Looking for beta readers

[Nick B]

Hiya all. Mods, I apologise if this doesnt belong in GWD, please move it if necessary.

With our first novel - Liberator - almost completed - we are a few weeks away from finishing the rewrite and editing, we are looking for a couple of new, completely unbiased beta readers. Would you be interested?

Liberator is a semi military themed space opera. The opening novel in a sequence that follows the story of a devestated mercenary company that rebuilds itself when one of their old comrades is abducted. Of course, the sequence arc doesnt stay that simple for long.

Liberator is ( we sincerely hope) a character driven, action packed ride that follows the lives, loves and losses of a group of people coming back together to rescue one of their own.

Idealy we are looking for a couple of reades who can commit to a reasonable timescale and give feedback withina few weeks. The novel is under 100k words now.

We will format it to work with e-readers.
Post here or pm me if you are interested.

 

[Brian G Turner]

It would be best if you posted the first 1500 words, or first chapter, to the Critiques section - that would then let everyone know whether this is the sort of story, and level of writing, that they could comfortably beta.

 

[Ursa major]

I agree with Brian's piece of advice, but if that goes well, I'd be up for it.

new, completely unbiased beta readers

To be fair, I'm probably more in line with the first criterion (new) then the second (completely unbiased), but I would be a 'completely new' beta reader, if that helps.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

What Brian says. Then I if I was interested, I'd read and give general feedback. (not line edit stuff).

 

[Nick B]

I'm not looking for line editing, just feedback on the storyline, characters and so on. That is why I havn't put up for critique. I know many people value critique style feedback, but at this stage it isn't what we are looking for.

I am happy to send a short excerpt to anyone to see if it is their cup of tea though.

Ursa, by unbiased I meant that you dont know me so wont be tempted to say things just to be kind. And by new, just people who havn't read it yet. @ralphkern has read some already and is having the rewrite when it is done. We want more fresh eyes. We have a few people but are looking for a couple more space opera fans.

 

[Ursa major]

I'm definitely a fan of space opera: it's the sub-genre in which I write.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

PM me.
I do like some Space Opera. I've read all the EE Doc Smith, and a number of much more recent examples.

 

[Venusian Broon]

What the hell, space balls and glittering star dust.

I've put my hat in, if you want yet another beta...still waiting for my beta reader to come back with her views, and she's only on part 2 of 4...

Erm, credentials...been reading loads of space opera as that is where my WIP1 sits, So been perusing Banks, Reynolds, Asher etc...

 

[Nick B]

Thanks folks. Think more Banks than A C Clark, more Star Wars than Interstellar, more Game of Thrones than happy ever after.
I will pm people my email address, and you can email me so I can mail you when it is ready. We have deadlined ourselves to the end of July but are ahead of schedule.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

I'm not keen on Banks or Game of Thrones though. But perhaps it doesn't have the things in those that annoy me. (Obsessive fondling of his Orbital, AI and Resurrection tech for Banks, that pads out the story too much. Gratuitous violence and sexual violence with Martin, I didn't like his enormous Short Story Anthology either)

 

[Ursa major]

I like ASoIaF (and GRRM's SF and space opera), and generally like (M) Banks (though Look to Windward irritated me greatly).

 

[Nick B]

Lots of AI and space stations I'm afraid Ray, though not like Banks' style of stuff. No resurections either. To be fair I'd not a great fan of GRRM but the darker side of conflict ( as in no-one is safe) is where it is similar, and a quite large cast. No sex either. Lots of violence though and graphic because I dont believe the horror of warfare should be sanitised.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

I've no objection to wars, space stations, violence per se. Or even to the odd AI that's really just a database with nice interface, but AI as sentient gods where the author is clueless about science and worships the idea of it and drags them in every other paragraph is tedious. i.e. AI as a tool but not as substitute for biological alien or human.
GRR Martin much of the violence IMO actually detracts from the story. He seems to just get carried away with it.

So perhaps I might like your book as it's NOT Banks and you are not a GRR Martin fan either!* I didn't watch Starship Troopers, but I read the book, it's OK. CJ Cherryh Downbelow Station is great Space Station story. I've plenty of books with violence and some with "AI" that are OK.
PM me anyway.
Any format except PDF is fine.

I can read about 45K words a day.

(*This illustrates the foolishness of publishers in the past dragging in LOTR on to cover on new fantasy authors that in reality isn't really much like LOTR, as lots of people have never liked LOTR book, inexplicable as that might be)

 

[Nick B]

Ray, Ursa and VB, I will pm you in the next few days with my email address and more details. Thank you all for volunteering.

 

[Paul_S]

I'll throw my hat in the ring, if you're looking for feedback from an experienced reader but a not-so-experienced writer. I'm particularly fond of space opera. I'm getting a Hamilton meets Scalzi vibe from your description, is that near the mark?

 

[Nick B]

Okay paul thanks. I have four new beta's now so no more please. That gives us eight I think for this go, and a nice wide selection of people. Thanks everyone.

 

[Nick B]

And yes, a scalzi, hamilton, banks sort of thing may be reasonably accurate.

 

[Nick B]

This should be out to you guys friday night, formatted as .mobi, with a cover (which we will use if we do go sp), so it should look like a finished e-book.

 

[Nick B]

Check your in-boxes gentlefolk of the chrons.

 

[Venusian Broon]

Just to confirm I received it and have found an app to read it - although it's a bit weird for a non-ereader like myself!

As it is on my PC and all my music reside there with me....do you recommend anything on in the background whilst reading it.