Sometimes Fatal Events Have Occurred: a novel

by John Sheppard

In an alt-history 1990’s, an obscure artist on the brink of death is visited by an eccentric billionaire scientist, who saves his life. Part romance, part science fiction and all farce, Sometimes Fatal Events Have Occurred is a sequel to After the Jump (2015) and a prequel to Explosive Decompression (2016).

262 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 24, 2017

About the author

A veteran of the U.S. Army, John Sheppard's short stories have appeared in Bridge magazine, the2ndhand and Exquisite Corpse. He is a frequent contributor to ParagraphLine.com and B2L2.com.

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love all the Audrey Novak books. This one is no exception, bringing a small amount of the raw heartbreak of Small Town Punk to Novak's inventively fascinating and entertaining science fiction world. I could read her all day, a perfect character in her mix of strong powerhouse with kiddishness, and this one especially. Loved it. Loved it from beginning to end.

[Nichole Streeter · Rating 5 out of 5]

With a title like 'Sometimes Fatal Events Have Occurred:' I was surprised to find this book was not only action packed but filled with humor. I was pleasantly surprised to find this was not an extremely depressing book given it was about a dying man. The entire story centers around nanotechnology that ends up saving the mans life which comes to him by way of an interesting woman with a shot. Surely enough his brain cancer is cured and the book goes on to elaborate that the technology was from the future. The woman was a time traveler of sorts, visiting her earlier self to influece future events. This isn't immediately apparent, and takes some time to be revealed, which works for the story perfectly.

Imagine if you could go back to your younger self and influence the course of future events. The premise is just extremely cool, but written in a casual way so that it does not come across as being written over your head. It all makes sense, like good science fiction should. It is entertaining, well crafted and down to earth, that is the best way to describe this novel.

I'm not usually big on science fiction, but I really enjoyed this book. It has strong main and supporting characters. The characters are realistic, and three dimensional. They could be people you know. I give this book five stars and highly recommend it.

[Pegboard · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Sheppard brings an interesting novel about a scientist and her foster brother who time travel by transmitting their mind back in time. This can get quite confusing when you have several different versions of yourself in one body telling you what to do. But on the plus side as a scientist you are able to advance your knowledge, create incredible inventions, and save the world from invading aliens.
Audrey takes a liking to the artist Buzz Pepper because his paintings don’t make her feel so lonely. When she finds out he has a malignant brain tumor she decides to find a cure to fix him. After signing him out of the hospital they take a route to North Dakota, only to be attacked by her own weapons.
I love the humor and fast pace of this novel, Sometimes Fatal Events have Occurred. Audrey has odd phobias for being so smart. Bobby seems a bit jumbled with all his thoughts colliding in his head. And Buzz, Joseph Pepper, ends up time traveling to save Audrey’s life, even though he promised her he would never do that.

[LyndaVee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This quirky title really is indicative of the contents of the book, which is highly original and defies any sort of categorisation. It could be a sci-fi adventure, a love story, an alternate history, a tragedy, a farce – you’ll just have to read it for yourself to find out! I always love alternate histories and therefore particularly enjoyed this element of the book. This time the 1990’s are rewritten and the world is run by an incredibly powerful geek called Audrey. She is an endearing character and is only concerned with saving the human race from itself, a vision which has included substituting real bullets with a non-fatal variety for use in warfare. One funny thing I liked was that the enemy of the USA in this story is France!