Blog Tour: THE SUNRISERS by Robyn Singer

 

The Sunrisers

by Robyn Singer

 

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GENRE:   Lesbian Space Opera

 

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BLURB:

 

After years of adventures, professional thief and amateur noodle critic Yael is invited to join The Order of the Banshee, a collection of the greatest female thieves in the universe, despite being decades younger than any of them.

Yael’s childhood best friend, Molina, has lived the opposite life: a stern and serious member of The Sunrisers, the universe’s premiere peacekeeping organization, she’s just been promoted to Captain, serving under her father. Her first assignment of her new command: Bring down The Order of the Banshee.

Yael and Molina now find themselves on opposite sides of a conflict neither of them will escape unscathed. The love they have for each other is the same as when they were young, but either their personal values or their love will break.

In this game of cat and mouse, both women must use all their wits and tricks to stay ahead of their new enemy. Will order triumph, or will chaos? No matter what, Yael and Molina will both lose.

 

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Excerpt One:

 

Outside the cave, ground troops were being deployed, the sound of their combat boots stomping on the moon’s surface echoing. And inside the cave, eleven of the smartest and most dangerous women in the universe were staring daggers straight into my eyes. 

 

“I knew we couldn’t trust a whippersnapper,” Athena York said. 

 

“How very disappointing,” Beatriz Nunez snarled. 

 

“I have a granddaughter in the Sunrisers,” Lilith hummed. “If you tipped her off, I’ll at least respect you for going for the heart.” 

 

I shook my head and swung my arms around, sweating from every pore. “I swear I didn’t call them. This is all just a big misunderstanding. You have my complete loyalty.” 

 

Madame N’gwa cocked her head to the side and grinned. “You wanted to be a Sunriser when you were even more of a baby than you are now. Perhaps you made a deal to make your dream finally come true.” 

 

A shocking pain surrounded my heart. Those Sunriser bastards had stolen all the trust I’d earned from my idols through years of deceit. Whichever captain was in charge of this operation was going to pay. 

 

Lioness stepped forward, crushing her glass in her hand and sending small shards flying all over the place. “Thank you for sharing your story with me. But I don’t think we’ll be hearing anymore of them. Rather, I don’t think you’ll be living any more of them.” 

 

 

 

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What are the most important elements in a space opera?

The most important elements in a space opera are the same as the most important elements in any story: the characters and their dynamics. At the end of the day, what most readers will remember about a story aren’t the nuances of the plot, the details of the world-building, or any amount of purple prose. All these elements can of course enhance a story, but the characters are what people will most latch onto. They are what people will most discuss and analyze, and passionately hate or love. They are the story.

When it comes to a space opera specifically, you’re creating a whole universe wholecloth, and the characters you create, who potentially grew up on different planets, should not only be drastically different from each other because of where and how they were raised, but these character traits should be used to inform the reader about the state of the setting, without overt exposition.

Looking at my own core cast, three of them come from the same planet, while the other two are from different planets. Yael Pavnick, Molina Langstone, and Princess Kaybell Kose Bythora all come from Cykeb, the capital of a universe spanning empire which presents itself as a utopia, even as all the worlds under it very much are not. The impact of this world, and different aspects of its culture, are shown through Yael, Molina, and Kaybell. Yael comes from a middle-class family with a pickle business, showing that while poverty may not exist on this world, a class system still does, who’s life was taken off course by the discrimination she faced as an Autistic woman, showing that the planet isn’t as free of bigotry as it claims. Molina is the daughter of the supreme general of The Sunrisers, an intergalactic peacekeeping group which, while officially politically neutral, is inextricably tied to The Cykebian Empire. Molina grew up submerged in the propaganda of both her government and the military organization she dreamed of joining, and believes in it till the present. Rounding out this trio, Kaybell shows what the elites of this society are truly like, the attitudes they hold, and how they live. With our two non-Cykebian leads, Aarif Bhatti was a low-level criminal from a planet full of low-level criminals, showing how worlds outside the empire suffer in their own way, and P’Ken Amatyn is the daughter of a finishing school headmistress, with the entire culture of her planet based around the school she grew up in.

These five are products of their environments and their experiences, and they couldn’t be more different from one another. Having contrasting characters like this, showing how they bounce off one another, and exploring their relationships and what they say about the real world is what’s at the heart of all stories, and especially space operas.

 

 

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

 

Robyn Singer is a lifelong New Yorker, and since she was a kid playing with her action figures, all she’s wanted to do is tell stories. She went to SUNY Purchase to get a degree in Playwriting & Screenwriting with a minor in Film and has produced several comic books, but she’s always had her eye on becoming a published novelist.

As an Autistic, bisexual trans woman, diversity and inclusion in stories are vitally important to her, and she seeks to represent as many groups as possible in her work. While she wants to show characters of marginalized groups experiencing joy, she also draws inspiration from real-world problems which bother her.

The Sunrisers (Cinnabar Moth Publishing, November 2022) is her debut novel. She writes novels and short stories of all genres and for all ages, and she continues to produce comic books. Her ongoing series, Final Gamble, will begin publication by Band of Bards in 2022.

Follow her on twitter: https://twitter.com/EmmaLSinger

Follow her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robynlsinger/

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Sunrisers-Robyn-Singer-ebook/dp/B0B9C1HCB9/

 

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GIVEAWAY :

 

Robyn Singer will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway