There’s always a lot going on in the publishing world with books arriving on a happy tsunami of reading possibilities and those same books, if the author is lucky (and with the ravenous maw of streaming services these days, more are being offered adaptation deals), finding their way to a big or small screen.
Twp of those authors, one with a new book coming out – that would be J. S. Dewes whose discovery came courtesy of one of those algorithmic suggestions on a bookstore online page that happily got it firmly and absolutely right with the first novel in her current series, The Last Watch, a brilliantly good sci-fi read – and another with her delightfully, emotionally resonant rom-com novel, The Flatshare, finding its way soon to Paramount Plus.
And yes, while strictly speaking, a TV adaptation is an upcoming read, hopefully the appearance of The Flatshare on streaming will those who haven’t read the book to check it out, along with of course all of Beth O’Leary’s other delightful novels, The Road Trip and The No-Show, and all of J. S. Dewes’ wonderfully immersive novels.
Enjoy reading, watching and lose yourself in the story!
SNAPSHOT
J. S. Dewes, author of The Last Watch and The Exiled Fleet, returns with a new science fiction space opera that melds elements of Scalzi’s Old Man’s War with Edge of Tomorrow.Sergeant Adrienne Valero wants to die.
She can’t.
After enduring a traumatic resurrection for the ninety-sixth time, Valero is reassigned to a special forces unit and outfitted with a cutting-edge virtual intelligence aid. They could turn the tide in the war against intelligent machines dedicated to the assimilation, or destruction, of humanity.
When her VI suddenly achieves sentience, Valero is drawn into the machinations of an enigmatic major who’s hell-bent on ending the war—by any means necessary. (synopsis (c) J. S. Dewes)
The big reveal came via the author’s latest email which promised the next instalment in the series would offer:
✨ Existential crises
✨ Big Mad Robots
✨ Internalized exhaustion
✨ Snarky AI
✨ Shiny hardsuit tech
✨ Trauma all the way down
✨ Bureaucratic negligence yay!
Who doesn’t want all that? Of course. Rubicon is available for preorder and is on schedule for release on 28 March 2023 via Tor Books.
SNAPSHOT
Tiffy Moore needs a cheap flat, and fast. Leon Twomey works nights and needs cash. Their friends think they’re crazy, but it’s the perfect solution: Leon occupies the one-bed flat while Tiffy’s at work in the day, and she has the run of the place the rest of the time.But with obsessive ex-boyfriends, demanding clients at work, wrongly imprisoned brothers and, of course, the fact that they still haven’t met yet, they’re about to discover that if you want the perfect home you need to throw the rulebook out the window … (courtesy betholearyauthor.com)
The Flatshare is a brilliantly written novel that features standout characters, a quirky but heartfelt premise and a narrative that gives us our fizzy rom-com but also some grounded humanity into the bargain so it’s a delight to see it coming to the streaming screen.
One person who’s very excited about it too, and who wouldn’t be, is Beth O’Leary herself who had this to say in her latest email.
When I first watched [the first] episode, I was in Norfolk, in a little holiday cottage with dodgy WiFi; I ended up watching it on my phone in an awkward corner by a bed because it was the only place I could see it without it constantly buffering … So it was amazing to rewatch it on a big screen in the Bafta headquarters in Piccadilly.
The Flatshare starts streaming on Paramount Plus on 1 December.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flatshare_(TV_series)