Celebrating Indie Publishing with @urbanebooks & @BlueGold201

Today’s Celebrating Indie Publishing features the third book in the Gaia Trilogy, a series that I stepped out of my comfort zone to start reading and have loved. Science Fiction is not something that I regularly read, but this was a series that grabbed my attention and I have eagerly anticipated each of the books being published.

• Title: White Gold
• Author: David Barker
• Publisher: Urbane Publications
• Publication Date: 9th May 2019

Copy received from publisher for review purposes.

Description:

VENGEANCE ALWAYS HAS A PRICE

Sim Atkins, Overseas Division agent, returns to Earth, having saved the Moon base from a deadly terrorist plot (see Rose Gold). All Sim can think about is finding the criminals responsible.

But his fury and lust for revenge are put on hold when a nuclear warhead is stolen by Terra Former leader Matthias Larsson. Can Sim and his colleagues track down the terrorist cell and disarm the device in time?

White Gold is the gripping finale in the compellingly original Gaia Trilogy, page-turning thrillers that provoke as well as excite.

My Thoughts:

After finishing Rose Gold on such a cliffhanger, I was almost pacing around waiting to see what David Barker had lined up for Sim Atkins and the rest of the Overseas Division. This is a series that readers really need to read from the beginning to get a better grasp of how the events and characters are linked up and how they have progressed to where they are now.

In this instalment, Sim Atkins has returned from the base on the moon and is coming to terms with the events that took place whilst he tried to save the lives of many people in Rose Gold. Sim feels that his world has turned upside down, not truly knowing who to trust and where to turn, he tries to use old connections as a means to get information about the investigations that he cannot be part of. Sim wants answers, and vengeance but what price is he willing to pay for them? Life back home in the Scottish highlands is not the same for Sim, and so the opportunity to be part of a separate investigation gives him the chance to feel useful and find out what’s going on.

As well as catching up with Sim, readers also get to follow in the timelines of three other characters, Freda, Gopal and Rabten, who have grown and become integral parts of this series over the course of the three books. I especially liked Freda, her knowledge of films and fast thinking were qualities that made her stick in my mind from the very beginning. She’s a character that I think many readers will like and will become invested in. Following her through the books and seeing the scrapes she ends up in makes for some thrilling reading. Equally, watching the transformation in both Gopal and Rabten has been wonderful, these strong characters are fascinating and be delving into their respective histories and cultures, readers are given a colourful and well rounded cast of personalities to get to know.

David Barker manages to weave in an incredible amount of detail into the narrative and even though some things were new to me, some of the technologies mentioned were not things that I had encountered, I didn’t feel that I couldn’t enjoy reading this book. Indeed, I found that at times I paused my reading to head off into a rabbit hole of googling, keen to find out more. The atmospheric details that he writes into each scene are fantastic, Barker knows how to set the scene so vividly, be it on a submarine in the murky depths, a peaceful park or the offices of a government agency. There is so much here to stimulate the mind of the reader and have them feeling as though they have been transported to the location in the book!

Often people say they would love to see a book played out on TV or made into a film, and I have to admit that this is definitely one that I would really like to see brought to life on the big screen. It’s an adrenaline packed, taut and clever plotted read that has the reader desperate to find out what happens next.

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