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Bullied, tested, dismissed. This hero won't give up.
Biological children are an unwelcome anomaly on a colony ship approaching its final destination. Shunned and bullied for the method of her birth, Errai Avila keeps her head down and hides in the ship's kitchen.
But when the captain calls for volunteers to explore their new home planet, she has a difficult choice: brave applying to gain the crew's notice and respect? Or remain anonymous and ignored at her menial job?
Tension rises as the exploration team's controversial methods split the crew, and Errai's choice gets even harder.
How far will the dissenters go to get their way, and what can Errai do to stop them?
The Approach is the first book in a gripping YA sci-fi series. If you're a fan of The 100 and The Hunger Games, and if you like intense power struggles, difficult choices, and strong, intelligent heroines, then you'll love Holly Ice's Courage Colony books.
Buy The Approach now to start this exciting new series today!
Biological children are an unwelcome anomaly on a colony ship approaching its final destination. Shunned and bullied for the method of her birth, Errai Avila keeps her head down and hides in the ship's kitchen.
But when the captain calls for volunteers to explore their new home planet, she has a difficult choice: brave applying to gain the crew's notice and respect? Or remain anonymous and ignored at her menial job?
Tension rises as the exploration team's controversial methods split the crew, and Errai's choice gets even harder.
How far will the dissenters go to get their way, and what can Errai do to stop them?
The Approach is the first book in a gripping YA sci-fi series. If you're a fan of The 100 and The Hunger Games, and if you like intense power struggles, difficult choices, and strong, intelligent heroines, then you'll love Holly Ice's Courage Colony books.
Buy The Approach now to start this exciting new series today!
275 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 31, 2019
10 people are currently reading
11 people want to read
About the author
Holly Ice
17 books53 followersHolly Ice loves the unusual and the unexpected, and that extends to her fantasy and science fiction. She loves to read and write about myths, new worlds, new creatures, and old creatures that are relatively unknown or re-imagined.
She lives in the countryside not far from Bristol, England with two adopted, part maine coon cats, a boyfriend of many years, and an overactive imagination.
She lives in the countryside not far from Bristol, England with two adopted, part maine coon cats, a boyfriend of many years, and an overactive imagination.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 22, 2020
To start with, I have to be honest and tell you that not only did I help to edit this book, but I was also there to help bounce ideas off. With that said, The Approach isn't my baby, and while I am proud to say that I had a hand in its creation, Holly Ice's vision was entirely her own. There are things about this book that I liked, and some that I didn't like.
So what started as a dull and tired premise by Science Fiction standards -- a destroyed Earth, a wandering tribe of survivors making their way to a new home -- was quickly elevated to something fresh by Ice's decision to frame the story as a YA tale. Framing the story from a teenager's POV -- someone who doesn't have control of the situation and who's agency (at this point) doesn't determine the ship's fate -- makes it feel more grounded, and thus more applicable to the experience that many young people experience. And at the same time, it's a fairly fresh take to have a science fiction novel set in space that has a teenager as the main character. I can't think of one, at least.
Now, with YA, there comes a number of tropes which (I feel) don't necessarily lend themselves to this kind of story. The first of these, of course, is the idea of the unnatural caste system arising in a post-apocalyptic world. It would have been very, very easy for Holly to use this trope and for it to interfere with the world building. Instead of this, and making a comment on the way that society determines the roles of young people from an early age (which is where I think a lot of these 'castes' come from) Holly instead decided for her 'caste system' to instead be one which has been brought on by social pressure and not through government oversight. In this, I feel that The Approach is able to do something new with the trope; instead of the Aesop concerning society's expectations of the individual, it concerns the community's expectations of the person. These may sound similar, but the difference is that, realistically for a teenager, the community's expectations of you as a person -- have a good fashion sense, know all the latest slang, don't be fat or ugly, keep up with the trends -- and their opinions of you are felt far sooner and far more harshly than society's expectations. After all, throughout history how many teenagers have asked something of their parents because 'x does it.' As such, for Errai to be sorted into the lesser caste -- those kids who have been born via womb -- was a smart decision, as it makes her situation -- being ostracised and bullies by her peers -- much more applicable than being selected by such and such house to do such and such job.
And at the same time, to have Erra's social issue be separate from the ship's society gives the ship and the ship's government a little more credibility. Normally, totalitarian states where one caste or group of people are beaten down by the system don't last long -- the only way that Brandon Sanderson's Lord Ruler was able to maintain his monopoly was through sorcery, after all -- so it would make sense for the ship's government and society to be more or less benign.
There are many such examples throughout the book where Holly has taken an existing trope, seen where it usually goes, and then subverts it. To list them all would be tedious and quite spoilerific, so I shall leave it to you, my friend, to read this book and discover them all for yourself.
In terms of characterisation, my opinion on Errai changed throughout the drafting process. Sometimes Holly had written her a little too timid, other times she was less a teenage girl and more a Titan. In the end, I think I'd call her a broken character: a young woman who is trying to find her place in the world, but who is pushed back by a peer group that believes her to be less than they are. There are times when you just want to strangle her, but there are also times when she's funny and charming and full of heart. And this is true for all of the characters, really. They're three dimensional. Not, perhaps, to the level of some authors (who I won't name here because it will most likely incur a long conversation later) but this is a good start. The antagonist of the novel has well-defined goals and is understandable, and there are even times when you find yourself rooting for them.
And with that, there are some things that put me off. For one thing, despite the fact that the novel tries to be scientifically accurate, the author really never tried to apply relativity when describing the journey. For people who read this as a YA novel, such things won't matter, however if you're coming from something Hard Science Fiction and expecting this to be more of the same then you might be put off slightly. Things are generally okay, but they're not perfect and that irks me something fierce.
Likewise, I never got a clear idea of the dimensions or size of the ship from the text. Which is weird, really, because I know for a fact that these things did change during the drafting process; in an early draft, the ship had a hall and a stage, for example.
I also found the ship's (and particularly the younger character's) attitude to sex and drugs a little strange. Perhaps it's my biases, but I would have thought that a ship with a (relatively) small number of resources would have quite strenuous rules in regards to being intoxicated. I understand where the author was coming from with these things, to show that even after the end of the world teenagers will still be teenagers and that in a world without parents kids will do what they want, but I just don't think it worked out as well as she'd have hoped. For one thing the question lingers of where did they get all those drugs from? Likewise, I think that might put off a few people who are reading it as a YA novel to be put off. I dunno, though; I'm not the primary audience for these books.
I'd describe the writing style as florid, but not to the level of purple prose. Maybe a nice lavender? Science Fiction tends to have quite muscular prose, so it was nice to have that contrast. It reminded me a little of Ursula Le Guin's writing.
So let me summarise. I like The Approach. I like the characters and I like the world and I like the way it was written. I wish that my friend had taken into account relativity, and I don't know where the drugs came from. It's a good Science Fiction novel, and if the dear reader can stand something a little blue, a good YA novel, too.
So what started as a dull and tired premise by Science Fiction standards -- a destroyed Earth, a wandering tribe of survivors making their way to a new home -- was quickly elevated to something fresh by Ice's decision to frame the story as a YA tale. Framing the story from a teenager's POV -- someone who doesn't have control of the situation and who's agency (at this point) doesn't determine the ship's fate -- makes it feel more grounded, and thus more applicable to the experience that many young people experience. And at the same time, it's a fairly fresh take to have a science fiction novel set in space that has a teenager as the main character. I can't think of one, at least.
Now, with YA, there comes a number of tropes which (I feel) don't necessarily lend themselves to this kind of story. The first of these, of course, is the idea of the unnatural caste system arising in a post-apocalyptic world. It would have been very, very easy for Holly to use this trope and for it to interfere with the world building. Instead of this, and making a comment on the way that society determines the roles of young people from an early age (which is where I think a lot of these 'castes' come from) Holly instead decided for her 'caste system' to instead be one which has been brought on by social pressure and not through government oversight. In this, I feel that The Approach is able to do something new with the trope; instead of the Aesop concerning society's expectations of the individual, it concerns the community's expectations of the person. These may sound similar, but the difference is that, realistically for a teenager, the community's expectations of you as a person -- have a good fashion sense, know all the latest slang, don't be fat or ugly, keep up with the trends -- and their opinions of you are felt far sooner and far more harshly than society's expectations. After all, throughout history how many teenagers have asked something of their parents because 'x does it.' As such, for Errai to be sorted into the lesser caste -- those kids who have been born via womb -- was a smart decision, as it makes her situation -- being ostracised and bullies by her peers -- much more applicable than being selected by such and such house to do such and such job.
And at the same time, to have Erra's social issue be separate from the ship's society gives the ship and the ship's government a little more credibility. Normally, totalitarian states where one caste or group of people are beaten down by the system don't last long -- the only way that Brandon Sanderson's Lord Ruler was able to maintain his monopoly was through sorcery, after all -- so it would make sense for the ship's government and society to be more or less benign.
There are many such examples throughout the book where Holly has taken an existing trope, seen where it usually goes, and then subverts it. To list them all would be tedious and quite spoilerific, so I shall leave it to you, my friend, to read this book and discover them all for yourself.
In terms of characterisation, my opinion on Errai changed throughout the drafting process. Sometimes Holly had written her a little too timid, other times she was less a teenage girl and more a Titan. In the end, I think I'd call her a broken character: a young woman who is trying to find her place in the world, but who is pushed back by a peer group that believes her to be less than they are. There are times when you just want to strangle her, but there are also times when she's funny and charming and full of heart. And this is true for all of the characters, really. They're three dimensional. Not, perhaps, to the level of some authors (who I won't name here because it will most likely incur a long conversation later) but this is a good start. The antagonist of the novel has well-defined goals and is understandable, and there are even times when you find yourself rooting for them.
And with that, there are some things that put me off. For one thing, despite the fact that the novel tries to be scientifically accurate, the author really never tried to apply relativity when describing the journey. For people who read this as a YA novel, such things won't matter, however if you're coming from something Hard Science Fiction and expecting this to be more of the same then you might be put off slightly. Things are generally okay, but they're not perfect and that irks me something fierce.
Likewise, I never got a clear idea of the dimensions or size of the ship from the text. Which is weird, really, because I know for a fact that these things did change during the drafting process; in an early draft, the ship had a hall and a stage, for example.
I also found the ship's (and particularly the younger character's) attitude to sex and drugs a little strange. Perhaps it's my biases, but I would have thought that a ship with a (relatively) small number of resources would have quite strenuous rules in regards to being intoxicated. I understand where the author was coming from with these things, to show that even after the end of the world teenagers will still be teenagers and that in a world without parents kids will do what they want, but I just don't think it worked out as well as she'd have hoped. For one thing the question lingers of where did they get all those drugs from? Likewise, I think that might put off a few people who are reading it as a YA novel to be put off. I dunno, though; I'm not the primary audience for these books.
I'd describe the writing style as florid, but not to the level of purple prose. Maybe a nice lavender? Science Fiction tends to have quite muscular prose, so it was nice to have that contrast. It reminded me a little of Ursula Le Guin's writing.
So let me summarise. I like The Approach. I like the characters and I like the world and I like the way it was written. I wish that my friend had taken into account relativity, and I don't know where the drugs came from. It's a good Science Fiction novel, and if the dear reader can stand something a little blue, a good YA novel, too.
June 13, 2020
Interesting Concept
I liked the book for the most part. It was very well written. The concept was different than most Ark ship stories. How is a person to react when they are looked down upon just because they were conceived a different way than others? The characters are well written and the storyline is different. Will definitely read the next book in the series.
I liked the book for the most part. It was very well written. The concept was different than most Ark ship stories. How is a person to react when they are looked down upon just because they were conceived a different way than others? The characters are well written and the storyline is different. Will definitely read the next book in the series.
November 3, 2019
A brilliant start to this new series from Holly Ice! Well written, great characters & good plots & ideas! What more could you want! I really enjoyed this book & am looking forward to more in this series & from this writer! This will appeal to anyone that loves sci fi! I do recommend it!
November 2, 2020
It has been a year since this book came, will there be a third part of it?
November 2, 2019
Our heroine is part of a team exploring a new world for colonization. Unfortunately, there are conflicts within the team, as well as with the planet. Is the expedition doomed before it starts?
This is the start of a young adult SF series. I found the story to be well written and easy to read, and yet the plot has a lot of twists and turns that present constant surprises as you go. Nothing is easy and the resulting action is non-stop. The characters are also well written with diverse and distinct personalities that bring the story to life. I particularly like our heroine as she is tough and resourceful, trying to push through no matter what. I really enjoyed this start of the series and look forward to seeing where it goes next.
Highly recommended.
I received an ARC from the author for review purposes.
This is the start of a young adult SF series. I found the story to be well written and easy to read, and yet the plot has a lot of twists and turns that present constant surprises as you go. Nothing is easy and the resulting action is non-stop. The characters are also well written with diverse and distinct personalities that bring the story to life. I particularly like our heroine as she is tough and resourceful, trying to push through no matter what. I really enjoyed this start of the series and look forward to seeing where it goes next.
Highly recommended.
I received an ARC from the author for review purposes.
October 31, 2019
With a crew of just over 1400 the "Colony" has traveled over 70 trillion miles from Earth to ensure humanity survives. They find a planet "Ristar" off in the horizon and have to set plans ear;y to send a exploratory crew. The Committee chooses a crew from young adults, and the training and the nanites begin.
Can the mission be completed if the crew can not be agreed upon? Will the use of nanites prevent this mission from happening? Every page is gripping with bloody knuckles and broken ribs energy. It keeps you reading till the end. Characters are well developed and believable. I think if you love sci-fi, you will defiantly love this book. Loved this book!
Can the mission be completed if the crew can not be agreed upon? Will the use of nanites prevent this mission from happening? Every page is gripping with bloody knuckles and broken ribs energy. It keeps you reading till the end. Characters are well developed and believable. I think if you love sci-fi, you will defiantly love this book. Loved this book!
November 4, 2019
This book was very interesting and intriguing. The crew were leaving a dying earth and and traveling on an exciting journey to settle on one of several different times planets. There were a few kins(regular born humans) on board but most were tanks(genetically made-born). This set up an hierarchy that the younger generation of tanks bullied the kins. Errai tries to overcome the prejudices against her and find her place among the crew. Good read
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
November 5, 2019
This story is beautifully written and well told. And it would make a great movie!
Errai Avila is looked down upon by the rest of the crew of the spaceship, The Courage, because she was naturally born. She’s picked on and teased, but for some people intimidation only makes them stronger. Errai is one of those people. This is my level of science fiction, not too hard, not too soft, with a touch of romance that promises to further develop in the next book. High recommendations here. I can’t think of anything I didn’t like about this story.
Errai Avila is looked down upon by the rest of the crew of the spaceship, The Courage, because she was naturally born. She’s picked on and teased, but for some people intimidation only makes them stronger. Errai is one of those people. This is my level of science fiction, not too hard, not too soft, with a touch of romance that promises to further develop in the next book. High recommendations here. I can’t think of anything I didn’t like about this story.
November 1, 2019
Fast-paced with plenty of action, I love this book. I was hooked immediately/from the start wanting to know what happens to Errai Avila and the crew This is awesomely written with an awesome cast of characters. I am looking forward to the next book in the series or anything by this author.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
October 31, 2019
A brilliant start to this new series from Holly Ice! Well written, great characters & good plots & ideas! What more could you want! I really enjoyed this book & am looking forward to more in this series & from this writer! This will appeal to anyone that loves sci fi! I do recommend it!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews