It’s a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour Finding Fire and Other Stories by Rachel Churcher. It’s the seventh book in the Battle Ground series.
To celebrate the launch of Finding Fires the author is offering the prequel, Making Trouble, for free – get it here https://tallerbooks.com/freebook/ – Buy Finding Fires here
About the Author
Rachel Churcher was born between the last manned moon landing, and the first orbital Space Shuttle mission. She remembers watching the launch of STS-1, and falling in love with space flight, at the age of five. She fell in love with science fiction shortly after that, and in her teens she discovered dystopian fiction. In an effort to find out what she wanted to do with her life, she collected degrees and other qualifications in Geography, Science Fiction Studies, Architectural Technology, Childminding, and Writing for Radio.
She has worked as an editor on national and in-house magazines; as an IT trainer; and as a freelance writer and artist. She has renovated several properties, and has plenty of horror stories to tell about dangerous electrics and nightmare plumbers. She enjoys reading, travelling, stargazing, and eating good food with good friends – but nothing makes her as happy as writing fiction.
Her first published short story appeared in an anthology in 2014, and the Battle Ground series is her first long-form work. Rachel lives in East Anglia, in a house with a large library and a conservatory full of house plants. She would love to live on Mars, but only if she’s allowed to bring her books.
Follow @Rachel_Churcher on Twitter, on Goodreads, on Facebook, on Instagram,
About the book
What happened between Margie and Dan at Makepeace Farm? How did Jackson really feel about Ketty? What happens next to the survivors of the Battle Ground Series?
Step behind the scenes of the series with six new short stories and five new narrators – Margie, Jackson, Maz, Dan, and Charlie – plus bonus blogs and insights from the author.
The Battle Ground Series is set in a dystopian near-future UK, after Brexit and Scottish independence. Spoiler warning: Finding Fire and Other Stories contains tie-in short fiction from across the Battle Ground series. There are spoilers for all the previous books in the series, including the free prequel, Making Trouble.
Review
I have to give the author her dues when it comes to Author’s note at the beginning of this book. There is a clear structure to this dystopian and speculative YA series, and the order in which a person reads the books can influence the reading experience.
Reading this one first – book 7 – for instance is a bit like collecting everyone’s diaries and personal notes after being involved in many months of life changing events, and reading them out loud in front the class without having the right context to evaluate said information. The previous books give book seven all the right situational, emotional backstory.
Having read along on this experimental journey I think this adds to the speculative nature of the premise. I think the only downsides are the fact the series has to be read as a whole – as an experience – to get the full gist of it. The earlier books may seem to lack depth or perhaps context in some areas for instance, but as it evolves those areas are catered for retrospectively.
The author also uses Book Seven to evaluate some of her own characters and their actions. In fact it’s almost like a special episode with special unseen footage and the author’s comments. It’s a nice closure, from an aesthetic point of view, not necessarily needed from a story point of view.
Buy Finding Fires at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher : Taller Books pub date 15 July 2021. Buy at Amazon com.
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