Phoenicia’s Worlds

“Ben Jeapes knows how to spin a compelling yarn.” Gareth L. Powell, author of Ack Ack Macaque and The Recollection

“Crammed full of intrigue and invention: I’ll be stealing ideas from this for years.” Simon Morden, author of The Petrovich Trilogy.

“This is not ground-breaking SF – there are no amazing new imaginary technologies or exotic aliens or funhouse booga-boogas. Instead there is something just as hard to pull off: a story that uses the resources of the genre to build an engaging blend of adventure and intrigue in a convincingly-detailed future world.” Locus

The cover says:

“La Nueva Temporada is Earth’s only extrasolar colony – an Earth-type planet caught in the grip of a very Earth-type Ice Age.

Alex Mateo wants nothing more than to stay and contribute to the terraforming of his homeworld. But tragedy strikes the colony, and to save it from starvation and collapse, Alex must reluctantly entrust himself to the Phoenicia, the only starship in existence, to make the long slower-than-light journey back to Earth.

But it is his brother Quin, who loathes La Nueva Temporada and all the people on it, who must watch his world collapse around him and become its saviour…while everyone watches the skies for the return of the Phoenicia.”

The reviews …

“This is one of the best hard SF novels I have read in a long time and it is refreshing to find a ‘new’ author who can handle the subject so capably. In my book – and in his! – Jeapes is well able to join the ranks of Hamilton, Robinson and Reynolds.”
– SF Crows Nest [full review]

“Phoenicia’s Worlds is perhaps the best science fiction I’ve read this year. Not only does it present an interesting story, it does so with characters that bring it to life in many ways, and it doesn’t waste a page in the telling. There was nothing here that I didn’t enjoy and it ticked pretty much every box I could hope for. To say I recommend Phoenicia’s Worlds is an understatement: go read it!”
– Walker of Worlds [full review]

“This is space opera at its most enjoyable and accessible.”
– Mat Coward, Morning Star [full review]

A pretty good one from Vector.

And Locus manage to get Heinlein into it, in a good way.

The Phantom Tollbooth (great name for a site, if nothing else)

The author writes about Phoenicia’s Worlds …

… and already muses enticingly about a sequel.