Release: January 10th 2019
Format: Ebook
Publisher: Flame Tree Press
Source: NetGalley
Find it at: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, Audible, B&N
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When Japanese nature show host Daisuke Matsumori finds himself on an alien world, he hopes to rekindle his passion for his work. Daisuke travels through a newly discovered wormhole in the Papuan highlands. And he joins biologist Anne Houlihan on Junction, a patchwork planet of competing alien ecosystems.
But their exploratory party crashes in the alien wilderness. Daisuke and Anne try to lead bickering soldiers and civilians back to civilization alive. They trek across one unearthly biome after another and members of the party continue to die. However, Daisuke wonders whether human politics might be more deadly than alien biology. One of his companions might be a murderer.
FLAME TREE PRESS is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing. Launched in 2018 the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.
About the Author:
Daniel M. Bensen is an American Bulgarian author of speculative aspirational fiction, including science fiction, alternate history, and fantasy. His work also includes the speculative biology novel Junction and its sequel Interchange, the optimistic post apocalyptic comic book First Knife.
Daniel classifies his work as “speculative aspirational fiction,” which means that he explores other, better places. He loves learning about real life and extending from it to build plausible and surprising worlds. At odds with themselves and each other, the people in these worlds struggle to turn themselves the right way around, and so generate stories.
Daniel studied biology and history . However he teaches English as a foreign language. Also he survived cancer. After growing up in Chicago, Maine, California, Montana, Japan, and Boston, he followed his then fiancée to Sofia, Bulgaria. There he has continued to grow up. He now teaches, writes, and resides with his wife, daughters, and in laws in the Balkan Tower of Matriarchy.
Junction Review:
“Junction” is a gripping science fiction novel with many other elements that will keep you guessing.
I am not a fan of science fiction, but I make an exception for Flame Tree Press as I love their selections. I admit, when I started reading “Junction,” I wasn’t sure what was happening. It took me a while to get used to the world and find out what was happening. But, as soon as Daisuke goes through the wormhole and finds himself on the alien planet, the story picked up full swing. The author excitingly narrates the story as Daisuke, and the crew navigates the new world. I also enjoyed the world-building, where we see exciting creatures like the Shmoo and how they behave.
Moreover, the author also wrote the characters wonderfully. We have an array of nationalities, from Indonesian to Russian, and it was interesting to see how politics played a role in the story. Daisuke is charming in the lead as he tries to figure out who is good and who isn’t. Did I mention there is also a traitor among the crew, who is murdering them one by one? I loved the mystery element that the author incorporated as we try to figure out who the killer is. Also, some of the deaths were shocking as I did not expect core characters to get killed. There is also a romance between Daisuke and Anne, which I thought added well to the science fiction plot. The story also ends in a cliffhanger that makes you want to pick up the sequel “Interchange” and continue reading.
Overall, “Junction” turned out to be much better than I expected, and I could not put it down.
