This was a very enjoyable, fast-paced quick read. I was a bit concerned that it might not be my cup of tea, as the blurb mentioned gunslingers and love – Westerns and Romance being my least favourite genres – but it also mentioned a space ship and dystopian future world, so I decided to give it a go. And, was very glad I had. The dystopian world is Earth, populated by the religious fanatics who decided to stay on the devastated near-dead planet when everyone else was evacuated. They wanted to remain close to the Earth God Gaia, and saw space flight as a sin. The book opens with a crashed space ship, and the rather dodgy individuals who find it. They don’t last long. Then we meet the main character. We don’t discover her name until well into the book – she is only given a designation relating to her activity in the current chapter: Courier, Stranger, Darling, Guest, Lover. We do know she is from off-planet, and is looking for someone (but not whom) and access to a communications device. Was she on the crashed ship? Is she part of a rescue mission, or in need of rescue? Why did the ship come to Earth, where it was clearly not going to be welcome? Each chapter is another stage in the MC’s road journey. It is not always clear how she gets from one point to the next, but that does not spoil the story. She meets a number of different and quite unique characters. Some are given names, others just a designation. Most are helpful. They appear, then disappear, and for most we never know what becomes f them after they lose contact with the MC. The exception being Deputy Seawall – the baddie of the piece. About 70% of the way through the book, there is a flashback which answers some of the questions about the main character and her quest. But, even at the end of the book, there are still many outstanding questions. The author is to be congratulated for not padding out the book. It could have been a lot longer – but really everything that needed to be said, was. I can fully recommend this beautifully crafted book, with no wasted words, that claims your full attention throughout. I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and not influenced by either the author or publisher.

I loved this book. Told through a series of vignettes, the protagonist (as stranger, shifting between identities and situations) wanders through a destroyed, desert-like future Earth, at the whim of wild-west style sheriffs. She is searching for a communicator and a way to reach her love of her life, after their ship was shot down by Gaia-worshipping runaway climate change Earth. Perfect for Becky Chambers fans with its sublime language, eerie Western/apocalyptic atmosphere, mysterious plot, slow cinematic pacing, and casual deep reflections on society and humanity. Packed with great character development, it is just beautiful, and one of my favourite reads this year - a sublime sci-fi with apocalyptic Western vibes. I want to read more Grace Curtis after this!

I absolutely adored this book. It follows a women after she crash lands on a planet that doesn't like people from outer space. Curtis does something very interesting in this book, instead of following this character from their perspective, we see her through the eyes of the people who encounter her. She has artfully made these one chapter episodes in depth, the characters are really fleshed out, they are believable and so well done. Her writing style is fantastic, alongside these episodes are snippets of writing from different places in this universe. With hints of a western, this story has intrigue, it keeps you guessing. Honestly a fantastic book from a debut writer and perfect for fans of Becky Chanmbers. I cannot wait to read more from her. And thank you to Hodder & Stoughton for the advanced copy.

This book was exactly the book I needed to get me out of my reading slump. It took me by the hand and dragged me over the finish line as I struggled put the book down in order to do supposedly important things like, sleep, I guess. Frontier is a really awesome interpretation of climate disaster and human society in the aftermath. It somehow managed to meld together sci-fi with western with dystopian, and left me wanting to read more of this fantastic genre mash-up. The story also has an interesting layout in that it tells the story of our main character's adventures while half the time being told from another character's perspective - and even better, each character is fantastically fleshed out and seems real, even if they only they have a couple pages to tell their story. I was shocked when I read that this was Grace Curtis' debut book, and I'm eagerly awaiting more. Thanks to Netgalley, Hodder&Stoughton and Grace Curtis for providing me with this ARC!

There is little better than being wowed by a book, and ‘Frontier’ by Grace Curtis certainly hit those heights for me. This might be a familiar story if it stopped at someone seeking her lost lover after an interplanetary expedition ends in catastrophe, but this goes far beyond that. With its mix of western/sci-fic (How was I even meant to guess how good that genre combo could be?), and sharp humour (I’ll just drop the name of character ‘Ava Palaver’ here) this ticks so many boxes a five out of five rating is the only option. Fresh, fun, astute, imaginative, and a darn good yarn to boot, to say nothing of an endless supply of fabulous characters (Yup, Curtis can eve afford to kill off a huge percentage of great characters, and the story still pulls you in). ‘Frontier’ is just...well, it's just a joy!