#Review of The Transcendent Tide by Doug Johnstone @doug_johnstone @OrendaBooks @RandomTTours #BlogTour

The Transcendent Tide
By Doug Johnstone

Review by Louise Cannon

For those following the Enceladons Trilogy, this is the grand finale, of what has been a rather urgently relevant, yet entertaining read that’s just got better and better, with this final one being one of the best. Even if you aren’t into sci-fi, which isn’t a huge genre read for me, it has much more than aliens. There’s humanity and eco-awareness too.
Discover the blurb and my review below. thanks to being on the Random T. Tours blog tour and Orenda for supplying the book. Please note, all opinions are my own.

Blurb

It’s been eighteen months since the Enceladons escaped the clutches of an American military determined to exterminate the peaceful alien creatures.

Lennox and Vonnie have been lying low in the Scottish Highlands, Ava has been caring for her young daughter Chloe, and Heather is adjusting to her new life with Sandy and the other Enceladons in the Arctic Ocean, off the coast of Greenland. But fate is about to bring them together again for one last battle.

When Lennox and Vonnie are visited by Karl Jensen, a Norwegian billionaire intent on making contact with the Encedalons again, they are wary of subjecting the aliens to further dangers. But when word arrives that Ava’s daughter has suffered an attack and might die without urgent help, they reluctantly make the trip to Greenland, where they enlist the vital help of local woman Niviaq.

It’s not long before they’re drawn into a complex web of lies, deceit and death. What is Karl’s company really up to? Why are sea creatures attacking boats? Why is Sandy acting so strangely, and why are polar bears getting involved?

Profound, ambitious and immensely moving, The Transcendent Tide is the epic conclusion to the Encedalons Trilogy – a final showdown between the best and worst of humanity, the animal kingdom and the Encedalons. The future of life on earth will be changed forever, but not everyone will survive to see it…

Review

The Transcendent Tide couldn’t be more timely, with a certain US President kicking off, greedily looking at Greenland, one of the most important and vital countries to save planet earth, if left virtually untouched. I’ve always reckoned that nature will always win-out, not humans in the end and this book is a fine example of nature vs humans and makes stark points of why we need to work with, not always against it. Who will win, can there be any winners, will anything turn out alright in the end?

What Doug Johnstone has created is a deeply profound trilogy, which has grown even deeper still come this final book. The way he gets the most important points across, mixed with a bit of entertainment, is done to a highly skilled quality. It’s thought-provoking and intelligently done, so that, if you’re worldly aware, you can join the dots between the events that are happening in the book to what’s happening in the world with the ideas of certain world politicians.

There are twists and turns, secrets and lies which forms some of the entertaining parts of the book, not that this dilutes any of the important points, it does however add to the readability of the plot.

I highly recommend The Transcendent Tide and the previous 2 books in the trilogy.

#BookReview By Lou of Sundae Driver – A Story of Dan and Stan, with Zelda and the Welder By Jack Barrow @JackBarrowUK #SundaeDriver #Novella #ReadingCommunity

Sundae Driver – A Story of Dan and Stan, with Zelda and the Welder
By Jack Barrow

Quirky/urban fantasy, Sundae Driver, set in Blackpool asks the question “Would You Sell Your Soul To An Ice Cream Van? Sundae Driver is a novella within the Hidden Masters Universe.
Thanks to Jack Barrow for the novella to review. The first book I reviewed by him was In Sat Nav We Trust? He has a great way of writing and mixing the everyday with the quirky.

Blurb

Would you sell your soul for an ice cream van?

As Danny struggles to keep his ice cream van on the road he meets Stan, a mysterious stranger, at a crossroads, at midnight. Spitting in his palm Stan shakes on a deal with Danny to fix up Nellie, Danny’s rusty, vintage, ice cream van, and so, Danny’s life improves dramatically. But a few years on, Danny cannot understand why he can no longer face the daily routine of endless cheerful customers and excellent profits. Seeking supernatural advice Danny learns he has paid a price he did not agree to, but there is a solution. Can he fulfil the task to free himself from Stan and break his contract?

If you like supernatural antics with thoroughly silly twists, and unlikely characters, then you’ll enjoy Jack Barrow’s magickal adventures in modern Britain.

Get Sundae Driver today as an introduction to Jack’s Hidden Masters series.

Review

Sundae Driver is perhaps not what you’d expect an ice cream seller’s job to be. You don’t usually end up selling your soul nor having to get supernatural advice…
Set in Blackpool, readers meet Danny in Stanley Park. It’s the turn of the century and it’s not a great start, but he really wants to keep going with selling ice creams from Nellie, his beloved van, which needs an MOT. There’s a lot of hope for it to be able to stay on the roads. He then meets a stranger whom he gets talking to. Things change from there with some intriguing events and the mysterious Madam Zelda and instructions to a magic circle with a contract with his name on it. The odd events continue with a strange zombie and time travel.

Sundae Driver has an air of the quirky and a certain atmosphere hanging about it that draws you in. It’s a strange journey that readers are taken on throughout that is well-knitted together with a fast flow with humour. There are twists and turns that ensure you want to read to the end to find out what happens if you sell your soul and if Nellie, the ice cream van and Danny survives everything.

At just 91 pages, Sundae Driver is definitely worth a read if you’re looking for an entertaining novella different from the norm.

Purchase Link:
Amazon

*Please note I am not affiliated with the author or Amazon or any bookshop.

#Review by Lou of The Space Between Us By Doug Johnstone @doug_ johnstone @OrendaBooks @RandomTTours #MeetSandy #SF #HopePunk

The Space Between
By Doug Johnstone

The Space Between Us by Doug Johnstone (author of the much-loved series – The Skelfs) featured recently on BBC Between The Covers, presented By Sara Cox and I am delighted to be part of the blog tour with the blurb and review, thanks to Orenda Books and Random T. Tours. Today, I have the pleasure of closing the blog tour with a review.

Blurb

Lennox is a troubled teenager with no family.

Ava is eight months pregnant and fleeing her abusive husband.

Heather is a grieving mother and cancer sufferer. They don’t know each other, but when a meteor streaks over Edinburgh, all three suffer instant, catastrophic strokes …

…only to wake up the following day in hospital, miraculously recovered.

When news reaches them of an octopus-like creature washed up on the shore near where the meteor came to earth, Lennox senses that some extra-terrestrial force is at play.

With the help of Ava, Heather and a journalist, Ewan, he rescues the creature they call ‘Sandy’ and goes on the run.

But they aren’t the only ones with an interest in the alien … close behind are Ava’s husband, the police and a government unit who wants to capture the creature, at all costs. And Sandy’s arrival may have implications beyond anything anyone could imagine…

Review

The Space Between Us is rather different from The Skelf’s series, where my reading of Doug Johnstone’s books began. This is a bit sci-fi, rather than crime, which The Skelfs is. I have to say though, for someone, like me, who only dips in and out of sci-fi, like me, this is a very good and compelling book. It is more than just sci-fi. It is more about what connects people and their lives.

The Space Between Us is set in Edinburgh and what links 3 people is that that they suffer some strange after effects after a meteor hits and an odd creature emerges. There is Lennox, a troubled teenager with no family. He is 16 and of mixed-race and is being brought up in a home. You find him around Portobello. Ava is in Longniddrey, is pregnant and trying to escape an abusive husband and Heather is grieving and has cancer. Strange streaks occur in the sky and everyone is affected and then the next day, it is as though the strokes they suffered from didn’t happen.

It is an intriguing tale that also has readers sweeping across Scotland, around and out of Edinburgh and the city centre’s surrounding areas.
It also seems to be a premise of bringing “Sandy” the alien to earth and creating compassion to those who arrive in your country, wherever they come from seems to be one of the overarching messages. It becomes a story about community and an idea that there are perhaps bigger things than humans and bigger things that you’re living through right now. It seems that in the space between us is connections and that need for connections, however they are made and communicated, as well as place that is safe and to have a sense of belonging. Each character is seems to be desiring and needing this in what is a book full of different emotions. So, as much as it is sci-fi, there is also a human story running through it.

Having read The Space Between Us for review, thanks to Orenda Books and Random T. Tours who invited me to and provided a book, I was pleasantly surprised at how good this was, even though it is not my usual genre, more a genre I dip in and out of here and there. So, ultimately it is a book I recommend to both sci-fi fans and non-sci-fi fans alike.

About the Author

Doug Johnstone is the author of fourteen previous novels, most recently Black Hearts (2022). The Big Chill (2020) was longlisted for the Theakston Crime Novel of the Year and three of his books, A Dark Matter (2020), Breakers (2019) and The Jump (2015), have been shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Novel of the Year. He’s taught creative writing and been writer in residence at various institutions over the last decade, and has been an arts journalist for over twenty years.

Doug is a songwriter and musician with six albums and three EPs released, and he plays drums for the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers, a band of writers. He’s also co-founder of the Scotland Writers Football Club, and has a PhD in nuclear physics.

#Review of A Beginner’s Guide To Ruling The Galaxy By David Solomons #DavidSolomons @NosyCrow #MiddleGrade #ChildrensBook #Humour #Sci-Fi #ABeginnersGuideToRulingTheGalaxy #BookRecommendation

A Beginner’s Guide To Ruling The Galaxy
By David Solomons

A Beginner’s Guide To Ruling The Galaxy is a humorous Middle Grade book for ages 9 plus and already a hit with some “reading teachers” in schools for reading for pleasure times. David Solomons has also won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize.
Thanks firstly to Nosy Crow for accepting my request to review.

A brilliantly funny story for 9+ readers about what happens when a galactic princess moves in next door and almost brings about the end of the world, from the bestselling, award-winning author of My Brother is a Superhero.

Gavin’s got a new neighbour and she’s really annoying. Niki follows him everywhere, bosses him about, and doesn’t care that her parents will obliterate Earth with their galactic warships if she doesn’t stop running away from them.

Can Niki and Gavin sort out the alien despots (aka Mum and Dad) and save the planet? Possibly.

Will they become friends along the way? Doubtful…

A hilarious new story from the author of My Brother Is a Superhero, winner of the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and the British Book Industry Awards Children’s Book of the Year. Perfect for fans of David Baddiel and David Walliams.

Review

A Beginner’s Guide To Ruling The Galaxy is humorous with much hi-jinx in a fast-paced sci-fi adventure.
Children will find it fun finding out about Gavin, who is generally quite a private person and his strange new neighbour, Niki. The quirks and adventure is the type of fun that children can really get stuck into. There is a lot to like in this packed-full book. It’s a book that is great for reading for pleasure alone and with an adult together as there are certain quips that adults would appreciate but children would see very differently, much like in family films, there’s something for everyone.

The book makes me remember tv drama My Parents Are Aliens and Third Rock From the Sun but with the quick humour of the likes of David Walliams. That aside, the book has its own originality too with its own blend of relatable characters, who are interesting to discover more about, throughout its themes of family, friendship and kinship.
The premise of aliens walking among us is always going to be fun, but with the way this is written, the author has nailed it!

#CoverReveal of Mortal Mission by Pip Skinner @LoveBooksTours #LBTCrew Discover the #cover and #blurb in the #blogpost #CrimeFiction #Scifi meet.

Today I have a cover reveal of Mortal Mission. Follow down to take a look at the cover and then the blurb. It certainly sounds an intriguing book for people interested in the space race, missions and crime. It is a Martian Murder Mystery.

Blurb

Astronauts are dying on the first crewed mission to Mars. Is it bad luck, or something far more sinister?

An international mission to search for life on Mars meets heated opposition from the religious right in the USA. Astronaut Hattie Fredericks’ dreams are realised when she is selected for the voyage, but her presence on the Starship coincides with a series of incidents which threaten to derail the mission.

After a near-miss while landing on Mars, the world watches as Hattie and the crew struggle to survive. But worse than the harsh elements are her suspicions that someone is trying to destroy the mission. After several crew members die, Hattie doesn’t know who to trust. And her only allies are 35 million miles away.

As the tension ratchets up, violence and suspicion invade both worlds.

Will Hattie discover life on Mars, or die trying?

#BookReview By Lou of Earthman By David Munro #DavidMunro #Earthman #HistoricalFiction #1960s #SciFi #RomanticFiction

Earthman
By David Munro

Earthman By David Munro is a cross between science fiction and historical fiction with a touch of romance. Set in the 1960s, it is an intriguing book of adventure and perilous times. Discover the blurb and my review below. Thanks first to David Munro for asking me to review. He’s written several books, including Georgina, a historical fiction book. Earth man is published today- Monday 16th January 2023.

Synopsis

EARTHMAN is set in 1962 and a time when the Cold War was at its height. in October of that year, America and Russia were about to unleash a nuclear holocaust on the planet and civilisation held its breath.
The story begins in a remote village in the Scottish Highlands. A stranger with an American accent appears from nowhere and interest amongst locals heighten. He is befriended by a young woman who takes a shine to him. She has graduated from university and seeks adventure. Being stifled in a rural highland village is suffocating her. When she learns about the stranger’s identity and a mission he has to complete, Emily accompanies Jack Brewster on an adventure. It is the opportunity she has been waiting for.
The story has a mysterious slant and a sub-plot which involve an alien race. The avoidance of a nuclear war between the super-powers in the story is a strong possibility.

Review

As Russia unleashes its Might now, it unleashed its strength in 1962, the year of The Cold War and not even remote Scottish villages up in the Highlands were immune for the worry of what might happen next…
This is where the book is historical fiction as it recounts that very real threat on the world.

Jack, the main protagonist, is where some of the science fiction lies. He has other problems of his own, trying to get his story of being abducted by aliens believed. He just knows that the President of the USA needs to be alerted to the danger the world is in. But then historical fiction, sci-fi and romantic fiction all collide and merge and meld together.

The book begins in Plockton, a village in the Highlands of Scotland. It seems all idyllic with the loch as part of its scenery and the local chit-chat as people go about their daily lives. Not all is quite well as there’s been a theft in the village. Emily lives in Plockton and is bored of small village life and feels it closing in, near to the point of suffocation. She wants to live more and add more to her life experiences. She and others are ready to leave because they’re not going to get what they seek in the Scottish Highlands. She is in need of adventure and that is provided, when she meets Jack Brewster, who has the wildest story ever to be told. The difference in culture is also stark as they learn about each other. At first he lies to her and she can see right through him, which makes her even more curious about him. She does find out more about Jack and the mission he knows he needs to embark on. It’s all too enticing for Emily. It is of course her ticket out of her current predicament. Within here lies adventure and a touch of romance.

The book is has a fast-paced narrative that carries that sense of immediacy and tension as the plot builds within the political situation and a space race. It is a bit surreal in parts, but worth sticking with as this is far from full-on Sci-fi. It is an intriguing book with a human who has great insight and some strange experiences. He has a device that can see into the future, securing his insights , the question is, will he be believed and complete his mission?