Flotsam

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Pub Date 27 Mar 2018 | Archive Date 15 Apr 2018

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Description

A fantastical steampunk first contact novel that ties together high magic, high technology, and bold characters to create a story you won’t soon forget.

Captain Talis just wants to keep her airship crew from starving, and maybe scrape up enough cash for some badly needed repairs. When an anonymous client offers a small fortune to root through a pile of atmospheric wreckage, it seems like an easy payday. The job yields an ancient ring, a forbidden secret, and a host of deadly enemies.

Now on the run from cultists with powerful allies, Talis needs to unload the ring as quickly as possible. Her desperate search for a buyer and the fallout from her discovery leads to a planetary battle between a secret society, alien forces, and even the gods themselves.

Talis and her crew have just one desperate chance to make things right before their potential big score destroys them all.

A fantastical steampunk first contact novel that ties together high magic, high technology, and bold characters to create a story you won’t soon forget.

Captain Talis just wants to keep her airship...


A Note From the Publisher

Audiobook narrated by Mary Robinette Kowal.

Audiobook narrated by Mary Robinette Kowal.


Advance Praise

“Combining the best elements of steampunk and space opera, placed in a lavishly detailed and imagined world, Flotsam will hold you firmly till the final page.”

-  Cat Rambo, Author of Beasts of Tabat

“Flotsam tosses you headfirst into a fast-paced world of noir swashbuckling and intrigue. Airships, renegades, and plenty of action await within.”

- Scott Warren, Author of The Union Earth Privateers

“Combining the best elements of steampunk and space opera, placed in a lavishly detailed and imagined world, Flotsam will hold you firmly till the final page.”

-  Cat Rambo, Author of Beasts of Tabat

...


Marketing Plan

- Review copies mailed to all major trade publications

- Digital ARC campaign through NetGalley and Parvus' stream team of bloggers and reviewers

- Aggressive promotion via social networks

- Author guest blogs, video streams, and appearances in the New England and New York.

- Review copies mailed to all major trade publications

- Digital ARC campaign through NetGalley and Parvus' stream team of bloggers and reviewers

- Aggressive promotion via social networks

- Author...


Available Editions

EDITION Paperback
ISBN 9780997661361
PRICE $14.99 (USD)

Average rating from 31 members


Featured Reviews

Historically for me stories of space travel reminded me of Star Trek which I had been ambivalent about at best as a child. So to say I was uninspired by the long running galactic TV series to ever read books set in space was probably an understatement. However, after reading Meagan Spooner and Amie Kaufman’s acclaimed Starbound series a whole new genre of books was opened up to me. This led me to Flotsam and how very glad I am.

Talis is captain of her own ship, Wind Sabre and along with her small crew survives by taking contracts of a somewhat dubious nature. When she accepts a deal to retrieve a ring from the flotsam layer of dead junk that surrounds the space islands of Peridot, it seems too good to be true. Probably because it was. The contract takes Talis and her crew on an uncomfortable journey for survival. An old flame turned adversary, Hankirk, now an Imperial Captain is hot on her tail with the might of the Cutter Government behind him. Add to that the strange Yu-Nyun alien spaceship trailing her and she’s in a race for funds, new parts for the space ship and her survival.

Occasionally in a book, I read a line that I enjoy so much I go back to read it again. And again. Then I savour it like a really good Merlot. This book didn’t have one such line. It had many that I loved, so wonderfully crafted, like “she’d start the questions on the outside. Find a chink, wedge it open, and ease in” This author can paint a picture as vividly as if she had acrylics and a brush in hand and she isn’t afraid to use a cutting sense of humour. When referring to the reluctantly accepted resident alien she tells us that Talis thought ‘it’ was “always agreeing while simultaneously correcting. Not her favourite conversationalist this one”

Talis is a complex character, beautifully written. She is fiercely protective of her crew, especially the (figuratively and literally) tortured Dug. She is a tough, resilient woman on the outside whilst constantly self-doubting her thoughts and decisions on the inside. Her musings again give free rein to the author’s ability to write a dry sense of humour. When in trouble Talis thinks “what an incredible honour to have such a target painted on her back”

The plot jogs along at a very respectable pace and the world building was excellent. One of my favourite quotes comes at the end of the book, so I can’t include it without adding a huge ‘spoiler alert’ warning. Rest assured, the book’s end has left me waiting with bated breath for book number two. I genuinely can’t wait to read it to find out where the story goes next.
An ARC was greatly appreciated from NetGalley, the author and publisher and this review has been in no way affected by that.

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Tails and crew are down on their luck so accept a contract that will tide them over, trouble is this simple job to salvage an old antique ring is not so simple and they're not the only ones with an interest. A fabulous SteamPunk adventure with Airships, Aliens and God's.
I really enjoyed this and I loved Scrimshaw the Yu'Nyum Alien who ended up on the Wind Sabre and I hope we see more of his character in the next book, which I'm really looking forward to.

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Now, these are the kind of debuts I love finding! Such a cool blend of steampunk, fantasy, and sci-fi. I am not even quite sure which category to tuck this one in and I loved that about it.

You can tell there was a lot thought put into this world, it’s gorgeous. The setting, the alien cultures, the outfits, everything was so visually stunning and I liked that it was a nice balance of detailed world building and trusting you to be able to keep up. And that there was a very handy glossary for the times when you think you know what something is but aren’t totally sure, or in my case, just terrible with names. I thought it was a definite must-have.

The characters were appealing and the tidbits of back story and their complicated pasts together and apart, were interesting and kept me wanting to know more about them.

Although, there were things that were hinted at that I would have loved more than just allusions to- especially Tallis and the High Priestess Illiya’s, time serving together. And I wished for more about Tallis and Hankirk’s rocky past. I think it would have made some of Tallis’s decisions concerning him less frustrating to have a had a better understanding of their relationship. I am hoping there will be more of that sort of thing in the next book.

The Yu-Nyun had an Earth Final Conflict feel to them in the way you are left questioning if they really are as benign as they seem, or do they have ulterior motives? I was really hoping with the not leading you by the nose style to the writing, for there not to be an obvious answer to that question and others that were hinted at within the plot. Some events in their attempts to get us from one thing to the next felt a bit easy and for me, those moments were some of the weaker parts of the story.

On the whole, this was an enjoyable story and my issues were so minor compared to what I thought were its strengths. It made for a really fun and creative debut. I am looking forward to seeing where the author takes things in the next book.

Thank you to Netgalley, Parvus press, and the author, for the opportunity to read this ARC, it was a trip!

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I thought this book started off really well. It is written from single perspective and you get a really good feel for the main character. You get a good feel for all the main characters really, but you get a little bit of a slant on them from the main character's perspective. Talis seems to be a strong willed heroine and one who, despite being a little lacking on the planning side of things, is a capable leader. The author also does a good job with the world development, doesn't data dump, but does give you a good feel for the world, what it looks like, and how it feels to be there. The author's style and prose was very readable and kept the story flowing. I didn't note anything that threw me out of the story.
***Spoilers***
The plot itself was going along well, but then when the opportunity to take the simple and entirely too expectable turn of the aliens using her to attack the gods, it seemed like the author avoided the simple twist in the plot, but jumped to an entirely ridiculous level out of nowhere. Okay, so it's sci-fi fantasy and ridiculous is somewhat expected, but the mermaids and the vial were out of nowhere, then they never did tie back in. If that was a setup for something in a later novel I would have to say it was not particularly well done. I doubt if I wasn't writing this review about it that I would remember that scene once I finished the novel, but scanning back through trying to pinpoint why I felt lost in the plot of things, here with the mermaids is really where my lost feeling began. At this point in the story as Talis is taking the aliens to meet Onaya Bone, the reader is not sure if the aliens will turn on Talis, but we're assuming that. My first assumption is that these supposed gods aren't really gods at all and as the reader I'm waiting for this moment as a potential big reveal. The description here of the goddess was pretty brief and I didn't have a good mental image of her. The whole scene left me feeling a little disoriented for what had happened until I read it a second time. The first time I guess I had been sidetracked and didn't catch the reference to Silas Cutter's death and then the next chapter opens with Talis acting ill. I thought she was just ill from disappointing the goddess and the spiked drink the first time. The 2nd time after reading the whole book already, it's clear to me that part of her nauseous feeling stems from Silas Cutter's death. I think Silas Cutter should have been played up as more important to Talis somehow before this point. I know it was referenced, but I kinda felt like these gods weren't likely real gods of any significance up to this point and we still don't know that these gods have any significant power yet. The references to pre-cataclysm tech allude to their being a much more sophisticated culture before the cataclysm. I read this as the gods just likely being normal people who had access to the most advanced tech and set themselves up as gods with some of this technology that is now long forgotten by the people. So this is where the plot loopholes get a little sketchy for me truly and this is probably the biggest reason I can't give this book a higher rating. These aliens just went to talk to this goddess, who is really just on a screen and not there, with no real plan to tell her something they had told here before and they wound up dead. Now if they were a known aggressive force by Peridot's gods, why would they have relative free reign to run around and go wherever they please? Why would they go in to make a threat of war a second time and not be armed? Why would Onaya Bone give Talis this job, alone, to retake this ring from the hostile alien force, knowing the ring is likely there only chance at a successful defense. The whole plot just stops making sense here basically. It just feels like the author gave up and had to move the story on somehow, already knowing where she wanted it to go. Everything else in the book leading up to and after this point is acceptable plot structure, but this most pivotal scene is totally screwed up in my opinion. The judgement of gods here sucks, because Talis couldn't have even been successful had they actually killed Scrimshaw. Convenience of him living is one thing, but the fact that the rulers of their world are morons, I can't handle. Then everything from there on was pretty interesting. I thought the ending and just running away from Meran was a little odd, but probably not unjustifiable so it could work. Then there is another smaller climax that leaves the story wide open for the next novel, but unfortunately I didn't feel like it brought this one to a full close. We really have no idea what the state of Peridot is, at the end of the book. I don't think this hurt the book much, but I don't like loose endings like this particularly well. In the end because of how well I liked the creativity of the story and world, as well as how likable the majority of the characters are, I am going to give this 4 stars. I feel like maybe it should have only been 3.75, but I enjoyed so why not round up.

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This is the second steampunkish novel I've read recently featuring airships plying between the floating remnants of a planet long after a catastrophe has torn it apart, and I have to say, if this is a new genre, I like it. For one thing, both of them have been better, from a copy editing viewpoint, than the vast majority of steampunk books, but they've also shown a good grasp of story structure and characterisation. (The other was Curtis Craddock's <i>An Alchemy of Masques and Mirrors</i>.)

I have to say that I never did quite figure out the physical layout of Peridot. There's gravity, but there doesn't seem to be anything causing it; things just fall into the flotsam layer and stay there. It was never clear whether the aerial islands formed a disc or a sphere, either; it seemed like a disc, but I could be wrong. A lot of the early worldbuilding consisted of unexplained references that I had to set aside in the hope of understanding them later, and some things, as I say, never did get clarified. Near the end of the book, an island boasts a volcano, which seems at odds with the way everything is laid out; where's its magma coming from? And the river and fountains of sand, while cool, didn't seem particularly likely.

All this is background, though, really, and the focus is on the plot. It starts with a well-worn premise - plucky captain, who's rebelled against the injustices of society and become a smuggler, has to take risky jobs to keep her battered old ship maintained and flying. Despite its familiarity, the trope is played well, and the escalation of stakes is smoothly handled. Before we know it, the captain and her crew are in the middle of an alien invasion, and making choices that affect the fate of gods.

Yes, it's a genre mashup: steampunk, aliens, post-apocalyptic, adventure. Fans of Lindsay Buroker will probably enjoy it; it has a competent female lead who keeps questioning her competence to herself; a diverse crew who have their own issues and bicker among themselves, but pull together when the chips are down; and the aforementioned steampunkish setting, aliens, and adventure plot. If the author can be as consistent as Buroker in producing entertaining stories on this model, she's likely to do well, and this one is certainly a promising start.

I received a review copy via Netgalley.

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