#BlogTour ‘Far From The Light Of Heaven’ by Tade Thompson

About the book…

“Simultaneously brutally grounded and wildly imaginative.” —Adrian Tchaikovsky, Arthur C. Clarke Award winner

A tense and thrilling vision of humanity’s future in the chilling emptiness of space from rising giant in science fiction, Arthur C. Clarke Award winner Tade Thompson

The colony ship Ragtime docks in the Lagos system, having travelled light-years to bring one thousand sleeping souls to a new home among the stars. But when first mate Michelle Campion rouses, she discovers some of the sleepers will never wake.

Answering Campion’s distress call, investigator Rasheed Fin is tasked with finding out who is responsible for these deaths. Soon a sinister mystery unfolds aboard the gigantic vessel, one that will have repercussions for the entire system—from the scheming politicians of Lagos station, to the colony planet Bloodroot, to other far-flung systems, and indeed to Earth itself.

Hugest of thanks to Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers  for the blogtour invite, and publishers Orbit for my gifted review copy of ‘Far From The Light Of Heaven’

It is available in e-book, audiobook and paperback formats from October 26!

The notion of a locked room mystery , set in space is jaw dropping ,and so clever-the perspective of Michelle ‘Shell’ Campion being the AI back up, the human captain of the Ragtime ship (itself with its own conscience) pulls you into the story straight away, as she contemplates the path that has taken her to the launch pad.

On the way to Bloodshot, with a 1000 passengers in sleep paralysis, this is the moment that Shell has hoped for, a chance to step out and also in to the shadow of her famous father, who has disappeared 15 years earlier, a space traveller believed lost in a black hole. So this metaphysical problem raises its head from the start-the knowledge that the everything a person is is essentially sucked out and into a black hole is simultaneously terrifying and wondrous to this reader.

Bloodshot is an ecologically ethical human outpost, having tried, and failed with Nightshade , a so-called ‘flat’ outpost, where the world was mined and structures built as high as possible-hmmm…people not learning their lessons from the past, how about that?-and these passengers have skills and knowledge which will help those on Bloodshoot to work with, not against the planet.

Except, in the middle of space, no one can hear you scream because you have been woken by a wolf which you were 100% was not in the inventory of the ship. Woken up screaming, convinced that something was wrong, it does not take long for Shell to work out what is wrong-of the 1000 pods, only 969 are still occupied by sleeping passengers.

Where are the other 31?

What the hell has gone so wrong?

The outpost of Lagos dispatches disgraced repatriater, Rasheed Fin and his A.I, Salvo, to investigate. Bubbling in the background is the mystery of why, after 5 hugely successful cases, he is suddenly persona non grata and yet is the man of choice to fly out to Ragtime to solve the mystery.

The dialogue sparks between Fin and Shell, neither giving an inch as they try and work out what the sabotage angle is, try to stay alive, and deliver the remaining humans to Bloodshoot.

This is an incredible book, I loved everything about it from the futuristic set ups on other planets, the inevitable failures because we humans are undone time and again by greed, the use of Afrocentric languages and names is fantastic. Why is it always that when you meet alien races that they speak English? In this time and space, Mandarin, Yoruba and French are amongst the languages spoken and about damn time! The notion of belonging, of hiraeth, is explored so convincingly from the attitude of growing up in space, or even, between colonies. Does it exacerbate the feeling of otherness, being the perpetual outsider, or does it in fact do the reverse, and create a more equal opportunity for engagement on a level previously unheard of?

As the action (and body parts) fly around in zero gravity, I was completely swept away and into the story, the biggest locked room mystery I could imagine, and with such engaging creations as Fin, Shell and Salvo as our eyes and ears, it is impossible not to hand yourself over to them and wing your way to the heavens.

I am not a sci-fi expert, nor have I read widely within this genre-in fact, I put myself forward for this blog tour after having read Tade’s crime novel, ‘‘Making Wolf’. I trust him as a storyteller, not to leave me behind or get me so bogged down in the science of it that I find myself thrown out of the airlock and free wheeling through the vast expanse of space. And I was not wrong.

Think sci-fi is not your thing?

Try ‘Far From The Light Of Heaven’ and find yourself doing an about turn which will give you whiplash.

About the author…

Tade Thompson is the author of ‘The Wormwood Trilogy,‘ winner of the 2019 Arthur C. Clarke (‘Rosewater’) and Nommo Awards, nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award (‘Rosewater Redemption’) and British Science Fiction Association Award (‘Rosewater Insurrection’). He is also the author of the ‘The Murders Of Molly Southbourne’ Books (Shirley Jackson Award finalist, winner of Nommo Award and Prix Julia-Verlanger, nominated for the British Science Fiction Association award, among others) and ‘Making Wolf’ (winner of the Golden Tentacle Award). Several of his works have been optioned for screen adaptation, including the short story ‘The Apologists’. Born in London to Yoruba parents, he is a medical doctor who lives and works on the south coast of England where he battles an addiction to books.

Twitter @tadethompson @LittleBrownUK