Description

A strange craft falls from the stars and crashes into the jungle near an isolated West African community. Inside, the locals discover the broken body of a man unlike any they have seen before – a man who is perhaps something more than human.

His name is Samara and he speaks with terror of a place called Tartarus – an orbiting prison where hope doesn’t exist.

As Samara begins to heal, he also transforms the lives his rescuers. But in so doing, he attracts the attention of a warlord whose gunmen now threaten the very existence of the villagers themselves – and the one, slim chance Samara has of finding his way home.

And all the while, in the darkness above, waits the simmering fury at the heart of Tartarus . . .

Publisher Review

"Refreshingly different . . . exhilarating . . . a compulsively readable, life-affirming tale told in direct, lambent prose, and Chait does a masterful job of juxtaposing a traditional African setting with a convincing depiction of a far-future alien society." -- Eric Brown * GUARDIAN * "Lyrical prose and imaginative world-building . . . the book is gripping, powerful and frequently impressive . . . an ambitious and intelligent work that marks out Chait as a writer worthy of further attention." -- Saxon Bullock * SFX magazine * "Out of this world engrossing. You don't have to understand the science to believe in it . . . superb world building . . . aided by enchanting fables and philosophies weaved into the narrative, Lament for the Fallen is an often poetic, occasionally disturbing, and always enthralling tale that has all the thematic ingredients to make it one of the best sci-fi books of 2016." * CULTUREFLY * "Richly drawn . . . a smart, ideas-driven novel . . . a promising and ambitious debut." * SCiFiNOW * "Loved the whole experience as Gavin brought solid world building into the mix alongside cracking pace as well as dialogue that just tripped off the page . . . a great read . . . Magic." * FALCATA TIMES * "Highly readable . . . Chait should be applauded for managing that all important trick of getting you to keep turning that page until there aren't any left . . . smart, ideas-led science fiction with a literary fiction bent." * STARBURST magazine * "Astonishingly accomplished . . . the writing is very elegant, switching between scenes of shocking brutality and images of incredible beauty, but the thing that really sets this book apart from other sci-fi that I've read is its heart. A deep humanity animates the very core of the book . . . a beautifully constructed novel, interrogating the question of what makes us human and what makes us humane . . . do seek out this novel because I think you'll be intrigued and pleasantly surprised even if you don't normally read sci-fi." * IDLEWOMAN.NET *