Reach For The Clouds
Latest News book nearing funding goal.
6 June, 2014
Back in January, we told you that Robert Llewellyn was raising funds for the third novel in his News From... series via the crowdfunding publishing platform Unbound. We're mentioning it again now, however, because the book is getting close to its final target - meaning that there's precious little time left if you still want to get in on the assorted rewards available to pre-publication backers.
At the time of writing, the funding campaign stands at 75% of its target - which means that it won't be long before the campaign closes and the book enters production. As such, Robert is hard at work putting the final touches to the novel's rewrites, with a view to the book being produced and published before the end of this year.
If you're unfamiliar with the trilogy, it tells the story of Gavin Meckler, a man who finds himself thrown into three different parallel worlds - each showing a different vision of how the future might turn out. News From Gardenia was described as a "utopian science-fiction" story, as it showed a world in which, in Robert's words, "we got it right", and technology had created a paradise. In the sequel, News From The Squares, the world in which Gavin finds himself is a society entirely run by women. Both books are now available via Amazon and other assorted booksellers.
News From The Clouds will conclude the series, and presents an altogether darker future, as Robert explains:
Gavin is faced with a planet that is ravaged by storms, seared by winds and scorched by an unforgiving sun. While the driving force behind the News Trilogy has always been to try and imagine a world where things are better than the present day, it is becoming every more apparent that our current activities are going to bring about long-term changes for our descendants.
Gavin is not faced with megacities or garden states - more with gouged earth and people living on the edge. But they are living, adapting; they are coping with all the extremes the ravaged planet is throwing at them. When he emerges from the mysterious cloud that shifts him through time, he doesn't land on the ground: he is landed by baffling technology onto a floating city - a cloud city.
This is a world where the human race has two options: to live and work in enormous protected culverts that are reinforced to withstand the ravages of the weather, or float above the torment in delicate, lighter-than-air structures moving with the wind.
It's possible to back the book's production at a minimum cost of £10, which will get you an eBook edition as well as access to exclusive in-progress updates from Robert. For £20, however, you'll get the delightfully-produced hardback edition - and fling a bit more money towards the project and you can experience all manner of exciting rewards, including signed copies and even the chance to meet Robert himself at the book's launch party.
Whatever level you back at, all backers get their names printed in the book - not to mention the satisfaction of getting to partake in a utopian future of our own, where writers are directly supported by their audience and publishing is a democratic process. See, it's not all science fiction...
Find out more and pledge your support at Unbound!
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