ABOUT THE BOOK

cover of valhai

Valhai is a very special book for me. It isn't the first book I have written, and it isn't the first book I have published, but it is special all the same. Valhai is the book I would have liked to have read when I was in my teens, and would have re-read from time to time. I love the repartee between Six and Diva, I love Cimma with her knife, I love Grace, struggling to maintain her spirit in a world which has erradicated such luxuries. The Sellites are my view of where the world is going. Sometimes I think I can even feel sorry for Xenon and the horrible Amanita, trapped as they are in a society which allows no individuality. Perhaps the only characters I feel complete antipathy for are Atheron and Mandalon.

I have always been fascinated by Astrophysics. About possibilities on other worlds. I wanted to write a Sci Fi book that COULD be true. That MIGHT be happening, somewhere in the universe.

I hope you enjoy reading it.

Regards - Gillian Andrews

 

READER'S COMMENTS

I have just started to get some feedback about Valhai, so I am posting some of them here. I hope this is all right, and none of the readers object to my re-using their comments here. Please let me know if you do and I will remove your comment straight away.

Comment on New and complete! Valhai by Gillian Andrews by Chris
04/11/2010 6:19|Chris
The narrator has a great voice and does an amazing job at delivering an engaging experience. My favorite part of Valhai is the way that the characters play off each other. They’ve got great lines and a great sense of humor that makes
Comment on New and complete! Valhai by Gillian Andrews by Gillian Andrews

04/11/2010 12:28|Gillian Andrews
Thanks Chris, This is the first time I have recorded an audio book, and I was very unsure about my voice, so your comment means a lot to me. I feel privileged to have such a great response to the fun between the characters too!

Comment on New and complete! Valhai by Gillian Andrews by Martha

05/11/2010 5:50|Martha
I enjoyed the book but this is NOT family friendly due to the subject matter. Parents should listen to this story first before making the decision to listen with or allow their children to listen to it.
Comment on New and complete! Valhai by Gillian Andrews by Gillian Andrews

05/11/2010 15:33|Gillian Andrews
Thanks Martha for that very sensible comment. I live in Europe, and I do know that what is considered family friendly over here is not necessarily the same in other places. If there are more comments about this I will ask Evo if that tag can be taken off. Because Valhai was written for young adults (teenagers) it seemed the most appropriate at the time. Anyway, I am glad you enjoyed the book!

Comment on New and complete! Valhai by Gillian Andrews by Mike

Thursday 16:48|Mike
Good people in a bad situation saved by a morally right minded teenager. I recommend this story and the author. Gillian Andrews presents beautifully in a well recorded set of episodes that are just the right length.
This book deserves the “Family Friendly” tag. My kids can hear/read it as often as they want. The story contains no ‘Adult Language’, no graphic or gratuitous violence, no sex. The families in the story are male dominated and self serving tribe centric units deserving no ‘family friendly’ treatment.
This exciting story will be enjoyed by the whole speculative fiction fan family. Let there be more from Gillian Andrews.


By: Silvirtree
Excellent!! Very creative and original story, a lovely break from a lot of the cookie cutter plots i come across. What imagination! what a great mind and great writer. Terrific characters that i want to follow more of. Perfect narration. I believe nobody else could have done this justice other than the author. The wry snarky remarks back and forth between the characters was my favorite part. Hilarious! The author nailed it, and being the narrator, brought it to life. The down side: stories this good always make you want more. and while it looks like the author has plans for more, the waiting will be too long.


By: rose
Awesome book right from the start! Not many books hook you at chapter one. I'd give this 6 stars for writing if i could. I stayed up till 5 am last night listening because i was that enthralled. I have only 2 chapters left and am reluctant to finish because it has been such an enjoyable story ...i hate for it to end. The narration is captivating as well. Great work for an author narrating her own book. Not many can pull that off. Please keep writing!

 

5.0 out of 5 stars interesting from beggining to end!! can't wait for the next one!, October 20, 2010
By 
Elisabeth - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Valhai (The Ammonite Galaxy) (Kindle Edition)
I found this book really interesting!! I like the characters, they are very well made and very funny. I also like the way the story is built, the author perfectly made a world and culture for the story, it makes you forget you are reading! I think the story is very different to other books I've read and not predictable so it keeps you intrigued all the time!
I can't wait for the next book of the series to come out! I highly recommend it! ;)
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I was thrilled to have such positive comments about the book. Thank you all very much. They have been so much more than I expected.

 

July 2011: Valhai has just been awarded 5 out of 5 stars by Readers Favorite, together with the following review:

"Reviewed by Alice D. for ReadersFavorite.com

The Sellites from the planet Valhai have arrived on the distant planet Coriolis to take their new batch of fourteen-year-old apprentices back to Valhai. Among these teenagers are Diva, a daughter of a ruling Coriolan elder, and Six, a nameless, homeless teen from nearby planet Kwaide. Diva and Six team up with Grace, a Sellite who has not been modified and with Vion, a young Sellite doctor who will not buy into how Sellites have been using, and then killing off, young Coriolian apprentices. They work with Arcan, the true ruler of Valhai, to combat the Sellites. But can four teenagers and an inhuman force win?

Valhai is adolescent science fiction at its very best. Major and minor characters are well-drawn and act believably throughout the story, which is Book One in the Ammonite Galaxy series. Even the "bad guys" in this engrossing tale are believable and serve to draw the reader into the tale and its exciting conclusion.

The plot proceeds smoothly until story's end and will engross even those readers who don't normally read science fiction. The story itself is well-edited without typographical errors and misspellings. Typos and poor grammar would be disastrous for a story such as this where the reader will be spellbound as the storyline marches on to its conclusion.

Valhai is an appealing, interesting work of science fiction. Teachers and librarians everywhere will welcome its presence on their bookshelves. They can put it in a student's hands, knowing it will be well-received by even the most reluctant of readers."

What a great review! It should be up on amazon in a few days. :)

 

Interview by Heather Roulo

February 10th 2011. Sorry to use this web a bit like a blog, but I like to add things to it from time to time so it is really becoming a bit unwieldy. But I don't want to rewrite either, so I will just apologise here if it has got to be too much. The interview with Heather Roulo is now up on Podioracket.com. You can find it here. (if you want to!). Heather was great, I wish her luck with her series of books. She is a sci-fi writer too. I enjoyed talking to her. Episode 42 is quite long, with an interview with Heather MaCauley first, then some news, and then the interview she did with me.

 

More on Podiobooks

I was amazed to see just how much traffic the Podiobooks site is getting. I had thought it would be a very small site, with just a few downloads of the audiobooks. Not so, I see that it is so busy that they couldn't cope with all the traffic and had to close down for a couple of days to change to a bigger bandwidth or whatever. Great! Valhai is still there, in the Young Adult section, and people are still finding it and downloading it. Next time I don't think I will release a book all at once. It makes better marketing sense to release one chapter at a time, so that your novel stays on the home page for longer. I did wonder about that for Valhai, but was so anxious to get the whole thing out that I decided to release the audio book as "complete". I thought perhaps nobody would want to listen to it if there was only one chapter out. This, I see, is not so. Perhaps with Kwaide??

 

PAYMENT - Thanks!!

Easter 2011. HAPPY EASTER TO EVERYBODY :)!

Valhai is still getting listeners on the Podiobooks site, and I was thrilled to get a payment for the first three months of this year. It is entirely voluntary, so it is great to think that some of you liked the book enough to make that effort. Thank you very much indeed. It is the second payment I have received from Podiobooks - great! (It may not be much in a monetary sense, but it is VERY significant to me).

 

PARSEC AWARD

Update 26th of May: Great! Valhai is under consideration for a Parsec Award!

Best Speculative Fiction Story (Long Form)
Brief Description: Novel-length stories containing elements of science fiction, fantasy or horror

Which is absolutely fantastic! I feel it is a real honour to be considered for this award. Especially when I glance through the list and see the names of the other writers.

Update:1st June 2011. Have sent off my hour's sample to the Parsec Awards. In the end just sent two whole chapters, as I was unsure about chopping up six episodes (there is a maximum of 6 "bits"). It took a while to send, because of course the file was too big for email in the end, and they wanted the whole hour in one file. Finally used YouSendit, which was supposed to be free, but ended up charging me $9.99 because the file was over 50 megas. Still, worked well and was a fast solution. My struggle will be to get into the final selection of five, and I think with the above names in the competition that is going to be VERY difficult. In any case, it is great to be in the running. And who knows?

 

31st July, 2011: HEYYYYYYY! Valhai is a finalist in the Parsec Awards!!! Big dance on spot. Fantastic:

Best Speculative Fiction Story (Long Form)
Brief Description: Novel-length stories containing elements of science fiction, fantasy or horror

 

Don't stand a chance of winning, with such competition, but it is just great to have been selected as a finalist. Wow!

September 4th: WINNERS ANNOUNCED: Congratulations to Nathan Lowell for winning this year's Parsec Award (in my category). I thought it would go to either him or John Lenahan, having seen the hundreds of five star reviews they both have up on Podiobooks. John Lenahan has the most fantastic reading voice, but the Trader Tales series occupies six of the top ten overall ratings on number of votes and Nathan Lowell is a terrific writer. I am more than happy just to have got through to the final in such select company - wish I could have made it to DragonCon, which sounded a great place to be. There were a lot of people there I would have liked to meet. Maybe next year, though it is a BIG hop across the Atlantic.

Valhai won an award in the Readers Favorite Awards 2011, so with that and being a finalist in the Parsec Awards I think I can be very satisfied. Thanks to you all for your support.

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright © Gillian Andrews 2012