The Last Gifts of the Universe
Author: Riley August
Format: Hardback, 143mm x 223mm, 320g, 208 pages
Published: Cornerstone, United Kingdom, 2024
A hopeful science fiction adventure, that explores what it means to live in a finite universe - while occasionally having to clean cat vomit off your spaceship. A dying universe. A search for answers. An adventure at the end of a trillion lifetimes. When the home worlds finally achieved the technology to venture out into the stars, they found a graveyard of dead civilisations. What befell these worlds is unknown. All they know is that they are the last ones left - and whatever came for the others will one day come for them. Scout is an Archivist who scours the dead worlds of the cosmos for their last gifts- interesting technology, cultural rituals - anything left behind that might be useful to home and their survival. During an excavation on a lifeless planet, Scout unearths something unbelievable- a surviving message from an alien who witnessed the world-ending entity thousands of years ago. Now Scout, their brother and their sometimes-fearless, space-faring cat, Pumpkin, must race to save what matters most.
Riley August is a speculative fiction writer, animal lover, nature walker and all around nerd. When they aren't writing stories about lonely voyages through space, you can find them playing video games, the guitar or a myriad or TTRPGs. They live in Rhode Island with their cat and husband. The Last Gifts of the Universe is their debut novel.
Author: Riley August
Format: Hardback, 143mm x 223mm, 320g, 208 pages
Published: Cornerstone, United Kingdom, 2024
A hopeful science fiction adventure, that explores what it means to live in a finite universe - while occasionally having to clean cat vomit off your spaceship. A dying universe. A search for answers. An adventure at the end of a trillion lifetimes. When the home worlds finally achieved the technology to venture out into the stars, they found a graveyard of dead civilisations. What befell these worlds is unknown. All they know is that they are the last ones left - and whatever came for the others will one day come for them. Scout is an Archivist who scours the dead worlds of the cosmos for their last gifts- interesting technology, cultural rituals - anything left behind that might be useful to home and their survival. During an excavation on a lifeless planet, Scout unearths something unbelievable- a surviving message from an alien who witnessed the world-ending entity thousands of years ago. Now Scout, their brother and their sometimes-fearless, space-faring cat, Pumpkin, must race to save what matters most.
Riley August is a speculative fiction writer, animal lover, nature walker and all around nerd. When they aren't writing stories about lonely voyages through space, you can find them playing video games, the guitar or a myriad or TTRPGs. They live in Rhode Island with their cat and husband. The Last Gifts of the Universe is their debut novel.