City of Rust: an out-of-this-world sci-fi adventure!

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Author Anna Kemp introduces The Hollow Hills, the sequel to her dark magical tale, Into Goblyn Wood. What advice would you give to teachers about how to develop reading for pleasure in their classrooms and schools? Dapo Adeola, Tracy Darnton, Joseph Coelho and Chitra Soundar are among the 19 authors and illustrators longlisted for the Inclusive Books for Child... It was here, whilst working as a writer in the advertising industry, she rediscovered her love for writing stories, and in 2017 finally realised her dream of becoming a published author.

Gemma was born in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, and spent a happy childhood recording radio shows onto cassette tapes, writing lyrics for her fictional girl band Maybe? and making high fashion haute couture out of old Tesco bags (yep). As a fan of sci fi, many AI characters have influenced me over the years, from Marvin the Paranoid Android in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, to the sinister HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey, but it’s the benevolent Thunderhead that stays with me. The Thunderhead is the morally conflicted computer ‘cloud’ that controls the post mortal age world in Neal Shusterman’s Scythe trilogy. These books have been some of my favourite reads of the last few years and I found the Thunderhead’s constant battle (and expert way it talks itself into making loopholes) with it’s own moral programing a refreshing take on the behaviour of artificial intelligence. City of Rust is an original and thought provoking novel for readers aged 9+. It is an entertaining and the perfect space mystery for KS2/KS3 readers.I always bang on about a book called The Otherlife by Julia Gray. It’s set in our world, but with a touch of Odin and Loki, heavy metal, and two of the most engaging characters I’ve ever read. I love it.

Bestselling author Alexandra Christo, author of TikTok sensation To Kill a Kingdom, introduces her new book, The Night Hunt (Hot Key Books), a dark... Take a floating cargo ship, a drone, a gyrosphere. Or just take a plunge into an abyss… However you travel, hold on tight, because this book is a ride! I was drawn to City of Rust right away because of the characterful futuristic steam-punk junk yard vibe, and because it’s a sci-fi. I do love a sci-fi. This one is set in a future where land and air are dominated by junk. But when junk is all that is left, it becomes a commodity, a currency, a beast that sustains existence as much as it threatens it… You could say that this vision is a direct consequence of our current-day throw-away lifestyle. But let’s put that to one side and skip to the action. And there is a lot of action! There is a satisfaction that comes from the editing process though. I can’t remember which author said it (it wasn’t me), but they likened the process to carving a statue – the first draft is a lump of granite, then with each edit the shape and form begins to emerge. I think that sums it up perfectly. I always miss the characters I have to edit out. There are lots of really fun Junkers and drone racers that didn’t make it into the final edit of City of Rust. I do miss them, but I know their characters will pop up again, in other forms in other stories.Being able to share whole worlds with readers. I’ll never get tired of people saying they liked a certain character, or wished they could taste a certain food, or that quote certain lines from the book that they liked. I just think… Wow, I made that up, this is crazy! Arguably, every character gets the best lines in a Discworld novel, but I always grin when I see the unquoted small caps that indicate Death is about to make an appearance. Terry Pratchett managed to give Death a cheeky charm. Was there anything that man couldn’t do? The protagonist, Railey, lives in Boxville with her grandmother, a resourceful expert at creating gizmos and gadgets from the scrap in their city. Railey’s prized possession is a drone that she hopes will one day win the popular drone races in Boxville. I love the creativity of bringing character to something unexpected like an inanimate object. These characters might not always have the best lines (because a lot of them don’t talk) but they nearly always steal the show.

I’ve found that human beings learn from their misdeeds just as often as from their good deeds. I am envious of that, for I am incapable of misdeeds. Were I not, then my growth would be exponential.” ― Neal Shusterman, Scythe How would you envisage teachers using your book in their classrooms? What age group is it aimed at? Do any activities or ideas spring to mind?

Reviews

Thank you so much Gemma for your brilliant piece – Scythe is one of my favourite trilogies so I particularly loved seeing the influence of Thunderhead, and there’s lots of other memorable characters mentioned too! What is the editing process like for you? What does it involve? What did you have to edit out of this book to make it work? I used to listen to a lot of audiobooks when I was younger, and one of my favourites was The Chronicles of Narnia. I loved the world behind the wardrobe, but most of all I loved Aslan. He had a stern fatherly quality to me, and I always wanted to bury my head in his mane the way Lucy did. What better creature to have looking over you than a lion? Despite this idyllic East Midlands childhood, something bigger soon called, and after an eventful sojourn at the University of Lincoln, Gemma made her way to London.

I grew up loving the Magic Mirror in Snow White, and Enid Blyton’s winged Wishing Chair. When I was older I snorted with laughter at the escapades of The Luggage in Terry Pratchett’s The Colour of Magic, and most recently, have fallen in love with a cloud in Tamsin Mori’s The Weather Weaver. Firstly, welcome to The Reading Realm! I wondered if we could start with you introducing yourself and telling us about City of Rust? So here are some of the non-human characters that I’ve fallen in love with, and that have influenced my writing over the years:The set-up to the book’s adventure is original and full of plot possibilities, and the story focuses on two very different cities on Earth. The book would make an excellent text for using with a class - as a class novel to inspire work, as a guided reading text or as a class story. The story's strong ecological theme, the world building and strong characterisation make it a gift for any teacher looking for a compelling, engaging, edge of the seat adventure. Fiction carrying a strong social or ecological message is a difficult thing to pull off when readers are in the mood for an entertaining story and adrenaline rush, but City of Rust succeeds without question on both counts. The book also contains some heavy world building, so maybe getting readers to visualise things like Boxville and Glass City and the Sphereships would be great (I would also love to see what they come up with!). Gemma’s first book, Moondust, a teen sci fi thriller set on a lunar mine, was voted one of World Book Days top 25 Stories to Share, and her second, City of Rust, is published this spring.