Unsung Stories, winners of Best Independent Press at the British Fantasy Awards for the second consecutive year, are proud to announce publication of their latest title, Always North by Vicki Jarrett.
We all have to work to live, even if it is an illegal survey for oil in the rapidly melting arctic. Software engineer Isobel needs to eat like everyone, and that’s how she fell into the job that leads her to the most northerly place on our planet.
As part of a weathered crew of sailors, scientists and corporate officers she sails into the ice where their advanced software Proteus will map everything there is to know. A great icebreaker leads their way into the brutal environment, and the days grow longer, time ever more detached, as they pass through the endless white expanse of the ice.
But they are not alone. They have attracted the attention of seals, gulls and a hungry, dedicated polar bear. The journey to plunder one of the few remaining resources the planet has to offer must endure the ravages of the ice, the bear and time itself.
This is what we find when we travel – Always North – a profound meditation on our consumption of the world, and the perception of time. For fans of Adam Robert’s The Thing Itself, only at the farthest reaches of the world can we see the truths closest to our minds.
Vicki Jarrett is a novelist and short story writer from Edinburgh. Her first novel, Nothing is Heavy, was shortlisted for the Saltire Society Scottish First Book of the Year Award. Her collection, The Way Out, was longlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award 2015, and shortlisted for the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize 2015 and the Edge Hill Short Story Prize 2016.
Praise for Always North:
“Always North is one of the most memorable and grippingly readable novels about climate change I’ve ever opened: compelling, beautifully estranging and wonderfully urgent in its imaginative passion. The perfect blend of arctic mystery thriller, science fiction and post-disaster apocalypse. You won’t want to miss this one.” – Adam Roberts, author of The Thing Itself.
“Told in glowing prose, Always North confronts the oncoming future with power, wit and originality. Come for the intrigue of a mission into the changing Arctic; stay for the ingenious shift to a Britain shattered by rising water. It will mesmerise you.” – M.T. Hill, author of Zero Bomb and The Breach.
“It hooks you in and draws you under right from the start. A nightmare vision of the future from one of Scotland’s finest writers, Always North is an extraordinary achievement.” – Pippa Goldschmidt, author of The Falling Sky and The Need for Better Regulation of Outer Space.
Details of other titles published by Unsung Stories can be found at www.unsungstories.co.uk/allbooks
