Lament for the Fallen - Softcover

Chait, Gavin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0857523767 ISBN 13: 9780857523761

Publisher: Doubleday, 2016

Synopsis

'Father, tell me a story?' asks Isaiah, moments before a strange craft falls from the sky and smashes into the jungle near his isolated West African community. Inside the ruined vessel the villagers find the shattered body of a man. His name is Samara and he is a man unlike any the villagers have seen before - a man who is perhaps something more than human.

With his city home of Achenia hiding in the rubble left by a devastating war, Samara has fallen 35,000 km to earth in order to escape the automated hell of an orbiting prison called Tartarus. As he struggles to heal himself, he helps transform the lives of those who rescued him but in so doing attracts the attention of the brutal warlord who rules over this benighted, ravaged post-21st century land. He is not a man to be crossed, and now he threatens the very existence of the villagers themselves and the one, slim chance Samara has of finding his way home and to the woman - and the world - he loves.

And all the while - in the darkness above - waits the simmering fury that lies at the heart of Tartarus . . .

About this title

About the Author

Born in Cape Town in 1974, Gavin Chait emigrated to the UK nearly ten years ago. He has degrees in Microbiology & Biochemistry, and Electrical Engineering. He is an economic development strategist and data scientist, and has travelled extensively in Africa, Latin America, Europe and Asia and is now based in Oxford. His first novel, Lament for the Fallen, was critically acclaimed (Eric Brown in the Guardian called it `a compulsively readable, life affirming tale'). Our Memory Like Dust is his second.

Review

"Refreshingly different . . . exhilarating . . . a compulsively readable, life-affirming tale told in direct, lambent prose, and Chait does a masterful job of juxtaposing a traditional African setting with a convincing depiction of a far-future alien society." -- Eric Brown * GUARDIAN * "Lyrical prose and imaginative world-building . . . the book is gripping, powerful and frequently impressive . . . an ambitious and intelligent work that marks out Chait as a writer worthy of further attention." -- Saxon Bullock * SFX magazine * "Out of this world engrossing. You don't have to understand the science to believe in it . . . superb world building . . . aided by enchanting fables and philosophies weaved into the narrative, Lament for the Fallen is an often poetic, occasionally disturbing, and always enthralling tale that has all the thematic ingredients to make it one of the best sci-fi books of 2016." * CULTUREFLY * "Richly drawn . . . a smart, ideas-driven novel . . . a promising and ambitious debut." * SCiFiNOW * "Loved the whole experience as Gavin brought solid world building into the mix alongside cracking pace as well as dialogue that just tripped off the page . . . a great read . . . Magic." * FALCATA TIMES *

Edition details

• Publisher: Doubleday
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0857523767
• ISBN 13: 9780857523761
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384