#BlogTour The Coming Darkness by Greg Mosse

 It’s a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour The Coming Darkness by Greg Mosse. 

About the Author

A theatre director, playwright and actor Greg Mosse is the founder and director of the Criterion New Writing programme at the Criterion Theatre in London, running workshops in script development to a diverse community of writers, actors and directors. In addition, since 2015, Greg has written, produced and stage 25 plays and musicals.

Greg set up both the Southbank Centre Creative Writing School – an open access program of evening classes delivering MA level workshops – and the University of Sussex MA in Creative Writing at West Dean College which he taught for 4 years. 

The husband of the bestselling novelist Kate Mosse, Kate’s hit novel Labyrinth was inspired by a house that Greg and his mother bought together in the French medieval city of Carcassonne, where the couple and their children spent many happy summers. Following the success of Labyrinth, Greg created the innovative readers-and-writers website mosselabyrinth.co.uk MosseLabyrinth. The first of its kind MosseLabrynth was the world’s first online accessible 3D world, and the inspiration for Pottermore – the popular Harry Potter website. 

A multilinguist, Greg has lived and worked in Paris, New York, Los Angeles and Madrid and has worked as both an interpreter at a variety of international institutions and a teacher in the UK.

Greg and Kate live in Chichester, where Kate’s parents founded the Chichester Festival Theatre, they have two grown up children. The Coming Darkness was written during lockdown and is Greg’s debut novel.  Follow @GregMosse on Twitter

About the book

A massive new talent in British fiction, Greg Mosse’s storytelling is complex and finely crafted, combining twisting plotlines, intelligent dialogue and ambiguous characters, all skilfully brought together in an epic climax. Never before has dystopian fiction been so chillingly real.

Set in an alternate near future in which global warming and pathogenic viruses have torn through the fabric of society, The Coming Darkness follows French secret operative Alexandre Lamarque on the trail of global eco-terrorists. Lamarque’s target is set on destabilising the controls placed on global governments that protect human life from climate change. One wrong move and the world could be plunged into darkness.

From Paris to North Africa, Lamarque is drawn into an ominous sequence of events: a theft from a Norwegian genetics lab; a string of violent child murders; his mother’s desperate illness; a chaotic coup in North Africa, and the extraction under fire of its charismatic leader.

Experience has taught Alex there is no one he can trust – not his secretive lover Mariam, not even his mentor, Professor Fayard – the man at the centre of a deadly web of government control. Lamarque rapidly finds himself in a heart-thumping race against time, the one man with the ability to prevent chaos and destruction taking over.

Perhaps the world’s only hope of preventing The Coming Darkness… 

Review

When you wade through the vast amount of information, characters, scenes, era and abilities – it would be easy to miss what I believe to be the core of the book. Ironically, despite the story taking place in 2037, that core isn’t really much different from a possible current scenario. Good vs evil, advancement vs the comfortable status quo.

Who is right? The people wanting to use technology allegedly for the good of mankind and advancement or the group intent on creating a carte blanche. Strange conundrum – when is an eco-activist a terrorist and when are they just rebels with a cause? Depends on your perspective and perhaps more importantly; what is the end goal and how many victims will your crusade or agenda cost the movement and the world. In this case the group is an invisible entity willing to die for their cause.

The use of misinformation to connect a legion of believers, those who find patterns where others don’t – conspiracy theory vs fact. Uncomfortably close to the truth, and in this case how it can fuel a lethal narrative.

Just a side note – I read this with the image of 2037 being the future, like really far into the future, and then it dawned on me afterwards that it’s actually only fifteen years. That was a bit mindboggling, then again, A Space Odyssey 2000 and the 21st century once seemed yonks away too. I wonder if that was the intention to create a scenario that appears unfathomable, but it’s probably closer to reality than we realise.

I enjoyed the speculative nature of story. It combines current with futuristic, facts with intuition and perception. In the midst there is the moral dilemma of how we know who is on the right side of morality or is it a case of you only get to judge the situation when it has become a reality. Looking forward to what this author brings to the table next.

Buy The Coming Darkness at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Moonflower Books, pub date 10th November 2022 – Hardback £18.99. Buy at Amazon com.

#BlogTour Blue running by Lori Ann Stephens

 For fans of Station Eleven and The Handmaid’s Tale, Blue Running is a gripping coming-of-age thriller set in post-secessionist Texas. Published on the 2nd of December 2021 by Moonflower Books.

About the Author

Lori Ann Stephens is an award-winning author whose American published novels include Novalee and the Spider Secret, Some Act of Vision, and Song of the Orange Moons. Her short stories have appeared in Glimmer Train Stories, and other literary presses. She is also the winner of The Chicago Tribune’s “Nelson Algren Awards.” A lifelong Texan, she’s seen the best and worst of her home state and has come to the conclusion that Texans are truly fabulous at heart. She teaches creative writing and critical reasoning at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. 

Follow @lorifromtexas on Twitter, Visit loriannstephens.com

About the book

In the new Republic of Texas, open-carry gun ownership is mandatory, fundamentalist religion is the norm, violent motorcycle gangs terrorise the towns, the police are corrupted, and vigilantes guard the Wall that keeps people out and in. It is in this setting that Bluebonnet Andrews has grown up in the small town of Blessing with her alcoholic deputy father, her mother having fled the country just before Texas’ borders were closed to the rest of the world.

When a firearm accident kills Blue’s best friend, the Texas Rangers accuse her of murder. The penalty for murder is death, regardless of your age. Terrified, Blue goes on the run. In this journey away from the only home she has ever known, Blue joins up with a Latin American teenager named Jet, who is also on the run. Blue’s vague plans of crossing the border and finding her mother are galvanized by Jet’s situation: the 16-year-old is pregnant. She needs to cross the Wall into America, where abortion is still legal. But is freedom of choice worth dying for?

Blue Running addresses issues of feminism, nationalism, women’s rights, racial injustice, immigration, and gun ownership, framed through the intimate tale of two young women from different backgrounds reacting to the system. Underlying these surface issues are their own personal struggles: histories of abandonment, abuse, sexual assault, racism, and individual agency.

Lori Stephens is a massive new talent in the literary fiction thriller scene. Her writing is sparse, fearless, and real. Blue Running pulls no punches. A fast-paced, page-turning, chilling book which looks unflinchingly at what the future could hold, Blue Running is unforgettable and important. This is her first book to be published in the UK.

Review

Blue is a neglected, abandoned and lonely teenager, who finds her life thrown upside down when she finds herself in the middle of a tragic accident. Trouble is nobody believes her and as she is making her way to the person she thinks will embrace her with open arms, she comes across a young girl who intends to flee to America to an abortion. Blue starts to understand her own privilege and how different life is for both of them. Their journey becomes an awakening and eye-opening experience.

A dystopian that sails close to the wind when it comes to realistic possible futuristic scenarios will always be memorable and relatable. This plot describes a future certain political groupings and fanatics would be quite comfortable with. A wall built between those who misinterpret freedom and democracy, and those who understand better what democracy truly means.

Stephens has brought together the most contentious issues of 21st century America, and the political climate of the past six years or so, to create a fascinating coming-of-age story. Blue represents the youth of today, but perhaps more importantly Jet and Blue represent both sides of the story.

In a frank and often alarming look into the future, the plot deals with racism, neglect, abuse, and the victims of political power plays. Where the powers that be take choice and freedom away from women and young girls, all in the name of religion – on words written by man for men. Whilst simultaneously the same powers that be think nothing of making each child a potential killer by arming them and enforcing martial law on everyone, including children who break the law. The break in logic is clear to some and yet to others this seems like a great structure for society. 

It’s a gripping and fascinating read.

Buy Blue Running at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Moonflower Books, pub date 2nd December 2021| £16.99 | Hardback. Buy at Amazon com.