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Saturday 13 January 2018

Lost Solace @Karldrinkwater #bookreview



About Lost Solace

Sometimes spaceships disappear with everyone on board – the Lost Ships. But sometimes they come back, strangely altered, derelict, and rumoured to be full of horrors.

Opal is on a mission. She’s been seeking something her whole life. Something she is willing to die for. And she thinks it might be on a Lost Ship.

Opal has stolen Clarissa, an experimental AI-controlled spaceship, from the military. Together they have tracked down a Lost Ship, in a lonely nebula far from colonised space.

The Lost Ship is falling into the gravity well of a neutron star, and will soon be truly lost … forever. Legends say the ships harbour death, but there’s no time for indecision.

Opal gears up to board it. She’s just one woman, entering an alien and lethal environment. But perhaps with the aid of Clarissa’s intelligence – and an armoured spacesuit – Opal may stand a chance.

Can she face her demons and survive?

My review of Lost Solace


I shall start by saying that I read very little science fiction, but when I stumbled across this book's description, I just knew that it was going to be a different type of book and that it would appeal to me. I was right. I loved this book.

Lost Solace centres around Opal, a young woman who is travelling alone in space with only Clarissa, an AI-controlled spaceship, that she sole from the military. Opal's mission is to find a Lost Ship that is located far away from colonised space. The trouble is that she only has a short amount of time to find and enter this ship before it is lost for ever.

This book has it all. Yes, it is obviously a science fiction read, but it's also the story about a strong young woman who will fight for what she believes in. Opal is a strong character,  both in nature and on the page.  She has to be captivating and uterly believable for this book to work,  as without her there are no bones to the story. She is flawed but I forgave her because of her sheer strength and what she believes in.

It is also very obvious that this author writes horror and loves the genre, and this seeps through this book in the most delicious way. This is one eeie read, especially when we get to the Lost Ship part of the book.  Some scenes completely freaked me out and chilled me to the bone. Heightened because of my sheer belief and connection with Opal.

I also have to mention Clarissa, who although a robot, gave a fresh and unique twist to what it means to have a nourishing female friendship.  As I progressed through the novel I began to forget that Clarissa waa a robot and, to me, she became a person in her own right.

Usually when I read science fiction (which is not that often) I can become overwhelmed and confused with all of the technical language, with all of the space speak,  as I just don't get it. Although this book obviously contains technical descriptions as it is set in space,  I did not feel bombarded or bogged down by the descriptions,  but rather they helped to enrich the reading experience.

Lost Solace really is a wonderful read. It's fast, scary, dark at times, and features a young woman whom I grew to admire and root for in her quest.  I really do hope that there is a sequel to this book.

With thanks to the author for providing a paperback copy for review purposes.

Lost Solace was published by Organic Apocalypse on 15 Oct. 2017 and can be found on Amazon here.

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