I am truly honoured to have been amongst the Sci Fi November 2014 participants who could showcase a science fiction release as well as host the author of one of the books I felt I might appreciate reading down the road! I was given a list of authors, many of whom I did not recognise by sight and asked by Andrea (@redhead5318) to pick out a top favourite list and she would pair me with an author who was not yet selected to be hosted by a SFN blogger! Here is the short list I sent to her after visiting & reading each author on the list:
Benjanun Sriduangkaew (site) – I have seen her novella Scalebright around the book blogosphere a heap lately, and I just read the Book Smugglers review on Kirkus & another review on TOR. I’m sold. I love seeing the combination of mythology and lore into the fabric of a well-crafted fantasy novel and this being a short sounds sublime! :)
Julie E. Czerneda (site) – Oh, my! I love how she writes both sci-fi & fantasy! :) Her world-building is the kind I’ve been hunting for to discover and I love her approach to which stories she’s bringing into focus!
Siobhan Davies (site) – I know True Calling is a bit outside what I generally read but I like that about it. I like remaining open to finding authors who are outside my comfort zone
Cecil Castellucci (site) – I have been wanting to get back into Space Opera & Space centered sci-fi for quite a bit now, and when I read the premise of Stone in the Sky & Tin Star, I must say, I enjoyed where this was leading!
There wasn’t an order of preference to the way in which I wrote the list, as I simply went from the top to the bottom, and wrote down a few notes or observations therein! One of the best blessings of this event, is how we can expand our knowledge of authors and stories to further our readings within the genre itself! I love the discovery period of finding wicked new characters and new worlds to explore whilst seeking out authors who not only cultivate a strongly built world but they give us something to ponder outside the stellar fact we’re travelling to a whole new dimension within the framework of science-based worlds!
I love reading stories which stitch inside a life lesson or a moral stimulating plot which leaves you pensive after you’ve concluded the story itself. Science Fiction and Sci-Fantasy (as I had a sub-focus this year on the blurred lines between science fiction & fantasy) are two of my favourite genres to consume next to High Fantasy itself. Speculative literature to me is happily read in tandem as I could never choose between science fiction and fantasy but rather, I love seeing where the two cross-sect with each other! Perhaps, you dear hearts, feel the same?
I will always seek out stories which cart me straight out of my comfort zones and take me on a literary adventure as lived through my imagination and the portals of where each individual writer wants to take us viscerally as much as visually! I am so happy to welcome Ms.Castellucci to my blog and bring a bit of insight into her writing life and world to my readers! Rock on!
Book Synopsis for Tin Star:
On their way to start a new life, Tula and her family travel on the Prairie Rose, a colony ship headed to a planet in the outer reaches of the galaxy. All is going well until the ship makes a stop at a remote space station, the Yertina Feray, and the colonist’s leader, Brother Blue, beats Tula within an inch of her life. An alien, Heckleck, saves her and teaches her the ways of life on the space station.
Book Synopsis for Stone in the Sky:
Years ago, Tula Bane was beaten and left for dead on a remote space station far from Earth, her home planet. She started with nothing and had no one, but over time, she found a home, a family, and even love. When it’s discovered that the abandoned planet beneath the station is abundant with a rare and valuable resource, aliens from across the galaxy race over to strike it rich. With them comes trouble, like the man who nearly killed Tula years ago—the man she has dreamed of destroying ever since.
Tin Star & Stone in the Sky are published by: Roaring Brook Press an imprint of MacMillian Publishers Read More