I would like to thank Simon & Schuster/Hodder and Stoughton for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher - Hodder and Stoughton U.K./Solaris US

Published - out now

Price - £16.99 hardback £9.99 paperback

In the distant future, climate change has reduced Earth to a hard-scrabble wasteland. Saints and sinners, lawmakers and sheriffs, gunslingers and horse thieves abound. Folk are as diverse and divided as they've ever been - except in their shared suspicions when a stranger comes to town.

One night a ship falls from the sky, bringing the planet's first visitor in three hundred years.

She's armed, she's scared . . . and she's looking for someone.

I am enjoying that Science Fiction appears to be increasing in popularity again based on the number of titles I’m seeing. It’s a genre that I do believe has a lot to say about now. Sadly though Frontier by Grace Curtis feels an unusual blend of old school plots and new style that for me really don’t mesh that well.

A mysterious object appears in a land that was once Australia. The earth after climate change was deserted and those few remain believed Gaia punished them and they must repent. From the object The Stranger arrived in a dangerous world where life is cheap and danger always lurks and seeks someone close to them.

There was a lot of deja vu in this story. It tumbled with post apocalyptic imagery - corrupt and evil Sherrif’s searching for our non-terrestrials , bizarre moments (a gunfight over books) and likely fake religions and in many ways goes for the obvious. There are some nice touches - the reminder that medication in an apocalypse will be scarce but overall nothing particularly new jumped out at me.

The characters are fairly boiler plate and having one named The Stranger for quite a large part of the book feels a little strange where blanks and annoyingly the non-Earth historical records interrupting the story signalled both the plot; major revelations and also signalled again that nothing new is coming. It’s a very simple tale fast paced but rather empty.

Curtis’ style aims for poetical but feels a little laboured and a mosaic structure of mini adventures that for me don’t come together. Overall a big disappointment and not one I can recommend.