The seventh book from the brilliant Battle Ground world, Finding Fire & Other Stories, by Rachel Churcher is released today. Happy publication day Rachel! Many thanks for inviting me to be part of the publication day promotion, and for providing me with a copy of the book.
BLURB:
What happened between Margie and Dan at Makepeace Farm? How did Jackson really feel about Ketty? What happens next to the survivors of the Battle Ground Series?
Step behind the scenes of the series with six new short stories and five new narrators – Margie, Jackson, Maz, Dan, and Charlie – plus bonus blogs and insights from the author.
Additional information:
The Battle Ground Series is set in a dystopian near-future UK, after Brexit and Scottish independence. Spoiler warning: Finding Fire and Other Stories contains tie-in short fiction from across the Battle Ground series. There are spoilers for all the previous books in the series, including the free prequel, Making Trouble. You can access Making Trouble by signing up for Rachel’s newsletter HERE.
PURCHASE LINKS:
REVIEW:
As you will all know by now, I have thoroughly enjoyed every book in the Battle Ground series, and so I am a little sad today to be writing about the seventh and final book in the series. A collection of short stories and essays set within the Battle Ground world, Finding Fire & Other Stories is a chance to get to know some of the supporting cast a little better. Each story is told from the perspective of characters we have met through the series but have not yet heard from, including two of my personal favourite characters Jackson and Dan. As the events in each short story take place at various times throughout the main story, I recommend picking up the rest of the series and reading it first, if you haven’t already because there are spoilers in this final book.
I found it absolutely fascinating to read scenes I was familiar with viewed from a different perspective and revealing details that were unknown to Bex and Ketty, our regular narrators. Some of this new insight completely changed my thinking of characters and events that I thought I knew well, and made me wonder just how different the whole series would be had it been written from Margie’s point of view, or Jackson’s. Speaking of Jackson, his story might have been small, but it was perfectly formed, giving me exactly the information I needed from him.
Aside from the new insight, Finding Fire also provides stories that act as epilogues for Bex and Ketty, which I really loved. Although we know where they each ended up at the end of the main series, it was great to see what came in the months after that, and these stories provided a kind of closure for me.
Finding Fire & Other Stories feels a bit like reading the book equivalent of the director’s cut of a film, full of deleted scenes, and bonus content.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Rachel Churcher was born between the last manned moon landing, and the first orbital Space Shuttle mission. She remembers watching the launch of STS-1, and falling in love with space flight, at the age of five. She fell in love with science fiction shortly after that, and in her teens she discovered dystopian fiction. In an effort to find out what she wanted to do with her life, she collected degrees and other qualifications in Geography, Science Fiction Studies, Architectural Technology, Childminding, and Writing for Radio.
She has worked as an editor on national and in-house magazines; as an IT trainer; and as a freelance writer and artist. She has renovated several properties, and has plenty of horror stories to tell about dangerous electrics and nightmare plumbers. She enjoys reading, travelling, stargazing, and eating good food with good friends – but nothing makes her as happy as writing fiction.
Her first published short story appeared in an anthology in 2014, and the Battle Ground series is her first long-form work. Rachel lives in East Anglia, in a house with a large library and a conservatory full of house plants. She would love to live on Mars, but only if she’s allowed to bring her books.
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