The best of all possible worlds - Karen Lord

'An engrossing picaresque quest, a love story, and a moving character study of two very different people coming to understand themselves . . . Lord is on a par with Ursula K Le Guin' - Guardian

'Equal parts tragedy and romance, psychic fantasy and soulful SF . . . The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms meets a disarmingly charming 2312' -Tor.com

This is a story of hope. Grace Delarua, a civil servant with the government of Cygnus Beta, remembers when the Sadiri arrived on their planet, a galactic hinterland for pioneers and refugees.

This is a story of survival. Dllenahkh, leader of the small group of Sadiri settlers on Cygnus Beta, remembers the cool strong blues and gentle sunlight of his home world. He also remembers the moment he was told his planet was destroyed.

This is a story of love. Now they must work together to rebuild his decimated population by searching for the last surviving members of his race.

This is a story about finding the best of all possible worlds.

'Refined, meditative and life-affirming . . . [It] confirms Lord as the natural heiress to Octavia Butler and Ursula Le Guin' - Financial Times

Karen Lord has been a physics teacher, a diplomat, a part-time soldier and an academic at various times and in various countries. She is now a writer and research consultant in Barbados. Her debut novel, Redemption in Indigo, won the 2008 Frank Collymore Literary Award, the 2011 William L. Crawford Award, the 2012 Kitschies Golden Tentacle Award for Best Debut Novel and the Mythopoeic Award, and was shortlisted for the World Fantasy Award. Redemption in Indigo and The Best of All Possible Worlds, the prequel to The Galaxy Game, are published by Jo Fletcher Books.

Karen Lord's second novel carries deliberate echoes of Ray Bradbury's classic Mars colonisation stories. It's refined, meditative and life-affirming, and its exploration of gender politics and ethnology confirms Lord as the natural heiress to Octavia Butler and Ursula Le Guin
Financial Times

An engrossing picaresque quest, a love story, and a moving character study of two very different people coming to understand themselves . . . Lord is on a par with Ursula K Le Guin
Guardian

An episodic quest with a Caribbean-flavoured mix of societies
Sunday Telegraph

A rewarding, touching and often funny exploration of the forms and functions of human culture. Plus, it has flying monks - a universally improving ingredient!
SFX

The author is clearly a class apart, and doubly so in terms of her prose . . . Utterly astonishing
Tor.com

A real delight to read
Fantasy Book Critic

A sweet and gentle and sorrowful novel, written with warmth and wit and wonder . . . sumptuous
Speculative Scotsman

The kind of novel that truly illustrates what science fiction is capable of doing. Lush and yet not overwhelming, it is a love story firmly rooted in a story of humanity told with alien cultures
Best Fantasy Stories

The imagination behind her galaxy and its variation of the human race cannot be faulted
Sci-Fi Now magazine

An intelligent, slow-burning, love story with rewards along the way
Starburst