Book Tour: The Star Host by F.T. Lukens

Author: F.T. Lukens

Title: The Star Host

Series: Broken Moon

Book: One

Release Date: March 3, 2016

Pages or Words: 258 pages

Categories: Fiction, Gay fiction, M/M Romance, Science Fiction, Young Adult

Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27830154-the-star-host

Publisher: Duet Books, the Young Adult imprint of Interlude Press

Cover Artist: C.B. Messer

Ren grew up listening to his mother tell stories about the Star Hosts – a mythical group of people possessed by the power of the stars. The stories were the most exciting part of Ren’s life, and he often dreamed about leaving his backwater planet and finding his place among the neighboring drifts. When Ren is captured by soldiers and taken from his home, he must remain inconspicuous while plotting his escape. It’s a challenge since the general of the Baron’s army is convinced Ren is something out of one of his mother’s stories.

He finds companionship in the occupant of the cell next to his, a drifter named Asher. A member of the Phoenix Corps, Asher is mysterious, charming, and exactly the person Ren needs to anchor him as his sudden technopathic ability threatens to consume him. Ren doesn’t mean to become attached, but after a daring escape, a trek across the planet, and an eventful ride on a merchant ship, Asher is the only thing that reminds Ren of home. Together, they must warn the drifts of the Baron’s plans, master Ren’s growing power, and try to save their friends while navigating the growing attraction between them.

Interlude Press Web Store: store.interludepress.com

Amazon: http://amzn.to/1RHWcQ5

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-star-host-ft-lukens/1122958972?ean=9781941530726

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Apple iBookstore: The Star Host

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Once at the hangar, Ren broke away from the two guards and entered the lancer, walking up the stairs, irritation a heavy feeling in his chest.

“Reporting for work,” Ren said, his tone heavily laced with annoyance.

Janus popped up from a console she had been working under, goggles on her face, gray hair sticking up everywhere. “You!” she snapped. “I told you not to come back.”

Ren rolled his eyes. “It’s not my choice. I don’t want to be here anymore than you want me here.”

“Where are your guards? I told the dumb one not to bring you back, Abiathar’s orders be damned. I don’t want your kind working on these ships.”

She poked a finger hard into Ren’s chest and he staggered back, and rubbed his hand over the spot.

“What the stars do you mean by my kind?”

Her eyes grew comically large behind the goggles. “You don’t know?” She laughed, bordering on hysterical. “You’re more dangerous than I thought. You can’t try to control it if you don’t even know what you are.”

Ren frowned. His tolerance for the cryptic nonsense everyone had spouted since he arrived was gone. He took a step toward the hull and Janus stiffened.

“Don’t,” she barked.

“Don’t what? Touch it? What will happen, huh?”

Her face paled and her chest heaved with panicked breaths. “You don’t know what you’re capable of.”

Ren laughed. “I’m capable of nothing. I’m a duster, planet-born with very limited experience with tech. You have no reason to be frightened of me.”

He moved closer to the hull, hand outstretched, fingers splayed.

She whimpered. “Please, don’t.”

Ren slammed his hand against the hull, his fingertips leaving greasy marks on the shiny surface. As he predicted, nothing happened.

He turned back to Janus. “See? Nothing–”

His word tangled in his throat, cut off, because suddenly, Ren was consumed with power, rushing from his toes to his fingertips. A blue tint clouded his vision, and his body suffused with golden warmth. And then he was floating amongst the wires, connected to the ship, to the energy source, to everything. The lancer pulsed under his skin, tangling in his veins, its systems integrated with his senses.

It was freeing and frightening.

His consciousness raced along the circuits and he could fix it. He could fix everything. He found the tangle of wires in the artificial gravity system and bypassed it. He found the broken circuits in the air recyclers and with a pulse of power, refurbished them. He saw the static in the com system, a physical entity, and he cleared it away with a brush of his metaphysical hand.

The longer Ren floated through the ship, the less connected he was to his physical body. And if he thought about it, he didn’t need his body. Why would he need his body? He was free here. He moved around with ease, the wires and the systems his route, and the more he pushed, the more he felt the other ships too. They were nearby, on the edge of his perception, and he could go to those, he could jump to the other ones and repair them too.

He could.

He could.

F.T. wrote her first short story when she was in third grade and her love of writing continued from there. After placing in the top five out of ten thousand entries in a writing contest, she knew it was time to dive in and try her hand at writing a novel.

A wife and mother of three, F.T. holds degrees in psychology and English literature, and is a long-time member of her college’s science-fiction club. F.T. has a love of cheesy television shows, superhero movies, and science-fiction novels—especially anything by Douglas Adams.

Connect with F.T. at authorftlukens.wordpress.com on Twitter @ftlukens, on Tumblr at ftlukens.tumblr.com and on Goodreads at goodreads.com/ftlukens.

Today I’m welcoming F.T. Lukens to chat about writing, life, and their current project. Welcome! Let’s talk a little about why you chose young adult science fiction as your genre for this novel.

Thank you for hosting me at your blog today and allowing me to wax poetic about my unadulterated love of science fiction.

The Star Host is a young adult science fiction adventure. I like to call it “magic in space” since it blends elements from sci-fi, such as spaceships, with elements from fantasy, like castles and magic. It was a fun project to develop and write, especially since I absolutely adore sci-fi.

I’ve been an avid reader and consumer of science fiction since my older brother introduced me to Star Wars. Yes, the force was my gateway. After that, it was running home after school to watch the original Battlestar Galactica series. And it was staying up late at night to catch reruns of Star Trek: TNG. (I totally would’ve had a higher grade in Calculus in high school if TNG didn’t come on at midnight and 1am.) In college, I joined Skiffy – the science fiction and fantasy club at my school. I was introduced to Army of Darkness, Time Bandits, and Ice Pirates. I think my love of sci-fi does have a nostalgic element to it, but in reading and watching sci-fi, you have the opportunity to be transported to another world.

However, even if that world is vastly different from our own, there will be familiar elements. One of the benefits of speculative fiction, is that it allows for the reader to view humanity through a distorted lens. Sci-fi, horror, strange tales, apocalyptic literature etc all address the ‘what if’ and can put characters in impossible situations. Ultimately, no matter what universe our characters land themselves in, science fiction is a study of humanity, be it in the far future, or an alternate past. I think Ray Bradbury, one of my favorite writers, exemplifies this in his works, and he is one of my literary inspirations. His descriptions are legendary.

It only made sense that my debut novel would be part of the sci-fi genre. As a writer, speculative fiction is an open universe. I loved the opportunity to create my own magic system, my own worlds, even my own slang for the way my characters talked. It’s amazing to have that kind of control over a universe. Science fiction also lends to my writing style. I love description and action scenes and creating worlds on the page is so much fun.

My sincerest hope is that readers will enjoy my book and that I may even inspire a new generation of sci-fi lovers.