If post-apocalyptic YA Cli-Fi is your thing, and you’re looking for a story that is as intelligent and thought-provoking as it is exciting, you’ll find a lot to admire in Lotus Blue.
Lotus Blue
is Australian author Cat Sparks’ debut cli-fi novel, and for a first journey it’s a hell of
a ride. Because it’s the kind of book you should know as little as possible
about before you begin reading, here’s a brief synopsis: in a post-apocalyptic cli-fi
future, something tremendously ancient and powerful awakens in the desert. It’s
called Lotus Blue and, despite its rather cosy nomenclature, it is far from
friendly. In fact, it is the deadliest of all ancient war machines, and it will
stop at nothing to carry out its mission.
But Star and her sister Nene have problems
of their own. They are nomadic orphans travelling in a thirteen-wagon desert
caravan, and they have just entered a forbidden territory known as the Dead Red
Heart, a ruined landscape preyed upon by long-forgotten monsters and rogue
technology. The sisters are used to living with danger, but when an archaic
satellite smashes to Earth the stakes are raised nightmarishly high. Star is
forced to begin a journey that will take her dramatically away from the life she
knows, and a secret that her sister has spent her whole life trying to protect
Star from will begin to surface.
And just when things couldn’t get worse, ''
Lotus Blue'' is waiting.
Where YA fiction is concerned,
post-apocalyptic universes and teenage heroines are a dime a dozen, but it’s the
environment that makes this novel so fresh and engaging. From the opening
paragraphs you can feel the desert heat and the sand whipping your face, and
smell the bodies that are packed into the wagon where Star is sitting. Perhaps
inevitably it also conjures up images of Star Wars’ Tatooine - this is
definitely a place where George Lucas’s Tusken Raiders would feel at home - and
maybe because of Cat Sparks’ Australian heritage, there’s also a sense that this
is a place where Mad Max could be living somewhere among the rocky outcrops,
watching the caravan wind its tortuous way along the harsh Sand Road. But
Lotus Blue is more than a pastiche of cinematic imaginings, it’s an
intensely written story that has a unique flavour all its own. And, like all
very good YA fiction, its audience is universal.
If post-apocalyptic Cli-Fi is your thing,
and you’re looking for a story that is as intelligent and thought-provoking as
it is exciting, you’ll find a lot to admire in Lotus Blue.
LOTUS BLUE / AUTHOR: CAT SPARKS / PUBLISHER: SKYHORSE / RELEASE DATE: FEBRUARY 17, 2017
LOTUS BLUE / AUTHOR: CAT SPARKS / PUBLISHER: SKYHORSE / RELEASE DATE: FEBRUARY 17, 2017
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