Today marks the UK publication of Ben Oliver’s stunning sci-fi YA debut, The Loop.
Luka Kane has been inside hi-tech prison the Loop for over two years.
A death sentence is hanging over his head but his day-to-day routine is mind-numbingly repetitive, broken only by the books brought to him by the sympathetic warden, Wren. Then everything starts to change: rumours of war are whispered in the courtyard and the government-issued rain stops falling. On Luka’s last, desperate day, Wren issues him a terrifying warning: breaking out of the Loop might be Luka’s only chance to save himself – and the world…
A thrilling UKYA debut from a stunning new talent: dark, original, twisty and totally unputdownable, this is a futuristic Prison Break with shades of 1984.
‘Ideal for fans of The Hunger Games or The Maze Runner,’ according to The Bookseller, this heart pounding trilogy is being published with Chicken House in the UK. Barry Cunningham, publisher and managing director of Chicken House and well-known for signing J.K.Rowling and publishing Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, said of the book: ‘one of the most astounding debuts in my career.’
Scholastic will publish next week in the US, and international publications will follow this year and next in China, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Russia, Taiwan and Spain.
The book has also been optioned for screen by Lime Pictures. Black Mirror producer Louise Sutton calls the book ‘a gripping story, where the only chance of survival is escape.’
Ben Oliver is a writer of YA, sci-fi and speculative fiction. He grew up in Scotland and began writing long before he could spell. Ben attended the University of Stirling where he studied English but spent most of his time trying to write a novel. His first short story was published when he was 18, and since then he’s been published in over a dozen literary magazines and anthologies.
We’re so excited that book one in this exciting new trilogy is out today in the UK. Huge congratulations, Ben!
