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CLOUDWORLD AT WAR
"Thrillingly dramatic, a heart-pumping tale set in a vividly-imagined world."
- William Nicholson (Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Shadowlands and Gladiator)
CloudWorld is a fantasy novel, published by Faber & Faber in 2006. In 2007 it was nominated for the Manchester Boook Award. A sequel, CloudWorld At War, was published in 2008.
The current best price for a new copy of CloudWorld (with free worldwide delivery) is £5.22 at The Book Depository.
The current best price for a new copy of CloudWorld At War (with free UK delivery) is £7.99 at Amazon UK.
CloudWorld is also available to buy at Amazon UK.
CloudWorld At War is also available to buy at The Book Depository.
For my handful of American fans, CloudWorld At War is also available to buy at Amazon US and Barnes & Noble.I want to say a big thank you (as of 2013) to the wonderful people who continue to buy new copies of CloudWorld & CloudWorld At War, mainly via Amazon. It's a great comfort to me to know that the CloudWorld story continues to make its modest way via "word of mouth" from both teenage and adult readers.
***I have another new short story, "L'Amour Courtois," in the Edinburgh-based arts and culture journal New Linear Perspectives.
**I have a new short story, "Museum of Flight," in the London Magazine. Other than that, I'm just slogging my way through a couple of novels - one for teenagers, the other for adults - and hoping that someone, anyone, might find them interesting enough to publish.
*My short story, "McManus", has been long-listed for the BBC Radio 4 "Opening Lines" competition. Fingers crossed...
*There's a very sweet review (from Australia) of CloudWorld on YouTube. Feel free to give it some extra views.
*Lovely blog reviews (from Canada) of both CloudWorld and CloudWorld At War.
*You can now read an interview with me about writing the CloudWorld novels here, at the Bookfiend's Kingdom website
CloudWorld is set on a planet entirely covered in a thick cloud layer. Mountain peaks - thousands of miles apart - rise out of the clouds, their gentle slopes covered in fields and orchards. Many of these peaks also have huge, populous citadels on them.
The cloud-dwellers are not aware that they live on mountains and the cloud depths are an abiding mystery; many believe that they are the realm of Omnium, a divine being who created them.
At the beginning of the story, the king of one of the citadels – Heliopolis (‘city of the sun’) – fails to return from a diplomatic visit to a neighbouring citadel, Selenopolis (‘city of the moon.’) He is presumed lost in the cloud depths. His son, Marcus, who lives a sheltered but lonely palace life, insists that a mission across the cloudscape be staged in search of the king. But Marcus realises too late that there is conspiracy in the citadel. Someone wants him dead and he is plunged into a terrifying new adventure beneath the clouds.
Marcus and his comrades discover that, whatever its true nature, some mysterious force seems to bind their world together, making it habitable both above and below the clouds yet keeping the two regions apart. They find themselves in a more ancient, less evolved place called Daldriadh. Its inhabitants have created a whole religion based around debris fallen through the clouds over many centuries. They are perpetually at odds with one another, but also determined not to be colonised.
Marcus has to not only survive in this world, but also win the trust of the races who live there and find a way of getting home…
CloudWorld and CloudWorld At War are also available from amazon.ca, amazon.it, amazon.fr, amazon.de, amazon.jp.
Illustrations by David Wyatt