-1-the-arc-of-purchaser/

The book was awarded 4/5 stars, and proclaimed ‘Indie Reader Approved’.

A later announcement will be made when the interview with the author is released on the Indie Reader website.

Readers’ Favorite gives ‘Breakaway: 1977′ a full five stars, touting it as ‘Very highly recommended.’

See the full review here: https://readersfavorite.com/book-review/breakaway-1977

A new review of ‘The Voyages of Ralf’ will be posted on the Indie Reader website September 14th.

Here is the entire review, as received via email:

“TITLE: THE VOYAGES OF RALF
AUTHOR: R.M. Kozan
GENRE: Humor
RATING: 4 stars (out of 5)

Strap in for a thrill ride of aliens, space travel, warfare, and a Douglas Adams sense of humor in R.M. Kozan’s THE VOYAGES OF RALF.

Science fiction is a venerable genre with roots that go back hundreds of years but whose modern form began, according to most authorities, in 1926, when Hugo Gernsback published Amazing Stories, the first American sci-fi magazine. Humorous science fiction is somewhat younger. Douglas Adams practically invented the genre with his The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and John Scalzi, Jasper Fforde, and David Wong are other modern masters. With its opening paragraph–“In the beginning, was this universe. It was uniform and conformed to the laws of itself. Thus being law-abiding, it was kin to all other universes: unexceptional, and therefore not meriting a pay increase.”–R.M. Kozan’s THE VOYAGES OF RALF announces that it, too, belongs in the conversation.
The book centers on Ralf, an intern on the star ship Enterprise–I mean, Nosferatu. The year is 1969 S.R., or Since Reset, a cataclysmic solar storm that wiped all electronic data. Mars runs things from atop a mysterious galactic polity called the United Federation of Planets–I mean, the Triang-Dromed-Way Alliance. Ralf is a member of Starfleet–I mean, Space Corps. He’s smart but irreverent, daring but reckless, making him the perfect protagonist for a thrilling adventure of self-discovery.
As hinted above, the book will be familiar to Star Trek fans since it trades in the same tropes: space travel, aliens, captain’s logs, and conflict between Klingons and humans–or, in this case Martians and Terrans. Kozan ratchets up the hilarity with a few of his own inventions: the Supreme Purple Worm, “ugly” being a swear word, and a deity called Aron, aka Celestial Acceptor of Late Fees and All-Mighty Guarantor of Authenticity. Star Trek was, and is, a political allegory, addressing issues such as racism, economic disparity, and military hegemony. In other words, it was more than Spandexed heroes shooting Lazer Tag props at Fangoria centerfolds. Ralf’s odyssey lacks this dimension, being pretty much what it seems to be: a cool story full of action, other worlds, and Kozan’s dry wit. In an America where war between worlds couldn’t make conditions worse, this isn’t a bad thing to be at all.
IR Verdict: Trading on science fiction’s most-established themes, R.M. Kozan’s THE VOYAGES OF RALF makes up in thrills and comic brilliance what it lacks in originality.”