Image acquired from the Internet Hive Mind
This is an important thing to remember when writing humorous stories, whether funny characters, humorous situations, parody of genre, or any of a number of different LOL aspects of writing. Punch up when punching up the laughs.
Well, the new TikTok Overlords (the Americans) have finally managed to sour the platform for me.
I was willing to continue to play though my views on the algorithm throttled back from 500 to 300 to 100 and finally to the 10 range. But the new AI-Remix feature, AUTOMATICALLY TURNED ON on every.single.one of my posts – bookquotes, me doing politics, silly stuff, embroidery etc. is an absolutely NO! This remix feature isn’t just giving people permission to post part of my video in a rebuttal or to duet it. Those create the SOCIAL media portion of content creation and is an understandable feature even if I don’t use it much.
The worst part is they are not saying what the AI Remix is. Guesses are below.
If you are playing over there still – To turn it off, go to the three dots on the bottom of your video and scroll about half way through the bottom list until you hit privacy settings. The third item there is AI Remix – it is automatically turned on. (And will be turned on with any future posts created too.) Every one of these (at the moment) have to be turned off individually.
I have just hit over 1,000 posts on April 14. I’ve been playing there nearly three years. My counts sometimes hit over 1,000 but mostly have been in the 10-20 range since the Overlord changeover.
Guesses for AI Remix: Official training on your face and voice by AI (with PERMISSION because you didn’t turn it off); allow others to “remix” you – your image – your words – with content either changing what you look like or what you said; Adding bits into your video – through TT add ons, etc. We have seen what people without ethics do with AI, now imagine with “official” permission in place.
I should have stopped playing over there a long time ago, since it add absolutely nothing to my brand, but I loved mixing music and words and special effects. I had so much fun! Today (4/21) was my last TT post and I’ve removed everything with my face in it.
Your mileage may vary, but I don’t have the time to turn off all the AI “sign-ups”, nor remember it going forward with each posting. I still have youtube, facebook (author page), a website and pinterest. I’m active in goodreads, bookbud, and storygraph. I guess with this social media loss I will finally have time to do a substack newsletter.
Welcome A-to-Z crowd. Once a month, I review a series. I guess I could have cheated and just said “R is for Review”, but instead I want to push R is for L.L. Richman. The author is an amazing hard science fiction author, specializing in military techno spy thrillers in space with special forces. This is the second of their series I have reviewed. See also Book Review (SERIES): Vision Rising (6/18/2024).
Now back to our normally scheduled blog.
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This is a bundle of the first three books of the Biogenesis War includes The Chiral Agent, The Chiral Protocol, and Chiral Justice following the life of mirror clones Micah and Jonathan as they deal with the Alliance and Akkadia fighting a spy and science cold war, mirroring actions with opposite spins of democracy and authoritarianism.
Where space opera mixes with hard science with a sprinkling of medical thriller and political spy drama mixed in, this multi-POV series will keep you turning the pages.
I have reviewed the books separately below. Considered as a series, I enjoyed these good military science fiction books individually and as a unit. It is best read in order.
The Biogenesis War by L.L. Richman
Book 1: The Chiral Agent
Book 2: The Chiral Protocol
Book 3: Chiral Justice
Related – The Biogenesis War Files: Ambush in the Sargon Straits
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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for THE CHIRAL AGENT
WINNER OF THE 2021 Reader’s Favorite Book Award for Science Fiction
First, they stole his identity. Now, they want him dead.
Shadow Recon pilot Micah Case awakens above an alien world, with no memory of his past and a mysterious voice inside his head. Worse, his own military is hunting him… and he has no idea why.
His genetic code could destroy all life.
The voice leads to a discovery so unbelievable, enemy nations would kill to control it — to control him. Now, Micah must use every skill in his arsenal to secure the stolen research.
The stakes are impossibly high, but failure is not an option. The alternative could mean the extinction of a people Micah can no longer call his own. Humanity.
THE CHIRAL AGENT is a fast-paced, cerebral thriller that’s part hard science fiction, part spy novel, and one hundred percent adrenaline. It’s sure to keep you guessing every step of the way.
MY REVIEW for THE CHIRAL AGENT
The science behind Chiral has always interested me. While the author, L.L. Richman, concentrates on the fiction and military part of the science-fiction military genre, the base for the science-fiction element has a solid reality.
But first and foremost, this is a science-fiction spy thriller – we wake up in a morgue about to be incinerated with our hero and keep moving from there. I really enjoyed the ride.
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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for THE CHIRAL PROTOCOL
An Alliance asset is found brutally murdered, a deadly biomaterial stolen, and their top scientist kidnapped.
Shadow Recon pilot Micah Case is the only human in existence immune to the viral weapon the Akkadian Empire would unleash on the settled worlds.
It’s up to him to stop them — before millions die.
MY REVIEW for THE CHIRAL PROTOCOL
Chiral Protocol starts by leaping into the fire, then enters a whirlwind when stellar politics and intrigue take over. The Biogenesis War includes bioweapons and all the devastation that entails. The story can be hard to follow as there are three theatres of action: the kidnapped scientist, the political summit, and a cruise ship. But each of far flung location is entangled with the others at a quantum level, needing to be resolved by our heroic Chiral pairing: Jonathan and Micah – plus a ferret and a large dark cat.
Where secrets meet, the microscopic spins everything around. This science-fiction techno thriller delivers on the science, the fiction, and the thriller.
Content Warning: Plague Ship.
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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for CHIRAL JUSTICE
* 2023 International Book Award Finalist for Science Fiction *
Old enemies never die.
The unthinkable has happened: an Akkadian assassin has helped broker peace between her star nation and the Alliance. Micah Case and Task Force Blue watch the peace talks with guarded optimism—but they know one thing the rest of the settled worlds don’t.
Clint Janus has vanished with the Alliance’s most closely-held secret.
And Micah Case holds the key.
Janus is now allied with Akkadia’s new premier, Asher Dent, and the man is not as peace-loving as he might seem.
It’s going to be up to Micah Case and Task Force Blue to prevent Dent from achieving that which he wants most: total space supremacy over all the settled worlds.
MY REVIEW for CHIRAL JUSTICE
The action-packed conclusion of the Biogenesis War delivers on everything which has gone before. Asher Dent now controls Akkadia, and plans to keep it that way. Pascal now has access to steaks and plans to keep it that way. Micah now has a date with Sam and plans to keep it.
But Clint Janus has disappeared, interfering with some of those plans and helping others. By the end of the mission, politicians will race in the sky, cats will walk on water, and a Chiral will die. Nanotechnology, political intrigue, desert prisons, cloaked spaceships – this exciting series is where hard science meets military space opera. Be prepared to have your molecules spin in a different direction.
While Chiral Justice could be read as a stand-alone, don’t cheat yourself out of maximum enjoyment of this sci-fi goodness. Start with The Chiral Agent and work your way through the whole series.
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BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for AMBUSH IN THE SARGON STRAITS
It should have been a simple extraction.
Rumors of unrest have caused the Alliance to recall its consulate stationed on the Khufu torus. Elodie Cyr and SRU Team Five are there to ensure it happens smoothly.
But the intelligence geeks’ estimates were wrong — way wrong — and Ell and the team are in for the fight of their lives.
PLEASE NOTE: This is a 13,000-word, 75 page novelette in the Biogenesis War Files series.
MY REVIEW for AMBUSH IN THE SARGON STRAITS
A novella/short story from a series of three novels and four short stories/novella – I picked this one while free and it delivered enough I found the series in a package deal and picked it up.
Standard military science-fiction faire, at least to start. War is brewing on the horizon and an air-force/land-force special-forces mix is sent to extract the consulate from the disputed territory before the war comes over the horizon. In this case, the “air-force” crew a very small space ship and the extraction team has to exfiltrate the consulate from a colony-sized space station. Their sovereign planet, while allied with one side, is not actively part of the coming hostilities nor wants to precipitate the conflict. Problems start when the brewing aggression reaches boiling during the operation. All your favorite tropes delivered in a small package.
80% of the kindle edition is devoted to the short story and 20% is a teaser from the first novel of the Biogenesis War.
Image acquired from the Internet Hive Mind
Okay, it is a Monday, but the point stands.
Another quote I have seen (paraphrase) – if you always give your best, it becomes your average.
You don’t, can’t, and shouldn’t always give 100%, because then there is nothing left for you; nothing left to recharge from. If you eat 100% of the grain, there is nothing to plant for the next harvest. Keep something back so you can grow.
“Now try a little lighting, see if you can hit that yacht’s mast,” Storm Front encouraged his daughter while he manipulated the wind to pile the water into the pier area. It was tricky to keep it in the million-dollar area and leave the boaties’ docks safe, still he managed to sink one of the overpriced penis replacements and his SCUBA minions were salvaging the wreck below the water.
His six-year-old screwed up her face concentrating. Usually, her powers were stored behind a FireWall Collar™ for good reason, but she had been working hard for the last month on control since they signed up for “Take your daughter to work day”. On Friday she would need to present her day in front of a class of first graders.
“Remember static goes bottom to top then top to bottom.”
When the sonic boom thunder announced her success, the villain jumped midair beside the wharf warehouse where he had installed her as chewing gum and flying was a little much for her young brain. Below the yacht became little more than kindling. Not the best for robbery, but an amazing feat. Under his proud pappa praise of her success, his daughter glowed.
(words 200; first published 4/19/2026)