I rather fell in love with the blurb for this one – after all, I’m a huge fan of Becky Chambers and Mary Robinette Kowal. And I also liked the cover, although there is a version that I far prefer than this one. But a far-future sci fi adventure on Earth with a wild west vibe? Yippee!
BLURB: Earth, the distant future: climate change has reduced our verdant home into a hard-scrabble wasteland. Saints and sinners, lawmakers and sheriffs, travellers and gunslingers and horse thieves abound. People are as diverse and divided as they’ve ever been – except in their shared suspicions when a stranger comes to town.
One night a ship falls from the sky, bringing the planet’s first visitor in three hundred years. She’s armed, she’s scared… and she’s looking for someone.
Love, loss, and gunslinging in this dazzling debut novel by Grace Curtis. For fans of Sam J. Miller, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Becky Chambers, Frontier is a heartfelt queer romance in a high noon standoff with our planet’s uncertain future, full of thrills, a love story, and laser guns.
REVIEW: I think the first issue for me with this one is the very high expectation I had on picking it up. After all, a direct comparison with the likes of Becky Chambers and Mary Robinette Kowal means the standard of story-telling and characterisation has to be extremely high. And frankly, I don’t think the book delivered quite enough magic to be able to stand alongside both authors.
That doesn’t mean it is a bad read, however. Just that it isn’t an outstanding read. But I struggled quite badly with this one for nearly the first half. There is a particularly vile antagonist who keeps popping up and managing to win the day. Initially, I didn’t warm to the main protagonist all that much, even though she is clearly more principled than a number of the folks she encounters. But while it’s clearly flagged she’s looking for someone, we don’t know who. Neither do we really know who she is. And upsettingly (as far as I was concerned) nice people are carelessly gunned down as if they are nothing.
The level of violence also brought me up a bit short – though yes, I know it’s the wild west in a post-apocalyptic world. But Becky Chambers was also mentioned and I was expecting the more uplifting worlds that she depicts… So my progress through it was a bit of a trudge and I was considering DNFing it – until we got to the flashback sequence, when we get to properly meet the protagonist and understand her urgency and who she’s trying to find. And suddenly I was utterly invested the story. And wondering why on Earth this section didn’t appear a whole lot sooner in the book. That still really bugs me – I feel the narrative has been scrambled for some stylistic reason and frankly, that kind of mucking about is what drove me away from literary fiction in the first place.
From then on, the story gathered pace and I was hooked, thoroughly enjoying the denouement and the tender relationship between the protagonist and her lover. However, I’m giving this one three stars – and I haven’t done that with a book I’ve completed for a long time. While I obtained an arc of Frontier from the publishers via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
6/10
scientist mother, she embarks upon a quest for answers that takes her across the globe―and she uncovers friends, loss and love in the most unexpected of places along the way. 
than Himself. Though we did drive across to my daughter’s house and deliver her bike, so she could also cycle with the children. It was bittersweet seeing them after such a long time and I’m hoping this month, with the easing of the lockdown, I might once more be able to be a regular visitor, again. The weather continues to behave as if we are in July or August, further skewing the sense of abnormality. But thank goodness for books and writing projects!
The weather feels like high summer – long, sunny days and no rain. 
Except for a bit of a nip in the air. So Himself is still trudging around with the watering can. The bronze and pink bed is looking fabulous and my cordyline has started flowering – the scent is amazing, intense and lily-like. And now my yarrow is looking beautiful. 
e car crash. It won’t successfully wrap text around images, the way I’ve doing for years and I don’t find it remotely intuitive. I managed to flip back to Classic, but I know that eventually I’ll have to get to grips with it and I’m dreading it☹. I wasn’t impressed with the quality of the help provided – while the assistant was very friendly, the instructional videos wouldn’t load, the graphic how-to clips moved far too fast for me to follow. And at one point when trying to load yet another non-functioning link they provided – my trusty desktop fizzled to a stop – it never does that! Which was when I broke off asking for help… So my blogging in the coming weeks might be a bit sporadic while I grapple with the misery ahead of me. 
are more than wild animals hiding in the territories, and it will take more than guns to bring them down. Sumac the bounty hunter needs no guns to hunt any bandit with a price on his head, even one as legendary and mysterious as Night’s Tooth. But Sumac didn’t count on other bounty hunters coming along as competition, nor did he expect hunters sharing his own magical gifts. It’s one man against a gang and a mystery, all to protect a train that must cross the territories at all costs…
CRISPR gene editing, and quantum computing have become a reality, and climate change is in full swing―sea levels are rising, clouds have disappeared, and the planet is heating up. Quinn Buyers is a climate scientist who’d rather be studying the clouds than getting ready for her wedding day. But when an unexpected tragedy causes her to lose everything, including her famous scientist mother, she embarks upon a quest for answers that takes her across the globe―and she uncovers friends, loss and love in the most unexpected of places along the way. Gravity Is Heartless is bold, speculative fiction that sheds a hard light on the treatment of our planet even as it offers a breathtaking sense of hope for the future.
This offering was produced by Macmillan in April 2017. This is the default cover for this book – and is… extraordinary. You keep looking at it and seeing something else every time. I think this has to be one of the weirdest designs I’ve ever featured – and not remotely like any other PINK book cover I’ve encountered. I love this one – it’s so clever and original. 
Published in April 2017, by the publisher Fourth Estate, this cover is a bit more traditional. It is also beautiful. The rainbow-coloured background is lovely and I love how dear little Borne is wriggling through the title font. Another creative, clever design that grabs your attention and makes you want to pick this one up. 
This Italian edition, published by Einaudi in February 2018, is another amazing offering, though I can make sense of this one. This is Borne, as he is found in amongst the fur of the bear, Mord. I love that beautiful iridescent eye and the lovely glowing colours punching out of the dark grey. And yes, I know the title and author fonts are rather underwhelming, but I do love this one. It is my favourite.
This Russian edition, published in January 2018 by Эксмо: fanzon, is another unusual offering. We have Borne in all his odd glory staring out at the reader. This one is enjoyably quirky and the colour glows against the dark brown background – presumably against Mord’s bulk. I really like the treatment of the title and author font on this one. 
This Dutch edition (I think!) published by Bezige Bij b.v., Uitgeverij De in July 2018, once again depicts Borne living in Mord’s coat. This time we get to see the ruined city in the background through the thick, pink haze of the toxic pollution, which is disturbingly pretty. I love the elegant simplicity of the design and how the lettering is white against Mord’s fur and black against the pink air. That bee is just a lovely little detail, as it Borne himself becoming the O of the title. This one was so nearly a contender – in fact this week I found it very hard to choose. Which is your favourite?
and staying at home. But what has kept my head straight is my love of reading and writing – thank goodness for both! I’ve also loved the wonderful sunny weather – it’s been a joy being able to sit in the garden and watch Spring springing… I’m conscious that I am very blessed. And given that none of us can guarantee if we will survive this, I’ve determined to be as thankful for every coming day as I can be. So despite everything, this has been a very precious April. 
Brainfluff 