Psi-Fi Books is enrolled in the Annual Summer Sale over at Smashwords.com. During July, you can get any book by William X. Adams at half price! Sci-fi! Speculative Fiction! Philosophical nonfiction!
All through July, go to: https://www.smashwords.com/shelves/promos/
All Psi-Fi books are available on Amazon and through other distributors such as Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, others… but not at half price.
This sale at Smashwords is a real bargain in July. At Smashwords or whatever retailer you choose, search on “William X. Adams,” “Psi-Fi Books,” or the book title. But the half-price deal is only at https://www.smashwords.com/shelves/promos/
You’ll be able to get any (or all!) of these great titles, fiction or nonfiction on sale only at Smashwords in July:
I. The Newcomers Series
Reluctant Android (psychological sci-fi, 80,000 words).
Andy Bolton, a software engineer in Seattle, is horrified to discover he’s a robot. His boss, Lucy, wants to capture him and take him apart for study. On the run, Andy finds his creator and learns he is neither human nor straightforward machine. He reluctantly accepts that he is something in between, a sentient AI device. He needs to explain this to his nemesis, Lucy, but can a person ever believe a machine has empathy?
This is the first in the Newcomer series, released in ebook on September 1, 2018.
AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FBQTM9M
Other Booksellers: UBL: https://books2read.com/u/bOn9gE
Writers Digest Honorable Mention: Best Sci-Fi Self-Published Books of 2018!
…a fast-paced morality tale, one that blends bleeding-edge science with deep philosophical questions for a high-throttle page-turner. — WD Judge, 5th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published eBook Awards.
Indie BRAG Medallion Award, 2019
The author deftly creates an android that we can care about and it teaches us some wonderful lessons about compassion and leads us to thinking of the future we will one day face. For those Sci Fi lovers and those interested in AI, I highly recommend this book. — Judge, 2019 Indie BRAG Awards.
Alien Talk (sci-fi, 80,000 words). Second in the Newcomers Series
As millions of people become mute in a spreading pandemic, android Robin Taylor discovers that language is an intelligent virus that infected early humans and ultimately enabled modern civilization. Now the virus is enraged by the false language of talking technologies. But Robin is a talking gadget herself. Anyone she communicates with is stricken mute. Can she warn humans and stop the plague?
Alien Talk is the second book in the Newcomer series, released January 4, 2019.
AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07LDJ4CHF
Other Booksellers: UBL: https://books2read.com/u/mK6GnE
Five Stars
…a gripping thriller that sucked me in from page one and kept me reading until I finished it. … a page turner that sparks thoughts and ideas. And Noam Chomsky, too! Highly recommended. – Online Reader
American Fiction Awards: Finalist!
Award Finalist in the Science Fiction: General category, The 2019 American Fiction Awards
Intelligent Things (sci-fi, 81,000 words). Third in the Newcomers Series.
Engineer Jennifer Valentine releases advanced AI assistants online to revolutionize the internet of things. But her softbots, called NODs, go rogue, and she must save the national power grid from disaster. With her consciousness uploaded online, she searches for the leader of the NODs and finds much more than she expected. Back in her lab, she must decide: erase the entire NOD world to protect the human world?
Intelligent Things is the third book in the Newcomer series, Published May 1, 2019.
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QLNLS88
Other Booksellers: UBL: https://books2read.com/u/3LVX7M
Four Stars! Readers Favorite.com
The characters are realistic and show valid concern for life and sentience on multiple levels. All in all, this is a great sci-fi thriller that brings the future straight to today. A must for fans of the genre! –Reviewer
Holy prophet Chalmers, excellent! — Prof. David Chalmers, New York University
…all three stand-alone novels in the Newcomers Series ground the potentially overwhelming mind-body question in an entertaining story about Robin and Andy, two androids—don’t use that term to them! – Online Reader
II. The Phane Series
Alien Body (sci-fi, 80,000 words)
Physician Dave Booker is shocked to discover an alien living in his summer cabin. Phane, the alien, is an anthropologist from another star system. His shuttlecraft has crashed, and he must regain it before the mothership gives him up for dead. But Dave is dumbfounded by the alien’s appearance, a large, green tennis ball with two eyes on tentacles above his head. What would it be like to have a body like that? Does one’s body determine how we think about the world, as the visitor claims? Dave’s ambitious boss captures Phane but he escapes. In a wild chase, Phane flees determined pursuers including the military, but it’s not easy for a talking green tennis ball to hide. Dave realizes that Phane has much to teach humanity, but can he find his alien friend first and help him?
Alien Body is the first in the Phane series. Released Sep 1, 2019
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VWKRH75
Other Booksellers: UBL: https://books2read.com/u/md1VBy
Five Stars! Readers Favorite.com
I was hooked from the beginning and invested in the story. …simply too amazing to forget. Brilliantly engaging and entertaining. — ReadersFavorite.com reviewer
Alien Panic is the second in the Phane series. (Sci-fi, 80,000 words).
Lou Buck, ex-cop and recovering opioid addict, searches for his kidnapped adult daughter, Lacey. In Reno he meets a muscular bald man, Phane, who claims to be an extraterrestrial. Lou thinks he’s a nut until the man transforms into a large green tennis ball with arms, legs, and eyestalks. Lou recovers from his astonishment and learns that Phane was left to die on Earth when Lou was in Folsom Prison. They team up to find Lou’s daughter.
Phane and Lou rescue Lacey and another alien, Flooma, from an alien encampment in the desert from where the tyrannical alien commander plans to colonize Earth. Phane has a complex history with the commander and knows that despite the small number of aliens, they have weapons of enormous power. Despite inter-species weirdness, Lou and Lacey become friends with Phane and Flooma while they scheme to thwart the invasion. Trust develops among the friends, but how far should humans go to help a dying alien species on Earth when their commander wants to take over the planet?
AMZ: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08L5LBTJT
Other Booksellers UBL: https://books2read.com/u/4jqvkk
The prose is lively… The story of invading, friendly aliens that find a diet of Cheerios and duckweed sustaining, is fun and fresh…
— Booklife Prize Critic’s Report
The scenes are well described and the use of unique alien technology livens up the action… The interaction between the two species, in the protagonist’s group is heartwarming. It was interesting to note that the more time the alien leader spends on earth, the more he takes on human characteristics, like selfishness and greed… I was always surprised with what the author had planned in each chapter. It was totally unpredictable, and fun to read. This is a book that will truly be enjoyed by science fiction fans who are looking for something unique.
–Reviewer, Reader Views www.readerviews.com
The characters were engaging and multidimensional on the page, making it easier for the reader to connect with them, from the humans to Phane and his dying alien race. The idea of exploring language and its connection to humanity is a unique one that readers don’t see often, if at all, so this book is one that could draw in a variety of readers. The depiction of opioid addiction not only affecting humans, but also aliens, is also an interesting concept that hits close to home…
— Judge, 8th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published eBook Awards
Alien Dream Machine: Third in the Phane Series (Sci-fi, 83,000 words).
Gunnar is a young Las Vegas PI who struggles with narcolepsy, falling asleep at unpredictable moments. He tracks down a man who cheats at casino dice, only to learn that the guy is an extraterrestrial. Phane, the gambler, begs Gunnar to help him. He and his family are hunted by gangsters who want his dice secret. Gunnar is charmed by the stranger and wants to help, but Phane becomes seriously wounded. Gunnar and his sleep doctor try a desperate plan to revive the dying alien using focused dreams. But do aliens dream?
This is pure “psi-fi:” psychological science fiction. Space is not the final frontier. The mind is.
AMZ: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0916MWF45
Other Booksellers UBL: https://books2read.com/u/bOn950
Readers Favorite.com: Five Stars!
… a narcoleptic private investigator’s adventures with an alien family of recovering drug addicts that keeps you hooked from start to finish. The plot moves at a brisk pace and features colorful characters with distinct personalities that pop out of the pages…. Anyone who’s itching for a sci-fi novel filled with romance, humor, and suspense, should grab a copy of Alien Dream Machine.
2021 finalist in the Cygnus Book Awards for Science-fiction!
“The Cygnus Book Awards recognize emerging new talent and outstanding works in the genre of Science Fiction, Steampunk, Alternative History, and Speculative Fiction.”
III. The Polter Series
Polters. First in the Polter Series
Clay, a young Portland photographer, devastated by the recent murder of his girlfriend, Lane, boards a midnight ferry across the river to Bardonia, a town full of the city’s recently deceased, called Polters. The residents there are in chaos since their way forward, the train station, is blocked by a reactionary gang. As Clay searches for Lane in the land of the dead, he meets Ella, a Polter, and is horrified at feeling attracted to a dead person, but together they liberate the station, restoring the Polters’ path to destiny. On the fog-shrouded platform, he must decide whether to go with Ella to wherever Polters go, or return to ordinary life and mourn for Lane. Polters is about the reality of death and love, with plenty of action on both sides of the silent river that separates them.
AMZ: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BV3HG5JB
Other Booksellers UBL: https://books2read.com/u/mBVzVk
Five Stars!
Polters is captivating from the very first page… I appreciated very much the short, straight-to-the-point chapters and the amazing writing style sprinkled with occasional dark humor… Clay and Lane’s love story is beautiful and unpredictable… Polters is an action-packed and very fast-paced read suitable for fans of thrillers, crime drama, sci-fi, and romance with an element of the supernatural. –Readers’ Favorite Reviewer
Praise from Publishers Weekly
“An inventive mystery set in the land between the living and the dead. A photographer crosses over to the world of Polters and helps unravel the truth behind some murders as well as the workings of Bardonia. The writing is clean with a consistent voice and clearly detailed language [and] the novel explores deeper themes effectively.
The conceit is clever, and the world of Bardonia is fresh and vividly presented. The addition of the crime/mystery elements fit well with the world. The characters are sufficiently developed with clear, individual motivations and believable relationships. The interplay between Clay and Lane is particularly impactful as the story draws to a close.” –BookLife Prize Reviewer
NONFICTION
Scientific Introspection: Tools to Reveal the Mind
Scientific Introspection calls for psychologists to use introspection to investigate the mind. Traditional science has no way to access the mind directly. Psychologists have to study the brain and behavior and guess what the mind is like. But why guess? This book explains how an empirical introspection would work by overcoming common objections such as privacy, subjectivity, and reflexivity.
AMZ: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08HJFQ4WQ
Other Booksellers UBL: https://books2read.com/u/md1x8Z
BIBA Award Winner: Best Nonfiction-Psychology, 2020.
Mind Without Brain: A Proposal
Mind Without Brain (Nonfiction, 43,000 words) suggests that the human mind is like a jazz trio. Oddly, two of the three players are not susceptible to introspection, giving the illusion of a singular consciousness. But a one-module model of mind has a lot of problems. This evidence-based cognitive psychology offers a promising explanation for how the mind works, without biological reduction, and resolves many perplexing problems of psychology.
AMZ: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08RZBGD1K
Other Booksellers UBL: https://books2read.com/u/bMx8W8
BIBA award winner: best nonfiction for 2021
Mind, Body, World
(Mind, Body, World. Nonfiction: Psychology. 38,000 words). Why do we have bodies? We lug over a hundred pounds of meat and water with us everywhere we go. Wouldn’t life be easier, more elegant, without that? It’s the mystery of the mind and the body.
Our minds are connected to our bodies and therefore to the world, but how? If you dissect a brain, you see only gray and white tissue. You find no words, songs, pictures, memories, or colors. Where did the mind go? There must be a connection.
If you’ve wondered why your body doesn’t always do what you’d like, or why you have this thought rather than that thought, you’ll enjoy being made dizzy by the ideas in this book. A radical re-think of the connection between mind and body leads to some strange insights.
AMZ: https://www.amazon.com/dp/173554129X
Other Booksellers UBL: https://books2read.com/u/38PNKZ
Best Indie Siver Medal! Finalist for best nonfiction, psychology, 2021
Readers Favorite 4-star Review!
“This philosophical discussion challenges old ways of thinking and opens up myriads of possibilities. This book will challenge your mind and the way you have looked at life.” – Readers Favorite Reviewer
Nothing in Mind
Every night, you mentally disappear for several hours. During dreamless sleep, you are not present to yourself. You have no thoughts, no experience, no point of view. You enter a period mental emptiness, a Black Hole of Nothingness. In the morning, you wake up and resume life as if nothing unusual had happened. But something unusual did happen. You literally lost your mind for several hours. Surely that needs explanation.
Similar micro- sessions of nothingness perforate all of life. Introspection cannot penetrate a mental black hole. From the point of view of personal experience, the Black Hole of Nothingness is the edge of the known mental world. Based on a theory of dream formation, Nothing in Mind offers a new first-person method for exploring the deepest recesses of the mind.
This is the fourth volume in the Finding the Mind series of award-winning monographs in philosophical psychology.
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BZN7PNHL
Other retailers: https://books2read.com/u/bry2Re
