Paul Magrs - LOST ON MARS+ THE MARTIAN GIRL + THE HEART OF MARS (The Lora Trilogy) - Festive Gift Ideas

We are getting closer to Christmas, so it's time to start thinking of ideal presents, stocking fillers and, of course, great books to warm you up throughout this festive period. Instead of me promoting this new book, I'm delighted to be able to introduce Lora to tell you more about this amazing series.

Hi, I'm Lora and Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books has kindly let me take over his blog, so that I can tell you about the story of my family on Mars. It's a story like no other a story - you will need to read it to believe it. We are lucky enough for Paul Magrs in writing a truthful account and for FireFly Press for publishing our little family tale. We call it the (The Lora Trilogy) The first in this epic Sci-Fi series Lost on Mars was published in May 2015  and the sequel The Martian Girl was published in September 2016. The last in the trilogy, The Heart of Mars, was published in March 2018. Mr Ripley has been a great supporter of the books and would like to recommend them to you all. This is a great Christmas present for everybody young and old. 

So here is more of my tale so you may know what lies ahead...

Dear Everyone,

There’s not many of us left now. Not after the Disappearances and all the terrible things that happened.

Life was tough on our Homestead, but we liked living there, out on the red Martian Prairie. There was Mum and Da and our crazy Granny with the mechanical leg and the laser eye. Then there was Toaster, our robot, who did loads of work around our place, and who used to be a sun bed once upon a time.

Why did the people of the first landings ever bring a sun bed to Mars? Where the sun’s so blistering all the time? When the heat gets wild and the dust storms come rolling over the plains, destroying our crops and bringing with them the terrifying ghosts of dead Martians.

Oh, yes. That’s where my tale begins. This whole epic adventure begins with the time that the storms came in the late autumn and ripped away all our fields of green corn. We were going to go hungry and cold that winter anyway, and that was bad enough. 

But then folk started getting Disappeared. 

We lost our Gran. She got whizzed away in the night, leaving just her electronic leg and eye behind. Then our Da went too, and we knew who’d got him.

The Martians were haunting us and taking us away one by one…

Heeee heeee heeeeee…

I could hear their laughter when I sat up late at night and my brother and little sister were asleep.

And I knew the Martian ghosts were coming for all of us. 

And I knew that we had to get away. I took the decision for all of our sakes. We would choose the most essential of our belongings and pack up the Hovercarts. We’d saddle up the great lizards who carried all our burdens…

So we set off into the great scarlet wilderness, looking for a new home. We followed the strange signals that came out of the last of our radios. We didn’t know what they were telling us, but there were people out there somewhere, calling us into the unknown…

And there were a whole lot of challenges and dangers that we had to face…

I kept a journal the whole time. I knew that the day would come when I would have to tell you all about our journey and our adventures. 

I knew I would tell you eventually about what happened when those few of us from our town were lost on Mars.

Yrs,

Lora.

'This series really is one of my all-time personal favourites; it is a science fiction delight that everyone should read... (it) will leave you feeling like you've read something really special by one of the best authors around.' Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books

Paul Magrs - The Heart of Mars (Lora Trilogy) Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books - Book Review (Firefly Press)

Have we come to the sad end of the sci-fi Lora trilogy by Paul Magrs?

It all started with "Lost on Mars" which is the first book in the trilogy. This was a brilliant read and became my favourite book of 2015. The second book in the series, "The Martian Girl" (2016), was, again, an excellent read which I thoroughly enjoyed. The final installment is "The Heart of Mars" and is absolutely amazing. This series really is one of my all-time personal favourites; it is a science-fiction delight that everyone should read. 

The Heart of Mars will be published across the galaxy on the 15th March 2018 by Firefly Press. NOTE: this book can be read on its own or on Mars. However, I personally would recommend that you start with the first book in the series.
If you've not read the previous books then grab all three and begin a reading adventure like no other. Unfortunately, they're not that easy to find so you may need to order them. Nevertheless, it will be worth the time and investment as they will leave you feeling like you've read something really special by one of the best authors around.  

I lost all sense of time as I followed Lora, Peter and, Toaster (a Servo-Furnishing machine) into the deadly swamplands full of mist and thick purple mud. The further they plunged into the adventure, the greater the sense of creeping eyes following and strange voices drifting through the air. It's a fantastic shuttle-ride of escapism as you follow Lora's epic mission to reunite her family in an all-out thrilling finale. 

A strange encounter with the Ancient Ones delivers a power-packed punch of fantasy and magic. You'll be slapped in the face with an air of mystery and so many unanswered questions. It's a brilliant story packed full of action, adventure and a fantastic host of characters, creatures and monsters. Yet, the simplicity of the story alongside the engaging narrative is cleverly built around a detailed fantasy world that seeps into the pores of the reader.

The author's vivid imagination in taking an idea and running with it, regardless, is breathtaking. It is incredible how he is able to write a Sci-Fi novel with such ease and poise. Even more remarkably, is that it will be loved by kids as much as by adults. It really does have his unique personality stamped onto every page, but this is what is to be expected from Paul Magrs. In my opinion, he is such an underrated author so start reading his books now. 

This book is a super extra-terrestrial romp through space and time. It is from the heart and is full of friendship danger as well as humour (I am Watt. Watt I am!). Definitely a book to devour and a series to savour. 

Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books: Paul Magrs - Lost on Mars - Book Review

Book Synopsis: With the scale and scope of the great science fiction epics, Lost on Mars tells the story of Lora and her family, third generation human settlers on the red planet who are struggling to survive in incredible circumstances. The family clings to life on a smallholding in the desert landscape, surviving storms and sinister rumours of un-explained disappearances until one night Lora sees the Dancers. When her father and grandmother disappear themselves, Lora's family is driven out to seek a new life across the plains. But none of them are ready for what they find the beautiful, dangerous City Inside.

Book Review: I was so excited to get my hands on an early copy of this book. In fact, I gave a little dance when it landed in my letter box. It never even made my 'To Be Read' pile as I devoured it straight away. Paul Magrs has quickly become one of my favourite authors, so I was eagerly hoping that this book would live up to my expectations. 

The synopsis gives very little away, as you can see above, so my imagination was on overload from the very start. Paul has a very expressive way of telling a story; simply told with a fantastical and futuristic vision that packs a mighty punch to the senses. Inspired from the books that he read as a child, this has helped him deliver another science fiction epic of his own. 

It's FANTASTIC, it's BRILLIANT, it's certainly strange and the plot will hit you in both the gut and the heart at the same time. It's thought provoking and very surreal following the characters into the realms of the unknown. I was never quite sure what would happen in this book as it's a magical ride of two halves with a big dollop of craziness, of course. Although, the story does have an underlying dark and sinister edge; disappearing people, unexplained sightings and possibly a cannibalistic race of aliens that will have you running for another planet. However, the more that I read, the more that I fell in love with this book. 

The final part of the story is a fantasy marvel. It hits you out of nowhere and changes the whole direction of the story. This certainly shows Paul's pedigree of writing through his epic involvement in writing twenty five or so Dr Who novels.

One of my favourite aspects of the story included another one of Paul's trademark 'servo furnishings'. This time it was a sunbed, if I recall correctly. I'd love more books to feature one as it makes the book sparkle with amusement and wonder.  

This is easily my favourite read of the year. It is a cracking space odyssey for the Young Adult audience and beyond. A unique outlook all wrapped in a disturbing fight for survival against a bleak and desolate landscape. Although, the end does pose the question as to whether there will be a sequel or not.

I hope that you will grab a copy of this delight of a book and enjoy it as much as I did. Many thanks to Firefly Press for publishing this book and Megan Farr for sending a copy in my direction.

Paperback: 352 pages - Publisher: Firefly Press Ltd (14 May 2015) ISBN-13: 978-1910080221

Publishers News: Paul Magrs Signs New YA Book Deal - Lost on Mars 2105

Wales-based children’s and young adult publisher Firefly Press has acquired a YA science fiction title by Dr Who novel writer Paul Magrs.
 
Lost on Mars, which will be published in spring 2015, tells the story of Lora and her family, who are human settlers on the red planet and struggling to survive.
 
“I wanted to write a science fiction epic set on another planet, about human beings surviving in incredible new circumstances and encountering mysterious and fascinating new ideas,” said Magrs. “It’s a kind of blend of the best elements of classic children’s fiction, such as Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books, and Golden Age space operas such as Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles.”
 
Firefly publisher Penny Thomas, which acquired world rights from literary agent Charlotte Robertson at United Agents, said she was “delighted” to sign Magrs and described the book as a “thrilling read from a terrific writer”.
 
Magrs has written more than 25 original Dr Who novels for BBC Books, as well as YA title Exchange (Simon & Schuster Children's), which was shortlisted for the Book TrustTeen Book Award in 2006 and longlisted for the Carnegie in 2007.

Mr Ripley's Adult Book Review: Enter Wildthyme by Paul Magrs

I'd like to think that this book came from The Great Book Exchange in Darlington, but to be honest it was Oxfam in York. They are not worlds apart really, unlike the galactic voyages that take part in this little adventure. One of the main characters in the book has been around for some time, but this is the first full length appearance for them in this trans-temporal adventure. Iris Wildthyme might be familiar to some, as a character from Paul's first book, as well as appearing in the Dr Who escapades but to me, she will always be a special character in fantasy. She's the  feisty granny that you would have loved to have been related to. The gin and tonic drinking time traveller with a mysterious past.

The first part of the book is set in a dusty secondhand bookshop in Darlington. Add in to the mix a celestial red, route master double decker bus and the scene is set for a normal life, but how wrong you would be.  Undeniably, Paul has the most amazing world building skills at his finger tips in this book - the story writing is very cleverly executed. Immediately, the reader is thrown into the action with a whole host of crazy and well imagined characters.  There is Iris, as well as her sidekick (a stuffed panda) originally known as Panda who is about 10 inches high and cooks a very mean breakfast. As well as a talking vending machine called Barbra, an evil poet called Marvelle and many more crazy folk.

I've never had so much fun reading an adult novel before; this was a perfect read for me. It's so crazy and surreal that it was an absolute joy to read. The story is about an object; a glass jar filled with mysterious contents which soon form the focus of a chase. It takes then to the outlandish world of Hyspero, the throne room of the Scarlet Empress and the very brink of the strange pocket dimension called . . . . . The Obverse.

This story is an adventure of good and evil - it is a book to read with a very large gin and tonic. It's fast paced; in a blink of an eye the story moves from the mundane life in Darlington to Montmartre in Paris where an alien invasion is witnessed. Never mind being catapulted to the Hammersmith Odeon to a glam rock concert in the 1970's.  It really is a breathtaking read; a roller coaster ride of mayhem and madness.

This book is very cleverly written and highly imaginative - it is full of zany off-the-wall moments. I connected with this story through the music references as well as the ideas behind the events. I found myself deeply immersed in this adventure; it is a read that I will savour until the next instalment. Five star entertainment - looking forward to the next book very soon ....