Tour Stop, Guest Post & Giveaway: To See the Sun by Kelly Jensen

In To See the Sun, Gael’s story begins in Zhemosen. Known as The City Without End, Zhemosen spans an entire continent about half the size of Australia and is made up of thousands of districts, the entire city extending a kilometer into the sky. The lower districts, known as the undercity, are dark and airless places with many of the citizens never having seen the sky, let alone the sun. And each of these gloomy districts is controlled by a family who are the law unto themselves.

A few levels up, out of the slums, life would be marginally safer, but with slavery being legal, and families still controlling everything, including who crosses their borders, it’s not until you approach the uppercity that you’re really safe.

The planet of Zhemosen (named for the city, or maybe vice versa) is actually quite beautiful. It’s an ocean world, with one continent and strings of islands. The islands might look pretty from space, like jewels strung back and forth across the equator of the otherwise blue orb, but they’re far from idyllic. In order to support the vast population of the city, most of the islands, and indeed the coastal areas of the continent, are given over to farms.

Gael’s dream was to one day reach the outercity, or the coast, and work on one of those farms. He didn’t care how hard he might have to work, he simply wanted to be under a natural sky. To see the sun. But traveling in Zhemosen is difficult, particularly crossing districts.

Lower down, there are the sewers, but the price for passing through the gates usually isn’t cash. The gate keepers have their own currency, made up of goods and favors. Travel between the levels, or ascending from one district to another, is only available to legal, registered citizens, and it costs credits, or this world’s equivalent of cold, hard cash.

It costs Gael everything he has, and all the favors he’s owed, to get out of the undercity and onto a shuttle bound for the orbital station above the planet. His contract with Bram gets him onto a freighter and on a four-week journey across the stars.

When I started writing this book, I didn’t put a lot of thought into Zhemosen as I simply needed a place for Gael to escape. But as is always the way, as I wrote it, the city grew until it became such a real place that I have two other plots sketched out for it. I couldn’t put this much effort into making a place and not use it again!

My initial inspiration for the city came from a few sources. The first was Harry Harrison’s classic novel Make Room! Make Room! It’s one of my favorite books (which I realize I say about every book, but c’mon, most of them are pretty great) and it’s set in a horribly overpopulated New York City. One of the fun things about the book is that it’s supposedly the year 1999. Last I checked, they still didn’t have water rationing in Manhattan. In fact, they’re cursing all the rain. What I love about this story, though, is the vastness of city and the closeness of the population. I wanted the same feel.

The idea for the levels, or strata, came from a couple of different books. One was Paradox by John Meaney. This is a hugely underrated series, by the way, and you should read it. The idea of a stratified city isn’t new, but in Meaney’s version, the interior of the city forms the lowest levels, with the more powerful citizens living near the surface. Travel between these levels is nearly impossible, and I loved this concept the moment I read it.

For height, I looked to The World Inside by Robert Silverberg. Zhemosen operates very differently to the Urban Monads of Silverberg’s world, but like he did, I put the farms outside the city. I didn’t assume that a different model of society might live on the fringe, but there’s always room for development as I revisit Zhemosen in future novels. Another author who does the top-down, stratified living very well is Hugh Howey. In his Silo series, everyone lives in deeply buried silos, with management at the top and engineering at the bottom.

Finally, for ambience, I looked to the film Blade Runner, which pretty much gave us the city of the future. It’s always dark, it’s always depressing, and I think it’s always raining! I didn’t include the rain in my city, just the dark depression, and a feeling of a city collapsing under its own weight, ready to crush anyone unlucky enough to live on the lowest levels.

Really, it was a good thing Gael got out when he did. But I’ll be back, because I’ve got more stories to tell.

To check out some of my inspiration for locations and the characters of To See the Sun, visit my Pinterest board.

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Title: To See the Sun by Kelly Jensen
Genre: Gay, Sci-Fi Romance
Length: 262 pages

Summary:

Life can be harsh and lonely in the outer colonies, but miner-turned-farmer Abraham Bauer is living his dream, cultivating crops that will one day turn the unforgiving world of Alkirak into paradise. He wants more, though. A companion–someone quiet like him. Someone to share his days, his bed, and his heart.

Gael Sonnen has never seen the sky, let alone the sun. He’s spent his whole life locked in the undercity beneath Zhemosen, running from one desperate situation to another. For a chance to get out, he’ll do just about anything–even travel to the far end of the galaxy as a mail-order husband. But no plan of Gael’s has ever gone smoothly, and his new start on Alkirak is no exception. Things go wrong from the moment he steps off the shuttle.

Although Gael arrives with unexpected complications, Abraham is prepared to make their relationship work–until Gael’s past catches up with them, threatening Abraham’s livelihood, the freedom Gael gave everything for, and the love neither man ever hoped to find.

Add to Goodreads.

Purchase Links: Amazon * B&N * Smashwords * iTunes * Kobo

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Author Bio

If aliens ever do land on Earth, Kelly will not be prepared, despite having read over a hundred stories about the apocalypse. Still, she will pack her precious books into a box and carry them with her as she strives to survive. It’s what bibliophiles do.

Kelly is the author of a number of novels, novellas, and short stories, including the Chaos Station series, cowritten with Jenn Burke. Some of what she writes is speculative in nature, but mostly it’s just about a guy losing his socks and/or burning dinner. Because life isn’t all conquering aliens and mountain peaks. Sometimes finding a happy ever after is all the adventure we need.

Author Links: Website * Tumblr * Facebook * Twitter * Goodreads * Pinterest * Instagram

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Giveaway

To celebrate the release of To See the Sun, Kelly is giving away a $25 Riptide credit and some swag stickers and a bracelet! Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on August 18, 2018. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!