Interview with sci-fi fantasy author Michael Leon

Today’s special guest is sci-fi fantasy romance author Michael Leon. He’s on tour with his new novel, Chandelier.

During his virtual book tour, Michael will be giving away a $50 Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice) gift card. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit his other tour stops and enter there, too!

Bio:
Michael Leon is an explorer, writer and author of the new novel, Sentient. Professionally trained in international trade, Michael has spent the last decade reading and writing SFF novels about new worlds to be explored in the future. His latest work, Sentient, imagines Earth in the year 2120. His next novel, Chandelier, will be released in 2022. Michael has travelled extensively around Europe, walking the paths of his characters, from the famous European opera houses in Phantoms to the mountain tops of Switzerland in Emissary.

Blurb about Chandelier:
Chandelier is the genre-bending sci-fi/fantasy-romance novel follow up of Michael Leon’s 2019 fantasy-romance book, Phantoms. A century has passed since the fabled Phantom ruled the Garnier Opera House. Technology has advanced, and AI has evolved beyond human knowledge. They reside in a virtual Earth, free from the ravages of an environmentally damaged Earth where humans and post-humans live under AI’s qualified governance. Chandelier follows one AI sentient’s journey, Benny, whose loyalty for a famous opera singer, Madame D’Arenberg, sets him on a dangerous course, entangling him in The Phantom of the Opera’s deadly web.

Excerpt from Chandelier:
The twilight between tired revellers and early morning risers had become Erik’s refuge, a place where the pains of past and present could coalesce in his ritual of the macabre. He’d dreamt of his tormentors again, beasts controlled by masters who understood their canine’s savagery as intimately as a mother knew her child and recurring nightly, taunting his mind.

Chilly breezes flowed down from the Lepontine Alps, carving patterns across Lake Como, so he drew his coat closer, protecting all but his face, but he wouldn’t feel an arctic breeze there. He touched his pale cheeks, not to warm them for they were permanently cold, an immovable party mask. Instead, he felt the rough texture of the implanted skin, grafted to his face. Habitually, he reached into his coat pocket for a medicated ointment that soothed and camouflaged his face in equal measure.

A single boat predictably made its way toward the Bellagio port, the first for the day, in wait for the steady procession of commuters and tourists that would navigate the Lombardy region, Italy’s foothills to the Swiss alps. The light from the slow-moving boat cast a darker than usual spotlight on the famous U-shaped lake, lit by its twin light, a crescent moon. It took Erik back to a dark past when he ruled the Garnier from the recesses of its famous lake chamber. His rule was cut short through carelessness, a mistake he would not repeat. He’d return to the jewel of the opera crown and rule that grand world again, but this time he’d lead it from the stage rather than Garnier’s hidden lake.

Were similar dark secrets contained in the black depths of Lake Como? The thought made him grimace, drawing pain. He held his mouth and cheeks, soothing the scar lines camouflaged beneath a thick beard. The scars, like his name, Erik, were all that remained of his past life, contingencies needed to protect him from those who’d seek to destroy him.

What can the readers expect from you next?
Once I publish Chandelier in early 2022, I plan to re-edit two earlier novels I wrote and publish them as second editions.

Cubeball will be the first. I printed it in 2016. It followed the exploits of a cubeball (think digital snooker played on 3D cubes rather than the traditional 2D felt tables). Cubeball is about a gifted ex-national champion and a savant with a computer-like mind, compete against the world’s best in the 22nd century’s most popular sport – cubeball – the chess-like, technology-enhanced snooker of the future where gambling, drugs and massive audiences dominate the world’s stage.

Another novel – Emissary – I wrote in 2017. It dealt with the physics related to multiverse theory. I would enjoy revisiting the research to see if there have been any advances in the field and then update the story and republish it as a second edition. Emissary tells the tale of Vincent, a scientist plagued with nightmares since childhood. Mental illness and drug addiction followed in adulthood, demons he thought he overcame. They return, but this time the demons at very real, so Vincent must unravel the secrets of his past with the help of his colleagues, Ella and an ever-guarded Constantine, who ultimately reveal their other-world origins. This fast-paced novel follows the exploits of the three as they traverse Europe. Along the way, Vincent must master new abilities that will change his perception of reality while fleeing real monsters from the past that pursue him.

If that goes well, I may edit and review a manuscript I never published, called Extinction, the story of the third great extinction threatening human civilization. This fantasy novel crosses between the last significant threat, 75,000 years earlier and the looming threat that may happen in our lifetime.

Watch this space!

Links:
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