The Boy Who Fell from the Sky by Jule Owen
The Boy Who Fell from the Sky is the first of a mind-twisting new YA dystopian seriesWattpad Science Fiction Hotlist Book
Introducing Mathew Erlang, creator of holographic dragons, who is about to get tangled up in the future in a rather serious way
The world is falling apart in 2055. Floods have devastated London, on the eve of the First Space War. With the city locked down, sixteen-year-old Mathew Erlang is confined to his house with only his cat, his robot and his holographic dragons for company.
Desperate for a distraction from the chaos around him, Mathew becomes fascinated by his peculiar and reclusive neighbour, August Lestrange, and begins to investigate, turning to the virtual world of the Nexus and Blackweb for answers. But as he digs deeper, Mathew realises that Mr. Lestrange isn't a normal man at all.
When Mathew accidentally finds himself trapped in Lestrange’s house, he opens a door and falls four hundred years into the future. Unwittingly, he starts to destabilise the course of human history.
The Boy Who Fell from the Sky delves into a future where climate change and technology have transformed the world. It is the first book in the House Next Door trilogy, a young adult dystopian science fiction action adventure.
Mathew’s story continues in Silverwood, Book 2 in the House Next Door series.
Interview with Author
Q. What made you want to write YA time travel fiction?
I love books like the Hunger Games and Divergent. I also love books like Patrick Ness’s Chaos Walking and Chuck Wendig’s Heartland Trilogy. They are all exciting, deeply engaging dystopian action adventure series. They all make you stop and think. So I wanted to write something similar. But I’ve been reading about futurology and climate change for years and they have seeped into my subconscious. I liked the idea of exploring possible futures based on the non-fiction I’d be reading. To do that I needed Mathew Erlang, my main character, to be able to jump forward into the future to see how things turn out.
Q. Why specifically write teen dystopia? Why not write for adults?
I’m not sure I am specifically writing just for teens. I read a lot of young adult fiction and I’m certainly not a teen! But when I built the world and the much bigger story that Mathew’s tale exists in, he happened to turn out to be a teenaged boy at the beginning of his series.
Q. So is there a bigger story beyond Mathew’s then?
Readers need to find out more about the Lamplighter, the Kind and understand more about who Mr. Lestrange really is, so yes, there's lots more to come.
Q. You describe your books at cli-fi. What does that mean?
Cli-fi means climate change fiction. It’s a spin on sci-fi, of course, but it’s a type of dystopian science fiction or speculative fiction that specifically deals with the impact of climate change on the people of the future.
Q. Why did you want to write about climate change?
It’s the big issue of our times and the biggest challenge we’ve faced as a civilisation. There’s a huge scientific consensus about the fact that climate change is man made and that it is likely to massively disrupt our lives in the future, but lots of people don’t believe in it. I read an article a while ago in The New Scientist (which is my favourite magazine) saying that the climate change lobby needs more artists and writers to go and spread the message. Frighteningly, young people, who are likely to suffer the most in the future, are particularly not engaging with the issue.