The Last Gifts of the Universe

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

A warm, witty and profound science fiction adventure, that explores what it means to live in a finite universe - while also occasionally having to clean cat vomit off your spaceship. Perfect for fans of Becky Chambers and TJ Klune. 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 them is unknown. All Home knows 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.

Reviews

"Warm and snuggly on a humming starship" is one of my favourite moods in sci-fi. Riley August absolutely nails the vibe with this one. -- Reviewer * Amazon *
It flows brilliantly, with brevity and wit. -- Alex Hormann * At Boundary's Edge *
Somehow both a hauntingly beautiful meditation on grief and loss, as well as a delightful space-faring romp...I'm honestly in awe. -- G. M. Nair * Before We Go *
An elegant and melancholy music on death, loss...wrapped up in a far-reaching story about humanity facing possible extinction from an unknown threat. Also, there is a space cat.' * Sunyi Dean, author of The Book Eaters *

Author Bio

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.