Paris Adrift by E.J.Swift

Originally published by The British Fantasy Society

Hallie has enough of her life and during a gap year at university she moves to Paris, there she meets a set of bohemians when she finds work at Millie’s bar located next door to the Moulin Rouge.

At first she is daunted by these exotic people but soon enough they feel like family. Just when life is getting comfortable for Hallie she discovers the anomaly, a time portal in the keg room of where she works.

I have to admit I'm not a fan of science fiction but this book has truly converted me and I can’t wait to get stuck into E.J.Swift’s Osiris Project Trilogy. This was a really gripping book that was also really thought provoking and moving.

Paris Adrift is a really cool, it’s Skins meet time travel. I really liked Hallie, she’s struggling to find herself like most people her age but she’s also kick ass and puts her life on the line many times to help complete strangers. It's really refreshing to find a strong female character in genres usually dominated by male writers.

There’s a lot in this book, it deals with many themes which are very relevant right now and Hallie’s time travel to a bleak 2042 felt too plausible.  The Moulin Vert movement headed by Aide Lefort really resonated with me, I absolutely loved her speech and really wish she could be a real person. I also loved reading about Hallie’s expeditions to 1875 Paris really came alive for me and I just loved all the sub stories going on, particularly Millie’s. 

Paris Adrift also touches on what it’s like to feel adrift and alone in this big world, whether we’re living the best versions of ourselves. This story is about getting lost in order to find yourself.

There’s a good message in this book, that doing small deeds to help strangers can have huge effects later on and the future is something we should all be thinking about.

About the Author

E. J. Swift is the author of The Osiris Project trilogy, a speculative fiction series set in a world radically altered by climate change, comprising Osiris, Cataveiro and Tamaruq. Her short fiction has appeared in anthologies from Salt Publishing, NewCon Press and Jurassic London, including The Best British Fantasy (Salt Publishing, 2013 and 2014).

Swift was shortlisted for a 2013 BSFA Award in the Short Fiction category for her story “Saga’s Children” (The Lowest Heaven, Jurassic) and was longlisted for the 2015 Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award for “The Spiders of Stockholm” (Irregularity, Jurassic).