Kindle Edition Amazon www.lindalouisadell.com Category:  Action/Thriller Publisher: Publish Nation ISBN-10:  1291070087 Type: Fiction Pages: 223 Copyright: 2012 ISBN-13: 9781291070088 Price: $2.99 (eBook) An adventure story about two aliens that get stranded on earth. How one of them meets an earth girl, falls in love and goes on the run across Europe. Excerpt The alien boy wanted just one more look at the humans before he left the Earth. He had seen them on the beach earlier that day, swimming in the sea and playing with a small round sphere. Catching it, throwing it backwards and forwards between them and running around, it looked so much fun he had wished he could join in. He could get quite close without them looking at him strangely, he had even gone into a building once, a place where they bought and bartered for things to eat. Lured in by the smell, something they called coffee, he had seen coffee many times in the pod casts but never had he imagined the marvelous smell. He longed to try it, but he had retreated very quickly when a human woman glanced over at him and started to move in his direction. His spaceship was very well disguised; it floated gently, in a small wooded area, anchored by a beam of invisible light to the Earth below. It was beautiful, shaped like an onion, in translucent opal colours that mimicked the local surroundings, hiding it from sight; its radiance shimmering; the craft absorbed energy from the atmosphere and the sun, and was refuelling now, ready for the journey home. “Don’t go too far,” his mother had said. “You know we have to leave tonight.” “I will be back in time,” the boy answered, placating his mother with a swift press of his palm to her forehead. “You had better; we don’t want to go without you. Your friends will be waiting to hear all about your travels,” she replied turning away to supervise the last minute flight arrangements. The hatch was open, the crew out and about, gathering a few last minute souvenirs. The boy’s uncle loved to collect plants and stones and things to take and show his friends back home, as part of his diversity project. The spaceship was enormous; they did not come to Earth frequently as it was considered a risky excursion, because of the primitive and uncivilized nature of the humans that lived there. Other tours, as part of ‘The Plan’, had had some very tricky adventures, barely escaping capture after getting the attention of the local population, so this trip was to be the last for a while. It was too risky, the authorities at the space council had said. Kaximaki was very glad that his parents had permitted him to come. The Earth fascinated him and the TV pod messages they received from Earth over the years intrigued him. However, they were always afraid that their presence might be felt. By radar, by military intelligence or by other scanning devices, and if this gigantic bauble had been detected it would be a disaster and it was too big to be missed forever; even if its defences were far more advanced than the Earth’s technology, but the risk of discovery was still there. While the ship was refuelling, it was also at its most vulnerable.

Earthscape, a long way from home
Linda Louisa Dell's third novel is both an inter-galactic love-story and a scathing indictment of human society, as seen through the eyes of its alien protaganists. Linda writes from a distinctly feminist viewpoint, visualising a new world order (following an alien epidemic that has decimated Earth's elderly population) where war, social injustice and religious hypocracy will become a thing of the past and women will eventually take charge. The two charismatic alien visitors are well-drawn and likeable, and despite their government's hidden agenda, they come to believe that humankind is worth saving. The story has a pacy and engaging plot that should also appeal to the non-SciFi reader.

Earthscape, a long way from home
This book was recently entered in The Wishing Shelf Book Awards. Our readers thought the following:

PLOT/ STYLE - The readers very much enjoyed the first chapter and the strong opening line, hooking them in. They thought it was a good idea for a story: a boy stranded on Earth and the technical side of the story well thought out e.g. the description of how they travelled from planet to planet on page 80.

They thought your descriptive work was particularly good e.g. the space ship on page 1, Simon Swift on page 28 and that the book was well-paced with snappy dialogue.

A number of the readers did suggest a few of the sentences were a little over long and complex and two of the readers liked the newspaper headlines but felt they needed rewriting to include a quote from a bystander.

'Strong characters and a clever plot, the perfect ingredients for an interesting read.' The Wishing Shelf Book Awards

Earthscape, a long way from home
M/s Dells latest book is a revelation. It is well written and breeches that gap between 'normal' novels and science fiction. As a reader who did not do science fiction I recommend this book to you as it has transformed my way of thinking. I could not put it down.