#Blogtour #Review - Six Lights off Green Scar by Gareth Powell

Six Lights off Green Scar 
Gareth Powell
Books on the Hill (BOTH), 2022
Available as: e
Source: Gifted copy

I'm grateful to Love Books Tours for a gifted e-copy of Six Lights off Green Scar to consider for review.

Gareth Powell's novella Six Lights off Green Scar is one of eight dyslexia-friendly books for adults that Books on the Hill plan to publish this year. They are raising money for this via Kickstarter, and I hope you'll support that venture - see link and pitch below, but first, a little about this book.

Six Lights off Green Scar is a taut, focussed space adventure that hits all the right notes. Sal Dervish is a washed-up spaceship captain ekeing out a miserable, down-at-heel existence on a remote moon while his ship rots in dock. Dervish is notorious for what he got wrong, shunned by all who know his history, living from day to, regret to regret, bottle to bottle, girl to girl. 

Ripe, in other words, for an offer of redemption - if he can face the consequences.

Powell gives us all this, and more - the 'roulette ships' with their devil-may-care crews jaunting into the unknown, the ambitious reporter who wants to known What Happened, the sinister figure in the shadows - in his dynamic first few pages, which set up a mystery, pose a challenge and point towards adventure. 

He follows up with action, danger and the need for choices. It all cleverly plays on notes and imagery we may be familiar with from the best of crime and adventure stories, but which are transformed here, the noir hints remaining but reborn in a new world, a new universe, in which those choices - and their consequences - may be much larger than we imagine.

A perfect, riveting narrative that you'll want to gobble up in a single reading, I think - so... make it so!

Dyslexic friendly fiction for adults by BOTH Press

Following their successful "Open Dyslexia" Kickstarter in 2021, which led to publishing eight dyslexic friendly fiction titles, BOTH Press is launching on June 7th 2022, their second Kickstarter "Open Dyslexia: the sequel" with more high-profile authors than ever before, lasting 30 days and finishing on the July 4th 2022

The Kickstarter aims to publish eight more titles of high-quality fiction from bestselling authors: including household names such as Bernard Cornwell and Peter James. 

The line-up is full of many front-list authors such as Gareth Powell, J.M Alvey (aka Juliet Mckenna), Scott Oden, Snorri Krisjanason, and James Bennett.

Peter James will also be doing an introduction for the 2022 collection.  

There are very few initiatives for reading for pleasure for adults. The eight titles BOTH Press has already published are the only readily available dyslexic friendly fiction for adults in the UK and can be found in libraries and any bookshop. The scale of accessibility is not nearly enough, as around 10% of the UK population deal with some form of dyslexia.

Despite Jay Blades's (the Presenter of ‘Repair Shop’) unique telling of his own learning to read on the documentary ‘Learning To Read At 51’, which the BBC recently aired. There are still few or no resources for adult dyslexia. A glance at Adult dyslexics charity websites and reading charity websites indicates there are few resources on reading fiction for pleasure for adults with dyslexia.

The dyslexic blogger Suzy Taylor who writes for Dyslexia Scotland, said: 

"It is frustrating that we now have children's books in dyslexic friendly formats. As adults we apparently do not require books in the same form."

There needs to be a choice for people to read for pleasure, where there are books designed to be friendly to them and are not dumbed down, are high quality and enjoyable fiction, which people can chat and socialise about with friends and family.

Darren Clarke, the director of Succeed with Dyslexia, said:

"This books shop is doing incredible things and helping people to fall in love with reading again" [and] "I love the fact and the thought that has gone through on these [titles] with the spacing, the font, with the colour of the paper and the way that the book just flows."

BOTH Press has had many heart-warming responses of how the books have impacted their lives. 

Dr Alistair Sims said: 

"Many individuals who have told us their stories do not want to be mentioned due to fear of stigma about their struggle to read. For example a man in his 50s is Scotland had not read a book since he was a child. His partner found us and bought him one of our titles. He read it. Then called us up to order another. He was so happy to actually read. In fact the partner wrote us a letter explaining how much of difference it is making and then ordered the four more for a Christmas present." 

BOTH aim to raise £16,000 to publish eight titles. Though looking to the future, they will need more than £20,000 a year to keep publishing eight titles regularly. All funds go toward the book production/ life cycle to make them readily available. The bookshop Books on the Hill and their manager Alistair Sims, who created BOTH Press, receives no profits from the project.

To support the Kickstarter, go here.

@booksonthehill
@lovebookstours 
@igbooktours

Books on the Hill (BOTH) Open Dyslexia Kickstarter Project

And now for something a little bit different... I'm joining the Random Things Tours blogtour for the new Books on the Hill kickstarter.

If I have a purpose on this blog (and, let's face it, on a bad day it can be hard to tell) it's to share my love of reading and of what I read. Reading for me is an escape, a space to call my own, a window into other worlds - a thing that can help me empathise with others, or simply get me out of myself when I need to. 

I feel enormously privileged to be able to take part in the world of books, comics and magazines. 

It's a cruel fact that that world isn't equally accessible to everyone. There are a number of different reasons for that, and today's blogpost highlights an effort to overcome one of them - the lack of accessible books for adults with dyslexia. You may already be aware of Books on the Hill as a bookshop - well here they are, as a publisher, BOTH Press, tackling that problem. 

Books on the Hill is Alistair Sims. He is the manager and commander-in-chief of the bookshop (though his partner, Chloe and his mother, Joanne, who set up the bookshop with him, may disagree with this description ). Alistair is dyslexic and has a PhD in history and archaeology. Alistair could not read until he was 13 and is passionate about helping anyone who has difficulty reading. He is the driving force behind BOTH Press and has been involved in every step in this project, from finding award winning authors to contribute, the cover design, and the road to publication, including setting up for distribution. 

Alistair writes

'Books on the Hill is passionate about helping people who have dyslexia, or have any difficulty with reading, to access the joy of good fiction. There are great books out now for children with dyslexia, with specialist publishers like Barrington Stokes and mainstream publishers such as Bloomsbury doing their part. However, there are sadly very few books for adults with Dyslexia in traditional mass market publishing. 

Dyslexia is a learning difference that primarily affects reading and writing skills. The NHS estimates that up to 1 in every 10 people in the UK have some form of dyslexia, while other dyslexic organisations believe 1 in 5 and more than 2 million people in the UK are severely affected. 

Dyslexia does not stop someone from achieving. There are many individuals who are successful and are dyslexic. Famous actors, such as Orlando Bloom; Entrepreneurs like Theo Paphitis, and many, many more, including myself. All of who believe dyslexia has helped them to be where they are now. Dyslexia, though, as I can attest to, does not go away. You don’t grow out of it, and so we are acknowledging that and trying to without being patronising, create a selection of books that will be friendly to people who deal with dyslexia every day. 

Since we started the project in 2019, Books on the Hill have had many adults customers with dyslexia come in shop the asking for something accessible to read. For example, one customer asked if we stocked well known novels in a dyslexic friendly format. Unfortunately we had to say no, as they just don’t exist. We explained what we are trying to achieve by printing our own and she replied: 

“I have been reading [children dyslexic] books but they are a bit childish so am really happy I have found your company!! Thanks so much again and thank you for making such a helpful and inclusive brand - it means a lot." 

This response is not isolated. We have had many adults come in to the shop with dyslexia, who do not read or struggle to read and they they believe dyslexic friendly books would have real impact on their reading for pleasure.'

So what are Books on the Hill doing?

They're making exciting good quality fiction accessible to a minority group currently not provided for by today’s UK traditional mass book market and providing a new tool for booksellers to use in their drive to increase diversity and inclusion.

The immediate aim is to publish and print 8 titles of dyslexic friendly books for adults. The longer term goal is to continue publishing good quality adult fiction to produce a wide range of books for people who have challenges when reading. 

Who are they working with?

Books on the Hill have persuaded many great authors to contribute to this project. All are brilliant authors and are names I am sure you will recognise. 

• Stan Nicholls, the author of many novels and short stories but is best known for the internationally acclaimed Orcs: First Blood series. 
• Steven Savile, the fantasy, horror and thriller writer, now lives in Stockholm whose father is a customer of Books on the Hill 
• The horror duo that is Thana Niveau and John Llewellyn Probert, both well established and engaging authors and also residents of Clevedon. 
• Adrian Tchaikovsky is an Arthur Clark Award winner and best known for his series Shadows of the Apt, and for his novel Children of Time. 
• Steven Poore is the highly acclaimed fantasy writer who Alistair first met on his first fantasy convention in Scarborough. 
• We finish the Magnificent Seven with Joel Cornah, who also has dyslexia, and with whom Alistair participated in a podcast on dyslexia for the Clevedon Literature 2020 'Festival in the Clouds'. 

As I'm sure you'll agree this is a really worthwhile project - and an exciting publishing project as well. 'How can I get involved?' I hear you ask.

How YOU Can Get Involved

Well... Books on the Hill are launching a Kickstarter beginning April 2nd 2021 for 30 days, with the focus on paying for the printing of the books and giving them starting capital to continue to print more titles. 

There will be many ways you can be involved in this. You can contribute on the Kickstarter website itself, here. 

There will be a number of different options of donating money, in which you will receive rewards, such as ebooks of a title or a paperback of one or more of the titles to be published. In addition a unique reward from authors who are contributing to the project. 

You can still contribute outside the kickstarter. Books on the Hill are happy to receive your help in the shop, where they will have a donation box available.

You can, of course, look out for the books and order or preorder them, once they are available. And recommend or review them, too, in due course, to ensure that they are known by as wide an audience as possible.

Who else is helping?

Books on the Hill are collaborating with Chrissey Harrison, who is also an local author and member of North Bristol Writers Group. Chressey and Alistair have designed the book-covers together, with Chrissey creating the finished product we now look on at awe with. Nearly all the design work has been done by Chrissey, and she is also in charge of the printing process, typesetting. BOTH are so proud and appreciative to be working with her. 

Special mention must go to Harrison Gates, who runs Nine Worthy, and who has dedicated his time and expertise to produce the print catalogue  free of cost. 

Joanne Hall is an author, editor and formerly the Chair of BristolCon, Bristol’s premier (and only) science fiction and fantasy convention. BOTH give a huge thank you to Jo for proof reading the stories free of cost. 

Vicky Brewster has edited all the new stories by the authors. She specialises in editing and beta reading long-form fiction. Vicky is a great professional editor.

Contacts

You can find Books on the Hill at their website, on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. And the Kickstarter is, again, here. 

Interview with Little Red Reviewer

As you may be aware Little Red Reviewer who blogs at https://littleredreviewer.wordpress.com is running a Kickstarter for a print book featuring the best of her reviews over the past eight years.

You can read all about that, and back the Kickstarter, here (I have) and to help spread the word, she's getting out and about in the blogosphere and kindly agreed to answer some questions here. So here we go - the first Blue Book Balloon interview of 2019!

BBB: How did you get started with blogging/ reviewing? 
LRR: The reviewing is older than the blogging. I'd been posting science fiction book reviews on a science fiction bulletin board, a few e-zines, a few review sites, even my first (failed) blog. It was fun, but it wasn't satisfying.  It was a perfect combination of  the wordpress platform being the exact type of user-friendliness I needed, some extra time on my hands, a little bit of extra organization. In 2010, The Little Red Reviewer was born!  Took me about a year to figure out how to network on the blogosphere, and a few more years after that to get my style to where I wanted it. Blogging isn't a thing you do, it's a journey you go on.

BBB: How do you approach reviewing (sheaves of notes and stickies – or just race through the book and put down what you feel?)

I'm a pen and paper girl, so I tuck pages of notes into books, use post-in notes, even write on bookmarks.  My mom used to buy me all these beautiful bookmarks, I generally had to stop using them because I was writing notes all over them. One time, I had a pen, but no paper to write on, and I really wanted to remember what I was thinking, so I wrote the notes in ink on my arm.    I'm pretty sure I've jotted book notes down on restaurant paper napkins.

The problem is when a book is so engrossing that I can't put it down long enough to jot down a few notes. In that case, I get to the end of the book, and I end up just typing and typing  until I've got something coherent.

BBB: Has your approach changed with experience? 

Most definitely.  My early reviews were fancy book reports where I talked about the book, but kept myself separate from the book.  The more comfortable I've gotten with writing reviews, the less I separate myself from what I'm reading. Instead of describing the characters, it's easier now for me to talk about how I relate to the characters.

The actual writing of most reviews has gotten easier as well. I say “most”, because a growing number of books that I review have a massive emotional impact on me. Writing the review is like reliving whatever I went through when I read the book, and trying to get all of those thoughts and feelings into 1200 words.  It's not as easy as it sounds.

We've all had those times when we've read a bunch of books, and are just struggling to sit down and write the reviews.  Maybe I don't know where to start?  Maybe I haven't thought enough about what I loved about the book in combination with what annoyed me? This struggle is so common I even wrote a blog post about it.

BBB: Who do you review for (yourself? The author? Other readers? Someone else altogether?) 

I review for myself.  The biggest reason behind starting Little Red Reviewer was a practical reason: I know if I write down my thoughts, or even type them up, I am more likely to remember the book I read. If I write a review of a book, I'm more likely to remember the plot, the names of the characters, even the twist at the end (even if I don't spoil the twist in the review!).  The practical turned into the enjoyable – I enjoy writing book reviews. I enjoy playing with weird metaphors that don't quite make sense, I enjoy having an emotional response to something, and then reflecting that response back in a review.  It's fun!

It's been wonderful over the years to have other bloggers enjoy what I post on my  blog.  Getting encouraging comments from authors and editors makes my day!

BBB: Have there been any particular high or low points so far? (I’ll assume that Kickstarting your collection is going to be a high!) 

High point –  after I'd posted a review of the book,  one of my favorite authors e-mailed me to say it was their favorite review they'd ever gotten.  This was a few years ago, and I am still on cloud nine.    I don't review for authors, but when authors tell me they appreciate my reviews, that they appreciate that I got what they were trying to say,  those are always high points.

This Kickstarter and the positive attention it is getting, definitely a high point!!  Even my parents are excited!

Low points?  I had a very low point in my life that lasted about two years (things got better!) where I was angry and depressed and my life was full of toxic elements and I had no idea at the time how to make the horribleness end.  Among other issues, there were a bunch of times I wanted to stop blogging. I wanted to stop reading, stop talking about books, I wanted to take the hobby that had given me so much joy and just throw it in the bin. You know you have a problem when even thinking about your favorite hobby makes you miserable.  That was a low point in my life that bled into a low point in my blog.  At the end of February I'll be quietly celebrating the two year anniversary of the end of that chapter of my life.  Good riddance to low points and toxicity!

BBB: What’s your favourite review that you’ve done? 

I have a few!  Forty (or maybe more?) of my favorite reviews will be in The Best of Little Red Reviewer.   The short list of my favorites includes:

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

The Incrementalists by Steven Brust and Skyler White

Clockwork Phoenix Vol 5 edited by Mike Allen

BBB: Some reviewers are fine with publishing “negative” reviews (whatever that means) – others won’t touch them. Do you have a position on this?

I publish negative reviews.  I publish fewer negative reviews now than I used to, which is probably related to the fact that I am more careful about what books I commit to reviewing, and I am more likely to just not finish a book that isn't working for me.

I've written negative reviews of wildly popular and award winning books.

I  once wrote a review where I spent the first 2/3 of the review praising the story, that I like the space opera-ness of it, enjoyed the environment, thought the future society was really cool.  A scene at the end of the book rubbed me the wrong way, and so I wrote about that too.

Not every book will work for every writer. It's OK to disagree with people who liked or didn't like something. Just because a book gets a lot of hype, or wins a lot of awards doesn't mean that you will love it. And that's OK.

BBB: If a book isn’t working for you do you slog on to the end or hurl it across the room? 

Lol!  I've done both.   If I'm committed to finishing it – maybe it has some redeeming qualities, or it is for my local book club, I'll try to finish it.  Book club conversations about books that we all hated are hilarious, by the way.

My husband and I have a special stack of books behind the television – these are books that are destined to be traded in at the used bookstore, or donated to the library, or put in a “free” box somewhere.  And yes, occasionally really bad books end up in the garbage.

I must be getting old, as I have less and less patience for books that just aren't working for me. If the book hasn't grabbed me by page 50,  it gets put down and I'll try another one.  My friend Susan, who runs Dab of Darkness inspired me with her posts where she'd grab a bunch of interesting books, and only read the first few chapters of each, for the purpose of discovering which books grabbed her attention and which just weren't for her.

Life is way too short for bad books!

BBB: You give some favourite genres in your blog. But where do you stand on genre in general (every time I look there seem to be more of them) — useful in classifying/ analysis or just a marketing label? 

I imagine once upon a time it was easier for a publicist to write a press release about a novel that was just a space opera, or just a high fantasy adventure, or just a supernatural thriller.

I really feel bad for the people who make the category signs at bookstores. Where do you put something if it's a philosophical first-contact story with vampires?  How about a romance involving time traveling cyborgs who have to be careful not to mess up history, but everyone in the future is a total idiot? How about a spy thriller that involves Cthonic monsters, zombies, and the challenges of having a work-life balance?  What about a political fantasy that involves economics, betrayal, currency manipulation, and forbidden love?

I am loving that everything right now is a mishmash of genres.

BBB: And related to that, are there any genres/ settings/ tropes you won’t touch? 

If the story doesn't have some kind of speculative or supernatural element to it, I am probably going to get bored very quickly.

I used to say I didn't like military scifi,  but then I read Yoon Ha Lee's Machineries of Empire trilogy, and loved it!  That trilogy is MilitarySF, plus a ton of other brilliant stuff.

BBB: Finally, and more of a fun question, imagine your latest review book has revealed a devious plot. In the course of investigating it you’ve become trapped – say in a remote cave or a lonely forest tower. (Don’t worry, it’s a very comfortable cave or tower.) A rescue party is on its way but will take several days to reach you. You have plenty of food and water, but you can only have one book with you (any book). Which would it be? 

A comfy tower with plenty of food and water, and I'm stuck there for a few days and I can't do anything but read?  This sounds like the best vacation ever!

I'd take Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun.  I've only read through the whole thing once, and like all Wolfe books, you've got to read it a few times to really get what's happening.    Reading that series is like walking through a gigantic house that is all curving hallways covered in windows – you can only see a little ways ahead of you and  a little ways behind you.  But if you really get to know the house and what time the sun is shining into different windows, you can plan your walks through the hallways so that the sun is coming into the windows and you can see way more of what's going on.  Even better, you'll see something different every time.

Shout out to Alzabo Soup,  a really excellent podcast about Wolfe's Book of the New Sun.

BBB: Thank you for those insights into your reviewing - just a reminder to everyone that the Kickstarter is here.