Well, you might think it’s a da Vinci Code knockoff, but Mike Luoma’s debut title, Vatican Assassin, is squarely in the realm of science fiction:
BERNARD CAMPION’S friends call him “BC”. Not that he has a lot of friends. You don’t make a lot of friends when you’re an assassin. His mission: eliminate the governor of Luna Prime, Meredith McEntyre. His bosses, The Office of Papal Operations: The OPO, tell him she’s been sympathizing with the enemy, the Universal Islamic Nation (UIN). His boss? BC works for the Pope. It’s 2109, a time of war. BC is ‘officially’ assigned as PR man to the Vatican Mission on Luna Prime, the major city on The Moon, as his cover. Just a mild mannered, young, twenty-something priest working for the New catholic Church on public relations. But he’s really a weapon pointed at the UIN by the NcC and their Earth based allies, the Universal Trade Zone, the UTZ.
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August 23rd, 2007 at 12:58 pm
subscribed ro the book, episodes won’t download at least through itunes
August 24th, 2007 at 8:22 am
[…] Vatican Assassin Habs sofort abonniert… Ich meine ein Killer im Jahre 2109 der für den Papst arbeitet und das auf dem Mond - whuff… (tags: Podiobook) […]
August 28th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
Hi Lee,
On your subscriptions page, change the Feed Update drop down to “Every Day”; then click the Change button. Finally, click on the “Release All Episodes Now”.
Once that’s done, you should be able to download the episodes via iTunes - I had the same problem with my subscription to this Podiobook, and the steps above resolved the problem
Cheers,
Gary Hicks
August 28th, 2007 at 1:04 pm
But keep in mind, Gary, that this option will do exactly what you have said: set the listener up on a daily schedule and release every chapter immediately. That’s not always how folks want to enjoy the book.
New subscriptions work just fine without doing any of that. Subscribe to the book, add it to iTunes (or any podcatcher), and things should just work fine, sending one episode per week to the listener. Easy as pie.
September 11th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
Why is this story getting such a low mark? I think it’s pretty interesting and a pretty fun listen so far, it got me interested enough to continue until the end. Not saying it doesn’t have it’s weaknesses, but all stories have a few weak points.
September 11th, 2007 at 10:03 pm
Tim,
The best way to change rankings is to place a fair ranking on the title, then tell all of your friends who you think might enjoy the title. Get them to listen, and if they like it, rank the book fairly. Remember that only subscribers to a book can provide rankings!
September 12th, 2007 at 8:57 am
Evo, I was really surprised that two people gave it such low ranking, I think it was at one and a half stars before I ranked it. I thought “wow, the story isn’t that bad!” and since there were no comments I couldn’t figure out why. Just wondering how a good story, well at least one I’m enjoying, could get such low marks. I hope the others who listen and like it will give it the ranking it deserves.
September 20th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
Hey Tim, thanks for the kind words about the book!
“Vatican Assassin” has been a long time in the making. I wrote the original short story, which survives in a vastly different form as much of Chapters Two and Three of the book, about 17 years ago. A future history followed, and a major expansion of the story, and it slowly became the book you hear now. Or, rather, part of it became this book.
“Vatican Assassin” is the first part of a trilogy. I released the sequel, “Vatican Ambassador” earlier this year. I’m writing book three right now. Well, not exactly right now, as I’m writing this bit…
If you are listening to my book, I’d like to encourage you to give it a rating. How you rate it is, naturally, up to you. I hope you’re enjoying it!
I’m open to discussing the book here, and any questions you might have. Once again, thanks for listening!
September 24th, 2007 at 7:18 am
Hey Mike, I’ve all ready rated it and when I get done listening I’ll give you my full opinion! I don’t like to write reviews until the work is finished.
The history of the story is interesting, I had a similar experience writing The Arwen, which was a short story called “Runaway comet at Regal Prime” a title I hated, BTW. It’s always great when you look at a short story and say “you know, this is good, this is really good, maybe I can expand on it” then, when you do, you’re like “wow, this is better!”
Any plans on a special episode where you read the short story so we can hear how much has changed?
November 19th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
I like the story quite a bit. Few authors have the courage to write about a religeous topic in other than glowing words. I do have 2 problems though. First the narration style is quite breezy and , for me, detracts from the story. Secondly, the screenplay style of the story is a put off for me. Maybe just me but continually having decsriptions such as “he arrrives” rather than “he arrived” is irritating keeping me from really getting into the story and giving a better rating.
November 19th, 2007 at 5:57 pm
So, I fell in love with podcast novels about a year ago after randomly discovering Cory Doctorow readings. After I caught up on his works, I’ve had a really hard time finding decent sci-fi/fantasy novels. I downloaded Vatican Assassin because, in all honesty, I was completely desperate.
At first, the novel really didn’t seem like my kind of story and if I didn’t listen to podiobooks while working on my art projects, I don’t think I would have listened the entire way through. Well somehow, I have become completely addicted to this story. The style of narration is a bit difficult to become adjusted to, but the author does a create job of distinguishing characters with his voice, and making sure you understand the situation.
I think the only thing Im upset about is, when I downloaded it, I believed the entire story concluded in those 23 podcast downloads… Now I have another podcast I have to agonize every week waiting for.
Well, Mike. I definitely have to say you have done a good job :).
December 2nd, 2007 at 9:38 am
Thank you, Alina. And you too, Keith. I appreciate the feedback! “Vatican Assassin” has 31 Chapters. I’m uploading four more today. Unless something dire happens, the final four will be up before the end of the year, you have my promise.
Although, I should caution you that “Vatican Assassin” is the first book in a trilogy… “Vatican Ambassador” (the sequel) is out now in paperback. I’m currently recording chapters in the hope that the kind folks here at Podiobooks will allow me to continue the story here as well.
I’m writing the 2nd draft of the third book right now. Hope to have it out in the spring of 2008. Another V.A. title (at least so far), “Vatican Abdicator”.
This story was a long time in the telling, as the background foundations for a science fiction tale have to be created instead of researched. One of the choices that I made early on was to tell the story in the present tense, what Keith has identified as “screenplay style”. Many of my acting friends echo your sentiments on the style, Keith, although they didn’t seem to mind. Sorry to hear it’s off-putting for you.
Thank you for sticking with it, Alina. I hope you enjoy the rest of the story!
Mike
December 3rd, 2007 at 2:19 pm
Productive weekend… I’ve uploaded the rest of “Vatican Assassin”, so the rest of the book should be appearing soon. I’ve also just finished the 2nd draft of the third book! Just wanted to keep you up to date.
December 5th, 2007 at 11:03 pm
Just finished the book and was surprised to learn it is the first in a trilogy. Normally religious sorts of books aren’t my thing and religious sci-fi is just a bit odd so wasn’t sure how it would go.
After finishing listening to the final episodes last night I’ve come to the conclusion that it wasn’t too bad. In fact I’m hoping the second and third books eventually make it to podcast form so I can listen to them here. The narration style is a bit odd as one commenter mentioned. Lots of internal voice, dialog, and narration all rolled into one, but it works.
The story itself moves along nicely, there isn’t too much filler getting in the way although in some places there could certainly be more back story and detail added to develop the characters.
Overall though a real surprise for me as it turned out to be a rather enjoyable listen and leaves me wanting more.
December 12th, 2007 at 1:05 am
Mike;
Vatican Assassin is truly a fascinating story. As has been mentioned, the mixture of internal monologue, first person and exposition is a gutsy mix. In spite of the challenges inherent in this approach, you manage to pull it off quite well.
My only kvetch? Welp… I’ve never heard such a headlong, 140 MPH, red line, my-hair-is-on-fire narrative style. As I listen, I find myself running out of breath and/or wondering if Nick-the-Face stands behind you with a large gun and a stopwatch.
Would you, could you slow your roll just a wee bit?
Thanks!
December 12th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Made me chuckle, Jeff…
Don’t tell Nick you figured out where he is or he won’t put out my hair!
Thanks for the kind words and constructive criticism. I’m currently recording episodes for book two, “Vatican Ambassador”, which is coming soon, and will certainly take your request to heart. I come from the world of radio and commercial production, where often the need is to cram as many words into :30 or :60 as possible (not for the good ads, but you know how few of those there are). As I embarked on creating the podcast, I think I got a little edit-happy, reflecting my background, and Ta-Da! the headlong approach you mention was born.
I plan on breathing more in book two.
Mike
December 16th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
Got good news from Evo… the sequel to “Vatican Assassin”, “Vatican Ambassador” goes live this Wednesday, December 19th! The adventures of BC continue…
We’ll pick up the action about 3 months after the end of “Vatican Assassin”… see you there?
April 1st, 2008 at 6:09 pm
I have to agree with Jeff: Slow down! Breathe! I feel like my player is playing the audio at 1.5x!
Now to a less humorous comment: I don’t care what the church does in the future, but I am sure that their dialog would not be so “jaunty”. Even when discussing events of some “gravity” they seem to be enjoying themselves and be joking, somehow I don’t think that assassins and their employees would be so lighthearted.
Other than that the story line has potential.
April 3rd, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Hi Woody!
Learning from one’s mistakes is what it’s all about. I hope you’ll keep going with Vatican Assassin if you’re still listening to it. It gets better! I have to admit, I cringe now when I go back and listen to my earliest episodes… the read was fast, and my editing made it even faster. As I wrote before, my day job is in radio (pointfm.com) here in Vermont. Learning the proper pace took some “unlearning” on my part.
One more thing? Vatican Assassin was my first novel, and my writing (I think!) has improved as I’ve worked at it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still very proud of Vatican Assassin, and it is the start of the trilogy, but I believe Vatican Ambassador is a better book and a better podcast. The book has been out almost a year now, but the podcast is ongoing. I’m still reading the chapters week by week. If you think the storyline has promise, I hope you’ll continue into book two. You may even find some explanation for things that seem, well, “jaunty” right now.
Thanks for checking out the podcast!
Mike
August 2nd, 2008 at 3:40 pm
News flash from Mike…
Just a quick note to let you know the third book in the VATICAN ASSASSIN Trilogy, “Vatican Abdicator”, will be going live here on Podiobooks.com thic coming Friday, August 8th!
Mike Luoma
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:33 pm
I am not a fan of science fiction, yet I found myself looking forward to my 45 minute drive to and from work just so I could listen to more of The Vatican Assassin. Sure, Luoma could read a little slower, and maybe some of the dialogue didn’t fit the gravity of the situation to a tee, but the plot was excellent, the book moved at a good pace, and it kept me glued to it until I finished, and popped “Vatican Ambassador” into the player. Very well done indeed. I’m looking forward to a whole lot more from this author - he’s a winner for sure.
August 26th, 2008 at 7:23 am
Wow, Paul, thank you so much for the kind words! Hope you get the chance to listen to the rest of the trilogy. “Vatican Ambassador” is complete, and “Vatican Abdicator” is live now, with new chapters every week. Hope I can live up to your expectations as the story rolls on!
Mike
September 9th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Hey, we just cracked a thousand!! According to the Podiobooks.com “author tools”, we’ve just passed 1000 subscribers to “Vatican Assassin”! Thank you, everybody, for listening to my book. I do hope you’ll continue on through “Vatican Ambassador” and “Vatican Abdicator”, also available through Podiobooks.com!
I’ve also just made “Vatican Assassin” available for the “Kindle” over at Amazon.com. They wouldn’t let me make it free, so I charged 99 cents for it, the minimum I could. I’m still trying to get my stuff out there, and I want you to be able to get your hands on my books easily. Naturally, it’s my hope that if you like the book, you might buy a hard copy. And you can do so through Lulu.com as well as Amazon. Should you care to…
http://stores.lulu.com/mikeluoma
November 28th, 2008 at 9:39 am
I’ve just put together a special 3 in 1 hardcover, omnibus edition of the entire “Vatican Assassin” Trilogy! You can now get all three books - Vatican Assassin, Vatican Ambassador and Vatican Abdicator - together with an Appendix including my world-building material - timelines, future history, outlines - all under one cover for $35.99. This 3 in 1 is a special edition available for a limited time through my website (a similar edition sells on Amazon for $50). Head on over to http://glowinthedarkradio.com and get your copy today!
I’m trying to get news about a new edition of the Trilogy out, so I’m posting this under all three books comments’ - sorry if this is repeated information for you!