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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'Powerful war machines of the far-future collide across a barren desert world in this post-apocalyptic debut novel from award-winning Australian author Cat Sparks.
'Seventeen-year-old Star and her sister Nene are orphans, part of a thirteen-wagon caravan of nomadic traders living hard lives travelling the Sand Road. Their route cuts through a particularly dangerous and unforgiving section of the Dead Red Heart, a war-ravaged desert landscape plagued by rogue semi-sentient machinery and other monsters from a bygone age.
'But when the caravan witnesses a relic-Angel satellite unexpectedly crash to Earth, a chain of events begins that sends Star on a journey far away from the life she once knew. Shanghaied upon the sandship Dogwatch, she is forced to cross the Obsidian Sea by Quarrel, an ancient Templar supersoldier. Eventually shipwrecked, Star will have no choice but to place her trust in both thieves and priestesses while coming to terms with the grim reality of her past—and the horror of her unfolding destiny—as the terrible secret her sister had been desperate to protect her from begins to unravel.
'Meanwhile, something old and powerful has woken in the desert. A Lotus Blue, deadliest of all the ancient war machines. A warrior with plans of its own, far more significant than a fallen Angel. Plans that do not include the survival of humanity.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Exhibitions
Notes
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Dedication: For my parents, Betty and Cameron. Miss you every day.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Why Speculate – the Current State of ‘Spec-Fic’ Publishing
2018
single work
criticism
— Appears in: TEXT Special Issue Website Series , October no. 51 2018;'This collaborative paper explores how the ‘spec-fic’ category may be responding to contemporary political and environmental challenges. It presents two case studies, in the personal writing and professional publishing experiences of authors Rose Michael and Cat Sparks, to consider the ways speculative fiction engages with real-world concerns. The paper acknowledges the genre’s contested relationship to harder-to-categorise cross-genre or interstitial forms of non-realist fiction, as well as its obvious antecedents in science fiction and its arguable overlap with ‘big L’ literature. As creative practitioners and published authors who dis/identify with generic labels in different ways, the authors contend that the use, misuse, and abuse of genre conventions has been, and continues to be, personally and professionally productive – particularly in a contemporary publishing landscape impacted by changes to technology and platforms that have transformed traditional relationships and roles.' (Publication abstract)
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Australian Science Fiction
2017
single work
review
— Appears in: SF Commentary , December no. 95 2017; (p. 73-76)
— Review of Terra Nullius 2017 single work novel ; Lotus Blue 2017 single work novel ; Closing Down 2017 single work novel ; Year of the Orphan 2017 single work novel -
Australian Fiction
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 17 June 2017; (p. 21) 'Cli-fi, which imagines our world in the aftermath of climate change, is booming. It’s a brand of dystopian narrative that often features desiccated landscapes, where resources are scarce and contested and ingenuity is required just to survive. Lotus Blue (Talos, 382pp, $22.99), the debut novel from Cat Sparks, a much anthologised science fiction writer, is a compelling addition to these ranks.' (Introduction) -
Ghosts, Warring Gods and the Apocalypse : The Best of New Science Fiction and Fantasy
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The New York Times Book Review , 21 May 2017; (p. 35) 'To compare Cat Sparks’s new novel, Lotus Blue, to the “Mad Max” films would be a disservice despite the obvious parallels: vehicle caravans roaming deserts, warlords and lawless violence everywhere, a few strongholds of near-civilization battened down against the encroachment of barbarism. Yet Sparks’s post-apocalyptic wasteland is far more imaginative and richly rendered. More than mere warlords threaten the ragged survivors of this world. Rampant biotech and unchecked corporate greed have left it littered with still-functioning weapons of immense destructive capability. A number of characters journey through this dying terrain, intent upon their own agendas — all of which are disrupted when a powerful sentient war machine awakens in the desert and promptly sets about making everything worse.' (Introduction) -
[Review] Lotus Blue
2017
single work
review
— Appears in: Aurealis , no. 98 2017;
— Review of Lotus Blue 2017 single work novel
-
[Review] Lotus Blue
2017
single work
review
— Appears in: Aurealis , no. 98 2017;
— Review of Lotus Blue 2017 single work novel -
Australian Science Fiction
2017
single work
review
— Appears in: SF Commentary , December no. 95 2017; (p. 73-76)
— Review of Terra Nullius 2017 single work novel ; Lotus Blue 2017 single work novel ; Closing Down 2017 single work novel ; Year of the Orphan 2017 single work novel -
Cat Sparks : Lotus Blue
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , March 2017; 'World building is the real star of Lotus Blue, the debut science fiction novel for Australian author Cat Sparks.' -
Ghosts, Warring Gods and the Apocalypse : The Best of New Science Fiction and Fantasy
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The New York Times Book Review , 21 May 2017; (p. 35) 'To compare Cat Sparks’s new novel, Lotus Blue, to the “Mad Max” films would be a disservice despite the obvious parallels: vehicle caravans roaming deserts, warlords and lawless violence everywhere, a few strongholds of near-civilization battened down against the encroachment of barbarism. Yet Sparks’s post-apocalyptic wasteland is far more imaginative and richly rendered. More than mere warlords threaten the ragged survivors of this world. Rampant biotech and unchecked corporate greed have left it littered with still-functioning weapons of immense destructive capability. A number of characters journey through this dying terrain, intent upon their own agendas — all of which are disrupted when a powerful sentient war machine awakens in the desert and promptly sets about making everything worse.' (Introduction) -
Australian Fiction
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 17 June 2017; (p. 21) 'Cli-fi, which imagines our world in the aftermath of climate change, is booming. It’s a brand of dystopian narrative that often features desiccated landscapes, where resources are scarce and contested and ingenuity is required just to survive. Lotus Blue (Talos, 382pp, $22.99), the debut novel from Cat Sparks, a much anthologised science fiction writer, is a compelling addition to these ranks.' (Introduction) -
Why Speculate – the Current State of ‘Spec-Fic’ Publishing
2018
single work
criticism
— Appears in: TEXT Special Issue Website Series , October no. 51 2018;'This collaborative paper explores how the ‘spec-fic’ category may be responding to contemporary political and environmental challenges. It presents two case studies, in the personal writing and professional publishing experiences of authors Rose Michael and Cat Sparks, to consider the ways speculative fiction engages with real-world concerns. The paper acknowledges the genre’s contested relationship to harder-to-categorise cross-genre or interstitial forms of non-realist fiction, as well as its obvious antecedents in science fiction and its arguable overlap with ‘big L’ literature. As creative practitioners and published authors who dis/identify with generic labels in different ways, the authors contend that the use, misuse, and abuse of genre conventions has been, and continues to be, personally and professionally productive – particularly in a contemporary publishing landscape impacted by changes to technology and platforms that have transformed traditional relationships and roles.' (Publication abstract)
Awards
- 2018 shortlisted Ditmar Awards — Best Novel
- 2017 shortlisted Aurealis Awards for Excellence in Australian Speculative Fiction — Science Fiction Division — Novel
