Meet Science Fiction author Jay Toney. It was a delight to meet Jay on my podcast last month. We had done newsletter swap promotions to our redears on our individual newsletters, but I hadn’t taken the time to take a deep dive into his books. His books! He has a large catalog for an author who has been publishing just under 10 years. Jay has published 18 novels and many more novella’s and short stories.
I’ll get into his writing next, but as a human-being, he is a very giving and kind person. He has an intermediate size garden at his home in rural Alabama. He shared with me on my podcast that he has faced some health challenges, but that has not stopped him from writing so much fantastic Science Fiction.
Dark Sci-Fi with Dystopian World-view.
Jay paints a bleak picture of politics and human nature in his writings of the near and far distant future. I enjoyed his cynicism. To me it shows a realism. If life were to go on and advance in the manner things have gone so far in the last fifty years.
Dealing with totalitarian rulers. Though he is an avid fan of Star Trek, he doesn’t tell utopian tales like Roddenberry tried to tell. From my reading, he writes gritter stories about characters who find a way to survive in challenging situations. It sits well with me and it’s more believable.
Military Science Fiction, Space Opera.
Jay grew up in the age just after the space race. He even worked in maintenance of aircraft in the Airforce. He spent years in the U.S. Military. Toney served in the Military in many of the wars in the middle-east such as Desert Storm. Maybe that has shaped the way he tells space combat scenes—who knows?
But his descriptions of fighter pilot combat and ship to ship combat are quite enjoyable. Coming as a fan of Battletech science fiction, myself, it reminded me of Battletech in some ways.
Review of First Command.
I just got done reading “First Command,” it’s a perfect short-read. Doc Robert’s is not a moral protagonist per-say, he’s a pirate. Pirates kill, rape and plunder. FYI, there are no rape scenes in this book. I’m just saying what pirates are. Pirates are not the Johnny Depp version of Pirates, but Space Pirates who have to steal to make a living, which usually requires some killing.
First command is a story of just that. Pirate Captain Doc Roberts inherits the spaceship and the command of “The Queen Anne’s Revenge,” from his father. Cool ship name seems like I have heard that somewhere else!?
This is an all-or-nothing mission, because his employers, “the Alliance” are real ass-holes and they want money in advance, (taxes) lots of it. And his father is sort of a tough-love kind of guy. Bart Roberts, his dad, was rich, but takes all of his money with him when he retires. But he does leave him a gift, a broken synthetic… a female android.
The story get’s a little steamy from there but the scenes fade to gray before we hear about the naughty bits. The story has some nice space ship to ship combat and some interesting banter. I loved it and you can currently get it for free.
First Command is a prequel to a larger story that has many installments. It is a full universe of political intrigue, military struggles in space. Did I mention The Alliance are all genuine ass-holes?
I gave the book 5 stars.
Review of Net Zero.
Net Zero is a completely different story line from First Command. In my understanding, it takes place in the not too distant future of our own society on earth, fifty years in the future.
Reminds me of elements of the story of Player One, but darker. In this dystopian future, massive corporations rule the populous. On in particular, NASTI, Nexus Advanced System Technology Inc, is up to no good.
In this dystopian science fiction tale, the human males are being feminized. Fewer and fewer men are interested in women. This leaves a lot of natural women unfulfilled. They are forced to pay credits for sex or go without. Or they can get jacked into the Nexus and experience carnal pleasures in VR, and lifelike video game action.
Our protagonist Jenna and Ariel are female gamers and can even earn a living online. They get an offer from NASTI to participate in an advanced trial of the next level VR reality. Little did they know that the online trial could be fatal.
This is a great, little short read with several twists and turns. I enjoyed it. I give it 4.5 stars.
You can download it for free by signing up for Jay’s newsletter.
Want to know more about Jay Toney?
Listen to my podcast where I interviewed him. I talk too much, but Jay was gracious about that.
