Blog Tour: Chasing Solace by Karl Drinkwater
Once again is time to explore the universe of lost ships in the second book of the Lost Solace series, Chasing Solace by Karl Drinkwater. My many thanks to Anne Cater and the author for allowing me to be part of this tour.
Author: Karl Drinkwater Pages: 314 Genre: Sci-Fi Publication: 15th April 2019
Synopsis:
The legendary Lost Ships exist, and they harbour nightmarish horrors. Opal knows. She barely survived her first encounter with one.
Despite escaping, she failed to find what she was looking for: her lost sister. Now Opal must board a second derelict Lost Ship to seek answers, and it’s even more monstrous, a sickening place of death and decay. To make things worse, the military government wants her, dead or alive. Considering their reputation, dead may be better.
To find her sister, Opal will risk everything: her life, her blood, her sanity. There’s always a price to pay. Armed with her wits, an experimental armoured suit, and an amazing AI companion, she might just stand a chance.
Review:
(Be aware this review might contain spoilers for the previous book Lost Solace)
The book starts off with Opal on a quest across the universe to reach another lost ship and hopefully, find her sister. Her trusty AI “Clarissa” – now known as Athene – is still beside her to help for anything that might come their way. And it’s a lot!
I never thought the relationship between Opal and Athene could be even better than it was in the first book. I always had my suspicions that Athene would betray Opal. But when I started reading Chasing Solace, there wasn’t a part of me that doubt Athene’s loyalty to her. If she was ever going to do something against Opal’s orders, it would be for her protection, never to harm her. Witnessing how close their relationship got from surviving the first lost ship, flickered a switch in my brain, and I couldn’t imagine Athene as a bad guy anymore. And as an AI, she grew so much her “human” side that it felt as if Opal was talking to a friend or a sister, instead of a digital being.
Just like in the first book, the novel develops slowly. And while I prefer fast-paced stories, I didn’t want this book to be told in any other way. There was something between the story and the pace that worked beautifully, and even though I wasn’t in the edge of my seat most of the times, I still enjoyed a lot reading this book.
This is a book to read with an open mind and without any preconceived ideas of the universe. Simple laws of physics don’t apply, and most of what I read didn’t make sense while it did. The universe was so vast the best I could do was trying my hardest to understand all the nonsense I was learning, just like Opal. All this idea of the lost ships and the alterations they suffer sound so crazy, but it’s something so abnormal and out of this world that somehow makes sense. The universe can be a very strange place, and what might come as an absurdity can have some sort of “logical” explanation after all.
The story was full of information, and the only thing I could do was sit back and let the author take me on this journey. I was a mere spectator of Opal’s adventure, seeing everything play out in front of me and unable to do anything other than assimilate what was happening.
Looking back on both books, I felt the series was a process of self-discovery for Opal. She learned how to trust, how to make friends, how to be hopeful, how to believe in herself, and live her life in her own terms. It was a selfless journey to understand the place humans have in the universe, and how irrelevant and wholesome that can be at the same time. The only thing we have to do is change our perspective.
“[…] (Opal) wished she could share it (view of the stars), so they could experience the stillness and beauty of it together, to feel their insignificance. Not as a bad thing, not as a negotiation, but as a wonderment, and
an awe that there are such things beyond ourselves when we take time to stop, look, listen, and be open to what was there all along.”
About the author
Karl Drinkwater is originally from Manchester but lived in Wales for twenty years, and now calls Scotland his home. He’s a full-time author, edits fiction for other writers, and was a professional librarian for over twenty-five years. He has degrees in English, Classics, and Information Science
Add To: Goodreads Get a copy: Amazon UK Book Depository: Paperback*
* This is an affiliate link. To know more please visit my Disclaimer page.
Don’t forget to check out all the other bloggers on this tour for more reviews and content for Chasing Solace.
1 Comment
Thanks so much for the blog tour support xx