The first book to be featured this season on the Sara Cox Radio 2 Book Club is As You Wake, Break The Shell by Becky Chambers—a humane and heartfelt slice of sci-fi revolving around a pilot with a dangerous condition and the reclusive botanist whose bio-printed medicine might be able to save her.
The book was released on 22 October and Becky’s interview with Sara is on BBC Sounds from Tuesday 10 November.
Read an exclusive extract.
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As You Wake, Break The Shell
Life on Fortune is hard. The atmosphere is poisonous, the planet hardly fit for life. But for its inhabitants, it’s home.
Pilot Cora suffers from a rare and dangerous condition, brought about by her bond with Colibri, the alien animal she pilots to quarry vital water for the colony. If Cora seeks treatment, she risks losing her license – and her connection to Colibri forever.
Then she meets Signy, a brilliant but reclusive botanist, whose bioprinted medicine is the only thing that can save her. But to do so, Signy must break the rules that govern their lives, risking her livelihood and the other colonists who rely on her for survival.
As Cora and Signy navigate their balance of risk and trust, they are forced to confront what they owe to each other and to their community – and begin to question whether survival is enough.
About the author
Becky Chambers is the bestselling author of the Wayfarers series, the Monk and Robot novellas, and other works of science fiction. She is a two-time Hugo Award winner, a Locus Award winner, and has
been nominated for the Nebula Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and the Women’s Prize for Fiction, among others. Her latest novel is As You Wake, Break the Shell, the first half of a new duology.
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