Winter Song

“Harsh, sometimes grotesque, strongly compelling – a classical journey told in a new, uncompromising voice.” – John Meaney

“Harvey paints a grimly convincing portrait of a subsistence existence on the inhospitable world. Harvey’s... novel depicts a fascinating universe of want and plenitude, to which he will hopefully return in future novels.” – Eric Brown, The Guardian

The planet had fallen off the map.

When Karl Allman’s spaceship crashed, he had only one question:

“HOW DO I GET OUT OF HERE?”

Rock-hard SF adventure. No one here gets out alive.

What others have said:

“An entertaining read in an unforgiving environment. Following Karl Allman as he crash lands on a forgotten and primitive colony world where the terraforming looks like it’s going backwards, Winter Song is a novel that has more than a few surprises up its sleeve. I was expecting to walk into this with a more typical human vs alien world theme where there were many strange and wonderful creatures. What I got was a story focused on human characters who developed and grew with each situation they face. Highly recommended. 8/10” – Walker of Worlds

“A believably harsh tale of survival in bleak and unforgiving elements.” – SFX

“Karl Allman... crashes pretty spectacularly on a barely habitable planet (it’s a description worthy of Iain M. Banks). He is helped by Bera, a woman shunned by her social group/fostered family for an illegitimate and failed child. Together these two break from the trial group causing a hunt across the icy and mostly barren and strangely, starkly beautiful landscape... Karl is looking for a possibly mythical ship/beacon through which he can send a signal for aid and Bera is looking for freedom from the oppressive system that has kept the failing colony going for generations... This is a tale about personal struggle and will leave you thinking about it weeks later. [Colin Harvey] deserves a place on your shelf along with Asher, Reynolds, Hamilton and Stross.” – Deadwood Reviews

“Winter Song combines good storytelling and strong world-building to make for an entertaining read. For a small paperback, this is a book with some big topics. To Harvey’s credit, although this is a lot of world-building, it is never intrusive. The characters are all genuinely, legitimately curious, and the detail comes across in dialogue and description, not pages of dry future-history. It is clear that the author has an extraordinarily detailed universe – I would be surprised (and disappointed) if Winter Song is our only visit.” – Pornokitsch

“The Icelandic setting added a layer of fantasy-like dressing, horses, sword fighting and legends and gods and the cultural layers also represent as authentic. I felt that Colin had done his research. The prose style was strong...” – AustSpecFic

“I found Winter Tale quite convincing and entertaining.” – Red Rook Review