An Island in the Stars by Susan Laine
Dreamspinner Press
Cover Artist: Anna Sikorska
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words is happy to have Susan Laine here today talking about her latest New Adult science fiction story, An Island in the Stars. Welcome, Susan!
Thank you kindly, Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words, for having me here today. Hello, readers. I’m Susan Laine, an author with Dreamspinner Press. I’m here to talk about my upcoming novel, An Island in the Stars. It comes out in a few days on June 12, 2017.
Here’s the blurb:
“Sam, a geeky college freshman, has bigger problems than lusting after Marcus, sexy jock, college junior, and his big brother’s best friend. Chasing after a beanie caught in the winter wind turns into a tumble down the rabbit hole for them both—science fiction style.
Sam and Marcus find themselves trapped on a tropical island in the middle of a strange ocean on an alien moon. The sole structure is a ruined temple devoted to the art of love. Flustered, confused, and unable to return home, they need to figure out a means of escape from a hostile jungle teeming with dangerous life-forms.
In this tale where opposites attract and secret crushes are revealed, two very dissimilar young men discover they actually have a lot in common after all, but it will take their differences as much as their points of connection to survive on an island in the stars.”
The topic today is science fiction and genre mashups. As you can read from the blurb, the story is mainly science fiction. Mainly. It’s also gay romance, erotic at that, and new adult.
Science fiction shows the world of the future—but this story takes place in the present day. Science fiction usually takes place on a spaceship or, like I said, in the future but here the elements of scifi are shown in the setting: an alien planet. The advanced technology was created by aliens; humans have no knowledge of them. Neither of the heroes knows how to use this alien technology and has to learn in order to survive. An aptitude in science is a must for people trapped on an alien world.
Thankfully, Sam has his heart set on becoming a scientist and Marcus understands physics. That shows the human element that’s present in the genre, as humans struggle to come to terms with new science, tech, and development. Advancement can he depicted in a positive or negative light. I’m sure that despite their unintentional arrival on an alien planet the boys retain their humanity and keep their moral backbone.
Here’s an exclusive teaser excerpt showing some aspects of the genre:
The light above flickered. A slow hum rose in the chamber, and a heavy noise like grinding gears or generators powering up echoed inside the walls and under their feet.
Then a bright flash brought up a slightly upward tilted, panoramically concaved, blue-glowing holographic console in front of Marcus, who still sat in the chair.
“What the fuck?” Marcus called out in surprise, raising his hands at his sides, his eyes wide and his mouth gaping. “What the hell just happened?”
Sam had only ever seen such elegant holographic technology in the science fiction TV shows he loved to watch. But that was fiction; this was fact. “It’s a hologram.”
If you liked that little scene, here’s the buy link: https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/an-island-in-the-stars-by-susan-laine-8561-b
Thanks again to Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words for arranging this guest post.
You can find me:
- Website http://www.susan-laine-author.fi/
- Dreamspinner Press https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/authors/susan-laine-52
- Facebook https://www.facebook.com/susan.laine.author
- Twitter https://twitter.com/Laine_Susan
- Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Susan-Laine/e/B006HGQXRU/
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 