Cool Covers of The Future

Strange Chemistry have released the new cover for Laura Lam's follow up to Pantomime, Shadowplay!  Found here at Tor.com.

Cool Covers of The Future

Spotted this today over at Strange Chemistry!  Find the blurb here, sounds like good stuff! 

Cool Covers of the Future

The lovely Strange Chemistry released the cover art for Jonathan L. Howard's follow up to Katya's World, Katya's War, which will be released in November this year.  I wasn't sure at first, but the more I look, the more I find to like!

 

 

Katya's World

The distant and unloved colony world Russalka has no land, only the raging sea under endless storm clouds.  Beneath the waves, the people live in pressurised environments and take what they need from the boundless ocean.  It is a hard life, but it is theirs and they fought a war against Earth to protect it.  But wars leave wounds that never quite heal, and secrets that never quite lie silent.

Katya Kuriakova doesn't care much about ancient history.  She is making her first voyage; the first easy journey of what she expects to be an easy career.  But soon she will encounter pirates and war criminals, and learn that her world's future lies on the narrowest of knife edges.  For in the crushing depths lies a sleeping abomination of unknown origin, and when it wakes, it will seek out and kill every single person on the planet.

Dare I say Katya's World is one of the best Young-Adult books I have ever read?

Jonathan L. Howard's SF tale is action based, which left little room for Katya to tell me how she feels about every incident (something that is quite common in YA books).  It was great watching this person grow, without being explicitly told the whole way through her every thought and emotion.  Katya is a fantastic intelligent female character, and a great vessel in which to explore this alien world.  She's not the only one, as there are plenty of other well developed and intriguing characters that serve more to the story than just being 'red shirts'.

Amongst all the excitement and danger, there is a lot of humour and a lot of heart.  On another plus side, this was officially the first Young Adult book I read with no romance!  Was it strange? Did I miss it?  Not in the slightest because Katya's World portrayed different aspects of love, duty and loyalty.

Howard doesn't doesn't talk down to his audience, but whips them along saying trust me.  While the bare bones of the story is very familiar, Howard expands this recognisable plot and fills it with admirable characters to make this story unique amongst it's other YA counterparts.  I can't wait for the sequel, Katya's War.

The Holders

17-year-old Becca has spent her whole life protecting her brother - from their father leaving and from the people who say the voices in his head are unnatural. When two strangers appear with apparent answers to Ryland's "problem" and details about a school in Ireland where Ryland will not only fit in, but prosper, Becca is up in arms.

She reluctantly agrees to join Ryland on his journey and what they find at St. Brigid's is a world beyond their imagination. Little by little they piece together information about their family's heritage and the legend of the Holder race that decrees Ryland is the one they've been waiting for... but, they are all, especially Becca, in for a surprise that will change what they thought they knew about themselves and their kind.

I shouldn't like The Holders as it contains three of my pet hates: A whiny narrator, love at first sight and plenty of telling and hardly any showing. And yet...I couldn't stop reading Julianna Scott's debut novel.

Scott had me hooked as soon as Becca and Ryland were leaving America behind, and heading to a boarding school in Ireland.  Those first few chapters contained so much potential for where the story could eventually lead and I was excited to follow Becca on her journey.

What kept me reading, even when I had my doubts, was the logic that was behind the tropes that I normally hate.  Becca is whiny teen because she doesn't get to whine to other people.  She has had to be an adult in order to protect Ryland.  The whole love  at first sight thing is explained in a way that relates to the mythology of the Holders.  Also, for Becca it isn't necessarily insta-love.  Finally, there is so much information that Scott needs to relay to the reader that maybe there will be more showing in the second book now that the world has been established.  Maybe I'm making excuses because I found this book charming despite it having flaws that I normally abhor.  Or maybe The Holders was genuinely a good read.
 
An interesting, and somewhat fun, introduction to what could be a fantastic series.