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A tale of identity, love, and the hunt for vengeance in the darkest corners of space—perfect for fans of Iron Widow and Aurora Rising!
Ishara Ming is the sole survivor of a spacefaring whaler destroyed by the Ballena, a legendary sentient spacecraft that haunts the darkness between stars. The fatal encounter left her with a metal-plated arm, a faulty memory chip, and a burning need for revenge.
To take on the Ballena, Ishara assembles a crew of capable misfits. Among them is Quinn—her trusted first mate, the girl with wildfire eyes, and the only person who always stands by her side, even when everyone else thinks Ishara is a delusional captain who hallucinated the Ballena.
That is, until Augustus, a ship mech armed with his own mysterious reasons for vengeance, convinces Ishara to let him join the crew. He brings the one thing Ishara's never had before: a tracking method tailored for finding the Ballena. Pulled between Quinn's and Augustus's gravitational forces, the pressure to issue increasingly risky orders, and the feeling that her past is rapidly catching up with her future, Ishara has to decide what—or who—she is fighting for before she loses another ship.
"Readers will be swept up by this enthralling and emotional interstellar adventure that capitalizes on the complexity and gut-wrenching atmosphere of the inspiration material, set here against the backdrop of a uniquely built world rendered in Ishara's steadfast first-person POV." ―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"[T]his science-fiction retelling of the epic Moby Dick advances at a lull-free quick clip, delivering detailed worldbuilding laden with hard science, inventive jargon, fun future tech, and relatable characters that engage in zingy, sarcastic banter…Thought-provoking and relevant, with insightful plays on the themes of the whaling classic, this is an exciting and engaging first purchase for high school and public libraries." —School Library Journal (starred review)
"Based on Moby Dick but charting new territory, this is a story of facing mistakes and finding the good (and bad) in oneself and others…As a character, Ishara breathes new life into the story of a driven captain with a singular quest…Ishara's humanity shines through in her attempts to grapple with her past traumas and her relationships with the ones she loves. A worthy debut offering a cosmic tale of found family and space ventures." —Kirkus Reviews
This information about The Celestial Seas was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
T. A. Chan grew up in New Hampshire, attended school in Philadelphia, then settled in California. With a passion for anything that is wonderfully weird, science fiction and fantasy quickly become her favorite genres to play in. She enjoys crafting character-focused stories that explore the human experience, as well as plots that twist and challenge expectations. Her insatiable curiosity of the natural world and technology inspires much of her writing. When she's not typing away on her laptop, she's probably snuggling with her dog, drinking boba, hiking, or working on the next Mars mission.
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