We’ve been waiting for this day ever since the day we opened Karen McCreedy’s submission email. Sabrina, one of our slushies, was blown away by the sample of Unreachable Skies even though, and she’d be the first to tell you this, she is generally hard-pressed to like anything written with a first person point of view. She was so impressed that we decided to request the full manuscript immediately, which unfortunately left Sabrina waiting rather impatiently over a weekend for the rest of the story to be sent in.
Needless to say, the rest of the story holds up just as well as the sample did. Sabrina loved it, I loved it, and Robert also gave the thumbs up, so here we are most of a year later and the book is complete and ready for you to fall in love with it like we did.
So I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating. Unreachable Skies is a trilogy and Karen McCreedy’s first published novel. It’s a unique story. Not really sci-fi and not fully fantasy, it sits somewhere in between as a story set completely on its own planet with a species of people that are not human with their own traditions, history, and problems.
In a world where it is normal to fly, what happens when you can’t?
When a plague kills half the Drax population, and leaves the hatchlings of the survivors with a terrible deformity – no wings – suspicion and prejudice follow. Continuously harassed by raids from their traditional enemies, the Koth, the Drax are looking for someone, or something, to blame.
Zarda, an apprentice Fate-seer, is new to her role and unsure of her own abilities; but the death of her teacher sees her summoned by the Drax Prime, Kalis, when his heir, Dru, emerges from his shell without wings.
A vision that Dru will one day defeat the Koth is enough to keep him and the other wingless hatchlings alive – for a time. Half-trained, clumsy, and full of self-doubt, Zarda must train Dru to one day fulfil the destiny she has foreseen for him, even if it is quickly becoming clear that the Prime’s favourite adviser, Fazak, is not only plotting against the wingless, but is gaining more of Kalis’ trust by the day.
Efforts to fight prejudice and superstition are certain to lead to death for some and exile for others; while Zarda’s own journey to understanding her role in events may lead her to abandon all tradition in order to protect her peoples’ future.
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Book Information:
Genre: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Adventure – This book is targeted toward a general audience.
Page Count: 242 pages
Publish Date: August 17, 2018
Publisher: Mirror World Publishing http://www.mirrorworldpublishing.com/
Purchase Links:Amazon
Mirror World Books
Review Quotes:
“In the tradition of Ursula K. LeGuin and Anne McCaffery, with Unreachable Skies Karen McCreedy has created a nuanced alien culture populated by compelling characters.” ~ James Swallow, bestselling author
Brought up in Staffordshire, England, Karen McCreedy now lives in West Sussex where she recently retired from the University of Chichester. She has written articles on films and British history for a number of British magazines including ‘Yours’, ‘Classic Television’, and ‘Best of British’.
Karen has had a number of short stories published in various anthologies. She also won second prize in Writers’ News magazine’s ‘Comeuppance’ competition in 2014 with her short story ‘Hero’.
‘Unreachable Skies’ is her first novel.
