Tag: science-fiction

Cyberpunk Dystopia Novels Bundle

I’m excited to share that Upload has been included in a new cyberpunk book bundle from Fanatical, the Cyberpunk Dystopia Novels Collective Bundle, alongside books by authors such as John Shirley, Joe Hurtgen, Matthew Goodwin, and Dr. Ren Warom. This amazing deal allows you to get 19 titles for only $13, including the ebook version of Upload.

There are three tiers available, and Upload is included if you buy Tier 2 or 3. The full list of books included appears below:

  • Eclipse (A Song Called Youth #1) by John Shirley
  • Black Glass: The Lost Cyberpunk Novel by John Shirley
  • Neon Leviathan by T. R. Napper
  • NECROTECH by K.C. Alexander
  • Coil by Dr. Ren Warom
  • The Paradise Factory: A New York 2055 Cyberpunk Story by Jim Keen
  • Into Neon (Audiobook) by Matthew Goodwin
  • Upload by Mark McClelland
  • …And Other Diasters by Dr. Malka Older
  • Hamlet, Prince of Robots by M. Darusha Wehm
  • Complete Darkness: A Dark Matters Novel by Matt Adcock
  • The Man of Cloud 9 by Adam Dreece
  • Chawlgirl Rising by T.K. Young
  • Europa: Omnibus Edition by Elias Hurst
  • Inertia by Mark Everglade
  • Defrag by Rachel Back
  • Tae Kwon GO by Dr. Joseph Hurtgen
  • Rise of the Liberators: Terrafide Book I by Ryan Hyatt
  • Lord of Poison by N. H. Weber

A huge thank-you to Mark Everglade for driving the process of putting this together, and to Fanatical for making it possible.

Upload ePub Is Back

Before I made the eBook version of Upload an Amazon-exclusive, about 98% of my eBook sales were from Amazon. When my 90 day agreement with Amazon was up, I never bothered to republish the eBook elsewhere. I guess I was disillusioned by the Amazon eBook monopoly, and didn’t see the point of making it available for Nook, iTunes Books, Google Play, etc.

But I got this tweet today, and realized I really should get the eBook back up on other sites:

Back in April, I wanted to run a promotion where Upload would be free on Kindle right around the time when the film Transcendence was coming out. Regardless of how good or bad the film was (I personally think it was weak, but didn’t deserve to be hammered by critics), it was a great opportunity for me to draft a marketing giant. I “sold” over 2500 copies in three days, which was huge by my standards. But, in order to take advantage of Amazon’s KDP Select marketing features, such as Countdown Deals, Free Promotions, and free lending via the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, I had to make the eBook available exclusively on Amazon for the 90 day KDP Select membership period. I had to de-list it everywhere else. Since Amazon completly dominated eBook sales, at least where my own book was concerned, this was no great loss for me. In fact, I never bothered to re-list it elsewhere.

Upload available as ePub now on Lulu

Until I got this tweet. So, this morning, I put the time into re-publishing it on Google Play, iTunes Books, Nook Books, Kobo, and Lulu. It will take a few days, and I’ll post here as I see the lights coming on again. Right now, if you are looking for Upload in ePub format, you can definitely find it on Lulu.

Thank you, @Transmitthis, for reminding me that there are in fact people out there reading eBooks on something other than a Kindle.

Update:

The eBook is now available on Kobo and Google Play Books as well.

UPLOAD Free on Kindle 4/17 – 4/20!!!

Readers of the award-winning techno-thriller Upload are comparing it to Transcendence, starring Johnny Depp. To celebrate the April 17 release of the film, the Kindle edition of UPLOAD will be FREE 4/17 – 4/20.

Upload Kindle Edition*** UPLOAD Free on Kindle 4/17 – 4/20 ***

Invite friends to the Goodreads event and the Facebook event. Help spread the word!

For a lot of people watching Transcendence, it will be their first exposure to mental uploading and the Singularity. Intrigued by the concept of humanity ditching our biological bodies and moving into computers? If you’re excited — or scared — by what lies on our technological horizon, UPLOAD is a thought-provoking way to explore what this future might look like.

A winner of ForeWord Reviews 2012 Book of the Year Award in Science Fiction, UPLOAD is the story of the first person to upload his mind into a computer, an unlikely hero in an all-too-plausible tale of transhumanism and the Singularity.

To find out more about the book, check it out on Goodreads or right here on the About the Book page.

If you’ve already read UPLOAD and are looking for a different perspective on the same topic, check out David T. Wolf’s Mindclone: When You’re a Brain Without a Body, Can You Still Be Called Human?, a more humorous take on mental uploading that’s been getting great reviews.

Amazon Prime Members, Borrow Upload Free!

From now until June 16, 2014, Amazon Prime members can borrow Mark McClelland’s award-winning science-fiction novel, Upload, from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library for free.

Download Upload on Amazon

Upload is a near-future sci-fi thriller that goes deep into the mind of Raymond Quan, a troubled young hacker with a criminal past and dreams of escaping into a digital utopia of his own creation.  Upload is the story of the first person to upload his mind into a computer, an unlikely hero in an all-too-plausible tale of transhumanism and the singularity.

Intrigued?  Take a look at the About the Book page.  Check it out on Goodreads and Amazon.   Or read what Goodreads Author R.S. Carter has to say about it:

WOW. I LOVED this book. There are so many sides to this book that I could attempt to tackle. But my brain is exhausted from this read. Upload would be a premium selection for any scifi book club.


First there is the issue of ethics. If you could upload a consciousness into virtual reality while simultaneously destroying the physical body, should it be allowed? What if the body was going to die anyhow?

The main character in this novel is a loner. An introverted genius who has joined the Upload project at a local university. He has a past he wishes to escape, but it is that past which created and funded his life. He has plans to upload in the future but all at once, our protagonist is hit from three sides: the Upload project is going to be disbanded because a government committee deemed human upload to be unethical, his criminal past is catching up with him, and finally he discovers real world love for the first time.

Think you know how this book is going to end? You’ll be wrong.

This one takes a turn into a virtual reality adventure. Ready Player One meets The Matrix combined with the God complex of The Lawnmower Man.

My analogy to The Lawnmower Man is a little extreme – it isn’t that severe. But then again, we don’t know the whole story so it might have been more similar than we can imagine. You’ll understand when you read the book. There are some parts of the story intentionally missing.

I’ve read a number of reviews from people who loved the story and the science-fiction, but hated the protagonist. I LOVED Raymond! Sure, he had his character flaws (and some are very dark), but that what makes him such a perfect character for this story. And I’m always a sucker for child geniuses. This is Ender Wiggins as an introvert – hence the Lawnmower Man reference.

Ah, I’m going in circles. Read this book!

Why Isn’t Upload On Google Play Anymore?

If you’re looking for the eBook version of Upload, the only place you’ll find it, between now and June 16, 2014, is on Amazon.  In order to take advantage of Amazon’s KDP Select marketing features, such as Countdown Deals, Free Promotions, and free lending via the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, I had to make the eBook available exclusively on Amazon for the 90 day KDP Select membership period.  When the 90 days are over, I plan to resume distribution of the eBook through Google Play, Barnes & Noble’s Nook Store, iBooks/iTunes, Kobo, and Lulu.

I apologize for the inconvenience to those of you who don’t use a Kindle or prefer to buy your eBooks somewhere other than Amazon.  The fact is, roughly 90% of my eBook sales have come from Amazon, and there’s the potential for KDP Select to significantly improve my book sales. As a first-time self-published author, I’ve found it’s vitally important to experiment with marketing and distribution.

Thanks for bearing with me.  If you have questions, don’t hesitate to contact me directly, via Twitter (@markproxy) or email (markdmcclelland at gmail).

-Mark McClelland

Looking For Books Like Transcendence?

TranscendenceIf you’re excited about Transcendence, and intrigued (or scared) by the concept of mind uploading, you should check out Upload.  It’s a smaller-scale, more realistic exploration of the concept of mental uploading, through the eyes of the first person to do it — a troubled young man with a criminal past, who plans to take advantage of his position on the Human Mind Upload Project to transfer his consciousness to a computer and escape into a digital utopia of his own creation.

“McClelland’s ambitious debut novel envisions a future in which the vanishing line between virtual reality and ‘organic life’ causes an antisocial genius to conduct the ultimate evolutionary experiment.” –Kirkus Indie

Upload on Amazon“Upload grabbed my attention early on and wouldn’t let go… I loved the way that McClelland projected some of our current problems, on a quite feasible trajectory, into the future. We can all relate to this science fiction.”  –Richard Bunning, Author of Another Space in Time

“This book had me riveted from beginning to end. In Upload, Mark McClelland does what the best science fiction does. He gives the reader an intriguing world in which to consider the big questions, but doesn’t try to answer them directly. Through the main character, Raymond, we explore consciousness and conscience, identity and agency, reality and virtuality. Exquisitely well written and edited, this is a book I’ll come back to again.” – Goodreads review

More information available on Goodreads and Amazon, or right here in the About the Book section.

Personal Challenge: Draft of Next Book Complete By December 31

Today, on my 43 Things profile, I set a personal challenge for myself: to complete the first draft of my next book by the end of the year.  If I fail to achieve my goal, I will give up all non-work-related Internet access for three months.  This seemed like a fitting consequence, given that the most likely thing to distract me from my objective is the Internet.

So, if you enjoyed Upload and you’re hoping for a sequel, get yourself a 43 Things account and cheer me on!

Great Review From Author R.S. Carter

“WOW. I LOVED this book… Upload would be a premium selection for any scifi book club.”

This made my day.  Science-fiction book club readers, take note. 🙂

“I’ve read a number of reviews from people who loved the story and the science-fiction, but hated the protagonist. I LOVED Raymond! Sure, he had his character flaws (and some are very dark), but that what makes him such a perfect character for this story.”

And this made my week!  I really put a lot into writing Raymond, and I knew I was risking disappointment among readers who want a main character who’s likeable and easy to root for.  Reading Carter’s review, I got quite a rush: Raymond finally has a reviewer who loved him as a character, and who’s willing to champion him.  What a joy.

For the entire review, head over to Goodreads.

Upload Among Winners of ForeWord Reviews 2012 Book of the Year Award

botya-2012-winners-announcedBack in March, I posted to say that Upload was a Finalist in Science Fiction for ForeWord Reviews’ 2012 Book of the Year Award.  Well, ForeWord Reviews announced the winners on June 28, and I’m very proud to share my happy news: Upload was among the winners!

This is one of the premier awards for books from small publishers, and especially for self-published books like Upload.

The winners in science fiction include:

State of Union, by Sven Michael Davison
The Samsara Effect, by Paul Black
The Water Thief, by Nicholas Lamar Soutter
Upload, by Mark McClelland (me)

For more info, read the ForeWord Reviews press release, or browse all of the BOTYA award winners.

Short Story in Communications of the ACM

062113_CACMpg112_Where-the-Cross1.large For those of you CS geeks with ACM memberships… check out my short sci-fi story, “Where the Cross-Platform Bends”, in the July issue of Communications of the ACM.

I’m a software developer “by day”. It seems awfully appropriate that my first short story accepted for publication is in a computer-science journal. It has a couple of elements in common with my novel, Upload. And if you’re not familiar with that, you can find out more right here on uploadthenovel.com — see the About the Book section.