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On The Brink
The highly anticipated sequel to the author’s debut novel, the Arthur C. Clarke Award shortlisted Edge of Heaven.
Luchtstad: the city in the sky. Beacon of hope. Place of refuge, of healing, of acceptance. At least, that’s what the rumours say.
Reborn as Françoise Marechal, Danae Grant is trying to build a new life as a post-etheric citizen and to disappear back into the cracks. Nothing and nobody will ever touch her again. She’s going to make sure of that.
Adam has been following a cold trail for the better part of three decades, ever since the love of his life was killed in the horrors that ended the a-naut Insurgency. He’s looking for the only other survivor of their group – the one person left who can tell him what really happened that day. Twenty-five years on, the trail stops at Luchtstad. Adam’s an older model and time is running out. This is his last chance to find the truth. In Danae, he sees a potential entry point into the city’s secretive a-naut community. In Adam, Danae sees the threat that could end her carefully reconstructed existence. And Luchtstad has one more act of unimaginable violence to throw at them before their journey is done…
The truth, when it finds them, is something neither one of them could have guessed.
“If you liked Blade Runner, that noir flavour of science fiction, then this is the one for you.” – Tom Hunter (Director of the Arthur C. Clarke Award)
Luchtstad: the city in the sky. Beacon of hope. Place of refuge, of healing, of acceptance. At least, that’s what the rumours say.
Reborn as Françoise Marechal, Danae Grant is trying to build a new life as a post-etheric citizen and to disappear back into the cracks. Nothing and nobody will ever touch her again. She’s going to make sure of that.
Adam has been following a cold trail for the better part of three decades, ever since the love of his life was killed in the horrors that ended the a-naut Insurgency. He’s looking for the only other survivor of their group – the one person left who can tell him what really happened that day. Twenty-five years on, the trail stops at Luchtstad. Adam’s an older model and time is running out. This is his last chance to find the truth. In Danae, he sees a potential entry point into the city’s secretive a-naut community. In Adam, Danae sees the threat that could end her carefully reconstructed existence. And Luchtstad has one more act of unimaginable violence to throw at them before their journey is done…
The truth, when it finds them, is something neither one of them could have guessed.
“If you liked Blade Runner, that noir flavour of science fiction, then this is the one for you.” – Tom Hunter (Director of the Arthur C. Clarke Award)
298 pages, Paperback
Published May 3, 2022
About the author
R.B. Kelly
10 books14 followersRB Kelly's debut novel, The Edge of Heaven, is published by NewCon Press and was shortlisted for the Arthur C Clarke Award and the ESFS Award for Best Written Work of Fiction. The sequel, On The Brink, was released in May 2022, also from NewCon Press.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 12, 2022
I really really love the first book, Edge of Heaven. I read it for the 3rd time before starting this one. E of H ends with a pretty serious cliffhanger, and I was so happy when I learned about the existence of this sequel. This book is quite different from the first one. It’s much quieter with no real explanation of what is happening. It also focuses very much on Adam, not so much Danae who was the main in the first book. (FYI it takes place a little over a year from the end of E of H.)
I was really looking forward to reading Danae again until I realized that we were mostly seeing her through Adam’s eyes, so she was still out of reach for awhile until Adam got to know her.
For the first half, not much happens. Or it seems that way. Really these books are incredible character builders set in an immensely creative fantasy world. And I love it.
The book picked up in the last third, and I couldn’t put it down as we learned what happened to Danae after the first book and see her intensity resurface in her relationship with Adam. Still not nearly as intense as the first book, but I enjoyed it anyway.
These are slow burn stories where the setting is alien but the characters are so real you think you could reach out and touch them. Well done, Ms. Kelly. Thank you for plugging a big hole in Danae’s story.
I only held back 1 star because of the incredibly slow pace of the first half of the book.
I was really looking forward to reading Danae again until I realized that we were mostly seeing her through Adam’s eyes, so she was still out of reach for awhile until Adam got to know her.
For the first half, not much happens. Or it seems that way. Really these books are incredible character builders set in an immensely creative fantasy world. And I love it.
The book picked up in the last third, and I couldn’t put it down as we learned what happened to Danae after the first book and see her intensity resurface in her relationship with Adam. Still not nearly as intense as the first book, but I enjoyed it anyway.
These are slow burn stories where the setting is alien but the characters are so real you think you could reach out and touch them. Well done, Ms. Kelly. Thank you for plugging a big hole in Danae’s story.
I only held back 1 star because of the incredibly slow pace of the first half of the book.
Displaying 1 of 1 review