Review: To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, Christopher Paolini

Leave a comment
Cover of "To Sleep in a Sea of Stars" by Christopher Paolini.

To Sleep is a Sea of Stars is the science fiction debut of Christopher Paolini, formerly better known for his fantasy works, entitled “The Inheritance Cycle”: Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr and Inheritance.

Paolini’s original four works were started when he was fifteen years old, and the reviews from these (I have not read the books) indicate readers were split between those who enjoyed the story, and those who couldn’t quite compensate for so young a writer’s voice.

Paolini has taken a significant, professional and well-researched step into the science fiction arena, and I would be surprised if there were not more from him in this genre in the coming years.

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars came to my attention because I was collating various different lists of the “best science fiction of 2020” for my holiday reading, and Paolini’s new work came up in more than one of these. The book won the ‘Best Science Fiction’ Goodreads Choice 2020 Awards, voted on by readers, and has gathered generally positive reviews.

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars on Amazonthis is an affiliate link

Read More
Cover of Stormblood

Review: Stormblood by Jeremy Szal

Leave a comment

After the fumbling, fraught and frustrating exercise of launching my own book, I really wanted to immerse myself in someone else’s work.

To find something to read, I did what I often do and turned to the Guardian Newspaper’s ‘Best Recent Science Fiction’ column. Flicking through the various months, I came upon Stormblood by Jeremy Szal.

I didn’t want anything too cerebral, and I wanted something with a bit of pace. I got what I asked for, but perhaps misjudged slightly what I actually wanted.

Read More
Cover of Emily Voss Box Set - A woman's silhouette against the New York skyline

Emily Voss Volume 1 Released!

Leave a comment

I’m proud to announce that Episodes 1, 2 and 3 of my Emily Voss series were released today on Amazon.

You can pick the book up here:

Find the Book on Amazonthis is an affiliate link

In case you’re unsure this style of writing is for you, and you’d like a little taste before you take the plunge, you can download a little side-story that provides some background from an earlier moment in my main character’s journey.

The story is called “A first time for everything” and you can download it by clicking here.

If you read the book, please review it. Reviews make the book visible to others and help readers decide if it’s something they’d enjoy. In a world of crowdsourced information, your opinion matters!

If you’re an established book reviewer, and can point to a collection of reviews on Amazon or your own platform, please get in touch. I have a number of digital copies I’m happy to give away for free.

ARC Readers Wanted (a.k.a. Free Book Available)

Leave a comment
Cover of Emily Voss Box Set - A woman's silhouette against the New York skyline
Temporary Cover for the Emily Voss Box Set

I am approaching the launch of my Emily Voss novel, containing the first three stories, for a total of about 30,000 words. This makes it between half and two-thirds as long as a full-length novel.

The three stories are of approximately equal length, and if you’ve read the first story, which is free, you’ll know what to expect in terms of style and tone for the next two. Hopefully the story itself will still surprise you.

As part of the launch, there is an opportunity to get the entire novel for free.

This is not a giveaway or a competition, it’s known as as ARC, or advanced reader copy.

Basically, you get the novel for free, on the basis of a gentleman’s (gentle-person’s?) agreement that you’ll review it, particularly if you liked it.

Please note that the cover above, which is also on the ARC, is temporary as I await the final cover.

The ARC will be available to the general public until December 18th, 2020, by clicking here. For a short while afterwards, I will still be handing out “review copies” to people with a track record of reviewing the books they read, and an interest in, or focus on, urban fantasy. If that’s you, then get in touch.

Click Here to Request the ARC