The Synchrotron – Book Tour and Giveaway
The End of the World has Never Been This Incompetent!
The Synchrotron
by Rain Hunter
Genre: Science Fiction Comedy
✔️A deadly virus.
✔️A world overrun by monsters.
✔️ Six scientists on a dangerous mission to cure the world.
We are screwed…
They only wanted a Nobel Prize. Instead, they will have to save the world.
It was going to be the experiment of the year. Preparing to blast x-rays through a piece of palladium at the most dazzling European synchrotron, Anna and five of her fellow scientists expected a few hiccups.
Not a horde of hungry spleen-eating zombies.
The world has succumbed to the virus, leaving only scattered survivors.
When Anna and her friends realise that the infected can be cured back into humans, they pledge to find a cure no matter the cost. Equipped with a lab wrench and questionable lab ethics, Team ID26 are humanity’s last hope.
But what is the price of saving the world?
Running out of time, Anna and her friends will face the impossible choices between life and death, morality and cure. When the future of the world is at stake, what will they have to sacrifice?
**Only .99cents!!**
Day 17, 21st of February, Wed
Steve didn’t call back. After I’d checked my phone for the millionth time, Kay patted me on the shoulder and took my phone away for safekeeping. I guess she meant my poor heart, not the phone.
“I heard that’s called ghosting,” Edsie told me.
“I heard that’s called tone-deaf, Edsie,” Kay bit back on my behalf.
Some say there are no heart wounds that a bucket of ice-cream cannot heal. How about treating those with instant noodles?
No?
Our noodle supplies are running dry, and even the chocolate bars we’ve hauled through the Ring back to ID26 won’t last us more than a day or two.
On a positive note, we’ve progressed on the spleen front.
After consulting Google Images, we agreed that the blob we initially identified as the pancreas was the spleen, the key to transforming people into blood-thirsty monsters.
We wrote and attached new labels.
“What do we do with the rest of it?” Tanya asked after we put the spleen aside and packed the other Ali’s organs into plastic sample boxes.
“Bin it. We’ve got the spleen,” said Dan.
“I’ll throw it into the biological waste,” Tanya said, loading the boxes onto a small trolley.
She was going to wheel Ali’s remains back to the wet lab. We could officially rename that wet lab into “Spleen-eaters’ Mortuary”. As one of them, Ali belonged there, too.
“I’ll help you,” said Edsie. “What if you have another seizure?”
Kay, Dan and I stared at them in confused silence while Edsie grabbed the trolley and rolled it out of the hutch. Tanya picked up the hammer and followed him.
Okay. What have I missed?
Since Tanya started taking her meds again, she seemed to be back to her usual self, no issues with her whatsoever, apart from this unexpected feat of helpfulness from Edsie. Had he been bitten?
“What now?” Kay asked after the door closed behind them.
“I don’t know. That’s weird. I’ve never heard him offer help before,” I said.
“No. What do we do with that?” Kay pointed at the chunk of flesh on the workshop table. It smelled rancid and unhealthy. Was it a typical smell of a slowly rotting spleen, or did the presence of the virus make it foul?
“If the virus is in his cells, we should find and isolate it,” I said.
“No shit,” said Dan.
“Microscope?” I suggested.
“We have to cut it very thin for a microscope,” said Kay.
“Not with a knife, I suppose.”
“It’s not a piece of meat, Anna, of course not with a knife. With a microtome. I even know where we can find one,” said Kay.
Quotes from reviewers:
“Like The Martian meets Zombieland—serious survival mixed with dark humour and fast action”
“surprisingly deep for post-apocalyptic science fiction”
“a mix of science, survival, and zombie action with added dark humour, this book will keep you hooked”
“a totally different take on the genre!”
“absolutely loved it!”
“surprisingly robust contemplations on life scattered throughout this fast-paced book”
“Sad. Humorous. Suspenseful.”
What is similar between science and postapocalyptic survival?
Everything that can, will go wrong.”
Rain Hunter is a writer of post-apocalyptic science fiction. Having spent years as a materials researcher, Rain intricately weaves scientific precision into the stories. “I’ve had a fun lab run over the years and might have picked some degrees on the way,” laughs Rain. “But the most important thing for my books is that the science has to be real. No more can-and-know-it-all characters! If I know how to cook meth from baking soda and cough syrup, I won’t be able to start a rocket engine, full stop. Even in fiction!”
Rain is a huge fan of the zombie genre, both in movies and books. “I’d kill to be a zombie extra in a film. Even if they smash my brains out in the first two seconds. Sign me up anytime.”
Dark humour and irony are the main ingredients in Rain’s novels. “I am sure the world will die laughing. That’s what I would do.”
Rain lives in Birmingham (England), which serves as a main inspiration for the goriest post-apocalyptic scenes. In their spare time, Rain plays a harp in the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Nah, not really.
Website * Facebook * Instagram * TikTok * Amazon * Goodreads
About me
I was trained as a materials scientists and intended to pursue a scientific career until I realised that it came with a lot of instability, an unbearable amount of rejection and 25/8 working hours. I still don’t know why some people call it a career (or calling) – it’s more like a punishment. I bet if science was used as an a alternative to prison sentences, the crime rates would go down immediately.
So, I quit, but it might have been too late. Like a bullet you don’t remove quickly enough, it had already found its way to my heart. I got attached to the world of science, and the Synchrotron is a love letter to all the people who I worked with.
They are eccentric, no doubt. But the characters in my book took it even further – they are properly unhinged. Flawed, incompetent, unstable, selfish, but ultimately so full of hope and grit.
I often think back to the Covid era. While we were hiding at home, waiting for the plague to go away, the scientists were working their arses off to make us a vaccine. If a zombie virus ever hit, who would be there to save the world? Probably not some action-hero with bulging biceps. In real life, heroes don’t wear capes. They wear lab coats and sleep twice per month.
About The Synchrotron
The Synchrotron is a book full of a batshit humour and questionable life choices. Hopefully, it will make you think, too. Would you eat your colleague? Would you throw your friend into a gas chamber? Would you test a new drug on yourself if you know you’re most likely to die from it? What would you do? How would you live with your life choices?
It also touches on the reality of academia – the misogyny, the abuse and exploitation of junior members, the retention of twats, sorry, useless senior academics who occupy space. Lots of early readers have asked me – why the heck don’t they fire Edsie if he’s such an idiot? Are you guys in the US? Guess what, employment laws in Europe are tough shit.
Some of early readers have also asked me if the characters in the Synchrotron were inspired by real people. Of course they were! But the characters do not equal real people. In real life, people rarely go from street life to lab (like Dan) or from total dickhead to a somewhat decent human being (like Edsie).
Not in the timeframe of one lifetime ☹
Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!
July 7
Kickoff at Silver Dagger Book Tours
July 8
Sybrina’s Book Blog – GUEST POST
Book Bites….with a side of coffee
July 9
FUONLYKNEW – GUEST POST
☼ A Place In The Spotlight ☼ with M.C.V. EGAN
July 10
Karen J.Mossman – World of Stories – GUEST POST
The Dungeon Crawlers – GUEST POST
Books all things paranormal and romance
July 11
Nina Soden #TheRedheadedAuthor – GUEST POST
Wolf Moon Crafts YouTube channel
Inside the Insanity – GUEST POST
July 12
Stormy Nights Reviewing & Bloggin’
July 13
Tina Donahue Books – Heat with Heart
July 14
Looks very exciting Do you write in a daily journal?
I like the cover and excerpt. Thanks for sharing!
Cool cover
Thank you Terri! I love it. Putting the C and H as elements was my husband's idea :)
This sounds like a great read
Way too far fetched for my usual tastes, the wildest Genre I go for are the fake survival shows on television.
Sounds like a great read.
I love the cover and the excerpt and I look forward to reading this book
I hope you like it!
Hope the book does awesome!
I'm fully expecting it to pay off my mortgage by the next year :) wait, what? What is a "DE-LU-SIO-NAL?"
Yeah, I have a horrible sense of humour, sorry
I like the cover
Sounds like a great read.
Looks like a good read
The book sounds really great.
I like the book details.
I enjoyed the excerpt; I hope to get a chance to read it :)
Get it! Get it! Get it!
and leave a review! Review! Review! (to pronounce in a special "brains" manner)
This sounds like a really interesting story.
The science fiction with biting humor thrown in sounds interesting to read.
What is the difference between a chemical lab and the zombie Apocalypse?
The lab folks get a little better after coffee.
Sounds very promising and I hope it does very good.
I enjoyed the excerpt. Thank you
Hush. There is more where it came from.
Awesome
This is the perfect book for me and I had to check it out as I love the cover!
I hope the insides live up to your expectations 🧟🧟🧟
I like everything about this book - genre cover & title!
Thank you for sharing the excerpt.
I love a good comedy read.
This is bloody hilarious! Mostly bloody!
How do you connect your emotions to your story?
very nice cover
Looks a good read
Sounds like a fabulous read.
The book sounds like a fun adventure! Thank you for the excerpt & your guest post! :)
Great cover!
Sounds like a really interesting read.
Looks like a very interesting read! The details make me want it to be my next read. No questions for the author.
This sounds like an interesting book and I also like the cover.
The book sounds very intriguing. I love the cover. Very effective!
I enjoyed the guest post. Thank you for the giveaway!
Sounds like a really great read.
The combination of genres is interesting and I liked the excerpt .
interesting
Like the title - looks like an interesting book
I love reading books with humor.
This sounds like a great read for the summer. I am loving the cover too. Sounds like one that will keep me reading all night for sure!
looks like a fun one.
Looking forward to reading this book
Interesting story.
sounds like a great book
"End of the world"- I don't know if my nerves can take it, but I'd give it a read, lol
sound good cant wait to read it