Frontier
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4.3 • 3 Ratings
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
"Curtis oozes charm and humour in this pacey debut, which will be devoured by fans of Fallout and Firefly" Tamsyn Muir
A dazzling debut for fans of Becky Chambers and Mary Robinette Kowal.
In the distant future most of the human race has fled a ravaged Earth to find new life on other planets. For those who stayed a lawless society remains. Technology has been renounced, and saints and sinners, lawmakers and sheriffs, travelers and gunslingers, abound.
What passes for justice is presided over by the High Sheriff, and carried out by his cruel and ruthless Deputy.
Then a ship falls from the sky, bringing the planet’s first visitor in three hundred years. This Stranger is a crewmember on the first ship in centuries to attempt a return to Earth and save what’s left. But her escape pod crashes hundreds of miles away from the rest of the wreckage.
The Stranger finds herself adrift in a ravaged, unwelcoming landscape, full of people who hate and fear her space-born existence. Scared, alone, and armed, she embarks on a journey across the wasteland to return to her ship, her mission, and the woman she loves.
Fusing the fire and brimstone of the American Old West with sprawling post-apocalyptic science fiction, FRONTIER is a heartfelt queer romance in a high noon standoff set against the backdrop of our planet’s uncertain future.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The far-future Earth of Curtis's rocky debut is devastated and near abandoned when its first visitor in three centuries falls from an escape pod. There's an Old West feel to this apocalyptic world, which will draw in readers of weird westerns, but after the strong opening, the plot devolves into an increasingly disjointed series of vignettes, each featuring a different name for the newly arrived "stranger" and a different trial she must overcome in her trek to be reunited with the rest of her ship and the woman she loves. Raising the stakes are the nefarious High Sheriff at New Destiny and his invidious Deputy Seawall, who pose a threat to the stranger's mission. The style shifts repeatedly and often abruptly as Curtis gradually reveals her heroine's military backstory and the truth of her arrival on Earth. A moving theme of redemption and an admirable focus on environmentalism are both obscured by the jerky and convoluted structure. There are good ideas here, but the execution falters.
