SFF World Tour Day Seven: Oceania & Antarctica!

So today is our final day of the Spells and Spaceships SFF World Tour. I really hope you’ve enjoyed it! Today we visit Oceania and Antarctica.

Despite being a continent and with its own landmass, there are nowhere near as many inspired by books for Antarctica as there are for the Arctic – certainly not with enough substance for a full day’s dedication. We therefore round the trip off nicely as a weekly expedition and explore Oceania too.

Enjoy your final day – it’s not necessarily time to say goodbye though as there is a bonus coming tomorrow when we adapt our aircraft to travel past Earth’s atmosphere if you decide to stay aboard.

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Antarctica

Who Goes There? – John W Canpbell

“Who Goes There?” The novella that formed the basis of “The Thing” is the John W. Campbell classic about an antarctic research camp that discovers and thaws the ancient, frozen body of a crash-landed alien. The creature revives with terrifying results, shape-shifting to assume the exact form of animal and man, alike. Paranoia ensues as a band of frightened men work to discern friend from foe, and destroy the menace before it challenges all of humanity.

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The Atlantis Gene – A. G. Riddle

In Antarctica, researchers discover a mysterious structure, buried in ice.

In a lab in Jakarta, an autism researcher identifies a revolutionary treatment that could change everything.

But these two incredible discoveries aren’t what they seem. They will set off a race to unravel the deepest secrets of human existence–and an event that could change humanity forever.

Experience the novel that started it all: The Atlantis Gene is the first book in A.G. Riddle’s bestselling Origin Mystery trilogy–a series that has sold over THREE MILLION copies worldwide (in twenty languages). The trilogy is now in development to be a major motion picture.

Filled with real science and history, The Atlantis Gene will forever change how you look at human history—and our future.

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Oceania

The Last Continent – Terry Pratchett

The Discworld’s most inept wizard has found himself on the Discworld’s last continent, a completely separate creation.
It’s hot. It’s dry . . . very dry. There was this thing once called The Wet, which no one believes in. Practically everything that’s not poisonous is venomous. But it’s the best bloody place in the world, all right?

And in a few days, it will be except . . . Who is this hero striding across the red desert? Champion sheep shearer, horse rider, road warrior, beer drinker, bush ranger, and someone who’ll even eat a Meat Pie Floater when he’s sober? A man in a hat whose luggage follows him on little legs, who’s about to change history by preventing a swagman stealing a jumbuck by a billabong?

Yes . . . all this place has between itself and wind-blown doom is Rincewind, the inept wizard who can’t even spell wizard. Still . . . no worries, eh?

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The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep – H. G. Parry

For his entire life, Charley Sutherland has concealed a magical ability he can’t quite control: he can bring characters from books into the real world. His older brother, Rob – a young lawyer with an utterly normal life – hopes that this strange family secret will disappear with disuse, and he will be discharged from his duty of protecting Charley and the real world from each other.

But then, literary characters start causing trouble in their city, making threats about destroying the world, and for once, it isn’t Charley’s doing. There’s someone else out there who shares his powers and it’s up to Charley and a reluctant Rob to stop them – before anyone gets to The End. Set in Wellington, New Zealand, – “Many have tried and some have succeeded in writing mashups with famed literary characters, but Parry knocks it out of the park”

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Neon Leviathan – T. R. Napper

A collection of stories set in a future Australia and Vietnam about the outsiders – the criminals, the soldiers, the addicts, the mathematicians, the gamblers and the cage fighters, the refugees and the rebels. From the battlefield to alternate realities to the mean streets of the dark city, we walk in the shoes of those who struggle to survive in a neon-saturated, tech-noir future.

Twelve hard-edged stories from the dark, often violent, sometimes strange heart of cyberpunk, this collection – as with all the best science fiction – is an exploration of who were are now. In the tradition of Dashiell Hammett, Philip K Dick, and David Mitchell, Neon Leviathan is a remarkable debut collection from a breakout new author.

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From the Wreck – Jane Rawson

From the Wreck tells the remarkable story of George Hills, who survived the sinking of the steamship Admella off the South Australian coast in 1859. Haunted by his memories and the disappearance of a fellow survivor, George’s fractured life is intertwined with that of a woman from another dimension, seeking refuge on Earth. This is a novel imbued with beauty and feeling, filled both with existential loneliness and a deep awareness that all life is interdependent.

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Thankyou for reading – I think today was more of a Sci-fi experience, with much of the trip being Fantasy – with some reads quite different to some of the others featured this week, a strong focus on isolation and the will to survive.

This is technically the final day of the tour, and I hope you’ve enjoyed it!

We do, however, have a bonus destination tomorrow should you wish to stay on board; a trip to outer space. Sci-fi books galore feature with a final bumper edition of books set in space and other worlds.