Now don’t say we never give you guys anything! We are delighted to not only be able to exclusively reveal the cover to\u00a0Aliya Whiteley’s sci-fi novel Skyward Inn almost a whole nine months before the book is released, but we can also give you an excerpt from the novel as well!<\/p>\n
To get you in the mood, here is a synopsis…<\/p>\n
\nThis is a place where we can be alone, together.<\/strong><\/p>\n
The Western Protectorate does not welcome visitors.<\/p>\n
When humans first went through the \u2018Kissing Gate\u2019 to the planet Qita, the protectorate turned its back on modern civilization to live in rural isolation.<\/p>\n
Now the war on Qita is over, for veteran Jem and her Qitan partner Isley, it\u2019s a peaceful place to escape ugly memories.<\/p>\n
But their peace is disturbed when a visitor comes to Skyward Inn, bringing reminders of an unnerving past and triggering an uncertain future.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
And here’s an excerpt from Chapter 1 of the novel…<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve drunk their drinks and sung their songs, and it\u2019s time for them to head for home. I wave them off, turn my back on the first streaks of light in the sky, and close the door to the inn.<\/p>\n
Isley says, his voice soft and self-mocking, \u2018Alone at last.\u2019 He says it every time we\u2019ve got the place to ourselves. He practised his English on Tung base, millions of miles away, by watching old films, and sometimes I can imagine the kind of drama he thinks we\u2019re in.\u00a0 The lamps on the walls are burning low. I love this time, time between times. It\u2019s a soft grey bleed from night into morning.<\/p>\n
\u2018Pour,\u2019 I say. I walk back to the bar and pull up the well-used stool with the cracked leather top. The smell of the heaped glass ashtray between us is very strong, and I slide it to one side. The ash settles into the grooves that make a pattern around its rim.<\/p>\n
The glasses Isley pulls out are his good ones. We\u2019re getting a taste from the best bottle. I smile when I see him lift it from under the counter \u2013 an automatic reaction to that conical shape in the orange clay from his world.<\/p>\n
\u2018Special occasion?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018You don\u2019t remember?\u2019 He pulls out the cork with his thick, blunt teeth and tips the clear liquid into the glasses. \u2018I thought you remembered everything.\u2019<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the thirteenth of September. It\u2019s not any anniversary I can think of, and we have drunk to them all.<\/p>\n
\u2018It\u2019s seven years since I first told you I love you,\u2019 he says, and clinks his glass against mine.<\/p>\n
That was in this bar, and I was sitting on this very seat. His chin trembled when he said it, and I remember I thought only that I wanted him to not be scared of what comes next, of where love leads.<\/p>\n
\u2018I told you I loved you too,\u2019 I say. \u2018I didn\u2019t even have to think about it. The words came easily.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Are they still true?\u2019 He frowns into the glass he holds just below his mouth. When he drinks, the moment will be over with, done. It\u2019s impossible to feel bad with Jarrowbrew in your body.<\/p>\n
\u2018Everything I say to you is true,\u2019 I tell him, but it sounds unreal, so I add, \u2018At least, I try to make it that way.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018You do try,\u2019 he agrees, \u2018and that\u2019s why I still love you now.\u2019<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a good thing to drink to. We drink.<\/p>\n
Here it comes, here it is: the sweetness I associate with the fields, and the depth I think of as the sea. The light, soft shine it brings to my mind belongs to the sky of Qita. What do the regulars at our Inn see, feel, when they drink brew, I wonder? Most of them have never been off this planet, or even out of the Westward Protectorate. They must translate it into their own experiences, which are no less potent, I\u2019m thinking. Just \u2013 miniaturised. Pin-sharp, unshakeable, mired in the thick grasses of the West Country moor.<\/p>\n
\u2018Jem,\u2019 he says, \u2018You know Toulu? Where the rock divides? Did you ever go there?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018I did.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Did you look at the fossils? In the heart of the rock?\u2019<\/p>\n
I fix Isley with my patient eyes. \u2018You know I did. I went to all the places, with my leaflets.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Yes,\u2019 he says softly. \u2018Your leaflets. Your letters of peace, from Earth to Qita. You put them up everywhere you went, for us to find.\u2019<\/p>\n
He sounds so sad. I give him what he wants, and what he never asks for, directly: a description of his homeworld. It\u2019s changed, of course. But here, right now, in my words, it hasn\u2019t. Not for us, on our different sides, meeting in the middle.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Skyward Inn from Aliya Whiteley is out in hardback and eBook 18 March 2021.<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n