The Kindle edition of Running Out of Space – book 1 of The Sunblinded Trilogy is FREE for Friday 28th and Saturday 29th June.
BLURB: Lizzy Wright has yearned to serve on the space merchant ship Shooting Star for as long as she can remember – until one rash act changes everything…
Lizzy and her friends weren’t looking for trouble – all they’d wanted was to prove that fertile English girls could handle themselves when on shore leave without being accompanied by a sour-faced chaperone and armed guard. Looking back, maybe taking a jaunt off-limits on Space Station Hawking wasn’t the best idea – but no one could have foreseen the outcome. Or that the consequences of that single expedition would change the lives of all four girls, as well as that of the stranger who stepped in to save them.
Now Lizzy has more excitement and danger than she can handle, while confronting lethal shipboard politics, kidnapping, betrayal. And murder.
‘Running Out of Space is an excellent novel, with enough pace and plot to keep you reading, and enough subtext to keep you wondering.’ Mrs Vivienne Tuffnell – 5 stars
For fans who enjoy Lois McMaster Bujold and Elizabeth Moon
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This edition was produced by Orbit in August 2017. I love this cover and it’s my favourite. The intense colours are beautiful and the artwork otherworldly and haunting. Small wonder this cover is the default with only a few exceptions. I even like the rather ordinary font, which this time around works well. Of course, it could just be that I was so blown away by the intense reading experience I encountered when diving into this book that I’m somewhat biased.
Published in September 2018 by J’ai Lu, I really like this French edition. The intense blue of the sky, the great orb hanging in the sky below and those stones breaking the soil at odd angles give this cover eye appeal and correlate with the book’s story. What absolutely doesn’t work are those ugly white textboxes bisecting the artwork. The effect looks like two strips of paper with the typewritten information have been stuck across the covers – what a shame!
This Hungarian edition, published by Agave Könyvek in August 2018 has gone back to the colours of the default cover, but taken a less abstract approach. The result is a really cool, very attractive cover. If this had been the cover of my reading copy, I think I would have been more torn, because I think it is very effective. As it is, it comes a close second.
Produced by Subterranean Press in September 2018, this is also a very attractive, powerful offering. I like the way it features the two main protagonists – the mother and her lost daughter and having that beautiful triangular text box slicing them apart works really well. The other thing I love about this cover – Jemisin has clearly written these characters as black and I’m delighted the publishers have featured them as such.
This Chinese edition, published by 天地出版社 in March 2018 is another strong offering. I love the image of the skyscape where it looks as though you could actually step on those clouds in shades of an attractive tangerine. The downside for me is that black textbox slammed across the bottom of the cover, cutting off the rest of the artwork. There also seems to be a great deal of chatter across the cover – but as my understanding of Chinese isn’t worth a nocked nail, it may well be the explanation might be necessary to an audience unused to the genre, so I’ll give them a pass on that.
o has a gift for helping ghosts adrift in the afterlife, got involved with helping a small scared boy with powerful angry parents, who didn’t want their domestic dirty linen to see the light of day. So she ends up witchless and down on her luck. While the writing is continually chirpy, the endless grind of struggling to make her dwindling savings go ever further came through very strongly. And if you were thinking ‘eww’ about the bat, frankly Belfry comes across more as a little ball of cotton than a nightmare creature with veined wings and repellently ugly face.
exactly where he is, who he is and what is going on. There was some debate as to whether he is actually alive… It gradually transforms into a more conventional space opera foot-to-the-floor adventure with an unusual protagonist – a protagonist who isn’t what he initially seems to be. Haunted by visions of a beautiful young crew member that he knows is in danger and that he needs to save, yet not sure of who he is, this protagonist only gradually begins to realise what is happening around him. However it soon transpires that whoever he is, he is certainly a disaster magnet and mayhem ensues wherever he goes as he continually dodges overwhelming odds in the form of unpleasant aliens and their pliant human allies. Fortunately, these aliens tend to rely far too much on their heavily armoured suits that protect their soft wormlike bodies and are unaccustomed to the kind of defiance they are suddenly facing.
duty bound to attend her fellow committee member’s funeral. As she suspected, the hymns, readings and sermon are all very predictable — not unlike Leonard himself. What she couldn’t have predicted was that the deceased’s daughter would use the occasion to publicly accuse her stepmother of murder. Did Heather Mallett really kill her husband, as many Fethering residents believe? Deciding to get to the heart of the matter, Carole’s neighbour Jude joins the new community choir – and discovers that amidst the clashing egos and petty resentments lurk some decidedly false notes. At least one chorister would appear to be hiding a deadly secret — and it’s up to Carole and Jude to unearth the truth.
Everyone – wizards, soldiers, farmers, elves, dragons, kings and queens alike – is fed up with Mr Chesney’s Pilgrim Parties: groups of tourists from the world next door who descend en masse every year to take the Grand Tour. What they expect are all the trappings of a grand fantasy adventure, including the Evil Enchantress, Wizard Guides, the Dark Lord, Winged Minions, and all. And every year different people are chosen to play these parts. But now they’ve had enough: Mr Chesney may be backed by a very powerful demon, but the Oracles have spoken. Now it’s up to the Wizard Derk and his son Blade, this year’s Dark Lord and Wizard Guide, not to mention Blade’s griffin brothers and sisters, to save the world from Mr Chesney’s depredations.
jungle of Grant City? One badass vigilante, of course! 17-year-old Aria Fae is no stranger to danger. She’s super fast, incredibly strong, and on her own for the first time ever.
I’ve tweaked and streamlined the very chatty blurb, but this original, dystopian science fiction adventure features brilliant Yasira Shien, who happens to be on the autistic spectrum and gay. I liked the main protagonist, whose autism was convincingly depicted throughout, especially when she was in difficult situations – which happened a lot, especially when everything went to hell in a handcart on The Pride of Jai. Her emotions around Tiv, her lover, are clearly strong but curiously limited in the manner in which she thinks of her and describes her – but that also chimes with her being autistic. Her mentor, Dr Talirr, also one of the main characters, is also autistic but more profoundly affected than Yasira in that she struggles to connect with anyone – except Yasira, and even then she finds it very difficult, except in a time of ultimate crisis, to reach out to her. I thought it heartening to have two major characters so atypical and I think Hoffmann has brilliantly depicted them.
This edition was produced by Random House Children’s Publishers UK in October 2016. This is the default cover for this YA best-seller and it’s easy to see why. I love the colours and the fabulous effect of the different embroidery threads. Somewhere online, I recall seeing the footage of the master being made – because, yes, the cover was actually stitched. It’s my favourite.
Published in June 2017 by Bonnier Carlsen, this Swedish edition has the potential to be successful, particularly with the contrast between the yellow and black, which always works well. However they then sabotaged the effectiveness of that strong colour selection, by insisting on including almost everything that occurs in the book in a series of line drawings, which makes the effect too busy and cluttered to be really effective.
This Romanian edition, published by Editura Young Art have overcome the issue that makes this something of a problem for foreign language editions – given the cover was initially stitched with the title in English – by stitching their own version. I very much like it, but the colours lack the vibrancy and impact of the original cover chiefly because the thread is finer.
This Indonesian edition, produced by Spring in April 2017, have taken a different approach to that stitched cover with a wonderful cover that is my second favourite. I love this one – so beautiful and striking. It also references some of the themes/subjects that feature in the book – because if there is an issue with that original cover, is that it isn’t immediately apparent that it is basically a YA romance.
This Vietnamese edition, published in May 2019 by Wings Books, has taken yet another approach. I really like the blocky bold depiction of the sun within that lovely rich blue background – it’s colourful and eye-catching and nicely references the title. My one grizzle is that the white title font is very boring and while I love the creative arrangement of the lettering amongst the ends of the sunrays, I feel there is a risk of the title getting lost amongst the design. Which is your favourite?
Kellan tags along with Nana D and her buddies, sisters-in-law Eustacia and Gwendolyn Paddington, to show support for the rest of the Paddington family. When one of them appears to have a heart attack in the middle of the second act, Nana D raises her suspicions and asks Kellan to investigate who killed her friend. Amidst family members suddenly in debt and a secret rendezvous between an unlikely pair, Kellan learns the Paddingtons might not be as clean-cut as everyone thinks. But did one of them commit murder for an inheritance?
This edition was produced by Pantheon Books in September 2005. I like the design – the colourful shop front and pavement café looks delightfully enticing. But that horrid textbox slapped across the top blocks out far too much of the design – and given the café is at a slight angle and the textbox isn’t, the resulting clash of perspectives is jarring. If only it hadn’t been there – this one would definitely have been my favourite… *sigh*.
Published in August 2006 by Anchor Books, this cover is harking back to the past. The plain bright yellow really pops and I like the contrast with the chocolate brown for the borders, artwork and text, which gives it a classic feel. The touch of tartan and the dramatic hand dropping the cup of chocolate all give appropriate clues as to what the book is about. I really like this one.
This edition, published by Abacus in July 2006 has also gone for the vintage vibe. The bold, blocky artwork, strong primary colours and clear, capitalised text all refer back to the mid-20th century and the heyday of the whodunit. This is another strong candidate for this week’s favourite – I really like this one.
Produced by Little Brown in 2005, this is my favourite. I love the artwork, the chocolate drink, the rather natty glove draped over The Scotsman newspaper – all very nicely done. The lavender sprigs down the side also provide further eye appeal.
This French edition, published by Editions des Deux Terres in September 2013 is another strong contender. I love the image of the delicious chocolate cake with the single bite taken out of it – somehow more effective than a pristine slice. And while I’m not a fan of plain white backgrounds, this time it really works. I also think the lettering, both of the author and title is attractive and effective. Which is your favourite?
Set in a small village literally a stone’s throw from where we live in Littlehampton, which is mentioned several times in the book, I’ll freely admit that one of the attractions with this entertaining whodunit is the fact that I recognise the towns they visit. It is rather fun to so clearly visualise the setting during the investigation, even if the village of Fethering is a construct. Of course, the book would be a downright trudge if that was the only thing going for it, so the fact that I really like Jude and her relationship with her rather prickly neighbour, Carole. It’s a bonus they are both retired and of a certain age – while I haven’t yet retired, I’m also well into middle age and it’s a solid pleasure to read a book with two female protagonists who reflect my own age-group. It doesn’t happen all that often…
Brainfluff 