Hey there, great reading list ahead!
1. Tell us a bit about yourself
I am French and I live in France. My house sits outside a small village up in the Alps, next to the mountain forest. I am now retired. I used to be financial controller for the european subs of american multinationals, in the high tech sector.
I live alone, with my belgian shepherd, Ragnar, who seems to think I am an acceptable boss.
Like I always point out in every beta reader introduction post, I have no service history but since I practiced a lot of scuba diving in remote places, a bit of sky diving, some regular competion shooting, I met and got friendly with some hardcore spec ops NCOs (one was my diving buddy for many years). Their experiences and my lifelong interest in human behavior under stress drew me to FX Holden stories.
These last years, I slowed down on the mountaineering activities (I used to be a group leader in the Swiss Alpine Club) and got more involved at the range with my shooting club.
2. What books and authors apart from FX Holden do you enjoy or recommend?
I enjoy military technothrillers and am currently into post apocalytic thrillers, but it changes over time. Over the years, I did enjoy the following books and FX Holden books, of course.
- The last good man Linda Nagata
- Pacific storm Linda Nagata
- Murderbot »serie Martha Wells
- Old man’s War » serie John Scalzi
- Les Bienveillantes by Jonathan Littell
- Le Chemin de Jérusalem (Arn Magnusson Series) by Jan Guillou
- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
- World War Z by Max Brooks
- REDCON ONE by Galen Peterson
- Tom Clancy Books Collection by Tom Clancy
- Team Yankee by Harold Coyle
- Kill Decision by Daniel Suarez
- Arkady Renko Series by Martin Cruz Smith
- Sapiens et le climat: Une histoire bien chahutée by Olivier Postel-Vinay
- Burn-In: A Novel of the Real Robotic Revolution by P.W. Singer & August Cole
- Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel's Targeted Assassinations by Ronen Bergman
- Warrior: An Autobiography by Ariel Sharon
- Neandertal, mon frère: 300 000 ans d'histoire de l'homme by Silvana Condemi & François Savatier
- Armies of Sand: The Past, Present, and Future of Arab Military Effectiveness by Kenneth M. Pollack
- The Modern Mercenary: Private Armies and What They Mean for World Order by Sean McFate
- Ma vie sur le fil by Reinhold Messner
3. What was the first FX Holden novel you were beta reader for?
I think it was « Swarm ». Damn good one.
4. You have given input on several FX Holden books, what do you enjoy about it?
I like working on a book that is full of « well-researched 'future tech'; interesting character development, characters who move across books, i.e., they show up again; intriguing and somewhat complicated plotlines » like beta reader Julie Fenimore puts it. As a beta reader, when I spot something that is not historically or technically accurate, I can signal it. Sometimes, I even suggest some changes in a character or the story. To my surprise, FX Holden argues, but takes our remarks into account, even changing parts of the story .
And, of course, having a preview of a new book is always nice. Having the feeling of improving it is even nicer.
5. Are there downsides to being a beta reader?
The timeline is always a problem. We have a relatively short time to read the project. The FB beta reader-only page lists what the others have spotted, so we try not to repeat the same remarks. I am always impressed by the technical knowledge of the subject some people show. And so far, no one has rudely argued, like it is so frequent on social medias. It also means we have to read the book twice if we want to know the final version.
6. What book(s) is/are next on your To Be Read pile?
« Blue Shield 2 Dnipro » FX Holden, if only to see the changes from the beta reader draft
« Defiant » FX Holden
« Nexus » Yuval Noah Harari, which I should have read long ago and which is becoming everyday more like a diary of today, with the LLM AI software becoming more unruly and selfconscious.
7. What's with the picture?
That is my avatar on FB. But it is a good picture of what my malinois is and of my life.