Tag: sci-fi

The legendary Lost Ships exist, and they harbour nightmarish horrors. Opal knows. She barely survived her first encounter with one.

Despite escaping, she failed to find what she was looking for: her lost sister. Now Opal must board a second derelict Lost Ship to seek answers, and it’s even more monstrous, a sickening place of death and decay. To make things worse, the military government wants her, dead or alive. Considering their reputation, dead may be better.

To find her sister, Opal will risk everything: her life, her blood, her sanity. There’s always a price to pay. Armed with her wits, an experimental armoured suit, and an amazing AI companion, she might just stand a chance.

Karl Drinkwater is originally from Manchester but lived in Wales for twenty years, and now calls Scotland his home. He’s a full-time author, edits fiction for other writers, and was a professional librarian for over twenty-five years. He has degrees in English, Classics, and Information Science.

He writes in multiple genres: his aim is always just to tell a good story. Among his books you’ll find elements of literary and contemporary fiction, gritty urban, horror, suspense, paranormal, thriller, sci-fi, romance, social commentary, and more. The end result is interesting and authentic characters, clever and compelling plots, and believable worlds.

When he isn’t writing he loves exercise, guitars, computer and board games, the natural environment, animals, social justice, cake, and zombies. Not necessarily in that order.

Website Facebook Twitter Instagram Newsletter

My thoughts:

I loved the first book in this series and so was thrilled to get to be on this blog tour, and Chasing Solace did not disappoint.

Picking up where we last left Opal and her super smart AI Athene (formally Clarissa) are still on the trail of the Lost Ships and their secrets, searching for information about Opal’s lost sister, last seen boarding the ship they found in book one.

Along with the strange beings that make Lost Ships their home Opal now has a determined assassin in a ship almost as smart as Athene on her tail.

The action doesn’t let up, and although I found one section rather mind boggling and a little confusing, which I think was the point, I really enjoyed this. Bring on book 3!

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

Five best friends in a high school computer club get sucked into an underground hacker’s game run by a mysterious A.I. that thinks it is God. It’s all fun and games until people start to get hurt.

And the stakes keep getting higher. As the Game pits them against each other and turns their high school upside down, it offers the ultimate promise – win and learn the meaning of life; die in the game, and die for real.

My thoughts:

There seems to be a little trend for books about sinister tech recently and I am here for it. This book takes the teens at its centre to some extremely dark places, manipulated at every turn by the AI at the core of the game.

It’s a twisted tale of how dangerous things can get when you’re playing against something with no morality, and when you feel you have no escape.

The writing is compelling and the plot engaging. You find yourself rooting for Charlie and his friends, but at the same time wondering about the consequences for their actions – or whether they’ll walk away from any of it.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

Three years ago, Nikki and Ethan Rhodes suffered a devastating loss when their four-year-old daughter Grace was tragically killed in a road accident. Ethan, a radio personality, escapes into work, leaving Nikki to care for their remaining child, Bella, who hasn’t spoken since that day.

Seeking a fresh start, the family moves into a revolutionary new house designed by renowned architect, Catriona Fisher. The house features a state-of-the-art security system, along with every amenity you could dream of.

For the Rhodes’ this is a chance to finally pick up the pieces and get on with their lives in a place where they feel totally safe.

But what if 17 Church Row isn’t the safe haven that they think it is?

My thoughts:

Smart houses are becoming a thing of reality, though not to the extent of this particular one. It’s an interesting take on the Gothic creepy house genre in a way, where the house really is watching your every move.

The Rhodes family become victims of an unhinged AI system, Katy, which if you read my blog regularly, you will know is a favourite sci-fi trope of mine. I love it when the machines rise up and go after their creators – as long as that remains fiction, I don’t want my washing machine or phone to go rogue!

I found this fascinating and a little scary, technology is moving so fast that keeping up can be tricky.

The writing was fluid and gripping, I felt for the characters trapped in this nightmare, trying to recover from trauma and finding themselves in another terrible situation.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

Sometimes spaceships disappear with everyone on board – the Lost Ships. But sometimes they come back, strangely altered, derelict, and rumoured to be full of horrors.

Opal is on a mission. She’s been seeking something her whole life. Something she is willing to die for. And she thinks it might be on a Lost Ship.

Opal has stolen Clarissa, an experimental AI-controlled spaceship, from the military. Together they have tracked down a Lost Ship, in a lonely nebula far from colonised space.

The Lost Ship is falling into the gravity well of a neutron star, and will soon be truly lost … forever. Legends say the ships harbour death, but there’s no time for indecision.

Opal gears up to board it. She’s just one woman, entering an alien and lethal environment. But perhaps with the aid of Clarissa’s intelligence – and an armoured spacesuit – Opal may stand a chance.

Karl Drinkwater is originally from Manchester but lived in Wales for twenty years, and now calls Scotland his home. He’s a full-time author, and was a professional librarian for over twenty-five years. He has degrees in English, Classics, and Information Science. He writes in multiple genres: his aim is always just to tell a good story. Among his books you’ll find elements of literary and contemporary fiction, gritty urban, horror, suspense, paranormal, thriller, sci-fi, romance, social commentary, and more. The end result is interesting and authentic characters, clever and compelling plots, and believable worlds. When he isn’t writing he loves exercise, guitars, computer and board games, the natural environment, animals, social justice, cake, and zombies. Not necessarily in that order.

My thoughts:

So you probably know by now that I love a good AI-human in space romp, and this is one of them. The backstory that led to Opal being on a lost ship with only Clarissa the AI to help is revealed slowly, only answering your questions bit by bit.

There’s something else on that ship, something that might answer Opal’s own questions, but they need answering before her pursuers catch up and this cranks the tension up.

Opal’s smart and resourceful, Clarissa is a good foil to her search for secrets. The menace comes from two sides, and as a reader you’re left wondering “what next?”

There’s something of a locked room mystery about the plot – mostly taking place in a supposedly empty drifting space ship.

Book two Chasing Solace is also available now.

*this book was kindly gifted to me in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

Bigger spaceships. Bigger explosions. Bigger planets. Bigger problems.

It’s been three years since Esa joined the ranks of the Justified after her rescue from the fanatical murderers the Pax.

Together, Esa and her mentor Kamali travel from planet to planet, searching for children with supernatural abilities.

It’s hard work, but Esa has never felt more assured of her place in the universe.

On a visit to a planet so remote that its inhabitants never learned that the Sect Wars ended over a hundred years ago, they learn that the Justified are not the only people searching for gifted children. There is a creature with unexpected powers who will stop at nothing to get its hands on the children that Esa and Kamali are trying to rescue.

With their latest recruit in tow — a young Wulf child named Sho — Esa and Kamali will travel halfway across the galaxy in pursuit of answers. But the answers only lead to more questions, and the danger will only increase as their terrifying nemesis turns his eyes on them.

Drew Williams was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, in the southern United States of America. He is a bookseller at the Little Professor Book Center in Homewood, Alabama. A Chain Across the Dawn is his second book.

My thoughts:

Firstly go read The Stars Now Unclaimed, then read this book.

I have become a bit obsessed with space books – honestly I never used to enjoy sci fi but books like this have totally changed my mind.

It’s fun, adventurous, well written, funny, clever, the characters are excellent, the plot rips along at a pace.

Basically I love it.

If you’re a fan of Becky Chambers’ Wayfarer series, The Illuminae Files, Ancestral Night, or any of the other books I rave about on Instagram then this is for you.

Bring on book three!

*I was kindly gifted this book by the publisher in exchange for taking part on this blog tour but all opinions remain my own.